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That being said, for you theatre people, this is a picture of two students, Jason and Medea. eating lunch with them was awkward to say the least :) :) :)
The night before our one-day stop in Mauritius, I cried until 3 in the morning. Despite this ship being like home, and despite having finally found a family, and despite finally feeling both physically and emotionally secure, this trip is the hardest thing I have ever done. From where the ship is on the map right now, I am literally the farthest from home that I will ever be, or could ever be short of getting in a spaceship. If the laws of the universe were suddenly to fail and I were to fall through the Earth to the exact other side, I would land somewhere in California. The strange thing is, it looks exactly the same here. Same ocean, same trees, same sky and moon. Even though there are over 900 people on this ship with me, and when I speak about this experience I use the pronoun “we,’ this is a solitary voyage. Everyone is making this journey for themselves, and despite the packs we travel in, by themselves. I went on this trip for a whole host of reasons, but in the top three was to meet amazing people that I will have in my life until I die. Everyone I spoke to who has done this before talks about the relationships that form, and how close they are, and how important they become when you are back in the US and no one else understands the change in you. I’ve had to work much harder than I expected to find people who can keep up with me intellectually and who share my sense of humor. The ones I have found I can count on one hand.
After observing the social circles on the ship, I came up with a categorical system to drop people into. The people who don’t fit any one category are the ones I know I will probably like.
Here is the system: there are the cabin people. These are the ones who don’t seem to need sun or care that there might be dolphins outside. They are either sleeping all day, over-dedicated to their work, or attached by the fingers to their email. Then there are the deck 5 people, which can also be seen as a subcategory. These people hang out on deck 5 because that is where the smokers deck is. They go back and forth between the deck 5 dining hall, and the smokers deck, and they are the ones I see around the ship sometimes and think to myself, “Who are you? Have you really been here the whole time?” Another group, and I count myself as one of these, is the deck 6 people. These are the ones who eat in the deck 6 dining hall because it means you can eat outside. It is for the people who like to do their work and socialize at the same time, either in the piano bar or the garden lounge. At night, they play games or music in those locations. The last group is the deck 7 group. Deck 7 is the pool deck and it has the grill and the lounge chairs. It also has the weight lifting equipment. The people who hang out on deck 7 are the ones who maybe squeeze in some reading while they lay out and tan, but more often they treat everyday as a Saturday in the summer. Deck 7 people have a hard time keeping their clothes on and complain loudly and often about the lack on alcohol on board. 90% of the people who get dock time for coming back to the ship drunk or late, are deck 7 people. Professors are never seen up there. These categories are stricter than you might think, if you are somewhere you don’t belong, you know it. One day I wanted to lay out by the pool so I went early and took a lounge chair on deck 7. All morning I got weird looks and was asked to move my chair over to make room for people’s friends so many times that after 2 hours I was squished into a corner. No one spoke to me. The system has caught on and is quite useful in describing people. “Who is your roommate?” you might ask Ilana. “Meredith” she might reply, “she is a hard-core deck 7er.”
When leaving port, deck 7 becomes open to everyone, even faculty. We all like to watch the port cities disappear. Usually most people stay and watch for half an hour or so, while others stay 45 minutes. Last night I stayed the whole time, about 2 hours for a place as small as Mauritius. I watched Mauritius turn from buildings into a cluster of lights, then a single light that went out 10 minutes later as we got too far away to see anything at all. It was very surreal.
