It’s 3:16AM Philadelphia time, which means it’s 12:16AM ship time, but it’s actually more like 11:16AM local time – we just haven’t changed our clocks yet. They actually haven’t even told us when we do that, just that they’ll make an announcement when it happens. I wish I knew so that I would know what to do with my phone setting, whether to leave it on automatically changing or not.
We had a lot of Semester at Sea orientation stuff today and it was pretty boring, in general. I think the highlight for everyone was Don Gogniat, the Global Studies teacher. He’s extremely animated and has a funny accent that I can’t quite place (imagine a half-Cajun accent) and is full of energy all the time. He’s maybe 5’10” with graying hair and a wide smile at almost all times. He greeted every single person as we got on the ship. I’m kind of looking forward to his class, which we have 38 times through the semester. All the kids on the back of the pictures say not to go to Global Studies (not even the first day!) but I think I’ll give it a shot anyway, because this teacher might be different.
They told us not to refer to the MV Explorer as a boat because it’s a ship. The difference apparently is that ships can carry boats but boats can’t carry a ship. I don’t think it’s that important. If they really cared, I think they’d change the name “Semester at Sea” to “Semester at Ocean” or “Semester at Bodies of Water” or something along those lines. But whatever, I’ll call it a ship if they care that much.
All of the cabins on the ship have a picture on the wall. They have screws on two places on the wall that some metal strips at the top of the picture latch on to, using gravity to hold it in place there, and the rest of it is secured with double-sided tape. The tradition is to take it off the wall when you get on the ship and see was past SAS’ers have written to you for advice. Ours was pretty good, I guess. One guy wrote four ways to sneak alcohol on the ship, plus a couple general tips for the same activity. Another congratulated us on taking the picture off the wall (“You’ve done something right.”) Another said “Don’t go to Global Studies (not even the first day!),” but I don’t know if I’ll listen to that one. I’ve checked out the pictures in other peoples’ rooms as well, and they mostly say the same things:
--Don’t have sex with SAS’ers at first
--The easy girls become visible after the first or second port
--Don’t worry, you will have lots of sex
--There are ways to sneak alcohol onto the ship
--Hiding places specific to your room
--Enjoy every second and never sleep if at all possible
--Do independent travel as much as possible
There was one picture in one of my friend’s rooms that had a novel written across the back of it. The pictures are like 2.5 feet x 3 feet or so, and this one girl wrote on most of the back of it, with medium sized handwriting. She really seemed to be in love with herself from what we could tell, talking about how she didn’t drink at all, making fun of people who did, saying that only service visits were worth your time, things like that, and left her phone number saying “Call if this helped you!” Needless to say, we didn’t call. Because we’re on a ship.
I’ve been taking a steady stream of Meclizine just in case I would be getting sick otherwise. I don’t know if I should take it tomorrow or not. Classes start tomorrow and I don’t want to be nauseas for the first day – that would suck. It doesn’t really make me drowsy so there doesn’t seem to be any harm in taking it… I guess I will. I can get some on my way anyhow. I’ve also been drinking a ton of water – probably a little less than a gallon today – because it helps with seasickness.
I’ve met a ton of people. But I don’t think I really like social schizophrenia. Meet everybody! Make new friends! Meet new people! Right, I get the point of diversity, I would love if it I knew everyone. But I only have 100 days here and there are 600 of us. Even if I gave everyone as much time as possible, that’d only be four hours for each person. That’s useless. And besides, it’s nice to know Where You’re From And What’s Your Major And What Year Are You, but I’d much rather have a Meaningful Relationship With You. There’s a group of kids, mostly Jewish and mostly from Pitt, who are really nice and I think would make good outside-of-class friends, but I suppose that might change. I do like them though. They also seem like pretty good travelers. I keep countering my reluctance to meet every single person with, “But my future wife could be one of them!” I guess there’s really only 400 girls here and the odds are pretty low. Maybe I should stop that.
Anyway, my roommate (Pierce) is going to bed so I think I’m going to be polite and do the same. I don’t have any classes till 1100 ever, which sucks because breakfast ends at 0830 and is supposed to be the best meal (and is my favorite). Maybe someday I’ll find a way…
Peace out.
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