I'm just a twentysomething with the constant urge to be somewhere new...I'm not sure exactly when I got bitten, all I know is the more I try to cure it, the more infected with the travel bug I become.
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Starting Over... online
Hello to all!! So after having wayyyy too many platforms for my travel writing I have decided to start from scratch and back date my posts so it all runs in order and finally have my own travel blog. So bare with me whilst I update all of this and get ‘One Womans Wanderlust’ up and running! :)
As someone who constantly daydreams about the next time I can visit somewhere new and is always planning another trip I thought it’s about time I put my thoughts and feelings into one place and maybe help someone else out there who has also been bitten by the travel bug!
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Harmony struggles
My apologies for not writing in a while it has been crazy busy here! It's an emotional roller coaster being on ship. We've already lost two girls and my roommate Sally (who was actually my roommate at the YMCA also) has decided to leave when we next dock in Southampton! I'm really gutted because we get on so well!! The set up was hard work there was a lot of waiting around and things not being finished properly but finally we were ready to set off to Southampton!!! On the way we started doing treatments on the crew it was great to get going doing treatments I loved it!! But since it's been harder than ever! We are currently in the second of our 3 mini cruises. Our manager is very strict and I'm the only brand new hire so the pressure is on! If we don't have an 8am appointment for the next day we have to come in at 7am for a lecture and if we haven't made our 20% retail we have to have an hours 'class' after work... I'm brand new to selling and to ship life it feels a bit brutal at the moment. I have gone through fazes of wanting to leave, there has been a lot of false promises which is really frustrating! I am just hoping when we get to Europe on proper cruises we will make some money because at the minute we aren't. Fingers crossed things improve but I will keep you updated!!! X
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Harmony of the Seas
So one week has gone although it feels like much more!!!It's not a normal situation here at all and there is so much to tell you all even though very little time has passed. So I arrived at my ship on Monday 2nd in the afternoon, it's Steiner policy that you must turn up in business wear. So there I was at the biggest ship in the world, in my heels and I get handed a hard hat... Yup a hard hat. The ship was still in the yard and was basically a building site!!! Ever since then we wear overalls and a hard hat all the time. It's very glamourous! Though it's finally coming together, we have spent our time emptying pallets, building furniture and cleaning the spa! I'm not going to lie it's had been damn hard work, we are all exhausted and haven't had a day off yet. But we are all looking forward to customers arriving so we can get going, though the longer it is the more nervous I get. I just want to get on with it now :) The girls here are lovely though and I've made plenty of friends although my roommate hasn't arrived yet!! I am still getting lost though I can now get to the mess from my room and back alone :) haha! It's so hard getting your barings on a ship. Anyway I best get some sleep because I have like my tenth training session tomorrow, I've covered alsorts from 'The Royal Way' to emergency procedures. I will keep you all up to date :) x Ps. I'm unfortunately not allowed to post photos of the ship yet but as soon as I can I will!!
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My Turn!!!
