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ahhh… okay, finally my update of my last week on deck! My Aloha week!!! seems too good to be true! First off I have to say It has been a very very long journey but one I must never ever forget. My goodness, I look back on how much has changed from when I first came out here and my expectations for the future and where I am now and what God has shown me through it all. I'm grateful for all the passengers I came across that gave me advice and shared their stories and their encouragement for my life goals and dreams. I'm beyond thankful for all the friends I met along the way and the relationships we've built living on the same boat for the past however many months, weeks, days… I've known you. These friendships were created in a heartbeat and It's a beautiful thing to have a community on board that cares so much for each other, it literally is, as much as I hate to say it, my home away from home. The Spa team becomes your family… you eat together, work together, hangout together, celebrate, tease, fight, cry, mourn, sleep.. the list goes on and even when you don't want someone around there's always someone there! It's a lot like growing up in my huge family, there was always someone around. I have so many memories flying through my head right now, lets hope I make it back for another contract to make even more!
WEEK 40-
Saturday I checked out one of the ship bikes so Trevor and I could ride down to Waikiki beach. I left the ship early so I could try to get to Starbucks and blog before Trevor woke up and met up with me. When I got there I ran into Gina and Tina, instead of blogging I figured I should just spend a little more time with Gina before she left considering it was her Aloha day. Trevor texted me saying there weren't anymore bikes to rent and then shortly after he borrow one from Safety John. So we rode to Waikiki beach and laid on the beach for a bit. He told me there was a Hokulani bakery near by and we should see if they had salted carmel cupcakes. Once we got to the bakery I saw this cute store across the way and found a cute anchor shirt and earrings. We bought the cupcakes and then I had to rush back to the ship and get ready for work. Right when I got to the cabin michelle said I had bridal Consultation right at two. They failed to mention it was for a bridal party of 6 that all wanted hair and makeup. I didn't mind, I love doing weddings but it would have been impossible for me to do all of their hair and makeup all on my own. I asked Charmaine what should I do considering she had the day off the day of the wedding and I was basically on my own. All she could say was ask Tina to do makeup because Charmaine was not going to give up her day off. So I asked Tina if she would be willing to help me but nope, she had plans and already rented a car. So I continued with this Bridal consultation and told them I would be taking care of them on my own and said bare with me. Once Audrey came into the spa I explained to her what was going on with the wedding and what my plan was and then Audrey called Tina and Charmaine in and said they needed to come in and help me out and Charmaine said fine then I get Thursday morning off. So I was a bit upset after all that because I didn't want to be on Charmaine's bad side and I didn't like her attitude about it and It was my Aloha week and I really wanted to go surfing that Thursday morning with Aaron. I was upset and told a few of my co workers during our break in crew mess about what happend and how I was bummed I couldn't have the whole day off on thursday and Eric asked if I looked in my cupbard at work and I said no... but apparently he had a gift in there for me so when I got up to the spa before our meeting I opened it and just what I had guessed it was.... a bag of goldfish and the Hula Pie plate!! he totally snuck it and bought it while we were at Dukes when we weren't paying attention and I was so excited to have it!! such a great, memerable Aloha gift! and Michelle was bummed because she had the same idea but he beat her to it. lol
Sunday I didn't have to be at work till nine but I ran to Longs to pick up some makeup things I needed for the bridal party. They were from Hollister, California and they all had very familiar faces to me. The hair and makeup pretty much took me all day, I didn't even have a lunch break so I had Tina grab me something small to eat. I had one other guest in for a manicure and pedicure and after I finished with them I had to close the Spa. After I ate some dinner I stopped by the Wedding reception on the lani, just to see if everyone's hair and makeup stayed. Alex did the photography for the wedding so he snapped a picture of me and the bride and groom. The whole family was very nice and easy going I had a great time working with them. I headed down to my cabin and ran into Tina who just so happened to be going to the wedding reception so I changed real quick and joined her for a couple minutes before catching a ride with Michelle and Brendan to head to the movies to see Monsters University which was an adorable movie!
Monday my last laundry day in Maui. After work we planned on having a Movie night but it was the cruise director's Birthday and Trevor want to go to that so Michelle and I got ready and met up with everyone at Pinks Chamange. Chris, the cruise director, had his mom on board for a couple of weeks and she is a pianist so she played the piano in pinks and all the performers picked songs to sing. Trevor went up a couple of times. It was fun to watch but I think I would have enjoying watching a Disney movie more.
Tuesday work, So originally we had a great Idea of playing a movie while doing the ME! bath party for the little kids on board and I told Audrey we should play Tangled! Well, she didn't actually go through with the idea until my last week on board and it was a hit! the little girls loved it and I loved it too.. I'll admit I sang along with the girls it was a lot of fun. It made me actually enjoy doing them.
Wednesday I had the morning off because I had to give up my thursday morning for the whole wedding thing. But it turned out to be an even better idea to get half in kona and kauai because I never get time off in Kona! I got off on the first tender and ran into Katia and Amber in line and then found Emily. I convinced them to eat breakfast with me for my Aloha week so we went to Lava Java. After eating I got Emily to go paddle boarding with for her first time in Hawaii and we had a blast! She mentioned that she wanted to see dolphins so I told her we should paddle out further to the left and sure enough we ran into a pod of dolphins just swimming around. It was amazing and I wish I had my GoPro with me so bad! After paddle boarding we laid on the grass to dry off until Michelle, Trevor, Alex and Brendan got off the ship. Once I met up with them Emily went off to go do something else and the rest of us walked up to the Kona brewing co. I don't know why we had never been there before but the food is delicious! After work that evening Audrey let me off early enough to catch my last "Oh what a night" show. Trevor had been begging me to take some head shots of him but I just never had time to so instead he asked me to take some photos of the show. After the show Trevor ordered us Cadillac and we had a movie night in Brendan's cabin, Alex joined us this time. We watched bridesmaids I fell asleep about half way through it.
