Day 5: At Sea

Sumner

Today we got up earlier than we did yesterday, about seven or a little after. We actually got to go to breakfast today! The food was good and after the meal we had to decide what to do. Hannah and I went with Club HAL to play ping-pong. And after we were done we played UNO for a little while. Then Hannah went with Oma to a cooking demonstration and mom and I went to hear a person talk about one of the ports that we went to. I dosed off during part of it do I’d don’t really remember everything that he said. Oh well. Next was lunch, which was very good, and then we played a little ping-pong before I went to meet with the ladies for our little iPad class. We didn’t have much of a class, only about twenty minutes. This was because there was another talk that all of the ladies wanted to go to so our meting adjourned and the ladies left. I decided to go and find mom and Oma, who themselves were at the talk. I couldn’t find them but we had arranged for everyone to meet in the room at about four to get ready for diner. That was done and we went to eat at the restaurant. I wasn’t feeling great, it was a little rocky. (I’m fine now, it was juts over that one spot for a few hours that was really bad. It wasn’t that bad though I just didn’t enjoy everything to its fullest extent.) After dinner we went to watch the boats sings perform some Broadway songs. I fell asleep for part of it, (I seem to be liking to sleep through things… Oh well it doesn’t matter). We all went down to the trivia show, it was pretty funny. We left a little early because Hannah wanted to go to a room where someone was playing the piano. I came to the room and am writing this blog. Well I should probably start getting ready for bed. I’ll keep you posted!

~Sumner

Hannah

Today we woke up at 7:00 am. It was a little more reasonable today. We actually had breakfast! It was GOOD. Had one misunderstanding with another guy. Ok. So I asked this man if I could have some grits. (I hope you know what grits is. If not, don’t read this.) He said “what?” I said “grits!” And I pointed to the sign that said grits. He said “you want egg?” You see, the eggs were behind the sign. I said “No!” Then a french lady came by and said “Maybe you want some of that?” The guy thought I wanted whatever that stuff was. Anyhow, at the end, I just GAVE UP. I know, some of you might think me a quitter. But I’m not. It actually was harder than it actually sounds. After breakfast, Sumner and I went to Club HAL. We palyed UNO. I won first place. (Apparently, people on the boat like to keep going. Even if someone wins.) Anyway, after UNO, we went down to play a ping-pong tournament. I HAD to play with these cute little pair of siblings. They can’t play ping-pong, but they tried. It was fun watching them attempt to play. I had to leave Club HAL early. I went to a cooking demenstration. It was VERY short, but we got a sample of what we made. This might sound disgusting, but you put cheddar cheese and LOTS of sugar TOGETHER! Sounds gross, but it is REALLY good. We went back to the state room for about a half hour, then we went for a tour-your-self tour around the Kitchen of the Miss Noordam. It is HUGE! The cool thing was, was that we went at the time where the chefs were making lunch. It smelled WONDERFUL. This one guy was making a REALLY cool dragon thing out of salt-dough. Another guy was making a dragon fruit out of a watermelon. (Look up what a dragon fruit is, and you will find out how cool it would have been for a person to carve it out of a watermelon.) there were quite a few samples. they were FANTASTIC. After the tour, we went to a flower arragement show. During the flower show, Sumner and mom went to a talk. Sumner will probably tell all about it. Anyhoo, the man that did the flower thing was SO good at it. He has only had two contracts (1 contract = 2 months… I think :0) and he arranges flowers like a PRO! The arrangements are SO pretty! He used this thing called an oasis. It is like a hard sponge. It holds LOTS of water, and you can poke holes in it to hold flowers. One tip I learned was: When you cut flowers, cut them at an angle and with a knife. NEVER cut with scissors and straight across the stem. Why? Because straight across will not let the water penetrate through the stem. And at an angle, it gives more surface area an more openings for the water. Oh… NEVER EVER leave the leaves on. It attracts bacteria. Although, you can leave on the leaves for decoration. But if you want decorations, you CAN go out to a store and get extra decoration leaves.

After that, Oma and I tried to find Mom and Sumner. We had a nice accidental tour around the boat. At the end, we just went back to our state room. we had another time change. There was no 2:00 pm. We did this trivia thing. It was a pop quiz thing. It was REALLY hard. I failed MISERABLY. we were in teams of 6. But it was REALLY fun. Today was casual/nice-ish dinner night. Oh my. Dinner tonight was absolutely SUBLIME. It was heavenly wonderful. We got to sit at the VERY end of the ship looking over the wake of the ship. (Sorry, I know I am using BIG and complecated words. that’s the only way I can express how georgeous It was.) we got to see the BEAUTIFUL sunset during dinner. I wish SO dearly that I could have that EVERY night. Dinner was perrfect. (Please roll the R’s!) A while after dinner, all of us went to watch these people sing songs from Broadway. It was really fun. I think the most fun I had today was being able to play the piano at the piano lounge. The official pianist (Jim) was playing, at one point he acknowledged me and asked if I played the piano. (I’m pretty sure ALL of you know I play the piano.) Anyway, I played a fun duet with him at the beginning. Then he asked me to play one of my songs I have memorized. I played Mozart’s Fantasia in D Minor. (That might be irrelevent for some of you.) And after I forgot the 4th page, he asked me to play another song. I played Amazing Grace that I messed up on A LOT. (I hope ALL of you know that song.) For me being under 13, I got a glow-in-the-dark bracelet. (It was pink) and for playing a Classical song, I got a finger light. A finger light is a light that goes on your finger. DUH! Although, you CAN use it as a light for in the night. Like a flashlight. (The finger-light was red.) After that, a boy of about 21 was asked to play. He played a song written by a man from South Korea. It was really pretty. the funny thing was, was that Jim (the official pianistasked John (the boy of about 21) and another man to get up and be balerina’s They looked SO funny. (And embarrassed) When we had to leave, LOTS people said GOOD JOB! A lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to model for her at her pearl demonstration. I hope it will be fun! After that we all stumbled to bed. (Not excactly stumbled) Well thats all for this time folks!