Here's a post that I wrote about a week ago which I wanted to keep writing on but never got around to it. I'll post the unfinished post now seeing as I will probably never get around to adding to it.

Friday January 7th

Yesterday I went Jet-skying in Barbados. It was my first time Jet-skying on my own (the last time having been with my dad when I was probably around 8 years old, clinging to the back and terrified), and to get to do it in the warm Caribbean water was incredible.

Today I went to a new beach in St. Kitts which was beautiful but pretty standard tourist fare. After having spent three full months in the Caribbean I am finally taking advantage of all of the beaches, and they have taken up the majority of my free time for the last two weeks. I have to say that before coming here I was never a big fan of beach-going, but I think I have finally been converted. The warm turquoise water has definitely helped, not to mention my sudden realization that if I don't have at least the vague beginnings of a tan when I return home then people might doubt that I ever really came to the Caribbean.

Due to the ludicrous sleeping schedule that I  find myself on in the ship (which I justify by saying that I am still on Vancouver time), I have gotten in the habit of hunting for food around 2:00am, and I've discovered that, in addition to the random late night food that is provided in the messes for late shift workers, there are additional windows of time where the cooks make food for themselves to eat - stuff that is off of the regular menu. Between 1:30 and 2:00 is the time that a group of Indian cooks make their food, and I have lately started crashing their meal, which has been a surprisingly good experience. The first time I did it, I was with one of the lounge pianists, and the Indian cooks beckoned us over to take a seat and eat with them. We both ate the amazing food (Lobster and yogurt rice - hot and cold in a most refreshing blend), and only discovered upon cleaning our plates that they were waiting for us to eat our fill before they even touched their own food! The respect that they showed for two complete strangers was amazing, and I only later discovered that they hadn't eaten anything since 3:00pm before that, and in one guy's case it was his first meal of the day. These cooks who had been working the entire day while I had been lounging at the beach, eating meals every few hours, had still waited for us to eat before them, as guests. We made sure that in the future they would not wait for us, since we would no longer be guests but hopefully viewed as part of their own group. 

At this point maybe I should write something about my impression of the different cultures on the ship. As I have just mentioned, the Indians have shown the utmost respect and been incredibly polite and interesting to talk with.  I have befriended the Caribbean band all of whom are from Jamaica, and they as well as others from Jamaica on the ship have essentially fulfilled the stereotype of being an easy going and relaxed people. I have really appreciated their pleasant attitude and openness to conversation, and had some great conversations with the drummer and singer of the band about different kinds of music. 

I have already talked about Filipinos who work on the ship, but as I said before, they are very hard-working people, and are generally quite outgoing. They are very talented musically as a culture, and they overall have quite a good attitude about their work on the ship. 

I will have to generalize a lot of eastern European countries into a single stereotype, mainly because it is pretty accurate on this ship. In general, they at first seem intense and reserved, but once you get to talk to them they all turn out to have great senses of humour and are generally quite nice people. Of course, the funniest stuff they say is always the unintentional result of their hilarious broken English. Our saxophone player, Yurie, who is from the Ukraine, has a large collection of amazing quotes and I will do my best to record as many of them as I can before he leaves.

The people from South African are generally nice people but intense. 

The Canadians, Americans and people from the UK are much harder for me to generalize and so I will avoid it for the time being, and most of whoever reads this is Canadian or American anyways. 

There are a fair number of Peruvians, Indonesians, and Africans, but I haven't had as many opportunities to interact with them and so am unable to make any generalizations.