Day 13: Lost Day

Location: Just past the International Date Line

Ever wanted to just skip Monday? I have. And Monday, January 21, 2013 is a day that we, passengers on the MV Explorer, never experienced. Overnight we crossed the International Date Line. We changed our calendars but not our clocks. We moved our calendars one day forward. I will only experience 364 days this year.

On the ship, today, January 22, 2013 was designated as a study day. Basically that just means that we do not have any scheduled classes to attend.

I had decided that heck, this will be my day to sleep in! I will just skip breakfast and wake up when I wake up. Then the thought passed through my head that I have to have food in order to take my medicine. Crap! I have to get up early for breakfast. I had breakfast this morning with Sara's friends on the ship.

After breakfast, I trotted on down the hall to Shelley and Lauren's room. They were watching The Little Mermaid for about the sixth time in a matter of 24 hours. I haven't seen the movie in a long time but it is so much fun to get to watch these movies! I also had to watch it (on my own time, in my room on the ship) for my Diverse Cultures class.

We decided that we ought to try and be real productive today. Lauren and I went up to the Garden Lounge (dining hall) to study. I think trying to do homework or study there is similar to going to Starbucks. There are kids running around playing games, people chatting, people drinking their coffees, and then people actually trying to get work done.

During lunch, the Assistant Dean made an announcement over the intercom telling everyone on the ship that they need to go down to the Purser's office and pick up a packet. Enclosed in the packet were 10 immigration forms necessary for each of the countries that we will be visiting. The Assistant Dean told us that these forms would take a generous amount of time to complete. Boy was he right! It took us almost three hours to fill out the forms properly. There went our plan to be good little children today.

Tonight's Explorer's Seminar was about Asia. It was an overview of what we might expect as we approach Asia –everything from the culture to the religion to the food, etc. It was a pretty neat seminar. The lecturers made the seminar interactive allowing the audience to answer questions and win candy bars.

Tonight's Unreasonable at Sea presenter is George Kemble, one of the founders of Stanford's D-School. He is teaching the Sustainable Global Entrepreneurship course. At this Unreasonable "fireside" chat he talked about how he got to where he is in his life as well as how he came about creating the D-School. He said that the D School is not really a school nor is it really design. He said that students and faculty come to the building on campus to work on their particular focus or emphasis. The D School has created a different kind of learning environment for people to innovate and enhance their creativity. He said throughout all of his triumphs and tribulations in his career and life, he learned to do what he loves and that he needs to take care of himself. He sees himself as a reservoir to help others succeed.

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?! 

Day 11: This Is Going to Be a Long Stretch at Sea!

Location: About half way between Honolulu and the International Date Line.

We gained another hour of sleep last night. On the ship, everything is communicated in 24-hour time or military time. I think they do this so that it is consistent with everyone and they minimize mix ups. I have my watch set to 24-hour time. My phone and computer, however, are still set on 12-hour time. On occasion, I change my phone to 24-hour time. It is nice though to have one clock saying 24-hour time and the other clock saying 12-hour time so that I can cross check for accuracy. Many of the students are quite stubborn about switching over to 24-hour time. Students will refer to 8:00pm and most of the crew members, staff, and faculty refer to it as 20:00. 

Today is pretty similar to my other “A” days with breakfast, study/do some homework, go to my Nutrition course, have lunch at my leisure, study/do some homework, go to my Diverse Cultures class and then head off to dinner.

People are starting to get frantic. Before we get to Japan (in six days) I have midterms in most of my classes. I think that is just crazy! One of my professors said this morning that after the next time we meet (in three days) we will already be 1/4 of the way through the semester. This semester is seriously flying by!

A few days ago, the sign-up sheets for intramural teams were released. We weren't very organized in putting an indoor soccer team together. So we (Lauren, Shelley, and I) opted to be free agents. After dinner, there was an intramural team meeting in the Union. This was a time for people who were free agents to get on teams. Lauren, Shelley, and I are all on separate teams! The games will be in a 3v3 format. They will be played in the basketball court area on the ship. I'll let you know how that really works! The schedule for the teams will be released in the next day or so.

