So I figured I should dedicate a blog entry to our life at sea.. since that is, after all where we spend so much of our time and I have been getting so many questions about what we do on the ship. So let’s get some facts out there for y’all…

1.  Our ship’s name is the MV Explorer and it holds about 1000 people for our voyage (600 students, 200 staff and crew, 75 lifelong learners, 75 faculty and 50 children of faculty.. roughly estimating) and the ship is beautiful!!!

2. Our voyage has a theme: Sustainability. All of the classes we take try to center around this theme and around the countries we visit. You may be like me at first and think that this is a silly theme that’s meant for the hippies on the trip.. but as I’ve learned more and more about it in all of my classes and especially in our global studies class, I really like the theme. It’s very geared toward “a sustainable future” which does not just mean environmentally, but also politically, culturally, economically, and personally, as it is something that affects each and every one of us and our future, as well as every person in each country we visit.

3. Classrooms. So, our ship did used to be a greek cruise ship, which means its pretty awesome.  If any of you have been on a cruise before you can get a feel for the layout of our ship.. Classrooms have been converted from lounges, game rooms, libraries.. anything and everything they could and they are nice. I love the classrooms, each one is different, all are very high tech with projectors attached to the ceilings, whiteboards on walls,  pretty decorations, and comfy chairs (most are chairs that used to be in, for example, the piano lounge so we get a very laid back environment, although it is still clearly a classroom)  … also our library used to be a casino haha (there’s still a sign that says Casino in it)

4. Classes. We have classes pretty much every day at sea, but once we get to port we have ZERO classes or anything to worry about. And we actually get a lot of random days off of classes so it really is not bad at all (but, then again, maybe I’m just saying that because all my classes are in the morning and I’m done by either 10:45am or 12:15pm at the latest)  They definitely care about us experiencing the countries we visit, and, after all, the faculty is there to do the exact same thing we are, travel and explore all the fascinating cultures.  Trevor is taking 5 classes: Global Studies, International Real Estate & Investment, Drawing, Intro to World Music and Biology of Sharks.  I’m taking 4 classes: Global Studies, Child & Adolescent Development around the world, Marine Biology, and International Management. (I was signed up for painting but it was rigorous so I just decided I would have much more fun using the materials I bought for the class and just painting on my own) Our schedules are split up into A and B days (Since days of the week wouldn’t really work because our schedules are constantly changing) On A days, trev is done at 12:15 and on B days, he has a spaced out schedule and isn’t done until 4:45 but with plenty of breaks.  On A days, I have 2 classes and am done by 10:45am (awesome) and on B days, I have 3 and am done by 12:15 (just in time to meet everyone for lunch).   Our classes so far have been fantastic. We really love the biology teacher Dan Abel, he is soooo into the trip he gets so excited about seeing whales off the boat and about all the different ports and the marine life of every one. I also really like my international management professor Thomas Guenther, he and his wife are both from Germany and he has the most Schwarzenegger-like accent, he’s really good.

5. Ship FAQ’s

this is straight from the website

Built in 2002 by the well respected Blohm & Voss shipbuilders of Germany

Described by Maritime Telecommunications Network "as one of the safest ships afloat"

U.S. and international health and safety ratings in the 99th percentile

One of the fastest passenger ships of its kind in the world

We have a pool, a union, two dining halls, a faculty lounge, classrooms, a piano bar, a sport deck, a gym, a wellness center (pretty reasonable prices, but still I’ve yet to get a facial- my roommate got a massage though and loved it), a sauna/steam room, a pool bar, a library, a computer lab, student store, a lobby and various decks to lounge on

Laundry is done a lot, its $5 for a pretty small bag.. and they offer it to your section of the boat about every week and a half

Internet costs a lot of moneyyyy but we do have free emails through Sem At Sea that we can use for free.. So make sure you’re emailing us there as we check them every day because its one of the few free sites we get.. my email is csvidal@semesteratsea.net and trevor’s is tgboswell@semesteratsea.net … its actually nice that internet costs so much money because we get away from the typical college life of wasting time on facebook, youtube, and whatever else on the internet..its so healthy for us to not have phones or the internet—it feels like you have sooo much more time in the day!.. although we are talking about getting walkie talkies while in japan’s techie district since its hard to find everyone on the ship!!! Plust walkie talkies are just awesome!

