Slept GREAT! Straight thru for the first time. I have GOT to do laundry, though! No backing out...but if I go into Marseille, it won't get done tonight.

Had a dream about Evan. Crap. I hate bad dreams. He got really sick and "ran away" deciding it was better not to submit everyone to how sick he was...I found him and he told me what had happened. He looked horrible! He convinced me to let everyone know back home. Of course, in my dream his family didn't exist, only work. Then, I saw him this morning, but he didn't come sit with us and now I feel angry with him. It doesn't help that - oh, I just interpretted my dream! He has Sasha following him around like a puppy. The guys (well the ones that have talked to me about it, at least) are mad because Sasha is supposed to be Store Keeper and he's NOT doing his job. The joke is if Evan stops, Sasha is going to have a hard time getting himself out of Evan's behind. It's even starting (starting?) to tick me off and what do I know? I know I really can't say anything because my "review" is in Evan's hands and if I make him mad, I'm schwanzed...I'm thinking the dream is I feel a little avoidance from Evan. I don't mind TOO much, because I'm doing some fun stuff and whenever Evan shows up, HE gives me crap jobs (ie, peel plastic off the vents - um, no...I've got a better offer downstairs, thank you very much.) Kenneth has taken me under his wing and Evan has his buddy Sasha to keep him occupied.

Breakfast today - one warm fried egg sunny side up - one slice of fresh pineapple (sliced length-wise) Delish! - One oat bran muffin - sliced potatoes - water (coffee wasn't ready yet).

Ok - today was an easy morning for me. We sanded down the deck, so the plugs were even with the deck and cut the seams between the panels and trim so they were all equal in size. A rather messy morning again and the Italian carpetry guys weren't too happy with us again. They REALLY wanted us to quit making a mess! So they could get on with their carpet laying. And they kept INSISTING that either deep down we really did know Italian, or if they kept speaking it to us, eventually we'd speak it fluently and could answer them. We kept looking at them dumbly and saying English or Swedish. They'd keep jabbering on in Italian - often repeating exactly word for word what they just said, as if we'd catch it the second time. We started using hand language - they didn't. They could understand us...are all Italians that dumb?

One of them was really nice, though. He wanted one of our pieces of scrap wood and asked me - in Italian - what I guess is "Is this garbage? or can I have this?" I said "You can have it." and pointed at him. He said what I figure to be "I can have it? Are you sure?" He hugged it to his chest. I said "Yes, you can have it." and again pointed at him. He said "Si?" I said "Si." He said "Gratzi." and walked away with it.

What I forgot to mention: Yesterday I noticed I was eating food that I normally would turn my nose up at. Lettuce that is brown and wilted - but was happily snarfing it down. And then, pathetic me...Today, they had FRESH head lettuce for salad - in big chunks, just the way I like it best. And FRESH red and yellow peppers. I was giddy as I filled my bowl! And Creamy ITALIAN dressing! See, the way I was told it works, and it makes sense from my personal experience over the past week...

They use up as much as they can of the old food from the last cruise on us poor sap contractors - every little bit they can - wasting as little as possible - only if it's molded or rotted. A little brown never hurt anyone...soft? HA! Toss it in a casserole! TODAY! We are preparing to leave for Italy and they have loaded fresh food on board! We had...OH! Lunch was good!

FRESH boiled cabbage (it was SOOOO GREEN!) (there was corned beef, too, but they were kind enough to cook it seperately) FRESH salad (not wilted brown salad-like stuff) with creamy Italian (Not home-made, use it up dressing) French fries (always french fries or potatoes - they last forever!) cheese and the moistest cappuccino cake EVER! Yup...It's time for Italy - wonder if new chefs are on board, too.

Kenneth says we should get into town today. King Pekka concurs.

They moved the container today - well, as of 12:30 (before lunch) it wasn't back on the ship yet. Gazing over the railing and there it sits all alone - on the pier. I do think ours is the only container on board.

Well...back to work. Oh - it's HOT today!! I've taken off my long sleeved shirt and haven't worn my sweat shirt since this morning!---

OH WOW! WHAT AN EVENING!!!

