6/27
Last night it took me forever to fall asleep…I was just too excited to get to Barcelona today.
This morning I went snorkeling at the Medes Islands as an FDP for my marine biology class. Well, I say it’s for my class, and it is, but really it’s for me because why would I turn down snorkeling in the Mediterranean? We boarded a bus at 10am and rode through 2 hours of Spanish (or should I say, Catalunyan) countryside to arrive at the adorable beach town, l’Esteriat. We listened to a presentation by Alex, a representative of the marine ecotourism company we booked through, on the marine protected area around the Medes Islands (and up the coast). Then, we had lunch on the steps of the l’Esteriat Yacht Club (I should have brought some DWYC burgees with me…) overlooking one of the most beautiful harbors I have been too. It was small, probably not more than 150-200 boats, and many were gorgeous old-fashioned wooden sailboats, and there were a few more modern ones with blue hulls that anyone (ahem, Mom) would die for. This place makes me want to sail around the Mediterranean for my retirement plan (now I just have to figure out how to make it there). It reminded me of the pictures I’ve seen of harbors in the south of France, which makes sense because l’Esteriat is about 100 miles north of Barcelona along the coast, and only about 10 miles south of the French border.
After lunch we made our way to the shop. It was open in the front and full of wetsuits, t-shirts, sunscreen (and a lot more tanning oil or low SPF sunscreen than I’m used to seeing in the US, don’t worry I stuck with my SPF 30 and 70) and the perpetual smell of sea-water coated neoprene. The staff, who both fitted all 29 of us with wetsuits, fins, masks and snorkels and became our guides while snorkeling on the islands, were tanned, friendly, laid-back and completely at ease on and in the ocean. This did not come as much of a surprise, and cemented in my mind the image and atmosphere I have for a dive shop. I am sad I couldn’t dive…they have 50-60,000 divers a year! It wouldn’t have worked logistically…but I’ll try my best to go scuba diving in Croatia (I’ve found a group of people on the ship who are also dive certified and motivated to find a good spot and shop).
We loaded up our gear, tramped the five-minute walk from the shop to the dock and waited about ten minutes for the captain, who had disappeared, but our guides didn’t seem flustered by this…Spanish + beach town + dive instructor/dive boat captain does not equal punctuality. Once he arrived, we all hopped aboard (literally, the docks are the kinds without fingers along the hulls so we took the somewhat precarious step from the dock onto the bow) and found our seats. The boat was just big enough for us, our captain and our four snorkel guides, but did not seem crowded. We put on our 5mm full-length (and in my case, slightly damp) wetsuits on the way to the islands, which was a short trip because they are probably a mile or two off the coast. Many of the people on this trip had not only never been snorkeling before, but had never put on a wetsuit before. That, combined with our guides’ tendency to err on the small side in their wetsuit sizing, made for a very entertaining trip. I was glad for my experience struggling in and out of 7mm wetsuits in Catalina, and it took some teamwork to get everyone zipped and velcroed. Once we arrived, we tied to a buoy (they don’t allow anchoring near the islands as part of the protection of the marine environment, including beautiful red corals and giant mussels (like, 1 meter long…I wish I could have seen those). I was the first one in the water after the first two guides, probably because I was waiting at the edge with my mask and fins on like an excited puppy. It was my first time in the Mediterranean, and it was fantastic.
I saw at least 8 different types of fish. One was about a foot long and football shaped with a flatter back end. It was a tricky iridescent shade that was either brilliant green, pale blue, or dark yellow depending on the lighting, a black spot where the tail met the body, a black half-moon shape around its gills and a black stripe on the back of its tail (like it had been dipped in paint). They also had pretty large, but translucent, pectoral fins. They didn’t normally use them to swim, but I saw one pop them both out and wiggle them to swim backwards. There were lots of these fish, and a good number of juveniles (which looked similar, just a lot smaller and very cute…although not as cute as the juvenile garibaldi, which may be my favorite fish we see underwater). I also saw a few fish that were maybe five inches long, black on the top and light silver on the bottom with a white stripe along both sides. They were long and narrow, almost like fat, short eels, and tended to stay close to the bottom. I saw two of what looking like very small kelp bass (although I know that’s not what they were because there is no kelp in the Medes Islands and they were sitting on the bottom in the sand…but the body shape and striped pattern of different shades of yellow and browns was similar). I also saw several of some fish that had a cat-fish like mouth (but no catfish “whiskers” and was about the size and shape of a catfish, but was blueish silver on top with a beautiful iridescent silver stripe down either side. I also saw a few different types of small schooling fish (from tiny silver ones about a centimeter long to plain black ones a couple of inches long). I also saw groups of about foot-long but narrow pale silver fish with horizontal yellow stripes across their bodies, and several of a smallish (about 6-8 inch) silvery-blue fish with two vertical black bars: one around the gills and one just before the tail.
One of my favorite parts of the dive was going into the cave. For those of you who don’t know, I love caves, especially underwater or semi-underwater ones, and have a history of exploring them (beginning when I was six years old and my Mom and Dad were nice enough to dinghy me all around the coast of Two Harbors, Catalina to find the perfect cave). At the opening of the cave, there was a Spanish Dancer. I found this name much too attractive for the actual creature, a huge (the size of two to three fists) black sea slug with red stripes down its side. But, it was just sucked up to a rock, and apparently when they swim, they do so by moving the sides of their bodies in wave-like motions that makes them look like they’re dancing. And red and black are such perfect flamenco colors. The cave had a broad opening, about ten feet across and five feet high with another five feet below the water. Once inside, it was still pretty light, but the cave tapered quickly to leave a small space of air our group had to go in through single file. Once inside there (the real cave in my mind) it was completely dark except for the brilliant turquoise light coming through the entryway. Our guide had a flashlight, and turned it on to illuminate the cave, which was the size of two or three rooms in an average house…pretty massive considering that tiny opening. There weren’t many fish in the cave, but there were sea tomatoes: cave-dwelling organisms that looked like bright red spheres stuck to the walls along the water line that ranges in size from the head of a pin to a ping-pong ball. Other people I talked to saw octopus (at least two people, one of them a guide, saw an octopus…I’m so jealous) and sea stars as well, but I must have missed them.
Even in this brief exposure to Catalunya, I’ve already been immensely confused by the difference between Castilian Spanish and Catalan. I can’t understand more than a few words of someone speaking Catalan, and even some street signs are very different than their Castilian counterparts. Some words were similar, like “supermercat” instead of “supermercado”, some are the same, but others are not even close, like “si sus plau” instead of “por favor” or “forn” instead of “panaderia”. Of course, in Barcelona most things will be in Castilian Spanish and Catalan (hopefully…), but in l’Esteriat many signs, billboards, advertisements, ect. were in only Catalan.
Along these lines, I’ve also already learned that Catalunya is very different (or thinks they are at least) than the rest of Spain. I’ve seen several places flying only the Catalan flag and not both that and the Spanish flag. On our way to l’Esteriat, about an hour out of Barcelona and while we were traveling through countryside, there was a giant graffiti on a roadside building that said Catalunya and “Spain” with an X through it. A member of the US consulate in Barcelona came this morning before we disembarked to give us a diplomatic briefing, and it turns out that the party in charge of the Barcelona government at the moment is pro-independence and trying to get more autonomy from Madrid. I also learned that if your passport is stolen (and many are…they replace thousands of US passports each year), they are so practiced in replacing them that you can get an emergency passport in about an hour and a half. This piece of news was received with impressed “whoas” and applause from the SAS audience.
I was planning on taking a nap before going out tonight…but it’s already nine and I still have to take a shower and get ready, so it looks like that’s not going to happen. Hopefully excitement will get me through four days in Barcelona on minimal sleep and then I can sleep all day Friday while we head to Italy.
6/28
I got back to the ship this morning at 6:30am. First night out in Barcelona=success. The crazy thing about this is that it’s a normal Barcelona nightlife schedule. Some friends met in my room on the ship at 10:30, caught a taxi around 11 to head to the boardwalk distract (along the beach and marina) that’s full of tapas bars and clubs (discotecas). We had tapas and sangria (including the most delicious octopus I’ve ever had) and hit our first club around 12:30 (a little early…many discotecas don’t open until 1am). It closed around 3am, and some of our group went home but I stayed out and went to another club down the street that was open until 6am. This long night also gave me ample opportunity to practice speaking Spanish, and I am happy to report that I’m shaking off the dust without sneezing too much so far. Luckily, we found ways out of the cover charge in both places, so we had plenty left over for taxi fare at the end of the night.
As a result, this morning was both the first morning of the trip I saw the sunrise (over the Barcelona harbor, very pretty) and had breakfast on the ship (which was underwhelming…I should have bought a croissant in Barcelona instead). 7:30am to 9:30 was pretty rough…I was exhausted but couldn’t really sleep. But after that I hit my second wind (which I amazingly am still riding now at 5:15pm..although it is siesta time so I better get hit with a wave of exhaustion soon) and felt much more awake, especially when I was out in the sun (zietgeber? Yeah I’m mentioning it again…today has made me think about that circadian rhythms lecture a lot).
I was signed up for a tour of the Picasso Museum, Gothic Quarter (including the Barcelona Cathedral) and La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s massive, unfinished church. So, at 9:15 I and about 40 other SAS students, including two of the friends I went out with last night, boarded the bus. On the way to the Picasso Museum, which is in the Gothic Quarter, the tour guide talked about the architecture we passed by. So far, the architecture is one of my favorite things about Barcelona. Sure, Barcelona has a stunning collection of the early medieval Romanesque, late medieval/Renaissance Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical architecture you expect to be the hallmark of any grand European city, but it also has such fantastic modern architecture. Gaudi is by no means the only contributor to this new tradition, and Barcelona has become a magnet for innovative architects, including designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Frank Gehry. So I’d learned that stuff in the Global Studies class and cultural pre-port meeting, but I thought it would be incohesive, or at least very sectioned—each style having its own little area without much blending. But it’s not. There are modern art sculptures in the middle of the Gothic Quarter, outlandish Gaudi buildings sit nestled between Neoclassical stonework and sleek, all-window modern buildings, and the Christopher Columbus stature is accompanied by a large, abstract, colorful statue and tribute to Picasso to welcome you into the city. And somehow, it all works together.
The Picasso Museum was great; they had the galleries organized by year, so when I walked through I could really see a progression of his work, which was interesting. I loved seeing his sketches, and he did some really beautiful oil works earlier on in his career that, despite being completely different from his famous abstract style, show just how talented he was. Most of his most famous works are not in this museum, which I didn’t mind too much because it means I got to see a mostly new things. Also, there was a whole room (a small room, but its own nonetheless) dedicated to Picasso’s ceramic work. I had no idea Picasso made ceramics. I was talking with a friend about how many museums all over the world contain Picasso’s artwork, and we realized what a prolific artist he was to be able to fill so many exhibits.
After the museum, we went to the Barcelona Cathedral. I brought a cardigan to wear to cover my shoulders, but my dress ended a couple inches above my knee, so I had to buy a shawl and tie it as a skirt to be knee-length. They have monitors at all entrances enforcing these rules, which makes sense considering that it is a functioning cathedral. It was large and beautiful and Gothic and full of stained glass windows and a very cool organ, but the most unique part of the cathedral was found in its courtyard. In a large fountain, and surrounded by foliage and then an ornate fence, are geese. Not just one or two, but like ten geese. Back in the day, the room right next to the geese was where they stored the treasure, so they put the geese, which honk noisily whenever someone is there (which is all the time now that the cathedral is a tourist attraction). Alarm geese…I’m glad they don’t wake me up every morning.
