My Life On The Boat

I was walking to my room tonight when I realized (maybe a little late) that my family has no idea how I’m living. They don’t know where my room is on the ship, what my room looks like, where I eat breakfast, where my classes are, or anything like that. It made me a little sad. I thought about sending them an e-mail about it, but then I figured that I might as well write a blog. So here we go: the boat and my life on it.

The boat has 7 stories, or “decks” as they’re called here. Deck doesn’t necessarily refer to an outside area. The first and second decks are restricted for students. Crew live on the second and I don’t know what happens below that . . . probably engine stuff and such. Oh! And on the second deck is also where we have our counseling and doctor offices. Most the decks are connected so that you can walk from one end of the ship to the other on one floor, but that’s not the case with the second. You have to go down certain staircases in order to get to the counseling & doctors office. I tried once, ended up somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, and gave up. Sometimes I feel like the boat is like Hogwarts, despite the difficulty of navigating it, you can mostly get the hang of it but there’s still stuff that will forever baffle you. 

The third deck is where I live. Third deck, port, aft. Which means third floor on the left (when your facing the front) towards the back. My room is #3140. All the even rooms are on the port side and all the odd are on the starboard (right) side. The hall stretches the length of the ship, which is a pretty long hall. It’s broken up by some fireproof doors or little walls that you have to jag around, but it’s more or less one long, stretching hall that you can walk from end to end on. My room is at the very end. I think there might be one, maybe two rooms after me.

Granted, the location of my room is at times inconvenient, but I love it still!  Plus since it’s near the back, it’s right over the engine. There’s some engine noise, but I’m a good sleeper and don’t mind at all. Plus the engine noise is the sound of saving money, since having the room at the way back puts me in “economy” housing. I’m listening to the noise now trying to describe what the sound is like. . . hmm. . . Oh! I got it. Did you ever take baths when you were little and put your head under the water near the running faucet? It sounds like that. Or like the base of a waterfall heard from underwater or from a distance. Not at a bad noise at all – actually quite pleasant.

I also like being on top of the engine because I can feel the vibrations of it working. Sometimes it wakes me up at night (it gets loud and really shaky if they’re switching engines), but I still like it. Part of the adventure. Plus on the nights that we pull out from port the “cool” thing to do is to go up to the outside deck on 6 or 7 and wave goodbye to the disappearing land. The problem is that even if they say we’re leaving at 2000, we sometimes don’t leave till 2045 and then you just end up standing up there waiting to pull away when all your homework that you didn’t do while you were in port is waiting for you down in your room. I have the luxury of being able to stay in my room until I feel the engines come on. Then about 15 minutes later, I’ll feel them REALLY kick into gear, and then I’ll go up to deck 6 right as the boat starts to move.

I love my room.

I’ll describe it a bit: My door has a key card at a hotel. Also, the room number is mounted on a plaque on my door, and behind this plaque is where we get information put about upcoming trips, bills, and our MAIL (I hope I get some mail tomorrow!!). When you walk in my door there is a small hallway that’s maybe 4 feet long and 2 feet across. But keep in mind, I’m REALLY bad at estimating stuff like this. Hold on, I’ll measure. Not that it matters, but it’s shoulder to fingertip across and shorter than my “wingspan” long. On the left is our closet. Two doors open up to have a normal closet that hangs clothes (and holds our life jackets) and one door has shelves. On the right is the door to our little bathroom with just enough room to stand in and maybe turn around if you really need to. The bathroom and closet doors can’t be open at the same time.

