a quick hello--

hi all! today has been a relaxing day so far, and hopefully it stays that way. we lost another hour of sleep last night, so getting up for class is becoming increasingly hard. i started my morning with breakfast outside on the 6th deck, where is was quite humid. global studies was next, and i am trying hard to like it. essentially we have our gandalf-like teacher and then all the other professors give presentations too. my language professor gave a brief talk about pidgin and creole languages, which went over most people's heads. i could follow, but its not the easiest subject to understand off the bat. i sat in the union today, which most definitely helped keep me awake. i think the coffee helped too. :)

i have been planning my trip around spain all day with a girl named cassie and a few other girls. we are looking to make the most out of our stay, and will attempt to see cadiz (the port), sevilla, cordoba and granada in 6 days/ 5 nights. we were lucky to meet the interport lecturer from uva, who is obsessed with spain. he recommended several websites, places to see and restaurants. he even helped us with our spanish. i must say, that though i took spanish from 7th grade through freshman year of college, i am certainly rusty. more on the trip plans later :)

had a decent lunch, salad (lettuce, cucs and carrots) as usual and a few french fries. i am definitely missing our dining hall at unh. we are also starting to plan our trips for the following countries, and trying to figure out a way to the great wall in china. cassie emailed her mom to look up flights for us, so hopefully they are in our price range: cheap!

i am now heading up to the 7th deck to read for my next class at 1455, because i just found out that there will be a quiz! yikes. hope its basic!

xo

this is the life.

i've only been on the ship for a little over 48 hours, and somehow that feels like an eternity. i dont quite know why that is, possibly because there is no real concept of time or because there has been so much packed in.

to briefly recap last night, i ate dinner with mckendree and a couple from south africa. gus and sue lived in south africa but are now in virginia, where gus is a chemistry professor. sue is "on vacation," as gus likes to point out. they are avid travelers and know a great deal about africa. it was wonderful to chat with them and learn about their lives. they have a daughter who moved to fairfield, ct to work in the city but fell in love and now teaches are in bridgeport. so silly.

we also had an inaugural celebration, complete with decorations, "champagne" and cake! the deans made a few remarks and we listened to some fun dancing music. it was great to celebrate such an important occasion, and according to the news, we were not alone in our celebrations :)

today marked the first day of classes on the ship, and boy is that a new experience. i had class 0800-0915, 0920-1035 and 1045-1200. it is certainly a challenge to take notes, listen & not be rocked to sleep. i had the chance to sit in several different rooms, and i can't say that being in the front or aft of the ship makes classes any easier. our school store also opened today, and you would have thought that people had never seen a store before. i bought a sweatshirt and a lanyard.(for my id, even though i have a ton at home that i forgot to bring.) i am debating going and getting another one, as the rumors say once they are out of stock, they are all gone. there is a really cute sweatshirt that says SAS in polka dots, and i may just have to get one of those too. after saving for so long and not shopping (or, not shopping too often), its odd to just spend money.

english as a global language was my first course, and there is a lone male in the class (aside from the professor) which is a change from most of my comm-dis classes at home. prof thomas has several trips planned and the one i find most interesting is the one in chennai, india. we will be visiting a company that answers phone calls, like the insurance company or something. it will be interesting to see where all the outsourcing of american jobs has gone to and the english training that the indian workers must go through to be successful.

global studies is a strange course, and i'm not sure how i like it. since everyone is required to attend, all other activities are closed down during class time. we heard about some current events from our prof who reminds me of gandalf from lord of the rings. he has john lennon style glasses, long bleached hair and skater shoes. and he's probably nearing 60. very peculiar but has a sense of humor which helps. i watched the class from a satellite room, but i think i'll need to find a seat in the union so as to better pay attention.

languages of the world may be my favorite thus far. we have a rather large class (30), and some lifelong learners are sitting in with us as well. we all went around and told what languages we know and what we have been exposed to. so many of the students in the class are very well traveled, and it highlights the two extreme types of kids on the ship. those with money and not a care in the world and those who worked very hard to get here and to finally begin seeing the world. this class has a great field trip planned for south africa that includes a trip to the afrikaans language museum and a subsequent wine tour.

all in all classes went smoothly and i had a chance to lay outside and enjoy the gorgeous sun. its hard to believe that this is my life for the next 4 months. its still such a dream.

after a nice leisurely afternoon, had some dinner with a lovely group of girls and then went to the activity fair. i think just about everyone signed up for the "ship family," where students are placed with other students,  lifelong learners, professors & staff to meet with and get to know. i hope they have enough people to make the program happen, as it has had great reviews.

