Day 4: In the Atlantic...somewhere

Today, I had a very startling wake-up experience. I was in a deep sleep at 6:30 am and all of a sudden, the ship took a really strong swell to the starboard (right) side. Everything that was on a shelf in my cabin – water glasses, my clock, all of my papers/notebooks, toiletries, etc. - FLEW off of the shelves. Of course, it was pitch-black (no window!), plus I was groggy from waking up, plus I could hear things falling and was not even sure where they were flying from or if they were going to hit me! Scary stuff. Luckily, nothing hit me and nothing broke. I got up after that and wave-proofed the cabin immediately (basically, I just put things into drawers so they couldn’t fall). It was a really rough morning at sea. The boat was rocking like crazy. I was fine when I woke up, but as soon as I started moving, things went downhill. Can you imagine trying to take a shower in a bathroom the size of a refrigerator? While rocking back and forth sporadically? While feeling like you wanted to toss your cookies? Yeah…not good.

However, class must go on, right? I pulled it together the best I could (meaning my hair was NOT dry) and then sprinted the 3 flights of stairs to my first class (International Perspectives on Higher Ed – yay! At 8 AM…boooo). I walked into the classroom and my heart dropped a little. ALL of the chairs were facing the aft (back) of the ship…meaning that I would be “riding” backwards for the next hour and fifteen minutes. AHH! Needless to say, I had my head down and my eyes closed the entire time to keep it together. In my next classroom (Global Studies), the chairs were facing the front part of the ship – thank goodness. MUCH better. After lunch on the deck – facing the front of the ship, I felt 1 million gazillion times better. It is still pretty rough out there, although the weather is not bad at all – it’s actually a beautiful sunny day in the 70’s.

Also, once you get past the danger of it all, it is actually very funny to be walking down a corridor in the ship and then find your entire body is being pulled sharply to the right or left. It reminds me of being in Noah’s Ark (a Kennywood amusement park ride, for all of you non-Pittsburghers who did not get the reference.) The best part is that if you look down the hall at that exact moment, you can see everyone else in the hallway having the same experience. It’s pretty funny. My other favorite part is that everyone (including myself) has started to walk around like little penguins – with a wide stance (so it looks like waddling) and their hands out and down to keep balance. And when the ship experiences a strong rock, all of those penguins start to stagger a little – like they’ve had too much to drink! Haha so amusing.

So, in summary, what I have learned today so far…

1.) You never know when objects might fly off the shelf at you, so be prepared for anything (I might buy a helmet just in case. Frankly, I think it should have been on the Recommended Packing List).

2.) Seasickness can be cured by sitting on the back deck NOT looking at the beautiful ocean (…and if anyone needs me, that’s where I’ll be until we get to Barcelona)

and 3.) Sometimes walking like a drunk penguin is necessary.