Hidy ho there everyone!
I hope you are all having a wonderful thanksgiving. I am thinking of you all and wish you all the best.
As an update, it seems as though I have been placed on a ship but I don't know which one it is yet because . . . well, I just don't. LOL! But I did have to get a booster on some immunizations so hopefully that means that I will be leaving within the next little while. They mainly give out ship details on Thursday and since I didn't get mine today I think I should get them soon. Everything happens so quickly here though my ship could change tomorrow even though I don't know which one it is yet. It's kinda exciting to experience the fast pace.
Since I'm not leaving yet though, I have this weekend off and I think I'm gonna go to do some sight seeing in London at the British Museum and stuff. (special note to Diana- Wish you were here for that because they have the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts and since we loved the Mummy so much it woulda been cool. Maybe next time . . .)
Well, Happy Thanksgiving!
Erica
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
HI HI
Hey hey everyone!
Hope all is going well with all of you. I'm still having a marvelous time. Still meeting lots of new people. On thursday there was an assessment on hot stone which is what I have been learning all week. I passed. I was pretty nervous that I wouldn't because they are really particular about how its supposed to be done.
The host family that I am staying with is really nice. They had one other girl staying here before Liette and I got here named Becky. She left Thursday morning to join her ship.
Two girls that started with me have gotten their ships as well. Conni and Cris. Conni is from Germany and Cris is from Brazil. They are both really very nice. We are all so happy for them.
Sorry it's been a while. The internet at my host families house has been down for a while but it's working now. Hopefully I will be able to update more frequently now!
Love you all!
Hope all is going well with all of you. I'm still having a marvelous time. Still meeting lots of new people. On thursday there was an assessment on hot stone which is what I have been learning all week. I passed. I was pretty nervous that I wouldn't because they are really particular about how its supposed to be done.
The host family that I am staying with is really nice. They had one other girl staying here before Liette and I got here named Becky. She left Thursday morning to join her ship.
Two girls that started with me have gotten their ships as well. Conni and Cris. Conni is from Germany and Cris is from Brazil. They are both really very nice. We are all so happy for them.
Sorry it's been a while. The internet at my host families house has been down for a while but it's working now. Hopefully I will be able to update more frequently now!
Love you all!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Hey hey!
Howdy all!
Sorry it's been a while. Lots of things to do! I did pass my test but I had another one today and then an assessment tomorrow. I have a new roommate named Beck from Australia. Had one for a day just before her. I didn't know her name but she had just come back from a cruise and was going home to see her family and the YMCA was just an interim for that but we exchanged email addresses and took pictures and stuff.
Beck starts on Monday. A whole bunch of fitness people are coming in this weekend so I will be moving to a host family tomorrow. Her name is Janet Clancy. I will be going with a girl from Canada named Liette. So I won't be rooming with Adel anymore. Sadness!
A group of girls that are also moving to host families and I went out to dinner tonight as a last kinda hurrah because we won't all be close to each other anymore to be able to do those things and frankly we are all pretty sick of the food at the YMCA. Its not all that appetizing.
Well I'm having a great time and I'll let you know when I learn anything else!
Love ya,
Erica
Sorry it's been a while. Lots of things to do! I did pass my test but I had another one today and then an assessment tomorrow. I have a new roommate named Beck from Australia. Had one for a day just before her. I didn't know her name but she had just come back from a cruise and was going home to see her family and the YMCA was just an interim for that but we exchanged email addresses and took pictures and stuff.
Beck starts on Monday. A whole bunch of fitness people are coming in this weekend so I will be moving to a host family tomorrow. Her name is Janet Clancy. I will be going with a girl from Canada named Liette. So I won't be rooming with Adel anymore. Sadness!
A group of girls that are also moving to host families and I went out to dinner tonight as a last kinda hurrah because we won't all be close to each other anymore to be able to do those things and frankly we are all pretty sick of the food at the YMCA. Its not all that appetizing.
Well I'm having a great time and I'll let you know when I learn anything else!
Love ya,
Erica
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
UPDATE!!!!
Hey all!
So yesterday was a CRAZY day! There was so much paperwork to do and they gave you packets and packets of things to read and homework on top of that. I found out that the contract is going to be 9 months instead of 8 months. That was a bit shocking but I hope it doesn't bother anyone. I'm not too worried about it.
