It is my last cruise, last 11 days, on the MS Maasdam! Wow, its hard to believe the time is almost here already to transfer ships and head to Alaska! I am very excited for this new experience, a new and bigger ship and a new place I have never been! I am grateful to have started off on this ship, a good place to start off and get first experience with ships! It is also the end to the Caribbean season which all the crew, at least the revenue departments, are glad about, ha. This ship will head up to Canada for the summer after these 11 days. I am headed to a bigger ship with a younger summer audience so I hope rising to the occasion wont be do difficult, a little challenge is good though. It will almost be like two contracts for me in a way, approx 3.5 months here and 4.5 months there. Praying this last cruise here finishes well!
Hello from St Thomas, USVI! It is nice and cool here today! Not so much this morning but now it is nice! I am thinking of takin a nice walk to town along the waters edge for my exercise for the day! We are in the second to last cruise here in the Caribbean an all repeated locations! It is neat to have a familiarity with these places! God is good for allowing this time in my life while working within my field! Yesterday in San Juan, Puerto Rico I was able to call home and it was surreal that I was talking from an island so far from home! I am striving to keep my find within the bounds of 24 hours as I read in my devo book that the days are separated into that amount of time for a reason! Dont worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has worries of its own! God has great promises and all we have to do is give our days, our thoughts to Him and He handles the rest! It sounds so easy but yet natural tendency is to continue looking to far ahead and worry about everything in sight. Ha. What to do with us?! It is a job and I encourage you that if you ever go on a cruise, take your picture every time. You don’t even have to look at it later but it makes the photographers and their bosses happy to have the numbers :) It has been a nice job, like everything it has its days. Good is good!
Hello! Wow, it is the end of March! Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we are in Half Moon Cay once more! Last time we were there it was St. Patrick’s Day. We should make up some holiday for the next time we are there, ha. I want to wear bunny ears or something, but don’t have any. I hear there might be someone running around in a bunny costume! Bering there last time was a lot of fun even though there was little free time for us, work was fun because we got to take pictures of people on the beach and walk though the crystal clear water of the Bahamas! I am down to approximately five and a half months left already! Often the days seem to creep by but then looking back on the whole it has gone by fairly quickly. Its hard to believe that I have only about a month left on this ship before I transfer to Alaska for the rest of my contract! I am working on preparing myself for the hustle of the next ship. It is one of the big ships too. Haha, I’ll probably be asking for some of the slow days from this ship after I’m there for a while. I am really looking forward to a pick up though and also the beautiful sights! Apparently two other crew that I know are transferring to the same ship so that will be neat to have some familiar people from the start! One is starting the same day as me I think and the other a month or two later. I do admit that I wish I could see at least one run of Canada, but still hoping I’ll get to go in the future someway! It was great to re-visit some islands on this cruise, already knowing some places to go and things to do! It felt good to have a familiarity with a place. It is always wonderful to visit new places too, and fun when I get to go on an excursion with some of the guests for an inside look of the island! I know we are all, crew anyway, looking forward to San Juan, Puerto Rico again for CVS, ha, and I get to call home there! We visit several new ports this next cruise which starts the day after tomorrow, so that is exciting! Three ten day Caribbean journeys left until May 3rd when I board a plane again. Until next time!
So, it has been a while since my last update. There has been a whole cruise in between! I am now on the third cruise of my contract. We left yesterday. Another Caribbean run but with some different places! The last cruise was ten days. So much faster than 49! Every day was quite full and it took some getting used to… this cruise is 14 days so a little less crazy, hopefully. I will get used to it and now that I know what it is like I can learn to adjust with the changes! It is better business wise! We went though the Virgin Islands last cruise and it was quite funny looking back on how crew fled to CVS! Who would have thought CVS in Puerto Rico would be a jackpot! It was wonderful :) I also got to speak on the phone with my parents on the phone since it is a US port which was even better! The end of each Caribbean cruse we will and have gone to Holland America’s private island of Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. It is beautiful! We were there on St. Patricks Day and wore green leprechaun hats while taking photos of the guests. Our Ocean Images regional manager is here. She came on march 8th in Florida and is here close to another week. She has been a lot of help and I feel and have been told that I have been improving since I got here and since she has been here and has given us training! She is also very nice and it is actually nice having her around! We have re-visited one port already. Dominica. It was neat to be able to be able to say that I have been there before! Of course, it was only the week before :) I will talk to you all later! Best wishes!
