10 Days to Hawaii (APRIL 7th to April 16th)

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Place: Middle of the Pacific Ocean

APRIL 10th---

So it began…the longest part of the trip. The 10 straight days at sea! Our ship is currently sailing across the Pacific Ocean and it is pretty rocky and miserable! The worst part is that this is when all the real research papers, presentation and finals happen. I somehow picked up a terrible could in Taiwan and haven’t been feeling well. I’m trying to power through it though with naps and tons of cold medicine.

To make this part of the voyage less miserable SAS decided to run some fun events this week. Tonight was the SAS Student Film Festival. It was kind of a mix of movies. Most of them made fun of ship life and stuff like that. Others were more artsy and highlighted some of the places and people that impacted them throughout the voyage.

I think the coolest video was one made by this girl on the ship who spent her time in India looking for her long lost grandmother. She and her friend ended up finding her in the span of 2 days by simply wandering around and asking people if they knew her. It was so cool to hear her story. She told us that she used her cell phone to let her grandma call their family (they haven’t talked in years). She is now keeping in touch with her and trying to buy her a plane ticket for Christmas.

We also got to see some of the clips that Brittany (our filmmaker for the voyage) made----these can be seen on the semesteratsea.net website (under the current voyage blog)….if you’re interested. They highlight some of the places and service visits we did throughout the voyage. There is a really cool one of the ship going down the Amazon River with a time lapse. Also, I’m in one of them! Not a very big role hahah…I’m really just in line getting my passport checked the first day of the voyage. Apparently Brittany is making a long slideshow for the Alumni Ball that she promised would make us all cry.

The last film shown was a music video of one of the boys on the trip. The video is called “T-Cal Global Shuffle”. Basically one of the boys on our trip walked up to the Taj (in full Indian attire) and just started dancing and everyone was pointing and watching him. A lot of the Indian people were very confused but also amused! Basically, he put it up on Youtube and had over 3,000 hits in one week. So the show Tosh.O put him in one of their episodes and now Ellen and Oprah want him on their shows when he gets home. CRAZY! Now when I turn on the TV and see this kid who is being interviewed, I can say, “OMG I went around the world with that kid on a ship” hahah!

Anyway, after tomorrow, we will be crossing the International Date Line. We get to have April 12th two times! Yay…double class days…always a wonderful thing! That day is also twin day on the ship. You and a friend are supposed to dress alike. Since everyone in other countries thinks me and Charli are twins, we decided to dress the same….we also have the same dress on the trip…how perfect!


APRIL 12th (the first time it’s the 12th)---

Today has been absolutely miserable. Apparently the cold I caught in Taiwan has progressed and now I literally can’t get out of bed. The whole second deck has it and you can tell from the lack of people on the pool deck and in the piano bar that everyone has pretty much quarantined themselves in their cabins. The sea sickness has gotten out of control too. I can’t stand up straight in the hallways and keeping myself from vomiting in class is becoming a daily task. Even taking a shower this morning was a challenge. You literally have to hold onto the walls so you don’t fall over. I keep telling myself 6 more days until Hilo….but in reality that is a really long time when you’re out at sea!

Tonight my extended family is having a taco and ice cream sundae party for us. So I’m hoping to drug myself up on cold and sea sickness medicine so I can attend. I’m actually pretty excited about this! This trip has really tested my body. We are all shocked as to how much our bodies can handle in terms of weird food, lack of drinking water throughout the day and sickness over long periods of time. It’s kind of like having motion sickness from a rollercoaster and it never going away. It sucks!!!

Tonight is also the SAS Auction. You don’t have to buy anything; you can just go and watch….which is my plan. Other than that, nothing else is new, besides sickness and lack of ability to get any of my homework or studying done.


APRIL 13th---

So I got to relive April 12th yesterday and I went from being almost a whole day ahead of Philadelphia, to now 8 or 9 hours behind. I’m glad I’m gaining all these hours back gradually, or I would probably not be able to function when I get home.

The good news of today is that my cold and the rockiness have seemed to go away. Since today is a reading/study day, I thought it would be a good day to go get some fresh air, tan and go swimming. It was really nice to be outside and sit in the warm sun. Especially after coming from the cold weather in China.


APRIL 14th----

Last night was the last talent show. There were 23 acts and all of them were pretty good! Of course Darlene performed (a girl that isn’t ashamed of anything and does the craziest things for the talent shows---everyone on the ship knows her hahah!) This time she did the single ladies dance but not before she did a big entrance into the union in full costume and makeup to a mash up of all these Beyonce and Lady Gaga songs. She even had back up dancers this time. Most kids just sang, danced, played an instrument or read poetry. One of the acts was pretty cool though, a girl on the ship solved a rubix cube in 35 seconds! Crazy! I wish I had a talent….oh well!

Anyway, today was the official last day of classes on the ship! Tomorrow is a study day for the Global Studies Final Exam that everyone on the ship has on the 16th. Then we will be in Hilo….yay! I can’t wait to get off the ship and have a beach day. We might even go camping if we can still get the tent from my friend….all our plans are still up in the air?

I think we are all very excited to see the ship raise the American flag once we pull into Hilo’s port (my friend Alice actually won this at the auction and she’ll be the one who does it!.....I'm jealous!) I think that will make us feel like we really circled the globe and that we’re almost home!

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