Next we bussed to La Sagrada Familia. It is so different than other churches; I think Gaudi was brilliant to design a religious monument in modern style. It’s still not finished today: 118 years after construction began. This is mainly because Gaudi’s death and imprecise plans lead to a great deal of bickering about what should and shouldn’t appear on the church. Also, funding is obviously a problem (now construction is funded by the entry fee to see the inside of the church and private donations) and different circumstances have lead to more of less emphasis on finishing La Sagrada Familia. I could try to describe it, but I really don’t think words will do it justice. I have a bunch of pictures of La Sagrada and the rest of the Gothic Quarter and Barcelona (and l’Esteriat and las Islas Medes for that matter), and will upload some on Facebook (hopefully) this Thursday. May the internet gods smile upon me in my quest…
On our bus ride back from La Sagrada Familia, we had to change our route due to protestors taking over the street on which we were driving. Due to the economic crisis in Spain, the Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona is full of tents where “los indignados”, the indignant ones, have been camping out in protest of the way the situation is being handled and a number of other issues. Our guide on the bus, who was telling us all about the history of the architecture we were passing by at the time, was extremely irritated by the demonstrators, but every person in the bus (including me) flocked to the window to take a picture where “an exemplary Gothic flying buttress” had only made a few tired hands lift their cameras from their laps.
A friend and I went back and walked around the Gothic Quarter (it has a bunch of cute shops and cafes) and had lunch (super simple and delicious sandwich of different types of salami on a baguette…perfection) after seeing La Sagrada. We walked back along the harbor to get to the bus station to take us back to the ship, which was quite pleasant (especially with my Fanta naranja, which tastes much better than orange Fanta in the US). I think my friend was a little confused as to why I kept taking pictures of all the boats in the harbor, but they (while not as adorable as l’Esteriat’s) were definitely worth remembering.
I actually am going to take a nap today before going out, and I’m planning on coming back by 3 so I can try to get some sleep at night. Of course, I do have all Friday to sleep while we cruise from Barcelona to Naples since there are no classes that day.
I had a very successful nap this evening. I’m changing my mind about not having a window; it’s now definitely a plus because it allows me to sleep at anytime, no matter how bright it is outside. Of course, when I woke up (if my the alarm I had set for 9pm went off I turned it off and went back to sleep and forgot I did so) at 9:45pm, I was disoriented and thought it was the morning so I stared at the time on my phone for a good two minutes, convinced it was wrong. Of course, when I remembered that I had gone to sleep at 7pm, I jumped out of bed and got in the shower to get ready to go out.
6/29
This morning I didn’t have any SAS-organized trips, so I met up with a friend this morning at 10 and took the bus from the dock to the statue of Christopher Columbus, a good launch point for walking around many parts of the city. We walked along La Rambla, a wide street with a pedestrian-only area in the middle. Tapas bars, street artists, and stands selling touristy stuff line the sides of this pedestrian area, and tall, leafy trees are planted at the edges, making the walk down the street quite pleasant (as long as you don’t get pick-pocketed). We had originally planned to take another bus to Plaza Catalunya to catch a train to Figueres to go to the Dali museum, but it would have taken most of the day to do so, and we really wanted to walk around the city more. So, we cruised down La Rambla, stopping in to whatever stores on the sides of the street (on the other side of the car traffic, where there were actual stores and not just the little stands and tapas bars) caught our interest. I love how most of the apartment buildings have balconies and laundry hanging out to dry; it makes the city feel so alive and the people who live there feel so much closer. But there are still tons of tourists—many from the US but also a lot from France, the UK and other parts of Spain. The residents of Barcelona were pretty easy to spot though, because apart from not looking lost, carrying cameras or clinging fearfully to their purses, they dress in a laid-back but edgy kind of Bohemian fashion. And, of course, they speak Catalan, which I can now pick out of a crowd. Also a decent number of people biked around the city (apart from tourists doing bike tours), which seems a great way to get around. I think I spotted some Barcelona bros yesterday…with their super low-seat bikes and flat-brimmed hats. The public transportation is great though, we took buses today (although the giant map with about twenty different colors for different lines was pretty confusing) and they have a metro which I haven’t yet taken.
Part way down La Rambla, we came across La Boqueria, a huge market filled with tiny stalls selling fresh fruit, freshly baked breads and croissants, legumes, nuts, spices, candies, chocolates (we had a free sample at one of these sweet shops…it was kind of like Barcelona’s take on marzipan and it was amazing) cured meats, seafood, and cheeses. Also, min cafes and tapas bars are sprinkled through the market, so we grabbed a prochuito sandwich on a baguette…literally just those two ingredients and probably one of the most delicious sandwiches I have ever eaten. We’re planning on going back there tomorrow, getting a whatever looks the best and bringing it over to the beach for a picnic. I took about a million pictures there…so I’ll have to pick out a few highlights for Facebook.
After La Boqueria, we walked turned off La Rambla to head in the general direction of the beach, enjoying the city as we went. We stumbled upon the Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf (I didn’t even know they had one, but there it was) and watched pigeons and what looked like large wild lovebirds bathing in the sprinklers. The wide pedestrian walkway after the Arc lead us to the Parc de la Ciutadella (Catalan, not Castilian Spanish), which was full of fountains and sunbathers. It even had an old-fashioned greenhouse, and at the end of the park was the Barcelona zoo, which we had to walk all the way around to get to the beach. Once we got there, we took our shoes off and walked through the sand (which was burning our feet) to the surf, which was perfect temperature. We walked down the beach for twenty minutes or so, enjoying the people watching (the beach was packed) and wishing we had brought bathing suits (although bottomed would have sufficed as it was a topless beach). Tomorrow we will return much better prepared. We stopped by and had some sorbet, which was perfectly cold and refreshing in the sun, and began walking to find a bus stop that would take us back to the Christopher Columbus statue, where we could catch the bus to the port. This lead us through La Barceloneta, the old fisherman’s quarter which is now filled with seafood restaurants and shops, many aquatic-oriented, a yacht club and a swim club, which was giant so I assume it housed an Olympic sized pool. We found a bus stop, failed at deciphering the map with all the bus routes and opted to ask the driver of the next bus if he was going where we needed to go. Luckily enough, he was.
We were waiting for our bus back to the port (where we were planning on meeting up with another two friends) when those same two friends arrived on a bus coming from the port. Perfect timing. Turns out that neither of them had gone on their SAS-planned trips that morning, so they came into town a little earlier than intended. They hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we decided to take them to La Boqueria, where they also partook of the delicious prochutto baguette sandwich and fresh fruit smoothies. We saw a group of three other SAS friends, so we hung out with them for awhile before parting ways and heading into the Gothic Quarter. We went to the official store for Barca (their soccer/futbol team), where there were the usual jerseys, banners and t-shirts, but also baby clothes, dog clothes, underwear mugs and sweatbands. After another half an hour or so of walking around, we stopped into a café for a snack. Despite the heat, I decided to get a hot chocolate with my croissant. Best decision of the day so far…it was so good. I don’t like coffee, so I always drink either hot chocolate or tea and I always look for the tastiest hot chocolates. This was way up there. It was thick but not too thick, and not too sweet and I don’t know what they put in it to make it so delicious, but it was the pick-me-up I needed to finish our afternoon of shopping, because I was pretty tired by then. We eventually headed back to the ship, and I’m going to take a short nap before showering and getting ready for dinner and Kaskade at Opium tonight.
6/30
Today is my last day in Barcelona. While I’m sad to say goodbye because I have had an amazing time here, I am really looking forward to recuperating tomorrow. We leave tonight at 8pm (but have to be on the ship by 6pm), will be at sea all day tomorrow and arrive in Naples Saturday morning. Before I came, I thought I would have plenty of free time to relax and read for leisure while we were at sea…but tomorrow I think I will be sleeping in any free time I can get. Tomorrow we also have the “Sea Olympics,” where the 4 decks with students (named different sea, my deck is the Aegean) compete against each other in a series of silly events. I am signed up for the synchronized swimming team…but I’m not sure when the four of us are going to come up with music and a routine by tomorrow since everyone (including me) is beat from their time in Barcelona. I’m sure we’ll be able to pull something together, most likely at the last minute!
Kaskade last night at Opium was awesome. The club, which is huge, was packed, and at least 150 people from SAS were there throughout the night, which made mingling through the crowd fun. Eight of us went out to dinner beforehand at around 10:30, and I had an amazing paella and tasty gazpacho. We hung out on the beach with other friends for a while (Opium is right on the boardwalk along the beach) and went in around 12:30, which was on the early side. It was pretty empty then, but filled up within 45 minutes or so, and Kaskade came on around 2am and played until 6am…the music was awesome. I was worried about not working out much on this trip, but dancing the whole night was definitely the best and most fun workout I could get, so I won’t worry about that anymore. When we left, we watched the sunrise on the beach and made it back to the ship in time for breakfast.
This morning I had a SAS-lead trip to the Chocolate Museum, also in the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. We met at the bus at 9:45, which I was really unhappy about after my hour of sleep for the “night.” But once I walked around in the sun for a few minutes I felt much better, so by the time to arrived at the Chocolate Museum I was happy to be there. About thirty of us came on the trip, so our group split in half. My half toured the museum first. It was fairly small, but considering it was all about chocolate, it was large. The main thread of the museum was a series of little exhibits on the history, making and cultural significance of chocolate in Spain, which were all interesting. Some of these were also in video form, which was pretty cool (even though the dictation in the videos were in Catalan, which I can’t understand). But the main attractions of the museum were the “monas.” These were sculptures made entirely of chocolate…I took pictures of almost all of them because they were so incredible. One of the coolest was a 4-foot replica of La Sagrada Familia, made to commemorate the pope coming to consecrate the church. After looking through the museum, out half switched to the chocolate workshop. There Bea, one of the students (as this was also a pastry school specializing in chocolate) taught us about how they make chocolate. Then, we each got to make a mold and fill it with chocolate from a kind of chocolate fountain (which reminded me of Willy Wonka). Bea then put all our molds in the super freezer, where they hardened in 5 minutes. While we waited for them to harden, Bea made us each little paper pipettes full of chocolate, which we used to draw on sheets of wax paper…which is much more difficult than she made it look. The best part of all of this was that we could eat as much of the chocolate as we wanted, and it was delicious 70% cacao, my favorite. The Chocolate Museum itself is in a building that used to be a convent in the 1500s, so it is all Gothic architecture with a renovated interior.
We came back a little later than I had expected, so I won’t be able to go to La Boqueria again to have a picnic and swim at the beach like I had planned. Oh well…just another reason to come back. I also didn’t have time to make it to an internet café…so Facebook uploads of pictures will have to wait until Naples. I promise I’m taking tons of pictures, though. Also, now that I’m not going back into Barcelona, I can officially say that I did not get pick-pocketed. Win.
Love from Barcelona,
Ginny
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
End of Atlantic Crossing
6/23/11
MV Explorer
The seas are quite calm today, so I’m planning on spending some time on deck looking for whales, dolphins, flying fish, sea birds, and the Kraken. One of the assignments for my marine biology class to is keep a journal of what we see off the side of the ship throughout the voyage, so technically this is homework. This morning we passed the Azores, but I missed them. Apparently there were also two pods of dolphins near the ship this morning…so I’m hoping that today will be my day to see something other than the two flying fish I have spotted so far.
