A Third of the Way to Spain

Today is Thursday January 22, our third full day at sea.  Since we haven’t done much worth writing about since my last post besides finishing orientations and our first two days of classes, I’ll focus this entry on some things about the ship and ship life.  Before continuing, however, on Tuesday, we had the opportunity to watch the inauguration live, which was very cool.  Everyone watched together in the “Union” (like the theater on a cruise ship).  The only way for us to be able to do so, however, was to shut down all internet activity to maximize the satellite’s bandwidth; and the feed was still choppy.  We’ll also hopefully do the same thing for the Super Bowl in a few weeks.  Reuben, I hope you enjoyed the experience and weren’t too cold. 

For those wondering about the ship, let me describe it as a “miniature” cruise ship.  It is essentially decorated and set up just like any cruise ship we have ever been on, just smaller and with fewer rooms.  My cabin is just like any other we’ve stayed in, just without the balcony.  We do have a window, which without it; we’d have no idea what time it would be.  The meals are all served buffet style, like the restaurants by the pool on the Princess ships.  I think we’ve eaten every meal so far outside, which has been very nice.  The food has just been okay, as expected, reminding me a lot of our dorm’s cafeteria freshmen year.  But remember, I’m here for the food in the countries we’re visiting, not on the ship. 

Despite what some of you may think, yes, we do have classes while on the ship.  All 700+ students take “Global Studies”.  Since there is no room large enough to hold everyone, they broadcast the class live on TVs in all of the ship’s common areas.  I am also taking a public speaking class, in which we will focus on speaking about global issues.  My business course, International Strategic Management, will be very interesting.  Half of the class consists of a group competition in which each group creates its own company and has to manage all aspects of it while its actions are simulated by software.  My final course is Asian-American Fiction, the one I worked so hard to get to transfer back to Wisconsin.    I already have 50 pages of some awful sounding Asian novel to read for Saturday.  By the way, days of the week and times no longer have any meaning to me.  Its either an A day or a B day (like we had in high school) and we’ve lost an hour of sleep the past two nights and will be losing one more each night until we get to Spain.  All of the professors are very cool and seem to understand how the teaching/academic aspect of Semester at Sea is supposed to work.

Going back to the ship, as some of you may have heard from me or mom, we do have a fully working Spa.  Like that of which would be found on any cruise ship.  They have a whole menu of massages, treatments, and all the girl things.  And for whatever odd reason, all are “reasonably” priced, ask mom or Mara, they saw the menu when they were on the ship.  Also like cruises, the ship has an “alternate” dining option, where for a fee you can have a nice, sit-down dinner.  The ship also has two snack-shop kinds of things.  All have very reasonably priced “snack” food.  Huge water bottles are only a dollar fifty, pizzas are five dollars, smoothies are three; generally not bad.  The ship has a store with books, school supplies, basic medication, small toiletries, etc. The ship’s bookstore has all the Semester at Sea clothing and merchandise.  Unfortunately, they never restock anything during the entire semester.  So for the past two mornings, people have lined up to make sure they get the right colored sweatshirt they want in their size.  I got a really cool sweatshirt in one of the last mediums they had.  Continuing, the TV’s in our rooms don’t get any live channels.  However, the ship loops 4-5 movies every day.  Today we have Shrek, Raiders of the Lost Ark, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Amadeus. 

Last night was our first “Pub Night”. This is the only opportunity students have to drink on the ship.  I don’t think I have ever seen a more complicated or stricter-run means of serving alcohol.  We are allowed to have a maximum of two drinks at dinner and an additional four throughout the rest of the night.  Without getting into details, it’s a very long process to get a single beer or glass of wine that requires on waiting in gigantic lines.  But, that’s not what this voyage and our time on this ship is about.

All students have the opportunity to take a tour of the ship’s bridge.  I’m planning on doing mine in the next couple days.  It should be very cool, but I can’t imagine as cool as the tour we took of the Golden Princess’s bridge several years/cruises ago.  Also, I should mention that I just found out that is was awarded the position of “Sea Captain” for the Red Sea.  Every sea (each deck of students’ cabins is divided into two seas and each sea will have two Sea Captains throughout the voyage. From my understanding, this means that I will serve as an intermediary/ambassador between the members of my sea and the Semester at Sea faculty and administration. 

That’s it for now.  I’m hoping to have another post up before we get to Spain.