pictures

im going to do my best to try and get pictures up but no promises. its hard to figure this technology out. i have a ton of great shots but they may have to wait!

side notes:
1. amanda, i tried calling you and i cant get the number to work. it may be my error but i dont know. i tried though and i really do want to figure it out.

2. i cannot check my ship email from off the ship, so if its superrr important, send things along to my google email.

3. no monkeys, unfortunately. there are a whole lot of cute and well dressed puppies that would fit nicely into my bag!

4. we are bunkering in gibraltar so hopefully we see monkeys from the ship!

miss you all & thank you for all the love!

in spain

having an INCREDIBLE time in spain --- loving it.

 

off to see a soccer game & hit the bars, the sangria is calling :)

 

 

miss &love you! adios!

we're here!

okay, a super fast hi to everyone!

we watched the ship pull into port at around 7 this morning and we just got an announcement that the ship has been cleared!
so now we are all feeling frantic and trying to get ourselves together and get off the ship!

so crazy!

sleep tight  & i'll post again soon!

xo

twas the night before spain..

so its about 0220a here on the ship and i can't say i know how it got this late. i do know that i am only awake because of my awesome nap today :) we are now officially on spain time, a whole 6 hours ahead of the east coast. word on the ship is that land will be visible beginning at 0600 and we will be docked in spain at 0800.

its so crazy!

i'll be on another continent tomorrow! someone pinch me, please.

throughout the trip i have occasionally found myself getting frustrated with the state of life on the ship, or feeling cranky over limited food choices. but, as we were reminded tonight by dean mccabe, we need to be mindful of just how lucky we are. we are going to be IN spain, tomorrow! (and there will be pallets of food brought on the ship-- yay fresh fruit!)

we had our logistical pre-port tonight and got several reminders for being off ship. some reminders were funny-- no bringing fresh fruit or pocket monkeys back on the ship. (true story: a boy smuggled a pocket monkey through security. there are rumors as to the fate of the little guy, but i'd rather not know.) other reminders were more serious-- if you are mugged, don't fight and to always watch out for eachother. we said goodbye to david gies tonight, who we are all most certainly in love with, and he confirmed that he will be the academic dean for the fall 2010 voyage (interested, andrew?) we also got a picture with him & his email :)

plans have been checked, confirmed, filed with sas and double checked with all the girls. we have found some boys to travel with & know that nearly the whole ship will be in sevilla and that the hostel we are staying in is completely booked.

mckendree and i tried to pack tonight. that was a challenge. the forecast is 60 degrees and chances of rain. we are each trying to limit ourselves to a single backpack and purse while also accomodating 2-3 days off the ship. our mentality quickly became, "if we forget or need something; buy it." i'm liking that thought process. i think i'm all packed, have all my gadgets charged and am looking forward to espana!



okay, so now its late. i'm not sure if i'll blog between now and saturday, so don't hold your breath. :) just look forward to a long one about spain! i'll be careful, take tonsssss of pictures and be thinking of all of you!

xo, laura


ps. i just saw an email from unh -- enjoy your snow day!

what to do in spain?

hi all, i'm back on again.

we have plans for spain! six girls and i are heading to sevilla. we will be in spain from wednesday through saturday. the game plan is as follows:

weds 28 jan : arrive in port @0800. we have no idea when we will be off the ship, but the plan is to head to the train/bus station as soon as we can. we will probably buy our tickets to sevilla, make a stop at the mall and walk around cadiz. from 1330-1830 i have the city orientation of cadiz. we will be walking around and seeing all the sites. i'll be on this tour with a girl named andrea who goes to university of san diego. we will be sleeping on the ship.

thurs 29 jan : up early, possible breakfast on the ship. bus/train to sevilla, which will take under 2 hours. a large number of sas kids will be heading to sevilla, so i'm sure we'll run into people. spend the day in sevilla, seeing the sights and taking everything in. stay over night in the oasis backpacker's hostel. the hostel is 15 euro a night which works out to 20 USD and includes lockers, breakfast & free internet.

fri 30 jan : possible day trip to cordoba. david, our interport lecturer, said this is a must. it takes 45 minutes to get from sevilla to cordoba so we will try to make it over there. spend the second night in sevilla; same hostel.

sat 31 jan : up early & head back to cadiz. return to the ship and then spend some time in cadiz before on-ship time at 1800. hopefully we will make use of an internet cafe and i can finally upload a picture or two.


it is so very hard to believe how close we are to spain! the dean's memo today announced that we had less than 800 miles to go as of 1200. everyone on the ship is definitely getting excited and we are ready to go. after the presentation about food in spain, we are all so ready to get off the ship and eat! we have lists of places to go and things to do, but i know we will have fun no matter what we end up doing.

after spain we only have one day on the ship and then we have 4 days in morocco! i don't have plans there yet, but most people don't. there are independant travel groups forming already, so i'll see what they have to offer. i think a night in marrakech is a must, but i would definitely be okay staying in casablanca.


