By Kara Hallam

Staff Writer

Eric Franklin, a new Coppell High School fine arts teacher, is not your average instructor. Franklin traveled all around the world before his job at CHS as a theater technician for a Royal Caribbean International cruise. His time working for the cruise line came after receiving his theatre arts degree from Stephen F. Austin University.

Q:When did you start working on a cruise ship?

A: I started working on a cruise ship around September 2008. This was four months after college.

Q: How did you get the idea to work on a cruise ship?

A:  After college, I went to a convention called The United States Institute for Theatre Technology. There were a lot of booths at this tech theatre convention for cruise lines offering positions. I applied to few of them and got a few calls back. It was kind of spur of the moment thing.

Q: What was your job on the ship?

A: I started out as stage staff and then was bumped up to a lounge technician and at one point I managed and operated out of three club spaces.

Q: Did you have a lot of down time to explore the places you traveled to?

A: Yes and no. It really depended on the day of the week. I worked 12 hours a day, but the hours were weird and during random times of day.

Q: What were some of the best parts about working on a cruise ship?

A: You got to see really cool places. I visited 10 or 12  countries in six

months and got to skip winter completely. It is a very good job if you want to travel; this is one way to do it.

Q: What was the furthest place you traveled to?

A: The furthest place I have been would be Columbia.

Q: What was your most interesting memory and what kind of interesting people did you meet on the cruise ship?

A: I met people from every country you can think of.  However, sarcasm does not translate.

That would get me in trouble sometimes. A few times unsafe things occurred like a fire in the laundry taking a nap and someone yelled, “Fire!” and I was surrounded by smoke and was absolutely terrified. Then one time there was a small explosion in the engine room and we had lost one of our engines during the trip. Another night I was managing a  tango dancing show in Aruba and was it was really windy and so the ship was rocking but these dancers still continued to show even in high heels. A lot of them fell and even an orchestra member threw up. So many people were seasick.

Q: What is it like to be working in a permanent place? How do you like CHS?

A: I get to have a house and go home every night. For the longest time, I was living off of hotels. Now I

like having place to go home to. The people are really nice here and the other teachers are really helpful.

Q: Why did you decide to come to Coppell?

A: I grew up in the DFW area for a while and even lived in Coppell for a while. I have always heard good things Coppell so I thought it would be a good place to settle down after returning from my travels.