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.

My fav. sites by other SAS students from past voyages:

My favorite blog I think so far is Frank's Semester at Sea on Blogspot ( http://frankatsea.blogspot.com/ ) even though he sailed in 2006 he saw a lot of the same places I'll be going to and it's so hilarious and well-written.
Other honorable mentions include:
http://alanshihatsea.blogspot.com/ and http://mara-at-sea.blogspot.com/

Also, Cassie and Amy two of my best friends are sailing with me and they're keeping blogs as well: Cassie = http://cassiegrooversas09.blogspot.com/ and
Amy = http://amybee88.blogspot.com/


Here's a link to an outside double room - the same kind I'll be staying in: http://www.msnusers.com/SemesteratSeaFall2005/detailedcabinphotos.msnw


And here's some of my favorite youtube videos on SAS:

This youtube video shows a ship tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hq6CdIj2Ak it's pretty good but a little shaky so don't make yourself nauseus trying to watch it - I plan to take lots of photos of and off the ship (though the more I read about the internet connection on the ship the more it seems like I won't be able to really upload any large files and I'm charged also by the amount of data I send and recieve - which also means if you all email me videos or pictures I probably won't be able to view them until I'm at an internet cafe in port.)

Here's a ridiculous clip from Storm Stories that shows interviews and footage taken when a big storm took out the entire control panel and rocked the ship - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBGhXI586k

And the three-part series of videos a guy named Tyler made showing his adventures throughout the ports - I've been messaging him on and off since I first heard about Semester at Sea and he's been incredibly helpful. 1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9b9aBJH28 2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrK525jQ1e8&feature=related and 3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCUR9Whd2-I&feature=related They're really really wonderful and definitely helped to solidify how much I wanted into the program.

Excitement.

IN ONE WEEK I WILL BE IN NASSAU READY TO BOARD.
Holy shit I have so much to do.

Port Info.

TO MAIL ME:
It is recommended to send international mail at least two weeks in advance preferably via courier. Do not send currency, food or
medicine. Sending packages is not recommended because of customs restrictions and/or duty charges (as a result, packages are not always
received by the intended recipient onboard). ISE is not responsible for any mail not delivered to the recipient. The port agent in each country is
able return it to the sender at the sender’s own cost. Please address mail to participants as follows:

MV Explorer – Spring 2009 Voyage
Attn: Name of Recipient
Port Agent Address (from list below)

+ Port: Cadiz, SPAIN
Arrive: Jan 28, 0800
Depart: Feb 01, 2000

Address of port agent:
Perez Y CIA S.L.
C/ Ecuador, 2
11007 Cadiz, SPAIN

Suggested airmail date: Jan 14
Phone: 34 956 276 112
Fax: 34 956 276 766

+ Port: Casablanca, MOROCCO
Arrive: Feb 02, 0800
Depart: Feb 05, 2000


Address of port agent:
LASRY MAROC S.A.
Avenue des Far
20000 Casablanca, MAROC

Suggested airmail date: Jan 18th
Phone: 212 61 29 8894
Fax: 212 22 484793

+ Port: Walvis Bay, NAMIBIA
Arrive: Feb 14, 0800
Depart: Feb 16, 2000

Address of port agent:
OCEAN LINER SERVICES
The Maritime Building
2 Third Street / PO Box 4
Walvis Bay, REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA

Suggested airmail date: Jan 31
Phone: 264 64 201 2200
Fax: n/a

+ Port: Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA
Arrive: Feb 18, 0800
Depart: Feb 22, 2000
Suggested Airmail date: Feb 4

Address of port agent:
JOHN T. RENNIE & SONS
19th Floor
No.1 Thibault Square
8001 Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA

Phone: 27 21 419 8660
Fax: 27 21 413 0290


+ Port: Louis, MAURITIUS
Arrive: Feb 27, 0800
Depart: Feb 27, 2200
Suggested airmail date: Feb 13
Address of port agent:
Ireland Blyth Limited
Shipping Operations Department
No 6 Dr Ferriere Street
Port Louis, MAURITIUS

