After an entire week at sea, it is so exciting that we will be arriving in Spain tomorrow! Finally! This trip has been amazing so far, and I wouldn’t change anything we’ve done so far, but I’m definitely ready to get to port. We’ll be arriving in Cadiz tomorrow morning, and as soon as this boat is cleared by customs- I’m off to explore… with all our new friends of course ☺
As much as I miss all my friends and family back home, the people we have met on this trip have been amazing. The guy-girl ratio on the ship is 23-77. So it’s pretty safe to say the guys are outnumbered! But even though it’s so unbalanced it hasn’t been weird at all. The friends we’ve made are from all over, and we’ve become close already. Taylor, Elaine, and I have met on other guy from UW named Zack, and there’s two other huskies on here that we’ve yet to meet but I’ve been trying to figure out who they are! I’m bound to meet them at some point though so I’m not too worried.
Classes have been going pretty too well. If I had one complaint about it- it would be that the ones I signed up for are almost too easy! I know that sounds like a weird thing to be whining about, but it’s really hard to focus on meditating ( in my stress management class) or on analyzing my personal beliefs ( my beliefs and perceptions class) when all I want to do it travel and experience things. I am really grateful for them at the same time though, because there’s practically no homework in two of them. In our global studies class( which is my favorite by far, and is really interesting/applicable to the places we’re going) we have a midterm and paper due soon. It was so nice to write the paper today sitting out on the back of the ship and watching the sun on the water and the ships off in the distance. I still can’t believe I’m getting college credit for this!
Tonight we’re going to be preparing for tomorrow and heading to bed early. We want to make sure to get the most out of every minute of the trip, even if it means getting up at the break of dawn! The time difference has been killing us so far (it’s about a 9 hour difference), but we’re wanting to catch up on as much sleep tonight as we possibly can!
Miss you all back home, and I’ll try and keep updated as soon as I can!
Adios ☺
First Few Days
So the adventure begins! Lainey and I are now settled into our room… which is surprisingly roomy. It may not be a luxurious suite, but considering the fact that it fit all of our luggage (about 200 lbs of clothes, school supplies, toiletries, laptops, towels, shoes, etc) with room to spare, I’d say it’s quite sufficient ☺
After decorating our room with pictures and a huge world map, we spent yesterday exploring the rest of the ship and familiarizing ourselves with our new home for the next few months. We wandered the 7 floors to see the gym, spa, classrooms, dining halls, lounges, and pretty much every door that wasn’t locked. Lainey’s favorite spot was the front of the boat, and I’d have to agree that it was a great spot with a beautiful view! (though the spa looked pretty amazing to me too! Haha)
We’ve met some really nice people on our trip so far. We started off our trip meeting some fellow SAS-ers on the flight here, and since then have been doing our best to get to know the other 700+ students and 200+ staff on the boat. There’s people from almost every state, and over 10 countries on the boat, so there’s a lot of diversity.
As I’m writing this I can feel the ship rocking back and forth. The water out on the Atlantic right now is pretty rough and a lot of people are getting sea sick. Luckily we’ve been fine though, but we’re taking the sea sick meds just in case! We’ll be on open ocean for the next week until we dock in Cadiz for our first port!
I’m sure things will continue to get progressively more exciting and I can’t wait to experience the adventures that await us!
Adios amigos ☺
After decorating our room with pictures and a huge world map, we spent yesterday exploring the rest of the ship and familiarizing ourselves with our new home for the next few months. We wandered the 7 floors to see the gym, spa, classrooms, dining halls, lounges, and pretty much every door that wasn’t locked. Lainey’s favorite spot was the front of the boat, and I’d have to agree that it was a great spot with a beautiful view! (though the spa looked pretty amazing to me too! Haha)
We’ve met some really nice people on our trip so far. We started off our trip meeting some fellow SAS-ers on the flight here, and since then have been doing our best to get to know the other 700+ students and 200+ staff on the boat. There’s people from almost every state, and over 10 countries on the boat, so there’s a lot of diversity.
As I’m writing this I can feel the ship rocking back and forth. The water out on the Atlantic right now is pretty rough and a lot of people are getting sea sick. Luckily we’ve been fine though, but we’re taking the sea sick meds just in case! We’ll be on open ocean for the next week until we dock in Cadiz for our first port!
I’m sure things will continue to get progressively more exciting and I can’t wait to experience the adventures that await us!
Adios amigos ☺
Packing
Between finals today, Mom making me get my Typhoid shot, and buying last minute things before packing... today has been hectic to say the least! I still can't believe we're leaving so soon! I really want to keep in contact with family and friends back home. If you want, send me your email addresses so I can email you!
Summer 2009 Itinerary/Calendar
Destination | Arrive Depart | Day | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | Depart | Tuesday | 16 June | |
| Cadiz, Spain | Arrive Depart | Wednesday Saturday | 24 June 27 June | |
| Civitavecchia / Naples, Italy | Arrive Depart | Wednesday Sunday | 01 July 05 July | |
| Dubrovnik, Croatia | Arrive Depart | Tuesday Friday | 07 July 10 July | |
| Piraeus (Athens), Greece | Arrive Depart | Monday Thursday | 13 July 16 July | |
| Istanbul, Turkey | Arrive Depart | Saturday Wednesday | 18 July 22 July | |
| Varna, Bulgaria | Arrive Depart | Friday Monday | 24 July 27 July | |
| Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt | Arrive Depart | Thursday Monday | 30 July 03 August | |
| Casablanca, Morocco | Arrive Depart | Sunday Wednesday | 09 August 12 August | |
| Norfolk, VA, USA | Arrive | Saturday | 22 August |
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain
I set sail out of Nova Scotia on June 16th and get to spend the summer traveling the Mediterranean with Elaine, Taylor, and our new friends who will be on board with us. It will be quite the experience to say the least! Although I've been looking forward to this since signing up in December, I still can't believe it's only two weeks away before we embark!
You can trust that I will have my camera attached to my hand (as usual) to document the trip and I'll try and do my best to keep this site updated!
