Almost to Dominica!

The last couple days have been filled with signing up for things and getting settled in for the semester.  We finally were able to get all of the students on board with their passports and set sail.  Today was the second day of classes, so I have now been to each class at least once before the break for Dominica (pronounced DOM-I-NEE-KA…  I have been saying it incorrectly for about a year now).  Each class seems like it is going to be a lot of fun!  The last couple days have been frustrating for a lot of people who were trying to figure out their schedule’s for their FDPs (faculty directed practica) since we are now required to have two for each class.  I just have two more to sign up for in my literature class and I should be all set!  The teacher’s all seem pretty amazing at what they do.

The deck 2 outside rooms where I am, are pretty small, but still bigger than I had expected them to be.  I am very glad that I got an outside room, because now I have a view!

 

 

I was also able to hang my Colorado flag on the wall in my cabin with all my pictures!

                We were able to sign up for different groups and things the night before last so I signed up for a bible study, career development, and an extended family program.  I haven’t heard anything from the groups yet, but they will probably be starting soon.

                I washed my clothes in the sink for the first time last night…  I think it went well.  I had to hang all of my clothes around my room to dry and the only place I could find to hand them was straight across my bed on the clothesline.  It may have been dripping on my bed.  But I now know how to wash my clothes in the sink!  Go me!

                Tomorrow we land in Dominica and I will be going to spend some time visiting the Carib Indian’s and snorkeling!  I have heard that it is a very beautiful place…  Hopefully posting these pictures worked and I can post some of Dominica after we depart!

                Also, I found out today that people can buy me cake.  There is a form on the SAS website under the parent info page…  This is probably the lack of chocolate talking, but if anyone feels like ordering me a cake I would like a small chocolate ice cream cake.

Ship Life

Mom and I left the hotel around 10:30 to head to the docks.  It took a while to get on board…  And then they randomly drug tested me.  Turns out I am clean, in case anyone had any doubts. 

After I got through check in, I dropped my things in my room and walked around for a while until I found the dining hall and got some lunch.  I spent most of the day walking around the ship and meeting people.  Deck 2 (where my cabin is) seems to be a little hard to find at times.  If I go to the right staircase, I end up right next to my room, if I go down any of the others I end up in the crew’s quarters.  We went over lifeboat drills, but mostly just spent the day unpacking and hanging out with people we met.  

                Not too much happened yesterday.  We have not left the port of Nassau yet, due to some student’s having issues with their visas.  We have been confined to the ship, because we are not allowed to leave once we board the ship in each port.

                Today we set sail.  I am not sure why, since we came back to Nassau about 5 hours later to pick up some more students.  It was interesting to see what the ship felt like while it was sailing.  In a way it felt like when you stand up too fast and your head gets dizzy, but the feeling doesn’t go away.  It was fun to walk around with the floor moving.  I started giggling to myself at random times like walking up the stairs, or when I went sideways by accident.  It was kind of awkward when other people noticed.  I am sure that after a few weeks of living on the ship, I won’t notice it’s movements near as much.

                I am not certain of when we are scheduled to leave Nassau at this point, but we are supposed to get to Dominica on schedule, so I guess we are just going to go faster. 

Classes start tomorrow!  Mine don’t start until 1300 with theatre and performance and then world literature in English and the day after I have Global studies and Travel writing starting 9:20!  Sorry for the randomness here, next time I should have something more interesting to write since classes and the first port are coming up soon!

A Diving Tour and A Walking Tour

 Mom has gone off to tour the ship with the other student's parents and I have been left here to entertain myself.  So, since there is no silly string readily available, here is another blog post about what we have been doing while in Nassau....

Mom and I spent Monday and Wednesday diving.  I took my new GoPro down and it worked awesomely!  Of course, with the way the lens on the water proof cover is shaped it messes up the quality a little, but here is what I got!

Just some coral...

Fish...

I chased this guy around for a while...  He didn't want his picture taken.

This was a lobster once...

Most of the dives were around wrecks, so we got to swim around and through them, which was really cool.

I think that's me, but I can't really tell.

Pretty sure this is Mom.

I just like this...  I wonder if every time they see this the fish think "Well, looks like the aliens are returning to the Mother Ship now"

Mom and I underwater...  She was supposed to breath in, but her face is covered in bubbles.

