Avast Ye Scurvy Sea Dogs

1/24/08 – 1/25/08

Our first full day at sea was mostly spent in meeting after meeting covering everything we could possibly need to know about the ship and ship life. Our only breaks came for meals which provided a great opportunity to make new friends! It seems like everytime I sit down to eat or attend a meeting I’m surrounded by incredibly friendly people who are eager to introduce themselves and I can already feel the close community living aboard a ship creates! Most people have adjusted well to our first boat motions but there are those few souls who appear to be near death and obviously missing having a stable ground to stand on. There are often stumbles and collisions in the halls and speeches have lost the attention of their audience from sudden pitches and rolls of the ship.
The view out my room

I have to say though that this is by far the most amazing dining hall experience I’ve ever had. The food has been great and the staff friendly to the point of making me feel guilty for how helpful and willing they are to serve us.

Our Dining Hall

Already we have been treated to our second spectacular sunset following dinner and to have every dinner capped with a show like this has been incredible!

Just another day on SAS

My first day of classes went fairly well but I must say I can no longer complain about 8am classes on a traditional campus. With the exception of the one time of year where Daylight Savings takes effect the class always starts at the same time. Here things are different. We had our first time change so I lost an hour of sleep and this will continue approximately every other day we are at sea for the remainder of the voyage. What this amounts to is that my class that currently feels like 8am or 7am after the last time change will be starting at what feels like 4am in a few weeks and will continue to get earlier as the semester progresses!

Classes seem interesting so far and with the exception of Global Studies which the entire ship attends the classes are all smaller and much more personal with the professor which will be nice for a change. Also we sit around small tables and on couches instead of at desks which gives the class a much more intimate feel. It is also quite different to see a constantly changing scene out the window and feel your notebook, table, and chair rocking back and forth

Tomorrow we will be arriving in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and everyone is excited after our pre-port briefing tonight. In a little while I’ll be grabbing my sleeping bag and heading to the top decks to join in a massive slumber party on the top of the ship so that we can be awake when the ship pulls into San Juan tomorrow.

In San Juan I’ll be attending a welcome reception where we’ll meet Puerto Rican students and have Salsa dancing lessons, going on a Canopy Adventure, and a kayaking trip to a Bioluminescent bay. The Canopy Adventure is a zip-lining course through the rainforest where I’ll learn about how gravity accelerates massive people-sized objects (after all this is school)

The kayaking trip will take a group of us out on a nighttime kayaking trip where we will pass through one of the few places in the entire world where luminescent organisms on the water’s surface are agitated by the oars of our kayaks and fluoresce several different colors.