In Global Studies this morning, the same professor who yesterday claimed he saw snow yesterday morning introduced the lecture by talking about sailors around the 16th century. He said we all understood, now, how, after days onboard with only endless blue ocean in every direction, they could have seen the flipper of a manatee over the side and thought it was a mermaid. He admitted that he too was guilty of this mental exaggeration of reality to make the days more exciting. He was awake early yesterday morning and sitting on the 5th deck when he saw what looked like snow, little flurries of white fluff being whipped around by the wind, coming down from the 6th deck. I guess it wasn’t completely implausible, as it was at least overcast yesterday, but it was still about 65-70 degrees during the day. It turns out that the crew was washing the deck above him, and what he assumed to be snow was soap fluff falling off the deck above him. Never trust an art historian when it comes to the weather.
We have our first midterms coming up the day after tomorrow, on our seventh day of class. Because we don’t adhere to weekends while at sea, we call the days we have class C1, C2, etc., so I have to rely on my computer to tell me what day it is.
Most days, including yesterday, today and tomorrow, are only 23 hours long since we are traveling through time zones to get onto Barcelona time by the day we get there. Also, not having a window in my room means that when I wake up I always think it's like 4am and my alarm has gone off by accident...but no, it's 8:45 and time for me to get up. The lack of my accustomed zietgeber (HumBio shout out! I do miss the core…a little) in the mornings is making getting up much more difficult than I had anticipated, and I am really looking forward to a day when I can sleep in.
6/24
MV Explorer
The seas are fairly rolly today, especially for the past few hours. I had to brace myself in the shower to avoid slipping and flying out the curtain into the opposite wall of my bathroom. All though my marine biology and history classes today, we heard bangs echoing down the halls. I assume they were caused by previously secure objects falling off shelves. The rougher seas, combined with a general sleep deprivation accumulated over the last 5 days of losing an hour each night due to gradual time zone change, is making most people on board groggy, off balance, woosy and a little punch drunk in some cases. This is perfect timing, because out first test in Global Studies (the required course of the voyage) and my Mediterranean history class is tomorrow. But, tonight it the last time we move our clocks forward an hour until we get to Bulgaria, so that’s definitely a plus.
Tonight at dinner I meet my “extended family”, a group of other students and a few faculty to be a surrogate family for the next two months. I’m not sure what we will do…but it will be nice to have another group of friends (or “siblings”) in any case. The “faculty” part of our family is Drew Kahn (the theater and acting professor aboard, who also does work repairing war-torn societies using theater, primarily in Rwanda), his wife Maria (who is a chef) and their nine-year-old son, Nate (who is a huge Lakers fan even though he and his family live in Buffalo, New York). This is their first voyage aboard Semester at Sea as well as ours. I have five new “siblings” in my family, so some of my independent travel plans (which are still, like most other students’, half-baked) may involve them.
By this time everyone is dreaming about getting to Barcelona…especially for the food. I wouldn’t quite say cabin fever has set in (please YouTube “cabin fever Muppet Treasure Island”, I would have included a link but I have very limited internet), but it’s not far off.
6/25
MV Explorer
Last night I was feeling a little seasick, so I took a meclizine (the ship provides them for free in the medical center, which happens to be just around the corner form my room) and went to bed around 9:30. I woke up today feeling very rested and not at all seasick…success. We did have a Sea meeting (deck meeting) last night at 10:30, but I missed it for the worthy cause of sleep and avoiding nausea. I’ll find out what we discussed sometime today. I’m guessing it was about part 2 of the Amazing Race, which will continue throughout the voyage.
My Global Studies test this morning went well, and before the test the girls behind me were actually talking about cabin fever. I found out today at lunch that I had not missed the Rock of Gibraltar (I though I had slept through our passing of it early this morning). We will be bunkering (stopping to refuel) right under it today, and then we will officially be in the Mediterranean! We’re currently in the strait between Portugal/Spain and Morocco, but not quite to Gibraltar. We just have today and tomorrow sailing and we arrive in Barcelona Monday morning!
I think my roommate and I have opposite schedules, because we hardly see each other at all in our room. Of course, we are hardly ever in our rooms because once you get past classes, meals, club meetings, sleeping and showering, there isn’t much free time and it’s more pleasant to spend that free time out of the room on the ship, hopefully on the deck if the weather is nice (which, for the most part, is has been). Most people do their homework out on the decks or in public spaces, like the library, the two dining halls, the computer cluster, the piano lounge, empty classrooms, or hallways. A particularly popular place is under the third floor staircase. This confused me for a while until I learned that most of the rooms on the third floor don’t get very good internet, but under the stairs on the third floor, the internet is just fine. In the afternoon the decks, especially the pool deck which has lounge chairs, are full of sunbathing people attempting to do their reading. I am frequently one of those people, and even though it probably takes me twice as long to do my reading out there as it does in my room, I definitely still count it as a win.
I just saw Morocco and Spain! It’s overcast today, so they are really just shadowy figures looming out of white-gray clouds on the horizon, but we’re pretty close to both sides (the part of the straight we’re passing through right now is about 10 miles wide) so the shadowy looming shapes of both continents are large. We are now refueling at Gibraltar, so we are very close to the coast. It’s exciting to see land again, and people are waving at the buildings along the shore from the deck, even though we are definitely too far away to have our arms distinguished by bare human eyes. Technically, we are in England now (Gibraltar) and a little piece of Spain is south across the about 6 miles of ocean to Monte Hacho, Ceuta. Vestiges of the colonial times may make for interesting tourism, but right now they are confusing my geography. The Rock of Gibraltar and the Monte Hacho (or Jebel Musa, another North African peak) are the two Pillars of Hercules of antiquity, the classic entry markers to the Mediterranean Sea (still learning stuff in my classes, don’t worry).
I know I haven’t posted pictures yet…but not to worry, I should have time and internet to do so sometime during my four days (probably the last day, June 30) in Barcelona. So check out Facebook then to see the visual journal of my trip so far. I won’t be uploading all the pictures…I won’t have time for that, but I’ll do my best to put up the highlights.
Still no sightings of the Kraken, or any other marine creatures other than the first few flying fish. Tons of people have seen dolphins and a few have seen whales, so I must need to spend more time looking.
We’re finally finishing refueling now…about six hours from when we arrived in Gibraltar. A smaller, cargo-looking boat came over to refuel us around 4:30pm, and it was quite the operation getting them safely nestled against our port side, with giant fenders between us. I don’t know how much fuel our ship holds…but it took over five hours (but with a single, few inch diameter hose) to fill us up again.
6/26
MV Explorer
We’re now officially in the Mediterranean Sea! It’s much calmer and has much less swell than the Atlantic did, which is nice. I think this is the first sold day where I didn’t see anyone stumble suddenly across the hallways. Instead, people managed nearly straight lines around the decks and halls, and I count myself impressed. I have seen at least two people in crutches who rolled ankles or twisted knees due in part to the ship’s motion on some of the rougher days, so everyone is glad for calmer waters. It’s beautiful and sunny, and I’ve seen several ships along the horizon, and some closer, which shouldn’t be surprising as this trek up the coast from Gibraltar is a common one. We’re about half way up the eastern coast of Spain now, so we’ll probably arrive in Barcelona sometime in the wee hours tonight.
Last night we had the “cultural pre-port,” or a meeting almost everyone attended in the largest lecture hall were a few people (two of them originally from Barcelona) gave entertaining and picture-heavy presentations on the culture of the city, what to expect there (including very skilled pick pockets) and suggestions of places to go. That made everyone even more excited to get there, which is impressive because for the last few days, Barcelona has monopolized conversation topics. I, being a planner, am getting together with friends at dinner tonight to make plans for our four days in the city. Many people have a few trips already planned with the ship, some of these are “FDPs” or faculty-lead trips to sites pertaining to their subjects. I have three ship-lead trips in Barcelona, one each on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, but they are only a few hours so I have plenty of time to spend exploring the city with friends. This is the first in a long time that I have actually had to make plans with friends and stick to them without being able to communicate by phone or text…so we’ll see how it goes. I guess people survived without cell phones in some distant time…back when dinosaurs roamed the earth ☺
We just had our “logistical pre-port,” where the administration team went over the process for debarking in Barcelona tomorrow morning. Apparently Immigration comes onto the ship and goes through all our passports on board before anyone can get off the ship. I think that’s better than making all 700 overexcited college students stand in line for four hours to go through Immigration off the ship. While in port, we can get on and off the ship freely (with our shipboard ID card, of course) and just have to be on board for disembarkation (and a group picture on the stern…we’ll see how that goes) at 1800 hours on Thursday. So, I have from tomorrow morning until then to make the most of Barcelona! I will blog every day, although I may not post them until Thursday (you have been warned…) and with luck I will get some pictures up on Facebook on Thursday as well.
As always, I love receiving emails from you, so let me know how your summer internships, research, work, and life in general are going.
Love from the Mediterranean,
Ginny
MV Explorer
The seas are quite calm today, so I’m planning on spending some time on deck looking for whales, dolphins, flying fish, sea birds, and the Kraken. One of the assignments for my marine biology class to is keep a journal of what we see off the side of the ship throughout the voyage, so technically this is homework. This morning we passed the Azores, but I missed them. Apparently there were also two pods of dolphins near the ship this morning…so I’m hoping that today will be my day to see something other than the two flying fish I have spotted so far.
In Global Studies this morning, the same professor who yesterday claimed he saw snow yesterday morning introduced the lecture by talking about sailors around the 16th century. He said we all understood, now, how, after days onboard with only endless blue ocean in every direction, they could have seen the flipper of a manatee over the side and thought it was a mermaid. He admitted that he too was guilty of this mental exaggeration of reality to make the days more exciting. He was awake early yesterday morning and sitting on the 5th deck when he saw what looked like snow, little flurries of white fluff being whipped around by the wind, coming down from the 6th deck. I guess it wasn’t completely implausible, as it was at least overcast yesterday, but it was still about 65-70 degrees during the day. It turns out that the crew was washing the deck above him, and what he assumed to be snow was soap fluff falling off the deck above him. Never trust an art historian when it comes to the weather.
We have our first midterms coming up the day after tomorrow, on our seventh day of class. Because we don’t adhere to weekends while at sea, we call the days we have class C1, C2, etc., so I have to rely on my computer to tell me what day it is.
Most days, including yesterday, today and tomorrow, are only 23 hours long since we are traveling through time zones to get onto Barcelona time by the day we get there. Also, not having a window in my room means that when I wake up I always think it's like 4am and my alarm has gone off by accident...but no, it's 8:45 and time for me to get up. The lack of my accustomed zietgeber (HumBio shout out! I do miss the core…a little) in the mornings is making getting up much more difficult than I had anticipated, and I am really looking forward to a day when I can sleep in.
6/24
MV Explorer
The seas are fairly rolly today, especially for the past few hours. I had to brace myself in the shower to avoid slipping and flying out the curtain into the opposite wall of my bathroom. All though my marine biology and history classes today, we heard bangs echoing down the halls. I assume they were caused by previously secure objects falling off shelves. The rougher seas, combined with a general sleep deprivation accumulated over the last 5 days of losing an hour each night due to gradual time zone change, is making most people on board groggy, off balance, woosy and a little punch drunk in some cases. This is perfect timing, because out first test in Global Studies (the required course of the voyage) and my Mediterranean history class is tomorrow. But, tonight it the last time we move our clocks forward an hour until we get to Bulgaria, so that’s definitely a plus.
