My 100th Post...what now?

Wow. 100 posts. what now?

It has been just 3 weeks shy of a year since I started this blog, and reading back on some of the posts, I just can't believe how lucky I am.

In the past 11.5 months, just off the top of my head I have:

- flown over the International Dateline to Australia
- been blown away by the serenity of the South Pacific Islands
- been stung by a school of baby jellyfish and luckily didnt have to get peed on
- been a pirate in the indian ocean
- crossed the equator in a ship
- drank beer with strangers in a dark alley in Bangkok
- treated a Thailand prostitute's to a free dinner with a friend and then hung out with her in Kao San Road talking and laughing simply because we thought it would be nice for her to have a "night off".
- not only witnessed but photographed a burial at sea
- sat on the beach in Phuket where the tsunami hit the worst.
- rode on and befriended an elephant named "Sweetheart".
- para-sailed in malaysia.
- fell in love with someone who lives on the other side of the planet, and who to this day i have actually spent more time away from her than with her since we met, and we're stronger than ever. (by the way, Grit told me yesterday that she got a call from Steiner, she is coming to work on the Coral in 8 days!!!!)
- took a train to venice, italy and spent 8 hours in absolute amazement.
- survived what could have been one of the worst disasters at sea ever recorded, and walked away without a scratch and standing taller.
- dipped my hands in the famous fountain, and hummed "give peace a chance" to myself at the John Lennon memorial in central park, new york.
- I have crossed the atlantic in 9 days, and woke up at 530am one morning to watch the statue of liberty get closer.
- I have taken a photo straight down from the top of the empire state building.
- i have cried at the world trade center site.
- i have swung from tree to tree on a cable while it was pouring down in a rainforest in costa rica, and screamed to the heavens the whole way.
- i swam with stingrays in grand cayman 1 week before steve irwin died, and i am going to do it again.
- i have soaked up the sun lying on a tube drifting down the great river in jamaica
- i have finally brought home a girl that my family likes :)
- i have learned a few words in over 15 different languages
- i live with 800 crew members from over 40 different countries every day that never fight each other, never steal from, and can always manage to make each other smile. i dont see why the rest of the world find it so difficult.
- i have watched storms all night and past the sun rising over the middle of the ocean, just because i could have sworn that i could have very well been the only one in the world to see it.
- i have walked ACROSS the locks of the panama canal... very little people do that.

the list goes on...all for the past 11 months.


and what now? i keep on roaming.

thats what we do.

like buffalo, we roam.

and then all of it happens.

and we roam.

-m-

Random Picture Time!

ok these mexican keyboards are very hard to get used to haha! ok, i am in Cozumel Mexico right now, and i just popped off the ship to send some random pics of this cruise. the zipline tour in costa rica was amazing, and although i didnt get to do the ATV tour in jamaica, the river tubing that replaced it was well worth it. Panama was a real treat too, i actually jumped off the cruise ship at 5am while it was still moving and onto a pilot boat that took me to shore. then i shot photos of everyone on their balconies as they past by me in the locks of the panama canal. i actually walked ACROSS one of the locks to go to the other side... not many people do that! in fact, only 3 people on the entire ship can actually leave at that time, and they are all photographers hahahaha. ok, i am gonna finish the blog entry and then grab some mexican food. then its back onto the ship, i gotta finish feeding my negs through the line and print em off before island night! yay!

=M=

this is jay, canadian SR. Videographer (probably my roomate in 2 days too...good thing we really really get along). In panama we shoot the balconies on the ship for an hour and then we have about 6 hours off with an escort until the ship comes back to get us, and all we do is drive around. this is a friend of our escorts in a local REAL pub (not some dolled up one for passengers, this is authentic). Got our asses handed to us in Pool though...damn those guys are good!

this is our new friend pointing to HIS women.... old men dont change no matter where you are haha.

this is one of the tugs that pull the ships through the panama canal. this particular one has been retired and is sitting in a park...for big kids to play on!

striking a pose in panama. Vogue :)

ZipLine tour in costa rica....150 metres in the air, in a rainforest, pouring more rain than any day i have ever been alive to witness. also...biggest frontal wedgie ever...look at that package!

Oh me, Oh my!

I just had to mention this, as I am completely stoked about it. On the Crown last contract I didnt go on a single tour/shore excursion through the ship because I either had zero time, or my cabinmate Jacek always beat me to it...

Today, I have not only booked one, but TWO shore excursions for this cruise.

