The Ship

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated this in a while, its just that time flies on board. It seems to me though like I have been on the MV Explorer for months, but it has only been a little over one week. It is amazing how quickly people become your close friends when the farthest you can get from them is 590 ft. Right now we are sailing up the Amazon river for two days until we get to the port of Manaus. It is a pretty large city that grew out of Brazils drive to industrialize the Rainforest. I figured I would take this time to tell you a little bit about ship life, without boring you to death. First of all time seems to just melt away. It is funny because everything is so scheduled, meals are only two hours long, classes start, meetings all the time, but as soon as all that is done or not yet started, time seems to disappear, I could be laying out watching the ocean go by for minutes and it feels like hours, or watch it for hours and it feels like minutes, it makes no sense, but I think it all has to do with how dedicated you are to the moment, looking out over the rolling sea, or now the beautiful rainforest at our sides, your mind goes blank, and all you can focus on is the beauty that lays before you and you constantly try to figure out how you fit into this massive, landscape. That contemplation is just the first week! So as you can imagine there is not to much to do on board. Internet is out of the question (Email is free though), so you spend lot of time getting to know people, we play a ton of cards and board games, and when you are not thinking about your place in the world or eating or going to classes or playing board games, you sleep. We sleep a lot. I was told that being sleepy is a form of seasickness that everyone falls prey to. The gently rocking of the ship and the constant rumble of the engine just relaxes you until you wake up and realize two hours have passed and you haven't read the first page of your homework yet. There are 50 clubs on board, we have a filmmakers club (That major makes up 3% of the shipboard community), and I also do lawn games, tricky on a ship, star gazing, extended family and Ambassadors club. The last one is a program where I introduce visitors to the ship and generally help them while on board. There are a lot of influential people who come to check out what this floating campus is all about so it is really awesome to meet them. I can't remember if I have told yo or not but the food is good. Pasta and potatoes... a lot of pasta and potatoes, but they are always good and they fill you up. You can also buy more interesting food at the bar for like 2 dollars, but I'm trying hard to save what dollars I can. The rooms are comfortable and plenty of space. You take ship showers, where you get in, get wet, turn off the water, soap up, and then turn the water on and rinse, then off with the water again, they are short but the water pressure is amazing. Our toilet was clogged the other day. If one person messes with theirs then it stops up the whole deck. So far two people have flushed hand towels down the toilet, the reason to this is still unknown since it clearly states "No foreign objects" just behind the lid. Thats all I have for you right now, if you have read this whole thing then congratulations, I don't even think I will read it to spell check. If you have any questions just comment below, I get an email update and then I can respond to them, I think. On the 31st I will be going on a river boat farther up the Amazon, past the meeting of the waters (Which you should look up) , and I will be sleeping in a hammock for the about three days, so the next update won't be till after that, hopefully I won't get eaten by the multitude of things that we were warned about in our "What can kill you in the Amazon" conference. Take care.