I recently realized a huge part of this experience is life on board the MV and I have not really documented anything about that – besides my great pleasure at finding it the last days of port. So, during these 14 days at sea – which have so far been incredibly and surprisingly fun- I figured I’d give you a little insight into what makes Semester at Sea so special.
Typical Day on the MV
Every day is a bit different, but they generally consist of a few activities – as there are not endless possibilities on an 8-floor cruise ship.
Working Out: The fitness room is small – 2 treadmills, 2 Stairmasters, a few ellipticals and some bikes – we have to sign up to use the machines a day ahead and we are technically only allowed 30 minutes on a machine. I never sign up and just go for the mystery box workout- taking whatever machine is open. Although sometimes running on a treadmill while there are 15 degree waves is not the best idea if you are worried about personal safety. Other times I do fitness workout movies with friends. I workout almost every day – as long as I still have clean clothes. We also have an area of free weights on 7th deck (Top Deck) that are decent as well.
These are shots of the Fitness Room and top deck weights.
Playing Soccer/Volleyball/Basketball: I really just play soccer. We have a SAS FC -Semester at Sea Football Club – that organized a 3 on 3 World Cup for the 14 days and my team, Yugoslavia, is currently top in our group! The court is small, but games are really tiring because they are so fast paced.
Here’s a shot of our court:
Laying out: This comprises the majority of my free time and maybe some class time…. Sorry mom!.. but this is one of the most amazing parts of the ship. Here it is entirely acceptable to pull on a dress over your bikini and head downstairs for your hour of class, then come back up outside to your chair where you left all of your stuff. The SAS dress code is basically as long as you’re mostly clothed, its good. Makeup is optional, sweats are encouraged and slippers are more than appropriate.
This is a typical school day for us.
Games: We can checkout various cards and board games from the activities desk and a number of kids brought Cards Against Humanity. Though, I’d recommend not playing Cards Against Humanity every single day because it gets old really quickly and you start to memorize the cards. Insider tip: they have an entire set of poker chips at the Activities Desk. Although if you don’t like loosing money, I wouldn’t advise that as some kids are pretty serious about Hold ‘Em.
This is the Piano Lounge, where we hang out whenever it’s not warm enough to be outside.
Eating: The best praise we give a meal is “This isn’t horrible.” I think that should give you a general idea about the quality of food. If you love pasta, starches, potatoes and mystery meat – then you’d feel right at home eating on board the MV. I’ve started to view Balsamic, Tabasco, and A1 as food groups. Sometimes for a change of pace, I buy food at the Top Deck bar, which is actually decent, but that can add up really fast. Sorry wallet.
Our dining halls… rough life I know.
Snack Bar: I tend to hang out at the snack bar by the piano lounge, because I made friends with the crew when I had all my dock time. It’s great to know the crew because they are really cool and can hook you up with certain things. Sometimes I even get free hot chocolate! ALSO: Snack Time at 10:00pm is a daily staple, as staying full with the horrid food is difficult. Never underestimate a good PB&J sandwich. Although I am not sure if I will ever be able to eat one again after this.
Hard Drive Sex: Exactly what you’re thinking. Well… maybe not actually. Movies and TV shows are a currency on the ship. If you have a hard drive filled with good films, your value to the shipboard community goes up exponentially. Who knows? It could even help you find SAS love. Bringing ample supply is quite recommended.
Work: I am a work-study student, so I have 2hr daily shifts in our computer lab doing IT Desk duty. For the first few shifts, this entailed setting up people’s emails, but now it mostly is a mandatory study hour and social time. It’s quite a chill job and I’d definitely recommend applying for it if possible to future SASers!
Oh and I almost forgot: Class! For that, I’d recommend downloading some iBooks – I have all of Harry Potter – or the game Peggle, which is the latest craze for students to pass time in class. Classes are really hit or miss on the ship. Some professors require unreasonable amounts of work and some don’t give any. No one really knows until the semester is underway. Mine are right in the middle. The hardest part is making myself go and actually doing the readings.
We also have loads of activities and events:
Movies & World Cafes: Every night in the Union, which is the main theater/meeting room, there are ship-wide movie screenings and various talks about current events, interesting ideas, new ways of thinking, and unique cultures.
Neptune Day: When we cross the equator there is a huge celebration. It’s totally a mystery though. I’ll keep you posted on that – its tomorrow!
Halloween: Everyone dressed up in surprisingly clever costumes and we had a Halloween dance. Unfortunately, it isn’t your typical raucous Halloween college party because students are limited on the amount of alcohol they can buy per night. To combat this, a number of kids started hording wine in their water bottles so they could get a buzz going for Halloween. Honestly I would say it wouldn’t be worth it because the dance was an hour and a half and there was no room to dance, but whatever floats your boat – hehe get it?
Friends and me on Halloween in our typical dysfunctional fashion. I was riffraff… the rapper. Yeah we didn’t have many resources stuck on a ship in the Atlantic, so I went with what I had.
Another thing we have to look forward to after Brazil is the Sea Olympics! This is a day wide competition between halls with tons of invents including: hula hoop contest, tug of war, knockout, twister, relays, and much, much more. I got elected to be a Captain of my sea (halls = seas) so I have been already working on our plan of attack with my co-captains. Spoiler Alert: we are planning on winning.
So that’s a little insight into some of the activities that take up my time onboard the MV. It doesn’t seem like much, but I love every minute. One of the best parts is really just the amount of time I get to spend with all of my friends. I found some amazing people on the ship and I keep meeting more every day. We stay up way to late talking for no reason and find silly ways to occupy our time. On the ship, we have danced in the rain, played improve games, made music, gambled, learned origami, played mafia, slept under the stars, stated clubs, held grape eating contests and many, many other things. Some people on board complain about boredom, but my parents always told me “smart people never get bored,” (to which I always responded – “Well I guess I’m dumb”) But I thus developed the ability to continually find ways to entertain myself and everyone else seems to have done the same.
After all, we’re all in the same boat here. 🙂
paige gets around [the world] 