Tonight at dinner I meet my “extended family”, a group of other students and a few faculty to be a surrogate family for the next two months. I’m not sure what we will do…but it will be nice to have another group of friends (or “siblings”) in any case. The “faculty” part of our family is Drew Kahn (the theater and acting professor aboard, who also does work repairing war-torn societies using theater, primarily in Rwanda), his wife Maria (who is a chef) and their nine-year-old son, Nate (who is a huge Lakers fan even though he and his family live in Buffalo, New York). This is their first voyage aboard Semester at Sea as well as ours. I have five new “siblings” in my family, so some of my independent travel plans (which are still, like most other students’, half-baked) may involve them.
By this time everyone is dreaming about getting to Barcelona…especially for the food. I wouldn’t quite say cabin fever has set in (please YouTube “cabin fever Muppet Treasure Island”, I would have included a link but I have very limited internet), but it’s not far off.
6/25
MV Explorer
Last night I was feeling a little seasick, so I took a meclizine (the ship provides them for free in the medical center, which happens to be just around the corner form my room) and went to bed around 9:30. I woke up today feeling very rested and not at all seasick…success. We did have a Sea meeting (deck meeting) last night at 10:30, but I missed it for the worthy cause of sleep and avoiding nausea. I’ll find out what we discussed sometime today. I’m guessing it was about part 2 of the Amazing Race, which will continue throughout the voyage.
My Global Studies test this morning went well, and before the test the girls behind me were actually talking about cabin fever. I found out today at lunch that I had not missed the Rock of Gibraltar (I though I had slept through our passing of it early this morning). We will be bunkering (stopping to refuel) right under it today, and then we will officially be in the Mediterranean! We’re currently in the strait between Portugal/Spain and Morocco, but not quite to Gibraltar. We just have today and tomorrow sailing and we arrive in Barcelona Monday morning!
I think my roommate and I have opposite schedules, because we hardly see each other at all in our room. Of course, we are hardly ever in our rooms because once you get past classes, meals, club meetings, sleeping and showering, there isn’t much free time and it’s more pleasant to spend that free time out of the room on the ship, hopefully on the deck if the weather is nice (which, for the most part, is has been). Most people do their homework out on the decks or in public spaces, like the library, the two dining halls, the computer cluster, the piano lounge, empty classrooms, or hallways. A particularly popular place is under the third floor staircase. This confused me for a while until I learned that most of the rooms on the third floor don’t get very good internet, but under the stairs on the third floor, the internet is just fine. In the afternoon the decks, especially the pool deck which has lounge chairs, are full of sunbathing people attempting to do their reading. I am frequently one of those people, and even though it probably takes me twice as long to do my reading out there as it does in my room, I definitely still count it as a win.
I just saw Morocco and Spain! It’s overcast today, so they are really just shadowy figures looming out of white-gray clouds on the horizon, but we’re pretty close to both sides (the part of the straight we’re passing through right now is about 10 miles wide) so the shadowy looming shapes of both continents are large. We are now refueling at Gibraltar, so we are very close to the coast. It’s exciting to see land again, and people are waving at the buildings along the shore from the deck, even though we are definitely too far away to have our arms distinguished by bare human eyes. Technically, we are in England now (Gibraltar) and a little piece of Spain is south across the about 6 miles of ocean to Monte Hacho, Ceuta. Vestiges of the colonial times may make for interesting tourism, but right now they are confusing my geography. The Rock of Gibraltar and the Monte Hacho (or Jebel Musa, another North African peak) are the two Pillars of Hercules of antiquity, the classic entry markers to the Mediterranean Sea (still learning stuff in my classes, don’t worry).
I know I haven’t posted pictures yet…but not to worry, I should have time and internet to do so sometime during my four days (probably the last day, June 30) in Barcelona. So check out Facebook then to see the visual journal of my trip so far. I won’t be uploading all the pictures…I won’t have time for that, but I’ll do my best to put up the highlights.
Still no sightings of the Kraken, or any other marine creatures other than the first few flying fish. Tons of people have seen dolphins and a few have seen whales, so I must need to spend more time looking.
We’re finally finishing refueling now…about six hours from when we arrived in Gibraltar. A smaller, cargo-looking boat came over to refuel us around 4:30pm, and it was quite the operation getting them safely nestled against our port side, with giant fenders between us. I don’t know how much fuel our ship holds…but it took over five hours (but with a single, few inch diameter hose) to fill us up again.
6/26
MV Explorer
We’re now officially in the Mediterranean Sea! It’s much calmer and has much less swell than the Atlantic did, which is nice. I think this is the first sold day where I didn’t see anyone stumble suddenly across the hallways. Instead, people managed nearly straight lines around the decks and halls, and I count myself impressed. I have seen at least two people in crutches who rolled ankles or twisted knees due in part to the ship’s motion on some of the rougher days, so everyone is glad for calmer waters. It’s beautiful and sunny, and I’ve seen several ships along the horizon, and some closer, which shouldn’t be surprising as this trek up the coast from Gibraltar is a common one. We’re about half way up the eastern coast of Spain now, so we’ll probably arrive in Barcelona sometime in the wee hours tonight.
Last night we had the “cultural pre-port,” or a meeting almost everyone attended in the largest lecture hall were a few people (two of them originally from Barcelona) gave entertaining and picture-heavy presentations on the culture of the city, what to expect there (including very skilled pick pockets) and suggestions of places to go. That made everyone even more excited to get there, which is impressive because for the last few days, Barcelona has monopolized conversation topics. I, being a planner, am getting together with friends at dinner tonight to make plans for our four days in the city. Many people have a few trips already planned with the ship, some of these are “FDPs” or faculty-lead trips to sites pertaining to their subjects. I have three ship-lead trips in Barcelona, one each on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, but they are only a few hours so I have plenty of time to spend exploring the city with friends. This is the first in a long time that I have actually had to make plans with friends and stick to them without being able to communicate by phone or text…so we’ll see how it goes. I guess people survived without cell phones in some distant time…back when dinosaurs roamed the earth ☺
We just had our “logistical pre-port,” where the administration team went over the process for debarking in Barcelona tomorrow morning. Apparently Immigration comes onto the ship and goes through all our passports on board before anyone can get off the ship. I think that’s better than making all 700 overexcited college students stand in line for four hours to go through Immigration off the ship. While in port, we can get on and off the ship freely (with our shipboard ID card, of course) and just have to be on board for disembarkation (and a group picture on the stern…we’ll see how that goes) at 1800 hours on Thursday. So, I have from tomorrow morning until then to make the most of Barcelona! I will blog every day, although I may not post them until Thursday (you have been warned…) and with luck I will get some pictures up on Facebook on Thursday as well.
As always, I love receiving emails from you, so let me know how your summer internships, research, work, and life in general are going.
Love from the Mediterranean,
Ginny
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Atlantic Crossing, Days 4, 5 and 6
6/20
MV Explorer
We’re further into the Atlantic now, and have a bit more swell today. I heard several people say that they almost fell in the shower this morning, and the crowds of people are definitely swaying back and forth all through the halls, but people are mostly used to it now. We also have some white caps for the first time today, but that doesn’t make the ocean here any less gorgeous. In marine biology today, I found out that we are cruising over the Sargasso Sea, the clearest water in the entire ocean (see, I am learning stuff in class). That explains why so many people (including me) have been staring, mesmerized, over the handrail at the perfectly blue ocean. I have never seen ocean this blue, and I’ve seen a decent amount of ocean. It’s not like the bright turquoise of the Caribbean and has none of the green-gray tinges I’m used to in Southern California—just pure blue, like the kind they name crayons after. I’m headed up to my deck soon to enjoy it (and look for whales, dolphins and flying fish…I’ve only seen flying fish so far) for an hour or so before my next class.
I mentioned before how my marine bio prof scuba dives off the Southern California coast. Turns out he has also hidden in a trench between boulders from a 12-foot shark and been zapped by a California electric ray (google it…they pack enough punch to start your car and then some). I didn’t even know those existed, but they are apparently nocturnal, which somewhat diminishes my desire to do a night dive in Southern California.
We talked about Islam and its history today in my history class. It seems like the class will be a little piecemeal, but hopefully by the end I’ll be able to string everything together.
After class, I came back to my room, changed into my suit and grabbed my textbook to read while laying out by the pool. This worked for awhile, but the screaming children playing by the pool slowly eroded by ability to focus on the text, and I just worked on my tan for awhile before finding some friends and chatting with them. The children on the ship (about 30, I think) are the children of faculty and lifelong learners, and I am still a little surprised to see one of them run by. There is a club for hanging out with and/or tutoring the kids, which I think is a very clever way to get free babysitting.
Another thing I’ve found entertaining is how many of the girls on the ship are repping their sorority letters. Tanks, hats, sweatshirts, bags and stickers are everywhere…it’s like the end of winter quarter all over again! I guess that may be due in part to the number of southern schools that send students to Semester at Sea…Greek life is just a lot more intense down there. I did bring a few Tridelt tanks along with me as workout gear…but I *ahem* haven’t been to the gym yet, so I haven’t worn them. But I have met a few other Tridelts on the ship, so I’m spreading the Delta love all the way to the middle of the Atlantic.
6/21/11
MV Explorer
I still haven’t seen any new marine life…but I haven’t spent too much time looking out at the ocean. Time goes by so fast here…it’s 10:30 and I feel like I was just having lunch a few hours ago. It doesn’t help that most of the days during this crossing are only 23 hours long as we’re adjusting the time while we move through time zones. Classes are keeping everyone pretty busy, so between class during the day, reading/homework and meals there’s not that much down time.
I signed up my group for the Amazing Race, which occurs tomorrow evening. We don’t have more details about the race, so I guess I’ll find out tomorrow and let you know how it goes ☺ The prize for the winners is getting off the ship first in Barcelona, which will give an extra few hours in the city. This won’t matter for me much as my first FDP (faculty-directed practica), snorkeling in the Medes Islands (!!), begins upon arrival in Barcelona. Since we have a limited amount of class time, each class needs another few hours to count for 3 full credits. So, each of the classes requires a certain amount of onshore activities pertaining to the class to fill in this time. “Requires” is really not an appropriate word to use there…that’s why we all came on Summer at Sea in the first place! But, it’s technically true, and I guess the required part is to write up and turn in a reflection on your experience in class. So not to worry, my onshore excursions will be well-documented. FDPs, trips to sites relevant to the class your taking lead by a faculty member, are one way to meet this requirement. I will be doing a few FDPs and a lot of independent travel in each city we go to. I can hardly wait to get to Barcelona, but I know that once I get there the rest of the trip will start going by so fast.
I’m definitely not the only one who is excited to get to Barcelona. Many people are more excited just to get off the ship, which I understand. I’ve talked to several people sick of seeing just ocean every day, but I don’t mind. I’m looking forward to a new adventure much more than dry land. But, the ship is starting to feel pretty crowded to me…everywhere I go there are people. It’s great when I’m in the mood to meet new people (amazingly I still see people that I don’t recognize, and there will probably always be people that I haven’t talked to yet), but it gets a little tiring.
