Monday, June 30, 2014

About "The Girl I Love And Refuses To Be Called My GirlFriend" (forfuture references: TGIL)

I never thought that since the very beginning of my life at sea she was going to be there...
Excited as I was, flying for the first time out of the country, after months of preparation, paperwork, interviews, passports, visas, I was in the US, specifically, in San Francisco! A dream come true. Once at the hotel, I checked in and since it was early morning, and didn't have to be ready to joing the ship until the next morning I called Sofia, and old friend that lives in San Francisco that made me promis her that if I ever go there I would let her know. That was ages before I would even think about travelling that far out of Argentina. But that part of the story will be subject of a future entry. 
The fact is that when getting into the shuttle with all the embarking crew she was there, TGIL. I have to say, I was nervous and happy, and tired and jet lagged, and taking pictures, so I didn't see her at that moment. She was embarking at that same time, she was Cruise Staff, and was starting her first contract after her training in another ship. 
My training was intense, and very stressful, my adaptation skill at that moment were extremely challenged, and many times I thought about quitting, those were the times I was calling my parents at home asking for strength. The only moment I got to relax was when we had time to go ashore. We were in Alaska, so everything was new, and exciting. In one of the ports, Skagway, the whole team of trainees went out to explore, it was ten of us plus some other guys that wanted to go along the train tracks to the old Gold Rush Cemetery... And as we're were walking, someone started singing "Stand By Me" and we all sung along. As usual, I was taking pictures, registering the whole adventure, and posting all the pictures in Picasa (Facebook was popular yet) and she was there, she even was in the short video of singing. I didn't pay much attention to her, between the stress, the amazing Alaskan scenery, and certain Brazilian fellow that was acting like a dog, peeing around marking the territory around her, I didn't focus much on her, but she was there.
She also was around on board, in fact we have another couple of pictures together, she, with her yellow, table-clothe-like western-country style dress.
And the, when we went out in Juno, the capital of Alaska, again, with whole group, her, and this Brazilian fellow. The funny thing about this day, is that there is a picture of the three of us with an American flag in a salute fashion... An Aussie, an Argentinean and a Brazilian saluting the American flag... I never dared to show the picture to anyone, only many years after, to her...
Of course she was there on the farewell night when I left the ship to go to the Sapphire Princess for my first contract, that actually took me to her country, and where I bought a traditional Ausralian Bush Hat and a Dryzabone, that brown neck-to-ankle riding coat the the bushmen wear in the outback, and so many laughs and jokes brought to us in the next years.
So that is how I met The Girl I Love and Refuses To Be Called My GirlFriend.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Changes, Changes, Changes...

Lots of water have gone under the bridge since last time, and the begining of a new stage, plus to find the words to describe it, is already difficult. But I guess that this is what it will make it interesting, and a good exersize too. 
Let's see what are my motivations... On one hand, I think I have so many interesting experiences going on now, that it really worth the effort of putting them in paper. I want to share with my friends my travels, my troubles and my mind's caverns (lousy rhyme, I know, but if you don't like my rhymes, just read name of my blog)
I've been watching this TV series lately, Californication, about this writer from NYC living I'm LA. I was watching it crew style, that means, marathon style, because that is how we watch TV on ships, we get a few seasons of a series from someone' hard drive and we watch it until we are done, and then we go for the next one. For example, I watched eight seasons of Bones in about two months, three seasons of Two Broke Girls in about a week, but that was easy, twenty minute episodes are just like candies, you wake up, you see an episode, and you start your day with a laugh, you go for a nap, you see a short episode, and you sleep better, with a smile on you face. I prefer short sitcoms rather than long episodes because of this, still there are some exceptions, like Game of Thrones, that is being highly addictive, but since the episodes are so long that they were a real hazard to my sleep.
So I was watching Californication, and seeing this writer going thru all the things he goes thru made me think about typing again. Don't get me wrong, he is not a roll model to me, I will not start smoking again, I will not drink or get high as he does, but I can type again, because that is what I'm going to do, to type, writing is far to complicated, and I never learnt to write. I like to tell stories, and that is what I will do if I have nothing fresh to type. I will repeat those stories I've been telling my guest, and my drunks, along the years of bar tending and cruising to keep them entertained, so they would leave a better tip, and I could buy another beer on the crew bar. I have a bunch of good stories that I perfected  by repeating them week after week to new batch of pax (passengers in the Hospitality lingo)
But why in English and no in Spanish? Well, I would love to be able to write in both, but that would take too much time, and I don't want to think twice before I start writing, I just want to do it. Also, English is a more simple language, so the google translator will have a less corrections to do that if would do it the opposite way. To my English speaking friends, please don't get me wrong, technically talking, English is easier than Spanish, articles don't define gender, nouns neither, and a long array of differences that my vocabulary is not rich enough to enunciate.