Switching Cabins

Today I had a full body, deep tissue massage on board. They have a great discount for crew in the spa. A Canadian named Merrill was my masseuse and man was he good. I feel like pudding. If you have never had a professional massage, you must get one before you die. Yes, they are expensive, but it is an experience worth the price. Just don’t get addicted to them, then you’ll be in trouble.

I’ve had to change rooms. I’m sharing now. My roommate is the only female on the AV team her name is Marie. She’s French Canadian and she’s so sweet, and tiny. Two of her shoes would fit in one of mine. When we were first standing in the room together she said, "You’re so tall, are you sure you will fit in the bed?" We get along great and I didn’t mind moving, but now I’m in the very back of the ship and it’s so noisy. My old room was a the front and you couldn’t hear the engines when we were moving. All you could hear was the water splashing against the side of the ship, it was like sleeping on the beach. In the back there is a rumbling hum like when you’re in the movie theater watching a disaster movie and there’s an asteroid about to hit and there’s that low rumble as it gets closer and closer and your seat vibrates. It’s like that. I’m laying in bed waiting for the asteroid to hit. The first couple of nights I couldn’t sleep. I’m getting used to it now. Hopefully when the singer who has been stuck on the ship because she can’t get a flight out in these little South American ports gets to go home, they will move me back.

The broadcast room is also at the front of the ship and now because I’m as far to the back as physically possible it takes me 4 minutes to walk to the broadcast room. This ship is that big! Still beats rush hour traffic though ;)

Katie

Estancia (ranch)

Finally I have some pictures to share. They aren’t mine though. One of my friends from the crew, Adrianna, escorted a shore excursion with me and she had a digital camera and was able to burn a CD of the pictures that she took, so I can share those with you now.

The trip we went on was near Montevideo, Uruguay to an Estancia (ranch) where we saw real Gauchos (cowboys) do sheep shearing and dancing and horseback riding. We had a great lunch with all the children in the family (about 12) serving. Then everyone got to go horseback riding and I told them I already knew how to ride and they let me run with the horse. Then we went on a hayride out to a beach where all the family rode their horses along the surf. It was a fantastic trip. Both Adrianna and I had a great time.

The first picture is of the dancers doing some drumming. Then there’s Adrianna doing the hayride. Two of the boys in the family riding next to us. Adrianna took a picture of me on the trailer for the hayride. And then there’s the family riding along the beach. Katie

Website Update

Since I can't do anything with the South America Pictures I have taken, I decided to update my photography website. It really needed it. Check it out at:

www.katiedamien.com

Katie

Getting into Chile

It’s been a long time since I sent a Chronicle. I’ve been a bit busy working on the ship and learning all kinds of interesting things. I have been able to get off a few times. Mostly I go on shore excursions. Since South America is a new and growing place as far as tourism goes, the Shore Excursions department likes to send one crew member as an escort for each tour, so they can help the guests to stay together and report back on how the tour went and if the guide was good and all that. The crew sign up to go and I’ve been lucky enough to get a few. I’ve been to the beach, touring the cities and to a tango show. And let me tell you, you haven’t seen a tango until you’ve seen it done by Argentinean dancers. Wow.

I haven’t sent anything because I don’t want to tell you about all the amazing sights I am seeing without any pictures to show for it. I just haven’t found a way to make them digital yet, but as soon as I do I will get more specific on how each port is. Right now I will just say that Buenos Aires (not pronounced Aires, like it looks, but Eye-res) is my favorite port. It is a big bustling city with lots of monuments and plazas and interesting sights to see. Montevideo (also not pronounced the way it looks, but rather Monte-vi-dayo) is my second favorite. Many places around here look very European like old Italy or Spain.

Before I leave you with that little tease of what I’ve seen, I do have one picture I can share. I had to spend $100 just to get into the country of Chile. They wouldn’t let me out of the airport without paying this reparation fee. I still don’t know what it was all about, but it’s now the most expensive passport stamp I have in my book (actually the company reimbursed me so it didn’t actually cost me anything.)

Katie

Building the House

I wanted to send out these pictures before I left home, but didn’t get the chance. This is the last volley of photos from me about the house. Everyone in the family has been working diligently on it, even Mae (who frequently plays the supervisor role.)

