Grand Cayman and day 5

How is the time flying by so quickly? It’s day five already.

Just got back from Grand Cayman. It seems the island is really poor so they basically rope off an area for tour boats which contains 100 shops each selling the exact same things. It was lame and overpriced.

My chest is itchy from the sunburn. My face and arms are ok, just a little red.

Having so much fun. Dancing until 4 am last night, Lady Gaga comes on with Bad Romance and the place goes nuts, everyone in amazing Alice in Wonderland themed costumes. Great shows with Miss Richfield, then cabaret lounge acts, a laugh a minute. Amazing food in the elegant dining room, friendly people and dancing til dawn.

A little bit of silence in the comments after my last post. It was temporary, I remember feeling the same on every other vacation but I think I just never stopped to write it down. I remember in Poland, no one spoke English, no one would even look at you, and I was wondering why I even went and feeling very downhearted and missing home. It passes, I think missing home is a part of travelling. And with everything I do in life, I wonder why I do it and second and third guess myself. Why am I here? Was this the best use of my vacation money? Would I come back? One thing I love about a vacation is you don’t have very long to think these things before moving on to the next exciting thing and another fun filled day.

Tonight is an acrobat show, followed by a hypnotist show which was one of the best things on the last cruise. Tomorrow up early, no more getting to sleep at 5 am, meeting at 9:45 for the Telum Mayan ruins tour. Then shopping in Cozumel, Mexico and another beautiful day on the beach in the 30 degree sun. No rain so far.

Couldn’t be having a better time.

A mile in my shoes

So many thoughts at 3:30 am on this Tuesday night. Why do people get so melancholy at night? Why do I? Sometimes I believe I think more then other people, my brain never stops.
Watched a model dance with his friends tonight on deck, stopping to take a photo or kiss a friend hello, being paid to dance his life away at parties.
When I spoke with him earlier, he told me how he had a herniated disk and had major back surgery that took him out of commission for months. He still has a large scar in the small of his back, which can’t help the modeling career. Yet for the moment, standing there in the neon lights watching him, you can forget that.
I have the feeling other people just stand and watch him dance.
Would I want that life? The dancing, party every night of your life?

There’s good and bad to every decision. Checks and balances, ebbs and flows. My sex drive is gone, it left, and I haven’t seen it for months. Is it the new pills, the old pills, my life, my self-esteem, weather patterns, changing tides? I don’t know, really. Why do I constantly feel like I’m choking? Don’t know. Divine intervention has simply decided this is what I have to work with right now.
But the check, the balance, is that by not being so concerned with sex, I look everyone in the eye. I’m not afraid to say hello. And as a consequence, even though my nose is shiny and I gained 25 lbs from last year, like four guys a day hit on me, which is definitely a boost to the ego, perhaps pushing that aspect back into line.
And I was thinking too (I’m always thinking), if four guys a day hit on me, how many guys a day do I hit on? The answer, so far, zero. Not one. I’m sitting back, waiting to have someone find me, waiting to feel sexual, waiting for all this to fall in my lap as I’m walking to the other end of the ship to get a coffee. And the funny thing is, it has happened! Four times a day! So what the Hell?
I have to believe at least identifying these issues is a step toward ultimately resolving them.

This leads me to the comedian I saw tonight. He was funny, giving his show, and at the end he said “I wake up every morning and say to myself: I am Middle Eastern. I am gay. I weigh 400 lbs. And I make a decision to live the best life I can.”
Isn’t that what it’s about?
Could I wake up in the morning and say “I am overweight. I am gay. Today my nose will run. Today I will feel like I’m choking 100 times. Today my face will shine from Vaseline and I will be embarrassed about it. Today I will have times I feel inadequate. But I will go on. I will work with what I have been given today. I will make people laugh. I will be the life of the party. I will try to make my life and the lives of others better.” Cause what else can you do?
We’ve each been dealt a hand, and this is the one you have to play. What others have been dealt doesn’t change what you have, and regardless you don’t know their hand. But you don’t fold. You pick it up. This is the only game. And the important part is that you play.
The lesson of my life, it seems. The lesson I must learn again and again and again until I get it right.
Play your hand.

Haiti

Went to Labadee, Haiti today. I heard there was supplies and aid workers on board that we were leaving there. I looked around and actually got off the boat today!

