Cruise, Day 12

Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Might go to the beach, might not. Panama Canal looked the same as it did the last time. Colombia was cool but lots of peddlers and stares from people who don't see freckles or blue eyes very often. Sitting on a park bench, guy sat down by me, ended up being a poet so he wrote a poem for me in spanish. The title can be translated to "Speckles of Chocolate". Haven't really hung out with the Double Couple, as Matt and I affectionately call our 4 travelmates. They do their own thing, like today they paid $100 (EACH) to get into a resort and lay on the beach and drink for free. Whatever, not our style, even if they would have made an attempt to invite us. Some days I hardly see anyone in our group except for dinner. Having my own room keeps me a little out of the loop, but I kinda dont care about being in the loop this cruise. My room attendant is great and the ice cream guy is really cute and there is a friendly Jamaica bartender that brought me a free drink yesterday, but our main waiter is nothing special and the activities staff is unfriendly. The captain is younger and good looking and funny. In his daily announcement he says things with his Greek accent like "Thank you to the lady guest who asked me to get her a towel today by the pool. It is so good to be recognized as the captain of this vessel. (pause) Thank God I'm so humorous." He also told us we'd know when we were at the equator because there would be a sign and a line of blinking lights across the ocean. However, that night when we were eating dinner, we thought we'd hear the captain announce when our latitude was zero (other ships have parties, we didnt even get an announcement) but instead all of a sudden the ship tilted slightly one way and then the other and we made jokes about magnetic pull and the tide changing as we crossed hemispheres but actually outside the window we did see some blinking lights, four of them. We thought briefly that it might be a buoy to signify the equator but turned out to be a fishing boat that we nearly ran over, hence the boat veering to the side to avoid it.

Apparently I have a potential cruise partner (Naked/Stoecker) for a quick LA cruise, but doubt it has any room for us (actually I'm pretty sure it doesnt have any availability at all). The request has been submitted but I dont even know what day it is for. I booked a ticket to KC arriving APril 21st at 10 pm.

My goals for the last couple days on the ship are to record the accapella group singing the Chicken Song, eat more sushi, get room service once, and try more new kinds of sherbet from the ice cream guy.