After a night of fitful rest, I woke up to a new day in Genoa. The air was crisply fresh and the sun blessed the city with its rays. It was still chilly but at least the sky was blue. At 9am, I was driven to the port to embark. Along with me was a sullen looking Italian. He helped me with my luggage but didn’t speak much. Through his conversations with the driver, I learned that he was the second cook.
When we arrived, a lot more new embarkees were already waiting. I underestimated the weather. Underneath my thin cardigan, I shivered and cursed the Crew Purser for taking so long to settle our documentations. My backpack was wearing me down and the large suitcase by my side kept toppling over. Like a midget, I kept balancing the weight between my shoulders while making sure that my suitcase doesn’t fall.

Eventually, after surrendering my passport and a copy of my contract, I was admitted into the ship. The Indian security guard who checked my passport, looked at me with a sneer: “What position are you? Animator? Hostess? Housekeeping?” It was the sneer that very much made me want to smack him on the face.

And then, a very young but good looking Italian guy, probably the incoming Crew Purser (meaning, he just embarked on the same day and hasn’t taken up his duties as the official CP) hustled all of us to a side. He tried to help to ease the crowd but to no avail. While the C.Europa is a big ship, it still has very narrow corridors.
I remained silent while everyone chattered away in different tongues. The Indonesians formed a group, the Philliphinos another, Italian another, Spanish and Latin Americans another. Everyone assumed I was either Chinese or a Philipina. I couldn’t be bothered to correct their assumptions.
Then, Luca, the photographer that I previously worked with on the MV CAL, walked by. I was glad to see a familiar face. He was my drinking partner in the crew bar last time. Good times then. We kissed each other on the cheek and chatted for a bit before he had to go off and run some errands.
The usual process of embarkation starts usually with the Crew Purser (the one who’s in charge of Crew members) will gather us in one room and start dispensing information and booklets. After an hour later, we were brought to the staff mess (the canteen for staff)….but not without going through a maze. I was amazed at how old and dirty this ship is. And how utterly confusing the way to get from one place to another. You basically had to meander around, cross ramps, pass some garbage rooms, wielding workshops, carpenter’s workshops, before eventually finding a stairs and then down another stairs..and…
Anyway, when we got there, we filled in some forms. The Cadet Officer came in to gather copies of our Basic Safety Training Certificates. You need to be certified before you’re allowed to embark. It was a young Italian boy, probably no more than 21 years old. Cheeky. Tried to tease me while giving back my certificates. Thank god it’s not my first time on the ship, else I’d have either felt really flattered or frustrated. This time, I just accepted his jest with a smile but kept a distance. These young officers can be trouble.
Then a Phillipino nurse, probably suffering from sore throat and a bad cold, made us declare our medical certificates and sign some forms. Apparently I had to have a yellow fever vaccination, which of course, my previous 100 pounds medical examination did not cover. However, I was told to walk to the other Costa ship to get it done. It was about a km away and I walked, with my backpack and camera pack and I wasn’t allowed in. The security guard said as my name wasn’t on the list, he couldn’t permit the entry. And then I had to walk back all the way, go through the maze again, to see the nurse and tell her the problem. This time, she sent me with a bunch of other people from the group.
In short, everything was all right after that. But evening came and I found myself alone at the dining table. Many others were chattering away in Italian or other European languages-each one had company because they work in teams. As for me, I work alone. I answer to the Director of Services, who happen to be a young man but very supportive but I can’t be hanging out with him, can I?
I want to get started on the classes soon so that I’ll have something to do but setting up is difficult at the moment because everyone’s busy. Even the Radio Officer didn’t really have time to attend to my laptop problems. Bah.

So I stayed awake at night, reading Eckhart Tolle’s new book called A New Earth, tried to listen to soothing music, put my mind to rest and hope to wake up to a new day.

PS-Forgive me if the formatting of this blog is a little off….I’m still trying to figure out the Spanish keyboards….