Tonight we have a bunch more stuff to study so I'll keep this short and sweet. Tomorrow there is an entrance exam to take and if we don't pass that, we have to keep taking it til we do. There was a presentation in front of the owner of the company that we had to do. It was just introducing another girl in the class. I think mine went ok but he thought our class was the worst he has seen in weeks and that only 4 or 5 girls actually showed they wanted to be there! The teacher told me I did great though so hopefully I am part of the 4 or 5. Crossing my fingers. He is a pretty nice guy though. He was just proving a point that we need to have way more enthusiasm. Can never have enough of that.
Well, I'm gonna go do what I'm supposed to do so I don't have to take this test more than once. The girls that have been here longer say this is the hardest thing in the entire first week. Next week is Hot Stone so it'll be nice to freshen up on that and then if I'm lucky, I'll be outta here. Crossing my fingers for that too!
Love ya, miss ya,
Erica
So yesterday was a CRAZY day! There was so much paperwork to do and they gave you packets and packets of things to read and homework on top of that. I found out that the contract is going to be 9 months instead of 8 months. That was a bit shocking but I hope it doesn't bother anyone. I'm not too worried about it.
Tonight we have a bunch more stuff to study so I'll keep this short and sweet. Tomorrow there is an entrance exam to take and if we don't pass that, we have to keep taking it til we do. There was a presentation in front of the owner of the company that we had to do. It was just introducing another girl in the class. I think mine went ok but he thought our class was the worst he has seen in weeks and that only 4 or 5 girls actually showed they wanted to be there! The teacher told me I did great though so hopefully I am part of the 4 or 5. Crossing my fingers. He is a pretty nice guy though. He was just proving a point that we need to have way more enthusiasm. Can never have enough of that.
Well, I'm gonna go do what I'm supposed to do so I don't have to take this test more than once. The girls that have been here longer say this is the hardest thing in the entire first week. Next week is Hot Stone so it'll be nice to freshen up on that and then if I'm lucky, I'll be outta here. Crossing my fingers for that too!
Love ya, miss ya,
Erica
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Hello!
I've met my roommates. Tanya is from South Africa and Marcia is from Brazil. Marcia left this morning to meet her ship so it's just Tanya and me now. They are/were both very nice. Tanya is showing me the ropes on how to get the bus pass and how to get to the Academy, Thank Goodness! It would be pretty crazy getting there otherwise. The average stay at the Academy is about 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. Marcia told me about the sea survival training. Basically they take you to the ocean and throw you in . . . ok, so not exactly because you do have thermal wet suit type things but it's still very cold she says.
The mall that they have here is really cool. There is a huge Christmas tree in the middle with a fun house type thing around it. All of their decorations are like a magenta color. It's different but still looks good.
There isn't any snow on the ground yet but it rains a lot and it is quite chilly. They are having some sort of celebration thing going on because there have been fireworks every night. They go on for hours! It's quite lovely. I don't remember what Marcia called the celebration but I guess its for this guy that tried to set fire to parliment way back in the middle ages apparently. Something Fox, I wanna say is his name but I can't be sure.
I got to look around the city a bit yesterday. It has a very San Fransisco feeling to it. The meals at Burger King and stuff are like £6.99- which is basically 2 times the rate in America- so they are pretty expensive. The food here has been different but nothing to far from what I would eat at home.
Well that's all she wrote!
Erica
The mall that they have here is really cool. There is a huge Christmas tree in the middle with a fun house type thing around it. All of their decorations are like a magenta color. It's different but still looks good.
There isn't any snow on the ground yet but it rains a lot and it is quite chilly. They are having some sort of celebration thing going on because there have been fireworks every night. They go on for hours! It's quite lovely. I don't remember what Marcia called the celebration but I guess its for this guy that tried to set fire to parliment way back in the middle ages apparently. Something Fox, I wanna say is his name but I can't be sure.
I got to look around the city a bit yesterday. It has a very San Fransisco feeling to it. The meals at Burger King and stuff are like £6.99- which is basically 2 times the rate in America- so they are pretty expensive. The food here has been different but nothing to far from what I would eat at home.
Well that's all she wrote!
Erica
Friday, November 7, 2008
Getting There . . .
Hey everyone!