Tonight I was all excited to attend the Unreasonable "fireside" chat. It has become a standard part of my everyday routine to attend. At the "fireside" chat, the Executive Dean and the Captain were speaking to discuss water conservation on the ship. One of the Entrepreneur classes is making it their project to try and conserve water usage on the ship. Today, for example, 68 gallons of fresh water per person was used on the ship. The Captain said that it costs two cents for every ten liters to convert salt water to fresh water. I also learned that it is easier for the ship to convert water while we are at sea than when we are in a port. By the way, it turned out, I was sitting in on the Entrepreneur's classes' meeting rather than the Unreasonable chat. Whoopsies!

If my blogs are getting monotonous or you simply have a question about how something works on the ship, feel free to reply on the comments or shoot me an email. I’ll include the explanation in an upcoming blog.

Day 10: And, We're Off!

I woke up this morning with the worst sore throat. All I could think of was oh no! The juice at breakfast burned my throat. With everyone's concern about the flu back in the States my mom decided I should head to the ship's clinic. The nurse in the clinic told me that the doctor wouldn't be in until 4:30 p.m. Lovely…

The excitement of having the ability to use my phone was still present. I was thrilled to be able to call people back home (even though I have been able to do that for the past few days). Even if we didn’t have much to say, I wanted to hear their voice. I scurried to get ready, ate my breakfast quickly so that I would have time to prepare for my classes and then use my phone. We still were not told when we would be taking off so I didn’t know how much time was available.

I've decided that I could live without all forms of social networking such as Facebook & Twitter. The hardest thing for me to live without for the next few weeks is my phone. Not being able to text or talk will be a challenge.

After my Digital Media class, I hurried back to my room to drop off my laptop so it could recharge for my next class while I ate lunch. On my way up to the dining hall, I ran into Lauren. We both happened to look out the window at the same time and realized...Crap! We are moving! We were planning on getting another phone conversation or two in with people back home before we took off. I didn't have time to dilly dally. Lunch is only available for a set amount of time so I had to hurry, eat my lunch, and get to my next class in about 45 minutes and still wanted to squeeze in a phone call. I was in luck! I ate my lunch super-fast and called my mom. She gave me her suggestions for getting healthy before I had to hang up and go take my anti-sea sickness medicine.

I think the ship's crew has to get a chuckle or two watching the students, faculty, Life Long Learners, and families try and walk around on the ship. Many of us look like we are a bit on the intoxicated side. It's a joke. 

I lost service during my Organizational Behavior class. Sad day. I was back to communicating via email to everyone. With this cold, I am back to taking naps multiple times a day. I had just gotten myself out of a routine of taking so many naps. Oh well, naps are always great!

So at 4:36pm I trotted into the clinic, filled out my paperwork, and saw the doc. He didn't think I had the flu (yay!), his strep test came back negative (yay!), so he decided I just had some old cold. He said that there is only one girl on the ship that has the flu and she had been quarantined. I think that’s impressive for a crowd of 700.

I met up with Lauren and Shelley for dinner. During dinner, Shelley decided to imitate a few of her favorite YouTube videos with another kid that sat with us. Shelley decided that she had a hankering for an ice cream cone after dinner. So we went up to the seventh deck, near the pool, so she could grab an ice cream cone. It took a lot of restraint for me to not get some ice cream. Purchasing food at that location on the seventh deck and at a snack bar in the Piano Lounge is additional charges. I'm trying to hold off as long as possible from purchasing something from those snack locations because I think once I start it will be a bad habit to kick! 

