Living on a ship with people from all over the world means that language becomes a topic of conversation. The science party is made up of people living in the US, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, China, Korea and the UK (sorry if I’m forgetting anyone!). The ship crew has a large number of people from the Philippines. Sometimes we don’t understand each other because we don’t know the words to say, other times it is because the words have double meaning, and for me, it is sometimes because I think my brain just works a little bit different than everyone else.

 

Yesterday while doing my first sampling session in the chemistry lab, Marta said that she needed to talk to everyone tomorrow about the resolution. A simple statement. We are working out the bugs of the sampling now that we have rock core. There has been so much discussion about how much material everyone needs and how many samples per core each person will get, especially by the geochemists. I asked what the resolution was since I didn’t really think I needed to know the problem. Yet, Marta meant how many samples per core or the level of information when she said resolution. We had a good laugh at this misunderstanding by two people speaking English.

 

 

Another word that has a double meaning is volume. When working in science, I think of volume as the 3 dimensional space that a substance takes up. How many cups of flour or water used in baking bread is volume. How many cc of a medicine or a rock sample are also volume measurements. But what about sound volume?   This is another word to add to the list of double meanings that require some clarification if you get that look of ‘what are you talking about?’ Some places on the ship are quiet and others are so loud you must wear ear protection.

 

  

 

Operations on the JR are 24/7. Everyone has their 12 hour shift. I’m lucky – I work 6 am to 6 pm, because I have live broadcasts to school classes during daylight hours. Most everyone else starts and ends on the 12’s. Midnight to noon or noon to midnight. The sun rises at around 5:45 a.m. and sets at 5:45 p.m. or so. Everyone works during 6 hours of sunlight and 6 hours of darkness. The midnight to noon shift is called the night shift. The noon to midnight is the day shift. This is where my brain works differently than others. I have to think about this every time because night and day are not the names that come easily to me for these time periods.   I think the midnight to noon shift should be the morning shift – it is all a.m. and the noon to midnight shift should be the afternoon or night shift because it is all p.m. That is where the problem comes in. I think of night as p.m. and not a.m.

 

 

Photos

1. Clean hands before the first core comes up.  Colleagues from the US, Germany (originally from Costa Rica) and Portugal (orignially from France). 

2. Sampling Schedule

3 and 4. Notification so you know the volume of noise to expect.

5. Since the ship is traveling around the world, GMT is used to keep communications clear.