So it finally came, my details day! Though to be fair I didn't have to wait as long as some of the girls. One girl in my class had been there nine weeks! Nine! I'm not sure I could've coped in the YMCA for that long!So Thursday came along and I was told I had a ship hurray! By this point I wasn't that bothered where it was but prior to the YMCA I had hoped for the Royal Caribbean - Oasis of the Seas because well because it looked beautiful, it was a big ship with a park onboard and everything. Just amazing. So there's about twenty of us from all sections of the industry in the conference room eagerly waiting to find out what ships we were being sent too. Who do they call out first? Me! 'Laura Hepworth, congratulations you've got Harmony of the Seas' everyone starts whispering. That's when one girl said to me, you do realise that's the brand new ship!!! That's right so here I am sat in the airport waiting for my flight to France to board the brand new ship. I'll be helping set up for three weeks before its maiden voyage on 22nd May. I have never been so pleased and excited in my entire life!!! I feel so lucky to be given this opportunity! Nervous but so excited! So here begins the next nine months of my life... Will keep you posted! X
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Week one, completed
I don't even know where to start with this past week! Half of me is yeyyyyy I made it!! The other have is like oh my goodness it's only been a week?! It feels like I've been here for a month. We have covered so much in class, revised every night, got into a new routine and the friends I've made I already feel close too and I've not known them very long. The YMCA isn't great but you learn to love it's quirks, like everyone sitting in the corridor on an evening attempting to get wifi chatting away, though it has its downsides like doors slamming through the night and sharing a bathroom with six people! It's quite a culture shock here. My new routine is to get up at 6.10 get dressed put my hair up and makeup on, go to the ironing room at 6.30 when it opens iron my uniform (which I will have washed in the sink the night before) get dressed catch the bus at 7, get to the training academy have breakfast and let the chaos of information roll! Thursday's are an interesting day, as Thursday's are details day. This is the day when people find out what ships they are going on, but, the catch is you never know which Thursday will be your turn. So for those who have been here over two weeks Wednesday evening is filled with excitement and hope that tomorrow could be their turn. Come Thursday morning it's stress fear and dread that it could be their turn. Somehow it's like better the devil you know. We know it's bad here at the YMCA but you get used it! One of my roommates Sally got her details last Thursday is was all very exciting, however she boarded her ship Friday, yep the next day! So it was very chaotic. Whereas some get a couple of days to prepare, so it's all surrounded by unknowns. But you just learn to roll with it! To be honest this week has gone so fast it's been a blur. I now have another new roommate she's from Ireland, so it's back to three of us fighting over the mirror on a morning, but luckily we all get along. And I am no longer a newbie :) hurray! Chat soon, will keep you updated, thanks for reading!!
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Let the Training Begin...
Starting work on a cruise ship isn't as easy as people may think... At least not in the spa industry. As a nail technician I have to go through a few weeks of training in London (after passing the gruelling interview). Training can be anywhere from two weeks to ten depending on what area of the spa you will be working in and when your ship is ready for you. And your nine month contract doesn't start until you board the ship. So I will keep you up to date with the process. I am currently sat in my room in the YMCA, there's not enough storage for all three of us to have our things in wardrobes and cupboards so I've hung up my business outfit and everything else is shoved in my bag under my bed... It could be a long few weeks! I have met my first roommate, she's Italian and seems very friendly, the other is yet to return from her days training, here at training it can be seven days a week. My day tomorrow will begin at 6.15am! So for now, speak soon! X
room for three!
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All good things must come to an end
So to start with I want to apologise for the late update, I unfortunately picked up a bug in Sri Lanka and so have been laid in bed since I got home. But I am finally on the mend :) and just so grateful that I didn't start to feel unwell until my last day so it didn't spoil my trip!
My last day was incredible, I went to the children's centre to say my final goodbyes and thank them for having me for the past two weeks. All the teachers and children gathered round to thank me and prayed for me and blessed me for coming to help them! It was actually really emotional, which I really didn't expect to feel, as I hadn't been there for that long. It's amazing how involved you can feel after just two weeks. I gave Atali a present of my nail varnishes, a nail file, some nail varnish remover and a dotting tool. She seemed over the moon, I said thank you to her mum and dad, who are the owners. I gave all the teachers big hugs. It was just a beautiful way to say goodbye to everyone and so unexpected. I will never forget that.
In the afternoon all the girls that I had spent my weekends with came to Mount Lavinia to say goodbye, it was a pretty stormy day so we went out for coffee and cake and literally spent hours chatting and laughing. I am really going to miss these girls, to say two weeks ago I never knew they existed, I feel like I have known them for years, we all got on so well! You would never think that we were from different countries, with completely different backgrounds and different ages. It has taught me so much! In the evening me and Ida treat our host brothers to pizza for tea and we all sat round watching a film.
Its strange to start with I thought I was going to struggle, I thought the two weeks may even go quite slowly or be difficult but by the end it had flown by. I can safely say it was the best experience of my life!
