Spring 2015 - Day 3
I woke up an hour before my alarm because something in our cabin fell over. It was a binder, the rocking has begun.
It's actually pretty severe, unless I am remembering incorrectly. A girl ran out of my first class because she was going to be sick. But that was the only person I encountered that was really sea sick.
Jessi and I had the whole day planned out which was exciting. You wouldn't think that you could have plan when you are on a fairly small ship sailing across the ocean but you definitely can.
First, THE STORE WAS OPENING! WOOHOO!
I had been waiting two days for this moment. Mostly to buy a lanyard and a notebook. I felt like I was going to lose my ID card at any moment, and I carry a notebook with me everywhere in port and I was ready to get my hands on one. I got up to where the store is at 8:50 and there were already people waiting. Everyone wants sweatshirts and t-shirts so the first day it is open is always insane. Jessi was going to meet me but she got up late so I shopped by myself for a while.
Once I was in the store and it was filled with people I started feeling a bit sick, mostly I just had a massive headache, but it was uncomfortable. I got our voyage shirt and my red sea shirt and then went across the way and got my notebook and lanyard. They didn't have red lanyards so I settled for teal. But they did have a new 50th anniversary pin so I got my hands on one of those right away. Jessi found me eventually but she was feeling really sea sick so she left to take some dramamine.
When we found me again she got her lanyard and a SD card for her camera and then we went to the snack bar and got oatmeal. We had missed breakfast and the next part of our plan was to go to the gym so we needed some sustenance.
Random tangent about breakfast: I went to breakfast yesterday before the beginning of orientation and found that no one had discovered the coco roos yet. That will not last very long so I grabbed them up. Its weird that I know all of the secrets that everyone will soon discover.
Tangent over.
The gym was interesting. You have to sign up the night before and if you don't get up there close to when the new sign up sheet is posted you have a pretty slim chance of getting a treadmill. We both had ellipticals. The ellipticals are positioned so that you are rocking front to back instead of side to side like you would on the treadmills. I think it was better that way because it added some resistance and was more like going up to down a hill. When you rock side to side it just feels like the whole world is being pulled out from under your feet.
The gym was good. Of course it was good, being healthy always feels good. Now lets see if we can keep it up. If we go by what happened last voyage the answer is probably no. But I feel like we have a sense of determination this time that we lacked before.
After lunch we went to the spa. I had sent Jessi a package for christmas and so in return so got me a pedicure. My toes are now a lovely purple. Jessi got her hair dyed. Back at the beginning of the fall she had dyed her hair a very dark brown and the bottom was purple. Where it had been purple was almost completely faded and didn't look very good so she had the entire thing dyed a very dark brown. It looks fantastic now.
At 3:50 I had my first class. It was Drawing 1 and was in one of the normal classrooms on the 6th deck. Some of the classrooms are make-shift and all of my classes last time were in those kind of rooms. It was challenging because there were not actual desks or places to do any work.
My professor is from South Korea. Her name is Grace Kim and she did all of her higher education in the United States. She started off the class by having us meditate so that we could come back to the present and be focused. Instead it made us either sea sick or sleepy so that backfired but I think the idea of making sure your mind is in the present is very important.
We have to keep a visual journal for the class, which is going to be challenging be cause I have limited artistic skill and am taking the class to learn. So my first dozen or so journals are going to be not so great. But at least I should be able to see my progress as I go. She wants us to collect items and use different materials to build our journals along with doing a writing. She wants our written reflections and our drawings to work cohesively. We don't have to write a lot and it can be a poem or just a phrase as lng as it goes with our piece of art. The assignment doesn't seem like it fits with a drawing class to me, I wish instead our assignments had to do with practicing different drawing techniques but hopefully our class time will make up for it.
Our field lab for that class is going to be in South Africa, we will visit an art museum and a mosque and finish the day by going to a pan african market that just sells art. It sounds really interesting and I hope we get to sit and draw at one of the locations.
When I left class I was feeling pretty sick. I just had a massive headache and had no appetite. I barely ate anything at dinner, nothing seemed appealing except the soup. It was labeled cream of tomato and basil so I got really excited but instead it was chicken vegetable again. Chicken vegetable is good but I had gotten excited for tomato in the 20 seconds between when I read the sign and when I opened the container.
