The Celtic Thunder Cruise 2013 - Day 2

November 1^st, 2013
Sheraton Hotel

It’s day two of my adventure. And I’m beginning to think I’m not cut out for adventuring. :P

Maybe it’s just the stress of flying in a plane, the homesickness, and the anxiety… but last night was a struggle.

The hotel, while it looks nice, doesn’t really have the best services. When you tried to call the front desk, they refused to pick up—every single time (and we tried calling at least three times).

The nighttime view from our hotel room video (just before sunrise).

We were under the allusion there was free WiFi, so before I left the airport (and its free WiFi), I told one of my best friends that I would message him when I got to the hotel. After a good hour of standing around waiting for the hotel shuttle, we boarded and headed to the hotel.

When we got up to the room, I sat down in a chair and switched my laptop on. I tried to get access to the WiFi, only to find that they would make me pay.

That shouldn’t have upset me so much, but I suppose the stress and anxiety was already messing with my mind—that, coupled with the fact that I might not get to talk to my friend (I was really looking forward to talking to him,  not to mention I had told him I would when I got to the hotel).

We attempted to figure out how to use the phone—Mom wanted to call home, and I thought I would call my friend and talk to him that way. But the phone didn’t make any sense, and of course, when we tried to ring the front desk to ask them how to use it, they didn’t answer.

Mom gave me a very stern talking-to about how I need to stop telling people I’ll do something, and that we’re on a vacation and I shouldn’t want to talk to my friends.

I was already on the verge of tears. :P I missed my home, I missed my dad, I missed my friends… I started to wish I hadn’t convinced Mom to let us go on this trip.

I decided I would go down to the front desk and ask them questions that way, since they apparently have an aversion to answering their phone. I was planning on going by myself, but Mom insisted that my brother come with me.

We took the elevator down to the main floor and I went and asked the front desk people the questions Mom had wanted me to ask—was there free WiFi in the rooms, could we use our calling card to phone home, and why couldn’t we get a hold of the front desk from our room phone?

They conveniently avoided answering the last question. It turned out there wasn’t free WiFi, and we also had to wait for the front desk to call our room with the calling card information—the man who knew the answer to our question was on break, of course. The woman at the front desk said she thought it was three to five dollars a call, flat-rate, but she wasn’t totally certain.

So me and my brother made our way upstairs again, and I relayed the information to my mom. She said that if it cost that much to make a phone call, I wasn’t going to be able to call my friend. I would have to wait until I could access free WiFi.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but that sent me into a panic attack. I started shaking, and tears began to run down my face no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. I was told off for being ridiculous and childish, which only really made me cry more.

I was like that for about ten minutes, reading my Bible in an attempt to calm myself down and drown my brother’s teasing and my mother’s reprimands out. She gave me a lecture on how my friend was old enough to take care of himself and understand that I might not be able to contact him for some sort of reason. I think it was meant to be comforting, but the short and frustrated way she gave the talking-to just upset me more.

She finally left to go get ready for bed, and when my brother also left to do the same, and I was alone, I just let myself cry. :P The stress just got too much. My mom was still planning on calling home as well. In my panicky state, I didn’t understand why she could do that, but I couldn’t make my own phone call, especially if I was willing to pay for it myself.

Then the phone rang. My mom answered it; it was the front desk. I sat there in the chair, struggling to compose myself. She hung up and reported that it was a two-dollar flat rate. There was a short silence, and then she consented, “I suppose that’s not too much; you can call your friend after I call home.”

A feeling of relief rushed over me for a while, but as Mom talked to Dad on the phone, I began to worry—what if my friend didn’t pick up? What would the number of the hotel show up as on the caller ID?

I got ready for bed, and then, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm my nerves—my hands were trembling something awful—I dialed my friend’s number. I felt thankful; I hadn’t been able to find the number saved anywhere on my laptop, but I now have his number memorized by now.

Google Voice (since that’s the method I tend to use to call him) asked me to verify my name. I said my name, and then the ringing started.

A few seconds later, I heard my friend’s voice on the other end, and the breath I had been holding came out in a relieved sigh. :P For the next forty minutes or so, I listened to him talk. I didn’t say much—my voice was still shaky from crying—but it made me a world calmer to hear his voice.

At some point during the call (I admit, when the time was nearing for me to hang up and attempt to sleep), I began to feel panicky again. My friend caught on quickly and started to remind me to take deep breaths.

Anyway, I soon had to go, as much as I dreaded it—my mom and brother wanted to start going to bed. I reluctantly said goodnight to my friend, on the verge of tears yet again.

I went to bed and read my Bible for a while. Then I looked at pictures on my laptop in an attempt to alleviate some of my homesickness (I have pictures of family—adopted and biological—in special folders for that very purpose). I’d like to say it worked a bit, but I think it also made me more homesick.

Mom told me to stop messing with my laptop and go back to reading, so I did, albeit reluctantly. Not too long after, we turned off the light.

My brother, who was sleeping in the armchair (me and Mom had the bed), said he had slept extremely well when I asked him this morning.

Mom and I weren’t so lucky. We were awake almost all the night, even though we were exhausted, and we both only got about two hours of sleep. Strangely enough, I’m not sleepy—just physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. *wry grin*

I have a lot of school to do; I’m praying the next hotel really does have free WiFi (my friend looked it up last night and told  me the site says there’s free WiFi), and that I have the energy to finish most of it.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures of the sky so far; I was enthralled by the sky from the plane, especially at sunrise and sunset. I also have videos of the plane landing. No pictures of me yet; don’t worry though, I’ll hopefully have pictures of myself when we get on the cruise ship.

I feel ashamed to admit it, but while I’m still excited about the cruise… I’m eagerly counting down the days before I’m finally home again. This little Hobbit isn’t used to adventures.

*smiles a bit* Then again, neither were the Hobbits in the Fellowship. They were just as out of place on their journey as I am here in Florida. They were just as homesick too, I reckon.

And while my heart still aches, I’m still somewhat excited—and there’s a lingering feeling of peace deep inside, because I know God is watching over me and the ones I love; and His will never sends us anywhere that His grace cannot follow.

(Added note: Here are some pictures from the next morning, showing the skyline outside the parking lot of our hotel.)

The sunrise coming up on the horizon,.

The pretty skyline.

The sky above our hotel view.

Golden clouds outside the hotel.

The hotel parking lot.

Day 1
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7