I will never forget:
Arriving in Sri Lanka and suddenly realising I had flown across the world to do this... alone!
First meeting my host dad who was so friendly and welcoming
The way the fan followed us around the host house because they didn't want us to be too warm
Playing in the ball pit with one of the children and him giggling and smiling so much
Atalis face when I first painted her nails
Having a leech stuck to my arm... and my embarrassing freak out because of this!
Swimming in the rainforest!
Climbing a mountain!
The beautiful sunsets
Everyone being obsessed with my white skin... including Ida who said she had literally never seen anyone as pale as me!
Fascinating the girls with words like Brolly and Dawdling
Us all singing to nouties songs in the minibus
Fitting five of us in one tuk tuk!
How proud I am of myself
For anyone out there who is thinking of trying an experience like this, go for it! I have no negatives to say, yes it is hard work it's not really a holiday but it is the most rewarding thing you can do, you will make good friends and have so many laughs. Some of the realisations will make you cry. A lot of people thought I was mad just going for two weeks, that it wasn't enough time, but every minute of your time that you can give is worth it and I think I have proved you can do a lot in two weeks. I managed to see half of Sri Lanka, even if I did spend a lot of time sleeping on buses and I made some children smile and hopefully made a little bit of a difference to their lives!
So thank you for all who have followed this adventure and a huge thank you again to all those who donated and sponsored me! Also a big thank you to Theo and Mollie who are one of my customers two beautiful children who went through their books and gave me loads to take with me, those books have started a library for disadvantaged children!
I hope you enjoy the pictures and until next time, keep dreaming and keep smiling!
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Day Thirteen
I decided to move into the autism class today as I have worked with the little ones and with the Down's syndrome children. So I was quite nervous about my day and I was aching like crazy from Adams peak, the muscles in my legs felt like they could snap any minute! We were waddling everywhere!I never realised they had 4 staff members in this class! That's how severe the students are! At first I thought I may have made the wrong decision as there was one kid at the window shaking his hands, another pacing up and down another laughing to herself and then one came right up to my face and just stared at me... I was thinking oh no! I can't do this! But it was too late I just had to cope the best I could. The day actually went well, once I'd got to know who was in the class they put me with a little boy who also has problems with his legs and had plastic supports on them. I walked around with him to strengthen his legs and get his balance, did arts and crafts and went in the sensory room, he loved the ball pit, it was lovely to see him laughing! I actually felt useful and like I was really needed, it was a lovely feeling!Host mum and dad were leaving today for a trip to the national park so I had to say my goodbyes to them! It was actually quite emotional and I didn't think it would be, they kept hugging me and gave me their details so I could stay in touch and told me to come back and bring my family with me. Host mum even gave me cake to take home for my family. They are so lovely!!! I think I will actually miss them!
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Day Twelve
I slept so well I was exhausted! We had a buffet tea at a posh hotel last night, it was so good!! Today is just a chill out day really, we wanted to see the temple of tooth which we did but we didn't realise it was full moon so it was crazy busy and really hot! We met some more of the girls that we went away with last weekend too and went shopping! We just goofed around a bit which was great because through the week is so serious and we've not been sleeping properly it was nice to totally relax and have a good laugh! We decided to all get a minibus home together it was more than the train and buses but so much more comfortable! And less stressful. I am so glad we did what a laugh!! We were chatting and laughing and joking the whole way back. We even played some games including the music game where you guess the song name and artist, we did old school songs and had a bit of a rave in the car. Outside was lit up with fairy lights with it being full moon which added to the atmosphere. I had such a fun time!!! Even though it was a five hour car journey with no stops! Happy happy happy! 😆
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Day Eleven
3.30am is not a fun time of day, so tired! We didn't bother eating just headed out at 4am with our torches for the big climb! Adams peak is 7359 feet high, it's a 7km trail and is more or less all stairs to get up, just over 5500 steps!!! It was brutal I'm not going to lie, going up killed your thighs I definitely felt the burn and coming down got to your knees! We got up in 3 hours, we stopped to watch the sunrise part way up, it was beautiful! We saw lots of birds and butterflies. The top was extremely disappointing... We were told there was a temple on top, which you imagine to be beautiful with gold etc, no it was an run down yellow building... I was gutted! But the views on the way down thankfully made it better!! We could see right over Sri Lanka, we watched the clouds break over the mountains. Just gorgeous! Though we did get growled at by a pack of 5 dogs... Just our luck! But we survived!! We are now on our way to Kandy, I tell you no quiet moments on these weekends! We literally got to the hotel, had breakfast, showered and were straight to the train station! My legs are seriously seizing up now!
