Classes, seasickness and dolphins! Day 5

We are now on Day 5 and classes started the day before yesterday and we are officially out in deep ocean as of this morning when we left the Atlantic Shelf. With open seas comes the ever wonderful seasickness. I was so lucky has to have a slight case yesterday during my very first class of the semester. Apparently I didn’t look so good because my professor asked me how I was feeling and when I told her not so good she suggested I go to my cabin and lay down for a while so on my way down the seven billion stairs I stopped at the purser’s desk and got free seasickness meds and that stuff not only gets rid of the nausea but also makes you incredibly sleepy, also it was before 9am on our first morning post time change so I was already pretty tired regardless of going to bed fairly early. Fortunately I had enough brains to set my alarm for noon and was grateful for that 3 hour nap I got and when I woke up I felt perfectly fine and ate lunch and went to my second class. Another thing that worked out for me was both classes yesterday for me were taught by the same professor so I didn’t actually miss anything because she did the same introduction to herself and her expectations.
Now the way classes work here since we have so many port interruptions is that we have classes every day we are at sea. Even if it’s a weekend or a holiday (thus starting classes on Sunday) and it goes back and forth so we have “A Days” and “B Days” and we keep track by saying A1, B1, A2, B2, etc. So we have 6 days of classes before arriving in Morocco (so we get there the morning after B3). So my “A Classes are at 0800 I have Geography of International Development and at 1300 I have Cultural Geography. There are no classes from 1200 – 1300 so everyone can eat lunch and all classes end at 1600 and there is nothing really scheduled until 2000 so we have study time. My “B Classes” are at 0800 I have Japan’s Modern Story and at 0920 I have the required Global Studies which is more like a seminar type deal where we will have a bunch of other faculty come in and give mini-lectures based on their disciplines and their experiences in our upcoming ports.
Yesterday the campus store officially opened so I now have a voyage shirt with all the countries listed with their flags, a nice purple Semester at Sea sweatshirt and a really nice fleece SAS blanket! I also got sea bands after my slight attack of seasickness, so far they seem to work and if I can keep the seasickness at a bay by wearing bracelets that hit some pressure point instead of drugs that would make me so much happier. Tomorrow I have to start my malaria meds so hopefully I have no side effects with that (they include vivid dreams and imbalance….which could be interesting, maybe between the imbalance of a rocking ship and the imbalance from the meds I will be perfectly balanced).
My roommate and I have discovered that even though we are in the “dungeon” of the ship that there are perks. Such as our room doesn’t rock nearly as much as some of the upper decks, especially the rooms on the outside (we have an inside deck 2 room). We will also probably end up in great shape due to climbing the previously mentioned seven billion stairs to get to anything. But one drawback we have discovered is its very disorienting when we wake up in the morning because our clocks say 0700 but its pitch black still, so that is very weird.
Now the last bit of news I have is that today, at dinner, I saw a pod of dolphins!!! It was so cool to see them jumping out of the water! Apparently people saw both dolphins and whales yesterday although I really do not understand how since it felt like our visibility was about 20 feet. We spent the entire day surrounded by fog. But we have been lucky to not be affected with rough seas from the hurricane. In fact Captain Jeremy altered our course slightly to the north so we would stay at least 600 miles away from the storm.
By the way we are crossing our third time zone tonight so in the morning we will be 3 hours ahead of home (New Jersey). Also it kind of stinks having multiple 23 hour days in a row.

Vacation and Embarktion!