Phone: 230 202 70 40
Fax: 230 208 5814

+ Port: Chennai, INDIA
Arrive: March 05, 0800
Depart: March 09, 2000
Suggested airmail date: Feb 19

Address of port agent:
J. M. Baxi & Co.
3rd Floor, Clive Battery Complex
4 & 4A, Rajaji Salai
Chennai 600 001, INDIA

Phone: 91 44 252 12032
Fax: 91 44 252 43813

+ Port: Bangkok, THAILAND
Arrive: March 15, 0800
Depart: March, 2000
Suggested airmail date: Feb 27

Address of port agent:
19 OIA GLOBAL LOGISTICS (THAILAND) Ltd
1168 / 20 - 4th Floor
Lumpini Tower Rama 4 Road
Thungmahamek, Sathorn
BANGKOK 10120, THAILAND

Phone: 66 2 285 6880
Fax: 66 2 285 6686

+ Port: Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
Arrive: March 22, 0800
Depart: March 27, 0600
Suggested airmail date: March 6

Address of port agent:
General Forwarding Agency
5th Floor Osic Building
8 Nguyen Hue Avenue
D. 1, Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM

Phone: 84 8 825 7996
Fax: 84 8 824 2996

+ Port: HONG KONG
Arrive: March 29, 0800
Depart: March 30, 2000
Suggested airmail date: March 13

Address of port agent:
Inchcape Shipping Services (HK) Ltd.
Units 1802-1805, 18th Floor
N° 3 Lockhart Road
Wanchai, HONG KONG – CHINA

Phone: 852 2786 1155
Fax: 852 2744 3240

+ Port: Shanghai, CHINA
Arrive: April 02
Depart: April 03
Suggested airmail date: March 19

Address of port agent:
Penavico Shanghai
3/F 13 Zhong Shan Road (E 1)
Shanghai 200002, P.R. CHINA

Phone: 86 21 6323 1350
Fax: 86 21 6329 1519

+ Port: Kobe, JAPAN
Arrive: April 06, 0800
Depart: April 07, 2000
Suggested airmail date: March 23

Address of port agent:
Inchcape Shipping Services (Japan) Ltd.
Kenryu Bldg, Room 502
6, Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku
Kobe-shi, Hygo-ken 650-0024, JAPAN

Phone: 81 78 391 3046
Fax: 81 78 391 3105

+ Port: Yokohama, JAPAN
Arrive: April 09 , 0800
Depart: April 10, 2000
Suggested airmail date: March 26

Address of port agent:
INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES
2F Asahi Seimei Yokohama Honcho Bldg
36, 4-Chome Honcho, Naka-ku
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 231-0005, JAPAN

Phone: 81 45.201 6991
Fax: 81 45.212 1614

+Port: Honolulu, HAWAII
Arrive: April 19, 0600
Depart: April 20, 2000
Suggested airmail date: April 3

Address of port agent:
Inchcape Shipping Services
521 Ala Moana Blvd.
Suite 256
Honolulu, HI 96813

Phone: 1 808 599 8604
Fax: 1 808 599 1950

+Port: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
Arrive: April 28, 1100
Depart: April 30, 2000
Suggested airmail date: April 14

Address of port agent:
Transoceanicas S.A.
Modulo #208
Nuevo Edificio de Servicios Auxiliares II
Puerto Quetzal, Escuintla, GUATEMALA, C.A.

Phone: 502 7881 2325
Fax: 502 7881 1319



Arrival/departure times are listed above in local times. Based on Eastern Standard Time, the time on-ship is behind by the number of hours listed below:
Spain: +6 hours Morocco: +5 hours Namibia: +7 hours South Africa: +7 hours Mauritius: + 10 hours India: +10.5 hours
Thailand: +11 hours Vietnam: +11 hours China: +12 hours Japan: +13 hours Hawaii: -6 hours Guatemala: -2 hours

Things Will Be Different.

