deep blue

I had written a very long blog entry a few days ago while in San Diego, complete with pictures and commentary, as well as descriptions of what was going on, who I was meeting, etc. Unfortunately, like all of my attempts at communication, it wasn’t posted. Bummer. Please excuse the lack of photos - internet's limited, so I don’t want to use it all up! I promise that when I'm on land I'll upload some!

Basically, I arrived in San Diego after a brief stop in Denver, where I witnessed a very tan girl ordering a vodka-redbull at 4:39 pm, as well as a toddler with a monkey leash getting stepped over by a confused woman in heels. Oh, and $6 is way too much for a Sierra Nevada. My flights were both very pleasant, especially the one into San Diego, as I sat next to a very friendly girl from Cedarburg. We watched “Arrested Development” together and talked about traveling. It was one of those planes where no one was flying with anyone, so after we all stood up, there was the last word: “good luck on your dissertation!” “have fun visiting your grandma!” “I hope you get to see Shamu!” and etcetera. It was nice to be surrounded by friendly people – except for a girl in front of me who had a picture of herself as her cell phone background.

I got on the shuttle with no problems really, and managed to meet a few kids going on SAS. One girl was named Emily, and she’s from Minnesota and goes to school in Vermont. She has a diamond on her left bicuspid and laughs a lot. We both got lost trying to find our respective rooms, and also sat with each other the next day on the bus to Ensenada. I got to my room and started to draw a bath, then after noticing an insane amount of hair in the tub, decided that baths weren’t so different from hot tubs and that I should definitely try to start my trip off as a social person, rather than someone with a washcloth shoved into a drain and “Mean Girls” playing on my laptop on top of the toilet. My room was huge, I felt a little like Kevin in “Home Alone 2,” except without my own cheese pizza and “Angels With Even Dirtier Souls” playing.

I got into the hot tub and tried to talk to some of the kids in it, but none were very friendly except one guy whose name I can’t remember. He invited me for a beer, but instead I decided to be the Frugal Midwesterner and hang out a little longer in the hot tub. I met a family from Indiana, on vacation to see some sort of military graduation. They were nice, but that’s all I have to say about that.

I went back to my room, watched “Sleepover” (it was the only thing on!) and a crappy movie on Showtime that Tina Fey and Joe Lo Truglio were in, which kind of bummed me out. It was about Italian New Yorkers on a baseball team called “Beer League.” If I could post a link, I would, but the internet here is very limited. I guess we all have to put food on our families, but damn! Even more disappointing than “Baby Mama.”

The ride to Ensenada was beautiful. Like I said before, I sat with Emily and spent the trip getting to know her, as well as just plain sightseeing. Aside from us, pretty much everyone was talking about how much they drink, which was very disheartening. If you want to gear your entire voyage towards drinking…well, go to Italy or something. It’s so inappropriate to get wasted in most of the countries we’re visiting. One girl even said that she was positive she would get arrested at least once, and another commented on how “ghetto” Mexican roadblocks were. It’s an impoverished country! Not ghetto! End rant. It was also strange to cross the US border. I can’t imagine getting anything past the “marina,” or the American marines. A german shepherd apparently searched one of our buses. Heavy artillery.


ANYWAY! We passed multiple farms on our way into Ensenada, as well as random stray horses (one reminded me, strangely, of Bea). There was a massive Jesus statue, in the style of Rio de Janeiro and bigger than all of the houses, arms outstretched and hovering over the mountains. On the way into the port, the winding roads led us past three gigantic gold heads, in the style of the Olmec colossal heads. They were three men with beards, probably generals or presidents or something of that ilk.

When we arrived in port, every student on the bus leaned forward, stretching in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the ship that will be our home for four months. During the heavy search a Mexican lady patted my chest, cupping my breasts in order to see whether or not I had hidden bags of liquor in them. Needless to say, I did not. I went to my room, opened a touching letter from my mom (and called her), and waited for my luggage. My roommate, Carly, is great. Not as wonderful as Abbie and Sarah, obvs, but she's from upstate NY and Italian so I was praying for a Jersey Shore girl. No such luck. I've already managed to convince her that she isn't conservative just because her family is. We have some work to do. She's an animation major at a community college, and is just very very sweet. I don't foresee any issues with her - she's respectful and lovely.

The room itself is small, as expected, with cute yellow plaid curtains and a scratchy blue, white, and orange bedspread. I’ve hung a photo of my mom on SAS on the wall, along with a Polaroid I took of Dune the day before I left and the language cards I made while at home. There’s a painting (with sage and not-so-sage advice written on the back of it; ie “don’t get AIDS,” which is always solid advice regardless of where you are!) that looks like a stick figure hanging onto a tree branch, or perhaps a giant bug, or perhaps a headless stick figure with a sand dune background. We also hung up a “Twilight” poster that came in Carly’s book, as a joke. The water pressure is way better than my old apartment’s, and is far less cramped than I thought it would be.

