Day 12: Happy Birthday, you say??

Today is my roommate Sara's twentieth birthday!! As I pondered what it would be like to have a birthday on this ship – somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, nonetheless -- I decided that it wasn't my cup of tea! She didn't get to call home or talk to any of her family, besides email, of course. There was no “pick where you want to go out to eat” type conversations. It was just as if it was a normal day. I suppose this goes along with the growing up concept. Growing old stinks! The upside? The crew graced her dinner meal with an ice cream cake! Such a lucky duck!

Wonder what it's like to have breakfast at sea? Well for me at least when my alarm goes off I have no idea whether it is 1200 or 0700. It is pitch dark in my room at all hours. At every breakfast that I have been to (that's all but one) they serve fresh fruit such as watermelon, pineapple, and melons, a different form of potatoes (mainly just potatoes that have been chopped up in bite size pieces seasoned), French toast or pancakes, eggs (hard boiled or scrambled), meat (primarily linked or pattied sausage), yogurt, cereal and a pastry. By the time I skid in, the pastries have been picked over and they aren't that great. Oh, and they have grits or oatmeal.

Remember how I signed up for the extended family program on the ship? Today is the day that I get to meet my family! Last night, my "mom" sent out an email to all of her six children setting up a meeting time. And she left a Twix bar outside my room for me! "Mom" had decided that we were going to have lunch together today. Coincidentally  Shelley is one of my "sisters!" “B” day lunches for me are always quick ones. I get out of class and to the dining hall just after 1200 and my next class starts at 1250. I have to pick up my laptop that I leave in my room charging before my second class starts, too. So lunch with the fam was a bit rushed for me but our family agreed that we will meet and have lunch after every port.

After dinner tonight, the activity scheduled was trivia. We needed a team of five to participate. Shelley recruited the other two people in our group. It consisted of Lauren, Shelley, Mike (he actually won on his last voyage) and Andrew. The prize was a free smoothie from the snack bar. Epic fail! We lost the trivia night but we walked away with a few fun facts as consolation. 

1. There have been five ships Semester at Sea has sailed on: MS Seven Seas, SS Ryndam, SS Universe, SS Universe Explorer, MV Explorer.
2. Did you know that the Statue of Liberty's index finger is eight feet long? 
3. Pineapple originated from Brazil? 
4. We learned that the leftover food on the ship is ground up and pumped into the ocean. Gross! 
5. There are 418 cabins on the MV Explorer. 
6. Did you know that there are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet (the five vowels and seven consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, w)? 
7. We learned that the first domesticated animal was a dog or a wolf. 
8. Of all of the Hawaiian Islands, only eight are inhabited. 
9. Can you think of five NHL, NBA, NFL, or MLB teams that do not end in an s? Tricky right?!