Today in Global Studies, we talked a little about Pompeii. The professor is an art historian (among other things) and showed slide after slide of pictures of the ruinously preserved city. I am now so thankful I signed up for the FDP in Pompeii…it will be so amazing to get to see it all in person.
6/22
MV Explorer
This morning my in my 9am Global Studies class, the professor told us it had snowed a few hours earlier. I have a very hard time believing that, though, because I was just laying out in the sun for awhile and it was beautiful…not even a cloud in the sky. Even this morning when I got up (supposedly only a few hours after said snow), it was warm, sunny and pretty much cloudless.
Almost every painting has “see every sunset and at least one sunrise” written on the back as advice from former Semester at Sea participants. I caught my first sunrise last night, which was nice, but there were clouds covering it at the horizon, so hopefully tonight’s will be better. As for watching the sunrise…I am really going to have to dedicate myself to waking up early (or staying up all night, which is probably the more likely, especially once we get into Barcelona and Italy and don’t have class for awhile) to manage that, but I do plan to. I hope it looks significantly different than the sunset.
I’ve met several people here that have an acquaintance or two that go to Stanford, but today at lunch I actually knew (and did a project with) the acquaintance. Small world, even here in the middle of the Atlantic.
Also, if you are interested in my exact location in the Atlantic each day (Mom and Dad) you can check out this website:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/position-report.php
It also has cool stuff like speed, temperature, and sunset/rise times. If you navigate back from that page to the “Current Voyage” tab, that’s all about the stuff I’m doing now, so if you’re interested know yourself out.
Yes! After many emails and a little haggling I got a ticket to see the DJ Kaskade play at Opium Mar in Barcelona Wednesday night! It’s supposed to be awesome…and should definitely balance out all the Gothic architecture I’ll be touring earlier that day. I also just received the confirmation for the other trips I signed up for; I am so excited to do all the stuff on that list I can hardly stand it.
I just came back from the Amazing Race…our team didn’t win ☹ But, we did figure out all the clues, we were just in the process of getting the last few signed off when they announced that someone had finished and the race was over. At 7:30, all the teams of 8 assembled in the Union (the only large lecture hall where our Global Studies classes are held) and received sealed envelopes. Once all the groups had been checked in, we heard the rules. Inside the envelopes were 18 clues, each of which would lead us to a different place on the ship. Once there, we would get the clue signed off by a volunteer loitering at the spot. But, all the clues had to be done in order, and we got stuck on a hard one part way through, which was why we had the ones at the end figured out before we finished getting all the clues signed. The clues were riddles, codes, anagrams, crossword puzzles, and “find me here” questions. They lead us to the computer lab (where you find mice but no rodents), the weight room (bells that don’t ring), the pool, the pool bar, the mysterious 8th deck, and many other places aboard the ship. A “no running” rule was in place, so I had a chance to showcase my excellent speed walking skills, which I have had two years of waking up late for morning classes to perfect. I think about 2/3 on the ship participated, which is a lot of people, so the hallways were insane. Some of the groups really got into the competitive team spirit, like “Team Stache”, half guys and half girls, all have mustaches drawn on their faces. This is when rally gear would have come in handy…although convincing the rest of my team to wear it may have been difficult.
Love from (over halfway through) the Atlantic,
Ginny
MV Explorer
We’re further into the Atlantic now, and have a bit more swell today. I heard several people say that they almost fell in the shower this morning, and the crowds of people are definitely swaying back and forth all through the halls, but people are mostly used to it now. We also have some white caps for the first time today, but that doesn’t make the ocean here any less gorgeous. In marine biology today, I found out that we are cruising over the Sargasso Sea, the clearest water in the entire ocean (see, I am learning stuff in class). That explains why so many people (including me) have been staring, mesmerized, over the handrail at the perfectly blue ocean. I have never seen ocean this blue, and I’ve seen a decent amount of ocean. It’s not like the bright turquoise of the Caribbean and has none of the green-gray tinges I’m used to in Southern California—just pure blue, like the kind they name crayons after. I’m headed up to my deck soon to enjoy it (and look for whales, dolphins and flying fish…I’ve only seen flying fish so far) for an hour or so before my next class.
I mentioned before how my marine bio prof scuba dives off the Southern California coast. Turns out he has also hidden in a trench between boulders from a 12-foot shark and been zapped by a California electric ray (google it…they pack enough punch to start your car and then some). I didn’t even know those existed, but they are apparently nocturnal, which somewhat diminishes my desire to do a night dive in Southern California.
We talked about Islam and its history today in my history class. It seems like the class will be a little piecemeal, but hopefully by the end I’ll be able to string everything together.
After class, I came back to my room, changed into my suit and grabbed my textbook to read while laying out by the pool. This worked for awhile, but the screaming children playing by the pool slowly eroded by ability to focus on the text, and I just worked on my tan for awhile before finding some friends and chatting with them. The children on the ship (about 30, I think) are the children of faculty and lifelong learners, and I am still a little surprised to see one of them run by. There is a club for hanging out with and/or tutoring the kids, which I think is a very clever way to get free babysitting.
Another thing I’ve found entertaining is how many of the girls on the ship are repping their sorority letters. Tanks, hats, sweatshirts, bags and stickers are everywhere…it’s like the end of winter quarter all over again! I guess that may be due in part to the number of southern schools that send students to Semester at Sea…Greek life is just a lot more intense down there. I did bring a few Tridelt tanks along with me as workout gear…but I *ahem* haven’t been to the gym yet, so I haven’t worn them. But I have met a few other Tridelts on the ship, so I’m spreading the Delta love all the way to the middle of the Atlantic.
6/21/11
MV Explorer
I still haven’t seen any new marine life…but I haven’t spent too much time looking out at the ocean. Time goes by so fast here…it’s 10:30 and I feel like I was just having lunch a few hours ago. It doesn’t help that most of the days during this crossing are only 23 hours long as we’re adjusting the time while we move through time zones. Classes are keeping everyone pretty busy, so between class during the day, reading/homework and meals there’s not that much down time.
I signed up my group for the Amazing Race, which occurs tomorrow evening. We don’t have more details about the race, so I guess I’ll find out tomorrow and let you know how it goes ☺ The prize for the winners is getting off the ship first in Barcelona, which will give an extra few hours in the city. This won’t matter for me much as my first FDP (faculty-directed practica), snorkeling in the Medes Islands (!!), begins upon arrival in Barcelona. Since we have a limited amount of class time, each class needs another few hours to count for 3 full credits. So, each of the classes requires a certain amount of onshore activities pertaining to the class to fill in this time. “Requires” is really not an appropriate word to use there…that’s why we all came on Summer at Sea in the first place! But, it’s technically true, and I guess the required part is to write up and turn in a reflection on your experience in class. So not to worry, my onshore excursions will be well-documented. FDPs, trips to sites relevant to the class your taking lead by a faculty member, are one way to meet this requirement. I will be doing a few FDPs and a lot of independent travel in each city we go to. I can hardly wait to get to Barcelona, but I know that once I get there the rest of the trip will start going by so fast.
I’m definitely not the only one who is excited to get to Barcelona. Many people are more excited just to get off the ship, which I understand. I’ve talked to several people sick of seeing just ocean every day, but I don’t mind. I’m looking forward to a new adventure much more than dry land. But, the ship is starting to feel pretty crowded to me…everywhere I go there are people. It’s great when I’m in the mood to meet new people (amazingly I still see people that I don’t recognize, and there will probably always be people that I haven’t talked to yet), but it gets a little tiring.
Today in Global Studies, we talked a little about Pompeii. The professor is an art historian (among other things) and showed slide after slide of pictures of the ruinously preserved city. I am now so thankful I signed up for the FDP in Pompeii…it will be so amazing to get to see it all in person.
6/22
MV Explorer
This morning my in my 9am Global Studies class, the professor told us it had snowed a few hours earlier. I have a very hard time believing that, though, because I was just laying out in the sun for awhile and it was beautiful…not even a cloud in the sky. Even this morning when I got up (supposedly only a few hours after said snow), it was warm, sunny and pretty much cloudless.
Almost every painting has “see every sunset and at least one sunrise” written on the back as advice from former Semester at Sea participants. I caught my first sunrise last night, which was nice, but there were clouds covering it at the horizon, so hopefully tonight’s will be better. As for watching the sunrise…I am really going to have to dedicate myself to waking up early (or staying up all night, which is probably the more likely, especially once we get into Barcelona and Italy and don’t have class for awhile) to manage that, but I do plan to. I hope it looks significantly different than the sunset.
I’ve met several people here that have an acquaintance or two that go to Stanford, but today at lunch I actually knew (and did a project with) the acquaintance. Small world, even here in the middle of the Atlantic.
Also, if you are interested in my exact location in the Atlantic each day (Mom and Dad) you can check out this website:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/position-report.php
It also has cool stuff like speed, temperature, and sunset/rise times. If you navigate back from that page to the “Current Voyage” tab, that’s all about the stuff I’m doing now, so if you’re interested know yourself out.
Yes! After many emails and a little haggling I got a ticket to see the DJ Kaskade play at Opium Mar in Barcelona Wednesday night! It’s supposed to be awesome…and should definitely balance out all the Gothic architecture I’ll be touring earlier that day. I also just received the confirmation for the other trips I signed up for; I am so excited to do all the stuff on that list I can hardly stand it.
I just came back from the Amazing Race…our team didn’t win ☹ But, we did figure out all the clues, we were just in the process of getting the last few signed off when they announced that someone had finished and the race was over. At 7:30, all the teams of 8 assembled in the Union (the only large lecture hall where our Global Studies classes are held) and received sealed envelopes. Once all the groups had been checked in, we heard the rules. Inside the envelopes were 18 clues, each of which would lead us to a different place on the ship. Once there, we would get the clue signed off by a volunteer loitering at the spot. But, all the clues had to be done in order, and we got stuck on a hard one part way through, which was why we had the ones at the end figured out before we finished getting all the clues signed. The clues were riddles, codes, anagrams, crossword puzzles, and “find me here” questions. They lead us to the computer lab (where you find mice but no rodents), the weight room (bells that don’t ring), the pool, the pool bar, the mysterious 8th deck, and many other places aboard the ship. A “no running” rule was in place, so I had a chance to showcase my excellent speed walking skills, which I have had two years of waking up late for morning classes to perfect. I think about 2/3 on the ship participated, which is a lot of people, so the hallways were insane. Some of the groups really got into the competitive team spirit, like “Team Stache”, half guys and half girls, all have mustaches drawn on their faces. This is when rally gear would have come in handy…although convincing the rest of my team to wear it may have been difficult.
Love from (over halfway through) the Atlantic,
Ginny
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Atlantic Crossing, Days 2 and 3
6/18: MV Explorer
I’m getting ready for bed now, we just hit a time zone switch so I’ll be waking up at 9am for my 9:20 class tomorrow morning, but it will feel like 8am. We’re having a few more time zone changes during the crossing, that way we take baby steps to get to Barcelona time. It’s a good idea…I wouldn’t want to be exhausted and jet (or ship?) lagged when we first arrived at the city. But, it’s getting annoying having to set my clocks an hour ahead when I go to bed every night.