we stayed in the union after that and ended up talking to the executive dean, les mccabe. he is a really neat down to earth man who is passionate about semester at sea. he began hearing about sas in the 80's, when his two friends went on the trip and wrote him letters of all the things they'd been doing. he was determined to get himself on a voyage but didn't have the money. so after he graduated he asked semester at sea what he could do and they told him that he could be a resident director, as long as he got a masters degree. so he did just that and went on his first voyage. he was also responsible for the road rules challenge that took place on the ship in the late 90's. it was great chatting with him about his experiences, the storm story episode and his family. he has a 16 year old daughter and 14 year old son on board with him (and his wife) and this is their 5th semester journey. boy am i jealous of that. he also talked about his friendship with desmond tutu, and how he is trying to get him on ship when we are in south africa.

i am now in my room, i've turned back my clock (again) and i am watching to kill a mockingbird on the closed channel tv. i am feeling very tired today, which is also a symptom of seasickness, apparently. so we are now 2 hours ahead of the east coast. we learned today though, that the time changes are arbitrary, because we dont always cross the lines overnight. i guess the captain can just instate time changes whenever he pleases.

we have a trip lottery coming up, so i need to make some decisions soon. i have been trying to get an idea of what people are doing in spain, as i dont have much of a game plan yet. (barcelona/madrid are out of the question, as they are just too far). talks have begun to figure out getting ourselves to granada, which seems to be the only thing people have agreed upon. off to bed now, class in the morning and then my nutrition class, which will be taught by the academic dean, reg garrett. hope its good!


thank you all for your comments! i really love reading them. i have tried to get service with my phone, but being 800 miles away from land makes it impossible. i'm going to try and post on here as often as possible, maybe by typing outside in the sun :) please keep me updated on your lives, i think of all of you often!

xo

in the middle of the atlantic--

 

hi all!

 

this email is coming to you from the atlantic ocean! we are about 300 miles off the coast of the bahamas, which we left at around 5 last night. we still have around 3000 miles left to get to spain, which will be the 28th, i believe.

 

anyways, here is a little update on ship life thus far, seeing as we are just getting the hang of the internet.

 

sunday night was the last night in the bahamas and it was great fun. we had dinner at a local restaurant called the twin brothers upon recommendation from all the locals we'd met. fish fry restaurants are popular, along with rum, so we figured we'd venture out of town a little to see what the less touristy areas had to offer. we took the local #10 bus to a strip of probably 20 restaurants. we had heard all day about conch, the local favorite that is found inside those big shells. i'm not exactly sure what a conch looks like, but i ate some! we ordered the conch salad, which was basically a citrusy salsa with chunks of conch (pronounced "konk"). i didnt like it, the texture was wayyyy too chewy/rubbery for my taste. and then came a "miami vice" drink, which was rum + pina colada & strawberry daquiri mix. i think it would have been better without the alcohol, it was like sherbert. for dinner, the girls and i ordered steamed snapper, which our waitress warned us was still whole. and yessss it was. eyes and tails and bones. it was a little fishy for my taste, but good nonetheless. it also came with a side of plantains which taste like banana chips. after making some interesting friends who talked to us about their rasta lifestyles, we made a quick exit and walked back to town. after a drink at the hotel from a 'uncle phil' (a crazy old guy who had a tab for all the semester at sea kids who would be on the ship with his nephew) we headed out to crazy senor frogs. it had been essentially taken over by SAS, which was nice because we met so many people. it was also so much fun to dance :)

 

yesterday, monday, was a long and crazy day.

i was up early and out of the hotel, dragging my 100 lb luggage through the streets of nassau to the ships dock. it was quite the pilgramage. i was all checked in and on the ship around 9 to find out that i was living with mckendree (who i jsut so happened to stay with in nassau) and that i have a porthole! we are on the lowest level (for students to live on) in the ship, so there are about 70 of us. we have a circle porthole, which apparently distinguishes us from the more expensive square portholes just one floor above us. after getting settled we walked around nassau for one last time getting some souveniers, lunch and one last starbucks before boarding the ship for good. we had a mandatory life boat drill; had to put on sneakers/pants/longsleeves and stand in the dining hall for instructions. i guess it went smoothly, or so they have told us. at 5p we left nassau. it was so crazy- everyone was out on the deck waving off the side to families on the dock. it was the strangest emotion, standing on my home for the next four months and having it be so surreal. we all keep saying that; its so corny, but its true. so many kids i've talked to have been planning this trip for so long, that for it to finally be here is so hard to believe. dinner followed and we ate outside, watching the sun set. it was breathtaking and i can't wait for more. afterwards we had a meeting in the union (which is too small for everyone, so they broadcast it to the classrooms as well), where we met the deans of the voyage and their families. there are quite a few kids on the ship, ranging from 10 months to 16; some of whom are on their 5th voyages as family members. a quick aegean sea meeting followed and we headed off to bed. (the aegean sea is our floor, which will compete against the other seas in the sea olympics later on in the semester). i used a half of my sea-sickness patch and i think its helping a little. there is definitely a motion in the ocean, and it feels really choppy. i am not feeling sick but it is definitely unsettling, especially on the higher decks. i slept well and got up bright and early again to get moving.

