Vigo

Oct 23rd – Oct 25th
Sea/Vigo/Sea

The 23rd, a sea day spent leaving the canaries, wasn’t anything special, or atleast not to my recollection. We had a production show that night, “once upon a time”, and that was probably about it. Now I generally try to have fun with these shows because everyone’s played them so many times, so I take pride in cheering on the dancers (the female ones) through a series of hoots, hollers, and screams. It gets a little loud and obnoxious, but the dancers generally laugh and it keeps the mood good for all of us in the pit. Also, I think it makes the show more interesting for the guests if they see we’re all having fun. Well, Jamie, the production manager (and cool guy), asked me before the show today if I was going to be needing a muzzle, I guess being his way of saying tone down the cheering a bit. In the entire 3 months I’ve been hear, this has been the first time anyone’s really ever mentioned anything, sure, I get my fare share of weird looks from the band or dancers, but I haven’t yet been asked to shut it, so I guess I finally found that line. That lasted for about half of the first show before I was back at it. I tried, but I guess I just can’t help having a good time, so they’re going to have to deal with the encouraging sounds from the pit, despite however obnoxious they might be.
I had a fun day planned for Vigo. I met up with my friend who I’ve been catching up with the last few times (Ana), and she took me to the University of Vigo where she studies. She picked me up in the morning after I got out of my boat drill by faking going on a tour (escort the group to the bus and then not get on myself). We got to the school in about 25 minutes or so, and I went to the one class she had that day. It was some sort of mechanics class, looked liked a lot of physics to me that looked partially familiar from high school, but seeing as the class was taught in Spanish, I guess I can’t really be sure. Now why would I go to a class taught in a language I don’t speak you ask? Because I thought it’d be funny. So I sat there for the first 55 minute period pretending to understand the notes I was/wasn’t taking, took a 10 minute break with the class, and when back for the final 55 minute period. I don’t know how any one could understand that teacher though, the sound of the room made it terribly difficult to hear any detail. I took Spanish for 4 years way back when, but I didn’t hear more than 3 words he said that I could understand. Following the class, I went out with Ana and her friends for lunch at the food court in the area where all the students seem to go and grabbed a traditional Spanish college student lunch, whatever that’s worth. I didn’t do all that much talking do to the whole language thing, but I could talk with Ana and she’d let me know what everyone else was saying. Seems college guys in Spain talk about three things, Girls, Cars, and futbol (soccer). Not to far off from a Chicago college campus. Afterwards, we drove back to the school to drop her friends off and she took me back to the ship. It was an interesting time, and another one of those opportunities I wouldn’t likely get anywhere else, so I had a good day. I had the rest of the night off, out one day off that cruise, because we work soooo hard, ha. I’ll be back in Vigo again in 10 days, so I have to think of something new to do.
That day was followed by one last sea day as we made our way back to Southampton. Nothing special, just the usual farewell show. I also had a training thing in the morning which I almost missed due to the sleep button on my phone. I don’t know quite how it happened, just that I didn’t realize I had my 9:00 training that morning till 9:02, despite setting the alarm for it the previous night. Five minutes late when all is said and done is basically on time, right? So that was the 25th, tomorrow we start our final Canary Islands tour. Thanks for reading!