Jessi wasn't feeling any of the food either so we decided to not force any of it down and get a snack later.
Between dinner and our snack I took a nap on her bed. You would think sleeping from 7:30 to 8 would cause me to not be able to sleep at night, but that absolutely wasn't true. It got rid of my headache and that made it worth it.
My snack of noodles. I probably shouldn't have gotten noodles since I will now crave them constantly but I did it anyway. I ate pretty terribly through the sumemr and fall so I am digging the fresh fruit and salad that is regularly available at meals. Noodles will not have control over me! They were delicious though, totally worth it. There is just something about ship noodles.
I feel like this blogging as been pretty terrible. Not regularly blogging for a year really made me rusty, and I keep trying to tell things in order which is completely unnecessary and completely boring. I think its because I have been trying to force out blogs during the day. I am worried that if I don't make myself do them then I am going to let them slide and not blog about everyday like I did last time. And I really liked that I had that careful of a record of my last voyage. But overall I like to write about my day, and I like to write. So I think I need to write my blogs in the evening so that I don't feel like I am behind on them and have to do them. That will make me more relaxed and will also help me remember things that I want to talk about.
During the day I always think of interesting comments or stories and then completely forget to tell them. Like this one (warning, it has a curse word):
During the first life boat drill the person taking attendance for Jessi's group just yelled out, "Fuck, Jessica Fuck." Her last name is Fulk. The lady didn't even try to correct herself and wasn't even embarrassed that she had gotten it so wrong. She just went with it confidently, and since the list is by cabin number Jessi was the first name called. Now whenever Jessi tells the story people go, "Ohhh, you're the Fuck girl."
Cracks me up.
Also, a lot of the crew remember us, including Darwin and Vjay, and it is amazing. They look at us and go, "I recognize your face, were you here before?" Darwin just completely remembered who we were and what voyage we were from. They are amazing, they see hundreds of students and they know our names and faces within the first week.
Anyway, I am going to try blogging at a different time so hopefully my blogs are smoother and less forces. If you have any feed back or questions you want me to answer my email is lauren.oates.sp15@semsteratsea.org
Always feel free to shoot me an email, I love hearing from people!
It's actually pretty severe, unless I am remembering incorrectly. A girl ran out of my first class because she was going to be sick. But that was the only person I encountered that was really sea sick.
Jessi and I had the whole day planned out which was exciting. You wouldn't think that you could have plan when you are on a fairly small ship sailing across the ocean but you definitely can.
First, THE STORE WAS OPENING! WOOHOO!
I had been waiting two days for this moment. Mostly to buy a lanyard and a notebook. I felt like I was going to lose my ID card at any moment, and I carry a notebook with me everywhere in port and I was ready to get my hands on one. I got up to where the store is at 8:50 and there were already people waiting. Everyone wants sweatshirts and t-shirts so the first day it is open is always insane. Jessi was going to meet me but she got up late so I shopped by myself for a while.
Once I was in the store and it was filled with people I started feeling a bit sick, mostly I just had a massive headache, but it was uncomfortable. I got our voyage shirt and my red sea shirt and then went across the way and got my notebook and lanyard. They didn't have red lanyards so I settled for teal. But they did have a new 50th anniversary pin so I got my hands on one of those right away. Jessi found me eventually but she was feeling really sea sick so she left to take some dramamine.
When we found me again she got her lanyard and a SD card for her camera and then we went to the snack bar and got oatmeal. We had missed breakfast and the next part of our plan was to go to the gym so we needed some sustenance.
Random tangent about breakfast: I went to breakfast yesterday before the beginning of orientation and found that no one had discovered the coco roos yet. That will not last very long so I grabbed them up. Its weird that I know all of the secrets that everyone will soon discover.
Tangent over.
The gym was interesting. You have to sign up the night before and if you don't get up there close to when the new sign up sheet is posted you have a pretty slim chance of getting a treadmill. We both had ellipticals. The ellipticals are positioned so that you are rocking front to back instead of side to side like you would on the treadmills. I think it was better that way because it added some resistance and was more like going up to down a hill. When you rock side to side it just feels like the whole world is being pulled out from under your feet.