There was another Unreasonable at Sea presentation tonight. The eleven entrepreneurs on the ship gave their business pitches to the audience. As I understand it, they are on the ship to work to expand their business with the creativity of the people on board. They want to use their business to change the world. The business pitches ranged from helping teachers in India and Africa -- to providing better stoves to mothers and organizations in Morocco. The Nike Foundation had two representatives speak about their solution to ending poverty. They believe in the "girl effect”: the ability for girls to end poverty for themselves and the world. Anne Hathaway, Oprah, and even the Oregon Ducks have helped the organization with their mission. They are starting by creating a digital network and making the connection with girls (through a pen pal-type program). The time is now to end poverty and creativity is necessary to accomplish the goal. Stay tuned…

Day 9: Honolulu, I Don't Mind!

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Much to my disappointment, rolling out of bed to catch breakfast is not getting any easier. Maybe the long day we had in Hawaii yesterday made it a little bit difficult.

After breakfast I was on a mission. I was determined to get my readings and other homework done before we got to Honolulu today. I knew that we would only have a limited amount of time to use our phones while we were there and I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity as much as I could. I sat outside on the back deck with my laptop and textbooks and read (while getting a little bit of sun, of course).

Goal: accomplished. While I was sitting in my Nutrition class I could just barely see out the windows but could catch a glimpse that the island of Oahu was coming into sight.  We docked in Honolulu and it was very pretty outside. Everyone compared the differences of Honolulu and Hilo. Hilo is much more rustic. A much older town. It seems as if the locals are trying to preserve everything. Honolulu is much more like going to a city. The "sky scrapers" were visible from the ship.

I had lunch with Shelley and Lauren today. Usually, my goal is to sit with someone new at breakfast and lunch but have dinner with them. For some reason, that was not the case.

After lunch, we all decided to soak up the beautiful weather, attempt to study, and utilize our phones. For me, I had gotten everything done I needed to for the day so I just talked on the phone. Yippee!

At my next class, Diverse Cultures in Mass Communication, we were already working on group projects. It seems like the semester is cruisin' on by. My group is trying to have our group project finished before we get to Japan. We all have a hunch that after Japan it will be even harder than it already is to focus.

I went and found Lauren and Shelley for dinner and we sat with a kid name Charles from San Diego. The entire time he was with us he laughed and kept telling us we were funny. (I think he just didn't know how much he was in need of a good chuckle.) At lunch and dinner, there is always a dessert that you can pick up in the food lines. Tonight there were chocolate eclairs. They were soooo good!

The Captain decided that the ship was going to stay the night in Honolulu because there was a major storm in our path to Japan. Rumor has it that the storm had 25 foot waves, yikes! I can hardly handle the 2 foot waves we have dealt with. The plan was to leave before 1800 hours on January 18.

I was going to talk to people back home after dinner but they had already went off to bed. This time zone thing and communicating with people is only going to get worse! Since that option was eliminated, I decided that I ought to get some homework done for the next school day. I sat in Shelley and Lauren's room and watched Mickey Mouse Monopoly for my Diverse Cultures class, while they colored.

Throughout the voyage, our instructors will air movies and television shows on the televisions throughout the ship that we are required to watch. Some of them aren't too bad but some of them can be pretty boring. At least we get to watch them in the comfort of our own rooms!

We had to attend a mandatory meeting tonight. It was called to discuss the inappropriate behavior of approximately 200 students while we were in Hilo.  Luckily, the police officers handled the incident through crowd control rather than making arrests. Let's just say that the Semester at Sea faculty is not impressed. Personally, I don't think I would mind if 200 students weren't on the ship. It would be faster lunch lines, I could sit where I wanted to, and quieter study times. Yes, a little selfish, I know.

After the meeting, I attended another Unreasonable at Sea program. This time the entrepreneurs that were on board pitched their business plan to us. The business pitches ranged from helping teachers out in India and Africa to providing cleaner stoves for mothers to helping with the poverty situation prevalent around the world. It seems to me that these entrepreneurs would like the creativity and help of the students on the ship to help with their business plans. Interesting...

