Semester at Sea is divided into “sea days” and “port days.” On sea days, I’m working, and there’s no such thing as a weekend. The nine days to Japan is going to feel long, but it’s the longest stretch I have.
Working means at my desk in the office I share with Jim, the assistant executive dean. Our desks form an L, and together they are approximately the same size as my desk at UVA in Charlottesville. Fortunately, Jim is both near and dear to me.
My work space is cozy. Half the space on my desk is taken up by computer and fax. When the ship is rocking (and it always is) I can reach the paper supply and the copier without getting up from my chair, if I’m a little bit patient.
My commute takes me about a minute. Going out to eat takes me about a minute. So does going to the gym (theoretical), the library, the computer center, and the bridge. It’s a pretty small ship.
By comparison, my room is gigantic. It has ten drawers, three closets, a desk and a table, each with a chair, and two beds. I still have empty shelves and drawers. And it seems to be fairly soundproof. I hear engine noises, but no sounds from actual people. My next-door neighbor says he did not hear my incessant coughing, so I think we’re good.
My room is on the port side, on the fourth deck. I look directly out onto the ocean (not onto a deck), which I love. The one down side is that they wash the windows every night, around three or four in the morning, and they wash them for at least an hour. At first I thought it was rain, then spray from the seas below. But there are actual spigots above the window, and water streams out from them. Like a car wash for the ship. Cleanliness is legendary on cruise ships, but this still seems a bit over the top.
If you want to know where the ship itself is, one of my neighbors is plotting it daily on his blog, http://johngirard.net/sas/
Sometime very soon, we cross over the International Date Line, and I switch from being 7 hours behind to 17 hours ahead of my “home” time zone. In all, we have 23 time changes on this trip, including three where we set our clocks ahead. Two different times, we’ll set them back ½ hour, as we pass through/by countries that have those “between” time zones. We love the 25 hour days, but the 23 hour days are tough.
We had too many 23 hour days on our voyage which was going the opposite directions around the globe. The tough part was not knowing when we would loose an hour until the announcement was made just before going to bed. Many sleepy heads at breakfast!
ReplyDelete