I am absolutely loving the ship. I can't believe I've only been here two days, I already feel so at home. Everyone is super friendly and adventurous, so it's really fun meeting new people. The food is pretty good so far (for buffet food) and the only annoying thing is the water tastes a little funny, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Something that is clearly annoying a lot of other people provides an endless source of entertainment for me: the slow acquisition of sea legs. I mean, I stagger across the deck with a big wave too, but I love seeing groups of people sloshing back in forth across the hallways in time with the surge on their way to class. Today I think I saw a few flying fish, and apparently yesterday there were dolphins. Because I know you are all wondering…yes, people have been spontaneously breaking into "I'm on a boat" the whole time.
Today's orientation was long (9am-4:30pm with an hour lunch break) and tedious (people talking about basic stuff we need to know and reading off powerpoint slides). I really think they could come up with a better way to do that...orientation is supposed to be fun and that was torturous. I did discover in this orientation, however, that the MV Explorer was originally built as a 900-passenger, 300-crew cruise ship. So as much as a would like to deny it, that’s pretty much what it looks like on the inside…right down to the faux-marble floors and Vegas-style ceilings paneling in meeting rooms (well, maybe not that bad). A significant difference is that our ship has only one bar: the one by the pool, which I discovered today we can purchase a maximum of 3 alcoholic beverages from per evening, as long as those alcoholic beverages are cheap beer or wine. They teased me mercilessly by naming the snack bar near the piano room the “Piano Bar.” I tracked that place down stoked for dueling pianos…and was very disappointed. Still, it’s pretty cool to have a piano on the ship. I haven’t played yet, but I plan on it sometime.
I also meet a pretty cool group of people to sit with during orientation(we revived an old classic: gum-wrapper football and hockey) and hung out by the pool with them later. This may be the same group of people I will compete with in the ship’s “Amazing Race” (like the show…but all on the ship), and we have set some plans for Barcelona and Casablanca. Hanging out by the pool with what felt like the other 699 students on board would have felt a lot like spring break if 1) we had any alcohol at the time and 2) the male to female ratio on the ship were not 1:3. That’s right…Summer at Sea 2011 is 74% women. Luckily, for me this is just hilarious, but it’s a bit of a blow to other ladies (and giant win for guys) here on the prowl. The “on the prowl” population of the ship became pretty obvious out at the pool deck today, especially as the designers of the ship thought it was a good idea to place the indoor-outdoor weight room right next to the pool deck. Girls lounging poolside in bikinis + guys lifting weights in the salt breeze = way too many hormones for one deck.
Tomorrow is my first day of class! I'm interested to see how they will play out.
6/19: MV Explorer
First of all…Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!
I’m getting used to the water. I also discovered where the hot water and tea bags are, so that’s making me happier. I keep getting hungry at weird times, so I can’t wait to stock up on tasty snacks (Nutella Snack and Drink!) once we get to Barcelona. They do have a 24-hour snack bar here (the Piano Bar *shakes fist angrily and squints eyes*), so it’s not like I’m starving. I guess I’m just really excited for Barcelona in general ☺
My first Global Studies: The Art of the Mediterranean class today at 9:20am didn’t really count as the first class. It is the class all the students on the ship are required to take, and there are two sections, both of which have more people than can fit into the only big lecture hall, so we fill it to the brim and then some…students crowding the hallways even as the ship’s captain talks to us from the stage (fire codes?). I say it doesn’t count because it was really an extension of orientation. He talked about how the ship is like a little city. The theme of our voyage is “world cities” and we read Triumph of the City before coming aboard, so this topic was applicable to the voyage, if not the class. I’m guessing that tomorrow we’ll go over the syllabus and get into the actual material.
My next class at 10:45 is Marine Biology. The class is about 2/3 non-science majors with a few Bio majors thrown in (myself included…even though HumBio is much better than regular Bio ☺), so it will be interesting. The professor seems awesome. He reminds me a little bit of Mr. Kurlee (for anyone with connections to LHHS…for those of you who don’t this means he is a super-cool old man, the kind that wears the “Old Guys Rule” t-shirts) but more academic. He went to UCLA and got his PhD in marine ecology there (and has done a ton of SCUBA diving). He also warned us that he is profane and would try to control himself, but he’s apologizing in advance so if something slips out later he won’t have to. He also made what could have been a very dull intro to basic biology principles you need for marine biology quite entertaining for me.
My final class, which is at 2:55, is History of Italy and the Mediterranean in the Renaissance. I was a little worried signing up for it (I signed up for it because I couldn’t get two other classes I wanted more) that it would just be the basic Renaissance stuff we’ve been learning over and over all through school. But, it seems like it’s going a be a pretty in-depth history of Renaissance-era and the factors in the past leading up to or influencing that era in each of the places we’re going to visit, which is exactly what I wanted out of the class. This professor seems like he will be good, and he has a special badge to get into Vatican City because he used to do research in the library there (!!Robert Langdon!!).
I also met my cabin steward, Angelito, today. He is very sweet and from the Philippines. It’s weird to have someone come clean our room and bathroom and take our plates in the dining hall…and I would say I guess I’ll get used to it, but I don’t really want to.
I read more of the pieces of advice on the back on my picture and found a new term that I like: SASer and SAShole, as in be a SASer, not a SAShole. I have yet to hear anyone use any of these, but it can only be a matter of time.
The next 7 days until we get to Barcelona we will have the same classes every day (with enough reading to keep me busy most of the day…I forgot how much reading history classes involve), and then we will stop classes while we explore the city. I get more excited every day…it’s a good thing we only have 125 minutes of internet or I’d probably be googling pictures of La Sagrada Familia and searching for the best restaurants!
There was an activities fair tonight, which makes this feel much more like a college campus (classes do this too…for some reason), which is good. I joined the Student Wellness Advocacy Team (S.W.A.T.) where I’ll try to bring a little piece of the SHPRC to the ship (there’s no sexual health center or information other than the general medical center now and I have a feeling we’re going to need it), a Yoga and Meditation Club, and the Extended Family Program, where groups of students, professors and lifelong learners make little “families” to do family-stuff together (although I’m sure whatever my SAS family does will be nowhere near as cool as what my REAL family does…no matter what country we’re in).
Time goes by so fast here…it’s already 11pm and I feel like I just had lunch an our or 2 ago. With this in mind, I’m doing by best to enjoy every second of it.
As a reminder, the best way to reach me is by email: vescholtes@semesteratsea.net
I’ve really enjoyed getting emails from those of you who have sent them so far, so thanks for that ☺ It’s kind of like how I feel when I get a package in the mail at Stanford.
Also, I only have 125 total minutes of internet on the ship for the voyage, and my phone is being very stubborn about letting me on Facebook or Skype from the ship…so just know that if you post something there now, it’s likely that I won’t get it until I get to Barcelona on June 27…but I’m not going to be doing a whole lot of Facebook checking while I’m there ☺
Love from (slightly further across) the Atlantic,
Ginny
I’m getting ready for bed now, we just hit a time zone switch so I’ll be waking up at 9am for my 9:20 class tomorrow morning, but it will feel like 8am. We’re having a few more time zone changes during the crossing, that way we take baby steps to get to Barcelona time. It’s a good idea…I wouldn’t want to be exhausted and jet (or ship?) lagged when we first arrived at the city. But, it’s getting annoying having to set my clocks an hour ahead when I go to bed every night.
I am absolutely loving the ship. I can't believe I've only been here two days, I already feel so at home. Everyone is super friendly and adventurous, so it's really fun meeting new people. The food is pretty good so far (for buffet food) and the only annoying thing is the water tastes a little funny, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Something that is clearly annoying a lot of other people provides an endless source of entertainment for me: the slow acquisition of sea legs. I mean, I stagger across the deck with a big wave too, but I love seeing groups of people sloshing back in forth across the hallways in time with the surge on their way to class. Today I think I saw a few flying fish, and apparently yesterday there were dolphins. Because I know you are all wondering…yes, people have been spontaneously breaking into "I'm on a boat" the whole time.
Today's orientation was long (9am-4:30pm with an hour lunch break) and tedious (people talking about basic stuff we need to know and reading off powerpoint slides). I really think they could come up with a better way to do that...orientation is supposed to be fun and that was torturous. I did discover in this orientation, however, that the MV Explorer was originally built as a 900-passenger, 300-crew cruise ship. So as much as a would like to deny it, that’s pretty much what it looks like on the inside…right down to the faux-marble floors and Vegas-style ceilings paneling in meeting rooms (well, maybe not that bad). A significant difference is that our ship has only one bar: the one by the pool, which I discovered today we can purchase a maximum of 3 alcoholic beverages from per evening, as long as those alcoholic beverages are cheap beer or wine. They teased me mercilessly by naming the snack bar near the piano room the “Piano Bar.” I tracked that place down stoked for dueling pianos…and was very disappointed. Still, it’s pretty cool to have a piano on the ship. I haven’t played yet, but I plan on it sometime.
I also meet a pretty cool group of people to sit with during orientation(we revived an old classic: gum-wrapper football and hockey) and hung out by the pool with them later. This may be the same group of people I will compete with in the ship’s “Amazing Race” (like the show…but all on the ship), and we have set some plans for Barcelona and Casablanca. Hanging out by the pool with what felt like the other 699 students on board would have felt a lot like spring break if 1) we had any alcohol at the time and 2) the male to female ratio on the ship were not 1:3. That’s right…Summer at Sea 2011 is 74% women. Luckily, for me this is just hilarious, but it’s a bit of a blow to other ladies (and giant win for guys) here on the prowl. The “on the prowl” population of the ship became pretty obvious out at the pool deck today, especially as the designers of the ship thought it was a good idea to place the indoor-outdoor weight room right next to the pool deck. Girls lounging poolside in bikinis + guys lifting weights in the salt breeze = way too many hormones for one deck.
Tomorrow is my first day of class! I'm interested to see how they will play out.
6/19: MV Explorer
First of all…Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!
I’m getting used to the water. I also discovered where the hot water and tea bags are, so that’s making me happier. I keep getting hungry at weird times, so I can’t wait to stock up on tasty snacks (Nutella Snack and Drink!) once we get to Barcelona. They do have a 24-hour snack bar here (the Piano Bar *shakes fist angrily and squints eyes*), so it’s not like I’m starving. I guess I’m just really excited for Barcelona in general ☺
My first Global Studies: The Art of the Mediterranean class today at 9:20am didn’t really count as the first class. It is the class all the students on the ship are required to take, and there are two sections, both of which have more people than can fit into the only big lecture hall, so we fill it to the brim and then some…students crowding the hallways even as the ship’s captain talks to us from the stage (fire codes?). I say it doesn’t count because it was really an extension of orientation. He talked about how the ship is like a little city. The theme of our voyage is “world cities” and we read Triumph of the City before coming aboard, so this topic was applicable to the voyage, if not the class. I’m guessing that tomorrow we’ll go over the syllabus and get into the actual material.
My next class at 10:45 is Marine Biology. The class is about 2/3 non-science majors with a few Bio majors thrown in (myself included…even though HumBio is much better than regular Bio ☺), so it will be interesting. The professor seems awesome. He reminds me a little bit of Mr. Kurlee (for anyone with connections to LHHS…for those of you who don’t this means he is a super-cool old man, the kind that wears the “Old Guys Rule” t-shirts) but more academic. He went to UCLA and got his PhD in marine ecology there (and has done a ton of SCUBA diving). He also warned us that he is profane and would try to control himself, but he’s apologizing in advance so if something slips out later he won’t have to. He also made what could have been a very dull intro to basic biology principles you need for marine biology quite entertaining for me.
