Farewell!

I knew this point would come some time…the point where I would get so busy that I’d stop writing for my blog! I’m sorry to my readers (if there are any)…but it was really busy on the ship during our stay in Cape Town & of course during my free time I had to play tourists! So this is my attempt at a catch up post, won’t be so many details…mostly pictures.

Girls night out...plus two guys, in Durban 

The East Crew :) 

Sailing into Cape Town 

I’m now sitting in the Cape Town airport at my new favorite coffee shop-Mug&Bean. Yes, I now drink coffee…can you believe that?? I guess that’s what ship life will do to you. They have this hot chocolate/coconut/capaccino thing here that is amazing!! And I’m having an omelet for dinner after this, can you tell how excited I am? Haha

My adventures aboard The World are now over and well, it was more than amazing…more than words can really even describe. I left the boat today and I was actually sad to go-imagine that, from the girl who cried her eyes out the first week, I am now the girl who cried when I left. I was fine-until Vera, my cabin mate started crying-then I couldn’t help it. We shared so much in our 8X8 room haha…late nights, early mornings, long days, girls nights, dinners out, Christmas…new years. We became such great friends and like sisters on the ship because we were always together-“the intern twins”.

Cape Town was amazing, a very beautiful city with lots of things to do & see. It’s summer time here now so there are loads of tourists and locals around on vacation. The ship was docked at The Victoria Wharf Waterfront which is apparently famous in Cape Town. In between & after work I managed to get a few things in ;)

A ride up to Table Mountain-the views weren’t too bad ;)

On our way up Table Mountain

Just so you can see how high it was...

Camps Bay-one of the most beautiful beaches in the world-so they say

Yes-my all time favorite, the jumping pic

Yeah-this is how it really looked, I think Vera was a little scared 

An encounter with the Cheetahs at a Cheetah conservatory park.

Just saying hi..

Sleeping Cheetah

Yawning Cheetah 

Jumping Cheetah (I know-great descriptions lol)

A visit to the Glen Carlou Winery where we got to have a tour and educational lesson about the vineyards followed by a tasting of all their wines-this was pretty cool.

The Glen Carlou Winery 

In between time, there were shopping malls and amazing restaurants within walking distance from the ship. Vera and I shared a South African Christmas lunch together on the waterfront which was amazing! A few nights of sushi….mmmm J A famous Indian Restaurant-nights out on the town.

Christmas and New Years were great-I thought I would miss my family more (I did miss them-don’t get me wrong) but I found it very hard to get too sad because I was surrounded by somewhat of a new family, and spending Christmas in Cape Town for goodness sake, how can you be sad about that!? I just felt so grateful honestly, I felt grateful to have a family that was worth missing, and worth feeling sad about. I felt grateful for all the new friends I’d made who were going through similar emotions that I was…but instead of being sad, I just embraced them and embraced the new idea of Christmas on the ship. They made it very nice for us…I must say, we even got to sit on Santas lap! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner in the crew mess & were all given digital photo frames and chocolate for Christmas. On top of that we had a Christmas party in the O’Bar where I ended up dancing with all the South African Musicians haha-I guess I got a little rhythm in me ;) They were an acapella singing group for Durban that came onboard to perform on the night of the Christmas Tree lighting. The night the group performed, crew were allowed to watch from the deck above.

Their voices were beautiful-you know, that African melody that you can find nowhere else in the world. They performed one of my favorites Amazing Grace. It reminds me of my Grandad when I was a little girl. I remember when it played at his funeral and I was sitting there in my velvet dress next to Daddy (most likely)-It was a sad-but happy moment as well because I suddenly had these extremely clear visions of myself as a little girl sitting on his lap and him telling me not to slam the door. He was such a sweet & loving man-so much like my Daddy. And again, even though it made me sad for a moment because he is no longer with us, it makes me happy that I was able to know him-that I had the chance to make these memories with him. To me, it was like a gift from heaven-and that he was watching over me in some way while I was on the ship.  

Santa!

Christmas Eve Dinner...Table Mountain in the background, if you were wondering about the name...now you can see why it's called that 

christmas lunch

Sunbathing seals 

New Years was extremely busy…all F&B Crew worked until about 1:30 a.m… We all stopped service from 11;45-12:00 to have a champagne toast and watch the fire works from the bridge. Again, yes it would have been nice to have a little new years thing-but it was just as fun working on the floor & celebrating with people that I actually know-instead of being in some overcrowded hot club or bar. I much rather be in the comfort of my own home with my own people-which, in this case was the ship.

That’s about it folks…I know this post lacked a little detail, and I pretty much summed up the whole 10 days in Cape Town, but I really hope you enjoyed. I enjoyed writing it…it’s like a form of therapy, and release for my thoughts. So, off I go back to my Auburn loves to figure out my next step in this amazing journey called life. I love you all & thanks for reading! 

