"Sauna Sunday"

Ok, I was wrong, we didn’t lose an hour last night, BUT we are again tonight!....

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DAD! Thank you for the wonderful opportunity for letting me do this amazing trip!

Today is the prettiest day outside that we have had so far! Lots of dolphins too. This guy Eric called today "sauna Sunday", because it was the warmest day so far and everyone was out there, haha.
I’ll give you one fact I learned in Global Studies today. When statues were beginning, the Romans made statues of horses on 3 legs, with one raised in the air, with a rider on the back. Other countries tried to repeat this challenging task by balancing all of the statue’s weight on 3 skinny horse legs. No other country to do this! One picture we were shown was a statue of a horse with a leg in the air, but it was resting on a ball underneath. They couldn’t be like the Romans!

After breakfast, class, lunch, snacks, and more eating, a few girls and I went to the 7th deck to lay out. EVERYONE was out there and it was so crowded, but so fun! Everyone had their laptops and homework etc. The weather is PERFECT!

Ok, this may be long... but it gives you a little idea of what we do when we are in the middle of (nowhere) the Atlantic:

Today Sunday June 20:
B Step Aerobics
Time: 1700
Location: 7th Deck Outside

Career Interest Groups
Time: 1730
Location: Union
If you're engineering, pre-business, international studies, or fine arts student, come check it out!

Insanity Work Out Class
Time: 1900
Location: Classroom 3

Global Studies Map Quiz!!
Time: 2000

Foreign Language Groups/Tables
Time: 2100
Location: Classroom 9

Interport Liaisons
Time: 2100
Location: Classroom 4

Bible Study
Time: 2100
Location: Classroom 9

Interfaith Discussion Group Organizational Meeting
Time: 2100
Location: Classroom 8

Student Activities Planning Meeting
Time: 2130-2230
Location: Classroom 2

Tomorrow Monday June 21:
Field Office Alternate Day!

Zumba
Time: 0700
Location: Union

International Students Meeting
Time: 1800
Location: Classroom 5

Insanity Work Out Class
Time: 1900
Location: Classroom 3

Hip Hop Dance Class
Time: 1900

Adjusting to Life on the Ship
Time: 1900
Location: Classroom 1 (in the Garden Lounge)

Explorer Seminar: Barcelona: A Planning and Architectural Appreciation with Dr. Warren Boeschenstein
Time: 1900
Location: Union

Explorer Seminar: Modern Spain a Clash of Titans with Dr. David Geis
Time: 2000
Location: Union

Explorer Seminar: Travel Sketching
Time: 2000
Location: Classroom 1

Travel on a Budget
Time: 2100
Location: Union
Come learn about making your dollar go farther during your time in port!

Academic Workshop Committee & Faculty/Student Social Committee Meeting
Time: 2100-2200
Location: Classroom #4
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So I just got back from taking the Map test, it was pretty simple and I was the first to finish in my room. That usually happens a lot and makes me nervous because no one else is done before me!

Before Shea and I went wandering around and hanging out with people, we talked about boys and relationships. She gives great advice and support! We are definitely are becoming closer, and I can’t wait for it to continue to grow!

Tonight we had ‘movie night’ with our amazing CARIBBEAN SEA yaa mon. It’s a great group and I love hanging with them! The ship has really, really good popcorn, and tonight for our movie (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), we had FREE unlimited popcorn :) This makes up for the fact that I brought popcorn but there are no microwaves. Great success. And I even took some back to the room for a snack tomorrow. Tonight’s movie choices on our microscopic-TV: Ulysses, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Moulin Rouge!

I’m definitely starting to miss certain foods, restaurants, my pillow, my guitar, my family and pets, friends, and Jared! It still hasn’t clicked to me that this is going to be one longgg trip. We aren’t even to our first destination yet and I’m already feeling like I’ve been here forever, and the days are all mixing together! Spread the words to everyone about Semester at Sea and tell everyone to do it if they can. There is such great chemistry with everyone, on this ship. You just know it, and I don’t know how else to explain it! Before, I read people’s stories and blogs about their trips with Semester at Sea and I wondered what they were saying or meaning; now I totally understand! And to think it’s only going to get better. :)

20:20:20

6/19
Tonight we are losing ANOTHER HOUR. This is the fourth time in a row that this has happened, and we still have 2 more to loose! :( The good news is that when we sail back, we will gain an hour every night for 6 nights, which will be much needed after traveling the Mediterranean :)

In my intercultural communications class this morning, we were assigned in to small groups of 4 people and got to choose a topic from a list. The topics are things we will individually discuss with at least 4 natives in each port we go to. The topic my group got was “games people play”. This is the one I put down for my top choice! Some of the other choices were house designs, holiday, heroes, nonverbal communication, and some other categories I don’t remember. I’m excited for this topic! We came up with basic questions on what to ask and how to compare answers from across the Mediterranean. At the end of all the ports, we do a 30-minute presentation showing the similarities and differences within each country. We were recommended to take pictures of the games if possible and get a picture with the people we talk to! This is going to be fun and I think it’s so cool how we get to actually apply ourselves in the real world, and get out there talking to real locals! What an amazing assignment for this amazing opportunity :) Another group assignment is to read an assigned article (about 30 pages) and lead a 15-minute class discussion, which we are graded on how well every one participates. I started the article this afternoon and it’s about a study done in 1990 about Moroccan adolescents moving to Italy with their family and how they socially integrate and adapt. In the 1980’s a few Moroccan men moved to a small town in Italy to look for a stable job and cheap homes. They found it and in the 1990’s, the rest of their families joined them! I still have about 15 more pages to read, then I have to write discussion questions for the class.
In global studies, we focused on Alexander the Great and conquerors of Egypt; pretty fascinating stuff! I don’t have a hard time paying attention to any of the classes because I’ll be seeing it all! I still can’t get over how cool this program is, learning about where you are going, which is fun, and getting graded for it, which should be easy because it’s very enjoyable!

In global music, we went to a storage room and were each handed a strange musical instrument from around the world. Not to my surprise, I recognized all of them and knew most of the names. There is one or two other musical people in there so we were naming them all and describing them to everyone, pretty cool! We passed them all around, determined what materials they were made from, then determined what country they originated in. About 30 minutes into class, the ship took a turn! Since this class is in the very back of the ship, the room was shaking so loudly that Dr. K. stopped talking because he was yelling. This loud rumbling and shaking went on for about 10 minutes then we got back to playing around with cool instruments. Tonight we have to read an article about a term that has no real definition, “duente”. I don’t know what it means yet but our assignment is to describe it to him tomorrow!
After music I made a PB&J and hid it in a napkin, and snuck it to my room. You aren’t supposed to take unpackaged items out, but I wanted to eat it while I studied my map for the quiz tomorrow!

At dinner, everyone ran to one side of the boat, and someone shouted “whale!”, but it wasn’t. It was a pod of about 50 dolphins! They weren’t very far away and a few were right next to the ship. Finallllly we saw some after all this dolphin talk!

I just looked at my watch and it said 20:20:20! Weird.

I’m sitting in the piano lounge in the middle of the ship with Shea. We are doing some reading and studying our map some more. I bought some gummy bears :) My favorite!
Time to go to the 7th deck!

Ok, back, We just had another party on the 7th floor deck, which has happened every single night and will continue! It’s like bar night at college, everyone stands around and talks! I’m still meeting new people each night with random connections! So fun.