A Day in the Life of

So I realize I don’t say much about ship life. Considering we’re on here for days upon days at a time, with no real connection to the outside world, I should probably do a little recap. Like I’ve said, there are 7 decks. Mason and I live in the most colorful, decorated room on the entire vessel. The walls are magnetic so we have an array of art dangling from magnets, pictures, maps, and various postcards and trinkets from every country thus far. We’re both collecting art so that’s a major part of our room.

Life on the ship is what you make of it.

Global studies is every morning. Horrible. Absolutely horrible. I mean, there are a lot of things we learn that’s interesting. A lot of it is just bad organization. Tests are horribly irrelevant and half are failing. The days are then divided into A days or B days. We have class any day we’re at sea- Saturday, Sunday, or any weekday. We have no comprehension of days here. It’s either A or B. Half the time you couldn’t tell if it was Wednesday or Sunday. It’s actually very liberating. It’s amazing how much emotional emphasis we place on days.

Social time is lunch or dinner. Food isn’t bad- but it gets old. We have the basics every day- salad bar, bread, a meat, fish, pasta, soup, and dessert. Taco day is like Christmas and birthdays combined. People cut classes early and the line will wrap around the dining hall. The 7th deck always has good food, but it costs money. Even that starts to get old though.

Before we get into any ports we have pre-ports two days beforehand. One day for cultural details (where to eat, what to do, etc.). The other is for logistics (where are we docking, what health scares to be afraid of, etc.) When in dock we’re pretty much free to do or go wherever we want in that country.

So that’s the bread and butter. Then there’s what we make of it. There’s the big things every year does: Sea Olympics, Ambassadors Ball, Students of Service Auction, etc. Then there is the things the programming board does. We are setting up a couple dances, the Mr. SAS, the crew talent show, and a No Talent Show. Then there’s other clubs or group who put things on. Coming up we have a Project Runway. Every sea has an ice cream social and another themed social. Coming up is a Chicago Ice Cream Social.

We’re our own little bubble here. We don’t have the luxury to be online all day or phone back home. We hear major news in Global Studies, but even then its twenty seconds or so. Haha, you know- I heard the Madonna song in a store in Malaysia and we tried buying it off them. Of course they’re like these Americans Jare CRAZY. We just wanted to hear what was new.

Most recently we had or Crew Talent Show. So our crew works their damn asses off. I mean- they take hard work to a whole new level. Every day and night, like clockwork, they are scurrying around the entire ship- wiping down the railings, vacuuming the carpets, hell, Stephanie saw one clipping the carpet hairs. They repaint the bottom of the ship at every port. We have a steward who makes our bed and cleans our room every day. His name is Hector, from the Philippines, and he’s a total sweetheart. Anyways, so the entire crew put on a talent show for us. Huge deal. Everyone was piled up in the union two hours to save seats. The dining hall staff, the housing staff, engineers- everyone did something. Everyone chipped in to raise money for them to get the same amenities as us in their quarters. It was one of the best nights on the ship itself. So cool. Plus- shy little Hector was full on shaking his booty. Haha!