Ship Life

Here’s an update of what’s been going on on the ship lately. I’ve obviously had class and they’re all going pretty well for the most part. Some days at sea it gets a little boring but it’s nice to have time to relax and recuperate from each country. On A days I don’t have class so I usually sit outside and read. Since we have left Ghana though it’s been cold outside so I’ve been reading inside instead. I’ve seen some dolphins, whales and flying fish, which was very exciting. On B days I have all my classes and then I usually take a nap after lunch for a little while before my last class. Almost every night there is some kind of Explorer Seminar and I usually go to them because they’re pretty interesting. One night there was a Secret Service seminar. There is a couple on the ship who are retired from the Secret Service and they talked about their careers. It was so cool. The guy worked with Reagan, Carter and both Bushes. He showed us a picture of him running a marathon with one of the presidents. Another Explorer Seminar was about the Peace Corps. There are 5 people on the ship who were Peace Corps volunteers so they talked about their experience and how much they loved it. Desmond Tutu finally spoke at one of the Explorer Seminars. He is sailing with us the whole voyage but we’ve only heard him speak once and it was the second day we got on the ship. He hides out in his room most of the time and we rarely ever see him. It was exciting to finally hear him talk. We are about to get to South Africa and since he’s from South Africa he is giving a lecture during global studies and also he also did the seminar. Dean David asked him questions and he talked about his life and some of the work he did in South Africa.

A couple weeks ago I signed up for an extended family on the ship. An extended family is one of the many clubs on board and they assign you a mom and/or dad and siblings. The parents are either life long learners or professors of faculty members. I have 2 moms or a mom and a grandma, depending on how you look at it I guess. My “mom” is the Spanish professor and she brought along her mom. The professors are able to bring someone along with them so most people choose their spouse but since my “mom” isn’t married she brought along her mom. So, therefore, I have 2 moms. I also have 6 brothers and sisters. We meet for dinner every so often and just kind of hang out. It’s fun.

We recently passed through the Equator and the Prime Meridian at the same time, which means we went through the center of the earth. When you cross the Equator by ship you go from being a pollywog to a shellback but since passed through 0° 0° we are now Emerald Shellbacks. Semester at Sea has Neptune Day to celebrate crossing the equator. On Neptune Day, we were woken up by the sounds of whistles, drums, and cymbals as some of the professors paraded through the halls at 7:30 am. Then we went up to the 7^th deck by the pool and King Neptune made an announcement that to officially be a shellback, or Emerald Shellback in our case, we had to prove we were worthy. In order to do that we had to have fish guts poured on our heads, jump in the pool, kiss a fish, kiss King and Queen Neptune’s rings, and then we were finally knighted with a sword. Traditionally, sailors would shave their heads for good luck so many people on the ship decided to shave their heads include a surprising number of girls.

Not too much else has been going on. I took a bridge tour the other day and that was pretty cool. We’ve also had an awesome dance party and karaoke night. I’ve been a little sick for the past couple days. It’s just a little cold and I’m feeling better but I just want it to be gone before South Africa. Tonight is the culture pre-port meeting and Desmond Tutu is speaking tomorrow in global studies. We arrive in South Africa on Sunday Oct 3! This is the port that I have been looking forward to most so I’m very excited!