Cruisin

Day 1 of the cruise we left Miami at about 4pm. Didn’t do a whole lot that night except eat, get unpacked, and get oriented with the ship. We tried getting in the hot tub that night but the wind was horrendous. Literally blowing the water out of the hot tub. We didn’t last that long. The whole time we were sitting in the hot tub, water was blowing up into our faces. Kind of funny to watch I am sure, but annoying to experience! That night we went to sleep with our bellies full already. It’s going to be a long 9 days on the cruise trying not to eat too much, pretty sure that is impossible on a cruise though! You want to take advantage of getting to eat as much great food and desserts as you can!

Just the living room and kitchen area of our ship room

The night we took off I was already realizing that I may not be cut out for cruises anymore. It has been a while since I have been on a cruise, since before I started having vertigo problems. The vertigo while I run started around my senior year of college and in the past year has started while I am hiking as well. The only time I have really experienced motion sickness is on this curvy road close to our cabin in Colorado and then once when my friend Brea and I were deep sea fishing in Washington. Deep-sea fishing was more due to the smell of the gasoline I think than the boat movement. But the first night on the cruise I was already feeling a little nauseous and dizzy. On past cruises I have had no problem running around on the deck, but I am not sure I am going to even attempt that on this cruise. Do not have very high hopes that I won’t get vertigo running in circles on a rocking boat! The odds are not in my favor. Hopefully just running on the treadmill will be ok. There were a few people trying to do lunges with weights and they realized they weren’t going to be able to do it because their balance kept getting thrown off. It was kind of funny.

The second day we were at sea all day. Another windy and cloudy day so we couldn’t relax out by the pool, instead we relaxed inside! I received a free acupuncture consultation! She was able to tell a few things I have problems with just by feeling my pulse and looking at my tongue. It was pretty cool. And of course she recommended three treatments to help with the problems, mainly while I was on the cruise, while I was relaxed. Yeah right, if I even considered acupuncture I would not do it where they way overcharge! And I don’t think I am ever really relaxed, always wanting to go do something, so me being on a cruise is probably not going to make much of a difference. A friend in Oregon does acupuncture I think once a week and he really enjoys it. Might be something I wouldn’t mind trying once.

Early evening after this first full day on the ship, after going in and out of feeling like I was getting sick all day, I was just sitting on the couch in our cabin, and I feel like my nose started running quite a lot right after I had just blown it. I thought it was very strange. I usually have to blow my nose a lot, but this was kind of weird. So I got up and got a Kleenex, then noticed my nose was actually bleeding! What the heck? Yeah, it was very strange. It wasn’t from a dry nose or anything like that. Nope, in this humidity I am sure my nose is very moist! It bled for a little while then finally stopped. Makes me wonder if it has anything to do with the vertigo and the inner ear. Can’t figure it out.

Third day was port in Samana, Dominican Republic. We got off and, of course, immediately there are people everywhere wanting you to do a tour with them. We had no idea what we were going to do there or where we were going to go. Not even ideas if we wanted to hike, hang at a beach, kayak, or whatever. We ended up taking a van to a beach a little ways away. The beach was nice. It had some chairs and hammocks. I got to swim and relax in the hammock for a while. Start my sunburn and enjoy the view! On the way there and back we got to see a lot of the culture and went through a few towns, although I am sure you would not think they were town going through them. The DR is neighbors to Haiti so I am sure you can imagine what kind of lifestyle the people there have. I have a friend from OBU whom used to live in the DR with her husband. She was a teacher, I think she taught English but I could be wrong about this. It was kind of cool to see where and the way she was living. Too bad she is not still living there, maybe could have seen her in the DR!!! After the beach we stopped for a short hike to a couple of small waterfalls where some local boys were swimming and jumping. I think they were taken off guard to have us come up to them, but they just continued having fun and getting clean. One boy was washing his hair as were just walking about. And there was this very small boy, maybe about four. He was adorable. I really wanted to take a picture of him but didn’t get the chance. Last we did a little walking in downtown Samana. Wouldn’t think this was a city if you didn’t already know. The scenery is great in the DR, the building, however, not so great! The people are friendly until they figure out they are not going to convince you to buy anything from you! Back on the ship I guess we needed some guys vs. girls time. The boys went off together and then mom and I spent the rest of the evening just her and I, which was nice. We always love having our girl time together!

