PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

Since leaving from Nassau and hitting the seas for 3 days before arriving in San Juan, Puerto Rico, everything has been surprisingly smooth. I fully expected to get sea sick and thought that I would spend the first few days throwing up in every receptacle near me. However, that has been quite different from what was expected. We have been fortunate enough to have very smooth waters since leaving the Bahamas and we will be in Puerto Rico tomorrow morning. The rocking of the ship is very clear but its something that instead of helping me vomit, it does a much better job of rocking me to sleep.
My room number is 4122 and my roommate’s name is Zander. It is short for Alexander. Zander goes to U. of Virginia and seems to be very chill and likes to have a good time. His parents are from Belgium and live there so he talked about how it is ever harder to get a hold of his parents being that they are not in the United States. He plans on using a web cam in port to talk to his parents using Skype, a free internet voice chat thing.
702 students being on this ship is a bit out of control! There are always people everywhere. Meals are hard because people usually wait in line for a bit before getting food. This causes me to really stock up my plate because it isn’t too reasonable to go back and wait again for seconds. Erin always said that having this many students is going to be hard, but I don’t think I really understood what you meant. We had our first Global Studies class yesterday and we had people sitting everywhere. At first I thought hat we would only be in the Union and in the satellite rooms but it turns out that there are people on the floor sitting there trying to pay attention to class the entire time while being on the floor in every room. The union holds about 400 people and I think we fill it beyond capacity everyday with every satellite room being full as well.
I thought it was weird that when alum said the first people I meet will usually be some of the people we hang out with the most I didn’t believe them. Well I have been out of the country for 1 week now and I find it ironic that the majority of the people I have been hanging out with are the same people that I met when I first got here. These people usually are also work-study kids. We have kind of bonded together for the sake that we do not have loads of money to throw around on anything.
I got the opportunity to work check in on Sunday and it was amazing to see the kinds of crazy things people were bringing. I truly hope that we all get a real glimpse of just how much privilege we all have through this trip. I saw people with Louis Vitonne bags in both arms. While this is just a bag, it does bring some sort of status with it. I can understand that this might just be the kind of bags these people own but if you have the money to afford multiple hundred dollar bags then you have the money to buy cheap luggage that can be stuffed under a bed. Not to mention, being a tourist in these countries, I would like to come off as poor as possible as to not draw attention to myself. Someone that is carrying a bag that is noticeably expensive might lead people to believe they are worth more than just that bag. Sadly this could lead to people getting robbed. I hope this doesn’t happen but I feel that coming into this trip, some people don’t have the same outlook and aspirations as what SAS would like for us. Some people are truly looking for a good time and think of this as a booze cruise. SAS has shown us in many ways that it is more than that because it isn’t just about having a good time. Its not just about sightseeing. Its about opening up your eyes to see things that you have cant even imagine. Instead of sightseeing, they urge to us to start sight-thinking. I think it is something that I will adapt and try to soak in as much as possible. Like I said in an earlier post, some people are willing to pay for comfort, but I think that this should be all about getting out of your comfort zone as much as possible. Reach out and experience things that will never be possible again.
This voyage may have just begun but I still cannot express how amazing it is. The ship is beautiful and the crew is amazing! The crew is still out of control. You have probably seen Mr. Deeds but that guy doesn’t have anything on my steward. My steward is so sneaky that I can walk out of my room, go grab some food and come back 10 minutes later only to find my bathroom cleaned, my trash taken out, and my bed nicely made. My steward’s name is Joel. He has been a steward on SAS for 11 years and is a very nice man. Yes, Jenna, I asked him and he said he remembers you very well. I asked him if he knew Jenna and he said “Jenna Finch? Oh yes, very beautiful girl.” I agreed and that was the end. He had nothing bad to say about you so I think you are high in his book. Joel is from the Philippines and has a 5 year old son that he only sees for around 1 month of the entire year. I feel bad for him because he was telling me stories of when he was younger and he would go back home only to realize that his own son didn’t remember him and would cry saying that Joel was not his dad. This was something I didn’t expect but can understand how hard it must be to do that because as a father, he just wanted to come back and hug his son and did not expect to be thrown away and screamed at from his only son. He said now that he is 5 years old he is beginning to understand that this is what he must do to make money and pay the bills for the family. I look forward to finding out how much exactly he makes and hopefully I will get to see pictures of his son and learn more about his life other than how he cleans my room.
Tomorrow we go to Puerto Rico. Its still hard to think that I get to do it all over again and try to get as much out of this as I did from Bahamas. Puerto is different because it is not technically a country. Its technically still just a colony and known as the world’s oldest colony. We are fortunate enough to have a work study student named Roberto on our ship from Puerto Rico and he tells us many things about what it is like to live there your entire life. Puerto Ricans do not get to vote on national elections but are considered US citizens. He said this sucks because you can tell people that you are American, but no matter what you do (unless you move to a state and establish residency) you have no voice. You are but a pawn of the government and neither you nor anyone on your island can do anything about it.
I look forward to going out and meeting locals and trying to get the most out of the island all over again. SAS told us in class today that for the first time in many of our lives we will be the minority. We are undesirables in some places. It then hit me that this is true. Anytime you think of the word minority, usually I think of someone that isn’t me. Well, starting a week ago, that wont be the case until May 14 when we arrive back in San Diego. Role reversal is a large component of this and I cant wait to see how I deal and learn from it as well as some other people on the ship that may have completely different experiences from it than I did.
We might still be 1 day away from our first port of call, but I can honestly say that this is going by so fast already. I wake up early every morning to experience something better than what I did the day before. I wake up and am glad not to be sleeping because the reality of where I am is more pleasant than any dream I could think up. I don’t want to sleep anymore. I am living a dream. I hope I never wake up.