I've been here before
I've been here before, I thought yesterday. I have sat in this locker room. I have eaten in this galley. I have worked and sweated in this engine room.
It is really weird to be having deja vu in a place you've been before in a totally foreign place. Everything inside the ship is the same. I even recognize some of the crew from last time. I think the weird part is this: last time when I was in the galley and the coca-cola was brazilian, it was novel. Now all the crackers and drinks and stuff are the same as I get in my hotel. Very weird. . .
So the shipyard I am working in this time around is actually an island. There is no bridge to get there, so to get to the ship every morning (and to the hotel every night) I take a "water taxi." This, consisting of a 20' partially enclosed ship with a belching inboard diesel engine, tires hanging from every edge at intervals, completes the 20 minute run each way. Once on the island, I am surrounded by antique and modern drydock equipment. They are rebuilding an old chinese vessel in the drydock which we are moored to. It is all very exciting.
I am also having fun with the culture. I have learned two phrases in portugese, and have almost entirely overcome this portugese keyboard. Gmail and Livejournal are in portugese, but I am familiar enough with the gui to work around it. Last night we ate at a brazilian steakhouse, which is an interesting concept. You sit down at your table, and waiters come to you. They come to you bearing meat on a skewer, and a sharp knife, and they fill your plate with meat until you stop them. One waiter circulates with lamb, another with prime rib, another with chicken hearts. One of my co-workers has sworn off meat for the rest of the trip.
Until next time. . .