Barcelona! The City that Never Sleeps.

Barcelona!

Barcelona is a city that never sleeps! Over the past three days I have gotten into the “local” routine: Late dinners past 10pm, late lunches, siestas, and falling asleep around 4am. I LOVE IT.  The food is delicious! Fresh fruits and veggies, TAPAS, freshly squeezed juice, street sandwiches and chocolate.

So here is an overview of what I’ve done the past three days

Day 1:
•       First person of the ship in Barcelona!
•       Drank café leche..DELICIOUS
•       Monserrat! Unfortunately the boys’ choir was already on vacation, so I was unable to hear them sing. The place was absolutely gorgeous! It was on top of a small mountain and it took about one hour to weave our way up.  The pictures are stunning
•       LAS RAMBLAS! Postcards and stamps
•       Quick Siesta ☺
•       Hit the town for dinner around 10pm (TAPAS) with around 18 people
•       Went to a club and walked along the beach

Day 2:
•       Walked to the gothic quarter and took pictures of the beautiful gothic arthitecture.
•       Gaudi Buildings!
•       Stopped at the Chocolate Museum with Emily, Sammy, and Tina. The ticket was a chocolate bar
•       Have a very interesting shopping experience…apparently it was a wholesale store, you had to buy 20 items, there were no dressing rooms, no sizes, and you weren’t able to try anything on. Props to Emily for being able to speak Spanish and translating for everyone
•       Ate an amazing ham and cheese sandwich. The ham is right off the pigs leg and cut so fine you can see through it. In fact, there are pig legs that hang over the bars in most restaurants.
•       Went shopping at cute little shops and department stores
•       Saw the protestors at the end of Las Ramblas (major street in town). The protestors have been staking out for over a month bringing attention to a 20 percent unemployment rate (40 unemployment rate for those under 25) and funding cutes for education and multiple other areas. They built tree houses in the square and some  even have small gardens growing. It’s insane. These people really know how to protest.
•       Got back to the ship for a quick siesta
•       Ate dinner at two great tapas bars
•       Stopped at a super market for some snacks to take back to the ship

Day 3:
•       Walked to the famous market right off Las Ramblas. This is the best market I have ever seen…fresh fish, meat, fruit, candy, nuts! EVERYTHING. I bought a fresh kiwi and orange smoothie and a chocolate croissant with custard. Then to top it off I had a mixture of pineapples, mangos, kiwi, passion fruit,  and some mysteriously unidentified fruit.
•       Walked with Sammy, Emily, Taylor, and Frannie Everywhere.
•       Finally made it to La Sagrada Familia…the famous church started by Gaudi and set to be completed in 30-40 years. The church is a blend of multiple different eras known as modernism including: gothic, romanesque, and baroque. The pictures I took don’t even begin to do it justice.
•       Walked all the way to Park Guell. The park was designed by Gaudi and was suppose to be a house community/park for the upper class. Now it is a public park and is to the north of the city on a hill/mountain. Great views of the city!
•       Took the metro. WHOOP! So happy to be able to figure out all the transfers
•       Siesta

Tomorrow I have a bike tour of the city from 0730-1100. The ship leaves tomorrow at 2000…it’ll be sad to say goodbye to Barcelona, but even more excited to say hello to Italy two days later.

Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out how to resize some photos and add them to the blog.

Barcelona!

Today was surprising fast paced.  It was taco day at the dining hall, which was a pleasant surprise from the usual meat, fish, and potatoes routine. We had a logistics pre-port and received emergency contact numbers, tips, and ideas of what to do in port. After the pre-port I had just enough time to get to the observation deck to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful! The Mediterranean looked just like a lake…no movement what so ever! And the skies were perfectly clear. STUNNING.

Tomorrow we berth (dock) in Barcelona! Finally the day is here. After eight straight days of classes…it’s time! Tomorrow I’m waking up at 6am to watch the sunrise as we pull into port. Then, after the ship is cleared by customs and I attend the mandatory debriefing session regarding the current protests in Spain, I will be off the ship ☺  It should be somewhere in-between 8-9am. After grabbing some breakfast in town, I’ll have just enough time to make it back to the ship and meet up for my day trip to Monserrat. While there I will be evaluating the impact of pilgrimage and religious tourism on the life of a mountain village for my Italy in the Age of the Renaissance class.