Location: Hawaii

In order to accomplish everything I was determined to do today I had to get up earlyyyyy. The alarm went off at 6:00 am (woof, that's early!). We gathered everyone up and headed off the ship. Getting on and off the ship is a real process. Getting back on is worse. To get off we are required to swipe our ID cards signaling that we have walked off the ship. In Hawaii, we had to walk a short distance to get past the port security.

Once outside of the security points, we found a taxi that would take us back to downtown Hilo. I had decided that I wanted to hit up an Internet Café to do the last few things I needed while I still had access to the Internet. I also thought grabbing a cup of coffee would help me get through the day. Lauren, Shelley, Mike, and Andrew joined me in the Internet Café doing their last minute necessities on the world wide web.

At about 8am, I had to start to make my way back to the ship. I walked over to the park where the taxi had dropped us off. Public transportation of Hilo would come past here if I waited long enough and we could use the public transportation for free with our student ID cards. Luckily, I found a taxi that was willing to take me back to the ship pretty quickly.

Once back at the ship, I dropped off my laptop in my room and scurried back off the ship so I could hustle off to my field program. Field programs are trips that people have the opportunity to purchase through Semester at Sea. They are completely separate from a field lab (a field lab is a field trip planned by a teacher). Luckily, I was able to snag a few phone calls with people from back home before my field program took off.

Larry, our tour guide, was very excited to begin the tour. He has been living in Hilo for the past few years, previously he had been living on Oahu. Larry enjoyed his job and providing our group with fun facts and stories. For instance, did you know that papaya trees live for two years? The first year of the papaya trees life is mainly devoted to growing. The tree "trunk" of a papaya tree grows really tall with the branches up at the top. The second year of life is mainly devoted to producing papaya fruits. Another fun fact: if you placed all of the other seven islands, besides the island of Hawaii, on top of the big island (Hawaii) there would still be a third of the island left.

Our first stop on the field program was to Kalapana Beach. It was a fishing village that was recently (when I say recently, I mean 20 years ago) buried by lava. We were able to walk across the lava flow to the ocean. The scenery as we walked to the ocean can only be described as breathtaking! Local residents have begun to put their lives back together. There is a local restaurant or two located right near the lava we walked across. Plants are also starting to grow again in the area. Larry told us that when the lava flow and the ocean water touch at just the right temperature it creates the black sand beaches found all over the big island.

In the distance you can see the lava burning down the trees

Life is coming back after the lava came through and destroyed the trees and plants.

The view was absolutely breathtaking!!

Larry then took us to Ahalanui Park. We sat under the huge trees at picnic tables eating our lunch which the MV Explorer's crew had prepared for us. We enjoyed a turkey and sprout sandwich, Doritos, and a lemon cake. They also gave us a local hawaiian canned juice beverage to drink.

Surrounded by palm trees, green grass, and the Pacific Ocean is a thermal pool. The pool is part nature, part man-made. The pool is heated volcanically and it felt like bath water temperature. A small inlet separated the pool from the ocean allowing fishies to swim in the pool. We were allowed to jump in and swim around with them. It was really cool to see schools of fish swim past you as you were looking in the water. The fish would swim all around you. (The best I can compare them to would be a tadpole). The tadpole-like fish would come up to you and supposedly "suck the dead skin off of you." I only put my feet in for fear of being really cold later and what it would do to my skin. Those stinkin' fish would swim right up around my feet and just tickle my feet! I could hardly stand it. I had to get out of the water after a short while. I walked around the park and up near the ocean. I ran into a TON of crabs. Those little guys are kind of scary looking; reminding me of a bunch of spiders.

We finished up our time at the Ahalanui Park a little bit early so Larry gave us a driving tour of downtown Hilo. I had already explored downtown Hilo on my own yesterday but it was nice to get a locals' knowledge or  “city tour” on the area.

