Acapulco... and confinement..

Another couple days have gone by, and since I’m contained to my room for 24 hours (ate some bad food in Mexico, and they want to make sure I don’t have something contagious,) I have time to get caught up!
So, the 28th, or Wednesday, was a pretty laid back day. It started off with class at 9 AM, which really didn’t start to nearly 9:30 because no one seems to understand that the quicker we get started, the quicker we can leave. I got showered and ready for it, but I was definitely feeling tired. The class went over more stuff that most of us should know off hand. It went by pretty painlessly.
I went lunch afterwards, and ended up only having some soup to eat. I drank some tea, and talked with Anton (One of the casino managers) Ruxandra (Dealer) and a couple other guys from there. Afterwards, I went to my room, and laid down and ended up falling asleep for a couple hours. In middle of some of the strangest dreams I’ve had in awhile, a loud knock came at the door, which sent my flying out of my bed in panic to go open the door. It was some orange shirt guys. I thought it was security doing cabin inspections again, (which didn’t make sense, because we just had them last week,) but it turned out they were having a lot of problems with some piping of hot and cold water, which I knew because all of last week, every time I went to take a shower it was FREAKING FREEZING... But some people have it completely opposite.. like scolding hot...
They told me I could go back to sleep while they worked on it. They were in there for about a half hour. Then they left, and I slept more. I woke up at 5, and went to the bathroom to see I had a completely new set up of how to turn on my water. Made a lot more sense to me than the last system.
I went to dinner, and then practiced more spanish until I had to go to work upstairs. I ran up and did my set until 12:30, where I then had to go to rehearse with the Christian band I agreed to help. Afterwards, Eric wanted to get some food, but we realized it was too late for the mess, so we went up to the pizza shop on lido deck. When we got there, Eric thought he saw the guy who threatened him, so he told me to keep walking. I was about to be mad because I walked all that way for nothing, but we passed the back door of the pizzeria, and we leaned in and told them our situation and asked if they could make us a mushroom with goat cheese pizza. They said come back in ten minutes, and they’ll have it for us. So we went outside and sat at the fantail bar and chatted for the 10 minutes.
We then went back to get our pizza, and at first Eric didn’t seem too keen on eating it (which would-a been fine because I wanted all to myself!) but after he took a bite, he agreed it was delicious. So we finished our pizza as we talked about random things, and then I was feeling hungry again, so we checked to see if the coast was clear in front of the pizzeria, which it was, and we got another slice each of pepperoni pizza.
We sat near security just in case, and talked for more. I told him about my stalker experiences, and some of my background which I credit for giving me the ability to write the way I do. He grew up a lot different from me. His parents rarely drank, and he didn’t have cable, was always a good kid. Until he came out to ships. Ha, but regardless, he didn’t have the experiences I’ve had.
Afterwards, I brought him back to my room and showed him a couple Weird Al Songs he hadn’t heard of. He loved them, of course, and then he left, and I went to bed.

