Finally an update

Aug. 27, 2006

This blog will prob. be very random but it’s late.

So we are officially out to sea and I can definitely feel it. The boat is rocking so bad. I can only imagine what it will be like if we ever hit a storm. Like 8 people threw up during orientation tonight.
I’m on the third floor in the Caribbean Sea (each hall has a sea name). Having an inside room isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It seemed really small when I first walked in but it becomes bigger to me the more I look at it and it actually has quite a bit of storage.
Our TV gets like 4 channels. A channel that shows a map and has our position on it, a channel that shows educational shows on the countries we’re going to, a channel that shows SAS stuff (that isn’t on all the time), and a channel that shows movies (but shows it over and over). I watched “Whale Rider” while I unpacked (which took a while, I took several breaks) so I’ve now seen bits and pieces of the movie from the beginning to the end but never the whole thing in order.
It kinda stunk that I was on the last shuttle down to Ensenada. Everyone who had gotten down here earlier had been able to go out into Ensenada and look around, but we didn’t have time. Since we missed lunch they had lunch for us at three o’clock (making me not hungry for dinner when it came around). Then when we were supposed to have our muster drill a lot of people (including me) still hadn’t gotten their bags so they had to delay it until after we left port.
Tonight I walked out on deck and all you could see was the ocean. It was so surreal. It’s surreal just being here. I really can’t believe I’m on SAS already, and these are the people I’ll be with for the next 3 months.
We get to Hawaii in 5 days. I can’t wait!

Aug. 29, 2006

So today was the first day of classes. If I had classes like this every semester I could totally handle it. They weren’t bad at all. No research papers! None of them seem boring either. I especially like my Asian art and architecture class. The teacher seems interesting; he showed a ton of slides of different buildings and statues. It’s nice to have a class that concerns something I love.
I don’t think I’ll ever be used to getting served meals. We pick up our own food buffet style but then the crew bring us our drinks and pick up after us. I was told we have this service because the food and lodging are part of a “hotel.” I’m not complaining, it’s just not typical college. I also don’t think I’ll be able to get used to the fact that I can always have such great scenery when I eat. I ate both lunch and dinner on the back deck of the ship today. How many people can really eat lunch while watching the Pacific ocean sail by? It was really cool.
We have until Saturday to choose the day trips we want to take up until India and the big trips we want to take after. I feel like it’s so much pressure to soon, like I haven’t made all of my friends yet. Anyway I think I’m going to go on the Cairo/ Luxor trip and Egypt and then I found a big group today that want to do a trip to Ephesus indy in Turkey so that’s hopeful. I still need someone to travel around with in Japan. Hopefully I’ll find some people in the next week and a half.
Tonight was also the first “pub night” but on our voyage it’s being called the “Aft er party,” ( because it’s at the back of the ship). The line was wrapped around pursers square to buy alcohol tickets. My roommate bought 6 tickets (2 for 5:00-6:00 and 4 for 9:00-11:00). I had no desire to buy any. At least today. Then we went to see what it was all about and you can smell the alcohol from around the corner and it was so loud I just wanted to leave.
We get to set out clocks back an hour tonight. I’m so excited to get an extra hour of sleep. It should make tomorrow a good day.
Also, no picks just yet because their taking forever to upload.