you know it's bad when the galley is the coolest place on the ship!

So the air conditioning is off today. I guess that's part of what gives the Anastasis its charm. Our ship is over fifty years old, one of the oldest vessels still in use today. Every couple of weeks, we have to survive a day without A/C when it breaks down. The plumbing and sewage are the same way. Since many of the pipes are as old as the ship, they rust and deteriorate from the inside, and there is no way to predict when a pipe will burst. When pipes burst, our fantastic engineers put on their waders and climb right into the mess to cap the leak. It's not uncommon to hear the overhead page, "Do not use the toilets forward of reception until further notice." (or aft of reception - or on the starboard side - or on the port side - or whatever.)

Tomorrow is my last day in the Academy. I'm kinda relieved, to tell you the truth. It's nice to not have that stress hanging over me any more. Today I started a movie with my students ("Elf" with Will Ferrell) and tomorrow I will finish that movie. I've already cleaned all my things out of my classroom. As best as I can tell, there is nothing left for me to do in the Academy. So I have the afternoon off, which is really nice.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday, the 26th and 27th, I will be starting in Housekeeping. I kinda wish that I had a longer break but that's a sacrifice I will gladly make, since I am going to be working with such a fantastic group of people. The work will not be too hard, and I will get to have my music with me all the time. So I'm pretty happy about that whole situation.

There's not much else to say. I have a couple of DVDs to return to the crew Library, so I better be off. I may also attempt to download a few things from the internet - we just got a new guy in IT, and hopefully he will allow us to download stuff. Hope you're all having a very blessed and a very merry Christmas!