“I’m on a Boat!... Oh, sorry- Ship”

I am currently in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I haven’t seen land in about 5 days now. What a strange feeling…
Recap of various events:

August 25: I woke up at 4AM to get my things together and say goodbye to my dad and Charlene and my grandparents picked me up so we could catch our bus to the airport. I flew from Denver to Toronto on an 8AM flight and after about a 4 hour layover I was on a flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I got to Halifax and the time zone is 3 hours ahead of Denver so I was not at all tired and by the time my grandparents and I had gotten the rental car and driven to the Waverly Inn. It was almost 10PM Halifax time, only 7PM Denver time… Eeek! It was within walking distance to the port and it was in a cute little half-historic, half-new construction area of town. I stayed up and Skyped for a bit with Jon, B, Hailey, and Molly back in Boulder.

August 26: I woke up and met my grandparents for breakfast and soon after we left to go to an old Canadian army fort. I think it may have been called the Halifax Citadel? It was very foggy and overcast that day and it rained a little bit on and off in the morning hours. We toured the fort for a while, which was somewhat interesting, but the Canadian army really wasn’t very exciting and didn’t get much action…ever. Haha. There were a bunch of men dressed up in Canadian uniforms walked around, yelled, and hauled cannons that didn’t work. After that we proceeded to walk around in Halifax and just get a feel for the city. We ended up eating in a nice little Greek restaurant. After that, as I recall, we went back to the inn and relaxed for the afternoon. In the evening we went to a pub down the block. That was really nice and reminded me a lot of England. Also, at the supermarket they sell British candy and chocolate! Cadbury!!! ☺ I have deemed Canada as a miniature Great Britain… sort of… but closer to America, with French randomly thrown in. Haha

August 27: Embarkation day! Breakfast, blah, blah… I went down to the pier around 10AM and I lugged all of my bags through security and onto the boat. I went back off the boat to have lunch with my grandparents and to say goodbye. We ate in a little Persian restaurant and the food was great. Back on the ship, I began to unpack and to decorate. My room is much bigger than I thought- probably a little smaller than a dorm room at CU. The walls are magnetic so I put up a bunch of pictures that I brought with me. My roommate is an Anthropology major at UCLA and she is very nice and we have been spending time together lately. Oh, and right when the ship started moving, I thought I would be fine (I was outside for the first hour or so in the breeze), but soon after I came inside I had a headache and I started to not feel well.

August 28: Orientation day. Ugh. That is how I would describe this day. I felt so sick this day, but I took motion sickness medication and it made me so unbelievably tired. When I wasn’t at an orientation lecture I was sleeping. I went to bed around 9 this night and slept ‘till about 9 the next morning. So far I have noticed that I have the weirdest dreams here! So vivid.

August 29: Classes started this day (Sunday!) and I barely made it through them. I felt awful. I could not pay attention in class because I was so sick and each time the boat rocked, I felt myself cringing. The waves were abnormally large this day so the rocking was terrible. I guess we were in a rough part of the Atlantic and we were going fast as to avoid a tropical storm in the South.

August 30: On Monday I started feeling like a human again. ☺ I went to class, took notes, didn’t have to nap, and socialized without feeling the need to curl up and sleep forever. Haha

So on A days (every other class day) this is my schedule:
12:15- 13:30 World Regional Geography
14:55- 16:10 Globalization and Local Cultures

B days:
9:20- 10:35 Global Studies (Not the most exciting class, but everyone on the ship has to take it)
12:15- 13:30 Anthropology of Tourism

So basically the classes aren’t too difficult and the professors have lowered the amount of work we have to do from what they planned on the original syllabi. Plus, we only have 22 days of each class… Haha. I think the program is something like 55% class time and 45% port time, which is pretty amazing. We also have a bunch of reading days (a concept that CU needs to adopt!!!) so there is no class even when we are at sea sometimes!
In the evenings a lot of the students go up to deck 7 (where the pool and the snack bar are) to hang out and on nights when the “bar” is open they all get ridiculous and drink. I have opted not to do so on the ship A. because it is very expensive, B. because all they serve is cheap beer and wine, and C. because we always have class the next day!

We have crossed over 3 time zones already on the ship! Now we usually have to advance our clocks one hour each night! It makes it hard to go to sleep. I haven’t tried the Melatonin, but if I have the same problem tonight I will. We are advancing our clocks ANOTHER hour tonight so we will be 7 hours ahead of Denver! Ah!

Last night I went up to deck 7 for the sunset and it was gorgeous. The sunsets seem to happen really fast because there are no
mountains. I took a bunch of pics.

Oh, and I have seen Desmond Tutu several times. He is the cutest little man I have ever seen. On one of the first days her was in front of me in the dining area and he was getting food for his wife who was sick. And I just saw him 5 minutes ago walking back from the gym with his wife. Surreal.

We get to Spain in 2 days! I think that when we wake up on Saturday we will be there! Ahh! My friend Kelsey and I are going to take a Train from Cadiz to Sevilla and then another to Madrid. We have reservations at a nice hotel in Madrid for 3 nights and we are just going to travel around the city. I hope to visit the museum where Picasso’s “Guernica” is and I think we are also going to see some flamenco. Our hotel is right next to the train station and within walking distance of a couple of famous parks. The dean of the school on the ship is somewhat obsessed with Spain and he was actually knighted by the king of Spain. He has been giving cultural lectures the past few nights about Spain. Last nights lecture was about the food of Spain and I am so excited to eat real food! Churros con chocolate for desayuno, tortillas Espana, tapas, gambas, seafood, flan… Mmm…

Food on the ship is less than appetizing, but not too terrible. With every meal they have some sort of dish made with pasta and something made with potatoes. The salad is sometimes green, sometimes yellow. I brought a lot of snacks with me from Halifax and I have been eating them quite a bit, probably too much. Don’t worry, I am staying healthy though.

I didn’t sign up for any Semester at Sea trips for Morocco and I still am not sure what I am going to do. I may end up buying a few small trips from other students selling their SAS trips (usually below the price they paid for them). I also might get together with a group and do a camel trek through Marrakesh. Not sure at this point.

Side note: it’s so odd to have the workers on the ship sort of “taking care” of you. At lunch and dinner they bus your plates and silverware for you and there are cabin stewardesses that come in everyday with fresh towels and they also make your bed.

I will upload pictures from Canada and of ship-life so far soon! ☺ Love you guys!

Sorry that was SO ridiculously long! I have been keeping a Microsoft Word doc of thoughts and adding to it periodically.

Oh! My email is mlrogers@semesteratsea.net if you didn't get the memo. I'd love to hear from you!