Training in Baltimore ~ May 07

I finally arrived in Baltimore on the 28th of May after missing my flight in Chicago. I’m not exactly sure how they expect you to catch a flight when your first one is an hour behind schedule, but it’s pretty impossible. Running through the terminal I go, at least a mile to get to the gate my flight left out of. This is with my luggage, in my flip-flops, after being bucked off a horse and can hardly move! Then running to gate K13 trying to catch another flight to some other foreign airport in DC. Which happens to be boarding at the moment. After I was finally there, it dawns on me… … Isn’t this the same plane I flew on from Fayetteville to here? Well of course, because I landed at gate K13.

My best friend Debi, whom had already driven five hours from Blacksburg to Baltimore just to stay the night with me, now had to drive another hour to DC just to pick me up. We had the greatest time at the hotel just catching up and doing what girls do best… Kaltgni otuab ysob… :D Anyways, so the next morning, we drive around Baltimore looking for Constellation Pier in Inner Harbor. After finally finding it and a parking spot we head for the dock. Now where the heck is the darn ship American Star? (where training is to be held) We ask Information, the water taxi, Port Control and anyone else who might have an idea… Their answers of course would be, she's not here, she sailed on Saturday… So you’re telling me that I flew half way across America only to find out training has been canceled? We finally get back to the car where I had left my phone, and I call the home office in Connecticut to see what's up. It just turns out the ship will be arriving within the hour... Talk about a scare!

(American Cruise Lines ship American Star)

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This ship was finished in 2007 and is completely rust free, talk about super sweet. 220 foot in length and actually doesn’t have a helm. Apparently the new fancy thing is a lever, or three I guess. Yeah don’t ask. We did three days of training with basic deck stuff, it wasn't anything to exciting, but good to get to know the ship a bit. I’ve lived on a ship for three years, so the stuff that is just normal life to me is like a whole new world to others. It's actually kind of strange.

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I will be flying back to Arkansas 01 June and then returning back to the east coast to work in hopefully less than two weeks. It will be interesting to see what kind of situations I run into working for this company, I have a feeling I will end up with a couple of stories.