Packing! 33 Days

I can't believe the ship sails in just 33 days! I feel like it was just yesterday we were in the 200 day range (back in January) and I felt like I would never be leaving. But now I am just a month away from sailing around the world. That means that I am up to my eyeballs in in my suitcase and piles of stuff ranging from shampoo to notebooks to clothes. Also I finally got my passport back yesterday! I now have my Ghana, India, and China visas in my possession!!!! I have also finished my shopping (I think), my medical forms are done and sent in and have been marked received. I do believe that I am done sending in paperwork to SAS.
Along with packing comes all the planning, so right now our living room is looking more like a giant map as I have maps for all of New England, Canada, soon to have New York and New jersey spread out, also there are tour books and camp books all over the place also. This is because my family is awesome and doesn't want to go straight to Montreal, we are going to camp our way up. I am also planning things to do in each country, whether its independent travel (not by myself but with a million of my soon to be new best friends) or required ones for classes. Along with planning my own travels I am working out the logistics of my mom visiting me in Vietnam and what we want to do there along with flights and hotels for her. And the last part that I have to plan is in December my dad will be picking me up in Florida, so that is one last thing to get finalized before I leave. Did I mention that I leave in 3 weeks?
So this was my fast update before I have to go get ready to go to work soon (job one of three). Thanks for checking in. Peace out

Almost a month away! 40 Days

Well here we are just over a month away, it seems like everything happens in a month. My Birthday, SAS, family vacation. Everything right now is moving so fast and at the same time August isn't getting here fast enough. This week I paid for my trip in China, I am actually going to be SLEEPING on the Great Wall of China!!! Can you believe that???? It is gonna be crazy cold (well it will be November) but who cares? Nobody else I know can say that they camped out on the Wall.....well except everyone who is going to be there with me. So whats next? Well my next trip to pay for is the Taj Mahal, not sure when I have to pay for that but probably soon. I also need to pay for my camel trek in Morocco, the very first thing I am doing with SAS is riding a camel, how much more awesome can this get? I will also be riding elephants in India! Really going to up my list of animals I have ridden. Other than that, the final list of Faculty Directed Practica (FDP's) finally comes out tomorrow, we already have a sample which they say that it is going to be very similar. But what we are waiting for is the dates of the trips and the final prices would be very nice to know. The final list was supposed to be out last week, but we all know how that ended. Oh well I already have some ideas for what I want to do but it would be nice to finalize plans. Next on my list is to start packing, stuff that I won't need for the rest of the summer can go in the suitcase, hopefully I will be able to get everything in. I was much more optomistic before I had my two suitcases and one backpack sitting in front of me. Wish me luck on this and check back later to see how I manage with the packing! Peace out for now.

Catching up 50 days

Wow I can't believe that in just 50 days I will board the MV Explorer and sail off on this adventure! There is so much to catch up on, I have been so busy I haven't been able to get on and post an update. I found out that I got $1,000 in need based scholarship; now it doesn't sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but I really applied for that one expecting absolutely nothing considering that I never qualify for financial need when they look at my dad's income. I didn't get the work study position either but I look at it this way; now I have more me time on the ship! Fortunately I have never had to sit here and say if I don't get financial aid then I can't go. My parents have always been supportive, from the very beginning when I first told them about SAS they told me if this is something I want to do then they will make sure it happens. So now everything is sort of a waiting game, I went and got my physical and 4 shots: typhoid, yellow fever, hep A, and tetanus booster. My arms were sore for a week but its all worth it. So now I am starting to plan what to do in each country! I have several things that I have already committed to but I want to leave some open space and enjoy some spur of the moment adventures. So far I know that I am going on a camel trek in Morocco, to the Taj Mahal in India. In China I am going to not just visit the Great Wall but sleep on it! In Costa Rica I am going on a zip-lining canopy tour, and quite possible my most adventurous plans as of yet is South Africa. For being a country that I have honestly never looked into, South Africa plans filled up quickly. I am going on a Great White Shark Cage Diving trip where I will actually get to be in a shark cage and watch the sharks swimming around and the cool part is that I have watched shows on Shark Week on Discovery Channel that were filmed there (my brother is a HUGE fan of sharks and Shark Week). I am also planning a 1 day safari while there and a Cape tour. I still have many places that I haven't planned yet and that's ok, next Monday the final field practicum list comes out from SAS and I can look those over and see if there are any FDPs that I am interested in. Otherwise my summer has been fairly typical, going to the cottage and spending as much time on the boat as possible, and of course working. I am currently working 3 jobs in order to help pay for SAS, and to just have spending money for the 4 months that follow this summer where I won't be working. Oh and even though its 50 days until the ship leaves, I am actually leaving in 38 days for Canada, I am going to take a nice leisurely drive up to Canada and see what all I can before I leave!