Day 5: Atlantic Ocean –‘bout the middle

Ok, so some really cool and not-so-cool things happened to me today…

But first, I want to back up and tell you about a really awesome experience I had last night! One of the astronomy professors on board offered to lead a group up to the eight deck to show us some of the stars! Someone got permission from the Captain to turn off all of the lights on the top of the ship, so it was easy to see the sky – with no lights on the ship and no ships or land for miles and miles and miles! It was a little cloudy, unfortunately, but we did get to see some beautiful constellations. I am really excited, too, because I heard that on August 11, there might be a meteor shower! I am hoping to sleep out on the deck that night so I’ll have a front row seat!

Waking up for my 8 AM class this morning was very difficult – because we lost ANOTHER hour of sleep last night. The ship’s clocks are all moved forward one hour each night – so we are gradually moving into Spain’s time zone. I’m getting less and less sleep every night which is starting to get to me. I definitely thought that I would have a lot of downtime here on the MV Explorer. However, it seems like every minute of the day is jam packed with activities. There are classes and homework and from 8-9:00pm each night, there are Explorer’s Seminars, which are extra lectures from experts who are sailing with us between countries. They are really cool and so far, they have been focusing on Spain. Tonight’s lecture was all about Spanish food…which…anybody who knows me at all can tell you that is one of my very favorite subjects in all of the world. At the end of the lecture, I was literally salivating for all of the wonderful things that I will be eating in just a few days. Salty olives, cold beer, tortilla de patata, chewy jamon, rich and creamy manchego cheese, robust red wine, and paella! Yummm…

SO when I’m not in class or at other various activities, I’m usually eating. They serve 4 meals a day…if you can believe it. I only eat three, though. Breakfast is from 7:30-9:30 am, lunch is from 11:30 am-1:30pm, dinner is from 4:30-6:30 pm, and fourth-meal is from 10:00-10:30pm. (Rachy, fourth-meal made me think of you.) I skip the fourth meal on account of it’s an insane amount of food, and you KNOW how I can get at buffets!

The food on the ship, though, has been surprisingly good. I imagine that I will probably grow sick of it as some point, but there has really been quite a bit of variety – lots of good grilled fish, salad at every meal, good pasta with different sauces….problem is…the desserts are fabulous, too. Angel food cake with berry compote, banana bread, chocolate pudding… I had a piece of chocolate cake yesterday that was heaven – with powdered sugar on top if you can believe it.

In between meals today, I signed up to go on a “Bridge” tour. The crew members take up a small group of passengers to the control station of the ship. It was very interesting – they have a button for just about everything that happens on the ship. They monitor every little detail of our consumption. There is actually a water purification system on the ship, so we are drinking/cooking with/and showering in sea water which has been purified (KB – I think this niche could be your new career calling!) In addition to all of the tracking equipment, there is a back-up plan/button in the control station for just about anything that could go wrong on the ship. And then there’s another back-up plan in case the first back-up plan fails! My favorite part is that, in the case of a power outage AND none of the generators work, there is a phone that you can power by hand to make a call. It makes me feel safe to know that everything is under control up there in the Bridge. Those dudes (yes, all dudes, no women…bah) really know what they are doing!

Another cool thing that happened was that I (along with the other Student Affairs at Sea folks) got invited to a party tonight hosted by the deans in the super-fabulous-and-classy 7th deck lounge. There were tons of delicious appetizers (chicken and beef skewers, egg rolls, spinach quiche, cheese and crackers, meatballs) and of course, lots of wine. It was so fun because a lot of the staff and senior crew were in attendance. And… the best part is….I got to meet the Captain of the ship, Captain Jeremy! I was chatting with another staff member when the Captain had an opening and Erin and I swooped right in there, introduced ourselves and chatted for a few minutes. It was so cool! I got a picture, too! : )

Now, I also mentioned that some not-so-cool things happened to me today as well... Last night, I began to notice that I was having trouble seeing my computer screen. I thought that it was weird that when I went to start my readings for my classes, the words were all blurry. I thought I might just be tired, so I took out my contacts and went to bed. Today, I woke up and could NOT see the face of my watch. Although my near-sight was completely blurry, I could see at a distance just fine. Also, what was really weird was that when I closed one eye, I could see out of the other just fine, it was only when I had both eyes open that it was impossible to focus.

Naturally, I started to panic. What could have happened to my eyes in the last two weeks since I had my contact lens prescription checked?? It was extremely unnerving to me, although my friends thought it was HILARIOUS when I was trying to read something with my arm all the way stretched out as far as it could go. Finally, I realized that it might have something to do with all of the medicine I’ve been taking to avoid (or in my case, reduce) sea-sickness. I found the box for my sea-sickness patches and with great difficulty (no nearsight, remember), I discovered that the temporary loss of eyesight is a common (and rather severe!) side-effect of the drug. Because I like being able to see things in general and also had to do the readings for class, I was forced to remove my patch (at the expense of motion-sickness). : ( My eyesight improved just a few hours later, and I (and the ship’s doctors) believe that it will return to normal by tomorrow. Whew. Super scary. I’m going to bed tonight before the drug wears off, because I don’t know if I’ve found my sea-legs yet. I am so thankful for my eyesight, though, that I can definitely deal.