Today, we’re docking in Haiti, so what was the plan? Wake up @ 7, be changed and ready to go, meet up @ Wind Jammer with everyone for breakfast @ 7:30?
Okay, so we manage to get the breakfast part right, but hello? We said changed and ready to go. So we all sit there and wait for others to finish eating while others go back to their rooms to change, and while we wait, we eat some more, hey we’re at a buffet.
We finally make it out of the restaurant and meet on Deck 5. Even though its 9AM, the elevators to get to the gangway are still pretty full, I guess that’s what you get when you sail at full capacity? So some of us decide to take the stairs and others decide to take the elevator. Little did we know that you can get off at either the second floor or the third floor, so needless to say, we were waiting on two different floors. Eventually we realized that we were waiting for awhile, so we decided to look, lo and behold, some of us were already outside waiting.
So we all finally get out, pull out our cameras, take pictures and videos documenting the whole process, walk along the docks for about 10 minutes, reach the island, then we stop again. What for? Some of us need to apply sunscreen. I guess sunscreen wasn’t part of the ‘be ready’ statement, or maybe they just didn’t think it would be sunny outside.
It probably takes us another 15-20 minutes to walk till we find an acceptable place with nice shade on it, we have a Haitian working for us, he lays out some sun chairs for us and we tip him five dollars and thank him for his time.
After we’re all settled in, we go play in the salt water for a bit, Sharon comes back with two rafts, a game of tag is ensued. We play that for a bit until everyone is tired, get out of the water, go walk around for a bit, have some lunch, then explore around some more. The beach was nice, however the water area was full of rocks, so you had to walk very carefully. We later found the Crown & Anchor Society are of the beach (Crown & Anchor Society = More Privileged Members $$) and by the looks of it, their beach was a lot nicer.
At 1PM there was a volleyball competition that we wanted to take part of, but I guess we showed up too late, and were directed to the other court. We played a few games, for a good hour or so. This is where the joke about Alfred blocking a girl and when he sends a girl to go get the ball for him originates. When the ball goes out of bounds, it goes out of bounds! And into a very rocky area, Alfred ran to go get the ball, but then I guess the ground was too hot or too rocky, or both! And he ran back, that’s when a girl, decided to show him how it’s done and ran after the ball.
After a tiring hour and a half of volleyball, we headed back to our chairs. I think we went exploring some more? Not sure where everyone else was, but it was Quenton, Alfred, YuJu and I exploring the markets. This is the part where Alfred puts sunscreen on his face, but doesn’t apply it properly, and has sunscreen all over his face; he even causes one of the Haitian market vendors to laugh at him.
Quenton, Alfred and I are standing outside of the market, while YuJu is inside the market, a vendor waves Quenton over by saying: My friend, I got something for you. Being the nice guy that he is, he complies and follows the vendor about 400 feet into his stall where he is trying to sell Quenton paintings. Meanwhile other vendors are trying to wave Alfred and myself over, but we just simply stay put and decline the invitations.
Finally, YuJu is out of the market and we all begin to make our way over to Quenton to rescue him. I knew he’d be safe ‘cause he didn’t’ have any money on him. As we’re walking these guys are trying really hard to get us to go inside their little stalls to shop for some stuff, at one point, the guy even switches to Mandarin and goes ‘Nee How’ to YuJu. Brrrrrap!
One guy sees that I’m wearing my Jamaican necklace and goes, I’ve got something you’ve never seen before, and tries to sell me more necklaces, I tell him I’m good and stroll on by.
We do a quick lap around the market, run into the others, and head back to the beach together.
There is a water playground right behind us, I make a beeline for it, to rinse myself off of the sand and salt water and soon everyone follows suit. After probably spending about half an hour playing on the playground, we make our way back onto the ship.