Professor Robert Fessler, end of the Fall 2001 Voyage: "You're going home. No you're not. At least...not to the home that you left in January. When you get off the ship in Miami, you are going to know that. You already know it in your head, but when you get off the ship in Miami, you are going to know it in your bones. You are going to feel it in your skin. The world that you left behind isn't there any more.

There's a story that I like to tell my students about a fish in a fishbowl. There is a way in which a fish swimming around in a fishbowl knows nothing at all about water...because water is so much a part of the fish's life. It is surrounded by water...it is embedded in water. In that sense, the fish does not really KNOW water. If you want the fish to really understand water, you have to take the fish out of the fishbowl and say, "Look, that's water". Now if you put the fish back in...the water doesn't look the same any more. Well, in a certain sense, we've all been taken out of our fishbowls. You've been out of your fishbowl for three and a half months. Now you have to go back. It may not happen to you immediately. Caught up in the excitement of seeing your friends and your relatives...it may take a day. Maybe a week. But sooner or later there is going to be a moment. It might happen to you at the airport. It might happen to you in your hotel room. Maybe not until you get home. But sooner or later there is going to be a moment when you realize that the world just doesn't "fit" the way it fit before.

Many of your friends...even your good friends...are going to seem suddenly...strangely...stupid. You will want to talk about...India. And they will say, "Yeah, right. That sounds great". And somehow, that is just not going to be enough. And you'll say, "Yes, but I was in Chennai...let me tell you... the smells...the colors...and the babies... Let me tell you about the babies!". And your friends will say, "Uh huh." And you will watch their eyes glaze over as they smile and nod and glance over your shoulder. So you will try Japan. "You know, I was in Japan! I was in Japan right after the September 11, 2001, tragedy, and people comforted me, after we had bombed them years before. Can you believe that? I was in Japan!" And your friends will say, "Oh".And then your friends will suddenly get enthusiastic again as they begin to tell you all the things you missed while you were away. Like that big party...where everybody threw up on each other. And that really funny episode of Ally McBeal. And they will start telling you some of the lines...and laughing as they are telling them to you. And you will be crawling out of your skin.

And you will say, "But I saw beggars! I saw children begging! Did know that parents sometimes actually maim their kids to make them better beggars?". And your friends will say, "Awesome". And you will know that they don't get it. In fact, you might even begin to wonder if some of your friends really know what it means for something to be...awesome. Seeing a sunset while walking along a beach in the Seychelles Islands... that's awesome. Watching the ship crash through the great waves and have splashes of white and blue...that's awesome. Seeing the Great Wall zigzag off across the mountains into the mist...that's awesome. That big party you missed... isn't.

And you are going to hear yourself sounding pretentious. You won't FEEL pretentious, but you are going to hear yourself SOUNDING pretentious. You know, here on the ship, if you are sitting around with one of your friends or your roommate and you start a sentence like, "One night in Ho Chi Minh I was taking a cyclo back from the War Atrocities Museum....". That doesn't sound odd...here. But can't you just see your friends back home rolling their eyes? You are going to have to choose between sounding pretentious...and being silent. An you are going to long to be back here with us...where you can be normal.

And maybe you have a relationship back there. An important one. One that seemed really comfortable and promising...back in September. Oh boy! All those letters you wrote? Or didn't write? Some of them maybe feeling a little forced as you wrote them? Tht relationship might not feel right any more. Like an old pair of jeans that's all broken in, but out of style. And you think, "I just can't wear this any more."

Many of you have become independent on this voyage. Much more genuinely concerned about the world. About other people. Stronger. Braver. BETTER than you were in September. And the life that you had planned for yourself may not be big enough any more. You might be thinking about changing directions. A new major. A new career. Maybe even a new country. Who are you going to talk to? How are they going to understand?There are a thousand litle ways that the world is just not going to fit any more. And a thousand little reminders that it doesn't fit. WORDS are not going to seem the same. You will hear the word, "Havana City". Havana City is a place now...it's no longer just a word. Vancouver. It all comes back. It's not just a word. How could you posibly have imagined, back in September, that you would spend the rest of your life smiling whenever you heard the phrase, "plate tectonics"?