My classes are amazing so far - world religions is everything I wanted it to be; non-condescending, based on spirituality, and ignoring the sensationalism that tons of religion classes focus on. The professor is very engaging, and you can tell he wants to be here. Today we learned about ancient Hawaiian traditions – mana and things of that nature. I was surprised at how incredibly interesting it was – I had totally written off Hawaii as too touristy (which it is), and forgot about the historical aspects of it (pre-Pearl Harbor, anyway). My global studies class is also really awesome - the teacher refers to his hand as his "power pal," which he uses to speak through when something will be on the test. Hilarious. We're also doing a sustainability project for 12th graders worth 25% of our grade. The top 10 projects get grants to be implemented in a Virginia high school - which is a huge deal. I think I'm going to do mine on sustainable architecture around the globe, with special emphasis on housing (Buckminster Fuller) and urban farming. Then the kids could take trips to places like Growing Power, as well as try to construct a model house that would be energy-efficient, etc. I’m really excited about it. My marine biology class was also incredible - the teacher is super passionate, flexible, and genuinely funny - but my anthro class was boring as hell so I dropped it in favor of Philosophy of Literature (I heard the professor is amazing, and we're reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X, "The Road," "Siddhartha," and one other book I can't remember). I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot more here than I would at Loyola.

I've made a ton of friends, or acquaintances really, and have met a few actual friends that are super cool. Mikey and Jacky are probably my favorites, along with Jeff, Max, and Nick. Jeff is from Pennsylvania, Jacky is from Kansas, Nick/Max are from LA, and Mikey is from Chicago (she goes to Columbia and likes improv!). I keep meeting people that are just awesome. Otherwise, I’m planning a trip across Japan (Yokohama, Tokyo, Kamakura, Kyoto, and Kobe!) as well as India with two amazing girls named Elysa and Colette. We’re going to be staying in a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) in Tokyo. I’m so excited. I also have a new friend named Kelsey who is from a small town in Tennessee where half her graduating class had children. She's really into gender politics and pushing for sex education, and she's also fucking hilarious, mainly because her accent is wild. There's a lot of shitheads, in terms of princesses and close-minded bros. There's such a huge prevalence of frat boys and sorority girls that it's insane. Like, all wearing their shirts, only talking about getting drunk in different countries. Horrible. Luckily, there are way more really nice and genuinely open people. Everyone, it seems, wants to know everyone. It's a surreal thing. I'm giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and am genuinely enjoying their company.


Yesterday was the first day I was homesick. When I was waiting in line for books, I just got really sad. I've made some really cool friends and love what I’ll be doing in each country, but I just really miss Dune, my mom, and my home in Chicago. I just wish I could talk on the phone. And days are really long because I wake up at 7:15 for my 8am class, then don't go to bed until around midnight. I'm supposed to be doing homework, but I can't focus.

It's so hard to put into words how it is here. It's bizarre being so far away from land, with literally nothing around for over a hundred miles. The sea is really rocky due to storms near California, so a lot of people have been puking and almost falling over. Sometimes you'll walk through a hallway with someone, and you'll both be leaning sideways to steady yourselves. I now know why they didn't serve alcohol the first day. I haven't puked, as I have an iron stomach lined with dramamine, but I have felt dizzy at times. Yesterday I had to take a nap after class I felt so awful. Sometimes the furniture and plates slide across the room. I couldn't imagine being a busboy here...

The food is subpar at best, but breakfast is alright. Unfortunately I had to miss it a few days ago because I woke up late (on my first day of class! 15 minutes late!).

The crew is incredible. We have a personal steward named Rommel who is very nice and keeps our room clean. We also have multiple busboys and waiters who bring us drinks and whatever we may need (like silverware). I feel really privileged, but they honestly seem happy with their jobs, and the kids are more than grateful towards them. Most of them are from the Philippines, but I've also spent a great deal of time talking to a girl from Latvia (they have a 20% unemployment rate - the 2nd highest in the world), and the captain's crew is from Ukraine, Czech Republic, Japan, EVERYWHERE. I've also made friends with people from Lebanon, Japan, and Norway. It's insane how "worldly" the ship itself is.

The first night at sea we played trivia, and then the past two nights have been “pub nights.” Jacky and Mikey figured out that you could save the liquor from dinner for later, then get your three drinks up top and actually get drunk. Geniuses (ha). I talked to a few people I otherwise wouldn’t – Oliver (who went to St Alban’s in DC, where my cousins went! – and who now goes to Vanderbilt), Eli, and Nick (from NY, interested in his family’s business, as well as “24” and football). They were all super nice guys – more bro-y than what I’m used to but nice.
I’ve also been working out the past two days. It’s so bizarre using a bike machine (what are they called?) when the ocean is literally rocking your world.

Anyway, that’s how the first few days have been. I’m so lucky to be here, and I’m so thankful for this incredible opportunity. I can already feel myself changing and we haven’t even gotten off the ship yet.

Miss you all, especially my nightwhiner. Please email me as often as you can. Even if it’s just a short message, I look forward to them so much. kvfelske@semesteratsea.net.