Shiplife.

        I haven’t written about my time on the ship for awhile now, so I decided to fill you in on my life back on the MV Explorer. It isn’t nearly as fun as when we are in port, obviously, but it really cool living on a ship. I can’t believe it has already been over a month since I moved into my room on here. This semester is just flying by. That is good because I can’t wait to get to all these countries ahead of me, but I also don’t want this semester to be over at the same time.

        A few days before we arrived in Ghana a few of my travel friends from Spain and I signed up for the Special Occasion Dining they offer on the ship. It costs $25 and you get a 5 course meal. It was for Ariana’s birthday. It was the best meal I have had on the ship. It started out with a glass of champagne and trays of small appetizers. I had smoked salmon with fish eggs on a cracker type thing and calamari. Then we ordered our meal. For a real appetizer I had more smoked salmon, crab, and shrimp with a mustard type sauce. Then I had cream of broccoli soup and a Caesar salad. For my main entrée, I had filet mignon with cheesy hash browns and green beans…and for dessert I had chocolate pie and cake for Ariana’s birthday. Needless to say, we were STUFFED. I ate every last bit though because it is the best food we can get on the ship. It was so nice to get away from pasta and potatoes for a night.

        Classes are going fairly well. I have had an exam in both Global Studies and Environmental Psychology so far. Global Studies didn’t go as well as I had planned, but oh well. Global Studies is really the only one of my four classes that I dread going to. If we don’t have a guest speaker, it is soooo boring. It was amazing today, however. Our class was taught by Desmond Tutu because we will be in South Africa tomorrow. It was really cool. He is so funny. Outside of that though, it hasn’t felt like we have gotten into much in any of my classes. When you only have class for a few days then get a mini-vacation, it never seems like you actually have class. I have tests in my other two classes when we get back from South Africa, so I will see how that goes. I lucked out and my classes don’t require me to do much as far as FDPs (Faculty Directed Practicum). I only had to sign up for two. They are both directed by my Cognition teacher. Those two trips will count for three of my classes. I just have to write a different paper for each class from each trip. Shouldn’t be too hard. My Environmental Psychology class requires a semester-long project as well, but it shouldn’t be too bad either.

        The 28th of September was Neptune Day. Neptune Day celebrates the crossing of the Equator into the southern hemisphere. We didn’t have classes for that day, but did have a Global Studies exam that night. At 7am we all got a wakeup call…that was King Neptune and his royal family (our Dean and administrators) banging on pots and pans and our doors. They walked around the ship doing that for about 1.5 hours. Then they announced over our intercom systems that all “Polliwogs” must report to the pool deck. Once we got up there, the royalty paraded onto the deck. Once everyone got on the deck, they made introductions of the royalty and then asked King Neptune (Dean David) for permission for all of us to pass into the southern hemisphere and be deemed “Emerald Shellbacks”. It all was quite hilarious. After that, we all got to decide how we wanted to celebrate Neptune day. You could either get fish guts poured on you and jump into the pool, kiss a fish, or shave your head…or do them all if you please. I toughened up and SHAVED MY HEAD! Yep, for the first time since 4th or 5th grade my hair is short. Probably the shortest it has ever been. I actually like it. It is pretty nice not having to mess with it ever. There were probably a couple hundred on the ship that shaved our heads. Some completely shaved it, some just got it cut off, and some just shaved part of their heads into Mohawks or other designs. There were also many more girls that shaved their heads than guys. Apparently it is that way every semester. Some cut of over 15 inches of their hair. A guy on our ship had hair that was over 2 feet long and had been growing it out since he was in 8th grade. His friends talked him into completely shaving his head at the last minute. It is pretty hard to recognize a lot of people on the ship now though.

        Intramurals are just getting under way. I am playing volleyball and dodgeball. Games will be starting after we get back from South Africa…for volleyball at least. I have no idea when dodgeball starts. Volleyball is only a single elimination tournament because we really don’t have much time left on the ship. We only have 36 more days actually on the ship until we get back to San Diego. Crazy. I am playing volleyball with Gina Hoppe and Ellie Doherty and I am on Ryan Church’s dodgeball team.

        One thing I was told to participate in from past voyagers was the Extended Family Program. The program sets you up with an adult on the ship and other students as a sort of family. My parents are Chris and Lance. They have a 7 month old baby as well, Griffen. He is the youngest person on the ship. My siblings are Inna, Lilly, and Michael. Mandy is my aunt. She was adopted into our family by Chris and Lance, but can’t be an official family member, so we call her our aunt. It is a really cool thing. I didn’t know any of them before this. It is nice to just have another group of people to hang out with every now and then. We have dinners usually after each port to reflect and tell each other what we did. I think we have other things planned as well, but I’m not sure what yet.

        There have already been some people kicked off the ship. It is pretty amazing how stupid some of these kids are. I guess the first person to get kicked off was actually in Halifax. Apparently this guy wasn’t even allowed to board the ship the day of embarkation because he was so drunk. There is also one kid on the ship right now that will be kicked off tomorrow when we get to Cape Town. He was caught with heroine I guess. Don’t quite understand why you would spend the money to do this and be that dumb. Whatever, not my problem. SAS is a bit strict with some stuff though. A kid named Tom hurt himself really bad in Ghana being stupid. He was on top of a storage crate thing and jumped off. He landed wrong and bruised both of his heel bones. He didn’t go to the doctor right away and I guess that is against the rules. He isn’t allowed to get off the ship at all in South Africa because of it. I think that is a bit harsh, since it was his choice to take care of himself or not.

        Well this was short, but I will be writing all about South Africa really soon. See ya.