The world is never going to be the same again.So what do you do? Well, I think one of the things that you have to do is to forgive your friends. Looking at your pictures...listening to your stories...is not the same as having been th ere. You know that. You've looked at people's vacation pictures before. You know that pictures can't capture the experience. They are going to be looking at it and listening to it...you've lived it. It has changed you ...it hasn't changed them. So you have to be a little patient with them. You have to be a little forgiving if they don't quite get it.

But I think that you can only do that if they are willing to let you be the person you have become. It is not the places you have been to...and it is not the things that you have done that have to be shared. It is who you have become that has to be shared. You don't have to find people who have been around the world to understand you, but you have to find people to understand you. And if your old friends won't let you be the person you have become...get rid of them. Make new friends.

There are plenty of people out there. And I'll give you a good suggestion. You know those foreign students on your campus? Those strange people with the accents? You see them wandering around confused and not knowing what building to go into. Been there. Done that. Go talk to them.There are a lot of people out there who can confirm who you are ...and who you are becoming. Even if that is not clear to you now. In many ways, the person you will be six months from now is still brewing ...still developing right outside of consciousness. You don't know yet how much you have changed. And you won't know that for another six months or a year.

Other people who have been up here have suggested that you might want to try action. Find a cause...something that you believe in... and work for it. I agree with that. I think that's a good idea. But I am not worried about you. I don't think that you need to be urged to do that...you don't even need to be reminded to do that. I think you are going to HAVE to do that in order to feel at home. If the world does not fit any more, then you have to create a world for yourself that does fit...a place where you can feel at home.

I have been on this trip before...and gone home. So has Les... and Elaine...and Milt [academic deans]. We have all been taken out of our fishbowls and put back in again. And I think I can speak for all of them when I say ...come on in, the water's fine."

Bali.

So the plane from Singapore to Bali we were trying to catch was blocked by United so now we're leaving on Monday. As of now the flight plan is Dulles to New York (1.5 hours), NY to Beijing (12 hours), Beijing to Singapore (6 hours), and then Singapore to Bali (3 hours.) Pretty much non-stop. I'm still geeking out; I keep waffling back and forth whether I'll go or not... I mean, it's ridiculous that I wouldn't considering it's a chance to see a country where Hinduism, Chinese philosophy, and Islam all meld together in a completely unique place that'd be really influential in the kind of work I wanna do after college (not to mention will look really impressive on a peace corps application...) I'm going to have to travel which means I'm going to have to fly. I'm going to have to suck it up.

And yet there's this completely irrational terror, this panic that wells up inside my brain and makes me want to simultaniously run around the cabin foaming at the mouth and cry hysterically. I worry that at some point during all these flights I'm just going to flip out and be one of those completely nuts people who have to be emergency sedated on the plane... The whole thing is just weird... I mean I used to fly internationally three times a year. When we flew to New Zealand I pretty much just relaxed and slept the whole time - whatever changed happened so suddenly and I have no idea why.

I don't know. I realize it's ridiculous. I don't want to miss out on all the amazing things Indonesia has to offer but at the same time it seems so strange that I would fly all the way to South East Asia for two weeks just to come home for a week and then leave again (to eventually end up back in S. E. Asia!) for four whole months.

I think another part of it, however irrational, is that I feel like missing out on the Canada trip would mean a lost opportunity to have another adventure with the theme unit friends. I mean I know I'm going to be living with them next year and that I could call or write them anytime but I'm also leaving at what feels like the worst time... I know I'm going to miss everyone so much and while I'm ridiculously excited about this trip I worry everything will be different once I get back. It's inevitable that I will change and that they will too, but this semester was so great I worry I'll be an outsider after seven months apart.

Anyways... I am leaning towards going. I am hoping I can get over it and enjoy myself like I want to. It's such a weird thing to do before SAS though, in one sense it's like this awesome relaxing get away and in another sense it's also like a ridiculous whirwind adventure that I'm not sure I need since I feel so ill-prepared for the semester abroad anyways... Who knows. I'm in my head enough since coming back that sitting home alone for two weeks - especially during the holiday season - without any family on either side around, could only be bad for me.

