I'm on a boat! Actually, it's a ship.

This is blogging take two for the day, since the first time I tried to send it from my email I got kicked off the server and it all got erased.  This time I think I got smart and am typing it as a word document first (did I mention I’m writing it poolside between classes?) so hopefully it all goes ok.

So much has changed since last time I wrote I don’t even know where to start. First off, Happy Father’s Day, Dad!  I know you’re busy working and traveling today instead of watching golf and eating lemon meringue pie, but I hope you have a great day anyway. Just wanted to say I love you and thank you so much for making this trip possible. And Mom, let me be the first to wish you Happy Mother’s Day for 2012— since I may or may not have said something about holidays being dumb in lieu or wishing you one this year… Love you both.

So. I’m writing this while lounging on the 7th deck of the MV Explorer, watching our trail in the ocean and listening to some guys playing around in the pool behind me. Rough life, no? That being said, the pool is TINY and I’m definitely not going to be swimming any laps this summer.  I have free time until my third and final class of the day at 16:15 (4:15 pm) so it’s a perfect time to work on evening out the sun I got in the Bahamas.

Friday was a long morning of waiting in line, going through security, and getting moved on to the ship until about noon.  I ended up coming earlier than I was supposed to according to the last-name based schedule, but I’m glad I did so I could stand with Alex and Megan and get on in time for lunch.  My cabin is 2060 meaning its on the second deck and one of the outside rooms near the aft (back) of the ship. Its not the easiest to get to since only one staircase will take you to the deck, but it’s a decent size with a small bathroom and round porthole window.  My roommate, Colyn (Heather, but goes by her middle name) was already there and unpacking and we seemed to get along well.  Unpacking, lunch and more awkward introductions took up much of the afternoon, followed by a lifeboat drill at 4. Our Croatian captain who tend to be a man of few words gave us the high praise of “not bad” and said we had the best lifeboat drill in the 109 voyage history of SAS. We all stood on the deck to wave goodbye to the Bahamas before heading to dinner and an orientation meeting including introductions of all the professors and a lesson in vocabulary (a SHIP not a boat, a VOYAGE not a cruise, etc).  The rest of the night was at night was spent with more wandering and exploring before floor (“sea”) meetings and finally heading to sleep.

Yesterday was meetings and orientation talks from 9:00 to about 16:00— long, informative, boring, repetitive, naptime… Needless to say we were all actually looking forward to the start of classes. We had a break in the afternoon and hung out on the deck before dinner, then had group meetings to discuss the book we were supposed to read before we came. Key word is ‘supposed’.  It was ok but the room where my group met was pretty rocky and made me feel the closest thing to seasick I’ve felt so far. Luckily I haven’t been too bad and haven’t even taken any meds yet- I know many other kids have had a tougher time. At night people hung out by the pool snack bar (by the way their frozen yogurt is way subpar compared to Razzy Fresh) then up on the top observation deck talking and watching the stars. It was probably not the best idea to stay up there till after midnight since we lost an hour over night, but I surprisingly woke up at 6:45 feeling pretty good. We had our first classes today which has been nice in terms of getting into a rhythm and seeing some new people. I’m taking Global Studies at 9:20, The Politics and Poverty of Development at 10:30 and Water for the World at 16:15.  So far they all seem pretty good and I’m looking forward to them.

I’m sure the next week will fly by but right now its crazy to think we wont see land again until the 27th when we land in Barcelona. We’ll be busy planning more independent travel, studying and doing classwork and hopefully playing some IM’s and different activities.  Theres also an SAS “Amazing Race” going on where you do all these things around the ship in groups of 8 in hopes of winning the prize of being the first off the boat, sorry SHIP, in Spain. I’ll probably be doing it with Katie, Candice, Alex and Megan- we’ll probably have to recruit a few boys for the more physical challenges…Wish us luck!

I’d love to hear from you if theres anything you want to know about my trip of if you want postcards—my SAS email (which is one of the few websites we have free access to) address is mvrehberg@semesteratsea.net.