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!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Sleep, What's that?
Thursday, June 23, 2011
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.
Monday, June 20, 2011
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!
Friday, June 17, 2011
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!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Safe and Sound in the Bahamas
Overall we are both safe and sound and meeting lots of new friends
stay posted.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
BON VOYAGE