6. Food.

The food is pretty good! It’s buffet style and there’s plenty of choices. We get breakfast from 6:30-8:30, lunch from 11:30-1:30 and dinner from 5:30 to 7:30. I usually have a big salad and whatever meat they have (chicken, steak, pork, and lots of fish are the norms) and there’s always pasta and rice and bread.  Breakfast, I usually have yogurt and a toasted English muffin and a bowl of mini wheats. Lunch is like a mini dinner but with different options, good salads and theres good fruit out during all meals!  Also, if theres a bad meal, you can always go to the pool bar which has AWESOME food, like pizza, burgers, salads, sandwiches great smoothies which you choose out of the like 20 frozen fruits they have and theyre really good, they also have popcorn and to-die-for chocolate chip cookies mmmmm… of course all the pool bar food is a nominal charge. (smoothies and all alcoholic drinks are 3.50, cookies are 2$ for 3 cookies, 3.50 for burgers, etc)

7. Our rooms!

Our rooms are big! At lease a lot bigger than I expected… our friends from the 2^nd floor call our 4^th floor rooms “first class” cause theyre the biggest and the best windows, etc… My roommate Anne and I live about ten steps down from Trevor which is cool, we have a big window and the view is always beautiful, we have a desk, huge closets (despite how many clothes I brought I still have extra space! And theres plenty of space under the beds.. the showers are spectacular they are sooooo nice and the bathrooms are not too small at all. We have a tv that plays movies every night (they range from academically relevant ones like Pearl Harbor to Forgetting Sarah Marshall)  and the walls in our room are magnetic so we have maps on the walls and pictures of all of you! :)

8. The good stuff. So by now you’re probably like okay that’s all fine and dandy but what do we do when were not in class slash eating?! To give you an idea, here was my day today: woke up at 6:30 (we keep moving the clocks back 1 hour so I always get up early), went to the gym (ever thought about working out next to your professors? It’s kind of funny), then I showered, got ready for the day, went to breakfast with some girlfriends who are in my marine bio class, we all walked in marine bio 8am together, then after that had global studies, where we had 4 lecturers on Sino-American Relations and the future of the US and China superpowers.  After global studies, I crammed for the 15 minute passing period for a child development quiz I had (I think I aced it yeee), then went to child development, after-- grabbed trev from his world music class and we got lunch outside in the sun, then I did yoga at 3:30 (every day, outside on the sport deck—trev even came with me yesterday!) then I relaxed till trev was done, we got dinner with like 6 of our friends, played balderdash and taboo until about 9 or sometimes we head out to the pool bar where everyone gathers at night until we all start to crash (we have busy days alright!!!) then we sleep and repeat… it’s a good life.

9. Activities! There is tons going on at any moment of the day here on the ship :) For how relaxed the days are, they sure do go by fast!  Between workout time at the gym, yoga at 3:30, programming board meetings every other night (Im on the board planning socials, dances, and fun stuff like that), dinner around 6:15 and other random events, it’s a busy, and wonderful, life!  Trevor is on the Peer Health Education committee, I’m on the sea Olympics committee (basically, our ship is split into 7 seas- trev and I are both in the Adriatic seas-based on where your cabin is.. and one day in the semester, there are no classes and the entire day is dedicated to the Sea Olympics. Everyone gets spirited for their sea’s color and it becomes a day of unmatched competitiveness and fun. I’ve heard from previous voyagers its by far the best day of the trip.  Anyways, I’m actually our sea’s captain so I get to be the spirit leader and be in charge of who does what event etc etc--- events range from tug o war to a lip sync contest to a synchro swimming contest, to dodgeball, to a mashed potato sculpting contest, to relay races, etc—its gonna be so fun)   The other night we had a dance called “ReMix” where everyone dressed mismatched and crazy.. everyone got really into it and we had such a great time turning our union into a dance club (the lights were going crazy it actually looked like a club because, after all, the explorer did used to be a cruise ship so it has awesome blacklights, strobelights, etc above the dance floor) There are always activities going on, whether its something organized like that dance, or whether we’re all just relaxing on the pool deck or playing board games!

So I hope I answered all of your questions and you all can get a better feel for our everyday lives :)   We miss you all!!!