Day 28

Bridgetown, Barbados. Today was pretty overcast. I think we’re chasing bad weather. I hear rumor that there is a tropical storm or something but don’t want to use the bandwidth to look it up online. We were supposed to go hang out at a place called the Boat Yard today but one look at the weather had us changing plans. We decided to just walk into town. I didn’t even get off the ship last time we were here so I was determined to at least do that. Barbados puts us on a long pier…they have a shuttle to get you to the end. I guess last time the shuttle was mandatory, but it was optional this time. Deanna, Jen, Larrance and I walked. Before even reaching the end of the pier both Deanna and I started feeling odd.

We called it Land Sickness, but it was different. We both sat down and took it easy and then got some almonds and Powerade in the mall at the end of the pier. Still land sick-ish. We kept walking. Looked in a couple of shops but that was about it.

Tonight was a show night for us…and things were rocky. The rockiest they’ve been so far. It didn’t effect the show at all, but it was rocky. Actually, it seemed like more people than usual were leaving the show and I wonder if it was because of the rockiness. I know I tend to feel worse when I’m sitting in the audience on rocky nights. People get up a lot during any given show. Maybe they don’t speak English and it doesn’t make sense, maybe they expected the show to be shorter and they had made dinner plans, maybe they didn’t like it. Whatever the reason, any show can count on people showing up late and people leaving early.

After the show we grabbed some food and headed to a crew party in Spinaker. I have trouble getting into the vibe of these things, but this one was easier because it was in Spinaker and not in the low-ceilinged crew bar. The crew does a lot of work regardless of their specific job, and the parties are huge for morale. Why? There are cheap drinks, music, dancing, etc. It was enjoyable at the beginning. Then it got louder. Maybe I’m getting older but there are four things that make this situation less than desirable: I don’t drink, I don’t care for cramped spaces/crowds, once it gets loud enough for me to not hear it is useless for people to try to converse with me, and I don’t enjoy dancing. What do I enjoy in these situations? Watching. People watching. Watching people I don’t know act like idiots, watching people I do know have fun. I like to sit back and take it in. Usually that isn’t enough for people though. “Come dance!” “Get up and dance!” “You HAVE to dance to THIS song!” All said good-naturedly, but ease up. If a song comes on that I feel like dancing to (there are one or two), I will get up and dance. If I’m up and it isn’t a song I feel like dancing too I’m going to either A) be taking pictures or B) do bits.

I don’t know if it is because he is a little older or because he never really listened to pop-music, but Larrance seems to be immune to this problem. I don’t see anyone egging him on. I will have to figure out his secret.

Tomorrow is our last port on this cruise before two sea days…and it is supposed to be raining or cloudy. We are going to attempt to go to some beach in St. Lucia, if nothing else because it is our last port before two sea days. Two. We’ll see. This cruise has gone like this (at night) “Let’s do this awesome thing tomorrow!” (next day with bad weather) “oh…well? Next time?”