Log 6

The bookstore finally opened today. The downside is that everybody wanted to go in and take a look around. The first session it was open was 0800 to 0930. I went up to deck 7 after breakfast to find a line of people stretching halfway down the ship. Needless to say, I left to return later.

Eventually, I did make it back to the bookstore, and to my surprise there was no line at all. I think it was a matter of curiosity and impulse buying. I, on the other hand, had a specific reason to tend to. As I explained earlier I am part of the Bering Sea, and so was assigned the team color of black. This wouldn’t usually be a problem, however, since I was preparing to spend my days in warmer than Pennsylvania weather, I made it a point to not pack any black tops, so as not to attract the heat of the sun to myself. Consequently, I needed to buy a black shirt in order to support and represent my team in ship-wide events such as Sea Olympics. I also purchased a very colorful and intricate world map, and a lanyard. The lanyard is to make it easier to keep my ID and cabin key on me at all times, without having to carry a bag around. I bought the map because it looked cool, and I wanted it.

I attended my B day classes today. Visual Arts and Marine Ecology. Visual Arts seems like it is going to be very interesting. We are going to be mostly focusing on the interpretation of the pieces we are looking at and how the pieces of art relate to the culture and religion from which it was created. We didn’t really talk much about our future endeavors in my Marine Ecology class, but were split into teams for future assignments and got released from lecture early to talk and get to know our teams. Coincidentally, my entire ecology team is also in the same environmental ethics class.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of resources and accommodations, all of my classes have a ridiculous amount of reading assigned. And since no one read the syllabi prior to our first set of lectures, everyone is behind on the readings due for lectures. Great start for us.

I discovered the deck 9 snack bar today as well, and contrary to what I had expected, the prices were not totally outrageous. A double cheeseburger and fries would cost about five dollars. I don’t see myself eating there a lot since I get free food three times a day, but the snack bar is open late night after dinner closes, so I guess it would depend if I am up late studying and if I develop and appetite in doing so.

Something else exciting happened today. We say our first life form out at sea. A small black-backed, white-bellied, sea bird with some yellow on the beak. About twenty of us were out on the portside deck of 6 waiting to go into kaisersaal for our global studies class, when we noticed it dodging the colliding swells. This small little bird was flying faster than the ship was sailing, and the entire time the only thing I could think of was how, on a ship, in the middle of the ocean, with virtually no internet access, the highlight of college students’ morning was watching this bird. I could only imagine what we would find interesting if there was no internet on land. But similar to finding entertainment in this tiny little being, we have created other was to have fun without the internet. Some kids had a balancing contest to see who could stay on one foot the longest. For some, that task is hard enough on land, but add in a swaying ship, and it gets a little complicated. There are also games in the Lido Terrace on deck 9. Stuff like scrabble and the original monopoly. We also have a human sized chess board on deck 7. It isn’t so bad not having internet, except when you want to google the definition of something and you are forced to resort to the paper dictionary in the library.

My cabinmate has started to teach me to speak Hindi. I can now say and very wide and small assortment of words which in English are as follows: hello, goodbye, water, boat, where is, chair, table, and I am lost. It is a slow but steady process. I hope to be able to hold a conversation with her by the time we disembark in Germany.

With my cabinmate, I watched the sunset today while waiting for the dinner serving at 17:30. I had unfortunately left my camera in my cabin. No worries though, our Captain gives us a bridge report every day with the next sunset and sunrise times. I have plenty more opportunities to capture the moment.

As of now we are less than 1257 nautical miles away from Hawaii, and moving at an average of 15.4 knots. We have had consistently decent waters since we have left Ensenada and the Captain predicts these conditions will hold steady until our arrival in Honolulu.