High-fiving Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Other Random Occurrences At Sea

Greetings from THE SEA!

This is my first post since boarding the ship, and I almost don’t know where to begin. I guess it might be best to start with the basics, and then move on the fun stuff like high-fiving Nobel Prize winners on my way to lunch. Keep you hangin…

Wednesday morning, after potentially the most insane serving of eggs benedict I’d ever seen (thank you Hash House a Go Go), I boarded a bus from San Diego to Ensenada where our ship awaited.

My bus was, of course, the last one to board the ship so it was straight through registration, a quick hello to my new roommate, a lifeboat drill on the outer deck, dinner, unpacking, staff and faculty introductions, and promptly passing out.

Whirlwind.

Today was just as packed, but not near as exciting. Think back to your first day of school or work. Pretty much all I heard today was every way I might get expelled or injured or otherwise not have the adventure of a lifetime. I’m now fully versed in dodging said consequences. Thanks Captain Jeffrey.

As of this moment, about 9 or 10pm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, welcoming and orientation are over and I am officially an undergraduate student once again. I honor of this occasion, I thought I might share a few entertaining details I’ve come across in making the reversion to the Golden Years.

This ship is a psychologist’s dream! 623 college students stuck on 7 levels of a ship that won’t see land for at least 4 more days… I think MTV specializes in things like this, right?

Although some of the psychological transitioning has and will be difficult, others have been much easier. For instance, the ability to wear sweats everywhere and the skill to manipulate limited dining hall choices into culinary pieces of art came back like riding a bicycle.

I no longer dread early classes. After showing up on the trading floor desk at 6:45am every day, I laugh when other people tell me they aren’t taking class before 10:30am. Sure, scheduling was an art form at Yale, but the way I see it, if I’m done with class by 10am, there’s way more time to lay out by the pool!

On that note, the pool is empty. Along with the fact that it’s like 50 degrees outside, the pool is empty. So all of you imagining me on a Spring Break cruise need to get your head straight. It’s still January for crying out loud.

Also with this time of year, we’ve run into an interesting wave pattern at sea that has basically half the ship vomiting… constantly… This has definitely been the most surprising thing thus far. Not pleasant, but totally unavoidable. Right now I’m rocking some super sexy SeaBands and hoping the voodoo placebo things keeps working!

Actually, now that I think about it, the most surprising thing is the fact that I literally ran into Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the first day of the voyage, and he gave me a high-five. Real life. Someone else walked right by him and he yelled out, “Hey man, you snubbed me!” Also real life.

Speaking of snubbing… apologies to everyone who has sent me emails or messages who haven’t received responses!! I found out on the drive to the ship that we are only allotted 2 hours of internet… not daily… not weekly… not monthly…

2 HOURS OF INTERNET THE WHOLE TRIP!

Seriously… So I will be using it to post blogs and that’s about it. Email still works, though, so please do send me messages and love! Facebook… not so much.

This is a tough pill to swallow for the constantly connected generation that’s currently inhabiting the ship. Not that I’m a completely different generation than say, a sophomore in college, but when I say I’m 25 and get reactions like ‘wow, you’re like, a real person’ or ‘ (insert long pause)…what?!’, it’s hard not to feel a little removed. In honor of that, and in an attempt to get back into the college spirit, it got maybe a little too much into decorating my room. I hope my roommate doesn’t hate me for this…

So there you have it… sea life and undergraduate life and quarter-life crisis life all wrapped up in one10x10 feet square bedroom, just trying to get through these massive 15 foot swells. The most promising thing today was the activities fair where I was finally able to start getting in touch with the Unreasonable at Sea entrepreneurs, so definitely looking forward to doing more of that as well!

Right now I’m just a sleepy, semi-seasick ball of questions. Looking forward to some normalcy tomorrow with my first class! I only have one, but it’s at 8am, which seems very fitting, all things considered.

Goodnight from the Pacific!

PS- I’m not washing my hand. Too cool!