And You Work As...?

I think I say this every time I start out a post but once again--I can’t believe we're entering our fourth week on board. I guess it’s about time you heard about our jobs! :) 

Both of us are really enjoying our jobs so far. We felt like we got plenty of confirmation about our jobs before we got here and it’s been such a blessing to feel needed where we’re at--and to love what we do. 

Jordan in the carpentry shop.  
Of course the two most frequently asked questions on the ship are: How long are you here for? [and] What do you do? When Jordan responds with, “I’m a carpenter,” he usually gets a “AWESOME!!!” And when I introduce myself people often excitedly say, “Oh I met your husband!! He fixed something of mine!” I think that that basically sums up what people think about the carpenters. There are two guys in carpentry: Jordan and Derek. Derek was in our gateway as well so it was really cool that they got to know each other before getting to the ship. 

Jordan and Derek at a cowboy church in TX.
 (I feel the need to explain the matching plaid shirts and boots.)

When someone runs into a problem, they fill out a work request form and check one of four departments for it to go to: plumber, electrician, engineer, or carpenter. So a LOT of maintenance stuff gets sent their way. And since they in the business of fixing whatever’s broken, people like to see Jordan or Derek coming their way! The carpentry position has recently gotten extended--it used to only require a three month stay but now requires a two year stay. This means that the carpenter can get involved in more long-term projects. It also means that hopefully the backed up work orders will get whittled down! 

Flipping through some work orders. 

Jordan’s shop is on deck 7 which is both a pro and a con... there is no air conditioning and the ceiling for his shop is the floor of deck 8, which is the top deck. So the sun beats down on the ceiling and that room is TOASTY. They do have a fan but hopefully will get something more figured out! But it's nice that they can walk out of their shop and have a beautiful view of the ocean. Pointe Noire is a busy port too so they see lots of ships coming and going every day. 

This one was particularly cool--it was HUGE
and unloaded cars for import all day!

They do work all over the ship though, which means climbing a LOT of stairs every day. They've also been working on organizing the shop a lot; being there for more than three months means they have a chance to organize in addition to working on projects (which they are doing as well). 

Working on the doors going into the dining room.

Organizing, organizing, organizing...

As for me, I am loving my job! Hospitality is in charge of making new arrivals and crew members feel welcome. We meet each new arrival, help them through embarkation paperwork, provide them a meal, and show them to their rooms. I love greeting people; it gives me a chance to get to know them before any one else does. It’s fun to know that you can be a friendly face to someone who just arrived to live with 450 strangers. We also give tours of the ship to those people which has been helpful for me--I was forced to learn my way around pretty quickly! 

Cecily (also in hospitality) and I waiting for new arrivals with the guards.

We also are in charge of cleaning cabins and setting them up for arrival. We do that for guests, new crew, and returning crew. A lot of effort goes into making the space look welcoming. I definitely appreciated that when I got on board so I’m grateful that it’s an important part of the job! 

We do a lot of set up for weekly meetings and also the occasional function. I love making things look pretty so it’s been a fun part of the job. :) 

And then--I get to bake cookies!! The kitchen staff (who do an amazing job, by the way) makes a lot of our cookies that we use for welcoming new crew and meetings but if we have a really busy week we will make cookies as well. Hospitality has their own kitchen for such weeks! We also make birthday cards for all the staff and deliver the cards, along with a $2 Starbucks coupon and a cookie pack. Starbucks donates coffee to the ship so all of the coffee is Starbucks --we basically just pay for the milk and water! So a $2 coupon would actually buy you quite a bit. :)

Can't be much happier than this. :) 

Hope you enjoyed. :) 

PS. If you are ever annoyed because some of the pictures are way over on the left when everything else is centered, I wanted to let you know that A.) I am not doing it on purpose--it drives me crazy too and B.) I'm not sure how it happens; everything is perfectly centered when I hit "publish" and then it does something funky. My sincerest apologies to my fellow OCD readers.