I have made it safe and sound to London! Exciting! There were a few bumps along the way. My flight from Salt Lake to Chicago was delayed for almost 4 hours. (Could have been worse if we had already been on the plane since it was tiny and not equipped with movies) Still, so boring sitting in the airport by yourself, in case your wondering, and then I wasn't sitting by anyone on that flight. No one can say that I don't have the ability to not talk for more than a 6 hour period anymore.
Because of that delay I almost missed my flight from Chicago to London. As a matter of fact, I was the last person to board the plane before they closed the door. Take off was at 9:05pm and I got on at like 9:02 pm. I was so lucky that they didn't close the door. This guy told me that they may not have my luggage until the day after I arrived because of the short amount of time in between flights but luckily that wasn't the case and they arrived with me. I sat by a lady named Yetna (and I'm positive I am not spelling that right since she is from Nicaragua and they have triangles and things like that in their names). She was really nice. She was on her way home to visit family.
When I got here, I had an interesting time getting (finding is more like it) to the YMCA. I didn't know any of the trains and I had to take 4 different ones. The instructions made it seem like it would be a lot simpler than it was, but most everyone I've met or asked for help are really nice. They even offer to help you put your bags on the train since on some trains you have like a 9 inch gap between the train and the platform and on some of them you have to step up that same amount to get in or out. And hauling all that luggage around sure makes you tired. Reminds me of when we went to Greece. There were a couple of really nice guys that helped me though. In fact, I didn't have to buy one of the tickets because one of them let me use the last of his day pass since he didn't need it.
They don't have obvious street names or signs so I asked this lady on the street for directions and she tried to help me but between her accent and the mumbling, I had no idea what she was saying so I just pretended I knew what she was saying and said thank you. LOL! She really was trying to help but it just seemed like hand gestures to me. Which, when I asked another guy for help, her gestures actually ended up making a lot of sense because they both told me exactly the same thing. Only difference was I could understand what he was saying!
I haven't met my roommate yet. I'm sure she's still at training. The room is pretty small and narrow and long, kinda rectangle shaped. Not much of a view but at leastThe doorways are much tinier than in the USA. My bed squeaks so hopefully I won't wiggle a lot in my sleep. Don't normally but I have my moments . . .
I'm thinking of everyone and miss you all!
Erica
I have made it safe and sound to London! Exciting! There were a few bumps along the way. My flight from Salt Lake to Chicago was delayed for almost 4 hours. (Could have been worse if we had already been on the plane since it was tiny and not equipped with movies) Still, so boring sitting in the airport by yourself, in case your wondering, and then I wasn't sitting by anyone on that flight. No one can say that I don't have the ability to not talk for more than a 6 hour period anymore.
Because of that delay I almost missed my flight from Chicago to London. As a matter of fact, I was the last person to board the plane before they closed the door. Take off was at 9:05pm and I got on at like 9:02 pm. I was so lucky that they didn't close the door. This guy told me that they may not have my luggage until the day after I arrived because of the short amount of time in between flights but luckily that wasn't the case and they arrived with me. I sat by a lady named Yetna (and I'm positive I am not spelling that right since she is from Nicaragua and they have triangles and things like that in their names). She was really nice. She was on her way home to visit family.
When I got here, I had an interesting time getting (finding is more like it) to the YMCA. I didn't know any of the trains and I had to take 4 different ones. The instructions made it seem like it would be a lot simpler than it was, but most everyone I've met or asked for help are really nice. They even offer to help you put your bags on the train since on some trains you have like a 9 inch gap between the train and the platform and on some of them you have to step up that same amount to get in or out. And hauling all that luggage around sure makes you tired. Reminds me of when we went to Greece. There were a couple of really nice guys that helped me though. In fact, I didn't have to buy one of the tickets because one of them let me use the last of his day pass since he didn't need it.
They don't have obvious street names or signs so I asked this lady on the street for directions and she tried to help me but between her accent and the mumbling, I had no idea what she was saying so I just pretended I knew what she was saying and said thank you. LOL! She really was trying to help but it just seemed like hand gestures to me. Which, when I asked another guy for help, her gestures actually ended up making a lot of sense because they both told me exactly the same thing. Only difference was I could understand what he was saying!
I haven't met my roommate yet. I'm sure she's still at training. The room is pretty small and narrow and long, kinda rectangle shaped. Not much of a view but at leastThe doorways are much tinier than in the USA. My bed squeaks so hopefully I won't wiggle a lot in my sleep. Don't normally but I have my moments . . .
I'm thinking of everyone and miss you all!
Erica
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