Blogging is how I entertain myself when it's late and I can't sleep or a strange/boring movie is on. I just had class then a burger and fruit smoothie while a few of us sat outside on a deck. The weather is so perfect! For the past 2 nights we have lost an hour each night and we're losing another one tonight... It's catching up and making me a little off on meals! I packed popcorn (those little yummy kettle corn mini-bags) but there are no microwaves :( I left some shirts on my bed this morning and our steward, Dante, a little Polynesian guy, folded them perfectly and color stacked them- how precious. He comes in and makes our bed every day, which is so cool! During the afternoons they don't play movies, I guess to get people not to sit in their rooms, which I'm doing right now! I'm listening to Thinking of You, while watching the TV map showing where we are in the ocean; I'll fill you in on what it says:
Latitude: 38 degrees 17.2N
Longitute 042 degrees 52.1W
Course: 82 degrees
Speed 21.3 knots
Time: 13:44:40
Date: Fri 18 Jun
Rumor has it that there are awesome stories on the backs of pictures in rooms. Shea and I just took a big, decorative picture on our wall off to look at the back. Everyone has been sharing stories of what is written on the back of their pictures in their rooms. Ours had a lot of tips and advice for ports and stuff, as well as hilarious stories/situations, we may add to it after the trip when we have something to write about!
I think I'll go to the lounge area now to hang and study my map for the quiz!
Today, while sitting outside, I saw a guy wearing a Cottages of Norman shirt. It looks the exact same as the Cottages of Lubbock one so he stood out! We started talking and he said that he goes to OU and works at the Cottages. I thought that was a funny connection, and his name was Marcus! Then Shea and I sat on a deck for a few hours reading and stuff right before dinner (which was delicious tonight except for the bread pudding dessert)
Each hallway is divided in half and everyone is in different seas. My hallway’s half is the Caribbean Sea and it is THE BEST! We are the most spirited and loud! Tonight, during our mixer, we walked around the entire ship with a stereo, dancing and clapping/being obnoxious, it was funny to see people’s reactions; they all want to be in the Caribbean Sea! Tomorrow we are doing a surprise stomp routine before the Global Studies class (which EVERYONE will attend and see us…) We went out on a front deck to practice so no one would see, it was hilarious trying to organize it (in the powerful, crazy wind) and make it serious and funny at the same time! Tomorrow, right before class, we are going to walk down to the front stage and surprise everyone with our awesome stomp routine. We also have chants/songs we sing randomly at dinner. For one, our leader Chela, shouts in a Jamaican accent "WE BE JAMMIN" and we all respond, "YA MON", it's great. Should be pretty interesting tomorrow!
After those few hours of fun, we went to another optional information seminar, for about 45 minutes. It was about the food in Spain; what to expect, when to eat, where to go, what words mean, etc. It was really helpful and there are seminars each night about the country we are headed to! Such a cool concept! After that we went to the room and got all cute and clean. We headed up to the top deck where everyone hangs out. Tonight I met a girl from UT that knows a ton of my friends at Tech and knows girls from my high school, cool connections! Then, for the most of the night, we hung out with 2 guys from Whitehouse, 2 of the nicest guys on this ship! We started planning out what we were going to do as a group in Spain and talked about making trips in other countries.
Tomorrow night is a “dance” party, nautical themed! Should be fun because now everyone pretty much knows everyone!
PS there are so many engineering guys on this ship! and so many people from Cali and Pitt! and lots of sorority/fraternity folks.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is on, so I’m going to watch it while I study my intricate map again!
Days are SO LONG but when I go to sleep at night, the day seemed so short! The days all mush together and it’s the best feeling because there’s no need to worry what day it is, the “voice” informs us at noon :)
Here is Semester at Sea’s blog, which has more detail about what goes on overall!
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyage-blog/summer-2010/the-past-isn-t-dead.-it-isn-t-even-past.php
Friday, June 18, 2010
Caribbean Sea- YA MON!