today we had another global studies lecture with david, who is fast becoming everyone's favorite lecturer. he said that it was tough to get up and that it is "death by one hour a night," which is definitely the sentiment on the ship at 0900. but then we just remember exactly what it is we are doing and we all quit the complaining. i did lots of reading for my nutrition class which is becoming a full on biology class, which i wasn't completely expecting. sure, i know nutrition has to do with science, but he uses such big words! we had a nice dinner and chatted with the videographer who gave us good tips so that we'd end up on the videos. :P . i also caved and got a small soft serve cone from the snack bar. i wanted to hold out longer but i just needed a little pick-me-up. it definitely fit the bill, i just don't want to make it a habit and spend perfectly good money on snacks all the time. as a result the girls and i have decided that grocery shopping is a must in spain & morocco so that we can have snacks to hold us through the 8 day journey to namibia.

tonight marked our first cultural pre-port presentation. starting the night off was david, who we will all miss. his jokes keep us all awake! all the presenters talked about different aspects of spain and the culture. david discussed the different autonomous regions and then played jeopardy with some of spain's most famous festivals. turns out he was actually on jeopardy! then came a man who was so nervous and monotone that no one could follow. i know he mentioned francisco franco but thats about all i caught. the final presenter was a man who discussed flamenco and played some music for us. it was interesting, to be polite. all in all, everyone learned something. tomorrow we will have our last day of classes until after morocco and our logistical pre-port meeting. during that presentation we will learn what to do, which atm's to use, shopping etiquette and a list of don'ts.

all in all it has been a long day and we are now a whole 6 hours ahead of east coast! so its, uh, 2330. it has been much much more rocky and i think it is because we are going much slower, so the ship is lower in the water. regardless, i am feeling a little under the weather. i didn't get to nap today since i was doing homework, so its off to bed now. lets just hope nothing goes flying off the night table with all the rocking.

miss you all!

weekend update :)

 

good morning! it has been a busy couple of days & with only 23 hours to work with, we are all feeling a little rough. i keep trying to remind myself that i will be glad to be on spain time once we are there, but waking up doesnt get any easier.

 

a few nights back, er, friday, was open mic night. this was a great way to spend the evening. so many kids on the ship are super talented. we had a special performance from 4 year old christopher in his captain's suit. he was precious and sang a little song about love. so cute. they even joked that he is the first person to put down a deposit for a 2026 voyage :) there was a lot of guitar playing, sing alongs and even a melodica. it was so much fun.

 

saturday we had class. that's a new one. classes went well and we had an explorer seminar on food in spain. this was led by david gies, a super smart professor who is quite the expert on spain. he has written 13 or so books and was knighted in spain. he had a great sense of humor, told us where to find the best wine and gave a really entertaining presentation. he also provided a cheat sheet of spanish terms which should help us all out.

 

sunday, yesterday, was also a class day. funny enough, however, it didn't feel like a sunday. usually at school the weekend can't come soon enough. here, however, no one quite feels like we need a weekend yet. i woke up late for my class and got there just in time. all this time changing is starting to catch up. i got through my classes, had a really interesting lunch and took a serious 3 hour nap. it was definitely needed.

 

after dinner there was another explorer seminar with a documentary. the filmmaker was there and he was able to answer questions about the documentary afterwards. called, "finding face," the documentary covered acid violence in southeast asia. it was a very powerful story following a young cambodian woman who has been unable to get justice in her country and recieved asylum in the united states. marina was only 15 when she got involved with the undersecretary of state of cambodia. she didn't know he was married. when she found out, he abused her and threatened her family. the undersecretary's wife found out and searched for her. they found marina in a market and beat her to unconsciousness and then doused her with acid. over 100 people witnessed the attack. all the witnesses could point out the attacker and yet no one, to this day, has been arrested or tried in her case. that was 1999. the story went on to discuss how her family has dealt with the attack, marina's care at shriner's in boston and how her life is now. this attack, because it was so publicized, led to a rise of acid attacks in other countries. the film was heartwrenching. afterwards, the filmmaker discussed why the film has not yet been released. apparently, even to this day, marina's family is at risk in cambodia and the release of the film would certainly result in retaliation from the undersecretary. we were only the second audience to see the film. they are working on releasing the film but the safety of her family is the priority.

 

we lost another hour of sleep last night, and sunrise was not until 0830. i got to see it while eating breakfast, which was so nice. i'm off to global studies, which has been much more fun the past two days. we have had david gies leading lecture, which makes it fun. i think all of you should be sleeping now, as its only 0400 on the east coast.

 

missing you all!

two days til spain! :)

thoughts---

i just wanted to say a quick hi before i take a nap! i appreciate all of your comments and emails so much! they always seem to make me laugh and i always look forward to checking my emails. i think i will be sticking to blogging as my main form of communication, as its by far the easiest. if you ever want to simply email, i like that too :) lebeard@semesteratsea.net

so thats it for now! things are getting busier! thank you so much for reading! i'm so glad you are enjoying it. :)