We left Ghana on the 25th and have been at sea for 5 days. I though I would write a blog about the ship life. The weather has been very gloomy the past few days. I am hoping the sun will come out tomorrow. When I walk outside all I see is dark blue, the ocean is dark blue and looks freezing cold, the sky is dark blue and looks like it is going to storm. The wind is blowing and raises goose bumps on my arms. I want to sit next to a warm fire with cozy sweatpants on and a huge thick warm sweatshirt with hot chocolate in a mug and one of my favorite movies playing. I wonder why is it so cold outside when we are extremely close to the equator. I heard there were whales today, but I did not get to seem them.
I am getting a bit homesick and am getting tired of doing the same thing everyday. Emma and I have decided to have dinner up on the pool deck tonight. We are getting tired of going through the buffet line that never changes. First it is lettuce, then carrots, huge chunks of tomatoes, and then comes the mystery dressing. There is never just the simple ranch at the end of the salad bar, it always has to be very strange. The next part of the buffet line is the cheese. The cheese can vary it is either yellow or white cubed cheese. On the other days it is a different type of cheese cut into a pie shape slice. The bread rolls come next, they are in a huge plastic bowl. The only choice is wheat or white. It just depends on what the chef decides to serve. When you finally make it past the rolls the pasta is there! It is always so surprising to see pasta. NOT! We have pasta every meal without fail. This simple dish can never be simple. It is never just plain pasta. It always has tons of different of assortment of sauces on it and other random things thrown in it. After the pasta comes the next dish and it is normally another carb dish, rice. This rice can be fried rice, steamed rice, rice with onions, rice with garlic, and many of other things. Next comes the vegetables. Who would have guessed that even the vegetables can be bad. About every three days the vegetables are great. But, by the second and third day the vegetables are beginning to get really soggy and taste old. By the third day the vegetables are not just broccoli and cauliflower, it now contains all the other vegetables that were leftover from the previous meals. At this point my fingers are just crossed that the next dish will have some sort of chicken! But 85% of the time chicken is not an option. There is always fish and some sort of meat dish, however, it never looks normal. When there is chicken I am so excited!!!!! It makes my day. Sometimes I am so happy I want to ask if they could save this chicken for me. When there is not chicken I head back to the back of the dinning hall. This is where the big bowls of peanut butter and jelly are. Next to that are loaves of wheat bread and white bread. I grab the utensil and grab two pieces of wheat bread and head to the toaster. I toast the bread and then make my way back to the jelly. I take a scoop of jelly and spread it on my hot toasted bread and smoosh my two pieces of bread together. Then I stop at the fruit section to see what fruit there is. I love when there are oranges or red grapes. These are not normal red grapes because nothing is normal on the ship. They are red grapes with seeds in them but I am still very happy!!!!! We make our way to a table. The second I sit down one of the servers are right there to ask what we would like to drink. He asks Emma and she normally says ice tea. Then he turns to me and asks me. I always reply I am good with water, I have my water bottle. Funny how we are 45 days into this and they still ask me 3 times a day what I would like to drink. These guys are wonderful. They clean off the tables the second you are done eating. We are never sitting at a table with piles of dirty plates from the delicious meal we just had.
I do not want to sound like I am complaining but I would be so happy if they would tone down the dishes and serve plain pasta, and plain grilled chicken, and fresh plain vegetables. I really wish I could be the SAS food planner. I feel there should be certain buffet lines that cater to the different eating styles. Low carb, low fat, no dairy, vegetarian, and so on.
Then their is the campus store! I love the campus store! It is my mall fix! Whenever I get board or feel the need to go shopping I go in there. There is a little bit of everything in this store. There are Pjs, shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, coffee mugs, water bottles, stickers, paper, pencils, toiletries, medicine, postcards, and anything else you may run out of. Even though EVERYTHING says semester at sea, it is still fun to go shopping!!!!!!! I think I might go in these two stores at least twice a day and look around. They are always getting new things and it is so hard not to buy the new things that come out.
Emma and I think we are the only people that have done all of our laundry by hand. We know that the only reason this is possible is because my dad made me a magnetic clothes line! If it was not for this magnet clothes line, this would not have been possible. The clothes line the SAS gives us only fits one shirt or one pair of jeans at a time. Laundry is 6 dollars a bag. So we have been saving a lot of money by doing it by hand. I am also excited to say that I have done all my laundry by hand for four months! Yes, Emma and I have to squat underneath the clothes line every time we want to come or leave the room but we have decided that is what makes our room homey!!! Our room does not look like anybody else. With my own bed sheets and comforter, our entire walls full of pictures, and our home made magnetic clothes line. our room has a lot o warmth.
Every hallway has a name. I am the Baltic Sea and my color is orange. Some of the other seas are Red Sea, Yellow Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. In about a month we will have the Sea Olympics. This is where seas compete against other seas. Rumors say that if your sea wins then you get to get off the ship in San Diego first! I hope my sea wins! I am normally not a competitive person but I will definitely be on this day. I know when I am in San Diego, I am going to want to be the first one off!!!!!! It will be horrible sitting there for hours waiting to get off the ship and wanting to see my family.
So, now based on the content of this blog, you know I am going stir crazy and am so ready to e in South Africa!
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