My First Day on the Ship

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We were informed tonight that we are on a “ship,” not a boat and a “voyage,” not a cruise. So all of you will refer to my educational voyage as such from here on out, even though I fully expect it to have many similarities to a party boat/cruise. I am actually here, sitting on my bed, in my room, gently rocking back and forth in the waves (luckily no sea sickness yet) and listening to the sweet rumble of the engines (they are just below my room). Mimi, I am pretty sure you would request a room change! I am going to look at it as part of this experience and I would laugh if by the end I need the sound to sleep to.

I am in a room with three other girls; it is a quad. We have two separate rooms and share one bathroom, which could get interesting. I feel like I have a pretty good amount of space, definitely more than I was expecting and definitely enough to live comfortably. My roommates seem very nice, although it is just the first day and everyone is to be on their best behavior, so we will come back to this as I learn more about them.

Today we just spent the day getting settled in and really it was rather slow. We just had an introduction meeting where all the different academic deans spoke (I know there is only one, but it just seemed as if there were several) and the professors and staff were introduced. Tomorrow we start orientation and the following day we start classes.

Halifax, Nova Scotia was fun. We got in around 3 p.m. (15:00) Halifax time (it is one hour ahead of EST), then had about a half -hour taxi ride into the city. We shared the taxi with another girl on this trip and her mother, who did this trip in 1970. She gave us some great advice that included to be sure that if we fall overboard that we swim away from the boat as fast as we can (I had not considered falling overboard and will hope that it does not happen). Later we just wandered around, down to the waterfront, where we scoped out the ship and had dinner, followed by coffee from a shop that was not STARBUCKS! We retired early because I had to be here at 8 a.m. this morning to get on the boat. So that brings us all the way through the last twenty-four hours and now I am planning on getting some reading done and some serious sleep. We have to eat breakfast everyday between 7:30 and 8:30. Good-bye sleeping in until 11 a.m.

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