Students were required to be back on the ship by 1800 and we arrived around 1500. I was not interested in getting off the ship or exploring any more of Hilo with the time restraints. Especially since this was the first time people were going to try to get back on the ship. To get on the ship, we are required to sanitize our hands, swipe our ID cards, send our backpack and any other goodies through security, and then we are required to walk through the security. Getting back on the ship for any reason is very similar to going through airport security. It's just a hassle! If you are late getting back on the ship students, faculty, staff, and crew members will receive dock time. Dock time is like going into time out! For every 15 minutes someone is late, they receive two hours of dock time. When we get to the next port, they are stuck on the ship for two hours. And dock time does not start until the last person who is not assigned dock time has debarked. To be considered on time, you have to have your passport into the Purser's desk, ID card swiped, and through security. As if dock time isn’t bad enough, they announce the name of the individuals receiving dock time after the process ends.

I returned my backpack to my room and knowing I would lose cell phone service, I used the remaining time before the ship disembarked from Hilo to use my phone. I made phone calls, texted, and even Skyped for the remainder of the evening. When we disembarked from Hilo we knew that we were going to be making a fuel stop and mail drop in Honolulu. We were expected to arrive in Hilo on January 17 at 1200.

The postcards I purchased while in Hilo I made sure to drop off at the Purser's desk.

Hilo in the background

Day 7: Hawaii!

Location: Hilo, Hawaii, USA

Today, is probably the most exciting day I have had in a few days. I was so excited to be on land. I never knew how much I would miss land. This morning we decided to get up extra early (yes, I did get up early) to see the sunrise as we made our way to Hawaii. Sadly, it was cloudy/not clear as we came into Hawaii. Here is a picture from our attempt at seeing the sunrise!

 A Cloudy Sunrise in Hawaii

My plan for the day was to hang out with Shelley and Mike and explore Hilo. Mike is from Fort Collins and sailed on the Spring 2012 voyage -- so he knows his away around. We were planning on walking into town, hitting up an Internet Café, and just getting to know the town. It took over two hours to get through customs and get the ship cleared to get off . Boy, I hope it goes faster at other ports. I was just so excited to get off the ship. I have no idea how I'm going to handle the nine/ten day stretch from Hawaii to Japan! Although, I was able to talk to my mom during this time! Oh how nice it is to hear a familiar voice! It's one thing not to speak to someone in a few days, it's another when you CAN NOT speak to them. No option.

Once we were off the ship, we walked (approximately two miles) into downtown Hilo. It was a toasty walk with the humidity in Hawaii. We found a great Internet Café! Shelley and I grabbed a snack while Mike Skyped his girlfriend back home. We had a sandwich and an iced latte! Afterwards, we walked around downtown Hilo going in and exploring a few of the local shops. I snatched up a few postcards to send to people at home! We sat in a park for a little while to absorb the local scenery. It was so pretty! I also had the chance to send a few text messages and talk to Mickey on the phone!!

 Shelley and Me

One of the few things I was determined to do while we were in Hawaii was to grab a hamburger, fries, and a soda. One of my last chances to be an American for a few months! We were successful in accomplishing that goal! We ate at the Hilo Burger Joint. It hit the spot.

We went back to the ship to drop off our laptop and other goodies that were in our backpacks. We were off to Wal-Mart to pick up anything that we had forgotten before we leave the States. I grabbed a little bit more sea-sickness medicine since the waters between Hawaii and Japan are supposed to be really rough (someone said on a scale of 1-10, these will be an 8 in roughness), 7UP (for my tummy), and a coloring book. Yes, I am 20-years-old and purchased a coloring book. We have nine to ten days on the ship without a break. Yes, I will do my schoolwork but we don't have an outlet to take a breather on the ship. Typically, I would watch television or do something similar. We don't really have television shows on the ship (other than the ship's movies/documentaries and the movies that we all brought).

We made our way back to the ship to go to bed. We had a long day and have a long day tomorrow!