As soon as I step off the plane this straitjacket like winter dissolves and automatically I breath easier, my skin feels softer and I can stop wearing my coat. before I even hit baggage check, I am given a free bahama mama. Go Bahamas! It’s 73 degrees, the sun is warm and the breeze is cool and the weather is simply perfection. The bulk of the SAS kids were staying at the Atlantis, which Ninny accurately described as “Disney World Jamaica, all though I‘ve never been to Jamaica. It was manufactured, decadent, syrupy and blindingly bright colored so as to insulate the tourists from actually being in a place where they are not from. Ninny and I played “Spot the SAS student” and if you could guess which coast they hailed from, you got five bonus points.
We’ve got some real winners on this ship. On the way to Senor Frogs we shared a taxi with some girls, one of whom advised us not to have sex with any one in Namibia due to faulty latex. “There goes all my plans for Namibia” Jennifer replied. Senor Frogs was all kinds of whack in my opinion, however me and Cassie’s hotel was awesome, real small and homey, right next to the beach.
As we were leaving the Bahamas, there was a slew of people’s parents looking up at us, seeing their children off. They all started cheering and I started tearing up. The pervasive feeling that I, Amy Bugarski mild mannered UVA Wise Theater major, am doing something astronomically, overwhelmingly huge this semester appeared along with the whoops and waves . It was so strange to me that Les McCabe, dean of this operation said that as you leave the port the thing that every one looks at is the growing gap between the ship and the land we’re leaving. I actually took a picture of it. He said that’s when it becomes real.
The ship is unbelievably nice. It is huge and labyrinth-like, with a bunch of huge mirrors making it even more huge and labyrinth like. There are seven decks, and there are a thousand people on the ship. I live on the Dionysus Deck, very theatre major appropriate, huh? My roommate is really awesome, she actually went to high school with Ninny and Cassie. She wears corsets often (so cool) and reminds me a lot of my friend Laura Baty, and coincidentally her name is Laura. On the 20th SAS changed their plans a little for the inauguration, and we were all able to watch it in the union. Later on that night everyone celebrated with champagne and cake.
The ship is constantly rocking and rolling with the waves and a good 80 to 90 percent of the students still walk as though highly, h. A lot of kids have been having severe sea sickness, and I have been lucky enough to only have had it for a short amount of time. The union is the worst. I’ve never fallen asleep in class before but today it was like I was in huge cradle and all my notes go from words to scribbles. If you go outside you consistently have a thin film of oceany moisture on your skin. There’s a “painting” in every room and on the backs there are messages from other SAS students to the new students. Thus far the one in Jennifer’s room is the best and most hilarious. Advice includes:
“Relationships at home = irrelevant”
“Make friends with the life long learners, they usually like to party”
“Take baths in Japan”
“Make friends with Dalfi (each cabin gets a steward that makes your bed and cleans your room) but he doesn’t like to clean shit marks in the toilet so use the toilet brush”
“stock pile your wine”
“If you meet a taxi driver in South Africa named Eebs, tell him to fuck off”
There will be pictures and more painting advice to come in a future blog, because it’s my favorite thing thus far. Also to come- the hilarious stuff that comes out of Cassie and Jennifer’s mouth.
Actually living on the ship is a lot less strenuous than I thought, and I can’t believe how much stress went into something that was not painful and agonizing. The worst thing thus far (and it’s really not that bad) is that as soon as you’re on board they’re just like “Make the best friends you will ever meet in your life! Right now! It’s been really disconcerting …all the attachments to “real life” are inspiring some anxiety, all the things I dealt with, the person I was, the niche I fulfilled, they’re not conducive to me getting every ounce of this experience. I feel all these tethers stretching me back to the shore, where I was attempting to abandon the naïve, insecure girl. Hopefully I can lose this bitch in Cape Town.
