Crew Bar

CREW BAAAARR!

I haven't posted to this blog in years...but I still remember what Crew Bar was like.

It was a normal thing to swing by crew bar for a beer after finally finishing work at the spa.  A quick beer at 10pm would determine what the rest of the night would be like.  Either you'd go straight to your cabin and demolish a cup-o-noodles before crashing or you'd be finding something fun to wear and heading straight back to crew bar for Latin night, Philipino karaoke or just a normal night of some drinking and the ship's DJ.  It's dangerous having a bar right downstairs from where you live.

I have to warn you...you have a limit on how much you can drink and it's enforced.  Most of the ship employees are more intoxicated than this limit but usually you can slide as long as you are coherent, not in guest areas and are still being responsible.  For me, crew bar kept me sane and made it possible to tolerate the stress of work.

Sometimes they'd have amazing crew parties...Costume parties on Halloween, deck parties with free drinks and the open sky, toga parties.  We had it good.  They do their best to keep everyone happy.  Here's some pictures of some of the Crew Bar parties...

Any by the way...I had many guests beg me to bring them to crew bar, or even offer money to tell them how to get there.  ALWAYS say no.  You would easily be fired for that.

WiFi at the YMCA!

Web Cam-s!

Before leaving my home…everyone was asking how I’d be able to keep in touch…

Do they have phones on the ship? Internet? Can you bring your computer? How often will you call me?
So many questions I had NO idea how to answer!!

Your family is going to be very curious for updates on your new adventure! They may be worried…and
nervous for you too.

#1: At the YMCA- They are EXTREMELY internet friendly. It’s completely free and quite fast. There’s
the entire lounge area with tables and outlets to plug to power. The cafeteria is open until late in the
evening for a little more privacy. There is also a small room before you get to the cafeteria on your
left side. It’s small and when I was at the academy…usually empty! Seeing that I missed my handsome
man…I took that opportunity to chat for hours. It was nice to have somewhere that was quiet.

Some people are lucky enough to get WiFi reception in their room. I didn’t…but only needed to go out
in the hallway and about 4 doors down. There’s quite few floors in the YMCA…I believe 3 are occupied
by only Steiner’s. The other floors, well…we’ll save that for another post….

This is what the hallways tend to look like in the evening! :

Steiner Interview in Baltimore

Next you need to arrange your interview.  I researched the possible interview locations and dates and decided to fly to wherever the next interview would be held.  I was getting impatient and was tired of working at a floral warehouse in a tiny city of 5000 people.  Wisconsin isn't the most exciting state...  The upcoming interview was to be held in Baltimore, Maryland.  A city I'd never thought about but was soon to be spending a few days in!  My adventure was beginning...

I took a bus from the airport to a local hostel where I stayed.  It was my first time taking advantage of these travel-nut hotspots.  The hostel was clean, cute, and very guest friendly.  I locked my stuff up and walked to the local aquarium and watched a dolphin show.  The entire time I was thinking of how much my little sisters would love watch the dolphins do their tricks.

On the day of my interview I was frieking out.  I had no idea if I had all the correct paperwork, what they would ask me, if I looked nice, what they would ask me?!  I was full of questions as hopped the train.  I missed my stop and walk for too long before I finally found a Marriot hotel.  I walked inside and called myself a cab.  By this time I was in a definite suberb in the outskirts of Baltimore city.

I gave my taxi driver the address I needed to go to.  Within 20 minutes we pulled up to a building that looked nothing like I expected it too.  The interview was being held at a Steiner Family of school.  Baltimore College of Massage Therapy.  I recognized the school because I had attended the same chain; Utah College of Massage Therapy.  As soon as I walked insdie- I felt comfortable.  Tons of different people in the same situation as me.  We all got along instantaneously and had endless things to talk about! 

We gathered in a large classroom, all sat down, and a beautiful blonde woman named Angela introduced herself.  She presented up with an official application form, a questionaire, and a thourough slide show.  She showed us pictures of the cabins, the spa, graphs showing our potential income, and how important it was to know our targets and revenue potential.  Each of us stood up to introduce ourselves and explain why we wanted to, and would be good at, working onboard.  A girl stood up and was highly struggling to speak English.  She got discourage and Angela went ahead to explain that this was okay.  They have cruise ships all over the world and many of them require being fluent in a language other than English.  Sometimes it can be a huge advantage.  I'm still curious if that young lady got hired...

We all paired up for the practical.  My partner was a young man from Baltimore.  While I was performing my treatment I reminded myself to be confident and relaxed.   Angela came over with a kind smile.  She asked me to explain what I would do for someone with lower back pain.  I said I would work with extra time releasing the trigger points in the QL and also work on the hamstrings to loosen the joints.  She nodded, smiled, and moved on to the next victim!  I breathed a sigh of relief and immediatly second guessed myself!  I asked my partner "Was that right?!!"  He told me to chill out and I was overreacting.  Haha, of course! Don't we all!

She thanked all of us for coming, ensured our contact information was correct, and informed us we would recieve an email telling us 'yay' or 'nay'.  All of my new instant friends and I exchanged emails and were excited to inform each other of our (hopefully) good news in the upcoming weeks.

I took the bus back to my hostel, which sounds much easier than it was...And joined in some small talk with a French guy outside on the steps.  He was cute with bad teeth and tried teaching me a few words in his romantic language.  I tried so hard to pronouce this one word and he laughed and scorned at me at the same time.  He said I was murdering his language.  I was so embarrased.  From that point on Frenchmen no longer seemed romantic to me.  Even if they wear flowing white linen pants.  I had a relaxing night, got stood up by a student teacher, went to dinner with an adorable guy who was only into milfs, and had a cup of hot tea with a Japanese woman who had many more years than she looked.

My last day I settled my total bill of $60-something and took a taxi to the airport.  I was so anxious to get home and tell my family about my expirience alone in Baltimore!  I also wanted to tell my co-worker, Lisa, that I never got the chance to check out the strip bar called "Butterfly".   I was full of butterflies of my own as I realized I had completed a huge step in my lifes' journey.  I watched out the airplane window at the huge ocean I wanted to be sailing on and would soon be flying over to attend the Steiner London Training Academy....

I recieved my email two weeks later.