6/18: MV Explorer
I’m getting ready for bed now, we just hit a time zone switch so I’ll be waking up at 9am for my 9:20 class tomorrow morning, but it will feel like 8am. We’re having a few more time zone changes during the crossing, that way we take baby steps to get to Barcelona time. It’s a good idea…I wouldn’t want to be exhausted and jet (or ship?) lagged when we first arrived at the city. But, it’s getting annoying having to set my clocks an hour ahead when I go to bed every night.
I am absolutely loving the ship. I can't believe I've only been here two days, I already feel so at home. Everyone is super friendly and adventurous, so it's really fun meeting new people. The food is pretty good so far (for buffet food) and the only annoying thing is the water tastes a little funny, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Something that is clearly annoying a lot of other people provides an endless source of entertainment for me: the slow acquisition of sea legs. I mean, I stagger across the deck with a big wave too, but I love seeing groups of people sloshing back in forth across the hallways in time with the surge on their way to class. Today I think I saw a few flying fish, and apparently yesterday there were dolphins. Because I know you are all wondering…yes, people have been spontaneously breaking into "I'm on a boat" the whole time.
Today's orientation was long (9am-4:30pm with an hour lunch break) and tedious (people talking about basic stuff we need to know and reading off powerpoint slides). I really think they could come up with a better way to do that...orientation is supposed to be fun and that was torturous. I did discover in this orientation, however, that the MV Explorer was originally built as a 900-passenger, 300-crew cruise ship. So as much as a would like to deny it, that’s pretty much what it looks like on the inside…right down to the faux-marble floors and Vegas-style ceilings paneling in meeting rooms (well, maybe not that bad). A significant difference is that our ship has only one bar: the one by the pool, which I discovered today we can purchase a maximum of 3 alcoholic beverages from per evening, as long as those alcoholic beverages are cheap beer or wine. They teased me mercilessly by naming the snack bar near the piano room the “Piano Bar.” I tracked that place down stoked for dueling pianos…and was very disappointed. Still, it’s pretty cool to have a piano on the ship. I haven’t played yet, but I plan on it sometime.
I also meet a pretty cool group of people to sit with during orientation(we revived an old classic: gum-wrapper football and hockey) and hung out by the pool with them later. This may be the same group of people I will compete with in the ship’s “Amazing Race” (like the show…but all on the ship), and we have set some plans for Barcelona and Casablanca. Hanging out by the pool with what felt like the other 699 students on board would have felt a lot like spring break if 1) we had any alcohol at the time and 2) the male to female ratio on the ship were not 1:3. That’s right…Summer at Sea 2011 is 74% women. Luckily, for me this is just hilarious, but it’s a bit of a blow to other ladies (and giant win for guys) here on the prowl. The “on the prowl” population of the ship became pretty obvious out at the pool deck today, especially as the designers of the ship thought it was a good idea to place the indoor-outdoor weight room right next to the pool deck. Girls lounging poolside in bikinis + guys lifting weights in the salt breeze = way too many hormones for one deck.
Tomorrow is my first day of class! I'm interested to see how they will play out.
6/19: MV Explorer
First of all…Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!
I’m getting used to the water. I also discovered where the hot water and tea bags are, so that’s making me happier. I keep getting hungry at weird times, so I can’t wait to stock up on tasty snacks (Nutella Snack and Drink!) once we get to Barcelona. They do have a 24-hour snack bar here (the Piano Bar *shakes fist angrily and squints eyes*), so it’s not like I’m starving. I guess I’m just really excited for Barcelona in general ☺
My first Global Studies: The Art of the Mediterranean class today at 9:20am didn’t really count as the first class. It is the class all the students on the ship are required to take, and there are two sections, both of which have more people than can fit into the only big lecture hall, so we fill it to the brim and then some…students crowding the hallways even as the ship’s captain talks to us from the stage (fire codes?). I say it doesn’t count because it was really an extension of orientation. He talked about how the ship is like a little city. The theme of our voyage is “world cities” and we read Triumph of the City before coming aboard, so this topic was applicable to the voyage, if not the class. I’m guessing that tomorrow we’ll go over the syllabus and get into the actual material.
My next class at 10:45 is Marine Biology. The class is about 2/3 non-science majors with a few Bio majors thrown in (myself included…even though HumBio is much better than regular Bio ☺), so it will be interesting. The professor seems awesome. He reminds me a little bit of Mr. Kurlee (for anyone with connections to LHHS…for those of you who don’t this means he is a super-cool old man, the kind that wears the “Old Guys Rule” t-shirts) but more academic. He went to UCLA and got his PhD in marine ecology there (and has done a ton of SCUBA diving). He also warned us that he is profane and would try to control himself, but he’s apologizing in advance so if something slips out later he won’t have to. He also made what could have been a very dull intro to basic biology principles you need for marine biology quite entertaining for me.
My final class, which is at 2:55, is History of Italy and the Mediterranean in the Renaissance. I was a little worried signing up for it (I signed up for it because I couldn’t get two other classes I wanted more) that it would just be the basic Renaissance stuff we’ve been learning over and over all through school. But, it seems like it’s going a be a pretty in-depth history of Renaissance-era and the factors in the past leading up to or influencing that era in each of the places we’re going to visit, which is exactly what I wanted out of the class. This professor seems like he will be good, and he has a special badge to get into Vatican City because he used to do research in the library there (!!Robert Langdon!!).
I also met my cabin steward, Angelito, today. He is very sweet and from the Philippines. It’s weird to have someone come clean our room and bathroom and take our plates in the dining hall…and I would say I guess I’ll get used to it, but I don’t really want to.
I read more of the pieces of advice on the back on my picture and found a new term that I like: SASer and SAShole, as in be a SASer, not a SAShole. I have yet to hear anyone use any of these, but it can only be a matter of time.
The next 7 days until we get to Barcelona we will have the same classes every day (with enough reading to keep me busy most of the day…I forgot how much reading history classes involve), and then we will stop classes while we explore the city. I get more excited every day…it’s a good thing we only have 125 minutes of internet or I’d probably be googling pictures of La Sagrada Familia and searching for the best restaurants!
There was an activities fair tonight, which makes this feel much more like a college campus (classes do this too…for some reason), which is good. I joined the Student Wellness Advocacy Team (S.W.A.T.) where I’ll try to bring a little piece of the SHPRC to the ship (there’s no sexual health center or information other than the general medical center now and I have a feeling we’re going to need it), a Yoga and Meditation Club, and the Extended Family Program, where groups of students, professors and lifelong learners make little “families” to do family-stuff together (although I’m sure whatever my SAS family does will be nowhere near as cool as what my REAL family does…no matter what country we’re in).
Time goes by so fast here…it’s already 11pm and I feel like I just had lunch an our or 2 ago. With this in mind, I’m doing by best to enjoy every second of it.
As a reminder, the best way to reach me is by email: vescholtes@semesteratsea.net
I’ve really enjoyed getting emails from those of you who have sent them so far, so thanks for that ☺ It’s kind of like how I feel when I get a package in the mail at Stanford.
Also, I only have 125 total minutes of internet on the ship for the voyage, and my phone is being very stubborn about letting me on Facebook or Skype from the ship…so just know that if you post something there now, it’s likely that I won’t get it until I get to Barcelona on June 27…but I’m not going to be doing a whole lot of Facebook checking while I’m there ☺
Love from (slightly further across) the Atlantic,
Ginny
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