To the right: Africa! To the left: Spain!

Yep, you read the title of this post correctly! Once in a lifetime sight :)

6/22
Today was the best. We saw land!! On our map test, one of the things we learned was the Straight of Gibraltar (Gates of Hercules) and it is 8 miles from Spain to Africa across this body of water. After class I was laying out on the deck with everyone and we have been patiently awaiting this sight! At about 14:30 you could see Africa, and then about 30 minutes later, you could see Spain on the other side at the same time! You could see trees and buildings, with no binoculars! When do you get to hear someone say they were on a ship and to the right was AFRICA and to the left was SPAIN?! So cool, I took a video!

Then I went to the workout place and ran a few miles/ took a yoga-mat outside and worked out a little more, while looking at Spain and Africa :) It still blows my mind that it is only 8 miles apart!
**If you are bored, or just curious, go Google “straight of Gibraltar" and you’ll see where I am! (Do it...)

Movies tonight: Pan's Labyrinth, Blood Diamond, Black Hawk Down, Nanny McPhee! If you were wondering :) I usually fall asleep to the TV or music because the ship can make some strange noises at night! Also, Shea and I think that there is a storage closet or something above us because every night at about the same time, we hear rambling and metal rolling around or something. We can't figure it out but it gets a little annoying!

Shea and I are in the room right now watching a presentation on the tv that is going on in the Union right now. It's so cold in the Union, so we do homework (and blog…) while we watch it! Pretty neat. They guy doing the presentation is our age and is from Spain. He works for a program where he helps travelers when they come to the port in Barcelona. We are just lucky to have him with us to share valuable information! We personally met him the other night and he’s fun to talk to. His name is Francesco and is super nice and helpful! He is telling us where to go, what to eat, how to get around, where not to go, and right now he’s telling us about the beach! I CAN’T WAIT! Wow he just said don’t go out until 1 because that’s when everything starts up (closes at 8am). People don’t get out of dinner until 12! I can’t begin to tell you how exited I am to start this traveling.
I have a group presentation tomorrow over a really long article I read with my group. It was about Moroccans immigrating to Italy and conforming to the new culture through language socialization. We made a PowerPoint and we have to lead the class into a discussion. It should be pretty simple! (I don’t know if I already wrote about this because I can’t see my blog!)

It’s about 1am I just got back from the party deck outside. It’s so much warmer than usual! Maybe because we aren’t in the middle of nowhere anymore and we are next to Spain and Africa! It was really fun and different, and I met about 10 new people, who I’ll definitely be chatting with by the pool with tomorrow! I have yet to meet a rude or mean person, and I truly don’t think I will! Everyone on this ship is so nice and welcoming to meeting new people and I’ve had great conversations/acquaintances. It’s just awesome. I can’t explain it better than that! I think tonight everyone was so excited and energetic because we finally saw land. We were all talking about Spain and who’s going where, and making plans to all hang out. YAY!

(Hi family!)
Oh, surprise- we are losing another hour tonight…
Goodnight!