Beginnings Matter

Beginnings matter 1.5.2020 by JJJ

San Diego, my favorite U.S. city, did not disappoint. We enjoyed several days hitting the nearby playgrounds with our friends, Kevin and Liz, as well as a New Year’s Eve celebration at my stepsister, Karen’s, place. There were 7 kids ages 2-10 at the party and they managed to find nerf guns somewhere. Needless to say, wine bottles, wall decorations, and adults were tagged with nerf bullets for the rest of the night. We rang in the new year at 7:30pm with a rowdy countdown and cheers all around. We want to offer a huge thanks to Kevin and Liz for housing our family, and to Kim for watching the kids while we were in orientation on the ship. Kevin even treated me to an early morning surf on New Year’s Day which felt novel and a great way to kick off 2020. We appreciate you and helping to make for a smooth launch into this adventure.

It didn’t take any time at all to realize that the ship is absolutely gorgeous, well kept, staffed by a helpful and friendly crew. The common spaces, meeting rooms, decks, pool, exercise room, store, etc. feel luxurious to me. I swear, scenes from “Titanic” must have been filmed on board. On top of that, the food is good, with many vegetarian options and kid friendly food (buttered noodles, PB and J, fruit, juice, dessert, etc.). Every day a crew member cleans our room, makes the bed, and empties the trash. What a gift. I am so appreciative of all that we receive to make our lives easier on this voyage.

Our cabins are also beautiful, with lots of room, two big windows, and plenty of storage space…and I’m embarrassed by the amount of stuff we brought (we had to use Kevin’s new sprinter van to transport all of the luggage to the ship! LOL). Before getting on the ship in San Diego, we hit Costco and bought $600 worth of snacks. The kids plan to operate a small convenience store/pharmacy out of our room in the next four months so they can boost their shipboard smoothie accounts.

Chris, Guthrie, Walden, and I are sharing a room with a bed, walk in closet, bathroom with bathtub, TV, desk, and pull out couch.  Wally sleeps on the couch at night and we make a tiny bed for Guthrie on the floor with couch cushions. They are happy. Rigley is rooming in a triple room with two delightful kids from Wisconsin, Elora (age 11) and Cosette (age 13). I have a feeling Rigley is going to come home maturing about 10 years in this 4-month period.

Sea sickness is a real thing. At the Dean’s Welcome (which occurred about 2 hours after the ship disembarked from Mexico) I saw a student puking into a bag in the hallway. Ugh, what a horrible feeling. Chris, Ellie, and I are holding firm (these patches really do work!!). Guthrie also seems completely fine and operating at his normal energy level (bummer). The big kids are not feeling well. They are both dizzy, tired, and light-headed. We are doing our best to try to figure out what kind of medication will work for them and in what doses. The on-ship doctor says that likely after about 72 hours of continuous exposure, our bodies will adjust.  Wally remarked this morning “Mom, I could really use some sea legs.” The good news is that the kids have few responsibilities at this point, and they can lay down and rest at any point.

We’ve done two lifeboat drills so far, neither of which were particularly popular with the kids.  Passengers have to don long pants, long sleeved shirts, real closed toed shoes (not crocs), hats, and an obnoxiously bulky life preserver (not ideal conditions for a sensory sensitive kid like Wally). We line up outside and wait silently while our cabin number is called by the person in charge of our region of the boat. The first lifeboat drill occurred around 9pm at night. Guthrie was absolutely wrecked, threw a tantrum, and then fell asleep in my arms. How he managed to sleep through all of the announcements is a wonder to me.

All of us are doing well meeting people and settling into the community. Rigley runs around with the other 10-13 year old girls like they’ve been friends forever.  Wally found 2 other kids near his age (with the potential for a 3^rd) that are equally obsessed with Pokémon and other nerdy pursuits. He also met an adult staff member who has completed all levels of Pokemon Go. Wally likes to use the room phone to call his friends. Overhearing these conversations is a total riot. It goes something like this: “Bro. This is Wally. I’m just warning you, Owen has a pretty good deck. His weaknesses are Leaf and Water energy, though. You should totally challenge him. Just wanted to let you know. Ok bye.” Guthrie is currently the youngest voyager on the ship (until 2 year old Elliot joins us in Shanghai). His best friend is a breakfast server named Perry. Guthrie runs up to him and gives him a giant hug every breakfast meal. When the students embarked in Mexico, we dressed Guthrie up in his “cute suit” and had him hold a sign that said, “Welcome Abroad. Free ship kid hugs.” He made a lot of people smile that morning with his cuteness and enthusiasm. Let’s hope it yields a few babysitters for us 😊

The other staff and faculty (staculty is the language we use on the ship) are talented, intelligent, friendly, interesting, and overall wonderful. It’s a really cool space to be in the “forming” stages of the voyage and we have found it easy to get to know our colleagues.