Monserrat, as described by the SAS field office: Located 2,380 feet above sea level, Montserrat, which means “jagged mountain” in Catalan, is known for its religious significance and interesting rock formations.  Begin your visit with a trip to the Santa Maria de Montserrat monastery—a Benedictine Abbey and a 16th-century Basilica, where the
Virgin of Montserrat, a “black Madonna” statue and the patron saint of Catalonia, is venerated.  The monastery, which has hosted pilgrims and visitors since 1025, is home to more than 80 monks who have dedicated their lives to prayer. According to
legend, religious elders of the community found an image of the Virgin Mary in the cave, and from that moment on the site has been known as a holy sanctuary for religious pilgrims.

Rough itinerary for Spain:
Monday: Breakfast in port, Monserrat 1130-1730 (field trip), siesta, and dinner/tapas
Tuesday: Las Ramblas and the market, Sagrada da Familia, and Shopping in the “touristy” areas
Wednesday: Picasso museum and gothic quarter to check out the gothic architecture I’ve been learning about in Global Studies. I’m also going to a concert: Kascade, the #35 Dj in the world
Thursday: 730am Bike tour of the city, some last minute shopping for postcards and such….and more TAPAS! I need to be on the ship by 1800 to avoid dock time, but I plan on arriving a lot earlier. Apparently there is around a 2-3 hour line to get back on the ship at the last minute. Hopefully I can avoid the madness.

After Spain there's only one day before I arrive in Italy. This day is known as Italy global studies day. Which means every student on the ship attends two hours of global studies and then participates in SEA OLYMPICS. Each student on the boat is part of a “sea” and competes in a bunch of activities such as synchronized swimming, basketball, relay races, musical chairs and simon says. The team that wins is first off the ship in BOSTON! Hopefully my sea will kick some serious butt.

Then I’m on my way to Naples, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Verona, and Rome.

SAS Amazing Race Picture!

Here's the picture of our victorious amazing race team! check it out


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Land!

Just spotted North Africa :) Should bunker in an hour.

Sleep, What's that?

The past couple of days have been outrageously busy. Yesterday I had 3 hours of classes, studying, reading, a seminar, a group meeting and paper, and a study group for Global Studies. There is too much to do and too little time. Of course, everyday I give up another hour of sleep by moving my clock ahead. These 23 hour days are really catching up with me! I had my first view of land yesterday! I woke up to the Arozes islands right outside my porthole. The Arozes Islands are part of Portugal and still pretty far from Portugal and Spain. I also spotted sea life! After hearing myths and legends about people seeing flying fish, dolphins, whales, even sea turtles I finally saw something….DOLPHINS!!!  SO MANY dolphins. Once during Global Studies, again while reading on Deck 7, and during dinner! A very productive day ☺

Today is also going to be very busy. I woke up early to study for another Negotiation Quiz (I have one every other day) and to finish my reading. Then after a VERY long lecture about Spain’s history, I made my way to the Piano lounge where I am currently sitting.  The rest of the day I’ll finish up classes, do the required reading and study for two exams tomorrow (negotiation for value, and Italy in the renaissance).  I also signed up for the Extended Family Program. Every student who signs up has a pseudo family for the voyage. Tonight is my first family dinner! I’ve already met my “ship mom and dad” and they’re extremely nice, a young couple serving as Life Learning Coordinators on the ship. After my dinner, I’m attending a seminar on travel photography and another seminar about independent travel. Then I will have more studying to do for exams and I’ll pass out around 1am, which is actually 2am with the time change. Then I’ll wake up at 730 and do it all again!

I am so excited to get off this ship! Eight days of the same classes is too much to handle!  Unfortunately, the ship has slowed down in the past two days from 21 knots to only 13-15knots. Rumor has it we were set to arrive in Spain a day early because of the great weather, an extra day which we did not have a spot in port. SO now the voyage is painstakingly slow knowing I’m so close, yet so far.

Other exciting news!!!! Tomorrow morning the ship will be passing through the Straight of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. We are bunkering (taking on fuel) in Gibraltar in the late morning, which means we will be stopped under the rock of Gibraltar, where, according to my Global Studied prof, there are MONKIES!!! I guess they’re so close you can get pictures! Hopefully I’m not in class when this happens, I really want some great pics!

Bridge Tour and Sea Olympics

After global studies, I went on a tour of the bridge. The bridge is the area on the ship where the crew steers the ship. When I got there, the ship was on auto-pilot! It was so neat to be able to look out the front of the bridge and see the ocean sprawled out in front of me.  While the crew explained the control panel, a school  of dolphins swam by! SO COOL. There’s a lot more to steering a ship than I initially thought! I was overwhelming to see so many dials, buttons, and compasses. 

And now for the exciting news!!! Drum roll please……..

MY TEAM WON SEMESTER AT SEA ‘S AMAZING RACE!!!

