food.

It’s Thaaaaanksgiving week, so what better topic to cover than food??  To say that I love good food is an understatement; however I do NOT consider myself a foodie.  I don’t know the latest trends, I don’t know how to pronounce names of fancy foods, and I don’t know how to cook, BUT I love a good meal and I will try just about everything (except if it involves raw tomatoes and cantaloupe).  So this week, I decided to document everything that I eat to give you an idea of what hardship I am really going through…

Monday

Breakfast:  oatmeal (side story about this oatmeal...a few months ago I was at work and I decided to go ahead and get on Amazon to stock up on food for my next rotation, so I ordered some Nature's Path Organic flax seed, super good for you oatmeal.  I paid like $30 for 6 boxes, but I didn't really think about it because I just figured it was expensive since it said organic on the label.  Anyways, I got back from work and got to Brian's house where a GIGANTIC box was waiting for me in my online purchases stack.  I opened it to find 6 CASES of oatmeal, which contained 6 boxes each with 8 packets...that's 288 packets of oatmeal.  So yeah, I eat oatmeal everyday.  I eat oatmeal in my room and then bring a quest bar (pretty much the best protein bars you will EVER eat) to my desk to have as a mid-morning snack, but it hardly ever lasts past 8AM.

Lunch:  PIZZA; I LIVE for pizza day.  It’s this simple thin crust (flatbread type) with marinara and cheese.  I have no self-control on pizza day…Monday I ate 5 pieces.

Dinner:  cup-o-noodles.  Mr. Lee, the I&E inspector that was onshore with me is now working offshore.  He left Tuesday and starting offloading all of his leftover snacks, so I’m stocked with noodle-bowls, Malaysian version, which I LOVE because I can sit in bed and eat noodles while watching TV….reminds me of my college days!  This also cuts out 1 trip down/up stairs to the mess hall, I’m that lazy. 

Tuesday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and a cookie dough quest bar (yes, it tastes like cookie dough...)

Lunch:  “salad” (shredded cabbage, sometimes carrots but not today), pickled beets, steamed cabbage with some other veggies, soup (leftover noodles from last night’s pasta and beef, I think)

Dinner: rice, beans, and questionable meat – I think it was pork

Wednesday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and a cookies & cream quest bar (yes, it tastes like cookies & cream...)

Lunch:  salad (cabbage and beets), spaghetti which wasn’t that bad and I can’t tell if it really wasn’t that bad or I’m just getting used to barfy food. 

Dinner:  My dinner salad was SUPER exciting because they had olives!  It ALMOST felt like I had the relish tray from Nana’s house, even though they were non-pitted olives, it was still special J  I also had slimy pork, which was questionable, but I scarfed it down anyway. 

Thursday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and a double chocolate chunk quest bar (this one is my favorite...I dip it in my coffee, YUM)

Lunch: LUNCH ON THE DRILLING RIG!!!  O.M.G.  Steak, French fries, shrimp, steamed veggies, turkey and gravy, baked potato, AND strawberry pie.  I ate until I couldn’t breathe.  I out-ate the 4 other people that I was with by an entire plate (went back for 2nds and 3rds  OH – and I came back to the sweetest surprise (literally), a gigantic Toblerone chocolate bar.  It was a Happy Thanksgiving gift from one of the South Africans in my office.  It took everything I had not to open it immediately!

Dinner:  I actually skipped dinner.  I can’t believe it, but I couldn’t even think about eating again after my gluttonous lunch.

The icing on the cake Thursday was that I got to see everyone (turkey and pies, too) at Nana and Papa’s right before they were sitting down to supper!  Our internet sucks sooo bad, and I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to see everyone on Thanksgiving BUT we had our own Thanksgiving miracle out here.  Makes me wonder if they purposefully turn off/slow down the internet all the time to keep us from doing anything but work, hmmmm….

Friday

Breakfast:  oatmeal – skipped my quest bar because I was STILL full.

