Ship Life

Sorry I haven’t been writing a whole lot, I’ve been really busy. Moreover, I just don’t often feel compelled to sit at a computer and write when I could be around meeting new people. I am trying to use internet/cell phone as little as possible which wasn’t hard at all…for me. To be honest, I am really beginning to appreciate not being a slave to my cell phone and e-mail. Some people are going through technology withdrawal though.
So, where do I start?? I guess with the thing that surprised me the most:
The ship rocks. A lot.
I thought you could maybe notice the movement a few times a day. Wrong!! It is something you are constantly aware of from the minute you wake up until you go to bed.
The front of the ship rocks worse than the back, because it is the first part to hit the waves. My first class is at 8am and it is in a classroom in the VERY front of the ship. To make matters worse, the chairs all face backwards in that classroom so the motion is quite nauseating. One day about half of the class left because they were all seasick. I told the professor that the chair setup was making matters worse so we have since moved the chairs in a circle which makes it more tolerable.
I am soooo happy I don’t get seasick. There have certainly been a lot of times where the motion of the boat is overwhelming. I was checking my email yesterday and the boat hit a big wave so hard that I fell out of my chair. It is really funny to watch people walk around between classes, they are all bumping into each other and everyone swerves from one side to the other as the ship rocks.
My first class is called Business and Politics of the European union. The professor is from the school of commerce at University of Virginia . Sitting in that class can kind of be like the rides Universal Studios where you sit in a room and the chairs move around to simulate flying or something- like back to the future. When the rocking gets really bad in class I just pretend I’m on a rollercoaster and feel better. I can imagine how people get sick thinking that it’s hard to read or concentrate from the motion but it’s really a mind over matter thing… and if it ever becomes unbearable you just move to the aft (back) part of the ship and try to go as low as possible, to deck 2 or 3, where the ship rocks less. Also, it often helps to go outside where you can see the water.
I’ll try and explain the ship a little… Nobody knows what happens on Deck 1. Deck 2 is about 2/3 crew and storage, and 1/3 student cabins (that is what we call our bedrooms). Deck 3 is ALL student cabins. Deck 4 is probably 3/4 student cabins and maybe 1/4 bedrooms for other participants, such as interport learners (i.e. there may be a student from Russia who participates but only goes from Norway to Russia ). Deck 5 is the junior suites (the bigger student cabins… which are seriously only a few feet longer than the double rooms but cost way more- in my opinion, not worth it since nobody is really in their cabins except to sleep).
Also on deck 5 is the lifelong learners (ranging from mid 50’s to mid 80’s… we have an 83 year old participant on board!). The lifelong learning program is for older people who want to take classes for fun. They do everything the students do… eat in the same places, go on the same field trips, even participate in the talent show we had the other night!!
Deck 5 also has the main administration office, the student life office, where you go if you have issues with roommates or want to check out a basketball or sign up for field trips, and the larger of the 2 dining halls. Deck 6 is more or less the entire campus- all 8 classrooms, the student union, a smaller dining hall, the computer lab, library, and piano bar/lounge. It has bottles of water and snacks for purchase for like $1.50 or $2. A lot of kids sit there and study but I prefer to be outside.
Deck 7 on the front part is the faculty lounge which students are not allowed in. The back of deck 7 has the wellness center which includes the gym, spa, and hair salon. The gym has a few cardio machines. You can sign up for 30-minute blocks on them starting the night before. On the outside, starboard side, of deck 7 there is a basketball court which is almost regular length but only half the width. Then behind that is the weight room which is outside but kind of walled-in so you don’t notice the wind too much. On the very back of deck 7 is the pool, which is really small, and a ton of lounge chairs where you can lay in the sun (or the bitter cold/wind, as has been the case thus far) and study. Recently, I have been doing this in my sleeping bag and 2 pairs of sweatpants and sweatshirts. I love being outside by the water but it has been maybe 50 degrees on a good day!!! It might not have been that cold, but the wind makes it feel that way. I am SO GLAD I BROUGHT MY SLEEPING BAG. Everyone else is jealous of it!! It was totally worth the 3 pounds it took up in my luggage, and it was only $20. Probably the best $20 I’ve ever spent.
Anyways, back to the ship. It’s small, but I’ve never been on a cruise before so I don’t really feel like I’m cramped onto a tiny ship. We have been at sea for over a week now so people are starting to get antsy but I’m sure once we get on land (!) in Norway everyone will be back to normal.

Moving on, here’s a typical day of ship-life:

7 a.m. (which, after our 5 on-ship time changes thus far, and the 1-hour time difference in Halifax, is really 1 a.m. on the schedule I am used to. We are all a little jet-lagged. Or is it ship-lagged??) Wake up, get dressed, find all of my books for class…. Easier said than done since I usually do this with the lights out because I don’t want to wake up my roommate.

