Spring 2015 - Day 76
I got up late for class and went up to the 6th deck dining hall to get a muffin. On the way there three crew members came running past me, which I thought was a little weird. When I got into the dining hall someone was yelling for people to get out of the way.
I moved to the side and asked someone near me what was happening and she said that someone had a seizure.
Crew members came by me carrying a student on a stretcher. A student I recognized. They disappeared with him and in a few moments the dining room returned to its normal state.
I went to class where everyone was discussing what happened. The student had epilepsy but this was his first seizure on the ship, it was usually triggered by stress.
Halfway through class another student came into class and said that he was awake and remembered nothing, but he was ok.
How scary would that be? To have a seizure on a ship in the middle of the ocean? I guess it is a little better that it was known that he had epilepsy, it would have been much scarier to have an undiagnosed seizure. It just really puts some things into perspective.
Throughout the day rumors about the departing professor spread like wildfire around the ship.
Stephanie told me about the latest: his wife had an affair with our academic dean.
Holy what!?
That is an intense rumor.
The rest of the day was filled with more rumors. None of them countered the affair rumor. Actually, that seemed to be the truth and the rumors were just all about how it had been found out. Some of them included his daughter. Some were about an epic fight in Tymitz Square that had to be broken up by security.
It seemed that all the rumors came from some one who witnessed it firsthand.
Who knows what is really true.
I watched pre-port from the TV in my room. Dean Bob told his stupid globe joke again. We were going to be docked in the same exact spot we were last time.
The immigration process was going to be just as complicated. We were all going to have to get off the ship and go through immigration in the terminal building.
The only difference from last time is that, instead of being able to get right back onto the ship after going through immigration, we were all going to have to wait until the entire ship had gone through before being let back on.
They said that if you were in one of the field labs or programs that were leaving around 10 then you could wait and get off last so that you weren't waiting around in the terminal for the ship to clear. Luckily I was in that group, I had a field lab for drawing, and so could have a leisurely morning.
Since Cape Town has such a high crime rate they have a safety shuttle to take us to and from the V&A Waterfront, which is actually a nice easy walk from the port.
Besides that the information was nothing new to me. It finally started to feel weird that I wasn't going to see my parents. The last time I was in Cape Town they came for the parents trip and I got to wave to them from the ship, give them a tour of my home, and then have a fantastic time on a safari with them. I spent almost no time in Cape Town itself but I got to share my experience with them and that was even better.
It's going to be weird to be in South Africa without them.
