The Summit! (AKA Internet, finally!!)

Ok, so here are three posts I've been collecting all rolled into one!

Traveling Mercies:
I have never been so blessed in my traveling before! When traveling on a cheap ticket organized by a mega-company, one doesn’t usually expect to come out on top. The first leg of my journey (Ontario to Dallas) was uneventful, albeit disappointing due to the lack of any complimentary food. I arrived in Dallas expecting to have plenty of time to get lunch before catching my next flight, but unfortunately I hadn’t factored in the time change, so no lunch. My heart sank when I heard that there would be no complimentary snacks or food on this flight either, and I was also anxious because I had not been issued a boarding pass or seat assignment. Most passengers had boarded before the stewardess would assign me a seat, and she just wrote it down for me, didn’t even give me a boarding pass. As I boarded the plane and started looking for seat 5E, I was shocked to find it in first class!! I have NEVER flown in anything but economy class before….it was a marvelous flight. And the FREE food was wonderful. The best I have ever had on a plane, and the only reason I got to eat was because of this happy first-class accident.
The heat and humidity of San Juan hit me as soon as I walked outside of the terminal, and after about half an hour of waiting, I was informed that the hotel at which I had a reservation was completely full, so there was no place for me. After a while I was taken to a different hotel, which turned out to be much nicer. I was assigned to a suite! I think it must have been the only room open. You should have seen this suite – it was beautiful. It had a full living room, a kitchen, and a master bedroom with a king sized bed that I had all to myself. There were two HUGE flatscreen LCD T.V.’s, and a big balcony that looked out on the ocean – right out the window. Oh and free internet! I didn’t want to leave. And the price of the room? One person, one night = $600. Yikes!! ☺ So what did I learn? That God is really great at turning bad situations (no seat assignment, being kicked out of my original hotel) into blessings (first class and 600 dollar a night suite on the beach!).

My first day:
I checked out of my hotel at 9am, but I didn’t actually get on the ship until 2pm. There is a really large crew turnover – over one hundred and twenty crew signing on with me. As a result it took a while to organize everyone. When I finally was on, I was met by the Musical Director (also my band leader): Andrew from England, who plays tenor sax. From what I can tell he is a good band leader – so far he has treated me really well. For the moment I have my own cabin (small!), and he says he’ll keep it that way if he can. I’m enjoying it for the moment. I’m still learning all the names and nationalities of the band, so I’ll get back to you one that. I’ve met a lot of people already. Karl is the alto sax player, he’s about my age and very cool. The trumpet player is a little older – Stan from the Ukraine. He’s a great player. I met a girl named Michelle who sings in a different band on board, who was VERY excited to have another female musician on board. I met Shaun, a singer in an acapella male quartet, who is also a Christian! I met Chris, an Australian assistant art auctioneer. I met Jason, a new sound technician from South Africa. And so many more….I hope I can remember all the names swimming around in my head right now.
We had rehearsal for the welcome aboard show at 5:30, then one show at 8. Funny story: my band leader called me before the show, and asked if I could play piano. I said yes, a little, and he asked if I “would fancy playing piano tonight.” Apparently the pianist that was supposed to be signing on hadn’t shown up. I said I would do whatever would help him out the most. So I played piano for the rehearsal, and did ok, actually. ☺ Thankfully, the guy finally showed up, so he played the show. That meant that I got to sight-read at the show since I hadn’t rehearsed it on trombone - which was a bit rocky, but I survived. After the show there was boat drill at 10pm, after which we finally set sail for St. Maarten. I happily went to bed right after calling my family. Oh, and my phone works!! Hooray!!

My second day (St. Maarten)
Today I had training in the morning, which I followed by an afternoon nap that I really needed. Tonight was the broadway show, called “Thoroughly Broadway”, which is quite different than the broadway show on the Galaxy. It is longer, has almost entirely different show tunes, longer chunks of each show (several tunes from each musical) and has more tricky time signature/key changes and page turns. I am quite exhausted after a rehearsal and two shows. It should be better next time once my chops have started to return, but I thought it actually went really really well. Stan (trumpet) told me I did a good job, and that he heard things he had never heard before (in a good way). ☺ Some of the big shows represented are Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, Wicked, Mama Mia, Hairspray, Chicago, and The Lion King. Fun stuff! But now it is definitely time to sleep. Goodnight!