I miss all my NoVA friends. I miss feeling like I knew the direction of my own life... I've been feeling kind of shitty about myself lately and everything is up in the air; it's exciting and really frightening all at once...

For The Oma:

A very broad and short walk-through of how to use my blog. So broad and short that I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things and probably not clarifying any of this at all... But here it goes.

This is my blog (weB LOG) that I plan on using to keep in touch and chronical all my adventures along the way. At the top of each blog post there's a different color header with the title of each post seperating one post from another - the ones at the top will be the most recent, and the ones at the bottom are the oldest. One day I'll get to making a folder on the right-hand side of the page to look up posts by country, you'll then be able to click on say, Japan, and look at all the posts I've tagged with Japan. If you don't want to do that and would rather all the posts be out as they were written chronologically then just go back to the head page url (http://abroadaboard.blogspot.com/) or just hit your back button.

If you want to post a comment to me in response to a blog posting go to the blog entry (seperated by those headers, so the blog below the header you'd like to write back to me about) and before the next earlier posting there is a smaller colored clickable link that says _ Comments. Some of my comments have 0 Comments written, some have 6 Comments. Click on the Comments link and it will take you to a page that on the right-hand side had a window for you to write me in. It'll probably make you choose some kind of identity, but I don't think you have to have a blog of your own to comment mine. It doesn't matter if you wanna post on a more popular blog, it'll all be saved publicly for all the readers of the blog (and me!) to see.

I'll post up my Semester at Sea e-mail address as soon as I get it since I probably won't be checking my yahoo account all that often.

GIFTS.

If you would like any specific gifts list them here so I can print it out an take it to ea. country and check off what I get as I get it. If you want lots of something write that too. And then give me money for it because I ain't your momma and I want to have money for all the delightful stuff each country offers. So list here anything you want, specific or not, otherwise everyone is getting one of these awesome(ly) creepy Tanuki figurines.

We invite you to tour the open boat in Norfolk, VA!

So last weekend right after move in the lovely Laura McG and I had planned to go check out the MV Explorer (the boat I'll be living on during Semester at Sea) in Norfolk since it was only like 30 min. away... Sooo at around 11 I figured I'd try to print out the reservation form you have to present to get on the ship (I had to register Laura and I like a week beforehand with all kinds of crazy information) so I go to the library to print it out since there is no internet in our rooms yet, but the library says there's no printing until monday... so I go to Jeanine's to try it again on her printer - but as nothing ever seems to go right with me on CNU campus her printer looses it's mind and refuses to print it out... It's also about this time that I realize - oh shit - it doesn't start at 4 like I'd told Laura it had, but rather started at two and ended at four. It was 1:00 when I realized this. So because I'm retarded I call Laura freaking out and I'm sure sounding like I was having a heart attack while leaving messages on her phone over and over because she wasn't picking up.

Meanwhile, J9 found one of her residents with a printer and used her USB and got shit done (Jeanine is like that, haha.) I figure the tour's pretty much a lost cause around 1:20 and figure I'll just go to the library and pick up some of the books I need for classes... While I'm there though, sucking up spending another crazy 100 bucks on textbooks, Laura calls back! It's crazy late considering we need to be there in 20 min. and it's about 40 min. away but we go anyways last minute. I have such good friends that put up with all my ridiculous shit (shout out: thanks guys!)

Soooo, we're driving there listening to John Legend and chatting about our Summer, my chicken scratch and terrible directions, my new cramped single dorm, and Laura's bangin' new apartment off campus when - HOLY CRAP - a seagull flies into a car driving to the right of us on the highway/bridge on the way to industrial Norfolk. This this is screaming and flapping it's enormous wings and I'm looking over horrified and freaked out and the two young black girls driving the car are... laughing. Hahaha. It was awful though really, I figured that seagull was definitely a goner and those girls were not even worried about it. Oh! And all this happened right in front of a huge P.E.T.A. building! Insane.

