Mirary Krismasy!

Mirary Krismasy! (Merry Christmas in Malagasy)

I am currently on day 5 of Christmas vacation and let me just say, I am unsure how and why these days have gone by so quickly! Here's the run down of all that has happened this week.

There were no surgeries last week but there were some patients in the ward so some nurses were still working. For the most part though, many people were on vacation. HR was open on Monday and Tuesday but it has been very quiet because there have not been many people coming to the ship lately. In the new year there will be an BIG influx so I am profusely enjoying the calm before the inevitable storm. Unfortunately I didn't get to go to the retirement home last Tuesday. Apparently they were having important visitors so they asked us not to come. That's okay, I signed up to go this week; hopefully it will actually happen. On Tuesday there was some trouble in town due to some difficulties surrounding the consistency of the electricity. As a result, people were protesting, or demonstrating, or doing something; I am not too sure. I can only tell you what I heard because I was on the ship and didn't see anything first hand. However, the Captain informed us that they were calling people, who were out, back to the ship and our shore leave was suspended until further notice. Well, we were allowed to get off the ship the following morning but we had an early curfew on Christmas Eve (7 o'clock). That really messed with my plan to go to evening mass. There was no way I could go to 6 o'clock service and be back in time. That meant plans had to change; it is all part of the experience. Christmas morning started at 4:30am. We put our shoes out again and it was fun to see people roaming the halls during the night, making their deliveries.

After I made my deliveries I went for a run. Yes, I am slightly deranged. However, I certainly wasn't going to do it later on in the day, after I had eaten my weight in carbs. Then I got myself to 7 am mass, which I quite enjoyed; Christmas tunes are universal so even though I wasn't sure what everyone was singing I could sing along in my head. When I got back there was free Starbucks, some pre-brunch snacks, and Trevor getting his fill of hugs:

After that I went down to my cabin and passed an open door along the way. I got to visit with the Silversteins, a wonderful couple that was in my group in Texas. We chatted for a while and then headed up for brunch. The dining room was decorated beautifully for the occasion. I was most intrigued by the napkins! Look how cute:

Then came the part of the day that I was warned about: the afternoon. After brunch is over there is a whole lot of dead time. Time to think about home, family, and potentially wallow in self-pity. Luckily I had a friend who suggested we play Scrabble. That, coupled with doing laundry, kept me nice and busy. By the way, Christmas is the perfect day to do laundry on the ship because either people are not around or they aren't thinking about doing chores on Christmas. There was also an impromptu jam session that kept us entertained.

Then we had leftovers for dinner and got ready for open cabins. Open cabins is a ship tradition where people (typically families and people who live in singles) open their doors and offer treats, a place to relax, and some great company. I really enjoyed seeing how cabins are made into homes and it was a nice chance to sit down with someone you might not typically talk to on a regular day. And with that, Christmas was over!

I hadn't intended to run on Boxing Day but I think my carbo load from the day before gave me a lot of energy, so off I went. It was a GREAT one; I love it when that happens. Then I hung out on Deck 8 and enjoyed the beautiful day; not too hot or humid.

It was also my intention to make the Silversteins oatmeal raisin cookies for Christmas because they quite enjoy them, and I enjoy making them and giving them away. That being said, the crew galley was CRAZY the days leading up to and including Christmas, so there was no way I was going to insert myself into that chaos. Seriously, I would have had to keep my elbows up just to get some personal space; not the way I like to bake, or do anything for that matter. So I postponed baking until the 26th and this is what I found:

JACKPOT!

Then the weekend came, and I got to recover from Christmas! The timing worked out very well.

Back to work tomorrow but we do have Thursday off, so it is still a short-ish week. I hope everyone has lots of fun ringing in the new year (don't get too crazy)!