Returning Home Across the Atlantic

Oceans and Seas » Atlantic
August 19th 2009

Published: August 19th 2009

Blog Entry: Returning Home across the Atlantic

Here we go again! On our way back towards the states for our 9 day voyage across the Atlantic. It is Tuesday morning, so we have already seen 5 of those days. The ship docks in Norfolk, VA on Saturday morning, the 22nd. While I was originally supposed to fly back by myself to Chicago, my wonderful mother just couldn't wait to see me. She has somehow worked her magic and is meeting me in Norfolk and then somehow has a seat on my flight that was supposedly booked 2 months ago.... I swear she's part of the CIA or something. Anyway, I am one of the lucky ones. A lot of my friends won't be greeted by anyone... Some will be going straight to school and won't be seeing their family until Thanksgiving! I don't know how these people do it. A lot of us, including me, are eager to get home. With finals, papers, and the excitement of traveling behind us, the thought of home is becoming more and more appealing. I am one of a handful of people whose home school has already started classes. ISU started Monday... Not having internet on the ship is a task. I emailed all of my professors way in advance, but my online classes are the most tricky. Some are nice enough to extend assignments for me. I mean, I'm on an academic program, not vacation, which I have tried to make very clear to them. Most of them do understand.

You will be glad to hear that I am staying on top of my motion sickness medicine and reaping the benefits. However, while the projectile vomiting has subsided, a new stroke of Traveler's Diarrhea has taken over my body. Yesterday, I woke up with it, took my Global Studies final, then started to have these unbelievably painful abdominal pains. They were cramp-like and lasted the whole day, about once every 2-5 minutes (no I'm not in labor, but if this is at all close to what it feels like... I'm in trouble). I couldn't get out of bed, although, Rachel played "mom" and took me to Dr. Milt when the clinic opened in the afternoon. I had a fever and he blamed the cramps on "a bad case of traveler's diarrhea." He gave me an antibiotic, told me not to eat anything, and sent me back to bed. I'm not feeling 100%, but good enough to write to papers and study for a geology final. So I lost an entire day on the ship, but I'm glad I'm feeling better because these papers and tests can't wait!

This week has been full of fun things. We celebrated Shannon and Lindsay's birthdays with ice-cream cakes at dinner. Their moms ordered them through SAS for all of us to enjoy. Actually, yesterday, we ordered two cakes for mine and Ben's birthdays... The thought of ice cream made me cringe yesterday ha ha. That's very unlike me! I'm glad my friends got to enjoy it though. We also had our "Milk & Cookies Party" that we bought for $200 at the live auction. Unfortunately, the cookies were cold and the milk was powder, but we made the best of it, as we usually do 😊 This night was definitely a highlight on the ship. We just laughed and laughed. That night, the captain approved the cutting of the outside lights so the ship could stargaze more clearly! We saw the milky way, a few shooting stars, and Mars!

I attended the Captain & Staff Q&A a couple of nights ago. We learned more what it takes to run the mighty MV. No, there aren't any weapons in case of piracy... The kitchen gets food from almost every port.... and the captain won't show me what his room looks like.....
After the Q&A was the ship's First Annual Short Film Festival. THAT was cool. People from our community are SO talented! My roommate, Candace, submitted one she put together from Bulgaria. A friend, Tia, won first place with her film on "Art." And another friend, Dan, who I think might be a film major, made on called "Detective Stamper and the Missing Cookies." He got the little Zoll kids (children of the dean) to act with British accents in this old fashioned, black & white, detective movie. It was Oscar worthy and completely hilarious.
This gives me a good opportunity to talk about the plethora of kids we have running around on the ship. A lot of the professors and staff members have the option of bringing their families with them for either all or part of a voyage. I think this might be especially popular on the Summer Voyages seeing as they aren't in school. There are about 15 of them and they range from age baby-14. They are famous for many reasons, #1 being their cuteness- we all know all of their names. They have a nice life on the ship. They get to participate in all of the fun activities like the Film Festival and Sea Olympics. Ryder is the most famous, 3-year-old son of Professor Rocky Rohwedder. Well anyway, these kids, they are genius! Like really, the conversations they have with each other are unbelievable. Think about those kids growing up who were way too smart for their own good. Like they could hold political conversations with their parents' friends over breakfast... that's them. Luckily, they aren't in any of our classes- I think they'd throw off the curve.

