Sailing the Atlantic Ocean: Next Stop, Cadiz

Tuesday, January 20

Today is the second day on board the M.V. Explorer for Semester at Sea! And I can honestly say that it is amazing, well minus the sea sickness. But that only lasted a couple of hours, and then the ship pretty much just rocked me to sleep. The Bahamas was absolutely beautiful. Quite a difference going from 5 degree weather to 75 degree weather. The people in the Bahamas were so nice too! Once I landed in the Bahamas I checked into the Atlantis where I was staying with Jaclyn, and just walked around. The water was so clear and greenish/blue, unlike anything I've ever seen. We went to a nice place for dinner and then went to Senor Frog's to meet people from Semester at Sea and had an awesome time. The next morning though wasn't so nice, having to board the ship at 8AM. Everyone had so many bags and it actually didn't take THAT long to get on the ship, but it was still pretty early. Once we got on the ship, it still wasn't real...that we had finally come to our destination. We had several orientation meetings and met people living on the same deck as us.

Today we continue our orientation meetings. We also got to watch the inauguration because they were able to broadcast it in the Union and the classrooms and our cabins. So that was a nice little surprise. ANd then tonight, they are hosting an inauguration party which should be fun. Classes start tomorrow which will be nice to meet more people. We are currently sailing in the Atlantic Ocean and it's crazy that the only thing we will be seeing for the next 9 days is OCEAN. We arrive in Spain on Jan. 29, and I will be traveling to Cordoba and Sevilla. Miss everybody, and hope all is well back in the States.




Wednesday January 21, 2009

Last night we had an inauguration party for the whole ship. It was really nice to have cake and they gave us champagne also. I mean, it wasn't really champagne, it was alcohol removed, so maybe it was more considered cider, lol. But our Executive Dean gave a nice speech about the inauguration and Obama. The speech was given in the Union, and the Union is at the front of the ship so it was definently rocky to say the least. One of my friends, Craig couldn't even sit in the room it was too much. After the speech we were feeling rough from the waves so we went to the top deck to get some fresh air. A lot of people were up there, and we decided to play cards. It got a little windy and was starting to rain, so we went inside and watched a movie. We hit a few big waves last night and I think we hit a small storm, but I guess I was just too tired to even notice. Today started the first day of classes. We went to another time zone last night so we lost an hour. This morning I had Global Studies at 920, which is a mandatory class for everybody on the ship. I have another class again at 1215.


Thursday, January 22, 2009

Still going strong. We've sailed a little over 1300 miles from the Bahamas, I think. Still got about 6 days left to sail, and I think they said 2300 miles, but I'm not positive about that. We had our second day of classes today, our B classes. I had three today, and they were pretty interesting. The time changes have started to catch up with though for sure. We've lost two hours, and still lose four more, over the course of the next four nights.

We had our first "Pub" night last night, where they allow you two alcoholic drinks at dinner from 1730-1930 (530-730 for all you non-military timers, ha), and then four drinks from 2100-2300 (9-11). Everybody just hung out by the pool and the bar and played cards and socialized and what not. The weather was beautiful yesterday, it was about 78 degrees outside, and I laid out for like 2 hours after my class on the top deck while sailing in the middle of the Atlantic, no big deal.

People had so much to say about the food on the ship, that it was bad, and it's all the same and blah blah. Um, I don't know what they were smoking, but I actually like the food alot. They have so many different things for lunch and dinner and I can honestly say that some of the food here is better than at home. (sorry Mom).

As for classes, I don't think I've quite grasped the concept that I actually have to do work on this amazing adventure, but it will hit me soon enough, probably around midterms.

Last night they had an activities fair which had a few things that we could sign up to help with, some more interesting than others. I signed up to help with the Sea Olympics, and hopefully a few of us are going to get a Volleyball team together, which honestly could go either way, knowing my coordination. But that's pretty much it for now. Hope everyone is doing well!