My final class, which is at 2:55, is History of Italy and the Mediterranean in the Renaissance. I was a little worried signing up for it (I signed up for it because I couldn’t get two other classes I wanted more) that it would just be the basic Renaissance stuff we’ve been learning over and over all through school. But, it seems like it’s going a be a pretty in-depth history of Renaissance-era and the factors in the past leading up to or influencing that era in each of the places we’re going to visit, which is exactly what I wanted out of the class. This professor seems like he will be good, and he has a special badge to get into Vatican City because he used to do research in the library there (!!Robert Langdon!!).
I also met my cabin steward, Angelito, today. He is very sweet and from the Philippines. It’s weird to have someone come clean our room and bathroom and take our plates in the dining hall…and I would say I guess I’ll get used to it, but I don’t really want to.
I read more of the pieces of advice on the back on my picture and found a new term that I like: SASer and SAShole, as in be a SASer, not a SAShole. I have yet to hear anyone use any of these, but it can only be a matter of time.
The next 7 days until we get to Barcelona we will have the same classes every day (with enough reading to keep me busy most of the day…I forgot how much reading history classes involve), and then we will stop classes while we explore the city. I get more excited every day…it’s a good thing we only have 125 minutes of internet or I’d probably be googling pictures of La Sagrada Familia and searching for the best restaurants!
There was an activities fair tonight, which makes this feel much more like a college campus (classes do this too…for some reason), which is good. I joined the Student Wellness Advocacy Team (S.W.A.T.) where I’ll try to bring a little piece of the SHPRC to the ship (there’s no sexual health center or information other than the general medical center now and I have a feeling we’re going to need it), a Yoga and Meditation Club, and the Extended Family Program, where groups of students, professors and lifelong learners make little “families” to do family-stuff together (although I’m sure whatever my SAS family does will be nowhere near as cool as what my REAL family does…no matter what country we’re in).
Time goes by so fast here…it’s already 11pm and I feel like I just had lunch an our or 2 ago. With this in mind, I’m doing by best to enjoy every second of it.
As a reminder, the best way to reach me is by email: vescholtes@semesteratsea.net
I’ve really enjoyed getting emails from those of you who have sent them so far, so thanks for that ☺ It’s kind of like how I feel when I get a package in the mail at Stanford.
Also, I only have 125 total minutes of internet on the ship for the voyage, and my phone is being very stubborn about letting me on Facebook or Skype from the ship…so just know that if you post something there now, it’s likely that I won’t get it until I get to Barcelona on June 27…but I’m not going to be doing a whole lot of Facebook checking while I’m there ☺
Love from (slightly further across) the Atlantic,
Ginny
Friday, June 17, 2011
Atlantic Crossing, Day 1
6/17
MV Explorer
This morning I had my alarm set for 9am to be sure I would wake up and get ready in time to leave around 10am, but I woke up at 7:30. I guess I was too excited to sleep…and that was after going to bed at 2:30 last night so I must have been really ready for the day.
After checking out, I found another Summer at Sea student, Corey, and shared a cab to Prince George Dock at Nassau Port. On the way there our cab driver played a Bruno Mars CD and drove with the windows down, which felt amazing in the heat and humidity even though it mercilessly tangled the hair I had blown dry that morning. Once out of the car I paid for leaving my hair down and sitting next to the window the whole way by looking like a lion (in the best possible way). Corey and I gathered our luggage and staggered over to the port entry for the MV Explorer. The line was insane…possibly on par with the Indiana Jones ride as Disneyland. It took us at least five minutes just to walk from the begging of the line to the end of the line, and about an hour and a half to get through it to security. Luckily, all us students in line had plenty to talk about, the line was in the shade, and I had a bottle of cold water, so the time passed quickly. Oh, I also discovered while in line that the drinking age while on the ship is 18, not 21…ca-ching. I found out my room number, 2006, and tagged all my luggage. Once we got to security, (which looked like it has just been set up in what was normally used as a storage warehouse, with giant paper mache tiki gods, dragons, and dancing people that looked like they belonged on a float) it was obvious why the line was so long. All 750 Summer at Sea students and their 2 and ½ months worth of luggage were going through one scanner and one metal detector. By that time, though, I was so relieved to pawn my bags off on to a truck (which drove them to the ship where they magically appeared outside my door once I boarded the ship) rather than having to carry them that I didn’t even grumble about the inefficiency.
Once past security, we picked up our ship IDs (which are also our room keys and “ship credit cards”) and I discovered where the passport photo I had sent months ago to SAS had been used. Then, we rounded a corner and there it was: the MV Explorer! I will at some point be posting pictures on Facebook…but until then you can find a few pictures of the ship and more descriptions of what it contains on the Semester at Sea website I posted in my last blog. The ship is amazing. I am so excited that this will be my home for the next 2 ½ months. I’m sure that for the first week or so I’ll be getting lost a lot (yeah, yeah…we all know about my sense of direction, or lack thereof). I haven’t toured the whole thing yet, but the parts I’ve seen are very nice. Someone told me that this is a new ship, built in 2006. I would definitely believe it…everything looks new, which is impressive considering how many overexcited college students it handles. Student rooms are on decks 2-4 and split into “inside” (without windows/portholes) or “outside” (with windows/portholes). I think each deck is named a different sea…kind of like dorms but more theme-appropriate. I’m in the Aegean Sea, on deck 2 inside, room 2006. The halls seem pretty maze-like to me now, but hopefully I’ll be navigating them easily in no time.
Of course, as soon as I boarded the ship I went straight to my room. All three of my bags were waiting outside my door. I opened my door, stepped into my room and immediately regretted the amount I had packed. The room is pretty small, even with European-width twin beds to save more space, and didn’t look like it had that much storage. Somewhat daunted, I began unpacking all my stuff. I’m not sure if the room got bigger as I unpacked or if I just thought the stuff I had would take up way more space than it actually did, but I had no problem fitting everything. I wish I had packed some hangers, because I have all my dresses on three, but other than that I didn’t need any more space. There was plenty of room under my bed for my suitcases, one of which I am using as a “drawer” for swim suits. The bathroom is compact as I expected, but the shower is a little bigger than I thought it would be (although still small…it’s definitely not for shower parties) which is a definite plus. Another plus was arriving an hour or two before my roommate. I was able to unpack and put away all my stuff before she came, which was much easier than both of us trying to unpack at the same time. I took pictures of my room, which will get up on to Facebook soon (hopefully).
I took myself on a little tour of the ship, and by the time I got back, my roomie was there! Her name is Parul and she is from Gainsville, FL. She is a pre-med Psych major and spent last summer backpacking through Europe. As she was unpacking she saw my Toms in the closet and said “Toms? Oh, we’re going to be friends.” I agree. She is super easy to talk to and seems very friendly, outgoing and adventurous. I’m sure we’ll get into some trouble (the good kind, obviously) this trip. After we had chatted awhile, she motioned to the 4’x4’ painting on the wall above her bed (there is a 4’X4’ map of the world above mine) and asked if I had taken it down yet. I told her no and she must have noticed my confusion because she told me that it had advice on the back. We took it down and almost the entire back was covered in writing from past Semester at Sea participants who had been in our room. “10 Best Things I Did,” “Favorite Memories from Summer 2009” and “What NOT to do on Semester at Sea” were all titles. I haven’t read then all yet, but I can’t wait do so and then add my own at the end of the journey ☺
It’s about 3:45pm Nassau time, and we have our emergency drill in fifteen and then orientation after that. I’ll come back and blog on those after. The bow on my dress just broke and my roomie was kind enough to let me use her super glue to fix it (I know Mom, I should have brought a sewing kit). Unfortunately, I decided to pinch the dress and the bow together for a minute with no barrier between the glue-soaked fabric and my fingers, so my dress now has a bow on one side and the first layer of skin from my thumb on the other. First (and only?) injury of Summer at Sea ☺
So it’s about midnight now, and the combination of sea-sickness meds (just in case) and rocking of the boat is making me very sleepy. It’s a good thing, though, because tomorrow we have massive orientation from 9am to 9pm…and if tonight’s mini-orientation was any indicator, I don’t think it’s going to be very exciting. This isn’t to say that being on the ship isn’t exciting…definitely the opposite. Meeting so many people today was awesome and a little overwhelming…kind of like freshman year all over again, except we are concentrated in a much smaller space. But, listening to all the rules and regulations, having all the professors introduced and a mix of other must-know information gets pretty tiring after awhile. Oh well…I’m still looking forward to tomorrow because it will mean I’m really starting Summer at Sea.
Our hour-long first orientation, with all the passengers on the ship, went well. There are life-long learners on the ship, which as far as I can tell are adults doing Summer at Sea (don’t get any ideas Dad), and one of them is 88 years old and has done some Semester at Sea program 24 times! Our next orientation was by deck, and was only for students. It felt very much like a watered-down freshman dorm orientation. My deck is the smallest, with 72 people, and is called the Aegean Sea. Our color is orange and our mascot was supposed to be the sea lion, but is actually the lion because, quoting our SAS version of an RA (an LCC) Jenni, “a sea lion was too hard to make out of a paper plate.” Orange paper plate lions decorate each of our doors, and it’s nice that they’re working to create a sense of unity within floors, it reminds me that this really is like mini-freshman year. We also have a “deck sign” which is a lion paw (and, if desired, a growly lion face).
Dinner and snack (small 10-10:30pm meal) were both pretty good- both served buffet style in both (for dinner’s case) or one of the two dining rooms on the 5th and 6th decks. I checked out the pool, which is smallish but serviceable, the exercise room, and stood on deck to enjoy the wind and be surrounded by ocean. After snack, a few friends and I looked stood out on the stern deck to watch the stars. We hoped they would be beautiful and covering the whole sky considering how far from light pollution we are, but the moon was so bright we could only see about the same amount as in Laguna Hills. Hopefully toward the end of our Atlantic passage the sky will be dark enough to be able to stargaze properly. On our way back to our deck, we passed a few guys playing guitar and piano and singing, and stopped to hang out with them for a bit. They were playing the chord progression game where the musicians play a chord progression and everyone sings lyrics of as many songs match that progression. They tried it with “I Just had Sex,” but nobody wanted to stop singing those lyrics long enough to switch to another song.
I did discover during today’s orientations that I have a total of 125 free internet minutes for the journey. Certain websites, mainly academic websites for classes or other U of Virginia or Semester at Sea websites, do not cut into this total, so I can use them without logging in. Also, I can use my Summer at Sea email account, vescholtes@semesteratsea.net, as much as I want without cutting into the 125 minutes. Also, the ship has cell service (“cellular at sea” aren’t they cute) which means I can use Facebook and Skype on my phone as substitutes for texting without using the internet. So, the best ways to contact me are:
Email: vescholtes@semesteratsea.net
Facebook: send me a message or post on my wall ☺
Skype: ginnyscholtes
Love from the Atlantic,
Ginny
MV Explorer
This morning I had my alarm set for 9am to be sure I would wake up and get ready in time to leave around 10am, but I woke up at 7:30. I guess I was too excited to sleep…and that was after going to bed at 2:30 last night so I must have been really ready for the day.