The gym was good. Of course it was good, being healthy always feels good. Now lets see if we can keep it up. If we go by what happened last voyage the answer is probably no. But I feel like we have a sense of determination this time that we lacked before.
After lunch we went to the spa. I had sent Jessi a package for christmas and so in return so got me a pedicure. My toes are now a lovely purple. Jessi got her hair dyed. Back at the beginning of the fall she had dyed her hair a very dark brown and the bottom was purple. Where it had been purple was almost completely faded and didn't look very good so she had the entire thing dyed a very dark brown. It looks fantastic now.
At 3:50 I had my first class. It was Drawing 1 and was in one of the normal classrooms on the 6th deck. Some of the classrooms are make-shift and all of my classes last time were in those kind of rooms. It was challenging because there were not actual desks or places to do any work.
My professor is from South Korea. Her name is Grace Kim and she did all of her higher education in the United States. She started off the class by having us meditate so that we could come back to the present and be focused. Instead it made us either sea sick or sleepy so that backfired but I think the idea of making sure your mind is in the present is very important.
We have to keep a visual journal for the class, which is going to be challenging be cause I have limited artistic skill and am taking the class to learn. So my first dozen or so journals are going to be not so great. But at least I should be able to see my progress as I go. She wants us to collect items and use different materials to build our journals along with doing a writing. She wants our written reflections and our drawings to work cohesively. We don't have to write a lot and it can be a poem or just a phrase as lng as it goes with our piece of art. The assignment doesn't seem like it fits with a drawing class to me, I wish instead our assignments had to do with practicing different drawing techniques but hopefully our class time will make up for it.
Our field lab for that class is going to be in South Africa, we will visit an art museum and a mosque and finish the day by going to a pan african market that just sells art. It sounds really interesting and I hope we get to sit and draw at one of the locations.
When I left class I was feeling pretty sick. I just had a massive headache and had no appetite. I barely ate anything at dinner, nothing seemed appealing except the soup. It was labeled cream of tomato and basil so I got really excited but instead it was chicken vegetable again. Chicken vegetable is good but I had gotten excited for tomato in the 20 seconds between when I read the sign and when I opened the container.
Jessi wasn't feeling any of the food either so we decided to not force any of it down and get a snack later.
Between dinner and our snack I took a nap on her bed. You would think sleeping from 7:30 to 8 would cause me to not be able to sleep at night, but that absolutely wasn't true. It got rid of my headache and that made it worth it.
My snack of noodles. I probably shouldn't have gotten noodles since I will now crave them constantly but I did it anyway. I ate pretty terribly through the sumemr and fall so I am digging the fresh fruit and salad that is regularly available at meals. Noodles will not have control over me! They were delicious though, totally worth it. There is just something about ship noodles.
I feel like this blogging as been pretty terrible. Not regularly blogging for a year really made me rusty, and I keep trying to tell things in order which is completely unnecessary and completely boring. I think its because I have been trying to force out blogs during the day. I am worried that if I don't make myself do them then I am going to let them slide and not blog about everyday like I did last time. And I really liked that I had that careful of a record of my last voyage. But overall I like to write about my day, and I like to write. So I think I need to write my blogs in the evening so that I don't feel like I am behind on them and have to do them. That will make me more relaxed and will also help me remember things that I want to talk about.
During the day I always think of interesting comments or stories and then completely forget to tell them. Like this one (warning, it has a curse word):
During the first life boat drill the person taking attendance for Jessi's group just yelled out, "Fuck, Jessica Fuck." Her last name is Fulk. The lady didn't even try to correct herself and wasn't even embarrassed that she had gotten it so wrong. She just went with it confidently, and since the list is by cabin number Jessi was the first name called. Now whenever Jessi tells the story people go, "Ohhh, you're the Fuck girl."
Cracks me up.
Also, a lot of the crew remember us, including Darwin and Vjay, and it is amazing. They look at us and go, "I recognize your face, were you here before?" Darwin just completely remembered who we were and what voyage we were from. They are amazing, they see hundreds of students and they know our names and faces within the first week.
Anyway, I am going to try blogging at a different time so hopefully my blogs are smoother and less forces. If you have any feed back or questions you want me to answer my email is lauren.oates.sp15@semsteratsea.org
Always feel free to shoot me an email, I love hearing from people!
