The Second Day

So. Traveling. Always a tiring joy. I left for O'hare Airport, Chicago, IL around 1:45pm on Thurs. Aug. 12th. I laid my head on my pillow for my first nights rest about 24 hrs. later. Not too bad :-) My first flight to Zurich was only 8 hrs. very lovely, good plane food, only bummer - i wasn't even close to a window and there was a beautiful sun coming up with a span of gorgeous clouds that i would have relished in . . . oh well. My four hour layover in Zurich was interesting. I watched a few Friends episodes on my lap top - love that show. I read a little, journaled a little, got pretty hungry and tired. My next plane to Amsterdam was only an hour or so - slept pretty much the whole way. A huge praise to the Lord was that both my bags showed up! I was worried since i had to transfer and i neglected to buy travel insurance :-) Then being a clumsy american with huge uncontrolled bags, i fumbled through the airport to the train station on my way to Rotterdam. This was not a pleasant experience, i perspirated a lot and had to stop and readjust a lot, but i eventually made it onto a train. Seeing that it was mostly empty worried me. Having a woman, who didn't speak English, somewhat inform me that i was on the wrong train, worried me a little more. So, i departed the train at a little place called Hoofddorp. that's right. Hoofddorp. nice. I then proceded to turn around, go back to Schiphol Airport, and catch the right train. Thankfully, I understood the system better, got on the right train and made it to Rotterdam. Some nice people helped me lug my bags off the train, drag them down a set of stairs (there were no escalators nor elevators at this particular station) and then i proceded to find my ride. Hooray! We drove to the ship and my first words were, "This is awesome!!!" The ship looked humungous, it is humungous. 522 feet long, 60 ft. wide, 10 stories high. whoa! Awesome. I checked into reception and my cabin mate greeted me along with many others. Lisa Scharf and I live in a three person cabin, it's super cute, and there's a lot more space than i thought there'd be. Cabins are similar to plane meals; everything has it's little compartment and it's very tidy:-) What else . . . oh, right now the ship is in shipyard - which means none of the toilets work. From time to time we venture out of the ship to these nice toilets. the first night there wasn't any hot water on the ship so we had to shower out in this other building too. I was thankful for the hot water and for the normal non-squatty potty toilets - wonderful! So, this is my second day. a sunday. the hot water is back on, but two minute showers are recommended - interesting, i haven't taken one yet:-) most people leave the ship on the weekends or are on vacation, so while i've met many people i'm told there are lots more to come. I definitely am reminded how poor my memory is with names - alison where are you?:-) Tomorrow i start work and have lots of orientation/safety meetings throughout the week. I'm excited!