Ready? Get this:

1. Tomorrow, I am joining a small crowd of say 20 people and we are all hopping on our own ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles) and we are driving up and down the beaches of Montego Bay, Jamaica. After kickin up the sand for a while, we are driving up Mt. Zion (yes, Bob Marley's 'Zion'). I should get quite a few nice jungle type photos with this one!

and finally:

2. In 5 days time, I will be joining again about 20 people, but all Crew this time (Crew Only Tour), and we are doing whats called a 'ZipLine' in Limon, Costa Rica. A ZipLine can basically be described as "that tightrope people dangle from hooks on in the TV show 'Fear Factor'..."
We are going from tree to tree shimmying across a metal zipline, roughly 80 feet in the air...

stoked? yes! scared?

....not yet ;)

-M-

Cozumel....pant...pant...

Woke up this morning 1 hour earlier to a phone call from an equally sleepy photographer saying we are in Cozumel earlier and we gotta hustle to the gangway for pics....

...2 hours in TOTAL and UTTER heat.....no shade (until Royal Caribbean pulled alongside...thank you!)...

now I am on a few hours off so i get to do basically the same thing...take pics in the hot sun...BUT not of passengers haha... some cool places round here... 'Carlos N Charlies' and of course 'Senor Frogs' (done that....many times....).

I think I am gonna grab a cervesa and then hop back into my cabin (with the broken airconditioner...still cold compared to outside)...and then its island night! Formal night is over (last night) and its smooth sailing from here (for 3 days haha)...

Here are a few pics so far that I threw on just cause I could...
cheers!

-M-

me and my sis and mama just before I left for the Coral

the new gang on the 2nd night on the ship...Halloween! Notice me without a costume :(

the new home...Coral Princess... on my way to it for the first time. Shot from a tender boat in Grand Cayman.

The Atrium of the Coral Princess.

Random Thoughts And Pictures Falling From the Sky

Hey everyone! I thought I would throw a little update online today...tell all my peeps the DownLow on whats been goin on these past few days. Work is good, getting back into my little groove again... deck 2 cabin sucks my hairy ass....pardon the vulgarity, but there is no other way of putting it...meeting new friends each day, some real cool people here on board. Crewbar is small and insignificant...but a beer or two each night to wind down is simply unpreventable. Formal Nights are still the bane of my existance...c'est la vie!

I suck at ping pong...the Phillipeno's dont.

Panama Canal is amazing...there is literally 1 foot of water maybe 2 on either side of the ship...

Fits.... LIKE A GLOVE!

I am eating super healthy... probably because I have only been to the crew mess to eat ...twice maybe. Horizon Court is where its at. Every meal I have the worlds biggest salad: onions, lettuce, carrots, radishes, celery, bacon bits, croutons, peppers, and a TINY bit of dressing. Then there is the fish (not fried) AND either chicken/steak/pork/all of the above. No Deserts (not holding back, they just simply dont appeal to me...plus I am eating too much dinner haha). Still havent started up with the gym again, but i cant find the @!$#!$ thing haha. Everyone says crew gym is on deck 1.. i have looked 4 times and i cant even find stairs to go to level one!!! The spa has a passenger gym, but I would like to try out the crew gym first and make sure i still know how to exercise still haha.

Grit is still at home in Germany. She called Steiner today to see when she can come here and they said they might have an answer wed or thurs this week. getting impatient here... she is guaranteed a spot here, but its all a matter of when... oh well... she is doing well and we are talking lots. I cant wait to see her, she will love the ship, its so much smaller than what we are accustomed to from past contract. Its a lot like the Pacific Sky!

Speakin of which, get this: first formal night (first day i was here) I grabbed my camera and put a memory card in.... i hit preview to see what pics were already on it, and first pic was.... ME.

WHAT THE !$!%?

Apparantly when we sold the Pacific Sky, we sent all our equipment (including the memory cards) to various Princess Ships... the memory cards obviously came to the Coral, but what boggles me is this: I have had a contract in the mean time. The cards were in plain sight, and not only were they on the ship i came to, but nobody deleted these cards for....6 months! And I could have picked any other memory card that WASNT from the Sky... my first thought:

Wake up Neo. The Matrix has you.

Where's the hidden camera? Is this the Truman Show? :)

Very Syncronistic indeed.... yet hard to decypher the meaning so far....

in the meantime, thats all. I am going to Costa Rica tomorrow. There is a Sloth Sanctuary there, I might not have time to go this turn, but I have 16 more times to go before we head to Alaska.

How is everyone else doin? How's the snow? :) Don't worry, it was about +35C today in Panama before the rain....I will send some heat your way ;) I am all sweaty anyways.

See you all in the NEXT CARTOON!

-M-