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Day Ten
Hectic day today really, it was quite stormy this morning but has stopped now thankfully. Work this morning was quite awkward as the owner came into a class full of children and 6 staff members plus me and shouted at one of the staff members, in front of everyone! I don't know what she said as she said it in Sinhalese but I just thought how unprofessional and once the owner had left the girl started crying, which I don't blame her she must've felt so humiliated. Poor thing!!Once the tension had died down we left for our weekend trip! So this weekend there is me and Ida, our new housemate Yammi and another girl we met at the beach clean, Maria. We got a bus to Colombo and another bus to Hatton... This took about 5 hours then we got a taxi to Delhouse which was about an hour!! But finally we have arrived at our hotel, Slightly Chilled. It's actually a really nice hotel and the water is luke warm! They only have cold water in Sri Lanka! Warm water is amazing right now!!! We've all squeezed in one room, it's not for long as we are aiming to climb Adams peak or Sri Pada to the locals, so we've just had some tea, just a basic buffet with traditional Sri Lankan food... Curry and rice!!! So we better get some sleep... Up at 3.30am tomorrow!!! I'm like a new woman here lol!
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Day Nine
Beach clean! Today was a Muslim holiday so we all had the day off! Projects abroad invited us to do a beach clean in Panadura, as it was world ocean day a few days ago, this is our contribution! Beach clean in 35 degree heat was interesting! Very sweaty! But we filled loads of bags! There was about 30 volunteers from all over Sri Lanka it was brilliant! We even got treat to lunch :) then a spot of shopping in Colombo along with cake and coffee. What a lovely day :) I am missing everyone at home though, I am missing laughing with my customers and chatting to my mum and dad and even arguing with my brother ;) painting nails yesterday made me realise how much I love my job, I enjoyed it so much I was in my element. I definitely picked the right career! 💅🏻
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Day Eight, reality!
So I've been at the children's centre today but I wanted to take this blog to talk about some things that have really hit home... The reality of things here. If you only read one of my posts this should be the one! I wanted to treat Atali to her nails painted today, Atali is the daughter of the owner of navodaya care school. She's 18 years old and she had never had her nails painted before in fact she had never seen nail polish or mascara. It was her 18th birthday two weeks ago and it was forgotten.... I've never felt so shocked in my life. Her whole family are so dedicated on the school that they actually live there to save money, all of their money is put back into the school. Once the children have left they get their beds out, Atali showed me hers. This was a few sheets on the floor with a pillow. She gets up at 5am so she can put it away and get dressed before the children arrive. She needs a new pencil case for school, but they can't afford to buy her one. She says she doesn't like to talk about things like this because she doesn't want to make others sad, she prefers to pretend to be happy. But the girls at school take the mick out of her because she buys second hand clothes, she can't really have friends round, they don't even own a TV. She is so lonely. But she still helps out and is happy for what the family have done. And is even studying to do the same thing. I've never known any people that sacrifice so much! I've found out more about the children too, most of them arrive at 8 and are fed here both for breakfast and lunch... This is because some won't get fed at home, some because they are from poor families, others because they see it as shameful that they have disabled children. They're the bottom of the picking order and if there's no food left, it's tough. Some children are showered here and some even come in the same clothes as the day before, the parents don't care. Apparently here it is a belief that if a pregnant woman looks at a differently abled child then there child will end up like that. Some of the medical volunteers questioned this at the hospital pointing out that it happens due to a change in chromosomes and they argue saying looking at the disabled child is what changes the chromosome! There is almost no hope for these children! The centre has even taken in two of the children because the parents didn't want them! Could you imagine that?! It's your child!!! I worry about what will happen to these children once they turn 20 and they have to leave the centre. A lot of the beggars you see here are differently abled. All this has really made me think this week. I shouldn't complain when we've run out of my favourite cereal or when I'm having a slightly bad day or when my hair won't do what I want. These children struggle every single day, this family live on the line just so they can help as many children as possible and these teachers give there time and patience. Every morning we gather around the children and pray for them. This is a scary world and I wish I could do more to help. I always thought money would fix things. But I was wrong, it takes a lot more than that.
