Day 58: Study Day

Today was officially designated as a "study day" and it was very nice to have the day off.  There is, of course, always the opportunity to study and write some papers which is probably what the free day was actually intended for.  I got a decent amount of work done and, after a few revisions, will be done with the mess of reflective papers that are due. 

As I was walking into the dinning room for lunch today, the head waiter stopped me and asked it I would like to have lunch with the captain.  I figured my usual lunch group could do without me for one day and took him up on the offer.  On occasion, the captain will come down to his reserved table and four or five students will be asked to join him, so the opportunity was pretty cool.  Everything here is usually buffet style but I discovered you get served well when dining among the ship's leadership.  There was the expected usual conversation and he shared a few stories from the years at sea.  It wasn't anything spectacular but was a fun experience nonetheless.

Today was the start of our "shipboard drive" which is basically a large fundraising effort.  SAS is a nonprofit and I can see how our tuition probably doesn't cover a lot so there's a large push for donation.  The big events today were a silent and live auction.  I was planning on making some type of small donation (under $50) so a great opportunity arose when a little bidding war broke out between Daniel and I over two packets of those floss-toothpic tools that somebody donated.  We went back and forth for a while which seemed to provide a decent amount of entertainment to those passing by (it was fun to play along and make comments like "what idiot would spend $25 on toothpicks?").  The clock winded down and I eventually was victorious and bought myself some "Pic-n-floss" packets for $32.  Hey, it's a donation.  The live auction was much more entertaining.  There were actually some decent items available and a lot of money being thrown around.  Girl Scout Cookies went for $150, a chance to steer the ship for $400, a bubble bath in the Executive Dean's bathtub for $200, field passes for the Stealers for $650, 3 day trip to Italy for $800, a professor's sweatband for $120, etc.  It was fun to watch, but that's a lot of money.  I guess it goes to a good cause.

Classes start up again tomorrow and start our final four class days before exams begin.  We're back in the fog and feeling the familiar roll of the Atlantic.  It's weird with course evaluations and things already starting to wrap up.  That's all for now, I'm off to do some reading for tomorrow.