Tabs Travels again...

Hello all! I know it's been some time since I last wrote you...but if my first week and a half has anything to show for it, I'll definitely be writing a lot more than I did last contract!!!

I am now on the Azamara Quest, it's a small ship, only about 700 passengers and 400 crew. It's lovely, all very new, all very clean, all very classy...but I'm getting ahead of myself...

Vacation was great, went to the Okanagan, and visited good friends and family that I hadn't seen in a couple of years. A friend from ships asked me during my vacation 'what was I doing on this vacation that I'd never done before?' My answer was nothing...his response was 'don't tell me that!' So I decided, I needed to come up with something I had never done before - and of course after some suggestions from friends, my mom was the one that knew me best, and had suggested going zip lining...So i forked over $75 to go on a zip line tour in Sooke, and it was a blast! Thanks Dave & Jen for coming with me! I do have pictures, and will post them soon, but still need to load them to my computer! I will I promise!

Ok, back to the new ship, when I first arrived, I had to stay in a guest room (oh, so sad isn't it?) cause there were no crew rooms available to me, and unlucky for me (hahahah) I had to stay in a room with a balcony (such a hardship)...lol...don't worry I took advantage, I took pictures from my room, I opened that door everytime I went into my room, it was great fun. Now, I'm still in a guest room, for another week but it's not a balancy, nor does it have a window, but I have it all to myself, so it's still fabulous!

The Job - You know i was promoted??? I was a little nervous about this, I've no assistance from Apprentices here on this ship, but the guy I'm replacing has been great, and I'm now feeling very confident about the job, and will do just fine when he leaves next week.

The Places - Unfortunately I haven't yet had enough time between mandatory ship trainings and training on the job to get out too much, but so far Italy is definitely a place to see. Sorrento is where I joined the ship, and had a great drive from the airport, it's beautiful, and I can't wait get outside and explore on my own there. I was out in a little place called La Spezia which is near florence, but not close enough to get there in the time I had unfortunately cause La Spezia is not such a great place. I've also been out in Livorno, which is also close to Florence as well as Piza, and so far Livorno seems like a nice place - it's so far had the nicest buildings and a canal that runs through the town. Tomorrow I will go out in Ravenna, and after we are in Ravenna we have an overnight in Venice - and I'm SUPER excited about that! Can't wait!

The People - I've met a lot of really nice people here on this ship, the crew is very friendly, very accepting, and I can't wait to get to know them better.

So, all in all, so far a great experience, and there's definitely going to be a lot to write home about over the next 6 months. I think I'm always going to be excited about the next port and what there is to see - there are a lot of options to host tours here as well, so hopefully I'll get to do that quite often!

Anyways, I've probably written more than you wanted to hear about so I'll stop now, and wait to hear from you! And again, i promise pictures on my picasa site soon!

Love you all!
Miss you all!
Tabs