here's my back-log of blogs I never get around to posting. I will try to post something with more thought put into it at some point, but this will have to do for now.

March 7th

Apparently they've found my bass, and are sending it to meet up with the ship in Athens. This is excellent news, and now I have nothing left really to worry about.

Today I had early familiarization training, which I had to do because despite having been on the Dawn, the Jade is not technically a 'sister ship', meaning that the layout is ever-so-slightly different. It was no big deal though, since all of the other training I did on the Dawn does apply here and so I shouldn't have to do any more for the duration of my stay.

At noon I had my first gig with the Jade Orchestra, as they are known here. We played on a part of the ship that doesn't exist on the dawn - an outdoor patio extension of the deck 12 buffet, at the very back of the ship. The gig was billed "Beer Fest with the Jade Oompa band", which is exactly what it was - two sets of non-stop Polka music. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a very well received gig by everyone. The other members of the band seem to really enjoy themselves, which I take as a good omen. I mean what's not to love about playing Polka on a sunny outdoor patio in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea?

Actually, I was hardly in the correct mindset to fully appreciate the music, since I was nervous with it being my first gig with the band, and having to sight-read a lot of new charts. Being told that your predecessor was a killer bass player who's a former student of John Pattitucci's is never good for the ego when going into a new gig. 

There were some hiccups but I came through the other side of the gig more or less in one piece. At any right it was a good crash-course in Polka music, and I feel like I have a bit more of a feel for the stylistic idiosyncrasies.

There are some extremely good musicians in this band, which I could already tell based on relatively simple music - I can tell that this band will really shine when we play the jazz sets. That the standard of musicianship is high will hopefully push my own musicianship to a higher level by the end of the contract.

March 8th

In Civitavechia today. Only two hours to spare off the ship before I have to head back and work on music for the first production show, "Showdown". Last night I went over the music with the bandmaster, Alan, and it looks like it'll be a really fun but really challenging show, at least for the first few weeks until I really know how it goes. Since the show is completely live, it's going to take a lot of attention to get through since it is an extremely fast-paced show, and the bass is featured quite prominently since it is mostly Motown music. 

March 10th

So much stuff to learn and see every day, so little time...

Tuesday night, after Showdown rehearsal, we had a Dixieland set. Everybody in the band was telling me how amazing this set is, and I had to see it to believe it, but it really was an amazing show. Passengers really like Dixieland apparently, and combined with the fact that the band's horn section is really quite amazing made for a very high-energy, well-executed show. 

Yesterday we were at sea, and that night we did Showdown. It was a terrific show, and I felt really good about my part. It wasn't just my first time performing it, but also the first time for the entire production cast, who arrived on the ship the same day as me. they did extremely well, and are overall a talented group of singers with good intonation. They are also easy-going and good-natured, and so I look forward to working with them more. 

Today we were in Athens. I went on an excursion that drove us around various parts of the city, and then took us to the Acropolis. I didn't really know what to expect when going to see it, and so I was quite blown away by the spectacle of the temple, and the commanding view that it provided of the entire city of Athens. It was cool to see the nearby hill where the apostle Paul preached the gospel to the locals, in the face of this magnificent monument to the Greek gods. 

As a city, Athens is extremely densely populated, and traffic is lethal. Apparently half of the Greek population lives within the city, which is extremely believable once you are in it. 

The Architecture was distinct - with flat-roofed, short, marble structures packed extremely densely together, giving the city an overwhelming urban look. The spaces between the buildings seem to disappear once they are just a few blocks away  and there is little greenery to speak of. We passed at one point what was apparently the only park in the city of Athens, which to me is incomprehensible. Amazing city, but I would not want to live there.  

March 13th

Last night we played Shout, the second of the two production shows that the band is involved in. It went very well, and while the music (british 60s pop) isn't quite as interesting as in Showdown, It is a fast-paced show with a lot of cues and transitions to keep it interesting.

On friday we arrived at our first port in Turkey, Izmir. I only spent a couple hours out in the city as we had to be back in time for a rehearsal and then some big band jazz sets, but I still got a bit of a feel for it. It has a nice major pedestrian walk-way surrounded by shops and restaurants, and there were a lot of people out and about on the streets. 

Yesterday and today we have been in Istanbul, which has been amazing. Last night me and a few others went out to Taksim Square, the local night-life hub, went to a Hookah Bar and another couple places for a beer and then doners. I could not get over the quantity of people out, the buildings, and the ways that the streets curved into the most bizarre and unlikely ways - it felt very cinematic, and I am at a a loss for words to properly describe it. We got back to the ship around 3:30 and I went straight to bed.

Four hours later I got up and went into town as an escort on a passenger tour to see some of the main tourist attractions of Istanbul - The Blue Mosque, the Agia Maria, the underground cisterns, the spice market. 

The blue Mosque was spectacular in itself, but the Agia Maria really captivated my interest. Having been built 1500 years ago over the span of only five years (after having built and burned down twice), it was the largest cathedral in the world for about a thousand years. It was a Roman Catholic church during this time, until it was taken over by the Ottoman Turks who turned it into a mosque. What is interesting about it is how the Turks' policy on Christian decorations was ambiguous, so that while they covered up the faces of the cherubims on the ceiling, they left untouched all of the many paintings of Jesus Christ being worshipped. 

After going to the spice market, I went back to the ship to catch up on some much needed sleep, before heading out and grabbing some free internet at a nearby Hookah bar.

I promise to write a real blog which doesn't end abruptly one of these days...