Life on the Ship

 Our Team (Sunny, Faith, Amy, Alissa, Al, Raja, Daniel and Me)

Our Ship the MV Explorer

Life on the Ship

As of yesterday, we have been aboard the MV explorer for almost a month.  Which means, we’ve begun to settle into a routine living and working aboard a ship with 700 other people. Life on the ship is somewhat similar to a college dorm, summer camp, a never ending meeting and at times a bad ferry ride all at the same time.

Our ship is 7 decks tall, for a cruise ship 7 decks is small. In comparison, Ships like Princess and Norwegian Cruise tower over us at 14 – 16 decks tall. Undergraduate students reside on decks 2,3, and 4. Lifelong learners (folks ages 25 – 87) reside on decks 4 and 5. While Faculty and administration reside on decks 4, 5 and 7.  Amy and I share a room on Deck 4 have responsibilities for about 55 – 60 undergraduate students each. Our room is about the size of a large dorm room. We have a small bathroom and shower connected to our room. We have small table we refer to as our studio, a desk we refer to as the office and shelf filled with books we refer to as the library. It’s sparse, but livable and comfortable. And surprisingly, as of today, I still don’t really miss all my stuff.

Our daily ship routine is centered around three set meals. Breakfast is serve buffet style every morning 7:30 – 8:30 p.m., lunch 11:45 – 1:30 and dinner is 5:30 – 7:30. Work, socializing, planning, meetings, interacting with students, interacting with colleagues all seems to blend together and typically starts with breakfast and ends at 11:30 p.m. or so, depending on how many times I have to remind students to be quiet. When I was hired, the original job description was a combination of residence hall director, special events coordinator and security. To date, that seems somewhat correct, but the line “other duties as assigned” certainly fits in this roll. I am a part of a team of 8 living learning coordinators and in a typical day we work with students to plan educational and recreational activities, our duties include: test proctors, alcohol service night security, facilitators of activities, workshops and events, support for students with issues related to alcohol, drugs, sex, mental health and homesickness. We provide logistical support for students regarding questions like….how do I call home? Do you know how to set  up e-mail or access the web? How do I get sea urchins spines out of my foot? Do you think this is a jelly fish sting? My roommate is sleeping in a room with a boy, where am I supposed to go?  How drunk is too drunk?  Are you sure I can't bring alcohol on the ship? In essence we try to provide information and support in a way that is fun, educational and effective.

To date in conjunction with students and faculty we have organized over 50 workshops, hosted embassy dignitaries from Brazil, planned and implemented a talent show and dance for 600 students, run a basketball tournament for over 20 teams, planned and run a shipboard Olympics for over 700 people, shown over 20 films. Things that would take months or weeks of committee work, is accomplished in days or hours by interested individuals regardless of title or role. It has been a true example of collaboration for the greater good.

So now that we are underway, getting our groove on, and some major events are out of the way....I hope to post to this blog on a more regular basis. 

Go Pack Go!