the beginning of my job...for real this time

So the first two weeks were laid back and super easy. I knew that would change, but man I didn't know it would change that much! We began week three a little under-prepared for what was to come but luckily I am still alive to tell you about it (no, thats an extreme exaggeration). We had some really cute kids on board. One in particular, Seth, was not even of age to come to our program. He seemed mature so we let him take part. He was officially the best kid ever! If I can finally get my webshots uploaded then I will add a pic of him. Adorable. Others were not quite so adorable but I guess thats to be expected with kids. Lets just say, starting from day 1, the kids were less than enthused to be learning about stuff so they just went over to Club Mariner.

Club Mariner is the main kids program on board. It is essentially the complete opposite of our program. We try and get kids out in nature, to look for wildlife, and to learn about Alaska and what's out the window. I mean we probably cruise by 20 glaciers in one week and most people have no idea. Club Mariner, however, just set up a Nintendo Wii in the night club where they do their activities. The night club doesn't even have a window. I hope that is clarification enough of what their goals are. So mainly we spent a week in opposition with CM because all the kids would rather be there. I guess if thats what they would rather do, go for it. I would take a program with only one kid in it every week if that one kid cared and wanted to be there. And Seth did, he really wanted to be there. We had another kid too, Luke, who was just hilarious. His mom told me that for a while he couldn't sleep at night because he was afraid of "global warming"! She finally had to convince him that all the documentaries and films about global warming were all exaggerations and that it was just to scare us. He does sleep through the night now hahaha but it does still scare him. I don't know about you, but I think that is the funniest thing that I have ever heard. And guess where he is from...good ol' New York City!

So those were the most interesting kids on the cruise this past week. We did have a really cool sea otter tour this week though. We saw a humpback whale about 20 feet from our boat which was awesome! We also saw a raft of sea otters (about 100 of them) all hanging out together. The most amazing part about the tour though is that we went to this island called St. Lazaria. It is a bird sanctuary for guess what...PUFFINS! They are the cutest little birds ever. They can't fly very well, they are more adapted to "fly" underwater, so when they do fly, they crash land in the water. Its hysterical to see them land. They are actually part of a family of birds (the alcids) which all have this problem. They are kinda fat with little wings, so when they are in the way of the cruise ship, most of the time rather than flying away, they just swim cause it takes too much energy to get their bodies out of the water. We actually went to the SeaLife Center in Seward today and they had a bunch of these birds in an enclosure so we got the up close and personal view of them, but seeing them wild is so much more rewarding.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you about Tracy Arm. I went on this 6 hour tour on a small boat into Tracy Arm, which is a fjord near Juneau. The boat takes you up to a glacier and there is potential for a lot of wildlife viewing. Its an amazing place. The captain of the boat actually drove the boat up to the cliff wall and people were leaning off the side of the boat and touching the cliff face. That just shows that the mountain literally just goes straight down into the water. And for those of you who didn't know, a fjord is a glacially carved valley that got filled in by water so the mountains actually start sometimes 2000 feet down below the water level. It's pretty amazing to see. Along the way we spotted some seals hauled out on icebergs and I even got a picture of one with its pup. It's a great time to be in Alaska because many of the animals have babies and you know how much I love BABIES! On the way out of Tracy Arm and back to Juneau we saw a few whales feeding which was cool, but I was really hoping for some orca sightings. I still haven't seen one this trip.

As for on the ship, life has been pretty good. I am still meeting someone new every day. Everyone is still really nice and accommodating. It's sad though because all of the employees have different contracts so I will have just started to get to know somebody and then they leave. Life on ships is interesting. People typically have a 4-8 month contract, then they take off for 4-8 weeks and then hop back on another ship. Some people have been doing this for 10 years! I couldn't imagine. It is funny though cause all the employees know each other from different ships and different contracts.

And the nightlife on the ship is pretty good too. Every night it seems we go to the show and then to one of the lounges where the orchestra will play for about 45 minutes. Many of the dancers and others can go and have a drink at the lounge so we all meet up there and chat. Problem is, they don't want the crew to look like they are having a better time than the passengers so we can't "clump" meaning we can't sit more than 3 to a table. However, we do get kicked out of the lounge by midnight and then below in deck 4 there is a crew bar. Last week the Phillipinos had their Independence day party themed "dungeons and dragons" so the crew bar was hopping. Most of the time its pretty lame. Especially now that our best DJ just finished his contract and is no longer on this ship. So thats mainly the scene. Sometimes we hang out on the observation deck which is on the top level in the front of the ship. Thats where we get the most wildlife sightings and its a cool atmosphere. Unfortunately I have been rather busy and have not had much time to spend up there this past week. Maybe this week...

So thats about all for now, stay tuned for pics...theres a lot of them!