Date: 22.03.2021
Author: Martha
Position: On the way home
Geo. Pos.: 42°32,7 N; 23°36,2W

Since Costa Rica I live in Cabin 11a together with Nora, Sophia E. and Finja. In this time we haven’t just become very good friends, we are a little family in our cabin. There are just some things which are typical for cabin 11a. But first I want to introduce you to my lovely cabin mates:

Finja

Finja was my cabin mate from the beginning on. Most of the time we came along really well. We are both really messy people, so she doesn’t have a problem with me being chaotic.
She is a really good person to live with. If you are sad, she is going to make you laugh. If you are not feeling well, she will take care of you. Since Costa Rica we are in the same watch. When we need to get up in the middle of the night, she always gives me some motivation or a kick in my butt, so I get up.

Nora

Nora has also been mine and Finjas room mate from the beginning on. In the beginning the three of us didn’t get along really well. Nora was always unhappy with Finja and me not caring about how messy our cabin was. She always tried to tell us to clean, but we weren’t really listening to that. Since Costa Rica Finja, Nora and me get along so much better and since Panama we hang out in our cabin together nearly every evening and have a lot of fun together.
If you live with Nora, you will always have a person you can talk to or you can just lay around with her and cry if you are not feeling well (she will even listen to Harry Styles with you or to German rap if you prefer that 🙂

Sophia E.

Sophia is our newest cabin mate, though she lived in cabin 11a for the longest time. She is also sometimes a little bit messy – not as messy as Finja, but still messy.
If you need something, you can always come to her and she will help you out.  She is always up for doing funny stuff. We became really good friends even before we came into cabin 11a. You can always come up into her bed, listen to music together and talk with her.

What is typical for Cabin 11a?

An open door (most of the time)

Our door always stands open for our ship mates. Most of the time, it is not only us sitting in our cabin and talking, we have visitors sitting on the floor or on Noras or my bed. Often, we just sit around and talk about the gossip on board or we share our food with them or they bring something with them.
Finja also started a tradition with our visitors: Sometimes people come into our cabin and Nora wouldn’t want that they sit on her bed. If this happens, Finja takes a polaroid with my camera and hangs it up on our wall. When Nora saw the polaroids, she was laughing but still said that she never wants them to sit or lay in her bed again… if she only knew.

Our door signs

The signs were not really a cabin 11a thing. Finja and I already bought them back in Marin (Spain), when we were still living in cabin 10.
One of them says „Se Vende“. It is just a sign which you put in front of your house if you want to sell it. We wrote the price, 602 bars of chocolate and our phone numbers on it. When we moved in cabin 11a we just added Sophias phone number. The other sign is a „cuidado con el pero“-sign (beware of the dog). We crossed out the pero and wrote Nora instead. There is nothing I want to add to this 🙂

No bathroom

We are the only student cabin without a bathroom, that’s why we have to use the dog kennels. We share them with our cook, the engineer, the teachers, the doctor and the bosuns.
Usually there are two showers and two toilets. Since about one month one of the toilets is broken. We can still use the shower in that bathroom. That makes the other toilet the only toilet for all of us, that’s why we don’t use the shower in that bathroom. Means we have only one toilet and one shower for twelve people.
Some students, which have a shower in their cabin, still prefer the dog kennels. So it is always us being really annoyed and telling everyone to use their own shower. The only thing we get from telling them is getting laughed at, sadly.

The sock

Since our first days in this cabin, there is a sock which is flying around. Whatever you do at some point, this sock will find it’s way into your hand. Each time you just throw it onto one bed which is not yours and forget about that sock. Some days later, you will find that sock on your bed, because the other ones threw it just on your bed. We talked about that sock a few times, everyone says it is not theirs. It still lives in our cabin.

Cabin 11a evenings

You can imagine the conversations, how they start like this:
Finja and me are just lying around in our beds and talk about anything. Nora is writing in her diary.
Finja: Nora, we are bored…
Nora: Guys, I really need to write my diary!
Martha: Come on Noriiii, talk to us!
Nora takes out both of her headphones makes a big Seufzer and says „so, ihr habt zehn Minuten…“
In the end we take about two hours from her time. During those two hours, Finja talks a lot of shit and I perform some songs for Nora and Finja.
At some point Nora turns around in her bed and says she wants to sleep now. Then Finja often leaves the cabin and I start writing my diary.

Some 11a quotes

Woher stammt es?
-Finja
 
Ich fuß dich!
-Martha
 
Baby, Baby, es gibt Reis!
-Helge Schneider
 
Die Socken wohnen jetzt unterm Waschbecken!
-Finja
 
Auf dem Boden liegen Disposalbags
Finja: Was heißt eigentlich disposal
Nora: Irgendwas mit entsorgen.
Finja: Nora, du hast Watch, geh dich mal disposaln!
 
Knabberleiste schrubben und dann Matratzenhorchdienst!
-Finja

Slowly we are all realizing that our time is nearly over…
We are all happy to see our families again, but I know that I will miss living with those three.

They are part of my family as well. In the beginning it was a little bit hard for me to share my private space with other people. With the time I didn’t just get used to it, I am really grateful to have them around. Sometimes we are annoyed by each other, especially when it comes to laundry day or who is hovering our room, but in the end we all know that we can rely on each other.

So, letzter Daily report ist geschrieben, danke an meine Cabin für eure Mithilfe 🙂

Ich grüße meine Familie, ich freue mich ganz doll euch bald wieder zu sehen und euch dann ganz viel von meiner Reise berichten zu können.