We still have 3,300 miles to go.

01/18/09
So we arrived to the Bahamas with relatively little drama after all. Cassie was flying out of Dulles with a layover in North Carolina rather than direct from National like Cassie and I. The flight looked 3 hours long from the ticket (8:30 to 11:30) but it was really only about 2 and a half. And even more bizarre I was really pretty calm about the whole thing… I mean, the two xanax didn’t hurt either, but I kept myself pretty composed I thought, even with a little turbulence at times. So anyways, we were in the airport waiting at our gate when I was asked to come up to the podium thing where they were still checking people in, I was already a little nervous waiting so I was really apprehensive walking up there – but then the incredibly adorable and a little bit effeminate gay flight attendant told me he was bumping me up to first class because the flight was so overbooked and I had status on United. So I threw up deuces to Amy and got on early (later it kind of backfired since I was close to the engine and it was just really really loud.)
So then the guy in the seat next to me sat down and scrunched himself up so his knees wouldn’t bump up against the wall in front of us while I comfortably stretched my legs out. He jealously glared at me because of this, but it was great because usually on flights I have to sit on my legs or they end up going numb because they don’t touch the ground. It sucks.

01/20/09
The Atlantis was awesome. Sarah (the girl my room was split with who was also n SAS) and I had a view of the inner courtyard of the atlantis – complete with manta ray and shark pool. Cassie and Amy and I wandered around a little bit and stopped at a place just out of the Atlantis to have lunch before planning to head out and meet some other voyagers at Senior Frog’s later that night. There’s a picture of the burger I had somewhere; Cass and Amy even tried conch soup, haha. Facebook said to be at the bar around seven (we wanted to get there early so that we wouldn’t be like the walking dead for our 8am check-in boarding time at the boat) so we headed over with some other girls from SAS and just drank beer and met a few people. It was pretty dead and by 10 we were all fading fast since we’d all gotten up at 5 that morning with little sleep to make it to our flights in D.C.
So after having like 4 dos equis we took a taxi back to the hotel – later we found out that’s about when Senior Frogs got packed full of SAS kids and shit got crazy… (Having sex on the dance floor before anyone had even gotten on the ship, girls who drunkenly fell off the bar and flashed everyone on the way down thanks to their super short mini-dresses.) Anyways I was out by about 10pm when my roommate finally showed up; her flight had just gotten in and she went off to get some food while I slept some more. The next morning we talked much more and took a taxi together to the port. Everything was a huge clustered mess on the way there though – Sarah’s bags went in a different van than we did, but eventually she found them after stopping all the drivers and inspecting their trunks. She got pretty lucky.
Yesterday we just did a lot of sign-in stuff and moved into our rooms. (I only finished unpacking today really…) My roommate’s name is Allie and she’s pretty cool. She’s a sophomore at Colorado State (along with 79 other students here; they’re the second most represented state after California. We’re pretty different but she’s very nice and we’ve gotten along really well so far. I also met lots of new kids, but considering there’s so many of us, and mostly girls (75%) everyone’s name has started to blend together after a while…
And I know it sounds like a huge blanketed statement but there are so many girls, and all of them are gorgeous. We’re talking the antithesis of me… Tall, tan, svelte looking sorority types, many of whom have never traveled outside of Canada/Mexico/Europe. I’m trying not to judge too fast, but I don’t feel like I have much in common with most the people here and I’m worried I’ll feel like the odd-man-out for the rest of the semester. No joke, I overheard one girl say, “I know it’s like gonna be really hot in Asia, and I want to feel clean, so I have these really cute white juicy gym shorts, and so I’ll like, wear those in India.” Really?
When we pulled away from port at 5 it started to really hit me just how monumental this whole trip is. There is no going back from it – whether I hate it or love it I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I doubt I’ve ever made such a commitment and it’s a little daunting.
Sooo today. Today was orientation and they ran us ragged. I had a really hard time getting my laptop to work and load properly but now it seems to be working okay… Hopefully this’ll last enough for me to get through the semester. So today I woke up at like 7 and showered (Allie does this at night so we both wake up at the same time and while I shower she straightens her hair and does her makeup and then we get breakfast together.) Then we had mandatory orientations pretty much all freaking day – very nearly all of which took place in the Union which is on the 6th deck in the very front of the ship. It’s also the worst place to be if you’re even a little sea sick as every rolling wave pushes you out and then back into your seat. Terrible! Tomorrow is the first day of classes and two of mine take place in the Union; global studies at 9:30 am and upper level classical Islam in the afternoon.
Oh! So also they shut down all the computers in an effort to get a good satellite signal through the ship and then they streamed the innaugeration to all the classrooms and cabins so I watched while I finished unpacking my bags. I’ll upload a video I did of it later somehow.
Well I know I’ve forgotten a lot, but I’ll try to write more tomorrow. Bye guys!
01/21/09
It’s the third day on the ship and the first day of classes. Allie and I woke up at 8am so she would have time for makeup and hair curling and I for a shower – Everyone on the ship – and I do mean everyone, all faculty, life-long-learners, and even the babies of professors all show up in the union and satellite classrooms to listen and watch the hour and 15 minute class. It’s incredibly boring, but it’s kind of cool to know the whole ship shuts down (though we obviously keep sailing) just so everyone can be in the same places at the same time. Today we mostly just talked about anthropology and the earliest migration of people across the world; it’s all stuff I’ve heard before from other classes at college back home, but for whatever reason the information seems really different in this context. Thinking about our own migratory patterns around the world, I mean. For instance, today we were talking about natural selection and how we adapt to viruses and then those viruses mutate (often inside the animals that initially carry the virus – oftentimes in Asia - into something new our bodies have never seen, so we get sick again and again and it’s a never-ending cycle. One girl raised her hand in the Union and said, “Wait, so I’m sick from something I got back home in the US and now I’m seeking out the original virus but now with a mutation my body doesn’t expect just so I can get sick again? I’m following this virus around the world?” And the professor says, “Well yes, I guess you are.” Weird to think about, huh?
Then I went to Classical Islam. That class is PACKED. And it’s in the union again which I’ve been trying to avoid considering all the rocking you can feel in there… I wonder if I’ll ever get used to this ship. People are still getting sick, but it’s a lot better than before. However, I haven’t been sleeping well, and shaving in the itty bitty shower while the ship rushes from one side to the other is pretty much impossible. Anyways, back to Islam. The class seems alright, the professor is very soft spoken and there aren’t enough chairs for everyone in the room… Also, he’s trying to insist upon our doing all this field work in Casablanca, so I’m going to have to talk to him day after tomorrow about how I’m going to be meeting up with Angie and my mom and won’t be able to do all his crazy shit.
Then I went and bought a sweatshirt and had lunch. There are a lot of vegetarian options all over each meal time, but things close soooo early. Allie and I missed breakfast today because it’s only served from 7am to 8:30am. It’s hard to stay up on the boat anyways though because of all the sun making things warm and the rocking of the boat makes a lot of people tired when combined with all the anti-motion sickness stuff they’re taking; drowsiness is a side-effect of all of them. I’m exhausted by like 9pm even with a nap it seems. It also doesn’t help that the past two days we’ve had to move our clocks an hour forward so we keep losing time. So for lunch I had vegetarian lo mein, pineapple juice, and a salad. Amy and I ate outside though and stuff was flying everywhere we were moving so fast (I think they said 20ish knots? However fast that is…) Now I’m back in my room typing this and watching Out of Africa. They play a couple movies over and over on the t.v. and this one’s my favorite.
Much more later - my laptop is working off and on.