So today was another exciting day, aka we saw another sea creature. This time it was a dolphin, which I have to say was even more amazing than seeing a whale because the dolphin actually jumped out of the water. When we saw the whale there were 5 or 6 of us outside but today with the dolphin it was just Nicky and I that went out because we felt sick (the rocking has gotten even CRAZIER). We weren't even looking for any animals and then randomly there it was. Everyone was REALLY jealous which once again proves how badly we all need to get off this ship. Everyone is sooo excited for Spain - even when you are sitting by people you have never met before, someone will usually ask what you're doing in Spain. It has replaced "so where are you from?" as the new topic of conversation with strangers. Besides the dolphin, today was an extremely boring day. Realizing that we are about to be off the ship for 4 days, Semester at Sea has decided to invent ways to cram in as much info as possible while we are still here. For anyone who doesn't know, we have class EVERY DAY on the ship. This past weekend - class. On Saturday and Sunday. Every now and then we'll get a random day off but for the most part there is always class. One class is SPECIFICALLY about all of the places we go to. It's called Global Studies and for the past 2 days, and tomorrow, all we talk about is Spain. Then, tonight we had a "pre-port" lecture where 3 people talked about...Spain. Now, normally I wouldn't complain about all these lectures because, let's be serious, half my semester is going to be spent in 10 different countries. Going to class on the weekend isn't THAT bad. Plus, the guy that has been talking about Spain in Global Studies is a really engaging speaker and is really entertaining. But, this pre-port lecture was at 8:00 and EVERYONE even the faculty was dozing off. Clearly, everyone on the ship has been talked to death about Spain and we're all just ready to BE THERE! At this time tomorrow, I'll be packing my bag and I hope everyone knows how happy that makes me!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Whale Watching
This was supposed to post yesterday but it didn't so here we go now...
ps: This is for Christi and Lexi if you're reading this: We had an activities fair where you could sign up for things and there was one place you could sign up to make your own clubs so some people did and they just put them out yesterday and there is a "24 hour pirate watching club." I'm thinking maybe I should go and teach them some of my Philadelphia-based moves that we learned. AVAST!
When the sight of a whale in the distance is the highlight of your day, you know you need to get off the ship haha. But really, we have all been talking since we got on the ship about how badly we wanted to see a whale or some other “sea creature jumping out of the water” as one person put it and we finally did today so we were really excited. The past day or 2 have been slightly more exciting than the first few days. Last night there was an open mic night which was fun to watch. Today it was really nice outside so some of us went walking on the deck and we saw the whale and then later we went to a presentation about all the best foods to eat in Spain (obviously they know my number one interest) which really just made us all 10 times more excited for Spain and also 10 times more sick of the food on the ship. Everyone that I’ve been hanging out with is starting to get to know each other a little better so our conversations are becoming more comfortable which is nice. Today at dinner we talked about random stuff like what celebrities we think are the hottest and what situations we’ve been in that have made us the dirtiest or, as my roommate Megan calls it, the “crustiest.” Later, we had an intense discussion about Sesame Street and the fact that the Cookie Monster is now the Vegetable Monster. It was nice to finally feel okay talking to people about things other than where you’re from, what your major is, or things directly related to the trip. We went outside at night today and it looked SO weird. You couldn’t tell the difference between the horizon and the water so it looked like we were just floating in space. Classes still suck and are sooo boring and it feels so weird to be going to class and then remembering its Saturday. Only a few more days till Spain!!!
ps: This is for Christi and Lexi if you're reading this: We had an activities fair where you could sign up for things and there was one place you could sign up to make your own clubs so some people did and they just put them out yesterday and there is a "24 hour pirate watching club." I'm thinking maybe I should go and teach them some of my Philadelphia-based moves that we learned. AVAST!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Another note..
