Today was more or less a sea day, because we didn’t get into Victoria until 6:00pm. We played bingo in the morning, which of course was a waste - we didn’t win cash or a free cruise, so the point was really just to have fun playing. A said she likes it better than slots because the suspense is more drawn out.

We went to lunch at the Summer Palace restaurant with my mom, and the boat was rocking hard for several hours. It didn’t bother me at all (perhaps I should take up surfing?) but I still had a hard time in the hallways because everyone ELSE was tottering around.

At Victoria, we boarded our bus for a tour around the city. I thought the bus driver was pretty bad - LOTS of dumb jokes, mentioning things HE could see without saying “on your right” or “about 2:00″ or anything, etc. I just didn’t like the guy. When the tour was over, he brought us back to the ship. We immediately took the shuttle bus back downtown so I could do a little geocaching; I found one virtual easily, and I tried for a nearby physical one but it was somewhere that wasn’t open 24 hours.

We took the shuttle back to the ship and found out the cafe where we were to meet ms_interpret at 11:15pm actually closed at 10pm. Rather than waiting around alone in the dark and cold, we decided to head back onto the ship so we could finish last-minute packing before the bags had to be placed in the hallway at 1am.

Today was hectic. I woke up late (11am, but only because we regained an hour overnight by leaving the Alaska time zone) and ran upstairs to the Lido deck to catch my favorite muesli before it was taken away. Afterward I came back to the room, where J was still sleeping, and took a brief nap. I noticed the disembarkation talk was at 1:00, so I set a wakeup call for 12:40. When the call came, J was gone, and I went to the talk.

To make a long and whiny story short, I worked for the next three hours. The interpreter coordinator was there for most of it and became keenly aware that J was slacking off. Later in the day, I was involved in conversations that included the words “no professional boundaries.” I was told that my interpreting was fine but not great, and I received an apology for a lack of specific feedback.

Anyway, I ended up going to Victoria with a bunch of deaf passengers and M, my co-terp. I actually had a rather nice time walking around and shopping; I bought a few things, mostly for myself. I was supposed to meet up with someone, but I had no money for a pay phone and I couldn’t find one anyway that wasn’t occupied by ship crew members calling home. We had extra time before going back to the ship but we were done so we just caught the bus back. There was a little social gathering of the deaf passengers around 1am but I realized I was not one of the cool people so I walked away sadly without saying goodbye.

It was a positive experience overall, but I’m glad the cruise is over. I’m tired.