The intention was to go hit the pool and ride the flowrider while others were still occupied at the beach. I don’t know what everyone else did or what I did once we got back on the ship, but I just remember walking by the flowrider machine and apparently everyone had the same idea as me and the line was just packed! I think I just went back to my room to shower and get ready for dinner and to hit the casino before dinner.
The plan was to meet Ly by the 8th floor elevators around 4:45PM. We made that plan around 4:15PM. However, as I was walking towards the elevator from the pool area, and as soon as I turned the corner, and elderly looking Asian woman saw me, and immediately spoke Mandarin to me, asking me where she could find hot water. My Mandarin is not great, but I could understand her, plus in one hand she had a cup with some tea leaves and in her other hand she was holding a slice of pizza.
Getting to the hot water was easy, all you had to do was walk straight, but here comes the challenge, how do you say that in Mandarin? I just kept repeating "You want hot water?" and then just pointed in the general direction, hoping that she knew what I was talking about, but nope! So after several finger pointing attempts, I said, okay, let me help you, follow me. So I guided her to the 8th floor Park Cafe and pointed her to the hot water container, filled up the cup with tea leaves for her, turn around and she has another cup in front of me. I guess she wants that one filled with hot water as well. Okay. There. That's done. Then she pulls out a small water bottle out of her purse and wants more water, might as well right? Done. Wait, that makes, one bottle, in your purse, two cups of hot water and a slice of pizza, how are you going to carry it?
Another quest? Fine. I will help you once again. So I help her carry the two cups of hot water to her room, set it down on the floor as she opens her door and I say my goodbye, and as I'm leaving she thanks me in Cantonese. Facepalm!
It never even occurred to me to try and say what I was trying to say earlier in Cantonese, but by the sound of it at the end, it didn't really sound like she spoke Cantonese, just a few key phrases. I looked at my watch and go shit, I only have 15 minutes to shower and meet Ly by the elevators, I hurry, but I make it!
The plan was to meet Ly by the 8th floor elevators around 4:45PM. We made that plan around 4:15PM. However, as I was walking towards the elevator from the pool area, and as soon as I turned the corner, and elderly looking Asian woman saw me, and immediately spoke Mandarin to me, asking me where she could find hot water. My Mandarin is not great, but I could understand her, plus in one hand she had a cup with some tea leaves and in her other hand she was holding a slice of pizza.
Getting to the hot water was easy, all you had to do was walk straight, but here comes the challenge, how do you say that in Mandarin? I just kept repeating "You want hot water?" and then just pointed in the general direction, hoping that she knew what I was talking about, but nope! So after several finger pointing attempts, I said, okay, let me help you, follow me. So I guided her to the 8th floor Park Cafe and pointed her to the hot water container, filled up the cup with tea leaves for her, turn around and she has another cup in front of me. I guess she wants that one filled with hot water as well. Okay. There. That's done. Then she pulls out a small water bottle out of her purse and wants more water, might as well right? Done. Wait, that makes, one bottle, in your purse, two cups of hot water and a slice of pizza, how are you going to carry it?
Another quest? Fine. I will help you once again. So I help her carry the two cups of hot water to her room, set it down on the floor as she opens her door and I say my goodbye, and as I'm leaving she thanks me in Cantonese. Facepalm!
It never even occurred to me to try and say what I was trying to say earlier in Cantonese, but by the sound of it at the end, it didn't really sound like she spoke Cantonese, just a few key phrases. I looked at my watch and go shit, I only have 15 minutes to shower and meet Ly by the elevators, I hurry, but I make it!
After our standard 2 hour dinner we headed over to the skating rink to register for skating, each skating session was only 30 minutes long, with a few minutes here and there for clean up and stuff, and each session would only house a max of 50 people. I have no idea how they manage to keep the ice in that area from melting, since the room was not cold at all, and it's such a small rink that I doubt they would have a Zamboni on board. I did notice that there were a lot of dents and marks in the ice though.
