Things I miss 2

Things I miss about home. I miss grass. The smell of it when it is freshly cut, the feel of it in the morning when it has light dew resting on it. Oh what I would give to just lay in grass and gaze at the stars. I have not heard a dog bark in so long or have heard the sounds of sirens. I miss my car. Every country so far has VW golf’s and all I want to do is hop into one and drive away. Unfortunately SAS does not allow us to drive.

Things I love about this ship. I love waking up, rolling out of bed, walking up 2 flights of stairs and being greeted in the dining hall by the crew who like to sing in the morning. I take a plate and fill it with already made eggs and freshly cut fruit. Some days I toast a bagel and make an egg sandwich. Anything to spice up my life a little bit. Then I sit down and get served orange juice. Once I am finished I just walk away, leaving my dirty plate on the table. This was hard to get used to in the beginning ,because I can easily take my plate and clean it myself ,but the crew insists on doing it. I still feel bad some days when I ask for an extra orange juice ,but I just remind myself that that is their job…. Then I walk 10 feet to my classroom. Everything is so close and indoors on the ship. When I go back to Penn State it is going to be hard for me to put on a coat and boots, trek a mile to class and have to cook my own food. I AM SO SPOILED on this ship. It’s really nice and I did pay enough to be treated like a queen, so I am just going to enjoy the ride.

Now I am going to write about what I look forward to the most on my return home. I can’t wait to… see my parents for the first time at the airport, go food shopping, eat cinnamon buns and a chocolate malt, make chocolate chip cookies, go for a run on land with scenery passing by my eyes, drive my car, look at all the souvenirs I’ve collected on my journey, see my nephews, friends, and family, play in the snow, and last of all cook my own food. I can not wait to have a decision about what I eat. On the other hand there are going to be times when I am homesick for the ship. There are going to be little things that only applied to me on the ship and no where else. For example, it seems like we forward our clocks almost every other night to keep up with the changing time zones. It had almost become routine and I am going to forget I am not in the middle of the ocean anymore and am staying in the same time zone. We also have “dock time”. This is a term used when someone is late to the ship. That person receives dock time which means they cannot get off the ship at the next port at the same time as everyone else; they have to wait depending on how late they were to the ship. i.e. 1-15 minutes late means 3 hours dock time, 15-30 minutes late means 6 hours dock time, etc. When ever I am late for something I am going to say in my head dock time! I am really going to miss sleeping outside on the 5th deck gazing at the stars as the wave’s rock me to sleep. I only have 17 days left on this ship. It seems like yesterday that I boarded the ship for the first time, looked out my cabin window as we left the Bahamas dock and thought, what did I get myself into? I can’t believe its almost all over.