Lunch:  back to blah – broccoli, cabbage soup and slimy pork

Dinner:  vegetable soup (the cabbage soup leftover from lunch with some carrots thrown in…)   

Saturday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and cookies & cream quest bar

Lunch:  Saturday lunch is a close 2^nd to pizza day.  We have hamburgers and French fries every Saturday afternoon.  The hamburgers are OK, I douse mine with ketchup (the ONLY condiment we have, literally), but the French fries are heavenly - crispy, deliciousness.  Sadly, I have zero self-control on my French fry portions.  It’s starting to get out of hand…

Dinner:  cup-o-noodles….Saturday was a looooong day with lots of stairs, so I couldn’t take any more 

Sunday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and

Lunch: bean soup and rice

Dinner:  leftover bean soup and rice....today was a particularly rough day.

So that's it...a week in the life on the Camelot.  All I can say is thank goodness for French fries!


Most everyone out here is new to me.  There are a handful of folks that I met/knew before coming offshore, but for the most part I’m the “new” person.  So this hitch it’s just been getting to know all my co-workers and asking all the get-to-know-you questions…where are you from, where do you live now, where did you go to school, omg-do you know such-and-such…the usual conversation starters.  One question that’s worked its way into my every day convos is “where are you going to eat first when you get home?”  Given the food sitch, it’s usually a GREAT topic of conversation that makes everyone happy!  And a bonus is that I’ve learned of LOTS of new place to eat when I get back to Houston ;) 

I'm officially over halfway done.  There's nothing better than being on the downhill side of 5-weeks at work.  The bonus this trip is there's only 26 days until CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

19 days down, 16 to go!  xoxo… 

 

laundry.

This week has been like night and day compared to last.  I guess all these veterans out here were right, it just takes a few days to adjust to the rocking of the boat and then you’re good.  I still get a little woozy getting on the transfer boats, but luckily I only have to get on those for 5 or 10 minutes and it’s not every day. 

It’s been a weird week with the aftermath of the France tragedy from last Saturday.  It’s so strange to think that I was just there a month ago taking in the gorgeous city.  We have Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, Angolan, American, French, Canadian, Nigerian, and South African (I’m probably missing a few…) folks out here with all different religious and cultural backgrounds and there are no issues.  In fact walking on the platform is actually really pleasant (minus the ridiculous amount of stairs).  It’s just such a shame that these extremist are putting so much fear in our world that is simply NOT necessary.  Needless, to say this act of terror will not stop me from returning to the city of lights!  But enough of that…. 

I’m going to try and write a little something random about life onboard each week, and this week’s topic is laundry – super exciting.  The laundry here is quite different from the laundry in Malongo.  In Malongo, you put your laundry in a bag and it is returned washed, cleaned, and folded by the next day at lunchtime.  It was super annoying because they put these little tags on every piece of clothing, but that was their way of tracking things.  Here on the Camelot, you put your laundry in a bag, they wash it IN the bag, and it is returned that same day at lunchtime.  However, there is no folding and my clothed literally look like someone wadded them up and put them in a George Foreman grill.  SO wrinkly that I can’t wear them.  As a result, my new hobby is ironing.  The captain told us ladies (all 6 of us) on the boat that we can use the secret laundry room anytime do to laundry separately, so I took my first trip on Wednesday night and spent about 45 minutes ironing.  I will be an expert ironer by the time I’m done out here, my mom will be so proud – Chad too!

I tried to upload photos for last week’s blog and failed.  My phone has to be connected to wifi to get the photos transferred, and the wifi here is SO bad that it’s just not going to happen.  On that note, if anyone is trying to iMessage me, it’s a 20/80 chance that the wifi is working for me to receive any form of communication via my cell phone.  AND I also tried to upload photos that I took this week, and the internet on my computer is so slow I can't even do that. 

Well, I think that's enough complaining for now...life is good, and time is flying.  I can't ask for much more :) 

12 days down, 23 to go!  xoxo… 

planes, trains, and automobiles...now boats!

