Day 31 (09-26-10)

Today was a rather mundane day. Everyone is exhausted from a whirlwind four days in Ghana. But there was something really cool that happened today. At 12:30pm, an announcement came over the P.A. system telling us that the Captain had allowed us to take a minor detour in our route towards South Africa. He steered us through the zero/zero point, the place where the Prime Meridian and the Equator cross. At zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude, we are at the “center” of the world. And to signify the event, the captain blasted the ship’s horns a few times. It seems more exciting than it really is… I was sitting in class and just looked out the window when it happened. So I’ve been there, but it didn’t really mean much at the time.

Other than that, back to schoolwork and ship life. Meat, potatoes, and pasta twice a day. And I love it.

Day 32 (09-27-10)

Once again, I apologize for the mundane nature of my at-sea blog postings. There really isn’t much to talk about. I wake up, go to class, eat food, talk to friends, watch movies, go to meetings, go to sleep. Repeat. I can only write so much.

Environmental Science class was pretty interesting today, but more than half the class was missing. I don’t know if people are starting to get seasick again or what, but the ship just feels empty today. It’s bizarre.

From 15:00 – 17:00, I manned the Karaoke signup table. The Programming Board is putting on several events over the course of the voyage, and I’m in charge of Karaoke Night. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been advertised very well yet, so we only had 3 acts sign up in the 2 hours that we were sitting at the table. But we have one more day of signups, and we’re going to be taking on-the-spot requests during the event, so I have a feeling it will all work out when the night comes on October 1st.

My on-ship extended family met for dinner this evening. My “grandparents” are lifelong learners that are sailing on SAS for the 10th time, and they have their own cabin on the 7th deck that’s reserved for them every time they sail. The family met up in their cabin to do our photo contest. Each of the kids was supposed to bring 3 photos that he or she had taken in Ghana, and the best picture would earn its owner a prize. I didn’t take very many pictures, and I can’t find my external hard drive (did I leave it at home?), so I only uploaded one photo to the ship’s intranet. But it didn’t matter! My one photo beat out the other 15, and my grandparents graciously gave me a portable, red SAS coffee mug. After the contest, we headed up to the pool par and we were all treated to personal pizzas and ice cream. Coolest surrogate grandparents ever!

Day 33 (09-28-10)

We’re two days late, but it’s finally here: Neptune Day! A sailing tradition, Neptune Day marks the time that sailors cross the equator for the first time. As someone that has already partaken in this particular ritual, I get to participate in the festivities from the other side. I get to usher the Pollywogs into the ranks of the Shellbacks. I actually don’t really do much. I just wear a funny outfit, paint my face, make a lot of noise, and watch while my friends endure the fish guts and get the haircuts. Unfortunately, it’s actually pretty cold outside today. We’re only a few degrees south of the Equator, but it’s cloudy and windy and people coming out of the pool are miserable. Bummer. The shaved heads are everywhere again, and there are actually quite a few mohawks as well. I guess they’re trendy again? Who knew?

And of course, it just wouldn’t be Neptune Day without… a Global Studies exam? Really? Apparently today is the best day to have our exam because no one is in class and the entire shipboard community can study and prepare for an exam at 19:30. Lame. Luckily, the test wasn’t too difficult (I got a B), and everything worked out.

Also, as today is a somewhat special occasion, we were treated with a special dinner: Barbeque! Ribs. Burgers. Mac N Cheese. Corn on the Cob. Strawberry Ice cream. Beautiful. 

Day 34 (09-29-10)

Another lackadaisical day. Went to class. Tried to watch the Pixar movie, Up, for the first time. Fell asleep in the middle. It seemed like a fun movie, I was just really tired.

More karaoke signups in Tymitz Square today. We’re up at 10 acts so far. That’s actually a few more than I had intended to allow for the early period, but it should be good.


Desmond Tutu gave a talk in the Union about his life in South Africa, past and present. As usual, he brought the house down. And by that, I mean he captivated the audience just by being there. His presence just livens everything up. And his stories about his life during Apartheid and his position within the Elders were invaluable.

And I guess since today is Wednesday, that means I need to take my malaria pill again. But the dreams have become much more mundane, and I usually don’t even remember them anymore. I guess the side effects were only at the outset. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a few more interesting nights somewhere along the line. Time will tell.

And I’m awake until 4am? How are these days so mundane, but so long? Whatever. I enjoy them. Goodnight.

Day 35 (09-30-10)

Honestly… nothing worth mentioning even happened until the evening. I can’t remember a single thing that happened before dinner. I don’t even remember what I ate for lunch or dinner. And I’m only typing this one day late. That’s terrible. I’m sure it wasn’t anything important.

Several of our faculty and staff members are former Peace Corps members, and they held a seminar in the Union tonight about serving. I’m not particularly interested in joining the Peace Corps, but it was interesting to hear about their experiences traveling the world and participating in the organization. Apparently the deadline to turn in an application for deployment around January 2012 is tomorrow, so it’s not looking like I’ll be joining the Peace Corps anytime soon anyway. Oh well.

We had a Mediterranean Sea meeting this evening, which is great because it meant that we could eat cake! Ice cream cake is a glorious invention. I thank you, whoever you are, for creating such a wonderful and splendiferous treat.

Day 36 (10-01-10)

2 classes today. Group meeting for my Marketing class. We’re trying to sell Snuggies or Ben and Jerry’s in China/Japan. Should be interesting.

Aaaaaaand I tried to take a nap. Unsuccessfully. I’m stretching here, I know.

But Karaoke Night was tonight! Myself and one other person headed up the event, and the turnout was incredible. Cultural pre-port ran 20 minutes long, so we had a truncated program, but it worked out very well nonetheless. We circulated the song list through the crowd while the pre-sign-up acts were performing, and we got some great last minute additions. The Union was basically filled to capacity and we had to stop before we got to all of the acts. But the closing number was a crowd-pleasing sing-along to Piano Man, so it ended on a great note. It’s a shame that we can’t hold events like this more often. It seems as though SAS is afraid that we’ll neglect our studies if we start having too much fun. Lame.

And we get to advance our clocks one hour tonight. Hooray for 23-hour days… I guess.