So we finally get to the check in point for the boat - it's now pretty much 4pm and they're calling people off the boat and Laura and I're like, "Whatever, we got this ish." and walk on. Or rather in my head I said that because Laura would never and I was freaking out and praying no one called us out and we could pretend to be a part of another tour or something. From there on we pretty much just wandered around the ship aimlessly - ducking in and out of unlocked cabins (one of which definitely had someone living in it and I think in the bathroom while we were in there, haha) and checking out the main spots like the bar (international waters means the drinking age is 18,) the gym, and the health and wellness center which is pretty much a large salon that offers massages, facials, hair stylings, and all that.

It was really, really cool and much larger in person.
I can't wait.

Paperwork is beyond lame.

Hey buddies,

So I'm incredibly frustrated with the amount I've had to do for Semester at Sea so far and would just like to vent a little. Okay, so this shit is ridiculous. Medical clearance forms for SAS, travellers insurance for CNU, applications, transfer paperwork, class tranfer forms for both schools, Signatures from every department head for every class I plan to take, emailing back and forth between the undergraduate classes committee to get writing intensive status on my south east wooden instruments class. Planning my courses for this and the next two semesters around what I'm taking on the boat, packing, freaking out about bag sizes, tickets to the bahamas, ticket from Florida, hotels in each country, in-country sleeper trains and planes, figuring out how to sign up if i still can for in-country family stays, and sooooo much more. I know it's gonna be so worth it but I am so stressed out with how much planning and paperwork I still have ahead of me on top of the fact that I still have to get through this semester first, haha.

Whatever - this trip will be baller.

Next up: The trip to the boat fiasco (complete with seagull diving action) and gifts!

The (Old) Itinerary!

(NOTE: This itinerary was changed due to piracy concerns and the revised itinerary is on one of the newer posts.)

I know it's really early to start blogging about Semester at Sea (especially considering how I still have another full semester at CNU before I go but I figured I'd get a head start on some of this stuff. So for future reference (I am expecting all of you to write me both on-line and on paper... I get homesick easily so letters and/or packages would help) this is the itinerary for my Spring '09 voyage:


*Spring 2009 Itinerary/Calendar*

Destination: Nassau, Bahamas
Depart: Monday, 19 January
Time: 1700

Destination: Cadiz, Spain
Arrive: Wednesday, 28 January
Time: 0800
Depart: Sunday, 01 February
Time: 2000

Destination: Naples, Italy
Arrive: Wednesday, 04 February
Time: 0800
Depart: Sunday, 08 February
Time: 2000

Destination: Istanbul, Turkey
Arrive: Wednesday, 11 February
Time: 0800
Depart: Sunday, 15 February
Time: 2000

Destination: Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt
Arrive: Wednesday, 18 February
Time: 0800
Depart: Sunday, 22 February
Time: 1900

(Transit Suez Canal - Sunday, 23rd February)

Destination: Chennai, India
Arrive: Thursday, 05 March
Time: 0800
Depart: Monday, 09 March
Time: 2000

Destination: Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand
Arrive: Sunday, 15 March
Time: 0800
Depart: Thursday, 19 March
Time: 2000

Destination: Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Arrive: Sunday, 22 March
Time:0800
Depart: Friday, 27 March
Time:0600

Destination: Hong Kong/Shanghai, China
Arrive: Friday, 27 March
Time: 0800
Depart: Wednesday, 01 April
Time: 2000

Destination: Kobe/Yokohama, Japan
Arrive: Sunday, 05 April
Time: 0800
Depart: Friday, 10 April
Time: 2000

(Cross International dateline, add one day)

Destination: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Arrive: Sunday, 19 April
Time: 0600
Depart: Monday, 20 April
Time: 2000

Destination: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala(Antigua, Guatemala City)
Arrive: Tuesday, 28 April
Time: 0800
Depart: Thursday, 30 April
Time: 2000

(Transit Panama Canal - Sunday, 03 May)

Destination: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Arrive: Wednesday, 06 May
Time: 0800