Here is a quick synopsis of my last two weeks. August 13th was my last night of work at the rodeo; it was bittersweet because I absolutely love working there, but on the other hand it was exciting because it meant I left the next day. So bright and early Sunday morning dad and I woke up and hitched up the trailer (in the pouring rain) and left New Jersey. We drove up to Maine and got a hotel room. Mom, Tim, and Ben boarded a train that night and we picked them up the next day after we had set up the camper in Bar Harbor. We spent 2 ½ days there visiting Acadia National Park and celebrating my 21st birthday! Then we went inland to Greenville near Moosehead Lake. There we went on a moose safari and saw 2 moose! We were really lucky because we saw both a bull and a cow! After days 2 ½ we drove up to Quebec City and spent 3 ½ days there. We got to see a free Cirque de Soleil show (it was a little sketchy sounding because it was performed underneath an overpass) but it was really awesome! We got to tour the citadel and we did TONS of walking. Then it was down to Montreal we went; we found a campground that was right on the St. Lawrence River which is the river that the MV Explorer had to travel down in order to get to Montreal. We spent 3 ½ days there and the first order of business was to go check Pier Alexandra to see if the ship was there yet or not. As soon as we saw the empty port we decided to take a double-decker bus tour of the city which was really cool. We also spent a lot of time walking in Montreal and in my opinion it is easier to get around in Quebec City than Montreal, but people speak more English in Montreal than Quebec. Finally August 25th came and early in the morning Ben woke up to go to the bathroom and saw the Explorer passing by! (Dad seriously thought they had changed the port because the ship wasn’t there yet). That night the whole family (except me) got to go on the ship to an info session and tour. I stayed at the campground, did some final packing, got a shower, and washed all my laundry.
Now the best day of all, August 26th! We left the campground early in case of traffic (we encountered more traffic in Montreal alone than the rest of our vacation combined) and got to the port an hour early but went up anyway and were able to unload, check my bags and get me through security in what I can only call record time. I believe it was only about 15 minutes between arriving at the port and walking onto the ship (at least that’s how fast it felt). I then had to go through a check-in process which was really fast and smooth and then I was set free to find my room. When I got to my room my luggage was waiting right outside the door so I dragged it in. My roommates luggage was already there and semi unpacked but she wasn’t in the room so I assumed (and I was right) that she was a work-study student that got to board the day before and therefore gets to help with the check-in processes. We then pretty much had time to explore around the ship until 1600 (4pm…gotta get used to military time now) when we had a lifeboat drill. So when the alarm went off we grabbed our life jackets and headed up to our assigned lifeboat, then they did roll call and we stood there very close together for a half hour until Captain Jeremy gave the all clear and we were allowed to take our life jackets back to our rooms. We left port at 1700 (do the math….that’s 5 pm) and were well on our way up the St. Lawrence and out to sea! We had an orientation meeting in the Union at 2000 and after that we had “Sea Meetings” we are split up into seas based on where our dorm is, so the sea meetings are kind of like hall meetings. After that my roommate and I came back to our rooms and cleared off our beds and went to sleep.
Today (day 2) we had to wake up and start a full day of orientation (last night was just the intro session). Orientation started at 0900 and we stopped for lunch at 1200-1330 we then resumed until 1600 when we were introduced to the professors and got a chance to meet with them and start to get to know them. Then it was dinner and next at 1930 we will basically have an activities fair and following that we have another sea meeting. Then tomorrow classes start (lucky me at 0800) and even better news tonight we lose an hour of sleep! Again lucky us; apparently we are going to have 23 hour days for almost the next week as we cross the Atlantic going from Montreal to Casablanca.

Almost there! 14 days

In just 2 weeks I will be embarking from Montreal! It seems so surreal that this is actually happening. So whats going on? I am 99% packed (woohoo!!!!!!!) and I just have a few things left to print off (confirmations for trips) and I have been slowly saying my goodbyes. I am officially finished at 2 of my 3 jobs and only work one more night at the other. So its really close now to the end of my summer but the beginning of a journey.

This past week has been consumed with more things then I want to count. First (and perpetually) was packing; then Thursday was my twin brothers 18th birthday ( Happy Birthday Tim and Ben!); then tonight was Ben's Eagle Ceremony (highest rank possible in the boy scouts). So maybe we were a bit crazy to plan all this at the same time. And if all that isn't enough my 21st birthday is Tuesday! August is always hectic in our house due to 3 birthday's in 5 days but this year we add in an Eagle ceremony and preparing to travel around the world. I'm not sure if I have time to sleep anymore.

I also found out today that I got all the presale trips that I wanted. Presale trips are trips we want to take through SAS that happen in the first 4 ports and any overnight trip throughout all ports. So I am going to a mosque in Morocco, doing a Habitat for Humanity project in Ghana, Going to a monkey village in Ghana, going to the Univeristy of Mauritius, and taking a cruise on Ha Long Bay and visiting Hanoi in Vietnam (Mom will be joining me on this one!!!). When we get on the ship we sign up for the rest of our trips from Malaysia through Costa Rica, which for me will be a couple things in Japan and snorkeling in Hawaii!

So Close! 22 days!

Although its 21 days until my mom, dad, and brothers get to board the ship.....

I have been informed that it is time to do another post so here goes. My room looks like a bomb went off in it, I am close to being done packing. As in all my school supplies and essentials are packed and my clothes are about 90% packed! This is awesome because I still have tons of room! I have my backpack, which my computer and other electronics will go in and 1/4 of my clothing (a freaking huge) suitcase left. So plenty of space for the last of my stuff. On a side note for anyone planning on using the spacebags that you are supposed to roll the air out.....don't sit on the bed and roll them, they get slippery and you will take a nose dive to the floor so be safe fellow packers!

On another note my foriegn currency came in today! I ordered money for Morroco, South Africa, Malaysia, India, Viet Nam, China, Japan, and Costa Rica. I couldn't get money for Ghana, Mauritius or Cuba (can't imagine why...) So now I have my starter fund, and I must say I now think American money is the ugliest, but that could just be the excitement of holding all this awesome money in my hands.

So now its off to try and see about getting the camper ready. Anyone interested in helping come on over. Otherwise Peace out!