The 29th, I woke up at 8:45, and threw a shirt and hat on and went to class. Same deal as the day before.. We waited nearly a half hour to start, but LUCKILY it’s a busy port day, so class only lasted ‘till 10. At 10:30, I went to rehearsal with the band and we practiced for about 40 minutes, before being interrupted by some higher up people, who said they needed the room for immigration. So we left, and I went to my room and got my rain coat, ID and wallet, and met up with Eric, Claire and Thomas to go out for lunch in Acapulco.
As we made our way of the ship, I understood exactly what Eric meant... We were bombarded by taxi drivers, Tour Guides, and children asking us if we wanted to go to the market, go see the cliff divers, if we wanted gum, do we need a taxi and other questions. But the thing was, we were asked about 15 THOUSAND TIMES! Some of these people were determined.. They would get up next to you and walk for a minute and just keep asking, which really got irritating. I understand it’s their job, but when you see 80 other people doing the same thing... Saying the same thing.... and getting refused, DON’T ASK!
So we walked a different direction from what the other passengers were going. Though it was a cloudy day, it was hot as hell, and I was really wishing I didn’t have my raincoat.
As we walked, we stopped across the street from three restaurants. We stood in place debating what we wanted, until a man named Miguel stepped over and told us the best restaurant in town was the little shack between the two larger restaurants. He walked us over there and got us set up with a table. We found out he’s a tour guide but he doesn’t get money from us.. We came to the conclusion he gets a percentage of sales from the people he recommends there. Which was fine by us.
The restaurant was pretty dirty.. But most of the town had that feel. But from looking around, they did make good food. So I ordered a pineapple juice drink. Everybody got their stuff. I was really trying my spanish out. Rosetta Stone has been a great review for me, because I could say a lot more today than I could in all the years of taking it.
I ordered 3 steak tacos, with some black-beans (which I don’t eat) and a Tamale. Eventually I got a banana milkshake too.. Which was GOD DELICIOUS! All the food was very good, and very filling. I must say I was impressed. But through out the meal, people from OUTSIDE, would come to our table and ask us if we wanted to by necklaces, gum, candy, hammocks, and then go all over again. The sad part was seeing the children do it. Because it was Thursday... why the hell weren’t they in school? We said no a lot.. We tried to discuss how Americans would act in America if people did that. I think they would freak out...
Thomas told us of stories of his run ins with the law, which was all a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eric told his... Claire and I didn’t really have any.
We paid our bill which ended up not being more than 36 dollars for all of us. We then just went for a walk. We walked through out the towns and saw the dirty shops.. Most of which were just open front buildings, with cardboard as a water-mat. Claire and Thomas wanted burnable DVDs, so we set out. We passed many stores. One had action figures, and I saw BATMAN... God... I wanted him... but my friends kept walking, and I didn’t want to get left behind. So I just ran on. We passed another store and a pretty mexican woman said “Hola” and I said it back, and we continued walking until she said “I love you.” Then I stopped and turned around. She smiled at me, and I said “Gracias” and kept walking.. I didn’t know how to react to that.
We into one store which was a like a mexican version of a small business Staples. They had everything.. but Burnable DVDs. The main store guy kept telling us to buy paper.. pens, pencils, and more. I think that was the only English he knew.
We walked a little further down and finally found a shop with some. Thomas and Claire got them, and we continued walking... Then it got to a point where were lost, and we just started making turns in hopes of finding the ship. We passed a dog that was lying on the side walk.. He looked dead... then he moved.. that freaked us out. I think more because we came to terms with his death as were about to pass him, but then his movement changed all that.
We walked by a prostitute house, which had 8 girls standing outside in slutty clothes. A few of them were actually pretty. I’m sure they were more expensive. It was kind of funny to us though. The town just grew dirtier and dirtier the more we went in. I mentioned to Eric, this is probably what America will turn into in 40 years when we’re not a super power anymore (God, I hope that isn’t the case.)
Eventually we found the ship, and we boarded. We went our separate ways for an hour, because had a rehearsal then. I just went to my room and practiced more spanish. Then I headed up and jammed out with the band. Then I went to dinner, and sat with Aaron and watched some of The Office on TV. Then went and recorded some of my new song. Then passed out until 11. I started to have some bad cramps in my stomach area. Diarrhea cramps....
I went to the Christian show and played. It was rather funny because the water tight doors were closed, forcing people that wanted to go to the crew bard to cut through the Versatile lounge where we were playing. So we had a good amount of people see us.
When we were done, we sang Mar, the bass player, happy birthday, then we went to the crew mess to get a bite to eat.
I got Frosted Flakes. Afterwards, I went to my room to try to sleep, which didn’t happen until 4 am.

My alarm went off several times, and I managed to get up for 8:52. I ran down to my class, tired as can be. Untalkative. Initially. Ruxandra said she didn’t like me in the mornings because I didn’t talk to her much. The class went on for an hour, and then we went up on deck to see the difference between the Tender boats and the Lifeboats. Tenders had navigation equipment on them, and radar... Makes me wonder why they don’t just put that on ALL life boats... but that’s just me.
Zophia and I talked in the back since we couldn’t really hear the instructor. I asked her how her bar was going (piano bar) she says that she hasn’t really cared, because she works so late and has to be up so early. She’ll get a new piano bar guy in a couple weeks though.
Afterwards, I came back to my room and definitely had diarrhea, (sorry to those who don’t care to know.) After that episode I laid down and fell asleep for 4 hours... Then I got up and had another episode. At that point I felt it was necessary for me to go to the infirmary to get something for my stomach.. I didn’t want to be playing tonight and had bathroom breaks every 30 minutes.
When I got there, they gave me a GI form... It’s a stomach virus that gives you diarrhea and vomiting spells for a couple days, and is highly contagious. The form required me to fill in what I ate, and drank and where for the last 4 days. I honestly think it was just the food in Acapulco. So the doctor gave me some pills, and told me I was to stay in my room until 5 pm tomorrow. He told me to call room service for food.
So, I went back to my room and took my pills, and again had another terrible episode. So it’s probably for the best I went. I don’t typically go to the infirmary unless it’s a real problem.. But I could have something, and I don’t want to be THAT GUY who gave the whole ship it.
Since I hadn’t eaten all day, I called room service. Turns out the GI menu is pretty limited. They sent over 4 pieces of toast, two bananas and two cups of apple juice. I ate the two pieces of toast, and then got an idea, and cut up the bananas and put it on the other two slices of toast like a sandwich and had a banana sandwich.
It was good enough for what it had to be. Now I’m just in my room... I can’t work tonight, so I guess I’ll just watch a movie, or work on music or something. Until tomorrow!