Yesterday was the first “back to reality” day – or as close to reality as you can get on this ship, anyway. I spent pretty much the entire day writing papers for my classes.
Today, after my early morning classes, I hit the gym before lunch and then attended a job search in Student Affairs workshop at 2pm. The assistant dean, Tom, did the presentation and it was really helpful to think about all of the things I’ll need to do in the upcoming months.
In the afternoon, I met with a man named Randy Lewis. He’s been on SEVEN Semester at Sea voyages (as faculty and in the dean positions). He was really helpful in answering all of my questions about the Institute for Shipboard Education. Randy also had some horror stories about stuff that has happened. He told me about a time where they had to jail a student who got violent on board and another time when the ship lost power and they had to use 400 students to help set the anchor so they wouldn’t drift ashore! Crazy stuff. Knock on wood, but we’ve had a really safe voyage this far – we’ve been really lucky that there haven’t been any major issues.
That night, the deans hosted another reception in the super-sweet faculty and staff lounge. The theme was Indian food! Yum. No, we are not going to India on this trip, but the rationale was that the fall voyage will be going there, so we are pretty much supporting the people on the upcoming fall voyage. Or, the deans were really just craving Indian food. One of the two. It was really fun though. It’s so nice to get dressed up a little and hang out with all of the older adults on the ship. Plus, the vino is an added bonus. : )
For dessert, there was a birthday celebration for one of the LLC’s (living-learning coordinator), LaCona, after the reception. Have I mentioned that the ship makes some awesome ice cream cakes?! Yum again.
That evening, I helped attended the 8 PM talent show in the union. It was so much fun to watch – there was singing, dancing, a light show, a harmonica performance, a magician, and the deans (John and LaVohn) even did an interpretive dance to the “I’m on a boat” song! SO funny. The talent show made me feel like I was at summer camp or something. It’s nice, though, because somehow (magically) in the past few weeks, this group of students, faculty, and staff has begun to function like a big family or community. It’s such a unique environment to be a part of – one that I think rarely is possible to have on a land-campus – and one that I am so fortunate to be a part of!
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