Brutally honest and very excited Day 7&8

Quick note, this was supposed to be 2 different blog posts but the internet was giving me trouble yesterday so I couldn’t post it. So now you get yesterday’s and today’s in one incredibly long, emotional post. I could have skipped putting yesterday’s post in here but I think everyone needs to hear it, to understand what is going on here. So the first part is a lot rougher to read then the second (I promise the second part is better) so just stick with it.

Ok time for a vent session. This is way harder than I thought it would be. I figured I would get used to the class schedule, just like any other semester, as soon as you get into the swing of things then it’s easy. But there is no swing of things, every other day we change our clocks, every other day we lose an hour. I wish I could change my schedule so I wasn’t required to be up so early everyday but I can’t. I feel anti-social because I go to bed so early but I can’t even function on the amount of sleep I am getting and end up sleeping more during the day. Because of these naps I spend all my time awake reading assignments for my next class. I am so used to working ahead but right now I am just keeping up, and barely at that. I even read during meals to try and keep up and that keeps everyone else away. I never thought I would have an issue with seasickness and I don’t even know if I still am. I know my body has never tolerated breakfast, at least not early in the morning and now everything is so screwed up. I feel like crap most of the day and I can’t wait till we get to morocco just so that we can be in the same time zone for a few days. But I know that as soon as the ship sails again the same thing will happen. December 13th is still way far away in the future, and I know the seas are calm for us, which I am so grateful for, but I hear that the pacific is worse, and that is a 9 day trip with just a few hours in Hawaii and then 9 days to Costa Rica. On one hand I am happy that I didn’t consider all the time zone changes, I don’t know why I didn’t think of them so I could prepare myself mentally, but I am glad that I didn’t because I probably would have scared myself out of taking this trip. I want to make the lifelong friendships that come out of this program, I want to enjoy activities but right now I am so swamped with reading assignments that I have no idea how I will ever do anything, so far I have only gotten two of my classes reading assignments mostly done, we don’t get weekends, how will I ever catch up? But even though all this is going on I still don’t want to go home, I believe in this program, I know I can do this, I know I will never forget this trip. But I don’t want to just remember the good times; this voyage is about discovering things about yourself so I want to remember this so I can look back and reflect. I am starting to realize just what a range of emotions this voyage will bring out, and I am not sure if I am ready for that or not. But that doesn’t matter now because it is happening now, it will not wait for me to think I am ready. Even though most of this is being written out of shear frustration, I am still having fun, I am just having a hard day today. But what makes it harder is the fact that I can’t get away, unless I want to jump ship of course (and no that’s not happening, I know I will get through) I realize as I write this that many people will expect to hear all the great things, they expect to hear that I am doing fine. In reality I am still a person who can get upset at times, I get scared, and there are times I want to go home. Part of the reason I started this blog was so that everyone could travel the world with me, and that means the good and the bad. I know I usually try to put everything in a light mood, and that is generally how I feel but sometimes I don’t feel like finding the humor in every situating (don’t worry this doesn’t happen too often), and this is one of those times where I am just being brutally honest about how I am feeling right now about all this. This is only day 7 and I wonder how I am going to get through but I know that right now things can only get better. And that is what I am going for, looking for the bright side. Like the fact that it is a beautiful sunny day, and I get to do my homework looking out over the ocean, hoping to see dolphins playing in our wake again.


Tomorrow means Casablanca! I can’t wait, not only for being on land (and laughing at how we all walk) but for the trips I have planned. Tomorrow I will be going to the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca; it is the 4th largest Mosque in the world. I am going there as a required trip for my Cultural Geography class and it will be my first introduction to Morocco. Then on the second day I will be leaving Casablanca and going out into the desert for a camel trek! I will get to spend the night in a desert camp with 90 of my closest friends (well by that point they may be my 90 closest friends), our camels, and of course the locals who live in the camp and are allowing us to come into their world. The following day I will be headed back to Casablanca, and will get to spend my fourth and final day with no plan as of yet. We have to be back on ship the 4th day and we leave that night headed for Ghana. Today has been much better then yesterday, I feel better, and we are entering into Mediterranean areas. The water is so pretty and there are very few waves today. I would say the water looks like purple Gatorade, but I am quite sure it doesn’t quite taste the same (although I haven’t actually tried it). The sun is scorching down on our ship so I might head out to the pool deck later to hang out there and maybe get some reading done, although so far from experience I end up watching the water and people far more then I actually get read. Fortunately I don’t have class tomorrow (NO CLASSES IN PORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so I don’t have anything pressing right now. Last night we had a cultural pre-port where we learned about the culture of Morocco, and attempted to learn some Arabic phrases, yeah didn’t go so well on the Arabic. Tonight we have the logistical pre-port where we learn about safety and when and where to meet if we have a SAS sponsored trip. I have one in Morocco, the Mosque. The camel trek we planned independently. I am hoping to find an internet café in Casablanca (someone mapped out the closest ones to port) and hopefully put some pictures up on facebook, I won’t guarantee anything yet so keep checking! I will definitely do a blog update at the end of Morocco, so check back in about 5 days to see if there is a new post!