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Published: January 16th 2011
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I can’t believe I have been on the ship for almost 3 days already. But don’t worry I remember everything that happened so I will start at the beginning. First of all my stay in the Bahamas was amazing! I was sad to leave but also really excited to go on the ship. They loaded the ship in alphabetical order so I was one of the first ones on. After saying goodbye to my dad, I had to go through a security and bag check. Then I moved onto the passport, visa and yellow card check-table. After that was all done I really felt releived to finally get on the ship. But before I could do that I had to get my school id….sadly they used my visa photo (and for all of you that have seen that particular photo, you know why I am upset). The ship is absolutely amazing. I’ve never been on a ship so I think it is huge. Exploring was really fun and somehow I found my cabin, dining hall and pool. Our captain has a British accent so it’s really fun to hear him talk.
Anyways I live in a double on the 4th deck
(known as the Venus deck). Also my floors theme is the “red sea”. My roommate’s name is London and she is from California. The rooms are pretty small, but for a smaller sized ship, I think they are pretty spacious. We have a couple of drawers, a bathroom, fridge and closet. I definitely should have brought more clothes. I stuck to basics and all plain colors….but I now have an excuse to buy lots of clothing in the other countries. And Emily if you are reading this, just know that I only used 2 small drawers! Everyone I meet is really nice and outgoing on the ship. It’s really hard to not be able to use a cell phone to text or call people. Instead we all just wander around and bump into each other. I think I have eaten a meal with a different person every day. Everyone just kind of walks up to a table and asks to sits with you. It’s really nice! I like it better than a college campus because we are forced to just talk and hang out. I even brought out Bananagrams the first night here and multiple people just came over and starting playing with me. Later that night, all the students and faculty ran to the top edges of the boat and waved down to all the family and friends looking up at us at the boat dock. It was really cool but also really unreal. I think that was the first moment that I realized I cannot turn back lol….not that I wanted to. I guess it all just seems so crazy, I feel like I have been planning this trip forever. The food on the ship is okay, they pick really exotic things to put in their buffet. It seems to be salad, pasta and potatoes everyday (extreme carbs)!!! The water is the only thing that is really terrible because it tastes like chlorine….eww!!! The only thing I’m craving is chocolate. Sometimes they don’t even have dessert and if they do it is some sort of pudding.
Anyways, yesterday was orientation all day in a room called the Union. It’s like a lounge-styled auditorium. The problem was that the waves were really bad in that area of the ship and most kids got sick. I have been feeling sea sick since we left the Bahamas. I used the patch but I have no idea if it is working. I got to admit, it is getting better day by day and hour by hour. The first night we went through a storm so I was kinda stuck in bed. It’s really funny to walk down the hallways and see kids swaying when they walk and bang into things. It also makes you really dizzy as well.
Last night we signed up for clubs and organizations. I signed up for 3 different ones. One is a community service group, one is a sports group where you bring sports balls to children and play with them and the other group is called extended family. On the ship we have students, faculty and a group of people called life-long learners. They are anywhere from their 30’s to their 90’s. They audit classes and jut travel along with us. Some of them brought their kids too. Extended family is a group on the ship that matches you with one of the adults and they in a way “adopt you”. You buy each other gifts and have dinner with them.
Before my class started I bought my first Semester at Sea gear. I got a shirt that has a map of the world and our roots with all the countries flags. I also got a purple sweatshirt that just says Semester at Sea. I just got back from my first class which was Global Studies. It was taught in the Union (which sucked for me, because I felt sick the whole time). Somehow I managed to keep my eyes open and not have to leave.
So today was my 2nd day of classes. I had anthropology of the emergence of cities and then anthropology of ethnography. They were both very small classes, which I think will be a good thing. Other than that still getting all my paperwork in order with my side trips and hopefully planning an Amazon trip with some people on the ship. Good news is that my sea sickness is almost gone yay! Well tomorrow morning we dock in Dominica for 2 days, so when I get back I'll try to fill you all in.
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