Rocking and Rolling at Sea

Hello again!!

Right now I am sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean getting tossed from side to side because of 20 foot waves (no exaggeration). And those are just the normal small ones too!! We are currently taking a 300+ mile detour around this huge storm that is hitting/about to hit the West Coast. Despite the detour we are still getting like the outskirts of the storm and the waves are just insane. Literally as you walk down the hall, you physically run into every wall. We all joke that we feel like human pinballs lol. We also found out that our detour is taking us through the “Green Strip” which is apparently the worst section of the Pacific as far as rough seas go. It was described to us as the captain picking the lesser of two evils to take us through on the way to Hawaii.

Luckily I haven’t gotten sick yet (thank you all for your prayers, they are definitely helping!). My roommate however got soooooooo sick the second night on the ship. Like really bad. He is better now, but he was not feeling so hot for like 15 hours.

After orientations, everyone was a lot happier on the ship. We had this “involvement symposium” thing where we could all sign up for clubs and orientations with people with similar interests. Then there are people like heading up every organization to organize everything. I signed up for every intramural that they offered; it included dodgeball, basketball (which should be funny), volleyball, and soccer. Don’t really know how soccer will work but we will see. The things I am most excited about that I signed up for were a Bible Study group and a Sunday Service group. I was excited that there were actually a significant amount of people interested in it and I can’t wait till we get started. Oh and I also signed up for Yoga, I just figured “what the heck, why not?!?!?”

My first day of class went well. I have Politics in the morning, and I really like my professor! He was really down to earth and understands that we are all kinda in awe of what we are doing and that school work can be cumbersome. He is also from Moab so I stayed after class and talked to him about jeeping for a little bit. Even though I hate Politics I think I might enjoy that class. My global studies class is the one that everyone on the ship has to take and it was ok, didn’t really do much the first day tho…but I mean I was ok with that haha.

That night a big group of 9 of us went to dinner and talked about doing stuff together in some of the ports and stuff. It was also sweet cause a lot of us had signed up for similar trips on the pre-sale stuff. We ended up going up on one of the decks and decided to play apples to apples. Our group of 9 quickly grew to a group of 17. 17 PEOPLE?!?!?! That is an unreal amount of people playing…but it was freaking awesome at the same!!!! The coolest part was the fact that we were hitting the biggest waves of the trip so far. Like the ship would tilt to one side and all the chairs and tables on the deck (including the ones we were sitting on) would start sliding toward the railing; then we would tilt the other way and slide back to where we started. It was awesome!! It’s also really funny trying to eat because everything slides around and you have to keep a close eye on your drink or it will spill on your neighbor.

My second day of class was pretty much the same as the first one. I enjoyed my Marine Biology class and I actually met another girl from OU, although I already forgot her name. We both had just figured we were the only ones from OU so it was a nice surprise to find a fellow sooner. People are already getting into the routine of class and people are spread out everywhere doing homework.

Your classes are scheduled on either A or B days. For instance I have Politics on A days. Then while we are at sea they just alternate ABABAB. So like today was a B day and I had two classes in the morning and then had a break between 1015 and lunch. So for a nice hour and a half I got to sit out in the sun (it was about 80 degrees today so it was beautiful!!) and do homework/reading while looking out over the ocean. That’s right; I sat outside, with friends, doing homework, on a ship, in the middle of the ocean. Sure beats a classroom huh?!?! It’s so cool just looking out every direction and seeing endless ocean with nothing else in sight. Seeing God’s limitless creation is indescribable, I find myself just staring in awe out across the water just trying to take it all in. I mean it gives Genesis a whole new meaning when it says that God “made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it…God called the expanse sky” Genesis 1:7. It’s literally indescribable to be seeing so much of God’s creation first hand and sailing over miles upon miles of it. God is so incredible and just something as simple as the vast oceans is breathtaking knowing that He designed it and created it!!!

Well I’m gunna go do some more reading for my Global Studies class. Probably go sit outside again cause it feels awesome (it’s the first sun we have seen since we started). Hope all is well! Oh and thank you guys so much for commenting, it’s really nice to hear from you all. I love hearing from you all and it crazy how much I already miss you all.

Love you guys!!

T Smith