Two things I forgot to mention:
1. The ship is ALWAYS rocking!!! People who have been on cruises before say it’s really not normal for the ship to move this much. The first day I felt really sick, the second day I took some medicine and felt a lot better but still weird and today it didn’t really bother me at all. The one time it did bother me was when I was trying to do homework in the computer lab. Apparently the higher you are the more you feel the rocking and it was really hard to concentrate. I wish I could take a video of everyone trying to walk in the hallways. No one walks straight – it looks like how you would act if you were pretending to be on an unsteady boat…but no one’s pretending.
2. The way I felt when the ship was pulling out of the dock in the Bahamas was one of the weirdest feelings ever. It was like something I had waited for for almost a year was finally starting and I didn’t even know what to do or how to feel. It was extremely surreal.
Also, here is a picture of Nicky and I swimming with the dolphins in the Bahamas. I haven’t taken too many interesting pictures on the ship yet because nothing too exciting has happened.
1. The ship is ALWAYS rocking!!! People who have been on cruises before say it’s really not normal for the ship to move this much. The first day I felt really sick, the second day I took some medicine and felt a lot better but still weird and today it didn’t really bother me at all. The one time it did bother me was when I was trying to do homework in the computer lab. Apparently the higher you are the more you feel the rocking and it was really hard to concentrate. I wish I could take a video of everyone trying to walk in the hallways. No one walks straight – it looks like how you would act if you were pretending to be on an unsteady boat…but no one’s pretending.
2. The way I felt when the ship was pulling out of the dock in the Bahamas was one of the weirdest feelings ever. It was like something I had waited for for almost a year was finally starting and I didn’t even know what to do or how to feel. It was extremely surreal.
Also, here is a picture of Nicky and I swimming with the dolphins in the Bahamas. I haven’t taken too many interesting pictures on the ship yet because nothing too exciting has happened.
Day 3
So, just to give anyone who might be reading this a quick update, the 2 days in the Bahamas were amazing. The weather was really nice – it was a little chilly when the wind blew but for the most part it was not too hot not too cold. The first day we used Nicky’s parents all inclusive hotel for lunch and dinner and drinks and we also rode the water slides and stuff like that at Atlantis. The second day we swam with dolphins which was a lot of fun and a lot different than when I did it a few years ago. That was good because I didn’t feel like I was doing the same thing twice. The first day we got on the ship it took a little over an hour to get on and then we went through a ton of bag checks and filled out forms and went to our rooms. My roommate is from Texas and she seems nice. That night we sat through tons of speeches and had a floor meeting and it felt like being a freshman again. Yesterday was a longgggg day of bullshit about rules and other random things about the trip so I was really glad when that was over. They let us watch the inauguration, which was cool. Today was the first day of classes. I had three back to back from 8-12 so I’ve been done for a few hours. The food here is going to get really old really fast and so is waking up so early. I can’t wait until we start docking in countries because then we’ll only have 2 or 3 days of classes a week. The people here are cool so far but it’s harder than I expected to meet people. You aren’t allowed to prop the doors to your room open so you never really know where anyone is or what anyone is doing. A lot of people here make me feel kind of unaccomplished with all of the stuff they have done. I talked to one girl today that has spent two summers working at a school in Honduras and another girl that has an internship set up for summer 2010 in South Africa. Crazyness. Well, that’s really all there is to say, nothing too exciting has happened yet. I can’t wait till next week when we’ll be in Spain!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
3 days!!
I can't believe I'm leaving for the Bahamas in 3 days! I've been doing things to get ready for this trip for almost a year and it's finally here! I wish I could just skip over the next few days, have someone finish my packing for me, and just have it be Saturday morning. As excited as I am, I'm also really anxious because I know I still have a lot to do. But, underneath all the stress and anxiety, I've never been more excited for ANYTHING. Not only do I know this will be an amazing experience, but it also feels like really good timing to get away from everything and meet some new people. I need a change and this trip could not be coming at a better time. People keep telling me this is the best thing I'll ever do and I can't believe it's about to start!!