Well, I’m back in the Caribbean! Being here always makes me want to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Maybe I can find them in the crew office where we are able to borrow movies. =p We are stopped in Barbados for the day and am taking advantage of the free wi-fi! I am in a little shopping mall area in a terminal not far from the ship. I feel at home, hehe, its not very different from the states in here. I am planning of going out to see the sights for a bit today. I will be coming back to Barbados about four times I think since all the runs from the end of this cruise in five days until May are Caribbean. I also look forward to hitting the gym on the ship today! I need to get rolling on that, get a routine going! Its about time to shed some pounds, well, more like a lot of pounds! Maybe I can do some jogging along the beaches in some of these places. That would be fun!
Internet connection has been decent enough that I have been able to upload pictures up to date on my facebook account! The link to my site is https://www.facebook.com/nichelle.trulove .
Bom dia! Today is the last day in Brazil! Crazy that it is over already. Yesterday was the last port in Aler Do Chao but we are still traveling though the Amazon today and I think will be officially out some time tonight. Wonderful ports though and I am so grateful that God gave me this opportunity to see Brazil even if I am technically on my own (human wise) and work is slow! Many times I was able to venture out with fellow crew which was nice. I have now been working for a month, a week and three days! 6 3/4 months to go! I am used to the routine of the job and I’m learning to relax with it. I’m becoming more comfortable in the studios and setting up a sequence of poses, which makes it easier for me and makes the guests feel like I know what I’m doing. Ha. Sometimes just getting them to smile is a chore. There have been many great ports! A port in the Amazon, Boca Da Valeria, has been one of my favorites. It is a small village but soo green and lush! There were children all over the place, greeting us as everyone came off the tenders and holding all sorts of wild animals as if they were pets. I saw three sloths, a monkey, a money-like animal, a rat-like animal, several little green parrot-like birds, a toucan, a huge beetle and a baby alligator. I also got to go on a canoe ride down the river to another little village and back. Three sea days, three ports, two sea days and then a new crowd and a new cruise, to the Caribbean!
Wow! Who would have thought I would be able to go to all of these places! And it is just beginning! Granted, I don’t see much of one place, but still just seeing it, taking pictures and being able to say I have been there is worth it! I will be in Brazil for approximately another seven days, back though the Caribbean area for another approximately eight days and then back to the U.S. for disembarkation of our current guests and embarkation of a new crowd. The remainder of the ports in Brazil are in the Amazon! Exciting! Wonderful for pictures but so humid! I hear at one destination there is no real port. They build it when they see us coming. Ha! The low tide pier is made out of normal wood I guess but the high tide pier is made out of bamboo. It sounds like a lot of fun! Perhaps not so fun for business. Passengers make enough excuses not to have their pictures takes as it is. Oh well, we find comfort in knowing that we are only out there taking pictures for a few hours and then we can explore! My last Update was in Rio. Today we are in Santarem, Brazil. Our first stop in the Amazon! I saw a pink dolphin! There have been three other ports between Rio and here. Right now I am sitting in my cabin typing this update on my word processor on my laptop while listening to worship music though my headphones. I am trying to be quiet since my roommate is napping. Napping is a popular pastime on this ship. As my roommate says, “What else is there to do?”. Other than working. I find nappting to be disorienting as well as restful. The few times I have napped I always wake up feeling like it is another day. There are no windows in the cabins. I remember the first time change on the ship. It was a couple days in and my clocks were still all off, internal and otherwise. I was using my phone as an alarm and I don’t even know what time zone it was synced to so I was trying to do that math to figure out what time to set my alarm for. My roommate comes in at three in the morning and I practically jump out of bed. “What time is it?!” She tells me and I panic thinking it was 3:00 in the afternoon and that I slept though my alarm and missed work. She tells me that it is 3:00 in the morning and to, “Go back to sleep silly, you have plenty of time.” Ha! I have been on this ship for a few days over a month now. Is some ways the time flies and in others it drags on. I recently hit a low of homesickness and etc but I am back on the up now. I have a Jesus Calling daily devotional book written by Sarah Young that I find highly relevant every time! I guess sometimes it takes being put in an entirely new element where everything is different and there is not one person who is familiar to see His teachings in a new way. The devotional for February 10th is one that really got me. “Trust Me enough to spend ample time with Me, pushing back the demands of the day. … Don’t fall into the trap of being constantly on the go. … To avoid doing meaningless work, stay in continual communication with Me”. How often do I ‘forget’ to spend time with Him daily. It helps so much when I do! Anway, chau for now!
