Thursday, April 16, 2015

Wrapping up the voyage… thoughts near the end of Semester at Sea

Our trip around the world isn’t over yet.  But it sure feels like the end is coming fast.  From our room, to the ship, to the students around me, everything is beginning to wind down. I’m having to battle a deep sadness as I consider this adventure coming to a close.

Semester at Sea has been sailing for 50 years, but for the past 11 years, it has called the MV Explorer its home.  It is a beautiful cruise ship – not with all the bells and whistles of Norwegian Cruise Lines, but a beautiful vessel, nonetheless, and one of the fastest cruise ships in the world.  But two days after our voyage ends, the MV Explorer will be gone … sold to another company and supposedly revamped for cruising the Greek isles.  What that means for us is the ship is gradually being stripped of all vestiges of Semester at Sea.  First, all the large photos of students were removed from the walls, replaced by generic cruise ship décor.  Then one day, the television monitor in the computer lab disappeared.  SAS signage is coming down.  Prices on MV Explorer memorabilia are drastically reduced.  Kerry thinks the hand sanitizer stands will soon have "for sale" tags on them.  Like it or not, we are all getting ready to say goodbye to the ship that has been our floating home for the past four months.

A friend of ours on the ship organized a “Sustainability Swap.”  Basically it’s a garage sale where everything is for free.  It’s been fascinating to see what people brought:   copious amounts of sunscreen, lots of old t-shirts, tea bags, notebook paper, winter clothes, and hand sanitizer. There's a lot of Pepto being given away, which is probably a good sign.  In our family, none of us ever got sick, for which we are very gratetfu!  Many dropped off their seasickness patches, but some have noted that we haven’t sailed from Morocco to England yet, which can be notoriously rough seas.  I held onto ours just in case.

What's even more interesting is what people took from the swap.  Peanut butter was hugely popular.  So were the mac-n-cheese cups.  Chocolate didn’t last 60 seconds. Our favorite find was a set of ping pong paddles from China with 3 new balls.  Our last ball had cracked the day before, and the paddles on the ship are awful, so we snapped those up right away.  But overall, we gave more than we received, which was our goal.
 

Even the kitchen is trying to get rid of extra food before we dock in Southampton, England.  On our last study day, we heard an announcement that the captain had an ice cream party for the whole ship… we just had to find it on board.  Students (and people like myself!) jumped up from our deck chairs to begin hunting for the treat.  We discovered the surprise on deck 2 with the dean and others scooping butter pecan with toppings for all of us.  In addition to the ice cream, good French dijon mustard has appeared in the dining hall.  There have almost been fist fights over the plums, peaches and grapes served at dinner.  The executive chef prepared a delicious pasta tasting for the lifelong learners yesterday to further deplete the pantry.  There’s a rumor that today’s meeting will include ice cream as well.  As the ship lightens its load, I’m afraid we are all adding to ours.  We better not forget to hit the treadmill!

The pool bar cashier came up to me today and said, “By the way, your sons are eating too much chocolate.”  Actually, they aren’t eating that much.  They’re buying up $.25 chocolate bars (even the pool bar is clearing out its stock) and sharing them with their friends, but I love that the waiters are checking up on my kids. It takes a village, I tell you.  The boys have also found a new business venture.  College students pay them to go to the snack bar, buy them food, then deliver it to their room.  One girl named Lacey is their biggest customer.  The kids call her Lazy.

The other thing that is really heating up right now is Scrabble.  Kerry and I started playing a couple weeks ago, and now it has become a nightly ritual.  The other day, some of the big guys who work out on the 7th deck came by while we were opening the box, and they said, “Scrabble?! Can we play?”  When you take alcohol and the Internet out of the picture for college kids, they beg to play such games.  The other day I was soundly beaten by three students from South America, for whom English is their second language!  In addition to learning humility, I’m also learning all kinds of bizarre words with Q and Z in them. 

The shipboard auction last week raised about $14,000.  What was surprising was the items that garnered the students' attention and money.  Peanut butter and Nutella went for about $220, and the winner returned the peanut butter!  Enjoying a bubble bath in the dean's office went for hundreds of dollars.  The dean made it clear he would not be there!  One student paid $1100 to be the first person off the MV Explorer when we dock in England.  She also bid to be the last person off, but didn't win.  Kerry noted that with some poor choices in Morocco, you could get 8 hours of dock time in England, which would effectively give you the distinction of being the last student off the ship... for free!
 

A cruise wouldn’t be complete without controversy, and our ship was no exception.  Sydney’s friend, a 12-year-old daughter of a professor, came through the halls one night telling all her friends that her mom had an affair with someone in leadership on the ship.  Kerry and I were hesitant to believe the rumors, which spread like wildfire.  But soon, we learned that her mom and an official had indeed left the ship in South Africa, and a new dean was selected from the faculty on board.  The young girl and her father then left in Namibia to go figure out their new life, and the shipboard community was left reeling.  The students, who have been admonished from the beginning to act responsibly and follow the honor code, understandably felt betrayed and angry, and we all have had to share a little more love and support since then.

On a brighter note, the other night Kerry and I were watching ping pong when suddenly everyone ran to the railing on the 7th deck.  A pod of dozens of dolphins were swimming on both sides of our ship's wake. The sky was overcast, and the the dolphins' gray bodies matched the gray water, but we coudn't miss them. They jumped out of the water, and many would also spin, showing us their pink underbellies.  It looked like they were showing off .  They followed behind the ship for a few minutes -- splashing, twisting, and leaping -- then slowly receded from view.  This was a great surprise and something I was hoping to see since the beginning. 

No comments:

Post a Comment