Day B1

I have three classes on B days: World Religion, Intro to Collage and Intro to Anthropology. Religion and anthropology require a lot of reading and anthropology even requires watching movies. For Collage I am required to do at least 15 minutes of drawing every day. I have been reading every spare minute I have.

Evergreen and I have been making plans for what we want to do in Spain. We have booked a hostel in Seville for a night and are planning on going to the cathedral and some museums there. We have also been talking to two other girls that might come with us, Laura and Jennifer.

Wednesday morning we will pass by some islands around five and then at seven. Everyone is excited; people are even considering getting up early to see them as we pass by. Tonight we lose another hour.

First Day of Class

Today (A1) was the first day of classes.  We have two days of classes here A days and B days.  On A days I only have one class; Global Studies.  We talked about Globalization and had a semester’s worth of history taught in 30 minutes.  Today was very turbulent with the ship rolling a lot but the sky was a pretty blue and the water was a beautiful deep blue with big rolls that from the 6th deck looked very comforting.  It is hard to stay awake while sitting still with the rocking of the ship.  After Global Studies I worked in the computer lab for an hour after which I went to lunch.  Lunch and dinner everyday always consists of a few main things.  Salad (iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, and different dressings), cheese cubes (usually two kinds), some form of potatoes (all very good), some kind of pasta, some sort of meat, mixed vegetables, cooked vegetables, usually there is some rice, and some kind of dessert.  To go along with the buffet there is always bread and peanut butter and jelly and fruit.  There is also a different soup everyday and I have heard from soup lovers that they are good but I don’t really like soup so I will just take their word for it.  After lunch I had another hour at the Computer Lab (I am required to work 2 hrs. a day except when in port).  Then I went and took a nap for an hour or two.  We had lost an hour during the night and I had gone to bed very late.  For dinner we met up with our Sea after which we had a scavenger hunt.  Tomorrow (day B1) for the first time I will have World Religion, Into to Collage, and Intro to Anthropology along with my 2hrs in the computer lab. 

Student Orientation Day

Aug 28
This morning after waking up I took a shower which sounds very normal but was quite an interesting experience with all the rocking the boat is doing.  I was very glad of the handle in there.  Not feeling too bad right now but I have taken some meds.  On the little tv’s in our rooms is a map showing where we are right now and some other info like we are currently at latitude 42o 15.6N and Longitude 055o 21.4W.  Our speed is 20.8 knots the course is 103o and the current time is 12:41pm although the ships clock will be advanced one hour tonight.  This TV station also plays oldies music and is playing “last dance with Mary Jane” right now.  We sat through lots of different talks about health and safty, Field Programs, and Sea meetings.  Each deck is divided up into different Sea's, each has its own RA and LLC (Living Learning Coordinator).  Evergreen and I are in the Mediterranean Sea.  The Life Long Learners decided to create a sea for themselves they are the Tip-Sea.

Bon Voyage

(written yesterday)Aug 27
Today we woke up at 6 because we were helping with general student embarkation.  After breakfast and a meeting I went to the computer lab and assisted people with getting their email set up and getting online.  Lunch was at 12 after which I went back to the computer lab for another hour or so when there was another meeting.  At 4:00 there was a lifeboat drill where we put on our life jackets and did a sort of ship board fire drill.  When it was over we put our life jackets back in our rooms and went to the aft deck so we could watch the shore of Halifax disappear when we set sail.  Very quickly the ship was rocking and rolling and making everyone walk funny.  Our captain says that we will make it away before the hurricane gets near us but it will cause a lot of turbulence.  Sea sick medication is provided for free and is recommended that everyone take some even if they don’t think they will get sick as it is better to be safe than sick and sorry.  Tonight saw all the Faculty and Staff and learned some demographics that I think you might find interesting.  The youngest person aboard is 16 month old baby Griffin, the son of one of the librarians.  The oldest person aboard is a 90 year old lifelong learner of which there are 66 (a new SAS record I’m told).  There are 604 students 63% of which are female and 37% male.  The largest major is Business and the state with the most students is California.  There are 256 different University’s represented here the biggest contributor of students being the University of San Diego.  Tomorrow we have Student Orientation and then Sunday is when classes start. 

First Day Aboard

This morning Evergreen and I ate breakfast at a little café just a few short blocks away from the hostel.  It was very foggy and the humidity reminded me of home but we decided to walk down to the pier anyway.  As we walked along the pier we got our first sight of the MV Explorer.  We went back to our hostel packed up and checked out and made the 10 minute hike to the ship.  We stood in line while everyone went through customs.  Today was when all the work study students and the lifelong learners boarded.  Later I learned that there is a record number of lifelong learners this semester.  I don’t remember the exact number right now but it was over 40.  After lunch there was a meeting after which we all split up into our different work study positions with our supervisors.  They explained a little about what we would be doing for the semester as far as work study goes.  We unpacked and got everything settled into our quaint little room.  We wandered around before eating dinner in the cafeteria and are now fairly confident about the layout of the ship.  Tomorrow we have to be ready to work at 7am.  All the non-work study will board tomorrow between 8 and 12.  All in all a good day. 

Ok so first day of travel…

This morning I left McGee Tyson and flew to Atlanta and then to Detroit. From Detroit we were on a small plane where at least half the people on it had something to do with semester at sea. I was seated next to a mother of one of the SAS participants. We exchanged different information on SAS and the countries we would be going to. Evergreen was seated next to a girl from Memphis named Molly who is also going on SAS. We arrived in Halifax a little after 9:00pm (8:00pm our time). After going through customs we found out that the airport shuttle wouldn’t leave for another hour. We talked with Molly and decided to share a cab. Cab rides from the airport are $56 plus $10 for each additional stop. With three of us it would be the same price as waiting for the shuttle. I don’t know how it happened but there was soon another girl in our group and when we got outside there was an old lady looking to share with someone as well. Molly ended up going with the old lady because there hotels were next to each other and Evergreen and I went with the other girl who was from CO but was a Canadian Citizen and was going to College in Halifax. The place she got dropped off wasn’t far from the Hostel that Evergreen and I had reservations at. In my room here at the hostel where I am writing this I have 3 roommates one of whom is also a SAS participant.



I guess that’s it for today. Tomorrow we will board the MV Explorer.