 

today has been interesting. i used the shower, which is a challenge when you are rocking back and forth the whole time, hitting the wall, etc. we had a quick breakfast and then into more meetings. we met all the professors, learned about global studies, how to use the internet/library/resources on board, the UVA honor code, health and safety, how to learn in this environment and tonight we'll hear about the field programs. even more important than all that is that we got to watch a live feed of the inaugaration. everyone had to cooperate to make it work: no using the internet so that the whole feed could go to the video stream. it was so amazing to watch president obama, listen to his speech and to know that i can tell my kids/grandkids that i was sailing on my voyage, in the atlantic, when our historic 44th president came into office. everyone was clapping & cheering the whole time, and there were definitely some tears. we are going to have an inaugaration party tonight (with champagne?!) to celebrate, which should be fun. i'm looking forward to it.

 

tomorrow marks our first day of classes! yikes! i have them 8-12 & then i'll be done for the day. the bookstore also opens tomorrow, so i would love to get in there early and grab a sweatshirt before they are all gone, as the rumor is that once they are sold out, thats it. we also begin losing time tonight, as we will for the next 5 days or so, to be on-time for spain. yikesssss.

 

 

i just also wanted to take some space here to let you all know that i am thinking of you, wishing you all could be here to experience this with me, and to let you know how thankful i am for your support.

 

 

 

xo

getting ready to drag my bags down to the port! wish me luck!

no more snow---

time for some sun & sand!

here i am on the beach! we spent the day at paradise island, had a beer on the beach & now we're back in the room re-grouping and showering before dinner. we got some wine/beer to drink in the room so we don't have to pay a ton of money for drinks at the bars, which are wayyyy overpriced for college girls on a budget. we are going to try and find a fish fry restaurant we heard about for some dinner. i'm feeling very relaxed today and its actually really nice to not keep checking the time, to wander around without a schedule and to just take it all in. the girls i'm rooming with, caitlin & mckendree are super nice. we had a really relaxing morning, with a simple continental breakfast in the lobby and then just meandering around nassau.


here is our very first glimpse of the mv explorer, our home for the next four months. it was so surreal to see the ship in person, i got goosebumps. to think off all the work it took to get here and now i just get to enjoy it.


here is a better picture of the ship, taken from our lovely island shuttle. its bigger then i expected, but it still looks tiny next to the carnival ships!




heading out! xo
*if you click the pictures, they will open & you can see them nice & big :)

in the bahamas!

i'm here! i'm in the hotel with my nice roommates, just hanging out. i made it here with no issues, we landed here early. aside from the babies/families surrounding me on the plane, the flight wasnt bad. customs here was really relaxed too, and i found my bags quickly. i waited at the airport for about an hour with a girl i met on the flight and took a cab to the hotel together. we then walked around nassau and savored the last sun of the day. the island is gorgeous and i definitely want to vacation here. we got some dinner and drinks at senor frogs, where we watched some cruise ships come and go. the explorer isnt here yet, it'll be making it's entrance at about 5 am. we then headed back to the hotel and hung out for a bit while waiting for my roommates. we walked around area briefly and decided on senor frogs for tomorrow night, which will be crazy.

off to bed!

love & miss you all!

1 day, 17 hours til the ship leaves nassau!

here we go--

i leave for the airport in a little over an hour.

yikes.

i got to see a bunch of friends last night, which was nice. packing is all set! my bags are zipped and hopefully are not overweight. if they are, i plan on taking out my textbooks and putting them in my carry-on, though that is getting heavy as well. i think i've done everything, and i hope i have enough clothes!

i'm too scattered this morning, so i should go.

my plane leaves at 12 and i should be in the bahamas around 330 or so. then i'm checking into the hotel and waiting for my roommates to arrive. i think i'll probably nap until they get there, or just relax in the room. hopefully they'll want to go out when they get there-- i feel like we should.

i'll try to post on here as much as possible, but the internet will prove to be a challenge.

i'll miss you all! email & keep me posted on your lives!


heading off to jump in with both feet & praying it'll be worth it, though i know it will!


just a few HOURS til the bahamas
& about 48 hours until i'm on the mv explorer!



* by the way, its currently negative 9 degrees here. and its 68 in nassau!!