You cannot understand how surreal it is to be on this ship again. Periodically, we see a crew member that was on board last spring with us. You get to know people you are with for 36 days. The other night, Ginny went to the front desk and discovered that Dragan is on ship! Dragan, who once helped establish the underground smuggling ring that allowed me to get toothpaste 3 days into the clink AND then made the bottles of wine appear every night. We still haven’t seen him- but it’s comforting knowing he’s here. I hope we can all see him and get a selfie.
We’ve been slowly finding out that lots of crew have been promoted. Not to brag, but I’m pretty sure we helped with that. I mean, I wrote 5 paragraph essays on these people when we left. You know I am not kidding. I think I need a t-shirt that says something like, “Be my friend. I will get your promoted.” That seems to cut right to the chase. Our good buddy Ecer, who once burst open the time capsule and finally got our post cards shipped out was promoted and is now on the same ship as James! Dragan himself was promoted. Isn’t this great? Damn. I feel awesome about this.
So all that is good. But like I said, it is very surreal. One year ago, things were so different. We were still terrorized by COVID. There were masks and required tests and fear of quarantine or being refused a seat on the plane home. There was constantly changing rules in every country.
And, there was a whole lot more quiet. More gratitude. More story telling. People were just thankful to be out. Thankful for us to come see their shops and buy cups of coffee. People just wanted to connect and be together again and we couldn’t quite yet freely do that. But even so, what we could do - just being on the ship and traveling again - was amazing.
This feels a bit like the former life. Pre-pandemic. Where people are already forgetting their manners and their gratitude. Where they’d rather whine about slow service than be thrilled to be sitting on a gorgeous ship sailing perfectly calm seas. And maybe some of this is my own bias towards the stereotype of the loud, rude American…but damn. There are some loud, rude Americans on this trip!
I find myself longing for the Regal of Spring 2022. The quiet spaces with people reading and sipping coffee. The beautiful, soft music. Less people in any given place. Good conversations.
It’s interesting because this is all juxtaposed with not having to worry about COVID. No masking. No testing. No new rules to try super hard to follow each stop so we don’t end up in the land clink.
I guess I’m wondering - is it that we didn’t learn anything from these hideous last couple of years? Or is it that those years changed us- and not in all too flattering ways? Or am I just old now? Stuck in a nostalgia cycle of wishing to get back what’s long gone?
Now, don’t read this and think we’re not having a great time. We totally are! It’s SO fun to be back with Rich and Ginny and Mike and Dianna. The sea is calm and it’s warm this time, which is allowing us to spend far more time outside than we could last spring.
I think, as always for me, I’m just processing all these thoughts and feelings that got stuck without quiet time and space to ponder. I always do my best thinking when I’m able to freely wander and do whatever I want during a day (as opposed to waking and being in a set routine at home).
What I know for sure, though, is regardless of some of these yahoos on board, I am SO thankful. Eternally grateful for these moments and friendships. For being able to see the world, which is still lovely and thrilling. For chances to reclaim moments that didn’t go the way I wanted. It is like some weird version of dejavu where you’ve sorta been there before but it’s not quite the same!
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