Hawaii and then some

4.24.08
A short-but-sweet day back in the States:
Hawaii is beautiful! With only one day in Hawaii, I did what anyone would do: lay on the beach. I went with Nicki and two other girls, Nel and Mal who are closer with Nicki but I’ve hung out with before. We went down to Waikiki beach. Luckily we got off the ship pretty early in the day, so even though we had to be back on the ship by 9pm, we were on the beach by 8am.
Well, I had to take complete advantage of my cell phone, considering it was the first time I had legit service the entire trip. I made sure I called as many people as I could before my battery ran out by 11:30 that morning.
For lunch we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise, and it really was just that. It was so good to just have a burger. I also got my first legal drink that Nicki bought for me! It was called “Tropical Sensations” and it was DELICIOUS! After lunch, we walked around the boardwalk area, which while it was overpriced (esp. in comparison to all the countries we’ve visited) was nice to walk around and browse. It was actually kind of weird being back in America. Cab drivers knew exactly what we were saying and where we needed to go without having to draw pictures of ships or mime the action of waves. I knew what I was ordering on the menus and knew how much everything cost. I didn’t stick out like a sore thumb with my blonde hair. Not every white kid we saw was from SAS; in fact, most of the time, they weren’t fellow voyagers. After walking around, we headed right back to the beach and the water. It was also really weird that we were all able to meet up with each other without having scheduled plans beforehand; we could actually call each other up on our cell phones to meet. Around 5ish we met up with Christine and Tea to get dinner. We went to a nice seafood/steakhouse, though after my cheeseburger (and Coldstone icecream that we had gotten for dessert) I settled for a nice fishy salad. Christine bought me my second official drink, called Jasmine Pon Pon. Of course, it was another fruity cocktail. Then my last drink of the day was amazing! It came in a pineapple and tasted just like a smoothie! It was a very nice, but mellow way to celebrate my birthday. I didn’t have to be guided home or wasn’t stuck sick in the bathroom. It was just a nice buzz. Nicki and I stayed out a little later than everyone else and went back to the beach in the evening for another half hour before heading back to the ship. We got back just in time too; apparently, there was pretty much a riot (I kid you not) at the gangway as drunk kids pushed and shoved their way in an attempt to get on the ship before 9pm so they wouldn’t get dock time. Some of my friends were in it and said it was like a rock concert. The line was so long that some kids just got pissed and cut to the front to crowd around the gangway to get on the ship, which made everyone cut and push and shove to get to the front. I think it was the worst in this port because there were two security checkpoints: one in the terminal building and another pat down when you got on the ship, so it was going really slow. It got so bad that Dean Ken had to actually come out and yell at everyone; the following day he sent out a letter to the entire shipboard community saying how disappointing and disrespectful everyone had acted, how embarrassed he was and how embarrassed we should be. It was really embarrassing, and I didn’t even see it happen. I didn’t need to, and I’m glad I didn’t.
Well, our last theatre show was such a hit that I keep getting asked to do more things, which is fine because it’s good experience. Tomorrow in Global Studies (the class that everyone takes together, which is always really boring and no one likes it and no one really goes anymore [even me]) I am going to read part of a screenplay that an SAS kid wrote for his screenplay class. We met last night, and it was absolutely awful: definitely one of the WORST rehearsals I’ve ever had. First of all, I can’t stand the Screenplay teacher. She was/is awful. Daina is supposed to be the director and this kid Jonathan is the writer, but the teacher kept piping in and contradicting Daina and trying to change everything and give suggestions. We had never seen the script before, and I play the narrator [and I’ve never read a screenplay before, which is different] so it was understandably a little rough the first time through. This idiot teacher pipes in and starts giving me advice, telling me that as a narrator I need to be more resonant, slow down, make sure I know what I’m saying, really narrate it; I really wanted to smack her in the face. Then, of course, what should have been a half hour rehearsal to read through the script a few times turned into an hour and a half of painfulness. Of course, Daniel is also doing it so he starts trying to understand the deeper meaning of the script and asking the writer all these questions. Then after the reading, the teacher gives us all her ‘suggestions’ and ‘advice’ and Daniel starts to get pissed off because the teacher kept cutting off Jonathan…and considering it was his script and he knew what he meant, I could understand why Jonathan would get frustrated. Daniel getting upset was just totally unproductive because he started getting snappy, and then the teacher started getting snappier. Daina kept trying to pipe in too, and then this other girl, Kindle, who was also in the last show with us is also giving her two cents because she’s actually in the screenplay class and has read the script before and therefore thinks she knows what’s going on. Kadero is supposed to play God in the script, and Jonathan had God cussing at one point, which made Kadero really uncomfortable (which is fine and totally understandable, but it created another mini-drama while we had to figure out what he could say instead that would still get the right point across). Then they’re making changes to the screenplay as we went along [and by ‘they’ by this point, ‘they’ meant everyone except me] and everyone’s voicing their opinions about how something should be read, acted out and/or interpreted. Then the teacher wanted me to read all of the awkward stage directions (like ‘arrogantly smirking’ and ‘over his shoulder’), which was just stupid. So, she started to cut out some of them and then I had to tell everyone else which ones she cut out, and then everyone wants to cut out more and Jonathan’s asking me my opinion and I just said: “I don’t care. I’m an actress. I’ll say whatever you want me to say. Just decide.” Really, the entire thing was just ridiculous and painful and I wanted to shoot myself. Of course, because last night was so successful we have another meeting tonight at 8pm. And OF COURSE at 9pm I have another rehearsal for theatre class because at the community college on 8pm this Saturday night we’re reading scenes from Death of a Salesman. I play the one female role, Linda, the wife. It’s actually a pretty good part, and I like the other kids for the most part [they were all in the last show with me]…it’s just one more thing to do. Bryce plays Willy, my husband, Kadero plays one of the two brothers, Daniel plays two random side parts, and Big Tom plays the other brother [aka my other son]. Big Tom has way too many lines though, and he has such trouble with reading that our last rehearsal was pretty painful. I’m sure he’ll be fine by Saturday, but it usually takes him a while before he gets it down. I really wish they had just given Kadero the bigger role, but they didn’t. Rehearsal tonight will probably be pretty long for that too. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, because it’s nice that Daina and my theatre professor [not the stupid screenplay teacher I don’t like…she doesn’t deserve to be called a professor] keep asking me to do stuff and I enjoy actually doing it; it’s the process that’s such a bitch. It should all be done by Saturday night though, and Sunday is the last day of classes so it should be smooth sailing from there. I just have to study and take finals, which shouldn’t be too horrible. We also have the Ambassador’s Ball on Sunday night, which is pretty much just an occasion to dress up pretty, take pictures with all your new friends, and get good food!
Well, that’s all for now, just sitting and waiting for global studies to start. Hopefully it won’t be too boring today.