All eight of us finished in 50 minutes! Unheard of! We beat 472 people!!! It took 20 minutes after we finished for the next team to arrive at the finish line. The race consisted of riddles, codes, and lots of clues about different areas on the ship. Once a clue was figured out, your whole team had to make it to that specific check point and receive a signature.  I have to give extra credit to Sammi from UVA, she is insanely gifted at cracking random codes! Thank goodness she went to spy camp as a kid!

Our team consisted of eight students:
-Karen (my room mate and fellow Blugold)
-Sammi (UVA)
-Emily (UVA)
-Emily (Canada)
-Drew (Auburn)
-Tina (UVA)
-Whitney (UVA)
-and me :)

We all agreed to spend our first hours grabbing breakfast together at a café enjoying chocolate churros and café leche…both which were mentioned in a presentation last night about dining out in Barcelona. After breakfast, Drew, Karen, Emily and I have an FDP in Monserrat and then we will all meet up with the rest of our dream team for dinner around 10pm.

Last night I attended a Big Explorer Seminar about dining out in Spain. I am so overly excited to try some great food..especially since our food on the boat is becoming overly repetitive.  The presenter was a professor from UVA who has traveled to Spain multiple times. He gave us the inside scoop on what to order, where to order, and what to stay away from.

Some food he suggested: churros with chocolate, café leche, paella, and tapas. 

Tonight I forfeit another hour of sleep. I’m so sick of having 23 hour days!!! I need more sleep.

Day 2 of classes.

It’s only the second day of classes and I’m already swamped with homework. Luckily, everyone else feels the same way…after all we’re all in the same boat..or ship, after all it is a ship, not a boat.  For all three of my classes I have about 100 pages of reading total a day, which takes twice as long to read on a rocking ship. It’s hard to concentrate with some many people talking around you and it’s almost impossible to find a quiet area on the ship. Not to mention, a lot of teachers have pdf files posted online, which are even harder to read all at once on the computer. I’m definitely learning a lot already about the Mediterranean and can’t believe 1/3 of my classes will be done in exactly one week. After we reach Barcelona we don’t have class for 2 whole weeks, because of all the other ports we are going to are so close together.

Enough about classes!

It seems like seasickness is a thing of the past. I took Dramamine the first two days as a precaution and didn’t feel sick..so I have been off it ever since. So far, so good. I’ve gotten used to the rocking motion of the ship thank goodness. Some are not so lucky. There were a few kids who ran out of the union this morning during Global Studies :(

More importantly, everyone in the ship loves to travel! It seems like everyone I’ve talked to has been out of the country at some point in their lives. It’s great to talk about similar places we’ve been and how small of a place the world really is!

On The Ship

After 2 hours in the blazing hot sun of the Bahamas I've made it on the ship! Tonight there is a welcome orientation with everyone from the ship and then we break off into meetings specifically for our decks/wings.

I have met so many people in the past 48 hours and haven't remembered anyone's name!

Time to go explore!

Safe and Sound in the Bahamas

Made it to the Bahamas without any troubles! I've already met many wonderful people doing Semester at Sea. Everyone is so incredibly friendly! Karen Hansen (fellow Blugold) and I met a family during our flight from Atlanta to the Bahamas who were picking up their daughter who just got back from the Maymester program. The mom talked and talked about how great the program was (her oldest daughter went on a full semester voyage and met her current fiance!) CRAZZZYY.

Overall we are both safe and sound and meeting lots of new friends

stay posted.

BON VOYAGE

What a hectic day!

After waking up early and grabbing breakfast with my friend Jenna, I started the long grueling process of packing and getting all my items together….

Packing took a total of six hours! Although, I did take a couple breaks to make some emergency pit stops: target for extra sunscreen, travel umbrella, and a swimsuit and my grandparent’s house to say goodbye. It was quite the process keeping track of everything and making sure to cross everything off two different lists. But, in the end, it was worth it! I was able to get my checked bag down to 40lbs avoiding any checked luggage fees :) Take that Delta!! and everything else fit into my carry-on bag and backpack with a little room to spare. GREAT SUCCESS.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I leave for the Bahamas (6:25am flight) and after a two hour layover in Atlanta I should be in Nassau by 3pm. Thursday I am going on a 4 hour snorkeling/sailing tour with 15 other people from SAS and Friday I board the MV Explorer along with ~750 other students to begin my voyage to the first destination: BARCELONA, SPAIN!

Even after a whole day of packing it still hasn’t hit me that in only 8 hours (3:30am) I will be waking up and starting my adventure. I can’t wait to get this show on the road! 

Words of wisdom: 

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.  Then take half the clothes and twice the money.  ~Susan Heller

Testing...1....2...3..

Just a quick post to make sure I can post from my e-mail account :)