That is good day from Brazil! Rio de Janeiro to be exact! I am sitting here on the pier right outside he ship listing to music over the loudspeaker that I cannot understand but makes me what to get up and dance…..except for the fact that I don’t know how to and it would be awfully embarrassing since I would be the only one right now. Although, it is Carnaval so it many not be so odd.
Update number one and this first cruise, one of many, is half way over! I am so grateful to have this opportunity to travel though Brazil since my mom once visited a collage friend of hers! Different area, but it is still Brazil!
There has been so many beautiful sights! God has created such a wondrous world!
I don’t even know where to begin. My journey had a rough start as the flight was rough and I was a bit late although I didn’t know when I was supposed to arrive and it was scheduled for me. I was also feeling overwhelmed by small quarters, everything was completely new and homesickness was already budding its head. Each day is a new day and the next was much better. I have gotten along with my co-workers and I am learning even more about my camera and becoming quicker with adjusting my settings. One plus to a 49 day cruise, it is accepting of mistakes :)
We sailed out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and so far have stopped in Key West, Florida; Grand Cayman Island; Aruba; Curacao; Bonaire (the ABC islands); Trinidad; Tobago; Devil’s Island; Belem, Brazil; Recife, Brazil; Maceio, Brazil; Victoria, Brazil; Ilhabela Island, Brazil; and now we are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! We arrived in Rio yesterday and will head out again tomorrow. Who knows, apart from this job I may have never seen any of these places!
As with any job, I have had by highs and lows, especially not being able to go home or see anyone. I kind of feel like paparazzi out on the gangways taking pictures, but at least I ask first….usually. My co-workers who takes pictures at gangways with me agrees. We also set up studios now and again and also photograph in the dinning room on special formal nights. We have a gallery to display the pictures and have hours there. Living at work is interesting but it has its perks. It doesn’t take long to get there and there isn’t any traffic. I work everyday, but again with living at work, what else am I going to do. Today, since it is the middle day with two overnights in RIo, I actually have the day off.
Chau for now!
At the end of this week I will be flying off to Florida to meet a cruise ship in which I will have the title of ‘Photographer’ for eight months! I am so excited for this wonderful opportunity God has given me to travel and take pictures! His creations are so glorious! I must admit that I am nervous as well as it is completely new and different and my first job outside of school. I am told that is normal. For some reason that assurance doesn’t help. Ha.
Destination numero uno is Brazil! I am stoked for Brazil! My mom lived there for a few years around my age with a friend she met in college. I have always wanted to see it for myself! It sounds like sometime in the spring I will be heading up to Alaska! I wonder what it is like in the spring.
I am blessed! God is good! May he use me on this journey for His Will!
I am taking part in the Olivia Act!
The Olivia Act, started by Leslie Spurlock Photography, is a challenge to all photographers in memory of the precious lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Little Olivia and her family had photos taken shortly before the tragedy. Those photos are now priceless to Olivia’s family! This is a way of giving back by giving to families that may otherwise not have the opportunity to have pictures taken. The honor is as follows:
Send me an email at trulovephoto.design@gmail.com with OLIVIA ACT in the title. Nominate a family that you believe will benefit from a free 30min. family photoshoot with a message as to why along with their name and contact information, or your information if you wish to be notified before the family. The photoshoot would need to be scheduled for early in the new year or late 2013. The contest for a photoshoot with Trulove Photography starts now and ends January 5, 2013!
