Life at Sea and at School

Current Location: In the Caribbean Sea, passing the last of the US Virgin Islands to the East

In approximately 8 hours we will be arriving at our first port, Port of Spain, Trinidad. I am absolutely loving living and learning at sea. The ship culture is a blast as well (it’s kind of like a residence hall on steroids). The crew members are amazingly kind and interesting people from around the world as well. The only drawback is all the class time and homework!

Class days (C-days) only happen while we are at sea. Since tomorrow is our first port day, that means no class! The last three C-days have been a whirlwind because this 26-day voyage is actually a 10-day semester with 1 reading day and 1 day for final exams. Because I’m completing 5-credits in 10 days, most of my C-days time is spent in class, working on HW and putting in my work study hours. To give you an idea, here is my typical C-day:

8:00 to 8:30 – Breakfast

8:45 to 9:50 – Shower, get dressed, and finish reviewing the Spanish HW

10:00 to 11:00 – Class: Intermediate Spanish

11:00 to 11:30 – Start Spanish HW or work on reading for my other class

11:30 to 12:00 – Lunch

12:00 to 13:00 – Work at the Activities Desk

13:00 to 13:30 – Read/take a breather before class

13:30 to 16:00– Class: Energy Resources

16:00 to 16:30 –HW or a break

16:30 to 17:45 – Class: Engineering a New Tomorrow Seminar

17:45 to 18:30 – Dinner

18:30 on – Time to work on HW, watch a film for the series, go to Explorer Seminars, etc. (Tonight we had a Pre-Port Meeting at 2000 that lasted for 2 hours)

So as you can see, the days are packed! After almost 6 hours of class and work, there isn’t much time for HW. I’m enjoying staying busy, but it takes pretty strict time management to fit it in. Also, being on a rocking ship, 8 hours of sleep has been a must for me so I can stay awake in class. That’s the biggest challenge of all!

Lesson learned: If you ever plan on completing a 15-week semester in 10 days, be prepared to function on turbo-mode!

One thing that is amazing about this voyage is that 91 students out of 300 are engineering majors, compared to Semester at Sea’s average of 5-10 per voyage. A lot of the students I’m getting to know are engineering students and it’s a really fun and interesting bunch. Hopefully soon, I will have time to tell you more about some of the awesome people I’ve met.

A hardworking engineer at sea,

Allison