Walk farther into my room and you will see drawers, a disguised fridge (looks like drawers), a shelf, and a tv on the left. The tv has a cool channel that shows where we are with exact coordinates and such. On the right is a little desk that is covered with jewelry, my roommates straitner & hair products, iPods, CDs, etc. Needless to say, it’s not very functional as a desk. It’s kind of in the corner, so it has that 3-mirror thing. There’s maybe a foot between the edge of the desk and the edge of my bed. I love my bed. Blue comforter, typical of what you would find in any Motel 8, and topped with my hot pink squishy pillow. Our walls are magnetic, so we can decorate them pretty easily. Mine has a world map with our route traced on it, the letter I’ve gotten from home, some notes people on the ship have written me, my chart about buying people gifts, a couple quotes I like, information I shouldn’t loose, the dollar Jeff gave me, and bumperstickers I really like. At the foot of my bed (between my bed and the desk) is a box full of books that overflowed from the shelf at the head of my bed. The shelf at the head of my bed is pretty large, so I’m kind of impressed that I could have overflow. Under my bed are my two duffels and a couple boxes: gifts to give out (to kids and such), travel, and sunscreen. Next to my bed is the bedside table, on top of which is sitting a Cal alarm clock and Time Magazine on my side. My roommate’s side has a Cosmo girl and a different alarm clock. Her side of the room is pretty similar to mine: same bed, similar magnetic wall. Her wall has her itinerary for the trips, a world map, a couple post cards she bought in port, important information that she shouldn’t lose (that I put up, because it was getting lost), a calendar, and an essay with a good grade that she was proud of.

The carpet is blue. The blinds are a sandy color. Oh! And on my wall is a big painting that really isn’t that cool to look at but on the back previous SAS kids have written about their experiences and advice. I’m excited to leave my mark.

All the rooms are pretty similar. Some are bigger, some have mirrors instead of windows, but they’re all pretty similar.

So decks 3 and 4 have bedrooms.

Deck 5 has the “Main Dining Room” in the aft. It’s pretty nice, with chandeliers and big windows and such. Food is buffet style. There are some more rooms on deck 5 (much more expensive), and then at the front of the ship is Tymitz Square – which is actually a circle. This is our school’s  main office, so to speak. It’s where to go to enquire about extracurricular activities, trips for in port, lost and found, security, passport stuff, etc.

Deck 6 has “The Union” at the front. It’s the largest room on the ship and where we have our Global Studies course. It looks like a large auditorium. . . except it has couches and kooshy seats instead of stiff desks. The Union is where I’m taking my hip hop class. SO much fun. I freakin’ love dancing.

If you leave The Union walking towards the back of the ship, you pass the library on your right and computer lab on your left. Keep walking and you’ll pass our store which is divided into two parts: clothes & not clothes. The two parts straddle a hall. Keep going and the piano lounge will be on your left – an area for people to get together and study, play games, etc. Keep going and you’ll be at our other dining room which is directly over the Deck 5 dining room. Oh, I forgot to mention that on your walk you passed the majority of our classrooms, most of which have real desks and seats. The deck 6 dining room is louder and has the option of outdoor seating, which I usually opt for.

Deck 7 has the gym, spa, basketball court (really, really small basketball court) and lots of deck space. The gym is small, but I don’t need a lot of space. Just one elliptical, preferably one in front of the window, from 7:30-8:00 every morning. I’ve seen lots of whales. If the possibility of seeing whales during your work out isn’t motivation to get your butt out of bed and into the gym isn’t motivation, I don’t know what is! The spa has everything: manicures, haircuts, hair dying, massages, waxing. . . I’m sure there’s other stuff too, but I don’t really know. I haven’t even gone in it, and I don’t really plan to. The outside deck on the 7th deck has our “pool,” which is really a slightly oversized bathtub and our bar. You can get real food, snack food, or a very limited amount of alcohol here. I haven’t bought anything here, since it costs real money and I’m perfectly happy with the food they give me for free. During the day – especially on a hot day – the 7th deck looks like the beaches of San Diego. All the girls are tanning or laying out, the boys are lifting weights (oh ya, there’s weights there too), everyone have a smoothie or other expensive beverage in hand and so on. Not my scene.

But the 7th deck is also where I’m learning Tae Kwon Do, which is fun.

So that’s basically the whole ship. Hopefully you can picture a little bit more what it looks like for me. Please, ask questions if you have any.

I know I say this a lot, but I would really love to hear from you.

I love you all.

Mauritius tomorrow.