An Unusual Day in the Neighborhood

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Blog Entry: An unusual day in the neighborhood.

We are officially 8 hours ahead of everyone back home! This makes it especially hard to contact everyone, but I am doing my best to count back 8 hours and predict what everyone is up to at home. The good news is that this is our last hour lost on the trip. From here on out, we will be gaining hours of sleep 😊 The down side to that is that the trip is close to halfway over!! Already??? Time flies when you're on a boat.

I learned today that this is the fastest ship in the world.... I've heard from many sources that this is true... I find it hard to believe, but she is small, and she is fast! I should turn that into "Rumor Ranger". The Rumor Ranger is a part of the "Dean's Memo" that is sent out to us everyday. News travels fast here on this little ship and Rumor Ranger helps monitor things. We can send in questions or rumors that we've heard and the Rumor Ranger will respond. Some of the questions are completely ridiculous. One person heard that the yellow melon they serve at breakfast is old watermelon that's lost it's color.... Dumb.... But there are also some that are legitimate, like someone asking whether or not it was true a girl was left at the Bosnian border when we were ported in Croatia because she was from another country and didn't have a double visa to get back into Croatia... That was true! I would have never believed it, so I guess we learn a lot from the RR 😊

At the preport meeting tonight, they showed us the slideshows/videos that are posted on the Semester at Sea website. We saw the one from our trip to Italy and it was amazing! You have to watch some. The people featured are people that I interact with everyday if you would like a sampling. Just go to semesteratsea.org and click on Summer 2009 Voyage at the bottom. There should be a link to view slideshows of our journey. The photographer is very experienced and takes beautiful pictures and puts together some pretty cool slideshows. Check it out!

Greece is finally here! In 6 hours that is.... My friends and I finally finalized our plans for the island of Santorini (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants location). Apparently it's the most beautiful island in all of Europe... I'll be the judge of that! No, but I'm sure it will be nothing less than gorgeous. It will be Rachel, Becca, Lindsay (someone I've never traveled with) and myself on an early ferry the second day at port. Then we return the last day. That means tomorrow is the only day we will have to explore Athens.... I have an FDP with my Poly Theory class called "Athens and the Acropolis" More on that later. But this isn't until the afternoon. I plan on spending my morning hunting down an external hard drive for my pictures. I have ZERO memory left on my computer and am in desperate need of some more GB. Hopefully the hospitality at the front desk will be able to tell me where to find one... (I should have brought one, Kyle!) Wish me luck!

Today was Semester at Sea Olympics! More importantly, NO CLASS! What a treat. It was a nice break from the having to cram for classes with only one or two days at sea in between countries. We were teamed up by floor/even/odds and given a "Sea" name. We were the Baltic Sea or the third floor even rooms. We unfortunately lost, which means we won't be the first ones off the boat. But is was still worth it! Events ran all day and multiple at a time, so the ship was high in spirits. In our opening ceremony, our captians ran the torch around the union and everyone presented their banner and Sea chant! It was crazy!!! Each Sea had a different bright color to represent. I competed in Pictionary and we did very well for a few rounds and then I did a Relay Race. I had to fill in for someone for the first leg of the race..... BAD IDEA! I was the ONLY one out of ALL of the Seas to drop the ping pong ball off of the spoon.... and I did it TWICE... we lost major points for that... sorry guys, it was the wind. But all in all, it was a great day of friendly competition and lots of ship bonding. The crew put on another barbeque for us after the closing ceremony up on the top deck. A nice change of cafeteriea food pace! The WHOLE DAY was a nice change of pace 😊

It's 2:10 am and I still have plenty to do before Greece. Unfortunately, I can't pack. Our Sea had laundry day a couple of days ago and there are too many bags for the crew to get done in a day! This was our Sea's 2nd laundry day and the first one most of us skipped because it was so early in the voyage... $6 a bag... they probably made bank! So let's pray for clean clothes outside my door tomorrow morning or else, I'll be going naked to Santorini.... I kid, I kid.

Ta ta for now!

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Comments

[Dad]

Greece is the word.
We have been talking about Greece a lot the last few days. Carol and Sandy from Colorado have been with us since Sunday when Diane had her eighth grade class reunion. We had a great time. Diane made jello shots! There were many interesting people, including a Polish mail-order bride with enhanced extremities. She was really nice, her husband arrogant. Santorini is the home of some of the oldest and most beautiful wall paintings ever discovered during an archeological dig, including proof that some of Moses's Isrealites migrated there after the Red Sea episode ( actually a tzunami ) some 3,000 years ago. Take a shovel. Love you, Dad S