Christmas Memories

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Christmas is soon approaching…but honestly, it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. This is the first time I will be without any family during Christmas, I’m a little sad-but still so grateful for all the wonderful Christmases I’ve been able to enjoy in the past, and I’m sure this one will go in the books as well. It’s funny that out of the three Dillette children, I am the youngest and only girl-but somehow I became the first to not come home for Christmas.

I was laying out on the deck the other night while we were sailing and I got to thinking about a few past Christmas memories, one in particular, our family trip to Disney world in…?? Not sure, but I was maybe 7 or 8. We visited all the parks…magic kingdom, universal studios etc. We kept going on all these kiddie rides you know-watching the little Disney movies etc and finally I decided I wanted to go on a “scary” big kids ride- Space Mountain. And can you believe, that no one wanted to go with me? My whole family was scared to go! My two big brothers, my dad and mom, they all thought I was crazy. Of course, I didn’t care-I was willing to go alone, as the ‘aggressive’ adventurer I seem to be, but Daddy wouldn’t let me go along & ended up coming with me. I was just reflecting on this story and how it was one of so many shaping experiences that have made me the person I am today. Without that strong support of my family, there is no way I’d be here today adventuring along the African Cape.

When I decided to apply for this internship, I didn’t even think twice about the support I would get from my family-nor did I think at all about the fact that I would be traveling through the most dangerous pirate waters in the world-but hey, what would life be like if we thought about eveeerryything before we did it right? Nope-I just called home one day and said, I’m going on The World! 

I will be missing you all! 

A few pictures from a late night of Christmas decorating on the ship...and a few pictures of great Christmas memories!

I guess we've grown a bit? 

Even though we talked bad about your pie...I'm gonna miss it this year mummy :) Eat an extra slice for me!

My first snowy Christmas! 

My two beautiful Grandmothers

Definitely a Daddy's girl

Christmas 2009 after an afternoon of kiteboarding 

Chef Alana~!

12-16-11

Part of my internship is to rotate through various departments in order to understand the entire operation of the ship, specifically the F&B department. The past few days I was transformed into Sushi Chef Alana! On my first night in the sushi bar-after a short lesson that morning, I joined the Executive Sushi Chef Cipriano in working on the sushi orders for that evening. At around 6 o o’clock, we got an order for 3 rolls from In Residence Dining. Cipriano pulls out a sheet of seaweed paper and starts on the first roll, while I proceed to do the same. I start making the second roll and he turns to me and says “What are you doing?” I say, “I’m making the other roll”…he smiles with a bit of a shocked look on his face and then says “wow, you’re aggressive aren’t you, I like that”-so, after a few laughs we proceed. As we get more comfortable throughout the night he tells me that he’s never had someone come in and just take charge so quickly, but hey I figured, I had learned in the morning from his Assistant, so now it was time to get in there & help. I was confused…but apparently, I’m out of the norm. I guess I have a few skills though, because I made rolls all night-the more simple ones of course-but still! He said it takes people weeks to be able to do what I did in one day-and that if I ever wanted to be a chef I would be a great sushi chef J I felt pretty proud J

I also spent a few days in pastry-which I absolutely loved! The one thing I miss about being at home is cooking! I can’t wait to come back & try all the new recipes and tips I’ve learned. Part of Christmas onboard is 30 custom made gingerbread houses which I was lucky enough to help with.

Here are a few pictures from my short lived, but very exciting days as Chef Alana. 

 A little gingerbread house action...30 in total! 

Some of the almost finished products 

Maputo, Mozambique!

MAPUTO!

12-16-11

We are now in Maputo where there are hurricane force winds, but no worries…the captain turned up the engines so we would get here a few hours earlier and avoid the open sea once the winds picked up. I went for a run this morning, the city is pretty nice, a bit dirty and congested, but that was to be expected. The water is brown so I didn’t go in this time around. However, I did go out this afternoon to the local market where they had small shacks selling amazing woodwork, fabrics, bags, paintings, jewelry etc. It was very art inspired, there were so many things I wanted to buy there…but then I thought of how much they would collect dust and probably get put into a closet eventually. So I took my mothers wise advice and went for a painting. As you can see from the pictures, there were a few hundred of them flying freely in the wind for us tourists to select from. As soon as I entered the market, one of them caught my eye and I kept thinking about it my whole walk through, but decided I would take a look around before choosing that one. First of all-it was massive, extremely colorful and had a pretty unique look to it…but I loved it! Not quite sure where I will put it yet…but I have this vision of having a room one day with a wall full of paintings I’ve bought all over the world-kind of a creative inspiration board-just a thought, but for now they will have to be happy in my little auburn apartment. I was also lucky enough to meet the artist himself Jhamba-(or so I understood him to say it that way-but we had a little trouble communicating).

Here are a few pictures from the market below.  

The many many beautiful paintings to choose from!

With the artist himself...and the painting that caught my eye! I know-I have weird taste, but I love it :P!

I resisted buying yet another bag... but they were also beautiful!