So a lot has happened in the last few weeks. So here's the skinny on my trip. On Oct 26, I flew out of SFO to London Heathrow Airport to take a shuttle bus to Southampton to board Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas for an 11 day Cruise to Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands.

Destinations:
Southampton, England - home port
Funchal, Madeira
Tenerife, Canary Islands
Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Lanzarote, Canary Islands
Lisbon, Portugal
Vigo, Spain

Facts n' Bits:
- There were 15 people in our group and boy were they noisy.
- My dad organized this trip.
- Dad brought fish sauce with him to dinner.
- Auntie Tra brought Chinese garlic chili sauce to dinner.
- I roomed with a girl (Angela) I hadn't seen in over 5  years but have known since I was a child.
- The ship was (understatement) ginormous... accomodated ~4,500 guests and 1,300 crew members.
- I lost 3 lbs instead of gaining 3 lbs like most cruisers would.
- I missed home and the kitties.
- I didn't miss dancing as much as I thought I would.
- The weather was mild in all ports.
- Lisbon and Vigo were my favorites on this trip and I would love to go back again one day.
- I met the man of my dreams.
- I didn't want to come back to work.
- I wish I'd taken the transatlantic crossing to Florida.
- I'm already trying to plan my next cruise.
- I :heart: paella!
- I :heart: food.
- I need to finish watching PS I Love You
- Ang and I were reminded of studio portrait days (HS) while we took photos on the ship.
- Now that I'm home, I'm itching to go somewhere else again.
- I spent a total of 12 mins on the net during the trip using wireless from my stateroom.
- I got 2 text messages and no calls
- I made friends with a few crew members and talked to lots of UK folk.
- One of the families I befriended were a pair of UK twins (Teresa & Victoria) , their mum (Patty) and the twins 4 sons (2 each - V's Sebastian & Cameron, T's Bailey & Beau)
- When Ang and I went to the Windjammer for breakfast on the day we ported in Lisbon, we thought we were home b/c the Golden Gate's sister bridge was visible from our dock.
- We watched 2 ice skating shows, 2 production shows, and 1 comedian
- We ate at Johnny Rockets once and played in the arcade once.
- 5 laps around deck 12 is a mile and I spent a lot of time on deck 12 on sea days enjoying the breeze and listening to my ipod.
- "Breeze" on deck 12 is an understatement. I thought I was going to get carried away at times or that my flipflops would fly off my feet.
- I found my way to the helipad deck (5ish bow of the ship) on one of our last at-sea days and sat there for about 20 minutes enjoying the view. When I looked up at the bridge (10ish) as I was going back inside, someone in uniform waved at me while drinking his coffee.
- Sachin was a great assistant waiter for table #103 at main seating in the Macbeth dining room.
- Nino was a great photographer and was very generous with his time. He tried to convince us that the mortuary was on the 6th floor - our floor. The night he mentioned it, Ang and I kept hearing weird noises from the walls... o_O;;
- Michelle from South Africa was a great shopping helper.
- My NorthFace Windwall 2 jacket is one of the best investments EVER.
- The hardest decisions to make on this trip were what to wear to dinner.
- Thanks to Rocky, whenever I think of dessert I think of "Yummy Yummy Time!"
- The purple dress from Fredericks was a hit.
- My favorite photo prop was the gold frame and I wished the photos with the tiger turned out better.
- I can't forget when we were in Lisbon and dad was cranky to go home after we'd all gotten off the tour bus to walk around and do souvenir shopping. Taxis tried to charge us 15 Euro because we were tourists to take us back to the ship. Dad said screw that so we hopped on the Metro, tried to talk to Portugese people about where we were and where we were headed, couldn't pay for our metro fare, jumped off 3 stops later and had to walk for almost an hour to get back to the ship.
- The teenagers on the ship were slutty and obnoxious and smoked a lot. And did their parents know they were out until at least 3am? I saw them running in the halls and sitting in the stairways. -_- and yes, I'd know that they were up at ungodly hours b/c I was up too... but I'm older! so there! :P
- I had strawberry ice cream from Ben & Jerry's on Halloween and took a lovely picture with mom.
- Some of my best memories are from Olive n Twist.
- I know how to say a few things in Croatian including "dragi moja".
- There were a lot of Indian curries in the Windjammer Cafe during lunch.
- I had a little corned beef hash every morning for breakfast along with a piece of wheat toast w/ Jam or Nutella, scrabled eggs or a small omelette, and a strawberry yogurt... and maybe a piece of sausage.
- I ate dessert every night and most of the time after lunch.
- I was only slightly sick the first morning on the ship but it went away as soon as I had something to eat.
- The Independence did a transatlantic crossing in 13 days with stops in Europe and the Caribbean before making it's current home port in Ft Lauderdale for which my parents stayed on board. It will now stay in the Caribbean until April.
- I wonder why everyone on the ship thought I was filipino...

Okay.. that's a big list, huh? I'm probably missing a lot of things but these are what stand out in my mind right now.

