Rough Seas

It’s not as bad as the title may sound. As this voyage has continued, I feel like I’m feeling more and more of the ship’s motion. I think this weekend was the first time I ever had class on both days. My day started off with a tour of the Bridge (main control and steering area). Unfortunately the MV Explorer doesn’t have a luxurious steering wheel, but the captain’s chair was quite comfy and the controls were super cool. I had to resist from pushing any buttons. Class was a bit more confusing than I would have liked. Some parts of the class are a bit too abstract for me, but I feel like I’m doing the best I can, so I’m managing (and realizing what happens with you put an International Studies and Spanish student in an engineering class.) But overall, today gave me a sense that the “honeymoon phase“ is coming to an end as I’m realizing the intensity of the work and swaying of the ship (although I have been sleeping like a baby.) The views were distracting as we sailed in between Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The class paused several times to “oo and ah!“ We learned about Water and Sanitation issues in Latin America today, which the statistics are quite depressing in the Seminar.  The evening programs included the Extended Family dinners, where I have two SAS grandparents and an SAS brother and sister. It was a nice dinner, although the “grandparents“ took a huge interest in the other “brother“ whose major was engineering. After they left I had an interesting conversation with my SAS “sister“ who is from India and has convinced me I should travel there. The evening concluded with a “SAS Friending“ event (Speed Friending, Team Challenges and Pictionary), where I got to meet quite a few new people, which finished with Pictionary and the game Catch Phrase. I have some more reading before bed...so it’s going to be a late night.

Gute nacht!
Matt

P.S. I came in my room today to see that it had been randomly searched. Nothing was confiscated, but it’s nice to know that SAS takes it’s rules very seriously and that I wasn’t there to witness them going through my stuff.