Ship Life- Rough Seas

Rough Seas

The seas last night got pretty rough around midnight, and our books started to fall off of our bookshelf and it was kind of hard to sleep. Observation: working out on a ship that is going up and down constantly is pretty difficult! We have been at sea since Monday night and it is a very bizarre feeling knowing you are only surrounded by water with minimal communication to the outside world. We have Saturday off from class to “relax,” aka: catch up on all of our assigned reading. They started showing in-cabin movies at night which are pretty interesting. I guess they try to show at least one movie that has something to do with where we are going because tonight they are showing one that has something to do with Brazil.
Every morning we have Global Studies class, which the entire ship is required to attend. Every office and desk shuts down during this class, and everyone goes to listen to that day’s lecturer speak about the upcoming country. Today and the last few days we have had speakers with some knowledge about Brazil, including a few people who have lived there. Jess and I are getting pretty nervous about going to Rio de Janeiro when we port, but the speakers make us feel better about Carnival. We have a guided tour that leaves at 7 am on Wednesday and we fly to Rio and have a few days to explore the city, as a group of course! Each night we have “leisure time” but I’m pretty sure this is going to be spent finding Internet cafes and trying to skype rather than exploring Brazil’s nightlife.
We are still meeting new people, and are currently trying to figure out how we are going to get to the town in South Africa with the Guiness Book of World Record’s tallest bungee jump. I won’t write about the bungee jumping again until after I do it, so those of you opposed to us doing it can pretend you never read that. We are also planning our trip in China independently. (as opposed to an organized trip through SAS) Our goal is to get a group together to travel to the Great Wall, possibly stay at a hostel, which I’m not too thrilled about, but I hear there’s a few that are actually really nice. One way to get to the wall from where we port is to take a 24 hour train ride… that is not one of our options!
Classes are going good. I couldn’t add a fifth class because apparently everyone on the ship needed the same class as me and I am too far on the waitlist to really have a chance. Darn, looks like I’ll be taking 12 hours for the first time in my college history, I’m really looking forward to it. I am taking a Business Communication course with Tessa and Jess which is basically a repeat of everything I learned as a PR major at OSU my freshman and sophomore years. I am also in a Women’s Studies class which I really enjoy. We are split into groups to do a final oral presentation, which is a majority of our grade. My group’s discussion is the issue of mail-order brides in Vietnam; I’m really looking forward to learning more about this. My last elective is Human Unity and Diversity, and so far we are reading from a book on anthropology in North America. I also enjoy this class, however I am no anthropology major like many of my classmates and I have some catching up to do. All in all, my classes have very interesting and thought-provoking discussions. I am finding academics on the ship to be slightly different and more challenging, but so far in the seven or so novels I am required to read, they all seem interesting. Until next time! Marissa