Thursday I had the evening off, Michelle Trevor and I hitch hiked to Kapa'a (shhh.. don't tell my parents) we took the shuttle to wal-mart and intended to catch the bus but it was taking too long so we hitched hiked. Michelle was so excited because it was on her bucket list I couldn't help but laugh at her every time she put her thumb out with the biggest smile on. It wasn't too long before we caught a ride from a family packed in a van on vacation on their way to Kapa'a as well. They made it to their hotel which happened to be right up the street where we needed to be. Oh and Kapa'a is just a little town in Kauai, a small street with shops and boutiques. I was thirsty so we got some Thai iced tea and coffee at mermaids cafe after that we walked to a little beach area and took a nap. It started to cool down quite a bit so we hitch hiked back to the ship before it got dark. The next ride was from this surfer guy in a junky car. He said he couldn't take us too far but he could get us to the gas station up the road… it was better than nothing. Once we got to the gas station we put our thumbs out and started walking. The road was pretty busy and small so there wasn't really any place for cars to stop.We came up to this open driveway at a church and stood out front there so cars would have a place to pull into if they decided to pick us up… we're pretty much pros at this whole hitch hiking thing now. To our surprise, our friends, Christian and Johnathan (from the Oh what a night cast) just so happened to be coming back from their hike and saw us on the side of the road. They drove in to the driveway and we hopped in. Johnathan took a picture of us in the back seat saying look who we found! and sent it to Mark and he responded "Skin them!" haha those guys are hilarious, I love it. That's probably one of the best hitch-hiking stories ever. We made it back to the ship and Trevor had to meet up with some old friends that were cruising this week for some sushi and I had invited the spa team to Mariachis for some margaritas and chips and salsa, as much as I hate going to that place I picked it because It was the only place Emily was able to go to hangout with everyone. A few of us made our way to the tavern and played a terrible game of pool and fussball and then went back to the ship.
Friday my very last day of work! and It was just like any friday in the salon, busy all day from start to end. After work we all rushed to do our port cleaning and I packed up all my stuff from the salon. We had my Aloha dinner at Modern's of course, and I am the first of the team to have my Aloha there! I really don't like having dinner parties like that because theres just so many people at one table and you can really only have a conversation with whoever is in front of you. During dinner while we were all chatting Charmaine quickly blurted she was going to miss me<3 It meant so much coming from her and I knew it took a lot for her to admit to something like that considering theres only a select few that she keeps close. After she said It everyone on our end of the table let out a huge AWWWW!!! as well as myself and then my face turned red lol. Jess and Audrey were at the other end and asked what happened and I told them Charmaine said she's gonna miss me! and Audrey said that means a LOT coming from her. It was a good moment:] Jess gave me a hug goodbye and right then I realized I wasn't going to see her on the ship again because she was going back to school so I got a little teary eyed but she said to give her a call whenever I'm in Oahu again since she lives on the island. At the end of the evening I got one last Family Photo with everyone and Its so weird how much our family has changed and grown with people coming and going, I'm really gonna miss them all.
Saturday Trevor picked up breakfast from cadillac for himself and Michelle and I. I signed off the ship and then the three of us picked up my rental car for the weekend which was a bit difficult because I don't have a credit card but we finally were able to get it. I mean… no credit is better than bad credit right? We went to the Ala Moana mall for a while until Michelle had to go back to the ship. After we dropped Michelle off Trevor and I snuck into the disney resort, Its a gorgeous place the beach there is beautiful but of course full of children everywhere. It was fun to see Goofy in the water and Stitch out. After we were done at the resort we drove back near the ship to find a place to eat, we went to the wards center which is just some shops that I had never walked around but I fell in love with this indian furniture store called chai studios and there is a blanket I'm determined to get if I do another contract. After dinner I dropped Trevor off at the ship around 5:50 and Alex came off the ship to say goodbye. I waited about an hour so I could watch the ship sail away before going to my friends house at north shore. I had the privilege of staying with some old friends from back home that live on the island, I hadn't seen them for about four years so I was great getting to catch up with them.
Sunday I woke up just before the 10am church service that my friend Larry leads. Its a very very small church compared to the church we went to back home, but I really really enjoyed being there. I'm excited to see how the church grows :] after church I cruised around the island and went to Chili's to visit my friend Jeff at work. I hadn't seen him since right before I boarded the ship and he just enrolled into the air force so he'll be leaving soon as well. I thought it would be best if I visited for a little even if we couldn't hangout. That evening I came back to the place I was staying and packed up my luggage and face timed with Michelle who just so happened to be out with all the spa girls at a karaoke bar in maui.
Monday morning I said goodbye to my friends and headed to the airport. I must say its a pretty awesome feeling to wake up and not have to be back at work on the ship.
I'm currently at the airport in Iceland and have been on the computer for about the past four hours… I'm really not quite sure what time it is… my hours are all mixed up I still don't even think I got use to the New York time and I was only home for a week before I started this trip. I think I'm pretty set on sleeping for a month straight after this epic adventure. I guess I'll have to blog about this adventure as well sometime:]
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." - Revelation 21:1
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Mamma Vasquez No more sea? I don't think so! You have yet to see so much of God's beautiful world! Love you and love your adventures of sea life!