I have been cruising past the Chilean Fjords. They’re beautiful steep mountains that were created by glaciers. And there are still some glaciers around here, but I was in training this morning and missed them. The crew say these are nothing, wait till we get to Alaska. The mountains are pretty though and we get really close for being such a big ship. I have been taking plenty of pictures. Unfortunately the computer that I can upload them to, is still down. As soon as it is fixed, you’ll be getting lots of pictures.

I’ve been very lucky. I happen to be in a room by myself. I’m sure it won’t last, but it’s a nice luxury for now. My room is on deck one, but there are two decks below it, deck zero and the tween deck, apparently it’s a nautical term. I am forward (front) and on the far starboard side (right) so at night it is very quiet except for the waves crashing against the wall. It’s like sleeping in a hammock on the beach. Because I’m so far from the middle of the ship, it rocks a lot. I love it. Good thing I don’t get seasick.
Katie

Arrived on GTS Infinity

I am happy to report that I have made it safely to the Infinity. I had a very long flight all night to get to Santiago, Chile. From there I was driven with a hand full of other new sign-ons to Vapariso, Chile. It was a nice drive only took about two hours. We started in the mountains, then went through wine country, and finally ened up in this big port town. I got to ride a car with one of the concierges and we were having a great time enjoying the scenery until she noticed that the driver, who spoke no English, had a pistol nestled between the passenger seat and the emergency brake.

She said, I don't know weither to be glad or scared. Should I be glad that he has a gun and can protect us, or scared that he needs a gun to protect us. He was happily pointing out land marks to us in Spanish, and nothing bad happened. I guess it's just the way things are around here. These next few weeks I will be very busy learning all my new equipment, I will send more about my adventures later.

Katie

Vaccines

I figured it was about time for another chronicle, though I don’t have much to report on. I have finished working for dad doing locksmithing stuff. It was a pretty cool job. I was just starting to get the hang of it. There was still a lot to do when I left, but now dad’s student crew is back, so the pressure’s on them.

I had a bunch of vaccines yesterday. Before traveling to South America I was required by Celebrity Cruises to get a yellow fever shot. Apparently some of the countries I’m going to require the vaccine before you can enter. So I made an appointment with our local branch of the CDC. Once they had me there, the nurse explained to me the other diseases that I should get vaccinated for. I ended up getting 4 shots and a flu mist. My arms are still sore. In a couple weeks I will be safe guarded against yellow fever, typhoid fever, Hepatitis A, and tetanus (which apparently expires every ten years, and all adults should keep updated, and it’s free up here.)

So after going though all this I am wondering why would anyone want to go to South America? I know there’s supposed to be great jungles and stuff, but who would want to risk their life to see them? I’m going to spend much of my time on the coast. It just seems like; if you want to see great beaches go to the Caribbean where they probably won’t try to kidnap you because you’re America and you are less likely to die from a mosquito bite. Oh well, I guess I will let you know what all the fuss is about when I get there.

I have acquired two new cameras, one is a Canon auto focusing 35mm camera that mom got me for Christmas in a last ditch effort to keep me at home. The other is a Pentax medium format camera. I’m taking them both. So there should be lots of pictures for me to share.

The house is on hold. We are waiting for an inspection before we can continue. Sorry no new pictures yet. I did attach a self-portrait that I did. It doesn’t have anything to do with anything; I just think it looks cool. That’s all for now.

Katie

About This Blog

I call myself a filmmaker first, a director if you want to get specific. But that's not the only thing I do. Actually I do other work to pay for my filmmaking habit. Someday I'm confident that I will be paid to make movies, that day just hasn't arrived yet. So in the meantime I work as a photographer and Broadcast Tech on cruise ships (person in charge of all the programming that goes out to the TVs on board: satellites, computerized programming, tape decks, etc.) I'm in the process of fulfilling one of my other ambitions in life, to be a world traveler. I work on cruise ships sailing the globe for half the year and the other half I spend on land working as a photographer and making independent films.

Some of this blog will be about travel and ship life, some about making movies and working on independent films, and some about photography, commercial work, weddings and more. Please feel free to make comments and ask questions, but know that if I'm on a ship I have to pay for my internet access by the minute and I might not get back to all the questions asked until I'm back on land.

Disclaimer: This is part of a bigger email list where more pictures are attached. In this blog I can only attach a couple pictures per post so I might sometimes make references to pictures that aren't attached here. I'm a hopeless optimist. I'm one of those people who can't see problems coming because I'm just blind to most bad things. I tend to present an idealistic version of reality. I make ship life and film work look fun and easy…it's not always that way.