Sure I didn't go to a foreign country for my study abroad, but I bet that my study "aboard" experience was more culturally intense than most foreign countries. Take studying abroad in Valporaiso, Chile for example. Yeah everyone speaks Spanish which is totally different, it isn't as clean as a American city, and there are so many hills. Honestly, that is about it. I don't even speak Spanish and I feel entirely comfortable around here and I just got here yesterday. To start, on the boat, I had to totally relearn how to walk because the very concept of stability, something that we take for granted (and should) on shore I could not on the boat. I never got the hang of walking and by the end I was still walking like a drunk toddler. When I got home, I was really uneasy when someone would put drinks on the edge of the table for fear of the boat taking a roll. Additionally, there was no such thing as personal space. I was allotted a bunk smaller than a twin bed. Luckily my bunk was massive and could fit 9 people in it (see above picture) because it was located in the focsle. It even had a porthole. Unfortunately it was located in the focsle which mean that a good night's sleep was hard to come by for the first week or so. For those who are unfamiliar with boat jargon, the focsle is in the front of the ship where the slightest movement is felt. Sometimes I would wake up from a dream because of the falling feeling and it would turn out it was because I was falling and the boat was rocking so much that I would get air. Speaking of sleep, I didn't sleep through the night for a full 6 weeks. This was because of watch. Here is a brief lowdown on watches:
We had three watch groups composed nine students, one assistant scientist and a mate. They were labeled A, B, and C watch. I was apart of C watch, but we quickly took out the space and called ourselves Cwatch, which allows for some creative play on words (Rock out with your cwatch out, and cwatch ourself were my personal favorites). Watches got close to each other due to scheduling. Each watch had to stand to watches a day. The watches were 0700-1300, 1300-1900, 1900-2300, 2300-0300 and 0300-0700. And this is why we could not sleep through the night. We were guaranteed one of the night watches each day. At first it was a little weird to be titrating at 0300 or I just waking up at that ungodly hour, but in the end it was normal and the 0300-0700 watch was my favourite (it meant that we could have the whole day "off").
Oh and we had language barriers. Upon getting on the Seamans we were informed that we would need to know the location, name, and purpose of each line. For those who have seen a tall ship in person know that there are a lot of line. For those who have seen me in person, you know that I have a hard time with names and nouns in general. At the end of the second week out, we had a race to name all the lines. It was about then that I gave up trying to memorize them and just prayed that I get the easy lines on my portion of the race. Somehow I did. At the end I proudly exclaimed that I had made it through 6 weeks without memorizing the lines. I only knew where the downhauls, halyards, jiggers, braces, and sheets were. My mate promptly reminded me that those were all the lines. Proof that studying doesn't help. Additionally, EVERYTHING had a new name. There was no outside it was above deck. The walls were bulkheads, the floor soles and the ceilings were called something too but I honestly can't remember. The fridge is the reefer and I refuse to call it anything else now, and the toilets were the heads. The kitchen is the galley, and even left, right, forward and backwards were switched up. The crew would often pretend that they didn't hear us when we asked if we could use the bathroom. Which brings me to my next point. We were not allowed to go anywhere without announcing our departure and/or presence. And then there is seasickness, but that is a post to itself.
Yeah that is about it. While my fellow peers were attempting to get over language barriers, I was relearning how to walk. I am not trying to take anything away from their experience I am just trying to fight of all the accusations that sailing is not a credible study abroad experience. I recieved the culture shock, the new foods, and a new appreciation for land.
