Panama is in sight

The past two days have been great. I know, I’m starting to sound like a broken record. Okay, I’ll back up. It hasn’t all been great but the vast majority of my time the past 48 hours has reminded me why I needed this time away from home.

After a long day of judicial meetings on Monday, I found myself with some free time on Tuesday. These are the moments you have to snatch up before someone grabs you to go do something else work related. I took myself up to Deck 7 and pulled out a lounge chair. Deck 7 is where everyone goes to lie out in the sun and relax. Now, let me clarify, I was not on Deck 7 Aft, which is the very top back part of the ship where the Coppertone girls sun themselves. I was on Deck 7 port side where the smart people go to relax and enjoy themselves. I’m not saying the those on Deck 7 aft aren’t having fun, I’m just saying if I hungout back there during the day I’d be thinking about how I’m not 21 anymore. So I’ve found my nice corner of the ship and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. So back to my story. I pulled out my lounge chair and the wind was whipping about something fierce. I could hardly get my clothes off without them going overboard. I had to strategically get my towel down and somehow place my clothes in a secure location so they would not be lost forever. I know, life is rough. After what felt like a short little nap in the breezy paradise of Deck 7 port side (for those of you who do not know ship lingo, port side if the left side of the ship and starboard side is the right side…easy way to remember this, port has four letters as does left) I took a look at my watch and realized I had been out there for two hours and I was almost late for my pedicure. Yes, I know how ridiculous this is sounding but bear with me, I’ve been working 18 hour days and venturing in the hot Mexican sun for the past week. I went for my pedicure and before I knew it the day was winding up and the night was beginning.

I finally went back to work last night around 5pm and worked until about midnight. That’s the weird thing about Semester at Sea. The work never stops and there’s no distance between your “house” and your “office” so it seems weird to get up in the morning, work a few hours, take the rest of the afternoon off and then go back to work for what would normally be a full day. Bizarre.

I was on duty last night, which entails hanging out on Deck 7 when the alcohol service is going on. This is actually a lot of fun because you can chat with students and get to know people a little bit more. There are definitely those students who are making themselves known in a good way and those who are making themselves known in a not so good way. I try not to let the latter get me down. I did have a couple of interactions last night that really annoyed me at first but in retrospect I can laugh about. When students do something to break the code of conduct they are sanctioned in ways that sometimes restrict them from the AFTer Hours events. I restricted a student from the event last night and he came up anyway. After approaching him I learned that he didn’t read the sanctioning letter and had no idea he could not be up there. When I told him he’d have to leave he replied with, “But then what do you want me to do”. It was all I had to actually answer him with a straight face. Was he serious? I could think of a million things he could do but all I could get out of my mouth was, “why don’t you go do your homework?”. He looked at me like I was insane. Later I relayed this story to another staff member who had some pretty choice answers to this question. I guess if I was thinking fast enough I could have come up with something wittier. Next time.

Finally, by the end of the night I went to bed feeling disillusioned. There were students complaining that they actually had school work to do and that this was not the booze cruise they had signed up for, students complaining that they were not being served hard alcohol, student complaining about other students. Oh, the complaints kept coming. Thankfully, I had a number of students renew my faith in 20-somethings today. Please people, in the words of my good friend, Pete, “Your life is a constant struggle, you’re going around the world”. I know that phrase doesn’t apply to this voyage since we’re not going around the world, but I have decided I really do need to come up with my repetitive response to these ridiculous complaints. For my colleagues back in the states, the entitlement issues do not go away when you leave dry land. If anything, they get worse.

Today was another day full of work and last minute preparations for my sea social. Each sea (group of approx 50-75 students) gets to have a social up in the faculty staff lounge. My social was tonight. So I printed invitations, reminded everyone about it and made a bunch of name tags for the students. Sure enough at 9pm they all started to pour into the lounge for their night of hobnobbing with the faculty and staff. It was actually a really great event. Everyone came dressed up and a number of the faculty and staff stayed in attendance for over an hour. It was a great success. It also gave me some face to face time with the students who I had yet to meet. It’s difficult to get names and faces when 500 people board a ship all at once. Keeping everyone straight is a challenge, especially since 1/3 of them look a like.

We arrive in Panama on Friday and we’ve been trying to figure out what the heck we’re going to do. We were thinking about heading to a beach area on the Caribbean side but we can’t seem to get our group together. Everyone has side trips we’re trying to schedule around and the flights don’t work well for everyone. There are three of us (this includes Nate) that would really like to go and can actually make it for two nights but we were hoping others could also come with us. We are making our final decision tomorrow and sticking with it. More to come on this adventure, which I’m sure will provide some more good stories.

The latest good news for those blog readers out there, Nate is boarding on Friday in Panama and may have the new responsibility of being our blog contributor. That is if I can get him off Deck 7 long enough. I’m sure it won’t take long for him to hit vacation mode!