Chillin on the beach in the DR

I don’t know if I am just getting less fun or old, but usually, knowing me, I would go off in the evenings and have fun, meet people. It could also be because I don’t have Luke here with me to go off and have fun with. Or maybe I just don’t want to continually explain to people that yes, I am over 18. So far, after only three days on the cruise, my age has been questioned about 5-10 times. Today we were in Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). We got off trying to figure out what to do and we come across this boat that could take us to one of the islands with some gorgeous beaches and caves. They were explaining to us that on the way back it was an open bar, and someone asked me if I was over 18 because then it probably wouldn’t be that much fun. I was like, yes, actually I am 25. They were so shocked. Same thing in the hot tub after exploring the BVI, my mom and I got in the hot tub, these two guys got in and they started talking to us. One guy was 22; the other was older, closer to my age I think. But of course, my mom has to make sure they know they are not talking to a 16 year old so she tells them how old I am; they were so shocked. The older guy actually just graduated with his nursing degree and he was shocked that I have been a nurse for 2 ½ years. I gave him some advice, hopefully it was helpful! It is kind of an uncommon occurrence for a 25-year-old singe girl to be on a cruise with her parents! Oh well, I will just have to keep explaining myself!

Now let me talk more about Day 4 in the British Virgin Islands. We talked to some people and heard that this other island is a great island to visit, relax on the beach, hike, go through caves, and see some beautiful scenery. Just approaching Tortola and looking out at all the islands was amazing! There are so many different islands. Most have houses dispersed along the hills with cool winding roads going up the sides. This definitely is not as poor of an area as the DR. There are some huge houses here, and we saw some famous peoples houses. After being here it makes me think more of travel nursing here!

After we got off the ship we were stopped by a guy telling us about the boat he can take us on to the island we wanted to go to. There were other cruise passengers there that told us how great it was; so we decided to do it. It was a very fast boat and still took at least 30 min. to get to the other island. Mom did not enjoy the boat ride because on the way there we were in the front and she was getting jarred and tossed all about! The beaches and water was gorgeous when we got there. The boat just drove right up to the beach and we crawled out the front of the boat. We were able to spend about 4 hours on the island. It felt like we were on a deserted island, but it did have houses and buildings, we just never saw them. We were able to crawl through some caves to get from beach to beach and hike along a trail to see some other beautiful areas. We all got a little red, ok, more than a little! We didn’t get too burnt though, yet! I was telling this couple on boat ride about my vertigo problem, she said she had a lot of scopolamine patches and I could have a few if I needed. So I will have to try them out sometime and see if they do anything for the vertigo on the cruise as well as while running. I feel like it is getting even worse when I run, and it is making me really nervous for my ability to be able to do the triathlon I want to do near the end of my assignment in California.

That night there was a hypnotist show. I have not quite decided how believable I think this is. My senior year prom there was a hypnotist and I went on stage and was booted off pretty quickly because I was unable to become hypnotized. I wanted to give it another try. Amazingly I was chosen to go on stage. I went in with a very open mind and truly wanting to get hypnotized; however, I was probably a little skeptical as well because I knew it hadn’t worked on me in the past. I went up, listened to every thing she said, obeyed everything, and attempted to totally relax myself. I did get very relaxed; I was totally slouched over. At one point she had us relax our eyelids and keep them tightly shut, then she said when we tried to open them we wouldn’t be able to. This happened, I was not able to open my eyelids, but that is probably a mental thing. That is the most that happened to me. I didn’t get booted off, but that’s because I just faked my way through doing a lot of things! I was disappointed. But I think that if you don’t believe in hypnotism, it won’t happen to you. Who knows, maybe God just doesn’t want me to be controlled by someone else to get me to do interesting things. I know that my mind does not stop working and I do not relax very easily, so the fact that I personally can’t be hypnotized does not make me disbelieve it can really happen. I don’t think I will ever decide either way.

After the show I was going to work out and discovered that my tennis shoes were nowhere to be found. We have no idea where they could have gone. I took them to the island with me and didn’t see them since. This, of course, put me in a really bad mood. There is no way I can survive 6 more days of a cruise without being able to work out. I will try my mom’s shoes, but she wears a few sizes smaller than I do, that may not turn out too well. Or I might have to look for some shoes on an island. This is very depressing. But I should be thankful its not anything expensive like my camera. But getting to work out helps me to keep my sanity! Of course, being on a cruise and getting to go to beaches should enough to keep your sanity right? Sure, but not for me! I have to have that time to myself and help me from being as guilty with all the food.

Two shore excursions done, three more to go. Many more pictures and thing to tell coming soon!!