Top 10.

My roommate told me she was doing this, and I thought it was a good idea so I stole the idea from her, along with most of her lists...but only because I agree with a lot of it. We decided to write "top 10"lists. Top 10 things I love about Semester at Sea, top 10 things I hate about Semester at Sea. We figured we haven't blogged in awhile and we are between a third and half of the way through, so it seemed like a good time.

In no particular order, the top 10 things I love about Semester at Sea:

1. Traveling the world…duh
2. Hanging out with other people who want to travel the world, and are actually doing it/Meeting people who are my age and have already done really amazing things that I haven’t even come close to
3. Trying new foods that each country is famous for
4. Not having a cell phone –as much as I thought this would bother me, I actually really like how much I DON’T miss it. In fact, the only time I ever wish I had one is to contact people on the ship that I can’t seem to find. I’m sure as soon as I get home it will resume its place attached to one hand, but for now I really like not having one
5. Getting excited over really little things –when we don’t have that much homework and get to play games at night, taco day, laundry day, good desserts
6. Being able to ask a taxi driver or a tour guide really personal questions and knowing that they’ll probably answer with the truth
7. Being within 7 flights of stairs of anything or anyone you need (This gets to be on the list about 95% of the time...the 5% of the time that you look everywhere for someone and can't seem to find them even though there are only so many places they could be..that belongs on some other list)
8. With so little to do on the ship, everyone participates in everything –Neptune day, Sea Olympics, watching documentaries they put on in the union, the assassin game
9. Having my steward Andrew clean my room, make my bed, and clean my bathroom every day…and the fact that he still smiles and says hi to me all the time
10. Being with one of my closest friends from home –even though I could definitely have done this alone, when the above 9 things just aren’t quite enough and you need someone to talk to about something NOT related to semester at sea, something more related to home, having someone right across the hall as opposed to having to email them can be really nice. Sharing a good percentage of my in-country experiences with a friend from home is pretty cool too.



And, in no particular order, the top 10 things I hate about Semester at Sea

1 . Pasta and potatoes every night for dinner
2. The faculty’s obsession with Charles Darwin
3. Not having more time in countries
4. minor to moderate seasickness whenever I’ve been off the ship for a few days
5. Going extended periods of time without laundry being done (even though laundry days made it to my list of things I love, I’d rather them be a little more frequent even if that means taking away some of the excitement of getting them)
6. class, tests, papers, “no class”days on the calendar that still have global studies at 9: 20
7. Not knowing any current events that don’t apply to countries we’re visiting
8. No internet/phone unless you want to pay out the ass –it’s really weird not to be able to talk to people you’re used to talking to a lot. It’s weird never using the phone and it’s weird that when you do send emails (which you can’t even really do in the countries unless you want to carry your computer around or unless your hotel has one) it takes people forever to respond because of the time change. That is if they do respond at all, which most of them don’t. Basically, the distance (literally and figuratively) from friends and family is weird.
9. The fact that my room is hotter than any of my friends’and that most of the time it is between 75 and 78 degrees in here
10. The fact that the schedule of being on the ship and being in countries makes it so a ton of schoolwork is concentrated into periods of two or three days and that during those days everyone holes up in their rooms like hermits, only emerging for meals when everyone is in a bad mood from doing work all day



Obviously, the things I love make the things I hate well worth it, but we just thought the lists would be more fun this way!