Shipboard Life

Here's my profound statement of the year...Ready for it?: Living on a ship is different from living on land.  I know, crazy right!? You never would've thought that, I bet!

 

I've now been technically living on this ship for 2 full weeks.  Oddly, it feels as though I have lived here for a lifetime.  Everything has become so incredibly familiar.

 

The Crew

 

Honestly, probably my number one favorite part of this ship is the crew.  They are seriously the friendliest, nicest guys you could ever meet in the world.  I probably see the dining room crew the most just because the same guys are pretty much there every time we eat.  I love that at 730 when I'm up getting breakfast with my eyes barely open and my legs barely moving I can't help but perk up when one of the dining room staff greets me with a big smile and a warm, "Good morning! You want juice?"  It seriously makes my day every time I see one of them.  I also love the fact that every time I go to class, I come back and my bed is magically made and our room is tidied up.

 

I've definitely gotten spoiled here because of the crew as well.  Aeriale and I were talking yesterday and realized that we're going to go back to Behrend and we'll go to Brunos or Dobbins and we're just going to leave our trays sitting there out of habit because the crew cleans everything up for you.  Even when I tried to push my chair in one day, one of the guys was like, "Oh no! You don't worry about that! You have a good day!" It's sad that we become so dependent on them and I just wish that we could serve them dinner and clean up after them or something some day because I've never been the type to be waited on like that and I'm a pretty independent person.  But I have definitely gotten to accustomed to not having to do much to take care of myself.  I love the crew.  They are always there with a smile on and some of them even sing!

 

The other night we were back from another day in Spain and we went up to deck 7 to the pool bar to get some food and I had ordered a pizza and was off talking and not paying attention when I heard my name.  "Michelle! Michelle!" And I looked up and saw one of the crew members holding my pizza and I walk over and he's like, "Michelle! I've been looking for you for days!!!" And he was just laughing and joking, but it completely made my day.  They're all so funny and like to have a good time.  It's the best when you're walking around the halls and you hear someone say, "Hey Darwin!" because a lot of students know the names of the staff and it's even funnier when the staff responds, "What's happenin!?" or something random like that.

 

The Professors

 

I've come to the realization that we honestly have some of the best and brightest staff in the world on this ship.  I truly think that it is not any walk through a park to get on here as a professor.  All of our professors are just so great and so much fun.  One of the professors who is my "mom" on the ship was telling me the other day about when she lived in Italy and my business professor always talks about when he lived in the UK and just random things that they do.  I seriously feel like we're with the elite of the professors of the world right now.  I just want to go home to my business professors and be like, "Well, I just learned under Bill Wilkerson for the summer" and have them gasp and be all jealous that I got the privilege of taking one of Bill Wilkerson's classes.  I'm not sure why I feel this way, probably just because I really appreciate and enjoy he professors I have and the classes I'm taking.

 

I feel like they all just live such great lives, traveling the world along with us and just the different stories they tell us are so interesting and make the future seem so exciting.  During orientation all of the professors stood up and told their names and stuff so that the students could kind of get acquainted with them.  My initial reaction was that it was going to be a really long summer of classes, but now I don't even mind going to my classes.  I really enjoy them and all of my professors make them really interesting and enjoyable.  I like everything that I'm learning and it's a really weird experience for me because I'm not used to enjoying school so much. 

 

Don't get me wrong, today was horrible.  I woke up at 650 to go get breakfast and grab a Scantron to go back down to my room and take my Global Studies exam and I got done with it around 800 just in time to sit down and start studying for my Global Music exam at 1035.  And after I got done with my music class and scarfed down lunch, I had just enough time to run to the library and study International Business before my quiz that I didn't actually end up having.  There are definitely days and times that I don't like at all here, but overall I really like my classes and everything.