Ohhhh my goodness, where do I even begin?!  Let me preface this by saying that I have never, ever been so busy in my life.  I honestly thought today was Monday all day and just accepted the fact that I missed uploading a blog.  About 6PM I realized that it was Sunday, so I started getting some things down on paper.  I arrived in camp on Tuesday, spent the night and headed out to the boat Wednesday morning.  I spent the next 2 days trying to keep myself together and act professional when really I was dyyyyyying from motion sickness.  I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and had to work – my worst nightmare.  BUT by the grace of God I woke up Saturday morning (after a 10-hour slumber) and felt like a human again!!  I am beyond grateful to not feel nauseous and have a splitting headache because my work hours have gone from 6AM-6PM to all day-ish.  I haven’t gotten back to my room before 8 since I arrived, and I can’t imagine that will slow down anytime soon. 

All that being said….I am actually REALLY enjoying things – minus feeling horrible and working 24/7.  There is SO much to learn out here, I just have to remind myself that this is a once in a lifetime (hopefully) opportunity and I need to take it all in while I can!  I also have to think this way or else I will go insane…KIDDING, kind of…

Anyhoo….let’s get caught up! 

I landed back in the US of A just shy of 6-weeks ago, and headed straight to CA to spend a week with my babe.  We had a wedding the Friday I got back, subsequently spent Saturday lounging, and then decided it would be a good idea to redo the flowerbeds on Sunday.  Let me tell you – digging up 100-year old roots is NOT fun, BUT the end result was pretty impressive!  The next Friday, I planned to drive down to LA and catch a flight from LAX to San Antonio, but naturally there was just another natural disaster ruining my plans to drive from Bakersfield to LA.  California had been getting rain all day, and the mountain range between Bako and LA was basically falling apart and mudslides covered both the highways shutting everything down.  So I ended up buying a last minute plane ticket from Bakersfield to San Antonio just so I could see my sweet baby cousin, Sammy Sam, play during his senior year of high school football.  Friday night was a ball – Mexican food, Sam’s team winning the game – right up until I was up all night enjoying my Mexican food dinner coming right back up.  So instead of having a Saturday full of college football, pizza, and beer with the fam, I was asleep on the couch.  But I have to admit that anytime spent with my family is good time J

There was no way I was going to miss this trip to Paris, so we woke up Sunday morning and headed to the airport.  I’m pretty sure the first class flight over healed me, because we landed at 8AM and hit the ground running.  We checked into our adorable hotel in Montmarte and jumped right on a double decker tour bus (city #5).  We rode around until we reached the Eiffel Tower and just had to get off there.  My first glimpse of the landmark is absolutely something that I will never forget.  The lines to go up were outrageous, so we walked all around the grounds and then stopped at our first sidewalk café for lunch. 

After lunch, spent the rest of the day on the bus and spotted all the other major sites – Arche de Triompe, the Louvre, Notre Dame.  We ended up back at the Eiffel Tower just in time to see it start sparkling…..and at that moment I fell in love with Paris!  We wondered back to Montmarte and stumbled upon the BEST corner café for nightcaps…which we ended up going back to a few more times J

Day 2 we accidently slept in a liiiittle longer than expected, but jumped out of bed and headed up to Sacre Coure.  Now, there is a very clear sign outside the church that says NO PHOTOS, and believe it or not (MOM) I followed the rules and didn’t take a single photo…even though everyone around me was taking them, rude.  Anyways, the outside is a beautiful white but the inside is just breathtaking – you’ll just have to see for yourself!  We then headed to Notre Dame – also WAY more beautiful inside than I was expecting, and were planning to go to Saint Chapelle, but the line was too long so we enjoyed an hour or so on a sidewalk café before hitting Champs de Elysees for some shopping!  We jumped on a river boat for a little cruise and ended up in the Latin Quarter wondering around for a place for dinner.  Ironically, we stopped at a cute little Italian place and that is where we had our first taste of Bordeaux wine, and that was the beginning of the end!  Latin area, Italian restaurant, and French wine – we felt so cultured! 

