Day 4 - Currently in Juneau Alaska.
Wow, what an intense 4 days so far. It feels like its been a few weeks atleast!
Landed in Seattle fine, and actually shared a room with another girl from Brazil in the same training program Im in. Met others in the morning, and we all just 'got along' which made the transition of SCARY to actually quite comfortable.
Loaded a bus at 7:30am from the airport - went through the scanning and security checks on the dock in Seattle, and started training right away - we didnt get access to our cabins until later in the afternoon. Sharing a room has been VERY similar to my experience in College, where I just got along well right away with my new roomie.
We've been shown quite a lot, have had a few tests, and still soooo much more to learn! Day two was a sea day - we got our uniforms (dont even get me started) and tried to venture our way around the ship...within the first 5 minutes we got questioned by guests, didnt have the right answers, and had to find someone to help - gulp - we didnt venture out again for the rest of the day lol.
Day three we arrived at a port called Ketchikan - a cute little sleepy town in Alaska. We cant get off the ship yet until next week, due to immigration papers still waiting on, but it was nice to take some pictures and walk around. We've viewed the many cabins offered, ventured as a large group around the ship to the many different restaurants, etc, and can actually find our way to our cabins from 'most' places on the ship. This thing is HUGE!!
Today we got up at like 5:30 to come up to the deck for our circle of the Inside Passage. Beautiful (although really cold that early in the morning)...My pictures obviously dont do it justice, but hopefully they'll get better with time. Saw a few little baby icebergs in the water, and ventured out after breakfast, but didnt have my camera - there were soooo many more photo ops. Oh well, hopefully I can get some more next week when we do this route again.
I've been eating like a queen (and i think eventually my waisteline will dislike me), and have had quite a variety of foods. We are labelled "officers" and get to eat in a seperate area, with all the other officers on the ship...quite intimidating at first. It means we cant really eat with the other workers in the crew mess, but I rather like the special treatment.
Have had a few nights out. It's been awesome talking with so many new people. Learning their stories, hearing about their lives which are sooooo much different than the lifestyle us North Americans lead - it can be quite alarming sometimes...
Will try to post more pictures. Are stopping in Skagway tomrrow, and I'll take some more. Captain Sea-Bomb hasnt made his appearance yet, cause im pretty sure i'll get kicked off the ship (sorry Kim!) but soon, I promise...he'll do bear proud.
Ciao,
Carrie