 

It's also a really weird experience to actually live with your professors.  It's so odd to be going to lunch and see Professor Nalbach or Professor Wilkerson walking around in shorts and a t-shirt opposed to the typical slacks and dress shirt that I'm used to seeing them in.  It kind of makes them more of realy people to me.  It's cool when you're standing up on the front deck looking at the Azor Islands and you can walk up to your Global Studies professor standing there and ask about the islands that we're currently seeing.  That kind of thing doesn't happen in a typical classroom environment.  It's also cool to be walking around the ship and see Professor Jones with his son and wife.  It's kind of one of those things that you don't really think about too much; the fact that professors have lifes and families outside of the REDC.  I think it definitely gives the experience a more personal side.

 

The Ship

 

I have gotten mysterically used to the fact that when I walk upstairs and look out the window all I see is vast, blue water.  I've also gotten used to the fact that you can hear the engine of the ship when I'm trying to sleep, and its drone has even come to lull me to sleep.  I'm also used to the fact that after class I can walk up to the deck and sit and do homework while listening to the waves crash against the side of our ship.  Now that we've made it to the Mediterranean we're no longer weaving across the hall and pushing ourselves off the walls for support as we're trying to walk around, but I even got relatively used to that.

 

It's not odd that 90% of the ship goes to class in beach covers with their swimsuits underneath so that they can go layout after class.  It's also not odd that we now feel that walking up 2 decks is a long walk since we've been trapped on this large, but small compared to being on land, ship.  In a way the small-ness reminds me of Keystone High School.  Rumors there would take off in one wing and be to the next in a matter of seconds.  It's no different here.  We actually have a thing called "Rumor Ranger" on here where students can submit rumors that they have heard and the faculty and staff will answer the questions.

 

We're used to the annoying doorbell sound that comes on over the loudspeaker to notify us that 'The Voice' is soon going to come on and give us the afternoon bridge report or the evening report or tell us where we're supposed to be at the time.  I'm also used to stepping over at least 2 or 3 students on my way to my room because everyone is sitting in the hall trying to get Internet service.  And believe it or not, I'm even used to the fact that I can't use Facebook, Google, or my cell phone on here.  My cell phone is locked away in the safe and I haven't even thought about it very much since I've been here.  Once in awhile I'll feel my pocket to check the time or something and realize that it's not there, but I haven't gone through withdrawl or anything! And everyone thought that I was going to die without my phone.

 

One thing that I still haven't gotten used to though, is the fact that I can walk outside at like 10 o'clock and the sky will be a beautiful, brilliant pink off in the distance surrounded by black and that the water will seriously look fake.  I haven't gotten to the beauty of the ocean/sea.  It still doesn't seem real that I'm on a 'floating campus' traveling the Mediterranean.  I've never seen a sight like the night sky with nothing but water before it.  After getting used to the sea sickness, I think I could live on a ship like this forever.  I know, you're thinking, "Well yeah, the way she talks about it, I could too."  This is truly one of the most amazing places I've ever been in my life.  Don't get me wrong, I miss home and my family and friends and definitely my mom's cooking because our food seems to be the same thing everyday with a different name, but I'm getting used to this life too and the fact that I just expect the food to be the same thing.  I think I'm especially going to get used to having only one day of class between the next 4 or 5 countries that we go to.

 

All in all, I'm truly a part of the shipboard life here that I only read about a few months ago and I've only been here for 2 weeks.  I feel like I've known a lot of these people forever and most all of the faces look familiar around here.  We're all used to the fact that we don't know anything that's going on at home in the US and it's okay.  We heard the news of Michael Jackson and Bob Barker and it really doesn't hit us because we're so detached from that life and world.  We've essentially created a new world for ourselves here...which is weird because I've already done that at Behrend too.  It's like living a whole nother life all over again.

 

This is the last time I'll be able to write until July 5th or so because I'll be in Venice and climbing Mount Vesuvius and going to Capri and stuff while we're in Italy.  I hope you all have a fantastic 4th of July and eat lots of great food for me and watch some amazing fireworks!