The ship has also experienced more results from the auctions. I don't' know if I've talked much about "The Voice," but it's something that every person on the ship has in common. One of our bubbly Deans, Dia Draper, is the designated announcer who comes over the PA every day for the Bridge Noon Report, updates, and evening announcements. There are two dongs that sound then always her voice with "Goooood Afternoon Voyagers" or "Gooooood Morning Voyagers." She has acquired the nickname "The Voice." Well anyway, two action items were to be "The Voice" for a day, ha ha. People paid a lot of money for this! A friend, Michelle, from Saudi Arabia was "The Voice" a couple of days ago which was absolutely hilarious. It's amazing how quiet a dining hall full of teenagers can get ha ha. He gave some shout outs and apologized to his teacher for being late to class because of the announcements. He also made sure his seat in the back corner would still be available. The other winner of "The Voice" should be coming up some time soon.
Another item in the auction was to pick the menu for a dinner... this is a BIG deal. The dining hall food is always a controversy.. What's it going to be today? Potatoes & pasta? Or pasta & potatoes? So this one also went up for some big bucks. Well anyway, a kid on the ship picked the best menu ever! Chicken Fajitas, French fries, brownies and ice cream. The kid was famous.

Manolet gave me the Jesus Christ painting!!!!! It's hung by magnets to my wall. Now I just need to track him down to get a picture. 😊 I told you we'd be best friends.

So as the pace of the ship is slowing down, my friends and I are finally having some small opportunities to reflect upon the last 9 weeks. While I don't think all of it will sink in until we step off the ship, we are starting to talk about what life will be like after the trip. This is the first time in 10 weeks that we aren't prepping ourselves for a new country or wondering how different the culture will be from the country before. We aren't doing currency conversions or making lists of people we want to buy gifts for. We're not collaborating schedules to get the master plan for traveling for 4 days, or charging our camera batteries. Instead, we're swapping pictures and re-telling stories, all efforts to make sure we don't forget anything. I'm thinking about what-the-heck I will do without the friends I've made here. I mean, yea, it's nice to know that I'll always have a place to stay pretty much anywhere in the country, but it won't be the same, and I'm not looking forward to that feeling. We literally eat, sleep, study, laugh, travel, and depend on each other. Without friends from home or family, the people on this ship quickly become temporary understudies. Anthony and I always laugh at how often we treat each other like brothers and sisters, with yelling and snapping at each other. ha ha. It's especially fascinating how quickly we got comfortable with each other for our relationships to get to that point. We love each other 😊
We've also talked a lot about what-the-heck we're supposed to say when someone asks us, "So, what was your favorite country?" Uh.... yea, right. I do NOT have a good answer for this. So Habibi, would you please hold off on that question when I get home and ask something a little less broad?!?!? Thanks 😊

Rachel, Lindsay and I came to the conclusion that our favorite countries were not necessarily the ones in which we had the most fun. For example, my favorite time was in Santorini with the 4 girls, but my favorite place was probably Istanbul. Okay, so maybe I do have somewhat of an answer, but don't think it's my only one 😉 I could go on and on about why each country was my favorite!

So today is a Study Day. Tomorrow I have to turn in 2 Poly Theory papers, and take a HUGE Geology test. Of course, I will be taking a break to soak up some sun out on the deck (with sun block of course: I got my first burn of the whole summer a couple of days ago when I neglected to apply). After tomorrow (Wednesday) all that's left is packing and starting our goodbyes. We have the Ambassador's Ball, our initiation into SAS Alumni, and that's about it! However, I'm sure they'll throw us some surprise meetings and seminars and things like that. Through it all, I will continue to attempt training for this half marathon coming up in September. I'm not sure if it will go as well as last year.... There's only 2 treadmills on this ship, and everyone has the same mentality... work out! Not only that, but it's really hard to run on a treadmill when the ship is rocking so much.... You practically fall off..... Of course, it was also really hard to run in port.... Traveling + Training = Non existent....

I'd like to give a shout out to Chad for his Birrrrthday!
And to my dear friend, Wes, who is acting as my personal secretary during my week of absence at ISU. Thanks so much Wes! I owe you!!!
I'll write again, of course. See you in 5 days!

Returning Home Across the Atlantic

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