Ok, cool...First, we caulked in the Bandstand - man, this seems like days ago now! Whew - ok, think...clean the seams with acetone and caulk - King Pekka caulked. OH! All the caulk was in the conatainer...um, which was still on the dock. So, King and Ken hiked down and picked open the lock (Kidding, they know the combination) and brought up 3 cases of caulk. Now, because of this fiascal, we didn't have our caulk kit, which meant poor King had to use a hand caulk gun instead of the compressor gun (oh, did I mention the hour long power outage this morning?) So, King shot the seams, Kenneth spooned and I fed - New to me, too, but what it means is the caulker should only worry about caulking - NOT preparing his next cartridge. The feeder prepares the next cartride so all the caulker does is pop it in. I fed King Pekka. When we finished caulking the bandstand, we went in to Calypso Bar and I vacuumed and vacuumed seams and deck and then I fed Jarkko. He had the compressor gun, though. Feeding him was faster and more fun. We finished caulking everything in at 5:30pm. Then we headed downstairs - the Fins to the bar - me to my cabin. NO WATER!! Me to the bar. It opened at 6p, so we sat and waited. The crew bar is on the same deck as my cabin, all the way forward (So, I'm in 308, it's in like 99). There are no windows - The power went out while were in there and it took at least a full minute for emergency lights to come on! 6p finally comes and Oli buys me 2 French beers - I can't recall the name, but they are pretty good. Kroneberger or something. For beer...they don't have that ewww bitter taste to them that I don't like - the aftertaste...I drank them both. All in all, Jarno, Jarkko, Erik, Pekka, King Pekka, me, Oli, and then Evan and Sasha joined us. Evan bought a round. Beers are $1 each! Even Heinekein!

Anyway, King Pekka says he's going into town and I ask if I can go with him. he says YES. We catch the 7pm shuttle - at 6:55pm, I set foot on French soil!  The drive into town takes about 10 minutes and reminds me of downtown Chicago - with castles. The castle got closer and closer. There's a fort, too, but I never got a good picture of it. Downtown is amazingly cool and walking around is...well, time losing. First, Pekka took me to a department store and said "First, I have to find a bathroom." and I said "Certainly they have a bathroom in there!" So we head inside and our adventure begins! There is a security guard at the door and I ask him if he speaks English - a LITTLE he says. I ask for a bathroom and he says upstairs. So we head up the escalator...oh my - once we're upstairs, there are so many signs and so much merchandise, we head over to another employee and start over. HE directs us out the store! Apparently the store is attached to a mall and the public bathrooms are down the hall and they cost 30 cent Euro. Ok, fine. So, we also find out they are called the Toilette. We head down the mall and get lost. By the time we find them, it's...get this, 7:31pm. The toilets close at 7:30 and she is NOT giving us a break! So, we look at restaurants - closed, all the stores are closing. A hotel attached to the mall! Surely THEY have a bathroom poor Pekka can use! We scramble over to the door. It locks at 7:30pm! What is going on here?!? Then, God's angel shows up out of no where! The only English speaking person we've met so far is holding an outside door for us saying "I know you're looking for the same thing I am." and I'm thinking "I doubt that! but I'll bite." and I say "A bathroom??" and he chuckles "Oh, well the hotel lobby should have one of those and the main door is right around the corner here." and he shows us where to go and helps us find the bathrooms inside then he climbs on the elevator and says "Have a safe night" God's blessing - his angel sent just for us. I wished him a safe night, too.

So, after that, we walked around a little (after we finally found where we were, because we came out the back way) and ended up at a bar. I tried to order coffee and here I get confused. (bear with me...) The waiter said they didn't have any - or something like that, so I said "Pekka? What are you getting?" and I got the same thing - gin and tonic. (Indian tonic - do you know what that is?) We asked for menus to order dinner, too...He forgot. We asked again...He forgot. Finally he brought us a menu and I opened it and laughed! Little good it did, I can't read French any better than I can speak it. The waiter said he'd translate it when he got a minute (he was really busy) So, for fun, we sat there and tried to translate it ourselves...we came close on some things.

Finally, he came over and translated and King got a steak. I said Vegetarian and he said "I'll put something together for you." I ended up with a WONDERFUL salad with a whole (sliced thin) tomato and wonderful (boiled?) potatoes (sliced and cooled) drizzled with balsemic vinegar and olive oil. And bread. Delish! (Here we go...) After dinner, the waiter asked if we wanted coffee...um, HUH?

As I said before, all the stores close up at 7:30 and we didn't get in to any of them!! My Marseille souvenirs are 2 drink stir sticks from the bar! HA!

We walked a little more and stopped at another bar (Le Collins) and Pekka insisted I have an Irish coffee instead of plain (Oh, I forgot, he's buying all this) So, I have a VERY strong - what I call Hot whiskey that looks like coffee, but they call Irish coffee. I asked when we got to that bar for the toilette and was told upstairs on the left. Oh, my - scarey.

This bar saw our other angels - but they stuck around - seems they were working on something on the computer and were overhearing our struggles with our NON-English speaking waiter. They translated for us every time. Nice guys!

We hopped back on the 11pm shuttle and the ship was floating when we got back to it. Marseille is pretty. All the Christmas decorations were up, though they are quite stark and lacking. Seems odd, though - I haven't had Thanksgiving yet! Water was back on when I got to my cabin. I took a shower and now must go to bed. 6am comes early - and it's 1am already!