It has been a busy week this week, we have a major problem on the project at work and we’ve had 7am teleconferences with our Italian counterparts every day. Today I got a nice email from Rainie with comments on my blog which inspired me to get going sorting through the pictures and telling the story here again! Thanks Rainie!

The rain continued through the last part of Gatun Lake and our approach into Gatun Locks. We went to Deck 4 (which is covered) to watch the approach. We waited and waited to approach the lock first. While we were waiting we were able to watch another ship come in beside us. From the row boats rowing out to catch the lines, to seeing the ship pull tight up to the inner barrier, it was very cool to see. These captains and pilots are very good at what they do to be able to manuever these great ships so carefully!

One we had approached and were up against the barrier, we waited and waited again for a long time. It appeared we were waiting for the locomotives to come back from the other end of the canal, because once they raced back to the lake side of the locks we were hooked up things moved pretty quickly into the first lock.

We went back to our Deck 7 aft viewpoint once we were in the locks, getting the umbrella from the room to ward off the rain. It was getting dark, both from the rain and the time of day, it was cool to see the lights reflecting off of the water. It was an interesting look, but made for more challenging photography. Right before sunset the sun came below the clouds and we had some beautiful light on the buildings and the jungle nearby! One of my favorite photos from the canal is this one of the lighthouse and the locomotive as we moved through the lock. To me it just captures the canal – there is no where else in the world you could get a shot like that!

Patrick and Brandon went back inside during the second lock, but I stayed into the third until I could no longer get good pictures and hold the umbrella by myself. By the time we finally exited the locks, it was around 8:30pm and it had taken us approximately 12 hours to travel through. We were able to see one of the man-made wonders of the world, on a beautiful ship, the three of us together. The experience of a lifetime, that is for sure.

This weekend was a chance to get caught up on Italian lessons a bit, and lesson 5 was numbers. I learned to count to twenty and then had Patrick and Brandon learn too. We’ve been practicing.. uno, due, tre…

Every morning this week I’ve been in a teleconference with folks in Italy because we are working on a big problem right now. Yesterday we were discussing a date something would be done, and they were talking in Italian a bit after the discussion. I heard “tredici” and recognized it as “13” and thought – woohoo! I’m learning Italian!

Off to another teleconference this morning… maybe I’ll recognize something else!

It’s Saturday morning, and time for my Hot Cinnamon Spice tea! One of my favorite little rituals of the weekend. I’ve missed it for the last month or so because I’ve been out of Hot Cinnamon Spice tea, and others just don’t compare. Yesterday I got my tea shipment from Harney & Sons so this morning I can enjoy my pot of tea. Mmmmm…

Our documents are to the translator, Patrick drove them up to Portland this morning. The translator will get them done “when she can” – hopefully by the end of next week. Then we have to get them legalized by the consulate and THEN we have to send all of this documentation plus originals to Italy for the actual work visa application.

We aren’t sure we’re comfortable with sending all of our originals for things, so we’ll have to figure out if we really need to. There is some question after talking to the embassy in the US. No one here seems to understand why our contact in Italy is asking us to do things this way, typically the visa applications are done through the embassy in the US.

But, through all of this, we are learning patience… and maybe getting just a little taste of the cultural differences and what paperwork we have to come. I’m starting to take a “we’ll get there when we get there” mentality, and just living life as normal in the meantime!

I found my diploma and no additional news on the move to Italy, so back to the cruise!

After a short trip through Miraflores Lake, we were into the Miguel Lock. This is the third and final lock up from the Pacific into the Canal. We had a better view of the ship next to us being hooked up to the locomotives at this lock.
From there we moved into the Gaillard or Culebra Cut, which is a 7.5 mile long cut through mountains and the Continental Divide. Shortly after entering the Cut, the ship goes under a very cool cable-stayed bridge that connects both sides. This is one of only two ways that vehicles can cross the Panama Canal. It was interesting to see how close we were to the land on either side, very good views of the incredibly dense jungle of Panama.

The Cut is the tightest part of the Panama Canal, at 192 meters wide. Because of the size of Disney Magic, while we were in the cut, no other ships could pass us in the opposite direction. This is also the source of the most problems for Canal operations, with mud and rock slides being a problem. It is dredged frequently to maintain a depth such that the ships can go through. This is the price of creating a canal where mountains should be! The earth seems to want to normalize back to its natural state.

Once through the Cut, we moved into the giant Gatun Lake. The channel for ships widens out and ships will pass each other, even though it still seems close!

All around small islands can be seen, these are the tops of the mountains that were flooded to form the lake. The lake was flooded without removing any trees, and the story goes that occasionally a large tree trunk will break off and float around in the lake bumping into ships here or there.This is where we sat back and watched the islands go by, and just marvelled over the fact that we were on a ship where no ship should be. We were looking at the tops of mountains, while sailing on an ocean-going vessel. Just amazing!

We enjoyed a hot and sunny day on the ship. It was fun to wander around and take in the views or watch the lake go by while Brandon swam in the pool. Everyone was excited, even the crew, who would stop here or there and take a picture. This was unique to them too!
Late afternoon, the clouds got dark and the storms rolled in. Lightning and thunder and rain closed the pools and sent everyone inside until we reached the Gatun Locks on the other side of the lake.

It’s been a busy week. We had visitors at work from Italy for a class and meetings Tuesday through Thursday, so that took up quite a bit of time with the days being full and then dinners in the evening. It was fun though!

The big news this week is that we’ve been given a list of documents to compile for the visa process. The interesting thing that we have to do is get several of them translated into Italian and “legalized” by the Italian embassy. No real instructions on how to do that, however.

After some super sleuthing Patrick found out that we can get the legalization done by the Italian consulate in Portland, and they referred us to a translator, also in Portland. Now we just have to get all of the documentation together, here’s what we need:

• A letter of intent from my employer (translated/legalized)
• My diplomas (translated/legalized)
• My resume
• Copies of passports
• Marriage certificate (translated/legalized)
• Brandon’s birth certificate (translated/legalized)

The only one we haven’t found yet is my undergrad diploma. I graduated 16 years ago and haven’t had to actually do anything with it since, but I’m pretty sure it’s in a tote in the garage. At least I hope so, because I can’t find it in any other logical locations, and I’ll have to get a new one from DU if it’s not there!

I leave you all with this question – how many of you can put your hands on all of this documentation within a few minutes? It has been a little harder than I thought!