3 Things I've Learned While Preparing For This Trip:
1. Don't sell yourself short - If you don't like the way something is, you should probably change it and if you don't think you deserve to be treated a certain way, you probably don't. It's easy right now to think "I'm about to leave, I want to fix things" or "I'm about to leave, I really miss so-and-so, I should probably hang out with them" or "I'm about to leave, I don't even care anymore." I've been saying those things for a couple months and now that I really am about to leave, it makes me think what if I wasn't? The idea of "leaving" shouldn't be what causes you to do things that should have been done awhile ago. You should do what feels right to you regardless of whether you are staying, going, whatever.
2. Don't sell your friends short - I spent a lot of time this past semester thinking there wasn't anyone who really "got" me, and counting down the days till I could leave for this trip and meet people who would "understand" me. Come the end of the semester, I'm sitting in Starbucks for 2 hours with a friend just talking and realizing we have way more in common than I used to think, or having an hour long conversation with friends about Namibian amphibians and being those loud people laughing in a restaurant. Don't get so wrapped up in yourself and whatever you've got going on that you fail to realize there are probably wayyyy more people who know you and get you and love you than you think.
3. Sometimes things actually DO happen for a reason - I was always a little bitter that I got into an ivy league school and wasn't allowed to go because of money. I didn't understand why if I worked hard enough to deserve admission, my parents couldn't just somehow make it work out. Then in the middle of my 2nd semester, I came across this program, which is uhhh a little pricey, to say the least. Between using my scholarship money from Temple, and my parents paying more than they usually do for school as a sort of gift, and me taking a small loan from them, we can make it work because of money and I'm about to have the most amazing experience ever. If I had gone to Penn, I would NEVER have been able to afford this trip. I'd bet money that in the long run, Semester at Sea will impact me much more, will leave a much deeper impression on my personality, and will all-around serve me better than an ivy league education. Harder classes and great professors really don't compare to LITERALLY getting to see the world, at least not in my mind. Once I started planning this trip, I realized that choosing the college I did really worked out in my favor.
I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE!
3 Things I've Learned While Preparing For This Trip:
1. Don't sell yourself short - If you don't like the way something is, you should probably change it and if you don't think you deserve to be treated a certain way, you probably don't. It's easy right now to think "I'm about to leave, I want to fix things" or "I'm about to leave, I really miss so-and-so, I should probably hang out with them" or "I'm about to leave, I don't even care anymore." I've been saying those things for a couple months and now that I really am about to leave, it makes me think what if I wasn't? The idea of "leaving" shouldn't be what causes you to do things that should have been done awhile ago. You should do what feels right to you regardless of whether you are staying, going, whatever.
2. Don't sell your friends short - I spent a lot of time this past semester thinking there wasn't anyone who really "got" me, and counting down the days till I could leave for this trip and meet people who would "understand" me. Come the end of the semester, I'm sitting in Starbucks for 2 hours with a friend just talking and realizing we have way more in common than I used to think, or having an hour long conversation with friends about Namibian amphibians and being those loud people laughing in a restaurant. Don't get so wrapped up in yourself and whatever you've got going on that you fail to realize there are probably wayyyy more people who know you and get you and love you than you think.
3. Sometimes things actually DO happen for a reason - I was always a little bitter that I got into an ivy league school and wasn't allowed to go because of money. I didn't understand why if I worked hard enough to deserve admission, my parents couldn't just somehow make it work out. Then in the middle of my 2nd semester, I came across this program, which is uhhh a little pricey, to say the least. Between using my scholarship money from Temple, and my parents paying more than they usually do for school as a sort of gift, and me taking a small loan from them, we can make it work because of money and I'm about to have the most amazing experience ever. If I had gone to Penn, I would NEVER have been able to afford this trip. I'd bet money that in the long run, Semester at Sea will impact me much more, will leave a much deeper impression on my personality, and will all-around serve me better than an ivy league education. Harder classes and great professors really don't compare to LITERALLY getting to see the world, at least not in my mind. Once I started planning this trip, I realized that choosing the college I did really worked out in my favor.
I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE!
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