The battles between school and "Oh my god!! We're at sea!!"

Excitement heightened today on board the Explorer when students not only realized that there was only two days until port, but also that we would not have to push the clocks forward again tonight!  This means some of us may actually get a normal amount of sleep.  Classes have now completely taken over our lives on board.  I wasn’t expecting that my day would only consist of reading, classes, eating and sleeping.  I wish I were exaggerating.  I am learning interesting things, but this is a ridiculous amount to be shoving into such a short time.  Students are starting to realize that the only way to have any sort of social life onboard is to slack in at least one class.  Last night a few of us did slack and watched Cars and hung out discussing what trips we were going to take in Spain.  My first exam is the day before we get to Italy and my second is the day after we leave Italy.  Looks like I’ll continue to be busy.

 

Tonight onboard there was a dance, but most people were busy studying.  I felt sad at first that I wasn’t able to go, but felt better when I walked down the hallway in search of brownies which were said to be in the dance room.  The halls were filled with people, not partying, but reading.  Everyone is so desperate to not have work to do while in port that we are all rushing to get it done now.  This, along with the pile of brownies and double chocolate cookies that I brought back with me made me feel much more comfortable.  I know that once we get to Spain I will be thankful that I did all of my work before, but right now it’s a bit of a drag.

 

And the time changes have not helped.  Losing an hour every day has been rough.  Sadly, that time has been taken out of sleeping, rather than out of elsewhere.  Also, the rocking of the ship seems to be sort of calming and most have agreed that it makes us even sleepier.  We are all rocked to bed every night.  My plan for tonight is to get a bit more work done and then head to bed by 12.  Hopefully I will be able to do something fun tomorrow evening.  I’m going to try and relax and watch a movie tomorrow night.

 

This post may have made it sound like I am having a terrible time, but in fact, the reading has not been bad reading.  Also, the classes have been interesting enough to make me want to do the reading.  We tend to take long meal breaks just to talk and have fun.  Tomorrow is Stephanie’s birthday (someone I’ve been hanging out with a lot), so we ordered a cake to be brought to her at dinner tomorrow night.  Also, once we get to warmer areas, we will actually be able to hang out on the deck and maybe go swimming a little.  I am also hoping that I will start to manage my time a little better soon.

 

Tonight at dinner we talked to our resident Spain expert and asked him about his thoughts on us trying to go to Portugal and he said that it probably wasn’t the best use of our time since by the time we got there, there wouldn’t be much time to do anything.  We have decided instead to head up to Seville possibly.  You should totally look him up on the web, though.  His name is David Geiss (not sure on the spelling).  He’s done some pretty incredible things, including being knighted.  He’s also just a generally cool guy.  I really like how approachable the professors and everyone is on the ship (it’s not a boat…they keep reminding us).  They’ll come and sit with you at dinner and hold you up to talk when you’re in the bathroom.  They all seem genuinely interested in our lives.

 

Lastly…turns out that they are going to be performing the Vagina Monologues on the ship on the way back…and, being me I signed up.  And here I thought I was never going to be in them again.  I am going to see if I can do the one I did this last year, since I still have it memorized.  Rachel Levy would probably think I was entirely insane for doing this, but if she were in my situation, she would too.

 

Anyway, I’m going to go get some reading done and then possibly sit out on the deck for a bit before heading to bed.  Have a great night!

 

Only two days!!!