Life on a Boat

I should probably write up my Ghana entry before typing up an entry about anything else, but I am feeling unmotivated to write about Ghana at the minute (I can tell you that it was awesome, though), so here’s an entry about living on the MV Explorer instead, since I’ve received a lot of questions about it.

So, the MV Explorer. It seemed pretty big to me when I first boarded it, but it’s actually pretty small for a cruise ship, which I think is why it rocks so much all the time. Well, that, and the fact that it’s one of the fastest cruise ships in the world, and I think the speed contributes to the roughness of the ride as well. There are 7 decks total, but everything there is to do or see (of which there isn’t much) is on decks 5, 6, and 7. The first four decks only have cabins that people sleep in, with the general rule being the higher you go up, the better your cabin is. I’m on deck 3 on the inside toward the middle of the ship, which means that I’m in a double that doesn’t have a window looking out onto the water, but I don’t feel too much of the boat moving (although believe me, I still feel it). The rooms are all pretty small, except for the faculty and Life-Long Learners’ cabins, but you get used to it.

Starting on the fifth deck, there are only a few living quarters. Instead, the 5th deck has Timitz Square, which has the Purser’s desk, which is where you go to settle your shipboard account debts, get a new room key/ID card (I’m still on my first one!), and other administrative things like that. Right across from the Purser’s Desk is the Student Life Office and Field Office. The Student Life Office is where you…well, I’m not sure exactly, since I never go there. I think you sign up for intramural sports there. Oh, and you can check out board games. The Field Office is where you sign up for trips run by SAS in port and ask any questions regarding these excursions. Near Timitz there are also several rooms which serve as offices for important figures in the shipboard community, such as the deans’ offices.

Continuing aft (toward the back of the ship), there are some cabins and I think some classrooms (I don’t walk down there much), but not much else of interest. At the rear of the ship there’s a dining hall, but it’s not as cool as the one of the 6th deck because you can’t eat outside on the 5th deck.

There is a lot more stuff on the 6th deck. Starting at the back, there is the aforementioned dining hall (or Garden Lounge, as it is officially named), and as you move forward, you’ll see the Wellness Center, where there’s a sauna and you can get a massage (not for free, of course). I think that’s also where you can get a haircut. After that you’ll see some classrooms on your left and the Piano Bar to your right, where students like to hang out and study or buy overpriced snacks. Continuing forward, you’ll pass the two stores on campus, one which sells clothes, the other which sells practical things you might need in port, such as bug spray, toothpaste, and money belts, among other things. Eventually you’ll reach the library to your left (which is very small and used to be a casino before the ship was re-equipped to be a college campus) and the computer lab to your right, which is where I’m sitting right now, since I can rarely access the Internet at all from my own computer because my computer is terrible at connecting to weak wireless connections.

If you keep going forward from here, you’ll seem to hit a dead end at the Union, the largest room on the ship and also the one I hate the most. It’s the room that’s the closest to the front, so you really feel the movements of the ship here. Unfortunately, since it’s the largest room, Global Studies (mandatory for all students, although only half are enrolled in each of the two sections of it) meets here, and pre-port meetings and optional seminars are held here as well.

Although the Union seems like a dead end, there is actually a hidden door in the room which leads to the Bridge, the command center of the ship. I took a Bridge tour toward the beginning of the voyage, so I got to see what happens there. There’s always an officer on duty and other people there doing whatever it is they do, but the ship is usually on auto-pilot. There wasn’t too much to see there aside from all of the machines and stuff that look like something out of a sci-fi movie that show where the ship is, how fast it’s going, and stuff like that. The best part of the tour was when they let us take pictures in the captain’s chair with a hat and binoculars. It was ridiculous and tourist-y, but fun. We also talked to the crew about their jobs and stuff, but I don’t remember much of what they told us (this was about a month ago, after all). I know they did say that sailors work for something like 6 months at a time and then have a few months off, regardless of whether they’re in the middle of a voyage or not. This means that new crew members are always coming and going throughout our journey whenever we dock.

