What have I signed up for?
It was amazing how quickly you get back into old patterns. I made my way to the ship on Thursday and there was George. Even though we had emailed a couple of days earlier, it is always a good feeling when your replacement comes ~ it means you really are going to be able to leave!
I spent 9 days getting back into the groove with George here. It was amazing to realize that some things I felt very comfortable with before I left, I was now second guessing myself. In addition to learing the ropes, I was also staying in a guest cabin. While this does have perks, it was also difficult as I didn't want to unpack for 9 days, only to pack it all back up again and move it down 1 deck to the cabin. That being the case, the first week was definitely unsettling, but I can tell you that there were no tears and the anxiety about being here that I experienced on my last contract was gone... That was until George left.
So George left on Saturday. His original flight had 2 connections and one was apparently very tight ~ but the good thing for me was that he was going to be leaving at 3pm. Enough time for me to get Embarkation underway and settled before he left ~ the safety blanket being that he was there if things went horribly wrong. Well, he did manage to change his flight so he had only one connection but that also meant that he had to leave by 10:45am ~ before Embarkation started. And as Murphy's Law would have it, some things did go horribly wrong. Details are a bit gorry, but the jist of it being we had no network so the laptops could not communicate with the ship. I had 3 vendors coming on board to fix things. Remote files had not been loaded on the 24 laptops, the card printer and correlator had not been set up and I had 45 minutes before we were to start. That was rock bottom... and I did have a melt down at 10 when George needed to givbe me a bit of a kick in the pants and say everything would be OK and that I could do this... I am sure that he was a bit freaked knowing that he was leaving his ship with me and I was mid-meltdown. He did check in once he arrived in New York to see how things were and things had started to improve. Network was back, so we did the embarkation on line, the one thing I screwed up I managed to fix with someone's help, Vendors were fixing things and close to being done. So at the end of a very long 17hr day, I moved my suitcases into the cabin and fell into bed.
It has been strange to be back in the cabin. The other time I was here was when Akis was on board and I keep expecting to see him come through the door with the bounce in his step asking 'ti kanis baby mou?'. But after 4 days, this hope/expectation is starting to pass and I realize that it is me who is in this cabin ~ me and my 2 suitcases and 1 box full of stuff.
I'm sure the next few days will be challenging as I learn the politics of the position, but everyone seems to be happy that I am here. Even the Captain congratulated me on the 'promotion' today. Here's hoping I can live up to the expectations!!
I spent 9 days getting back into the groove with George here. It was amazing to realize that some things I felt very comfortable with before I left, I was now second guessing myself. In addition to learing the ropes, I was also staying in a guest cabin. While this does have perks, it was also difficult as I didn't want to unpack for 9 days, only to pack it all back up again and move it down 1 deck to the cabin. That being the case, the first week was definitely unsettling, but I can tell you that there were no tears and the anxiety about being here that I experienced on my last contract was gone... That was until George left.
So George left on Saturday. His original flight had 2 connections and one was apparently very tight ~ but the good thing for me was that he was going to be leaving at 3pm. Enough time for me to get Embarkation underway and settled before he left ~ the safety blanket being that he was there if things went horribly wrong. Well, he did manage to change his flight so he had only one connection but that also meant that he had to leave by 10:45am ~ before Embarkation started. And as Murphy's Law would have it, some things did go horribly wrong. Details are a bit gorry, but the jist of it being we had no network so the laptops could not communicate with the ship. I had 3 vendors coming on board to fix things. Remote files had not been loaded on the 24 laptops, the card printer and correlator had not been set up and I had 45 minutes before we were to start. That was rock bottom... and I did have a melt down at 10 when George needed to givbe me a bit of a kick in the pants and say everything would be OK and that I could do this... I am sure that he was a bit freaked knowing that he was leaving his ship with me and I was mid-meltdown. He did check in once he arrived in New York to see how things were and things had started to improve. Network was back, so we did the embarkation on line, the one thing I screwed up I managed to fix with someone's help, Vendors were fixing things and close to being done. So at the end of a very long 17hr day, I moved my suitcases into the cabin and fell into bed.
It has been strange to be back in the cabin. The other time I was here was when Akis was on board and I keep expecting to see him come through the door with the bounce in his step asking 'ti kanis baby mou?'. But after 4 days, this hope/expectation is starting to pass and I realize that it is me who is in this cabin ~ me and my 2 suitcases and 1 box full of stuff.
I'm sure the next few days will be challenging as I learn the politics of the position, but everyone seems to be happy that I am here. Even the Captain congratulated me on the 'promotion' today. Here's hoping I can live up to the expectations!!
posted by Carrie @ 8:37 PM
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