7:30 a.m.- get breakfast with Jason and have my first coffee of the day. If you go on Semester at Sea, you will probably end up drinking coffee by the end even if you don’t to begin with. It’s necessary to offset time changes.
In my opinion, breakfast is the best food on the ship. Other meals can be good…especially the soup which is always reliable… but breakfast hasn’t been bad yet. Food on the ship is okay, you just have to adjust to repetition. I have never seen so many creative things made out of potatoes. The dining crew is so awesome and even gave me coffee one day at 8:45 despite breakfast being over at 8:30… I woke up late [it was the day we didn’t have class] and probably looked like a zombie. Either way, I got coffee so all was well in the world. I bought a travel coffee thinger at the campus store on the ship, it is invaluable to have around. Okay, this is quickly getting off-topic. Back to my schedule.

7:55 a.m.- walk to first class, Business and Politics of the EU. I kind of explained this already. Class is getting interesting now that we are done with the introductory material, and I am taking a field trip with this class in Belgium to go see the EU! It is optional but I think it would be worth it.

9:20 a.m.- Global studies in the Student Union. I try and try and try to stay awake in this class but regardless of my caffeine intake, it’s a challenge. The material is interesting but the rocking motion of the boat makes it very hard to stay awake. On the flipside, the motion makes it really easy to sleep at night. A few of my friends have been having trouble sleeping but I am out like a light the second I hit the pillow.

(On a sidenote: today between my first and second classes I looked outside and I SAW LAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 8 DAYS!!!! They were the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland . Wohooo!! We made it across the Atlantic!! I ran into the piano lounge yelling “You can see land!!!” and everyone there got up to look… I then realized there is a classroom right across from it whose door was open so the entire class totally saw me run into the lounge yelling that… but oh well, I was excited. I took like 40 pictures but you can’t see the land in them L .)

After global studies, there is some down time from about 10:45 until 11:30. Usually I do some reading or hang out with people outside, or go up to the basketball court because nobody is up there early in the day. Yesterday at that time, I went on a bridge tour. The bridge is the part where the captain sits. There are 4 assistant captains that take turns. They are really funny and all from all over the world. I asked them if they ever get bored up there and he said yes, and then I asked what they do for fun and he showed us a little microphone setup where they sing karaoke!! Whether or not he was being serious, I don’t really know. I have a picture of myself in the captain’s chair. I will send it as soon as I get a chance to upload it.

At 11:30, we all get lunch. Breakfast is 7-8:30, lunch is 11:30-1:30, and dinner is 5:30- 7:30 (I think). We don’t eat for 2 hours straight, but we sit there for the duration usually and talk since there really isn’t much else to do. It is remarkable how well I know all my friends already- I feel like I’ve known them for at least 2 months, because without the usual technology you are forced to talk face to face frequently but I love that.
From 1:30- 2:20 I go outside and read or socialize casually with my group of friends. At 2:20 I have my class Russia and the problem of Economic Development. The teacher is a professor at a business school in Australia and is one of the most captivating speakers I’ve ever heard. It is a really interesting class although the material is a little dense sometimes.
At 3:30 we all go back outside and enjoy the sun or lack thereof. I found that I have a new talent of seeing whales/dolphins. There are so many of them! You can recognize them by looking for a spray of water when they come to the surface. I got a picture of a dolphin although you can only see a little bit of it’s back. In the afternoon, I usually go to the gym at some point provided I make it to the sign up sheet the night before. The rest of the afternoon, we just sit around on deck 7 for hours and do homework, talk and look at the water and birds… yes, there are birds in the middle of the ocean which is very weird because nobody knows how they survive without land but they do.
I bought speakers for my iPod at the campus store and they work pretty well. The campus store is small but has everything you would need within reason. It has been cold out so we all go outside in 2 pairs of pants and a few shirts but it is still really nice to be in the breeze. The back of the ship (there are small outer areas where you can sit on the back of each of decks 4, 5 and 6, and a huge outside area on deck 7) isn’t as cold as the front since most of the wind is blocked. We went up to deck 8 the other day which is the observatory deck… it was SO WINDY Jason’s hat blew right off and went into the water.

At 5:30 or 6 we get dinner. Then at 7, Alison, Caitlin, Chelsey and I and sometimes Jason go play basketball. Sometimes we play seriously, other times we just shoot the ball around. Maybe half the time there are other kids on the court who play with us or play their own half court game. I think I am going to sign up for the intramural basketball tournament. Anyways, we play until about 8 and then I shower (theres a better chance of getting hot water at night- it’s not impossible in the morning, but there are so many kids showering then it takes longer to heat up). The showers are not as bad as I thought they would be.
AFTer hours (haha… get it? Aft?? Gotta love ship terminology puns) is from 9-11. Some people get dressed up to go out there but usually most kids are in sweatpants or pajamas… it has been so cold out that we haven’t had much of a choice. Either way it’s a great way to meet people.
Five of the eight nights we’ve been on so far, we have had to turn the clocks ahead one hour so everyone is kind of messed up schedule-wise, especially people from the west coast who are now 9 hours ahead of their regular time.

Ship life overall is fun… we had a talent show the other night where some people sang, some danced, some played the piano, one kid did a comedy act, and a few teachers and lifelong learners read some read poetry. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Well, there was just a mad influx of students into the computer lab so I’m gonna head out so someone else can use this computer. I will certainly write after Norway!!