Woke up early to get a tan, I’m now burned to the colour of a stop sign. Once on Haiti my roommate Alberto and I went over to the market area. Apparently it’s really improved since last time which is a miracle as it was a run-down shanty down when I got there. Poor people selling stuff they made by hand for tons of money sitting in groups leering at people coming in. I clutched my pearls and ran for my life. Every time we saw someone who looked hungry or poor I crossed the street. On the bright side everyone spoke French so I had fun talking to them in French. Well, at least I think they spoke French. Come to think of it, no one ever actually responded. Oh, well, the important thing is I had fun. “Bonne journée!”

I’m writing this now at 6 pm waiting for the ice show to start at 7. There are two main options tonight, the family friendly ice show or the family friendly “Once Upon a Time” show, which I saw last year, where they have little red riding hood and when the wolf comes out, he sings the song “Hungry Like The Wolf”. It’s a pile of crap so I’m sitting that out.

Will post photos later, internet is 55 cents a minute and very slow, so a photo may take 5 minutes to load. I’m not paying $2.50 US per photo, thank you.

I was thinking before when I was here how different it would be to live and work on board, say in the dance crew or something. But at 55 cents a minute for internet and $7 a minute for a phone call, it would also be a weird experience having no modern technology. I don’t think I could do it. You’d have to write letters with a pen for a start.

Anyway, so on Haiti I found a hammock and sat in it all afternoon. Those things are incredibly comfortable. I took a photo of the view from my hammock, that was really the life. I plan to make it my screensaver at work so I can always look up and see the ocean and relax on the hammock again.

I’m very glad I came, I was a bit nervous before coming, as I am on every trip I go on. The great thing is the crowd seems to be just a little bit older this year, maybe it’s the recession? I don’t feel like I’m constantly trying to fit in all the time like I remember feeling last year. I can do myself up and go to a nice dinner and talk to guys and turn it on, or I can pop downstairs for a smoke in a t-shirt and not worry. One thing I said last year that I’m really feeling again is that this cruise is what you make it. If you want to dance all night till dawn in a Speedo, you can. Last night I went to drag karaoke, then a lounge singer, then a uniform party where I wore my Boy Scout shirt. Oh and a comedy showcase and a bunch of other stuff. An art auction where topless boys serve free champagne, you know normal stuff like that.

Gotta go get ready for dinner and the show. Having an amazing time.

I’m hearing rumours that the ship didn’t sell out this year and they may be combining the January cruise next year with a similar one in March. I can’t go in March because of my job. I was thinking of booking the February 2011 Australia cruise instead, which ends in Sydney for Mardi Gras. How cool would that be? I’ll see what they’re offering at the end of the week. You save $100 if you book while you’re still on the ship.

88 or 31 degrees

Having an amazing time.

31 degrees today. We're in Haiti but I haven't gotten off the boat yet. Soaking in the sun.

Very relaxing, so glad I came, I love it, love it. Amazing time.

Internet very slow and expensive. Gotta go.

A note I wrote down last night:

Jackie Beat (entertainer on board) said "Gay Marriage. It's like all the gays are at a buffet, and the only thing the buffet doesn't have is liver and onions. And no one really wants the liver and onions, but everyone is clamouring for it."

Ciao!

2 vs 27

I see it's 2 degrees in Toronto today. It's 27 in Miami Beach.
I'm at the hostel, getting picked up in half an hour to drive around and meet some of my roommates friends, then off to the boat.

My alergies were acting up like crazy last night, I forgot to take my pills in all the excitement of travelling. I went to bed about midnight and had a good sleep, thanks to earplugs.

It's very hot here.

I bought a tshirt last night and when I tried it on it was too small this morning.

Extra security wasn't so bad at Pearson. Hardly any lines. They touch everything in your carry on bad, then some people were patted down and some people just had to stick their hands in their pockets and then have them tested for explosives. I was the latter, which worked well for me.

Best movies of 2009 & 2010

I like officially stating somewhere, let's say here, my favourite movie of the year and I didn't do so last year as there wasn't anything released that really grabbed me.

I would have to say last year it would be a tie between Little Sisters vs. Big Brother and A Streetcar Named Desire. I blogged about Little Sisters recently and seeing Miss Scarlett go crazy because of Brando's excessive sex appeal was quite fun.

Jumping the gun possibly slightly, I now present my favourite movie of 2010. A film I saw last night, Steal this Film II, the best part is you can watch it right now, for free, in HD, by clicking this link.

