ET Phone Home!!

ET Phone Home

15^th May 2011

The more I come to Rhodes, the more I like it here. My first impressions of the place weren’t exactly great but we are on the opposite side of the island. One of the best things about Rhodes however is the internet connection. Rhodes wins the gold medal for the fastest internet connection by a long shot.

We had another team lunch today. The idea is that the team do an activity together but for the sake of arguments we always end up going out for a meal. We all tried typical Greek food, except Newman, Jeni’s boyfriend who had spag bol. I just picked the most abnormal sounding thing on the menu which turned out to be chicken kebab on a skewer! Bloody munch! Absolutely amazing! Once again Fede bought his camera with him and it was Ritesh’s turn to go trigger happy. He was snapping anything and everything. I think it’s safe to say the Canon 5D Mark II has another new fan. Canon really does rain on Nikon’s parade!

After lunch our BM, Rueben, took us to a lovely ice cream place called Four Seasons with speedy internet. Sometimes when the places with free wifi get crowded the speed slows right down. This place was empty! The people were so friendly too. It’s a place we’ll be going back to in a hurry! 

Today I finally got to talk to my parents. Even though it wasn’t for as long as I’d have liked it was great to hear from them again. I’ve been slightly down for the last couple of days so being able to speak to them made me feel a hundred times better. For some reason there were a few tears when my Dad answered my call so I was desperately trying to make sure he didn’t find out. Later on, back on the ship, I had to drop a set of keys off at Rueben’s cabin and he commented that I looked a lot more cheerful – and I certainly felt it too!!

During the evening it was crew rock climbing. A couple of us had a bit of a giggle at Stu. His Image beach shorts are very Daisy Duke! Stu walked into Hernan’s cabin and ordering “Don’t judge me! I have very long legs”. Well, when we looked around and saw just what he meant we rolled around on the floor laughing. More because he felt the need to announce that he was wearing short-shorts! 

Although I was tempted to go rock climbing, I’d been gearing myself up all day to go for a run. When you’re parents call you tubby, chubby or fatty, you know it’s time to do something about it! Plus not being able to do my jeans up spurs you on a little. While the others were climbing I went for a run on the running track (top deck). Towards the end my ankle decided enough was enough. I managed five laps and then another two walking to cool down a little. It wasn’t great but little by little I’ll run further and longer. 

Quickly making my way around to the rock wall I wanted to see some of the photographers going up. The wall is a lot higher than I originally thought. They’d all climbed and abseiled down by the time I’d got there and were playing basketball. Everyone was heading to SOB afterwards. I was a sweaty betty and had a face as red as a Coke can!! A shower was more than needed before hitting the pub!

A little later everyone was up SOB for a few beers. Felipe is still teaching me Portuguese. Well, he speaks to me mostly in Portuguese while I reply in Spanish. I can understand most of it but knowing the vocabulary to be able to answer back is something I really need to work on. I’d love to be able to speak Brazilian Portuguese and add another flag onto my name badge (the flags on your name badge indicate the languages you speak). Regina said she’s going to help me learn Portuguese. They had a good laugh when I said the few things I could say in Portuguese: a kiss, bye, go with God (God bless) – all of which I’ve picked up from listening to Luci speak to her family in Brazil. Usually we raise our drinks we salute “Arriba, abajo, al centro, a dentro” which is Spanish for “Up, down, to the centre and inside (drink!)” now I can say it in Portuguese. I was pretty impressed with my little self when I perfected that one! Other than that, the only other thing I can do is count to 10. I have a loooong way to go!

Regina, Stu and I were the last ones standing! We dropped Regina off at Hernan’s cabin and Stu picked up the Turkish Prince’s costume for tomorrow’s gangway. I spoke to him for a while and finally everything seems to be sorted. Next time he’s going to point out what I’m doing wrong, show me where I need to improve for P2 but try not to be so overly critical. Let’s see how long that one holds for… until then, I can’t complain as he is trying to help me. For someone willing to go out of their way to help me improve and get to P2, I’m incredibly grateful!!

Team Photo. Bottom: Fabio, Hernan, Paco and David. Top: Reuben, Lou, Luci, Jeni, Fede, Ritesh and Stuart

Mariner of the Seas Photog Team - Rhodes (Greece)

Jeni

Luci

Stu

David