Title: A Day Aboard the MV Explorer

Entry:
While we are at sea we are in school mode. We have two different days labeled "A" day and "B" day. I am going to take you through my first "A" day.

The first day of class after advancing our clocks by one hour (which is pretty typical every day as we cross the Atlantic), I woke up to my watch beeping at 5:45 our time. I had slept in my running shorts and shirt so that when I got up all I had to do was put on my hat and running shoes before going to the gym. The gym/spa here aboard the Mv Explorer is up on the seventh floor and I live on the third floor. Once you get up to the gym it's a small room about the size of an average bedroom. They have tredmills, elipticals, stairmasters, and some other equipment of that nature. I prefer just to run. I had to sign up the day before in order to get a thirty minute session. As you can imagine running on a treadmill on a constantly moving ship is very interesting. Your trying to to run a straight path so that you do not fall off but the ship rocks back and forth. I had to catch myself a couple times against the wall so I wouldn't trip and get shot off.

After running, I went back to my room to take a shower. We do have our own bathrooms which I share with my roommate. It's very nice but about the size of an average bathroom stall and has everything we need; toilet, sink, shower, and some room for storage. It's amazing how efficient the little thing is and the water is great! We have very hot water. It's kind of funny to take a shower too. With the rocking of the boat the water in the bottom of the shower sloshes from side to side and sometimes you can lose your balance. We even had to take some of our stuff off the shower rack because it continued to fall off. My roommate told me one time he came in to find his body wash fallen to the floor and the cap had broken which then was all over the floor. So much for trying to conserve soap.

After I had gotten dressed and ready I headed up to one of the two dining areas for breakfast. The one that I prefer to go to (along with most evreyone else) is the Garden Lounge which has an inside dining area and an outside dining are on the deck. I like going outside because you have the endless view of the ocean to stare at. When you get to the dinning all everyone is supposed to sanitize their hands using the automated hand sanitizer at the entrance of the dining hall. This is to help control sicknesses in our small and contained community. Then, you hop in line to grab something from the buffet. On my first day I met two girls in line (pretty common to meet people while waiting for food) and I ended up sitting with them (Emma and her roommate I believe). We, of course, ate outside because it was a very nice day. The food is pretty normal. I think I had yogurt, eggs, and pancakes that day. I have yet to wake up early enough for another breakfast to see if it is any diffe
rent.

When breakfast was over it was to the first class of the day, Global Studies. Everyone has to take Global Studies as part of our trip. It is a class that gives us a heads up so we know what to expect before we get to each country. It also discusses topics such as "the world is flat" meaning the countries of our world are becoming interconnected through the advancements in technology. We even read that a McDonald's in Cape Girardeau (a town about 45 minutes from my college which I have been to a few times) has an interesting way of taking your order. When you go through the drive-thru a person from Colorado Springs, which is more than 900 miles away, is the person that takes your order. This class is in the Union which is the largest class room on the ship. It's much like a lecture hall or auditorium.

From Global Studies I go to a smaller class, Jazz. This class is roughly a 12' x 12' room with a couch that raps around the back and a few small table tops with chairs in the middle. At the from of the class is a screen with a projector and a podium; a typical college classroom except it's got an ocean view blocked by life boats. This class is a jazz music appreciation class. We are starting with the fundamentals of music and I assume we will delve into the history of Jazz.

Then, off to the dining hall again for lunch. Most of the lunches and dinners consist of salad, some kind of pasta, some kind of meat, and any form of potatoes. There is only so much variation possible when you have to store and save food for a week or so at a time. And of course before entering and as you leave you must sanitize your hands.

After lunch I headed out of the dining hall to the deck, where you can also eat. On the deck there are stairs that lead to the seventh floor deck, which is also the pool deck. From there you have the best view of the ocean. Most all of the deck is open except for about a fourth of it which has a canopy cover that shades the snack bar area. You can get almost anything at the snack bar; chips, cookies, drink, and pizza. ( I know Ryan, James, Victor, Kyrsten, Britni, Jordan, and Michael would like that. You guys said pizza was your favorite food.) And as for the pool, ( listen up Jalen and Mackenzie I bet this pool is smaller than yours but at least there is one!) it is probably about 5' x 14' and has shallow areas on either side that allows the water to filter in an out to keep it from sloshing out. I was impressed by this smart design but I was told it is pretty typical on cruise ships.

This was a pretty warm day and I would have liked to get my swim suit on and gone into the pool but I had class soon after. So, instead I read my book under the canopy. As I was reading, one of the crew members yelled out that there was an animal swimming by. We all went to the side and saw a couple dolphins jumping in and out of the water. I suspect they were following the cargo ship that had just past by. They seem to like to follow things. This was a big day for seeing things in the ocean! Hardly ever do you get to see anything. Most of the time it's open water as far as you can see.

After the excitement of spotting other life at the sea, I got a chance to listen to some music with a friend (Didi) on the "chill" dock, meaning it's a nice quite place to be. It's at the bow of the ship. This is my favorite view. It's everything that comes ahead of us... more ocean and pretty soon Spain!

Last but not least I have a poetry class. This class is in a similar classroom as my Jazz class. It's pretty self explanatory; we read poetry and discuss it.

My only other class is Non-Profit Leadership, which is on "B" day. This is a class about organizations that make no profit but raise money to help people in many different ways. Some that you might know are Habitat for Humanity, The Red Cross, and, surprisingly, Semester At Sea.

In the evening after classes there are plenty of things to do. There is dinner and snack time (Yes! snack time late in the evening). But also there are many groups you can join. They could be anything from exercising to spirituality or career help and being adopted by the Lifelong Learners. Lifelong Learners are the older students here that are usually no longer in college. They adopt various students to be their mentors. This has become a very popular part of SAS. Over 400 people applied to be a Lifelong Learner and their are less than 100 aboard. Their ages range anywhere from late twenties to eighties.

Then, at the end of the day, exhausted from all that has been done, I was rocked to sleep like a little baby.


P.S. I just attached my SAS email (scperry@semesteratsea.net) to my blog so that I can update more often. We have limited internet that I have to use sparingly but this email is free to use. So email me anytime at this address. Plus, no I just email my entries to my blog and they should automatically update. We'll see how it works.