While on the ice, several of us brought our camera's with us, to take pictures while we skated. We started posing and snapping pictures randomly, then about ten minutes into the session, we hear over the speakerphone, that cameras are not allowed. #SoMuchForThat
Another large group that was skating with us, had the terrific idea of starting a congo line, or a train on ice, if you will. They probably skated around for about a lap and half before we once again heard over the microphone that congo lines are not allowed. #SoMuchForThat
Several of us agreed that we were going to do the congo line at the very end of the session, since it would already be the end of our session and they wouldn't be able to kick us off. So when that final minute approached, Allan, started the line, and I tacked on, we skated for about half a lap, I looked over my shoulder and it didn't seem like anyone else was joining us and it felt kind of homo so I let go. #SoMuchForThat
While on the ice, several of us brought our camera's with us, to take pictures while we skated. We started posing and snapping pictures randomly, then about ten minutes into the session, we hear over the speakerphone, that cameras are not allowed. #SoMuchForThat
Another large group that was skating with us, had the terrific idea of starting a congo line, or a train on ice, if you will. They probably skated around for about a lap and half before we once again heard over the microphone that congo lines are not allowed. #SoMuchForThat
Several of us agreed that we were going to do the congo line at the very end of the session, since it would already be the end of our session and they wouldn't be able to kick us off. So when that final minute approached, Allan, started the line, and I tacked on, we skated for about half a lap, I looked over my shoulder and it didn't seem like anyone else was joining us and it felt kind of homo so I let go. #SoMuchForThat
I had to have met Andrew before this day, because I remember seeing him as we were headed to the lineup, I saw him and did a quick spin around. Later on during the skate, I saw him sitting in the crowd, just watching me……
Who is Andrew you ask? He was just this 18 year old brown kid who took a liking to me and just kept following me around. I have no idea where he came from, all I know is that one day he just showed up and kept following me around, like I was his BFF. What was wrong with him? I don’t know exactly, I know he was awkward, was very quiet and would just follow you around.
After skating, we headed back up to the game room. Normally, I’d be against it and not go, ‘cause there was so much else to do on this ship, but I ran into a couple of nice people last night and was secretly hoping to run into them again.
We walk in and lo and behold, there they are sitting right there, so Alfred and I just plop ourselves down on the couple of spare chairs and begin conversing. We talk about our day, what we did, what they did etc, play the game for a bit, then tell them that we were gonna go watch the Love and Marriage show and asked if they wanted to go watch too. The ladies, yes Alfred included, went back up to their respective rooms to grab a sweater because they were worried that it was going to be cold, and then we agreed to meet up again, right outside the door.
Our Cruise Director Allan Brooks, was the host of the show and he made the show! Of course you had to have willing participating couples to go up and play their game, but you need a good host to play off their responses and make good jokes out of it.
After the show I think we all decided to head on back up to the card room to play a quick round of Mad Gab, since we all really liked that game. We start talking and playing for about 10 minutes and guess who just shows up out of the blue? Andrew, he just invites himself in, and sits on down, and just sort of quietly observes and makes little comments here and there just to let us know he’s still around. Comments such as: Oh, that was a good one. Oh, I almost had that one. He also tried to tell me that I was a really good skater......awkward.......
I don’t think we ever really introduced him to the Doctor and Lawyer couple. I think this is the night when we found out what the two girls occupations were, one was a Doctor in training and the other was aspiring to be a lawyer. I had to be briefly filled in on the details later because I was “talking” to Andrew. I didn’t want him talking to those two girls, just in case they discovered how awkward he was and he ruined it for us.
Shortly after the game of Mad Gab, the Doctor and Lawyer returned to their quarters, yes, from then on, they were known as the Doctor and Lawyer set. Why? Because we couldn’t remember their names.
After they left, I was still stuck talking to Andrew and Alfred had moved on back to the other tables where all the spectators were sitting and went over his thesis paper on what a small world this is, later more commonly known as his ‘What Are The Chances’ paper.
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