This is my "Extended Family." Its an organization on the ship that most people sign up for. Mine is unusually small, on my right is Father Dustin, and on my left are my brother and sister. |
The week’s drama did not end there. I woke up the middle of the night a few days later to find the ship zooming along at top speed. All four engines are never on at the same time, so I knew something was up. My first thought was pirates, and I got really excited. At 8am the next morning we were stopped out a at sea, in a harbor of a tiny military island so top secret that it did not turn up on our GoogleEarth satellite tracker. The captain came over the intercom and told us that we had had a medical emergency in the middle of the night and had needed to rush for the nearest land. He informed us that the island we had arrived at, called Diego Garcia, was so politically sensitive that we could not take pictures of it. The army men who live there were not hesitating to take pictures of us, the only faces other than their own that they have seen in a long time. Our stop there was so unusual for them that they used us to run a safety drill. They surrounded our ship in a tight circle and men came onboard with guns. As Alec said, “Well, we may not have been chased by pirates like you’d wanted, but we ARE in lockdown in a top secret US military base.” We watched from the side decks as three people disembarked. One was a crew member (who we later found out had a detached retina), one was a student who just walked off, and the other was another student who was carried off on a stretcher covered in blankets. The student who walked off had a blood disease that needed to be checked out and she was just getting off because we were stopping for the other student, a friend of mine from Cambodia, who had developed a dangerous infection. This girl, named Mimosa, survived a horrific incident during her childhood and subsequently is covered head to toe in healed burns. She does not have functional hands and was not expected to live at all, let alone walk or talk, both of which she can do. Her infection was spreading rapidly because of her condition and Ilana overheard the captain and the doctor talking about how the hospital in Singapore that she was airlifted to told them that they had made the right call by heading straight for land. Another near-miss.
Being on the Indian Ocean is like being back on the Amazon. This morning at breakfast Sara was looking out the window and said, “The Ocean is so calm it could be in a calm ocean commercial.” We saw dolphins yesterday, a huge pod of them, and more flying fish.
9 comments:
wow, you're right, lots of drama. i guess that's what happens in a travelling family of 900 !!
enjoy life on deck 6, look forward to news from india and singapore. love you!
TRP
another incredible entry, making me feel like i'm sort of with you. your revelation of homesickness and tears made my throat hurt, and yet i know those emotions are wrapped in a package of excitement and the adrenaline of living through so many new experiences both on and off the ship... your pictures continue to astound me and i can't even imagine the wondrous view of our universe from a darkened ship in the middle of the sea. love your observations of the varied ship "communities" and from your descriptions, glad you are "one" with deck six! looking forward to seeing the "new" you in a few weeks!
love you! :) "esm"
You're a good writerererer.
I hope your having fun with your "other family.."hmph....
Wow, Wow, Wow. Drama for sure!!! It sure does make life more interesting, doesn't it? I can't wait to meet your new family on April 24th. Your older family loves and misses you.
Love, your mudda
my looorve! I am so glad that you are watching the drama, and not the one at the center of it. (that is not really the jenny style.) your observations about your travels continue to make me feel like i am there with you. I think you should publish this when you come back.
i am glad you have found your at sea family. i always find the misfits to be the coolest people around. i miss you, as always. i send my love through the center of the earth! <3
even finding one lifelong friend would make the experience worth it. if you have as many lifelong friends and you can count on one hand, consider yourself very lucky!
Hi Jen,
I have to admit, reading your blog takes my breath away! So many challenges, exciting experiences, new friends and emotional roller-coasters all at the same time! It is the trip of a lifetime and I admire your courage, insights, powers of observation and writing skill. I look forward to hearing more in person when we see each other next. Love, Joy
Ahhh homesickness...It seems to occur no matter how wonderful the trip and experience. You're right just about anywhere can feel extremely lonely when you are far from home and the place your heart loves the most! Dontcha hate feelings and how they get in the way so often? I know you'll find your nitch within the deck 6ers, and I'm proud that you're brave enough to admit that not everyone is your best lifelong friend. Only save that title for the people who truly deserve it! You are extremely well loved (as you can see by the oodles of comments you regularly receive) and those SASers special enough to appreciate you will join our crowd soon enough! Miss you lots, and glad you are not within the drama (especially the medical stuff). <3 Jess
wow jenny!! love reading. but i have to say...all these beautiful places you are seeing i dont think there is a chance ill ever get you to come visit me in Raleigh! :)
Please be safe and keep the pictures and stories coming...
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