October 3 at Sea

October 3 at Sea:

Gently rocked awake before 8am;  get up, organize cabin a bit, think about pulling together laundry, save that for another day.  Pull on workout clothes, pop out of cabin 5021 (starboard), walk 8 feet to Executive Dean John’s office to say good morning and fill my water bottle with fresh filtered cold water, skipping the chocolate croissants’ siren call.  Walk 20 more feet, past the purser’s desk & say hello, over to the dean’s office.  Quickly check email—because of the time difference with the states, sometimes important emails come during the night.  Respond to one sweet mother who is worried about her son from 8,000 miles away.  Head up to the fitness room for 30 minutes on one of the exercise bikes—better for me than trying to stay on the treadmill that sways and bumps with the waves.  Head back to the cabin for a quick shower and then back to the office that I share with my great Assistant Dean of Students Chris Paul. Turn on our tv in our office which gets Global Studies.  Today’s topic is Africa, using maps and information to make Africa disappear and appear, and a good piece on how African sailors and adventurers have been written out of their role in history.  Emails about cabin switches, melted hair dryers (using it to dry clothes—definitely a fire hazard), students struggling, Pride at Sea dinner reminder, Captain’s daily memo, cabin searches (no duct tape or fresh fruit or cereal from the dining commons allowed).  At 11am head over to Dean John’s office for our 1 hour Dean Team Meeting.  From there, “family” lunch in the main dining room on deck 5, starboard.  I have 6 students in my “family”;  I’ve adopted one more, hoping that this helps him connect better.  I’ve brought chocolate from Belgium and Spain for dessert for them, plus I’ve printed out a personal scavenger hunt for them to take with them (an idea borrowed from a past Dean of Students, Anna Gonzalez).  At 1pm I head up to Classroom 1 off of the Garden Room dining room for our almost-daily student life team meeting.  Two staff members lead us in some yoga-laughing.  We launch into our meeting with more chocolate and announcements about upcoming programs—hoping the presidential debate is successfully taped for showing on Oct. 4^th, international students meeting, sea Olympics meeting, 0-2 group meeting (students who are traveling without alcohol as their focus), Greek Life programs, Global Studies Study sessions.  Meet with RDs after this meeting to talk about individual students who may be struggling.  Have a moment outside on the deck to look for wild-life, and to look at the waves and the clouds.  Bump in to students every 30 feet or so for a variety of conversations, head back to cabin to work out at 4pm (Insanity!), do this for 30 minutes, come back to cabin for another quick 4 minute shower, inadvertently fall asleep til 5:30.  Head up to Dean John’s Deck 7 cabin (he has a large cabin and balcony) for a staff social.  Lots of laughter and pictures and canapés and palm reading.  6:45 head back down to the Main dining room for Pride at Sea dinner and connect with about 10 great staff members & allies and one solo great student.  Head outside for 10 more minutes of deck time/salty-rail time;  watch the sun set behind a uniform screen of haze, making it look more like the moon than the sun.  Fall in love with the curve of the earth.  Head back inside (whoosh—air conditioning hits with a cold blast, and I realize how humid it was outside), go to cabin to pick up journal and pastels and head to an 8pm Seminar at Sea—one led by a life long learner & former journalist, Milton Orris.  As Milton talks and gives journaling tips, I get to draw something that’s been in my mind’s eye since Holland—little fluffy sheep on a bright green green field with little fluffy clouds about them on a bright blue blue sky.  Journal some during the program.  At 9pm leave program and head upstairs to start beverage service—check in with the dining manager Avin and Vladamir, the chief security officer.  Only 6 beverage cards have been handed out (students need a beverage card to buy a drink), so we know it will be a light night.  Leave to drop off journal supplies in cabin, plan on heading to a 9:30 “students making meaning” meeting, but have a variety of conversations with students in the hallways along the way, popping outside occasionally to see if the moon is rising yet, and the next I know it is 10:30.  Check facebook briefly, get to email with a friend or two for ten minutes, and head up to Glazer Lounge (the faculty/staff lounge).  Decide that I want to try something new and different—I aim for brandy but they are out so I try cognac instead.  After two sips and my eyeballs feeling drunk, hand drink around for others (who don’t have the ship-cough) to try.  Jacques decides he likes cognac and so he gets to finish my drink.  Pop back outside and see the waning moon rising portside behind the same low-hanging screen of haze.  Watch as it manifests, surrounded by good people.  Slowly the others head back inside, and as we sail towards the Southern Cross I stay out with Jonathan, one of my RDs, talking about love and loss and longing and best selves and surprises and intentions and the future, the conversation interspersed with flashes of silver on the dark water and soft splashes as flying fish play in the waves or fly away from the ship for their lives, it’s hard to tell which.  It’s hard to close down the amazing conversation lit by the orange moon and waiting for flying fish to appear like shooting stars, but the night becomes later and windier and it is time for sleep.  Head back in to the faculty staff lounge where one of my RD’s, Gudrun, is still hanging out writing on her computer, so she gets to claim the right of shutting Glazer down, as I head to my cabin to drift off to sleep with the curtains open, so I can see the moon on the other side as she sets hours later.