I'm getting SASsy

It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of and more. It’s Amazing, Beautiful, Captivating, Disciplined, Educational, Friendly, Gorgeous, Huge, Insightful, Jaw-dropping, Kabine(German for cabin), Lonely, Mesmerizing, Nautical Travel, Opaque,Positive, Questionable, Rocking, Swaying, Terrifying, Unbelievable, Vomit-bags, Weird, Xhilarating, YOLO, Zenful. If you actually read through all of those words (and don’t worry, it’s okay if you didn’t :P) You’ll see that even though this life I’m living is one of the best experiences of my entire life, I didn’t use the word “perfect” or “easy”. Traveling isn’t supposed to be perfect and easy. It doesn’t matter if you’ve traveled to every continent or only a couple states, it’s always going to have it’s ups and downs, as well as it’s dangers and unpredictable situations. It takes some work to decide to jump on a cruise ship for four months, but I believe that everyone is capable as long as they aren’t expecting perfect and easy travel. I could come up with a positive word for every letter of the alphabet to describe semester at sea, but that wouldn’t be the full truth. There will be some rough days (and I’m not just talking about the waves) but it’s a part of life, just like at home. And in the end, it’s always worth it. 

    Down to the nitty gritty of ship life…the first day and a half on board were spent going to orientation sessions, having a lifeboat drill, eating, and sleeping. I thought I’d have trouble sleeping, but so far, the boat has been rocking me to sleep even when I don’t want it to…that might change in rough waters. I was placed with a pretty cool roommate named Amanda. She grew up in Belgium and goes to school in Nebraska. By day 2, I was her 411, and she finished my sentences, so this should be a good fit. 

    On the ship, we have A days, B days, Rest days, and Port Days. A and B alternate with a couple rest days thrown in as we have no weekends. Port days are obviously the days that we are ported in a country. I’m taking 4 classes. My A day 3:10pm class is called social change and is with the executive dean of SAS. I’m really looking forward to this class especially since he is a fun, interesting guy. My B day 8:00am class is macroeconomics and is with a professor from Baylor. Even though the class is economics, I think it will be fairly exciting…or I can hope it will be. 1 class, Global Studies, is required to take by all 596 students. As in, there are 596 people that cram into the biggest room on the ship. This class is in session every day at 9:30. The class does have some guest speakers and should be good information but being crammed in a room really puts a damper on things. My B day 3:10 class is Intro to Theatre. It sounds like it should be pretty interesting as we are learning the different forms of theater for the countries that we will be going to. We also have a field class for each class except Global studies. A field class is one day long, and is an activity that is picked to fit the class where all students from that class attend. I’ll explain my field classes after I have them. 

        Some fun facts: 

    There are 9 decks(floors) on the ship.

    596 students upon the voyage.

    There are also lifelong learners who come along on this voyage. The simplest way that I can describe lifelong learners: They are people over the age of 35 that can come to any of the classes, field programs, and travel, but aren’t doing it for a degree. They’re doing it to learn. For life. They are Life. Long. Learners. It is actually an important motto of the voyage. We aren’t here for a vacation or even a cruise.It is a voyage that overlaps travel, classrooms, people, and culture to create a continuous learning experience. 

    There are families on board. They are either families of the professors or sometimes, I believe, the families of lifelong learners. So there are a couple younger kids running around the place. 

    There is a total of 895 “souls on board”.

    A GB of data on the ship costs $760 dollars. And, in case you don’t know how much a GB of data would be, I dare you to go onto your phone(if it’s a smartphone) and go to settings, and into your cellular data. It tells you how much you’ve used in the current month payment. Mine in December was almost at 4 GB. In short: I won’t be social media-ing unless I have a better deal in port. Email is free and is like getting a card in the mail so do that! :) 

    We have a lifeboat drill once a month, so yes, in fact, we do have enough space in the boats for everyone on board if we were to hit an iceberg and start sinking. 

    The air humidity so far has been about 100%…it’s a bit sticky outside.

    Our speed is about 16.0 kts. And, no, I cannot tell you what that means. 

    Flip flops are highly discouraged, so as imagined by people who know me: Maddie is highly disappointed. They even scared us with some scary pictures of past voyage accidents that were caused from flip flops. 

    Attendance to class is mandatory, unless you have a written note from the doctor on board. 

    There’s good water pressure in the showers. 

    I’ll have quads of steel when I get back home just from balancing myself on this rocking ship all day long. 

    The food is decent. Nothing spectacular, but I was impressed with always having some good fruits and vegetables. There’s always potatoes and pasta, too. 

    The dining halls/restaurants double up as classrooms. 

    I will never live January 16th, 2017 because it’s the day we cross the international dateline. 

    There is a total of 895 “souls on board”. That includes the faculty, lifelong learners, families, students, and crew.

    Games are pretty popular since we don’t have much of anything for internet. I think it’s great to disconnect and not sit at tables where people are constantly looking at their phones and pretty much forced to interact with one another. 

    There is a beverage limit to two drinks when they serve beer and wine. Now, it’s probably a good thing given there are 600 college students on a ship in the middle of the ocean, but it wasn’t always a rule. Before the rule was in place, there was a group of guys who definitely had more than 2 drinks that night and dared one of their buddies to touch the water. So, naturally, they tied a bunch of bed sheets together and lowered the guy to the water from the 8th deck. He got caught in the water and the ship had to stop and rescue him. He was alright, but there’s now strict drinking policies and I’m assuming he got kicked off the ship. 

    I’m going to announce something I don’t usually do on here…my love life. I’ve got a crush…a couple of you may know about it but I guess now I’m going to tell you all…We met awhile back. It was almost impossible really for us not to meet. And the more I’m learning about us, the more I’m falling in love. Alright, here it goes…I’ve got a crush on the world. 

    Next semester’s academic dean grew up in Belfield, North Dakota. He’s on the voyage now but stops in Hawaii. He actually called my cabin to check how I was doing, as he had heard (from my Aunt Jane) that I would be on the voyage and what cabin number I was. Thanks, Aunt Jane!  What a small world. :)

    Our next stop after today (Hawaii), will be Japan. It will take us 10 days to get to Japan and I’ve heard that it typically has the roughest seas of the voyage…there’s some pretty crazy sea storm stories upon Semester At Sea.

This trip is something that I’ve dreamed of doing ever since I found out it was a thing. I remember going into the study abroad fair thinking that I was going to study abroad in Greece. I went through all the tables and listened to all of my options. As soon as I left the building, I called my mom and told her that I was going to spend a semester on a ship. I paid my $50 deposit fee that night, and have been planning ever since. I realize that not everyone has this option, that not everyone can spend this much time away from home, but I challenge everyone to do what makes you happy. There are some people who don’t even know what makes them happy anymore. Those people aren’t living life if they don’t try to change that. Personally, I don’t think that money is what measures a successful life. No matter how much money you have or what kind of career you have, I think if you love your life and are happy, then you are living a successful life. 

See you all in 16 weeks….hopefully by then, you’ll all be living a happier life :)