Spreading the Aloha Spirit to the World

I just got back from an amazing trip across the South Pacific with my job! Five of us boarded on the Costa Deliziosa cruise ship and sailed to American Samoa and Fiji in 6 days. It was just me, another dancer, and three talented musicians that got to dance hula for the guests on the ship. The guests were all Europeans from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Austria. And most of them old retired people. I met so much people from all over the world, it was definitely an eye opener to see how different they interact.

Since they spend so much time out at sea there's lots of activities for guests to do. I got to go to a few dance lessons (samba, bachata) and it was amazing to hear the instructors having to explain in five different languages! Almost everyone on the ship is bilingual because English has become an international language. I just wondered how long it took them to learn a second language, and where they use it because I know from taking Hawaiian language in high school that it's not easy to pick up another language. Anyways, while at these dance lessons I had no idea what they were saying, but just had to follow their foot work and hand motions. Long story short, I've made it my goal to learn French.

Talking to a lot of the guests who couldn't speak English very well was also interesting. A lot of hand motions and facial expressions, even drawings were involved when communicating with them. Usually, you talk to babies like that for them to understand so it was a different experience talking to an older human being like that.

Nighttime always consisted of dancing! And everyone danced! Even the old people. I was shocked...and amused! Seeing everyone dancing and just letting loose on the dance floor and doing just that with them was a great feeling. I wasn't worried about what others thought of me because I knew everyone else around me didn't either. It was definitely a different vibe. It made me realize that the way we act sometimes, we do it so we don't get judged by others. The people on the ship however, do exactly the opposite. They even had contests (for I have no idea what because they were speaking in a different language) where they had to dance "sexy" and the old people were just going for it. They were very entertaining! I had many good laughs on this trip.