Rockin’ the Ship (Not to be Confused with Boat)

May 22, 2012

What a blur! I didn’t want to make this blog too wordy, because you know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I don’t think I can keep it down! I’ve been doing so much, and my pictures hardly encompass it! Never thought I’d say that…

First classes were today. I hardly slept last night because of the rocking of the boat (I expect I’ll do much better tonight, after I’ve had a day to acclimate and get my sea legs!), so I was tired this morning, but guess what comes with my tuition…UNLIMITED COFFEE!!! I can drink it till I drop. Literally.

No worries, I only had my regular TNT mug size (for those that don’t know, I have Titan and Terra all over my travel mug).

My class is the ecology of inclusive education, and I’m so glad I decided on that one! There are 9 students, and everyone is so interested in the subject, it’s nothing like normal school. We’re separated into “family groups” of 3 students each, and those are the people who will be my study buddies and my group project partners. One is a girl my age, and one is a teacher and a mom (she brought her kids with her! Lucky kids…). I feel like I’ll learn a lot in this class!

After classes, I went to lunch and picked a random table to sit at. It was a group of 3 (later joined by a fourth) voyagers that were a part of the road scholars, who aren’t in the classes but have the opportunity to be passengers instead. Toni and Bill are from northern California, and own orange orchards (so different from our apples!), Joe is from Florida (but originally from NY), and Camelia (not sure about spelling) is actually an LLL (Lifelong Learner) from Chicago. I really enjoyed talking to them over lunch about books, movies, education, pets, travel, and so much more! We really covered the board with that one. I saw Bill and Toni again just now, they were checking the “you are here” computer while I was typing this, and promised to read my blog (Hi Bill and Toni! :) when I told them they were in it.

Talk about a small world. Boat. Ship. Never call it a boat (still getting used to saying ship, voyage instead of cruise, deck instead of floor, forward instead of front, aft instead of back, and then of course port and starboard—my room is in the port aft section of deck three, and it’s right over the engine!).

I mentioned the “we are here” computer: it’s actually a GPS in the library window (the library is really awesome), and it has an updated map that shows exactly what latitude and longitude we’re at. I can’t show a link, but I did take a picture of the screen from an hour ago!

Currently even with Bologa, Colombia’s capitol

See? I’m actually studying! It's a voyage, not a cruise

I’m absolutely having a blast. I’m trying to save up some stories, but it’s hard not to blurt everything out at once! I’ve made friends with the student store cashier, the photographer, the librarians, and a bunch of voyagers of ALL ages. Can’t wait for a new day! I plan on waking up to see the sunrise with some friends tomorrow.

Embarkation

May 21, 2012

Today has been a busy day!!! After passing out at 8 (barely managed to stay awake that long!) and 11 hours of sleep, I woke up at 7 to re-pack my bags and get ready for my 10am shuttle to Puntarenas (it takes 2 hours to get from San Jose, where we were staying). The ride was a bit boring—I was on an aisle seat so I couldn’t see much—but I made more friends on the way so it can’t be too bad, right? :)

Bus ride from San Jose to Puntarenas

This trip has been a whirlwind of meeting new people from ALL over and making friends. So far, it’s been awesome and we haven’t gone anywhere yet! Well, except out to sea!!!

Picture taken by Joe, my new friend from lunch

To be honest, when we got to San Jose, I was getting kinda nervous about how much I had packed. I had two big bags, and most people had one with a small carry-on (it looked like I had more because of my camera bag, but I am NOT trusting that to checked baggage). But, as it turns out, economy class was the right choice for me! I wound up in a room with three roommates (we call our room “the quad” because we are the only 4-person room in our sea [more about seas later] as far as we can tell). Our room is actually split into two rooms of two beds each, and the room I’m in has extra drawer space! Perfect! My baggage fits under the bed perfectly as well.

We had our orientation today in the big classroom right before we embarked, where they explained about our classes, our trips, the rules, and our deck groups, which are called “seas” (the equivalent of a floor in a dorm—we have RD’s instead of RA’s). I actually already know a bunch of people in my sea already, and I’m happy with how it all turned out.

In addition to our seas, I also got seasick!!! The Union is the BIG classroom in the forward of the ship (also on the 6^th deck, so it’s pretty high up as well!). It holds all the students on the voyage (not to be mistaken for “cruise”), and it was where we held our sea meeting! Turns out that was a mistake, since we ALL had to run for the free seasickness pills as soon as it was over! And here I thought I didn’t get seasick…but once the pills were in me, it was much better!

And trust me, it’s totally worth it.

Roommates from the Quad: Julie, Corrina, Me, Jacqui

The Boondoggle Begins

Thanks again Derek and Ariel for driving me to the airport! I made it through with no troubles at all :)

Mom absolutely had to have the going-away picture! :)

Well, I managed to sleep for an hour or two on my various flights, but as far as I'm concerned, the friends I made during the flights were more important! We found a ton of people at the Houston airport that were SASers, and managed to gather a rather large group. There are people from all over, and it's really fun to meet them all.

Riding the shuttle from the airport to the Ramada Plaza hotel

Beer run! We were too tired to stay awake for dinner so we bought snacks and booze instead

Too bad I'm too tired to really hang out and do something fun!
We board the ship tomorrow, and I can't wait! I'm so excited to see the MV Explorer and meet my roommate(s), and learn my way around the seven decks! Not sure when I'll next have time to update this, but I'll do my best!
I have the last shuttle to Puntarenas tomorrow at 10am (most people have to wake up pretty early). That's 9am for you folks :)
Can't wait! :)

Here is a map of the countries I will be visiting on my trip, which I leave for in 3 days!!! (2 nights and several hours)

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Just checking to see if this post goes through to facebook.

In other news, I leave in 4 days!!! Counting the hours, and I'm still not packed! :)

Preparations for the Trip of a Lifetime

As many of you know, I will embark on my Semester at Sea cruise (or as Dad calls it, my "boondoggle") in 6 days. Since I've been spending the past week organizing all my crap in my room (and getting my SCUBA certification!), I haven't even started packing, but I've been making lists! I won't bore anyone with the details, but imagine me preparing and then overpreparing.

I won't be putting ALL of my pictures here, but I'll try to keep up a photo journal as the month progresses, and I'll create an updated calendar so you can see where I will be on a given day. I have several activities planned for each of the port stops, and some days where I have nothing planned, so those will be a surprise! Without much internet, I won't be able to keep in touch as much as I'd like, but I'm sure you'll hear all about it when I get back!!!

If you'd like to email me while I'm gone, I will be checking meghan.welsh.m12@semesteratsea.org most often. My cell will be on airplane mode the whole time, so don't bother with texts or calls, but I'd love to hear from you! :)