This film got me thinking so much I couldn't get to sleep. It starts off by exploring the issue of downloading movies, hence the title, but it becomes so much more.

The film shines when it discusses the invention of the printing press. The French Governement at the time was reluctant to give free reign on printers, so they would regulate volume and what could be printed. Countries outside of France, not subject to these regulations, started mass printing subversive texts and flooding the French market, meaning the printers who obeyed the law lost money and the efforts to regulate the information failed.

Similarly, we find ourselves now in a similar situation. Getty, from Getty Images, said "Information is the oil of the 21st century" and we can now obtain more information quicker than ever before.

The film examines the ethics of trading information, similairites to other historical events, and really presents the point that we are on the precipice of what could be the greatest achievement in human history. With the internet, everyone on earth can distribute material, in effect we each have our own printing press, and as such the time honoured system of information being regulated and disseminated from a single source is gone forever.

What will humanity do with this new power?

I'm interested too in taking it a step futher. The film explores the idea that selling information, putting data on a 15 cent disc and selling it for $30, is not sustainable. As it is the only people who actually pay for music now are over 40, and even they are wavering. What will the movie and music landscape look like in 40 years, when everyone alive has never paid? Is there a way we can come together to set up a system where people are reimbursed for creating content simply because they deserve to be, because we want them to be paid, and not because they have enough financial clout to back the movie? I want to know.

Cruising.

This is the BEST photo of me, I love it. I remember at the time thinking I was heavy and everyone had a better body than me. But right now I would sell my soul to look like this again. I should try and learn a lesson from this.... but what?

Anyway, I've leaving next weekend. Before every trip I blog about the itinerary, mainly so I can have it but also to share it and give myself a place where all the info is collected.

My flight was changed. I'm leaving at 15:15 on US Airways from Terminal One. Indirect flight (joy!) and landing at 16:45 in Philly. Leaving 18:00, landing 20:57 in Miami (joy!). Now lets see if the Miami buses run that late. (An aside, every time I've flown indirect they've lost my luggage)

I am staying at the Miami Beach Hostel, and the directions say "Take the J bus to 41st Street and Indian Creek where you should transfer to Bus C, K or H going south." This gets better and better, the buses run once an hour! So if I arrive at 8:57 pm, the next bus is 9:45 pm. This gets me to 41st and Indian Creek at 10:21 pm. I just emailed the hostel to check if they're still open that late. Sigh. Luckily the C bus should be there in 2 minutes, hopefully it's not early, so I'll get in before 11.

Did I not do this last year? I just checked, apparently not. D'oh.

The boat starts loading at 1:30 and I have to be there by 4:30. I think I may have a ride, otherwise I'll take a cab.

Good, so that's got me on the boat. The first port is an island owned by the cruise company so I don't have to worry about that. We went there last time too. I saw it as a cheap ploy by the cruise company to get us to spend money so I stayed on board and slept in. I don't regret it. We'll see what happens this time.

Second port is Grand Cayman from 8 am to 5 pm. Let's see what they have there. A lot of diving! I have a slight fear of water so I'm thinking no. Something historical? I have found the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. The iguanas look cool. Oh, it says 40 minutes from the cruise ship. d'oh.

There's a turtle farm excursion that is says is $63 US. A 3 hour bicycle tour for $72 US. Ok so walk around and window shop sounds good!

There's got to be something cool to do in Cozumel, Mexico. I'm there from 10 am to 8 pm.

The Telum Ruins sound like the best thing. It's a flipping 45 minute ferry ride each way though. D'oh. Couldn't the Myans have built this stuff closer? It's $100 US offered by the cruise ship which seems crazy. Plus when you do these things through the cruise ship you have to be up at dawn, you're on their pace, etc.
But it appears to be a long trip and I don't think I could do it on my own. Also the "ferry" is apparently a rickety boat that you lose your lunch on and pray to survive. Sounds fun. I'll decide later.

Back in Miami for two days, I need to go to Walmart at some point. Every time I go to America I go to Walmart. Nearest one is a one hour 20 minutes bus ride? Am I cursed? We'll make that a maybe.

Finally, the reviews say the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial is the nicest in the world, and I've see quite a few. A 40 foot hand.

Hooray, it's a one mile walk. Finally something goes well. Will see that.

Otherwise, there's the zoo, or the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and Miami Art Gallery combo.

I'm think sitting on the beach sounds good. Actually the museum and art gallery is only 6 miles away, one bus. Maybe on the Monday...