As for the seventh deck, like the fifth, there’s not much here except for Desmond Tutu’s room and some staff rooms until you reach the back of the ship, where there’s a pool and the Pool Bar, which has really good smoothies and other things to eat if you’re growing tired of the dining hall food. There’s also a gym on this floor and a small basketball/volleyball court.

And that’s more or less the ship, assuming I haven’t forgotten too many things. The crew is all very friendly, but it’s weird having your room cleaned every day and having people pick up your dishes for you or getting juice for you in the dining hall. My cabin steward probably hates my roommate and I because we forget to change the in/out magnet on our door, so he usually tries to clean the room when we’re in there. I’ve tried to remember to switch the magnet, but I think our steward probably doesn’t even pay attention to it at this point, but instead just tries to find a time when neither of us are in the room by checking multiple times each day.

As for what I do to pass the time? Not much, honestly. There are classes every day we’re at sea, except on Reading Days, when we catch up on classwork and take our Global Studies tests. There is no free entertainment other than the informational seminars we have almost daily, which range from how to get into the Secret Service to the food of Spain. Since there’s not too much to do entertainment-wise, I spend my time hanging out with people (usually in my room) or sleeping, with the occasional reading or studying session thrown in. I was playing a lot of video games up until we reached Ghana (I was trying to finish a game), but everyone seemed to think I was playing unhealthy amounts of them (this is true), so I’m taking a break until after South Africa. This really just means I sleep more. I don’t know if it’s the fact I don’t go outside much (I only go outside to study or eat) or that the ship is always rocking, but I always want to sleep when I’m on the ship. I think I also do it a lot because on days when the seasickness hits me pretty hard (it has never been as bad as that second day, but I still feel woozy sometimes), sleeping means I don’t have to deal with the unpleasantness.

Yesterday was actually an exception in my typical daily life at sea, since yesterday we celebrated Neptune Day, or the day we passed the Equator. We actually passed the Equator AND the Prime Meridian at the same time a few days before that, but the staff chose to carry on with the festivities yesterday because it was a Reading Day anyway and that way no one had to miss class or anything. Neptune Day was pretty special. Some of the faculty and students went around at 7:30 in the morning banging drums, cymbals, and blowing a whistle around the entire ship to make sure everyone got up. They also were sure to bang on people’s doors. I was not very happy about this, but I sort of expected it and had gone to bed at a decent hour, so I didn’t feel too strong of an urge to punch something (I’m not a morning person). During the festivities, people shaved their heads (including several of my friends), and a lot of the hair is going to be donated to charity to make wigs. I’m not sure why crossing the Equator warrants shaving your head, and I would never voluntarily shave my head, so I passed on this particular festivity. I did, however, have “fish guts” poured on me, but only after I changed into my swimsuit. The “fish guts” were, from what I could tell, actually seawater with green food dye, some random bits of plant that I’m still trying to get out of my hair, and something to make it smell like fish. Anyway, after having the “guts” poured on you, you take a lap in the pool (which is maybe 4 meters long at most), kiss a fish (I think it was actually real) and the rings of “Neptune” (aka Dean David) and his “wife” (aka the Executive Dean), and then are knighted by someone with a plastic sword and “initiated” into who-knows-what cult (I wasn’t really listening to the official name, since I was at the back when they were explaining everything). Don’t worry, this was all caught on video. Oh, I forgot to mention that all the staff was dressed up ridiculously with streamers and face paint to make them look like sea people or something. Later that day we had a midterm, though, which was not nearly as exciting, and everything was back to normal today, including my lovely 8 a.m. classes.

Well, I think that about sums up what life is like on the MV Explorer. One of these days I plan to take a video of the ship to give you all a better idea of what it looks like, but since I can never upload anything, I don’t really know how much good that will do. I’m hoping for good Internet in Cape Town, so hopefully I’ll upload some pictures at least then. But this is all for now. Keep the emails coming (I’d like to think I’m decent-ish about replying to them), and at some point I’ll have an entry on Ghana for you all to read.