Just Another Day at Sea.But Even a Bad Day at Sea is Still Better Than a Bad Day on Land

I heard my phone alarm go off, and even felt it as it vibrated underneath my pillow, but that didn’t stop me from quickly extinguishing the sound that interrupted my peaceful slumber. I figured I would just skip breakfast to get that extra 30 minutes of shuteye in before class, even though this was a huge sacrifice because breakfast is by far the best meal on the ship. Well, next thing I knew, my eyes fluttered open to see my roommate studying on her bed. I searched around the blankets for my phone. The clock read 10:45am; I had definitely slept through breakfast…and my Global Studies class. In fact, I had woken up just in time to miss every bit of class since it ends at 10:40. My body clock has pretty impressive timing if I do say so myself.

 

Then, I remembered that I had booked time at the gym for 11:00am. So I just got up and went straight to the gym to workout. It definitely felt better to exercise in the middle of the day rather than at 10pm, like my usual schedule, because while on the elliptical you can actually see the ocean through the window instead of just solid blackness.

 

For lunch I went out to the back deck hoping that the weather would hold up for 30 more minutes while I ate. It had become dark and dreary again outside, and the water went back to its grayish iron color. Maybe the Azores have their own little bubble of perfect weather, kind of like the opposite effect of the Bermuda Triangle. Rumor on the boat was that 11 foot waves were forecasted to hit later in the evening. I didn’t take that threat too seriously because last time the waves were really rocky the rumor was that they were 25 feet high. I, for one, being on the lowest deck of the ship, knew that was impossible because my window is only about 8 feet or so above the surface, and I definitely would have noticed 25 foot waves splashing against my window. Midway through lunch, it started to sprinkle, and everyone scattered under the shading and into the dining room.

 

I mostly did a lot of reading today, but there were a few things going on around the ship while I was stuck doing less fun school work. The boat has certain nights designated as “pub nights” where you have a drink card, and you are able to order up to two drinks (beer or wine) with dinner and I believe up to three more drinks after dinner out on the upper deck at the “pub.” These drinks are way overpriced, but they’re definitely still popular. It’s pretty funny because there are some girls taking it extremely seriously- getting all decked out in some “interesting” dresses and heels like they’re going to a club- when most people are just wearing whatever they wore to class that day (i.e. jeans/sweats). I wonder what state they’ll be in when we actually get to Europe and they don’t have a drink limit. P.S. the drink limit is strictly enforced because they don’t want anyone falling/jumping off of the ship, among other things. So this pub night was going on as well as a “rock the boat” dance. Not many people went though so I guess I didn’t miss much. I’m ready to get to Spain and not have to worry about classes for a few days.

 

Falling asleep that night was an interesting experience. If I thought the waves were bad the first two days, it was nothing compared to this. I had been sitting up so long doing work that I didn’t notice how rocky it had gotten. The second I laid down I felt like I was on a rollercoaster; it’s such a weird feeling to be laying down stationary but feel the whole boat rocking you forward and backward. I woke up a few times because I could hear things moving around in our drawers and closet. The bathroom door kept rattling too. It was so creepy! And a few times the waves splashed up to our window. I guess that rumor about the waves had some truth to it after all. You know those dreams where you feel like you’re falling, and then you wake up with a jump? Yeah, I did that like 10 times that night, except I was actually moving. Haha.

 

Today was my catch-up day. I did a lot of reading that I had been neglecting, and I also tried to send out some emails and get this blog up to date. I’m still two days behind on posting these blogs. This post is actually about my day on June 21^st, but in reality I’m writing it at 10:47pm on June 23^rd, and I’m trying to catch up on posting these before I arrive in Spain TOMORROW! Yay land! And good food!