Day 3 we headed to Versailles, which was blow your mind amazing!  I remember going to Hearst Castle in California and just being in awe of the magnitude of the place.  Well, I hate to say it, but Heart has NOTHING on Versailles.  Carol and I walked around for several hours, and at one point I just said that we have to leave because I simply couldn’t take in anymore greatness.  That, and my feet were killing me from the 5+ miles we walked – I think Carol ended up clocking in 25,000 steps on day 3 J.    

Back in Paris, we did a little shopping in Montmarte and headed to the steps of Sacre Coure to watch the sun go down and the lights of the city start sparling – while drinking a delicious bottle of Bordeaux!  It was kind of strange because here we were on the steps of one of the most gorgeous churches I’ve ever been in, and we were in the middle of a huge crowd hanging out watching the sun go down over cocktails.  You would have thought that we were at a really popular bar or restaurant that has great views J  From there we jumped on the subway determined to see all the big sights lit up in the night, and I’d call it a success!

We got back to San Antonio Thursday evening and I got to spend some more time at Ma and Pa’s house before heading to Dallas for a few days.  I thought I was going to just have 1-night in San Antonio, but thanks to rain (and my excellent luck with air travel) my flight was cancelled and I got to spend another night in SA (after 4+hours in the airport…).  BUT I made it safely to Dallas in time for some KENO with my Mom and her fabulous friends + “the daughter’s” Taylor and Jenna.  I remember growing up being locked in the back of the house when Mom had Keno night.  We weren’t allowed to be a part of the shenanigans, but we definitely heard all the cackling.  Now, at 28 years old, I get to be a part of the cackling, and I just LOVE it!

 My time in Dallas flew by, but I was able to heard over to Arlington for the afternoon with Nana and Papa to visit with my Aunt Bettie and Uncle Jim over lunch.  Jim took the DFW Honor Flight to Washington DC in October, and I couldn’t wait to hear all about it!  In typical Jim fashion, he didn’t say much, but he said enough to know that he enjoyed the trip J  After lunch, we headed over to a new Vietnam War Memorial at a park in Arlington.  The dedication for the memorial had occurred the day before we were there, and while we were walking around the sculptor that created the monument walked up – what are the odds??  It was a really great afternoon J

After a few days rest in Dallas, I headed to New Orleans for a loooong weekend.  I don’t have enough time to give the trip justice, so here are the highlights (mostly about food)…

Day 1 – Napolean House for a mufaletta and Pimm’s cup, first glimpse of Bourbon, dinner at Mr. Bs, lost money at Harrah’s

Day 2 – Ammmmazing breakfast at Surrey’s on Magazine street, WW2 Museum (TOP NOTCH, this is a must see!), Napolean House (again – poboys, gumbo), Café du Monde (first taste of biegnet), Jackson Square, River front, Drago’s (chargrilled oysters, OMG), Café Biegnet (better than du monde),  looong night on Bourbon…

Day 3 – Poboys (breakfat) in the park, double decker tour bus (city #6), flea market (apple cinnamon benignets), dinner Pesche (holy moly, delicious)

Day 4 – Halloween! Court of 2 sisters (buffet breakfast, AH-mazing), lost more money at Harrah’s, Royal Oyster House for dinner (YUM), Halloween on Bourbon…in the rain…yikes!

Day 5 – Chad basically had to drag me to the airport just to have a delayed flight and missed connection in Houston – what else is new ;)

My last week I spent recuperating in Bakersfield with Chad and catching up with one of my dear friends Carrie and her sweet almost 2-year old Addalee.  It is absolutely amazing how time flies.  I feel like it was just yesterday that we were getting Carrie married off, and that was 3 years ago November 3^rd!  I’ve come to realize that I really like having some “downtime” the week before I head back to work…I wonder if I will remember that when I plan my next time off ;) 

I will trrrrry and upload some photos sometime this week, and I’ll be working on my time management skills to make sure I’m on time with my Sunday blog next week.  One thing I’ve realized over the past 5 days is that I need to get back to being a litttttle more organized!

5 days down, 30 to go!  xoxo…