A SAS Wide Game of Telephone

New Characters: 

Stephen: Friend from CSU

Andrew: Friend from CSU

Aleah and Ally: Friends from CSU 

So I’ve officially begun this crazy thing I signed up for and I am not looking back even for a second, it’s too late. 

Due to my lack of time management, my night before embarkation ended at 1am and started at 5am on Saturday morning. Last minute cramming, finishing my blog post while I still had wifi, staying up too late talking to Stephen’s family who were nice enough to welcome me in for a night, and plain stupidity are all to blame for this. In my first two days I clocked in nine whole hours of sleep and only have myself to blame. The adrenaline and coffee have masked my tiredness and the fact that this is actually happening. It started to sink in a little bit when we were pulling away from the dock and I realized I’m not getting off this thing for another s e v e n days. Nothing like some team bonding in oversized life jackets and long dining hall lines in the meantime! 

My first morning started by hopping on a shuttle down to Ensenada, Mexico to board the World Odyssey ship. Andrew, Stephen, and I spent hours trying to rack our brains around the idea that the ship was IN San Diego, yet we had to go to an hour and a half into Mexico to board it and came up with absolutely nothing. However, I got my first stamp of this voyage out of it and a new country to check off my list. My eyes must have been opened so wide once we crossed the border and my jaw on the floor because I was amazed at how less than one mile across the border, you can tell you are not in America anymore. The streets were littered with trash, graffiti colored every fence, and every billboard sign looked like a tornado had shredded through it. I am beyond aware that not all of Mexico looks this way and is full of beautiful and rich culture, but I was astonished by the difference. 

The cliff sides and waves were magnificent to look at through my have slatted eyes trying to stay awake to the humming bus ride and it was so interesting to see the architectural changes from Tijuana to the intricate sky scrapers in San Diego. After a two-hour trip we finally made it to Ensenada, and boarded the ship. 

This boat is something out of a movie. It truly doesn’t feel real this is my home for the next five months. I’m literally living out my childhood fantasy of Cole and Dylan Sprouse’s Disney show, Suite life on Deck. 

In summary, my first few days reminded me of the childhood game: telephone. 

Do ya’ll remember the game we used to play in elementary school where you’d sit in a circle and one person would say something and it would be something drastically different by the time it got back to them? I don’t know about you but I was always the little twat that would purposely change it to spice the game up a bit. Probably says something about me now, but here we are. I have realized with my short time on this ship, I am living in a state of déjà vu. Let’s just stay news travels fast, and my devious ways as a child have reincarnated in my college level brain. 

One of the first nights, the announcement lady on the intercom said the Captain had an “important weather message” he would share later. I was sitting with two friends from CSU, Aleah and Ally, and we started imagining going through a hurricane and how bad the waves would get. Cabin fever, it’ll get ya. We started telling EVERYONE that we heard from an inside source that we were going through a hurricane and it was going to be crazy and by the end of the night I had multiple people telling me “Hey, did you know the weather announcement may be about a hurricane in the distance?!” That sounds absurd, right? But when you’re trapped on a boat for 72+ hours, people will believe literally anything. 

At dinner, a friend we met on the ship said when you round the horn of Africa, Somalian pirates chase the ship and try to get on it. The three of us looked at each other and saw potential for another round of telephone. We told everyone about these pirates and by the next morning everyone was talking about crazy stories that had no truth to them about the pirates. We’re on a giant cruise ship, ya’ll, these tug boats got nothing on us. I hope this is true because on the long trek up to Ghana, I’m going to want some action on here. 

It’s truly incredible what people believe when there’s nothing better to do. It’s been my one source of entertainment considering the only movie on loop in our room is Planet Earth.

I’m sure we’ll continue to see this game of telephone escalate as the semester plays out, and I’m excited to have a devious hand in messing with people. Until then, I’ll be sitting in my classes, holding back vomit from sea sickness, playing Cards Against Humanity in the Terrace, and laying out on the pool deck lathered in 50spf sunscreen waiting for arrival in Hawaii. 

Aloha America, we meet again!