It is July 2, and I sit in the sun, bundled in sweatshirt and jeans, enjoying cool artic air. The sun rose at 1:40 this morning. It will not set for me this calendar day. I am nearing the artic circle.
This whole sun all day thing is very bizarre. You never have a clue what time it is. Take now, if I were to guess, I would say it is two in the afternoon. If you had asked me an hour ago, I would have said the same. If you ask me again in two hours, when it is actually two in the afternoon, I will likely say the same. It is a strange existence to go to bed in light of the mid-afternoon and wake up to light of the midmorning, only to check the clock and realize you have slept not fifteen hours, but only four.
It gives everything the feel of a lazy afternoon, all day long, for days. It has been lovely and warm in Norway… but funny to see these towhead people, blindingly white, laying in the summer sun.
Norway is a calm land of quiet sedate people, majestic scenery and the endless summer afternoon. Everyone speaks perfect English and is quite happy to help.
Norway is the home of the deck staff. I believe Norway has amongst the best maritime schools in the world, hence of the cruise ships I have been on, the deck staff is predominantly Norwegian. They, the deck staff, are home. Little tow headed kids are visiting the ship, and the energy is high, spirits up with the joy of seeing loved ones and home.
The country has a strange integration of Christian religion and pagan lore. For every cross you see, there is too a sprite if not a troll.
I thought I had a lot to write, and I do, but I am so tired. We work ten hours a day, standard and some days are more like sixteen. Last embarkation day I worked midnight to eight am, eleven to six pm and then was paged and worked eight pm to ten pm. I had to be up at five am the next day.
To be quite honest, I hate the work. But I love the life. I like walking into the mess and being greeted by friends. I like how bizarre it is to ask, “Where are we and what is the currency?” (This is a question asked frequently by the crew. We don’t pay much attention.)
There are three ships in our fleet, the other two are in Alaska and the Mediterranean. I have fellow IT Officers I can contact on those ships when I need to bounce ideas off of someone. These are people I chat with online and make jokes with everyday, yet have never spoken to or met. I will ordain them, my virtual co-workers.
I highly recommend virtual co-workers, they are all the helpfulness and none of the politics.
I will meet them eventually as there is a bit of movement from ship to ship. We have a good time, bantering back and forth.
Yesterday we had a problem on this ship. We emailed the other ships for help.
We have the omen or idle or icon of an African face, named Tokolash. He is mounted on our server rack. You rub his forehead for luck. My co-worker, Adele, prays religiously and believes fervently in the power of Tokolash. Anyway, we had a problem on our mainframe. She decided to rub Tokolash and an hour later the problem stopped. We sent an email to the other ships saying we had solved the problem and they should see the picture for an explanation. The picture was her rubbing Tokolash.
To which one of the other ships asked if Tokolash can switch DLT tapes (a backup method on major computer systems), cause then they want one.
So we have a good time. So, yeah, I guess I recommend server rack deities as well as virtual co-workers.
Another thing about cruise life is crew drills. Every cruise we have a crew drill. This involves five hundred and some crew members putting on neon life jackets and going to an appointed location in order to help guests evacuate, followed by evacuation to an upper deck.
Some people have more active rolls than others. I for example, have to make sure that fifty people stations on five different decks are manning their stations. I report back to an officer. As I was walking to the officer I passed two people, one in uniform, one in casual clothes, in their big bright bulky orange reflective life jackets, on an office couch, lounging, each separately engrossed in reading a book. It was by far the most ludicrous sight I have seen in a while.
Anyway, it is foggy and wet and cold on deck… which is kind of what I imagine the weather is at home at the moment. I am going to grab some lunch before the mess closes.
Oh here is another tidbit. Everyday the captain comes on the PA and talks about the day. He includes the locations of our sister ships as well as our own.
Except our captain keeps getting it wrong! He used to be captain of the one of the other ships. He switches our ship, in reading the bulletin, with his old ship. Hence he says we are where his old ship is.
It throws the guests a little off when the Captain says we are in the Mediterranean and yet we are supposed to be in Norway.
“Well, I did see him have a couple glasses of wine last night…”
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