I got my dresses from Fredericks. They're pretty cute. I gotta find a tube top or something for one of them b/c the back is SO open. I showed Kristina yesterday and she gave me a thumbs up. So I'll wear one of them for the evening portion of Freestyles which is 70s themed. Yay :D

( I had a good lesson with Dustin. )

I wish it involved me and Dustin, but it doesn't. ^_-

I went to see the House Bunny with Angela on Saturday. ( I was standing outside of the theater waiting for her... )

On Thursday, I took Foxy class which was taught by Dustin (imagine dancing to like.. "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye or "Slow Dance" by John Legend.. sorta sultry and slow) and my goodness... it was hot. lol. it's a sort of.. cuddly and close dance, of course, depending on your partner. Half way into class, Dustin's all in my personal space. Not that I'm complaining (because I would NEVER :D) The lesson afterward went well. We just worked on getting ready for showcase on Sept 20 :D If you anyone's in the area (Foster City), feel free to stop by and watch. I'm dancing 11 times! My most ever. Up 'til now, all of the freestyles I've done, I only participated in 5 dances at most during the day. But I decided to go for more this time around :D In a way, I enjoy freestyles more b/c the day moves along more readily. It's not sitting and watching a single person dance. It's constant heat rotations and level changes. I think b/c I'm doing a closed smooth dance, I'll get to dance earlier than I did in the past.

I had my lesson with Juan last night and I haven't had one with him in a while. I didn't get to have one last week either b/c of my leg (which is doing much better btw).

( so I came in at 7:15 )

just venting...

1) We all know it's your uterus. Repeating it while pointing at the photo doesn't help..
2) Please don't mention your child's noticing of his grandpa's privates while we're eating.
3) There's no need to bring attention to other people's physical aspects increasing or decreasing as of late. That's their business. Not yours.

sometimes.. some people are just too much for me. Sort of like Sandy. But this one just says the weirdest things as if it's normal. I think it's partially an act though. She just says whatever and half the time, it embarrasses 75% of us in the group (3 out of 4). So in any case, lunches lately have been awkward cousin free for the most part. Maybe just down to once a week because that's about all I can take.. well, and another 25% agrees, although i'm not sure what the additional 25% thinks. It was about to be one of those awkward times today. The AC (awkward cousin) invited me out for lunch to a place I'd never say no to... but I had to! so I had lunch awkwardness free! :D I don't think I can keep that up for long though. It's just that the hormones or comfortableness of the situation is allowing AC to just speak... too much.

So at the Counter in Santana Row with double T, we sat inside and I noticed that Tam was looking outside a lot. I figured he was looking at a hot girl (typical of him) so I wanted to see. I turned around and kept looking and in my line of sight was this table with 4 guys and the one facing me was really hot/handsome/sexy. lol. a little scruffy with bright blue eyes. Just a very attractive face. So I happened to see him and was drawn in by his eyes. I was mesmerized and he looked right back at me. I suddenly realized it must've looked so obvious that I was staring so I turned away and told double T how suddenly embarrassed I was. So Thuy looked at who I was talking about and right then, I did it again. I looked and so did blue-eyes. O_O ack! And Thuy said "oOh .. yeah. I saw that." and he laughed. I swear it was an accident that I was looking at him. I still couldn't figure out who Tam was looking at. As I was about to turn back around to face Tam, I glanced at blue-eyes one last time and he was looking again. ugh. I sound like such a school girl getting all flustered over something so silly. He was just really cute :D

I was dancing a crazy/jumpy East Coast Swing with Juan on Friday night and suddenly I got a charley horse in my right calf muscle. Since I was mid-motion, almost as soon as it happened, I put my foot back down on the ground and not slowly. So I think my calf muscle snapped out of the contracted position. It gave a *pop* sensation. It wasn't as painful at first, but when I sat down and touched my leg, it sent stabs of pain through my leg. So I just sat for a few minutes to let it relax. Juan went to get me ice but came back with a can of coke from the fridge. "We don't have any ice, but I do have a cold coke." I thanked him and promptly shoved the coke up my pant leg and let it sit with my calf. Then by the end of the night, I decided I couldn't drive home (walking was hard enough already). So Angela offered to drive me. What a sweet heart. And Juan called out Chris S. and David to carry me to the car! I jumped out of my chair "Heck no!" and started to hobble like a demon out of the studio. Everyone that was still there laughed b/c they couldn't believe how fast I was moving. I was completely uncomfortable with the idea of them carrying me. Then David shouted "STOP!!" and I turned around and he came to me with Kristina's rolling desk chair and made me sit. I finally got to Angela's car and she got me home.

I spent Saturday and Sunday vegging, eating, and watching anime. Moyashimon is pretty cute :D Wish it was longer tho. Kind of a strange series but the microbes are super cute :D Anyway. I should invest in some multivitamins and potassium/calcium pills. I don't get charley horses very often, but they do happen once in a while. I think I just over-exerted my muscles at that time because the night before, I was doing a Lindy Hop dance class and I spent almost all of it jumping around. My leg muscles weren't used to it. I was just desperately hoping that it wasn't permanent damage since it'd happened to my dad's right bicep (he now has a popeye arm because of a torn/stretched tendon). I'll probably just skip classes 'til Thursday when I have my lesson and even then, just take it easy. When I flex my leg now, it still hurts a bit.. well, more like sore. but it's okay.

Can you believe, D didn't even notice until the end of the party. And even then, he wasn't all that sympathetic. He did give me 2 hugs. But that's it. Katie quietly asked "Did someone step on you???" It was funny.

Before class started, Sandy came up to me and said "( You know what? )"

Dustin called yesterday to confirm our lesson and I asked what we were going to work on. He said we'd probably work on the ChaCha routine. I said "Oh no" out loud but unintentionally. And he asked what was wrong. I replied that I was frustrated with how poorly I executed the entire dance. It looked so sloppy and confusing when I watched it again.

After Samba group class, we had our lesson and before we started, ( the convo went like this )

This entry includes the anecdote I would have mentioned from last night but also includes what happened today.

I came into the office ready to tell L and J about how cute Dustin was again. I went to visit L and proceeded to tell her ( the following story: )