A Sunrise Fit For a King . . .

Good morning America!!! We are almost in Cape Town. We should be docking within the next half an hour. The last twelve hours have been crazy in a “this would only happen on Semester at Sea” kind of way. After our Logistical Pre-port meeting last night, a group of us girls decided that we should sleep on deck so that we’d be up bright and early to watch the sunrise as we pulled into Cape Town. We were told it would be one of the most beautiful ports we’d pull into. Unfortunately, we are arriving during the end of their winter, so the air is actually colder than the water. I suspect that last night was in the 50’s. Now let me ask you, could any of you imagine sleeping on the deck of a boat cruising down Lake Michigan in say March. It’s a pretty crazy concept. Anyways, we lugged up as many blankets as we could find, put on layers of clothes, and met up at the deck around 11:30. We had time to have some traditional sleepover snacks at the pool bar (pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, hot chocolate, and candy) before it closed at midnight.

Then the night really got fun. We found a cozy little spot on the side of the 7th deck and set up our beds. And then we froze, and froze, and froze some more. With the exception of one of the four of us girls, none of us got a bit of sleep. It was so much fun though. The more tired and cold we got, the sillier and sillier we got. At one point I remember one of the girls saying that I was more used to the cold because I was from Chicago and they were from California. Fine, that makes sense. But, then she asks me if we sleep outside a lot in Chicago. What??? That just baffled me (and her too I think) and we started cracking up. Guess you had to be there to get it, but I just thought I’d throw out an example of the complete slap happiness of the early hours. Before the night was over, three of us ended up combining our sleeping bags and blankets so that we all squeezed into one larger one. We were still freezing though.

We were actually really relieved when they kicked us off the deck to wash it at 5 a.m. We were so frozen, but we were trying to tough it out!!! We were able to just make out land as we went inside, so that inspired us. We still had about an hour and a half until sunrise. We didn’t wait all that time just to go to sleep at the home stretch. So, we made some tea in juice glasses and screwed around for a little while. When it started to get light out, we headed to the bow of the ship to watch the sunrise. It was breathtaking seeing it come up over the mountains. There were probably about 50 other students at the bow and it was a truly breathtaking and energetic scene. Some guys started singing the chants from The Lion King, which totally fit. I’m posting a pic above of the sunrise. Of course it was better in person, but you will get the idea.

The sunrise wasn’t the only excitement of the morning. As we ate breakfast, the boat slowed down because we were getting closer to the port. Apparently, slowing the boat down makes it rock profusely. The boat was rocking so much that the dining room was going crazy. Things were slamming, falling, and clinking all over the place. People had to stop plates and glasses from falling off the table each time the boat rocked. A table next to us lost about ten people’s worth of dishes and left over food. There was a pile of broken plates and food on the floor. It wasn’t funny because it was a mess, but it was just so surreal to have such a hard time trying to eat breakfast. Only on Semester at Sea. The other awesome thing that happened this morning was that we saw a whale and a sea lion swimming next to the boat. Again, only on Semester at Sea.

Well, the ship should be cleared at any moment now. I have a field program for class today (Geological Overview of Cape Town) and then I’m going to go out and party in Cape Town tonight.

Best wishes!