I saw a whale today

It's incredible how time flies because I'm going home already in a few days. Almost seems like the past five months went by like the blink of an eye. A lot has happened though and I've learned a lot and seen quite a few nice places. Here are some pictures.

Labadee, Haiti (private destination of Royal Caribbean)

Labadee

getting into San Juan, Puerto Rico

looking at the port from old downtown San Juan

I wish I had some pictures from when I work but we are not allowed to pose with the kids so to you it might seem I just go from place to place...not true! Last cruise we had over 1000 (!) kids and it was quite a challenge, let me tell you that. This is my last cruise and I can actually relax a little before coming home. I'm looking forward to good german food, real coffee (no offense, but Americans just don't know what that is), my big bed, and waking up to the rising sun. Here in our little cabins we don't have port holes and that makes me miss my big window right next to my bed A LOT. I hope you enjoyed my few updates during my travels here in the Caribbean. We'll see what's next for me.

Christmas on the Explorer and other interesting things

I know, I know, it's been over a month now that I've updated my blog. But believe it or not, I really do work once in a while and the last couple of weeks were pretty busy here with lots of kids and even more activities.

Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day seemed so fake to me because I didn't sing a single Christmas song! The weather was fabulous (we were in St. Thomas for Christmas Eve and at sea for Christmas Day) and I had great friends around but it felt more like a show than the Christmas celebrations I'm used to.

For Christmas Day all the Youth Staff got dressed up as elves in order to help Santa distribute all his presents to the kids ages 0-17.

Laura and I as eager Santa helpers

Santa surrounded by all the presents waiting for the kids big and small to sit on his lap

here in action

A few days later Laura and I went on a catamaran to go snorkeling in St. John, Antigua.

here on the catamaran all excited to go snorkeling

Did you know that Antigua has 365 (!) beaches? So you could spend a whole entire year going to a different beach every day without getting bored...how does that sound?

this is one of the 365 beaches

here in Barbados next to a german boat

sea turtles not afraid to swim with us and be touched

That was it for the last month. I hope everyone had a good start into the new year. God bless you all, my friends. Hope to hear from you.