Dinner with the Captain

I mentioned yesterday briefly that I was invited to the Captain's dinner last night - the moment I've been waiting for the last 7 weeks!

(I actually haven't done anything special, every faculty, staff, and lifelong learner gets invited at some point during the voyage).  Basically, the Captain and several of his officers host drinks, appetizers, and a 5 course dinner after the dining hours have ended and it's a chance to socialize with them a little bit as well as others that we may not always chat with.

I hung out in the lounge during happy hour to listen to Mary and Jim speak to the lifelong learners about their careers in the Secret Service (I just can't get enough of them talking about it... I could listen for hours) and then went to get ready!  Everybody dresses up for the Captain's dinner, so I had been running around throughout the day seeking shoes and a hair straightener. 

I got dressed and it was so funny heading back up to the 7th deck and running into students - they were like "why do you look nice?"  It's not even offensive, it's a genuine, legitimate question.  There is no need to wear anything besides jeans and a tshirt here and you feel weird if you're wearing something nicer. 

Anyway, I headed back to the lounge where we drank some wine and had some appetizers.  The Captain and 3 of his officers joined us shortly and I had a chance to speak with the Staff Captain (2nd in command).  He actually was with us from Norfolk to Halifax to train somebody and then went back to his vacation in England before rejoining us in South Africa (the crew and officers switch out throughout the year because of their contracts - usually 4 months on, 2 months off).  I then got cornered by a very friendly Lifelong Learner who was lovely to speak with, but I missed my chance to meet the captain! I was so bummed because nobody from the living learning team had been seated at his table at any of the previous dinners, so I knew I wouldn't get a chance once we left the lounge. 

After about 30 minutes or so, we headed down to the main dining room, which they had really dressed up and lowered the lights.  It didn't feel like the main dining room, which was refreshing.  We were all split up among the 4 tables and one of the crew members pointed me to my seat at the CAPTAIN'S TABLE.  I am SO lucky!  I was actually seated across from him and in between a faculty member and a lifelong learner.  My boss was at the table too, but he was down at the end.  The faculty member is the one who persuaded the Captain to change course to sail over O'O' a couple weeks ago and also the father of the woman whose ship took all the pirate precautions while sailing in the Gulf of Aden.  He was a bunch of fun - we talked fantasy baseball and fantasy football for awhile.  He's a very interesting guy. 

We were handed menus for dinner and had some options to select from.  First course I had some chilled Asian noodles that were delicious; Second course I had a salad with avocado (I will be dreaming about this salad for the next 9 weeks); Third course was French onion soup; Fourth course I had salmon and wild rice; and dessert was cheese souffle.   It was all very, very good.  What was also good (and bad) was the wine.  It was a never-ending wine glass - I didn't even see them keep filling it up.  It never even got to the halfway point.  See what I mean?  Good!  But bad.  Shannon (the librarian) had lent me some black shoes that she said were "magic Captain's dinner shoes" because all the wine will just go into the shoes.  Yup, not so magic.

I did get a chance to talk with Captain Roman for a bit and we talked a bit about Croatia and Bosnia because I really want to visit both places.  He was actually born in Sarajevo, but now lives in Dubrovnik.  He has a daughter my age, which is weird to think about.  He's Captain Roman!  He can't be a dad! 

The dinner ended around 10 I think (the Captain stands up and that's it!) and a bunch of us headed up to the lounge to keep chatting.  It was just a fun evening, and I was in need of one.

Anyway, we're docking in delicious Mauritius on Thursday morning (earrrrly) and I'm excited because some of us rented a villa at the very north end of the island.  We're only there for 1 night, so we're just taking advantage of a day off the ship.  I'm excited for preport :)  Mauritius is where dodo birds lived (when they lived).  That's all I know about Mauritius.  I'm also just excited to have something that feels like a real week - 5 days of working, and then 2 days off.  Sort of.  Then we'll have a 6 day sail to India and THEN we won't have a sail longer than 3 days until we leave Japan.  It's scary how quickly things are going now.  I felt like we were at week 3 for a long time, but all of a sudden we're at week 7.  Scary. 

I am going to go pick up my cabin a bit now - my Sea Olympics Sea Captains are coming by in a bit to talk about our strategy and plans to DOMINATE in the Olympics (October 21, mark your calendar, we're trying to get Bob Costas to provide commentary. kidding.) It's frightening how much I've spread out and settled into my cabin.  I have actually lost things in here (like this morning I couldn't find dryer sheets for the life of me... but I know they're here somewhere). 

One quick shout out:  Happy Birthday Kristin!  I wish I was there to do something obnoxious to your office :)  Thom, I bet you could figure something out.