We’ve all heard of sailors getting stuck out at sea, sustaining themselves on rum and the leather from their shoes, and occasionally turning to cannibalism. Well, that didn’t happen on Semester at Sea, but the crossing of the Pacific Ocean was still a very long eighteen days. In 2005, a giant tsunami wave hit the MV Explorer and knocked out the windows in the dining hall. We’d all seen the youtube videos of students from sliding back and forth across the Union so, needless to say, we were all a little apprehensive about going through those same waters. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51_XcpMX2gk&feature=related Our voyage got lucky. No one got bombarded with furniture, Mary and I just spent several sleepless nights tossing and turning, making yipping noises when the boat almost tossed us out of our beds, and sighing loudly every time something fell off of our walls or tables. There were a couple mornings where I rolled out of bed and gagged over the toilet before I was able to pull myself together and make myself go to Global Studies. Ah yes, Global Studies. Seeing as how we had school every day at sea, the Pacific was all about studying, and Global Studies had officially become the world’s most painful class. It was early in the morning, the Union was always freezing, and we weren’t learning about the new and exciting places we were going because we’d pretty much already been everywhere. On the bright side, I didn’t have to write papers for that class. I don’t really know where I ever found the motivation to finish my History papers because the computer lab was always full of chatting students and Life Long Learners yelling at the internet for not working and friends walking by…so basically, the process felt physically painful, but I ended up getting an A in the class so the misery is better in retrospect.
Four days into our Pacific crossing, we had a “study day” which was actually designated for filming a video called a Lip Dub. Lip Dubs are videos taken in one single shot of people lip sinking and dancing to a song. I once saw one involving an entire city where the camera went up in a helicopter. Ours wasn’t quite as high budget, but the video runs through the entire ship. Everyone got together with their seas (the same groups we competed with in the Sea Olympics) and put together some type of choreography. We did a couple practice run-throughs and then Adam, the camera man, actually filmed us three different times and chose the take that looked the best. Luckily, the tape that looked the best was the third try, which also happened to be the take that the kid with the South African apartheid flag was not in. I don’t think the promotion of apartheid is really what Semester at Sea is trying to advertise. The Bering Sea was designated the outside deck six filming slot so Alison and I put together a little yoga choreography. What we didn’t know when we choreographed it was that it was going to be ridiculously windy. Balancing was a wee bit challenging, and if you watch the video closely you can actually see Allison almost fall over when she steps out into warrior pose. Several people’s miniature flags got blown out into the great blue ocean as well. Neptune must have had a very international lunch. Basically, the filming was a lot of fun and I will be content to never listen to K’naan’s ten minute song ever again. Seriously, I heard that song at least seven times just that day and that’s not including all the practice sessions we had the week leading up to it. Here’s the video, I’m four minutes in wearing green pants!
After four more days of waves and studying, we voyagers received a wonderful gift, LAND HO! This Thanksgiving I was thankful to be in Hilo Hawaii. We only had a brief eight hour stay there but we made the most of it. We did our best to uphold the true American tradition of eating way way too much food and gorged ourselves on crab omelets in the morning and returned in the afternoon for giant dishes of pulled pork. It wasn’t exactly mashed potatoes and turkey but I really wasn’t complaining. After we fulfilled our food priority, Allison, CJ, Tori, Hillary and I made our fist stop Walmart because it’s one of the few placed that’s actually open on Thanksgiving Day. We bought leis and snacks and Allison and I found turkey hats that kicked and gobbled so naturally we ran around the store making fools of ourselves. We then paraded next door to the Starbucks to Skype and call our friends and families. Having call phone service and free wifi are privileges that we Americans take for granted way too much, so I was thankful for those as well. After playing catch up, we hopped in a cab and went to the beach. Our cab driver’s name was Junior and the fact that he spoke English made it much easier to befriend him. He ended up giving us a free tour of the Island before dropping us off. CJ then promptly got caught in a phone conversation with one of her sorority sisters and completely missed swimming with the turtles. Before we left her we overheard some of the conversation, and I quote, “Tell Stacy she’s a hoe for me!” Do I even need to add that the rest of us mercilessly made fun of her for saying that for the rest of the voyage? What she missed was Hillary and Tori adorning coconut bras that they’d bought at Walmart, which was probably one of the best purchases ever made there, and a lot of underwater pictures. The coolest part, of course, was the turtles. They were swimming right next to the beach and one in particular kept on swimming up to us and brushing us with his fin. We named him Junior after our cab driver. Tori was obsessed with him and kept of saying that he was her spirit animal and doting on how much he looked like a dinosaur. I must say, having a giant turtle chase you through the water is actually much more terrifying than you might think. By the time we were done swimming, we were able to coax CJ off the phone and begin a very competitive game of Yahtzee. Allison and I both rock at board games so naturally we both tied for first and called Junior to take us to giant meal number two while gloating. Junior was very touched that we had given him a name-sake and seemed very surprised that anyone would actually wear a coconut bra. Thanksgiving dinner was great right up to the point where Tori got homesick because she couldn’t get a hold of her boyfriend and started weeping loudly and inconsolably at the table. Our walk back to the boat was a relatively long distance in the pouring rain with a crying friend, but she eventually got over it and customs let me take my lei on the boat with me so I thought the day was a success.
We were thrown back to our small cabins and left at the mercy of the sea for another nine days. This period of time was broken up by several board games, movie nights, the leering knowledge of finals, and a ball. The ball was Bollywood themed and anyone with a sari from India made walking through the halls much more colorful and exciting than usual. I had dragged a fancy dress from home all the way around the world and had yet to use it so it was nice to get a chance to dress up. Don’t worry, I made an effort to go in theme, I had a sparkly bindi on my forehead that matched my dress perfectly. The food that night was fantastic. They served us shrimp in a mint yogurt followed by a lentil soup with the grand finale of stake and mashed potatoes. Knowing that the ship’s chef was capable of such incredible food made eating the normal ship meals afterwards a little heart breaking. I will admit that my grumble-meter increased to the orange high alert status. The desert buffet outdid the dinner exponentially. There were at least thirty different desserts decorated with delicate chocolate flowers and all of it was surrounded by a beautiful display of carved fruit. We all desperately needed to dance after our meal just to help settle out full stomachs. The dancing was on the seventh deck under streamers and tinkle lights. The best way I can describe it is as a very fun middle dance. No one danced with each other, but everyone bobbed their heads and fist pumped and a solid three dancing circles formed around a few kids who could dance really really well while the rest of us watched. My favorite part of the night was actually right after the dance. All of my friends stayed out on the seventh deck with the wind cooling us off and fooling around taking pictures and dancing under the stars.
This is when the end of our voyage started feeling way too near, but it was still another four days to Costa Rica which wasn’t near enough. Boredom at sea inspired things like banana peel dances and songs about boobs. You wouldn’t understand unless you’d been there yourself, but that’s probably a good thing.
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