Jumping Fish and Sirens

On Wednesday, I went to the Bayside mall in Miami with Beth and Sue and can't say enough about their customer service. Both the clerks at Sam Goody and Suncoast Video couldn't have been more helpful, giving us circulars that outlined their sales and pointing us in the direction of some good buys. I bought “The Life Aquatic” at Suncoast Video and the clerk said, “I have a little surprise for you.” He then went to a box behind the counter and pulled out a “Life Aquatic” commemorative red stocking cap and gave it to me. I'm not sure if this is something you get for buying the DVD or he could sense how much I like free things, so don't get upset if you buy the DVD and don't get the hat. Beth and Sue were instantly enamored of the hat, and this is where the customer service really kicks in, because he went out back and gave them free hats as well. The Suncoast Video in Bayside will definitely be getting all of my movie purchase business in the future.

I wish all of our experiences at the mall were as positive. We ate at a Middle Eastern café in the food court and Beth's chicken kabob was uncooked in the center. To make matters worse, Sue found a piece of tiny piece of glass in her hummus (Sue lost the piece of glass after taking it out of her mouth, so we never had any hard evidence of its existence, but I believe that it did and not that Sue was trying to divert some of the attention Beth received for her uncooked chicken ordeal). We will not be eating there again.

Last night there was a crew party in what I can only describe as the ship's bowels. I'm not sure of the exact purpose of the room we were in, only that it contained a lot of rope and a punching bag. There were grates on the windows and we were able to look out onto the ship's wake. In all, it was a lot of fun (they had karaoke in English and Tatalog) and so we added another fun crew party to our belts.

This morning Randall, Sue and I went to the private island. We walked to the private beach Sue had discovered earlier (elapsed time: 30 minutes) and it was perfect. Nobody else was in sight, so you could trick yourself into thinking that you owned the island or that you were shipwrecked. We were sitting down when all of the sudden we noticed splashing about thirty yards away from the shore. The splashing got more frenetic and then died down, only to resume ten yards closer. We watched as the splashing approached the shore, and realized it was a school of fish trying to eat the minnows, who were swimming into more shallow waters where the bigger fish couldn't follow them. The larger fish were literally jumping out of the water in their attempts to get the minnows, and the three of us watched this depiction of nature's bloody food chain for several minutes (some gulls flew overhead, periodically diving in trying to snatch one of the fish). The whole thing seemed like the opening of a horror film where the dumb tourists watch a seemingly innocent scene of nature turn deadly. We were lucky that the fish didn't eat us.

There was another island about a quarter of a mile away, which I swam out to. I could have walked because the water never got deeper than four feet, but I didn't have my aqua socks and the ocean floor was covered with sea plants, and I didn't want to step on any coral/sea urchin again. The swim was more tiring than I expected, so I didn't explore the island as well as I could have. I was able to see tiny blue and yellow fish with my goggles, so it was well worth it.

On this cruise, there are three high school girls who are always singing. Randall had mentioned them earlier this week but I hadn't seen them until today. They were waiting in the line for the boat back to the ship, huddled over a walkman and singing “The Pina Colada Song.” Once you notice a passenger on the ship, you see them everywhere. A case in point: the woman sitting in the front row of the Sunday night show who enthusiastically raised her hand when asked if there was anybody who had sailed on the ship before. Since then I have seen her at the cha-cha lesson (her husband made a dumb joke about the instructor's accent, but I won't hold that against her), talking with one of the cruise director's staff by the pool, in the front row of our show last night, walking by the buffet line at the island today, and getting out of her seat during the magician's show tonight. I'm hoping that I see the singers around the ship more, and that their songs will somehow illustrate a theme for this week on the ship.