Life aboard the MV Explorer couldn’t be better. I have met so many new friends and learned a tremendous amount in the short four days we have been at sea. Currently, we are in the middle of the Atlantic. We should be in Barcelona this time next week. We have gone through all of our orientation meetings and two full days of classes.
Sailing has really been neat! Many people have been sea sick from all the waves, but to this point, James, Trevor and I make a trio of superb sailors. It’s really fun walking up and down the halls…it’s like bumper cars especially when we hit bigger waves. Running on the elliptical has been more of a challenge…I did get to see a whale jump though when I was working out on Saturday.
As far as activities go, I got to board the ship a night early so I could meet my boss and help with the Parents reception before we left. I was given a crash course of where everything was on the ship and then got to give “campus” tours to several groups of parents. The first tour went well. The second one not so much…we ended up at the front of the ship instead of the back. It was a lot of fun though and thankfully, I now have a better idea of where everything is at.
Everyone I have met so far has been incredibly nice. The faculty and staff are great and it has been really easy to make friends. We have close to 700 students on the voyage. The guy: girl ratio is a little lopsided. About 26% of the 700 are guys…Trevor, James and I can’t really complain about that The academic dean of the ship received his PhD from Oxford so he has been very informative. We all have had a lot of fun meeting each other. The staff are very strict about alcohol, drugs, etc. No one to my knowledge has been in any trouble yet, but we were told 3 people got sent home from the last voyage for ignoring their substance abuse policy.
Class wise, I love both of my political science classes. We have been given a lot of reading to do but I really like the books. Poverty and Politics of Development has been my favorite class so far. 20,000 people die each day due to living in poverty… It’s hard to imagine that close to half the world lives on less than $2.00/day and 1/5 of the world lives on less than $1.00/day.
The food has been much better than I expected. We have a big breakfast every morning and actually had some steaks tonight for supper. The only downer is there is not any Dr. Pepper. I will certainly be drinking a lot of that when I make it back to Lubbock.
There is definitely something peaceful about being in the middle of the ocean. We don’t have to worry about cell phones or emails out here. Attending class and meeting new people is all we have to worry about. I’m very excited about the rest of the trip and looking forward to our first stop in Barcelona. Feel free to email me at bpreeves@semesteratsea.net I have free access to that account. I will write again soon!
Cheers,
Brandon
amazing!
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