There Is A Slug In My Salad

Yes, Shauna found a slug in her salad at lunch on day. Hilarity ensued.

 

Days 45 through 52

Finally, a point to breathe after the rapid machine gun fire that was East Asia. Having only two days in between ports is really stressful, and it also contributes to the reason why it’s taking so long for me to catch up on my blogs. Now that we are out of the cold, deck 7 is packed everyday with people hoping to catch some rays. I myself prefer the quiet of deck 5, and I can usually go out as early as 10:45 and lay out until lunch, after which I reassume my position in my deck chair until I have class as 2. Our global studies teacher came up one day and said “Well don’t you guys have a tough life! The sun is shining, you’re getting a tan, and you’re sailing around the world! And you’re in school right now! Life doesn’t get much better!” He is right on that count. Life really doesn’t get any better than ship life (minus the food…the food off the ship is way better).

Speaking of food, 8 of us scheduled ourselves a “special occasion” dinner for Shauna’s 21^st, since we couldn’t exactly celebrate the traditional way college students normally celebrate turning 21. We wore cute outfits and the boys wore slacks and button downs (and all looked very dapper and handsome might I add), and we ate in one of the classrooms that they convert into the special dining room just for the fancy dinners. We sat down to a wonderful 5 course meal and a glass of champagne. We had soup, seafood appetizers, Caesar salad, sirloin steak, and mud pie. It was an absolutely phenomenal dinner, and we are thinking about doing one more at the end of the voyage as a goodbye.  

 

 Classes are still going well, I still like them almost as much as I did at the beginning. J Global studies should be interesting in the week leading up to India, as we have interport students who are talking to us about some stuff to do within India once we get there. I am really excited for India, as it is going to be completely different from all of the other places that I have been to. I have already been warned about four main things:

1.) The dirtiness

2.) The poverty

3.) The smell

4.)Male attention

Women are supposed to cover up their knees and shoulders, mostly because men will stare at us, not necessarily because of cultural reasons. When it comes to the smell, most people I have talked to said it is a definite sign that you are in India. Along with the smell comes the dirtiness; there is trash everywhere from what I have heard and seen in pictures. As for dirtiness, everyone says to wear crappy clothes in India then throw them away because they will get so dirty and smelly. We shall see how these predictions pan out. Other than global studies, we have been talking about mental health in India, the family in India, and a bajillion other things that all relate to India. This is definitely one of my favorite parts about this trip; the fact that we get to learn so much about every country from different aspects depending on what classes we are taking.

 

So on March 7^th, we didn’t have classes. This was due to the Sea Olympics that were to take place that day. The ship has each deck divided into seas, so these would be our teams for the Olympic events. Each sea has a specific color (we were orange), and we create a banner and a cheer. The night of the 6^th was the opening ceremonies, in which each team does their cheer, the torch is brought in and the games are declared officially open. What would the seas be competing for? The winning team would be the first sea off the ship at the end of the voyage, to which most people booed. No one is going to want to get off the ship by the time we are done.

 

The sun rose on the day of the sea Olympics to find everyone up and in their sea colors and ready to go. I had signed up for the salty whistle, which consisted of eating ten saltine crackers then whistling. I didn’t place at all, but it was just fun to watch everyone eat the crackers. My friend Shauna beat everyone, and it was great to see the look of disbelief on the boys’ faces when she was first. We also had the singing SASers (lip-syncing competition), Nail the Sailor (dodgeball), Pirate’s Pull (tug-o-war), Extreme Musical Chairs, Crab Soccer, and a Relay Race. The day was an absolute blast, but the main highlight was dinner. I know I have said this a billion times before, but ship food sucks after two months of eating the same thing. So we were all absolutely ecstatic to see that we were getting BBQ for dinner! We had burgers and ribs and corn on the cob and potatoes and a really yummy dessert. We all ate an absolute ton (the ribs we to die for), then felt rather full and slightly sick afterwards. Later, it was time for the closing ceremonies and the announcements for who the winners would be. All of the seas gathered in their respective areas in the Union, everyone did their cheers again, and it was announced that the Red Sea were the champions of the day. I’m pretty sure we got 5^th or 6^th, which was pretty good, since we had been in last all day up until the last few events. It is nice that they break up our long stretches of class with a day off here and there, and they plan fun activities for us as well. On the way from India to Mauritius we have Neptune Day, which is the day we cross the equator and have the day off of classes. These days are also days to just relax and get some sun, which is so nice, but incredibly warm in this equatorial heat.

 

In other news, I am exactly halfway done with my voyage. It is the most bittersweet feeling ever. Sweet because I get to see all of my family, friends, and sisters when I get home. Despite the fact that I am on this trip and having the time of my life, I do miss everyone at home. I’m missing events, birthday’s, holidays, etc. And while I wish I were home to experience all of these things, I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. Why is being halfway done somewhat bitter? It’s bitter because this is the greatest thing I have ever done. No one will ever really understand the impact it has on someone’s life until they do it themselves. I have made friends that I have known since day 6 of this trip, and I feel like I have known them forever. We travel together, eat together, tan together, blog together. We know little nuances about each other, we have inside jokes, we finish each other’s sentences. We have shared almost every aspect of this trip together, except for some trips we have done separately. We are always happy when a trip is over and we can come back together on the ship. When I am beginning to feel shipsick, I can’t call one of my friends from home; it has to be a member of Team Awesome, because they are the only ones who are really going to understand how I am feeling. We’ve made enough memories already to last us a lifetime, and I can’t wait to make more before this journey is over. I have seen places most people only dream of seeing, and by the time I am done, I will be a part of 1% of the world population that has circumnavigated the globe. The places I have seen and the people I have met have already had an impact on my life, and I know that once it is over and everything sinks in, that impact will grow exponentially. Semester at Sea has a higher rate of people who continue to travel after college than any other study abroad program, and I hope that rings true for me. I got the travel bug when I first went to Europe for 3 weeks in high school, and almost exactly 4 years later, I am doing this. Who’s to say where I will want to go 4 years from now? My global studies teacher has travel tips that he gives us, and my personal favorite is not to let your age get higher than the number of countries you have visited. While I am a few behind at this point, hopefully I can catch up someday. Being able to actually look at what you are studying and to see it applied in real life in other countries is incredibly rewarding, and I think that anyone and everyone who has an opportunity to do this should. I am incredibly thankful to my parents for sending me on this trip, and I wish they would do it as lifelong learners when they retire. J  Speaking of lifelong learners, I want to start saving when I get home so I can do this again when I’m older. I should be like my dad and start saving silver change….it would add up to be quite a large amount over the next 40 or so years.

 

We had India preport on day 52, and it was pretty much exactly what I expected. It was basically a bunch of warnings on how dangerous India is and how important it is that we do everything SAS tells us so nothing happens to any of us. My psychology teacher, who has lived in India for a collective total of 2 years, essentially says that SAS is rather paranoid and that India isn’t nearly as bad as they say. We shall see how this goes. I’m going on the SAS trip to the Taj Majal and Jaipur, so we shall see how well this goes. I hope I have a good group and good group leaders, as having inadequate ones can be a not so great experience from what I have heard in the past. I will be writing again after India!