Diving was really fun!  It was only my second dive trip, but now I have about 14 dives logged in my book.  On the second day Mom and I were the last two off the ship and the last two to get back on because we had enough air left that the Dive Master let us swim around and explore a little more than everyone else.

Yesterday we took a break from diving and spent the day walking around downtown Nassau.  We met Liz, who is another Semester at Sea student and she came with us.  The pictures got uploaded backwards, so this is the opposite way of how we walked around.

This was a Church building we saw in town.  It was beautifully built!

Just a few random things we thought looked cool...

Liz and I...  I think we are across the street from the government building here.

The highest point in Nassau...  Only 5,900 feet lower than my house!

Just some cool stairs...

Turns out we don't have to go to the Taj Mahal anymore because there was one here!

Outside of the library and museum.

Lunch at Cafe Matisse!  It was amazing!  I had the cold almond soup with cucumbers...  And something else, which was really good.

There was our tour of downtown!  Tomorrow I board the ship at 11am and then I am off the sail the world! I am not sure if I will able to use pictures in my blog as much while I am gone because of the internet limits, but hopefully I can still use a few!  I need to stop using so many exclamation points!

That's all for now!

Seeing Ships

Today Mom and I went down to the docks to walk around and see if the ship had arrived yet.  After about an hour and a half long bus drive (where we may have unwittingly witnessed a drug deal) to a place that should have only been twenty minutes away, we walked around downtown, ate some lunch, and saw the docks.

Here’s what we saw!

This is actually the view out the hotel room window.  You can see a really big ship at the docks across the water.

This is a bird.  I named him Henry.

Here is a picture of me and a ship.  Not my ship, just a ship.

This is also not my ship.

Still not my ship.

Ship for sail.  Not mine.

These are not my shipmates.

One of the more important things we learned today was that the ship was not here yet.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of other stuff.

 Guy playing on the streets of downtown.

Street somewhere downtown.

Me repacking everything…

Me on the beach.

Mom on the beach (we didn’t get any pictures together).

Also, I just learned that the ship has now docked and will be there next time we stop by!

One More Thing Before I Head Out...

Right now I am sitting at the airport waiting to board my red eye flight to Nassau.  We are planning to spend a few days on the beach there before I take off for the semester.  Over the past few weeks I have been trying to see as many people as I can before leaving.  I know I am only going to be gone for 3 1/2, but since I have never been away from home for so long before, it seemed like a good idea.  I am incredibly blessed to have a huge group of friends and family supporting me.  I have read a few others students talking about how their families don’t understand or their friends think they are just going on a ‘booze cruise.’  I have not had a single person say one of these things to me.  Everyone has been excited and very supportive of me, which is something I am very grateful for.  Because of that, I wanted to write a post to say ‘thank you’ to those people.  You know who you are.  I don’t want to make a complete list, because I am afraid I will forget someone and then I will feel terrible...

I have an amazing family.  My parents, brother, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on are some of the kindest people I have ever met.  Even though I have never lived in Kentucky where most of my family lives, I have always considered it my hometown, because that is where my family lives.  Then there are the Maryland people.  I moved away about five years ago, but I receive so much encouragement from friends back there that sometimes it seems that we are still there.  My friends from the Well and Fuel, you have truly been an answer to prayer for me.  Before starting in both of those groups I had been praying to meet true friends, since I didn’t have very many in Colorado and I am thankful for each of you.  Yoga people, it meant a lot to me to have people ask to pray for me before heading out.  I have packed my yoga mat, so hopefully I can keep working on it while away!  Friends I met at Heritage Square, it has been so fun to get to know you guys over the past couple of summers while playing Rockband or watching weird YouTube videos!  I will miss that while I am away.  Also, the people who I have met at school…  We need to hang out more!  I always have fun with our random conversations about CreationFest or zombie strategies, I think there should be more!  The friends who I met in Maryland before they moved to Colorado after us, it has been so much fun getting to know you over the past several years!  I wish I had gotten to see you before I left, but I will see you when I get back!  I need to stop because I keep just coming up with more people…  So anyone who I have gone for coffee with lately…  Let’s just say I love you all and I will see you when I get back!

The Road goes ever on and on

Down the door where it began.

Now far ahead the road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whiter then?  I cannot say.

The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

 Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

my evening-rest and sleep to meet.

JRR Tolkien

Testing, Testing...

Testing to see if I can post from my shipboard email...