I'm in the Middle of the Ocean

I don't even know where to begin. Right now I am in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sailing from Southampton, UK to New York City. It feels like so mush has happened since we left dry dock in France for the first time. The sea sickness was pretty bad at first but I am finally getting my sea legs.

The sea trials went well, I mean we didn't tip the ship over or anything so that has to be good. When we got back to France we had just about a week to get ready to leave and have guests on board. We had lifeboat drills for the crew everyday for that week to prepare for any emergencies. The drills are to simulate and abandon ship situation and we report to our muster stations during the drills, life jackets and all, and head out to the lifeboat dock. During these drills they simulate real emergencies like fires, injured passengers, and children separated from their parents. For these simulations involving people they recruited the youth counselors to play the roles of the passengers and children. During one of the drills I had the pleasure of seeing the youth counselor manager play the role of an 8 year old having a tantrum screaming and wanting her parents and candy. An experience I'm sure I will never ever see a supervisor do again.

Leaving France almost felt like leaving home, but since we have been gone I haven't missed it too much, and something else I didn't think I would ever say, but I am glad to be going back to the States. Our next stop was Rotterdam Netherlands and we picked up our first group of passengers. I was able to get off the ship and explore the city for a few hours, but wish I could have seen more. It was quite a large city with a lot of history. At first glance, the coolest part was the staggering of the old dutch buildings among the modern architecture and sky scrapers.

Our next stop was Southampton, UK. I got of the ship there for a grand total of an hour and a half, but I made it count. We went to this little pub and had steak pot pie, mashed potatoes, and the best coke I have tasted in the last 2 months. Oh and I can't forget the best part, English sticky toffee pudding mmmmmmmm, it was soooo goood, good enough to last me until the next time I am in England. Being on land for just over an hour wasn't worst thing in this town because our ship was actually at the most historic place in the town anyway. Southampton is where the Titanic left from on its way to New York.

We've now been at sea for four days and have three more to go before we arrive in New York. It is so surreal to think about where I am in the world at this very moment, an experience that in our generation so few have the opportunity to do. I can only imagine what the sunset is like out here in the middle of the Atlantic, but unfortunately I have shows every night. I have set my alarm for 5am the past two days to try to get up to see the sunrise, but so far I have been unsuccessful at getting myself up. We do change our clocks back and hour every night so it should get easier to get up.