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Day Seven
Hi everyone! So volunteering here is harder than I thought, I've been working with the Down's syndrome children and they can be challenging. To make it harder they don't speak English like most children is Sri Lanka as they don't have the ability, but also the staff barely speak English, they can say the odd word or sentence but can't talk to you fully. This makes it very difficult to be helpful, I'm hoping I am being but got can't always tell! I worked with the little children last week too so maybe next week I will move classes again, possibly to the autism room. The days feel quite long here, the children don't always behave and scratch and lick. But when they do something right or toy teach them something and you thumbs up or high five or even give a big beaming smile they are so pleased and happy and become so enthusiastic! All my credit goes to the teachers here it must be hard doing this day in day out.
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Day Six
Galle is beautiful, if any of you are wanting to visit Sri Lanka I would recommend staying in Galle, it was nice and touristy, we could wear bikinis or shorts!!! Yey our shoulders and knees are free!!!! I slept so well the bed was so comfy there was air conditioning and bed sheets :) so happy! We went to the beach and went shopping, it's so cheap here!! Wandered round the old fort. It was just a beautiful day :) Before we head to head back to host home for the night. I loved today :)
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Day Five
Yet another early start, up at 5.50!Today we went to sinharaja rainforest, though I didn't know this, all I knew was we were going to a waterfall so when I packed I had a bikini and some sandals with an outfit for over the top... So I had to borrow someone's sandals as mine had toeposts and socks! Very stylish! It was to stop the leeches! Gross! Well to be honest it did exactly what it says on the tin, it rained in a forest... No it was good but at first I was miserable I got a leech sucking the blood from my arm, wet through and we had to rub salt on ourselves to stop the leeches! It was beautiful in there, like nothing I've ever experienced before! I held a centipede (not a normal one a big huge fat one!) and a snake. We waded through a river and swam in a waterfall!!! Amazing!!! :) Though the guide originally said the bus was at 3 then part way changed his mind to 1.30, so we missed our bus home! Which means we won't make it for volunteering tomorrow! But we quickly came up with a plan, we will not waste a day off so we are travelling to Galle, as we wanted to visit there at some point anyway :) I love a plan in action!
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Day Four
So tired... 4.30am alarm! But for good reason it's the safari today!!! Jeep came at 5 as it is apparently best to do the safari in the mornings as you can see more. They were right! Elephants, one of which came right up to the jeep! So exciting but also a little scary! Buffalo, crocodiles, peacocks, loads! It was great! Also a jeep got stuck in the mud which was quite funny! We were out until 10am on safari, after breakfast and a much needed nap we went to the elephant orphanage, they were so cute!!! Most were babies but there was also an elephant with a prosthetic leg! Amazing! We also went for a walk... Longest walk in 35 degrees ever! We followed udawalawa national park round for 16km! What an exhausting but exciting day and to finish it off in a perfect way we paid to have a buffet tea in a fancy hotel. 3 courses all we could eat :) yum!!! Perfect day 😀🐘🍔🍍🍜🍧🍰🍻🍹 Oh! We did get chased by two dogs though! Some locals came and helped us out thank heavens! And sorry for the late updates, I don't get wifi! Xx
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