Just for the record on yesterday’s "no commute" comment, I left work last night at 11:02 and was in bed by 11:17. Works for me. Now, of course in bed is different than asleep, because one of the challenges of not-commuting is that I have no detox time for my brain to quiet down after work. I don’t know what time I actually fell asleep, but it was much after 11:17. Still, it’s kinda fun to think that I could be in bed 15 minutes after leaving work. Of course, no dog to walk either ... I miss my animals … Ashley reports that all is going well though Elsa is itchy, as always.
We sailed past St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Barbados today. Fun to see island land as we go by.
I thought while we were at sea I’d take the opportunity to fill you in on ship-board routines:
They take security very seriously. In Puerto Rico, we had 2 separate ID checks even before we got to the ship and had to swipe our cards. They went through our bags with some interest and I imagine that will get more serious as we move on. They make us dump out all half-full liquids to make sure students aren’t bringing back alcohol in less descript beverage containers. Packaged food/drink can come aboard, but nothing opened. They wouldn’t let Sherri bring back a dinner doggie-bag when we were in Nassau. I’ve had to trash several not-fully-empty water bottles. When you swipe in & out, your picture appears on the screen next to the photo that was taken at the beginning of the voyage and that is pictured on our ID. You all know how much I love that.
Many people (including Barbie) had said the ship was cold, cold, cold. It’s definitely over-air conditioned. I’m hardly ever cold so I wasn’t sure what to believe. I’m wearing fall-ish/spring-ish clothes, like for the mid-60s. Long sleeves, but not heavy. And a lot of my Chicos stretchy clothes of the long sleeve variety. I’m not wearing sweaters/sweatshirts around the ship, but others definitely are. The bookstore is doing a brisk business in SAS sweatshirts. Annette & Janis would both be freezing. On deck, it’s windy but not cold, even in the shade. I’ve been wearing jeans nearly everyday, which I have to say I have totally gotten used to. First with my sore toes the last weeks at UVA and now on the ship. I fear I might not want to get dressed up for work ever again!
The hot water on the ship is not very hot and the cold water is not very cold. I definitely prefer my liquids in extreme. I want the shower to be very hot & I want the sink to give me cold cold tap water. No luck there, but the cabin steward does bring me ice twice a day for which I’m grateful. One can easily get used to having a cabin steward!
The food schedule is 0700-0900 for breakfast, 1130-1300 for lunch, and 1730-1930 for dinner. The lines are crazy long at the beginning of each meal (except for breakfast), so I try to aim for the later side. I’m having a hard time with the food schedule & my blood sugar is definitely jumpy, but I’m sure that will settle out. Food is good and there are lovely desserts for every meal. Today was ice cream which made us all very excited! There is also a snack bar on the pool desk and alcohol is served in the faculty/staff lounge from 1700-1800 and 2100-2300 every night. Tonight, there are drinks on the dean for a discussion of Global Studies. Free drinks obviously make many people happy, but meetings that start at 2100 don’t so much please me.
The entrances to the outside all have metal pieces that you have to step over. I’m sure they have a name but I don’t know what they are called. The idea is to keep water out, if comes over the deck. The first week, I was tripping every time I went outside, but I’m getting used to it now and I remember to step up and over. The tripping was not helping the healing of my toes, but they are definitely better now. A little sore on occasion, but I walked all over Old San Juan without much pain. Which is a very very good thing.
What else do you all want to know? I'll take some more ship photos in the coming days.
We lose another hour of sleep tonight. yikes.