After checking out, I found another Summer at Sea student, Corey, and shared a cab to Prince George Dock at Nassau Port. On the way there our cab driver played a Bruno Mars CD and drove with the windows down, which felt amazing in the heat and humidity even though it mercilessly tangled the hair I had blown dry that morning. Once out of the car I paid for leaving my hair down and sitting next to the window the whole way by looking like a lion (in the best possible way). Corey and I gathered our luggage and staggered over to the port entry for the MV Explorer. The line was insane…possibly on par with the Indiana Jones ride as Disneyland. It took us at least five minutes just to walk from the begging of the line to the end of the line, and about an hour and a half to get through it to security. Luckily, all us students in line had plenty to talk about, the line was in the shade, and I had a bottle of cold water, so the time passed quickly. Oh, I also discovered while in line that the drinking age while on the ship is 18, not 21…ca-ching. I found out my room number, 2006, and tagged all my luggage. Once we got to security, (which looked like it has just been set up in what was normally used as a storage warehouse, with giant paper mache tiki gods, dragons, and dancing people that looked like they belonged on a float) it was obvious why the line was so long. All 750 Summer at Sea students and their 2 and ½ months worth of luggage were going through one scanner and one metal detector. By that time, though, I was so relieved to pawn my bags off on to a truck (which drove them to the ship where they magically appeared outside my door once I boarded the ship) rather than having to carry them that I didn’t even grumble about the inefficiency.
Once past security, we picked up our ship IDs (which are also our room keys and “ship credit cards”) and I discovered where the passport photo I had sent months ago to SAS had been used. Then, we rounded a corner and there it was: the MV Explorer! I will at some point be posting pictures on Facebook…but until then you can find a few pictures of the ship and more descriptions of what it contains on the Semester at Sea website I posted in my last blog. The ship is amazing. I am so excited that this will be my home for the next 2 ½ months. I’m sure that for the first week or so I’ll be getting lost a lot (yeah, yeah…we all know about my sense of direction, or lack thereof). I haven’t toured the whole thing yet, but the parts I’ve seen are very nice. Someone told me that this is a new ship, built in 2006. I would definitely believe it…everything looks new, which is impressive considering how many overexcited college students it handles. Student rooms are on decks 2-4 and split into “inside” (without windows/portholes) or “outside” (with windows/portholes). I think each deck is named a different sea…kind of like dorms but more theme-appropriate. I’m in the Aegean Sea, on deck 2 inside, room 2006. The halls seem pretty maze-like to me now, but hopefully I’ll be navigating them easily in no time.
Of course, as soon as I boarded the ship I went straight to my room. All three of my bags were waiting outside my door. I opened my door, stepped into my room and immediately regretted the amount I had packed. The room is pretty small, even with European-width twin beds to save more space, and didn’t look like it had that much storage. Somewhat daunted, I began unpacking all my stuff. I’m not sure if the room got bigger as I unpacked or if I just thought the stuff I had would take up way more space than it actually did, but I had no problem fitting everything. I wish I had packed some hangers, because I have all my dresses on three, but other than that I didn’t need any more space. There was plenty of room under my bed for my suitcases, one of which I am using as a “drawer” for swim suits. The bathroom is compact as I expected, but the shower is a little bigger than I thought it would be (although still small…it’s definitely not for shower parties) which is a definite plus. Another plus was arriving an hour or two before my roommate. I was able to unpack and put away all my stuff before she came, which was much easier than both of us trying to unpack at the same time. I took pictures of my room, which will get up on to Facebook soon (hopefully).
I took myself on a little tour of the ship, and by the time I got back, my roomie was there! Her name is Parul and she is from Gainsville, FL. She is a pre-med Psych major and spent last summer backpacking through Europe. As she was unpacking she saw my Toms in the closet and said “Toms? Oh, we’re going to be friends.” I agree. She is super easy to talk to and seems very friendly, outgoing and adventurous. I’m sure we’ll get into some trouble (the good kind, obviously) this trip. After we had chatted awhile, she motioned to the 4’x4’ painting on the wall above her bed (there is a 4’X4’ map of the world above mine) and asked if I had taken it down yet. I told her no and she must have noticed my confusion because she told me that it had advice on the back. We took it down and almost the entire back was covered in writing from past Semester at Sea participants who had been in our room. “10 Best Things I Did,” “Favorite Memories from Summer 2009” and “What NOT to do on Semester at Sea” were all titles. I haven’t read then all yet, but I can’t wait do so and then add my own at the end of the journey ☺
It’s about 3:45pm Nassau time, and we have our emergency drill in fifteen and then orientation after that. I’ll come back and blog on those after. The bow on my dress just broke and my roomie was kind enough to let me use her super glue to fix it (I know Mom, I should have brought a sewing kit). Unfortunately, I decided to pinch the dress and the bow together for a minute with no barrier between the glue-soaked fabric and my fingers, so my dress now has a bow on one side and the first layer of skin from my thumb on the other. First (and only?) injury of Summer at Sea ☺
So it’s about midnight now, and the combination of sea-sickness meds (just in case) and rocking of the boat is making me very sleepy. It’s a good thing, though, because tomorrow we have massive orientation from 9am to 9pm…and if tonight’s mini-orientation was any indicator, I don’t think it’s going to be very exciting. This isn’t to say that being on the ship isn’t exciting…definitely the opposite. Meeting so many people today was awesome and a little overwhelming…kind of like freshman year all over again, except we are concentrated in a much smaller space. But, listening to all the rules and regulations, having all the professors introduced and a mix of other must-know information gets pretty tiring after awhile. Oh well…I’m still looking forward to tomorrow because it will mean I’m really starting Summer at Sea.
Our hour-long first orientation, with all the passengers on the ship, went well. There are life-long learners on the ship, which as far as I can tell are adults doing Summer at Sea (don’t get any ideas Dad), and one of them is 88 years old and has done some Semester at Sea program 24 times! Our next orientation was by deck, and was only for students. It felt very much like a watered-down freshman dorm orientation. My deck is the smallest, with 72 people, and is called the Aegean Sea. Our color is orange and our mascot was supposed to be the sea lion, but is actually the lion because, quoting our SAS version of an RA (an LCC) Jenni, “a sea lion was too hard to make out of a paper plate.” Orange paper plate lions decorate each of our doors, and it’s nice that they’re working to create a sense of unity within floors, it reminds me that this really is like mini-freshman year. We also have a “deck sign” which is a lion paw (and, if desired, a growly lion face).
Dinner and snack (small 10-10:30pm meal) were both pretty good- both served buffet style in both (for dinner’s case) or one of the two dining rooms on the 5th and 6th decks. I checked out the pool, which is smallish but serviceable, the exercise room, and stood on deck to enjoy the wind and be surrounded by ocean. After snack, a few friends and I looked stood out on the stern deck to watch the stars. We hoped they would be beautiful and covering the whole sky considering how far from light pollution we are, but the moon was so bright we could only see about the same amount as in Laguna Hills. Hopefully toward the end of our Atlantic passage the sky will be dark enough to be able to stargaze properly. On our way back to our deck, we passed a few guys playing guitar and piano and singing, and stopped to hang out with them for a bit. They were playing the chord progression game where the musicians play a chord progression and everyone sings lyrics of as many songs match that progression. They tried it with “I Just had Sex,” but nobody wanted to stop singing those lyrics long enough to switch to another song.
I did discover during today’s orientations that I have a total of 125 free internet minutes for the journey. Certain websites, mainly academic websites for classes or other U of Virginia or Semester at Sea websites, do not cut into this total, so I can use them without logging in. Also, I can use my Summer at Sea email account, vescholtes@semesteratsea.net, as much as I want without cutting into the 125 minutes. Also, the ship has cell service (“cellular at sea” aren’t they cute) which means I can use Facebook and Skype on my phone as substitutes for texting without using the internet. So, the best ways to contact me are:
Email: vescholtes@semesteratsea.net
Facebook: send me a message or post on my wall ☺
Skype: ginnyscholtes
Love from the Atlantic,
Ginny
Nassau, Bahamas (6/16)
6/16: Nassau, Bahamas
I woke up this morning in Laguna Hills and headed out with my Mom and Dad to LAX at 6am. It was drizzling by the time we arrived, June gloom setting in just in time to say goodbye, and I gave Mom and Dad hugs goodbye to last 2 ½ months.
I flew through security and worked my way through a maze of temporary walls (LAX is undergoing construction, although promises to be “gorgeous” by the time it’s finished) to my gate. Once I got there, thanks to construction four gates worth of passengers and their carry-on bags were crowded into one gate’s worth of space, so I turned around, sat down in a café and had a croissant sandwich and an iced tea until it was time to board the plane. The plane was giant…so giant that it needed two aisles to accommodate passenger flow and so awesome that the first class seats were there own little cubbies with feet of leg room, foot rests and chairs that reclined completely flat. Was I jealous? Never. I made good use of my 2-inch reclining seat to begin reading the assigned reading book for the Summer at Sea students, The Triumph of the City. Admittedly, if Delta’s HBO section had included Game of Thrones like they advertized, that would not have happened.
I landed in Atlanta with my book halfway finished and stomach mostly empty, so I found myself a tuna sandwich, ate half and stowed half, and head off to the tram. If there’s one thing I love about the airport in Atlanta, it’s this tram. Whenever I take it I always hope my connection gate is as far away as possible so I can ride it longer. But alas, I was in terminal T and going to terminal A, which are right next to each other. Was riding the tram necessary? Definitely. I found my gate: a flight headed to Nassau (which incidentally is pronounced “nah saw”, not “naw sow” like I had been pronouncing it for the last year whenever I told people about this trip…what a noob). The plane was just late enough boarding to miss its departure time, so we chilled out another 20 minutes or so waiting to get a place in line for take off. This delay ended up working out for me, though, because I finished Triumph of the City with about 5 minutes of flight to spare. During that time I chatted with the women next to me who was heading back home to the Bahamas after coming to the States for her granddaughter’s graduation.
We landed around 8pm Nassau time. I love landing on islands because you get so low to the ocean before hitting the runway. Even though it was dark twilight by the time we were landing, I could still see the turquoise water (dimmed, of course) and see straight to the bottom, a few reefs breaking up the white sand. It makes me a little sad I’ll only be here for tonight and tomorrow morning, but I can always come back ☺
In baggage claim all the parent-less college age students found each other (what else would we be here for other than Summer at Sea embarkation?). I shared a cab with a few other girls, and drove on the LEFT side of the road to our hotel, which I was not expecting since the driver seat was still on the right like in US cars. I think the girls in my car felt a similar sentiment because the first turn our driver made out onto not-1-way road we all looked at each other like uhh… oh ok, it’s supposed to be that way. Once we got to our hotel, the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort (Summer at Sea did a deal with them so pretty much all the students are staying here tonight), we ran into several groups of other parent-less college students that, surprise, were here for Summer at Sea. One of the groups, who had clearly flown into Nassau yesterday, greeted us with high fives, giant frozen rum drinks in hand, yelling “Deck 3 is the best!” Too bad I didn’t fly in yesterday. Once inside it took about ten years to check in, mainly because the woman checking in one of the lines (the one I was in, of course) mysteriously vanished in the middle of checking in the group in front of me and did not return the entire time I stood in a different line and was checked in by someone else. Needless to say, I was quite relieved to get into my room and walk out onto my balcony overlooking the waterfall pool, the ocean, and one of the most beautiful harvest moons I have ever seen.
My phone and computer are still reluctant to leave the States…at least time zone-wise. My phone still thinks its 6:15 and my computer 8:15…but the clock in my hotel room says 11:15 so I’ll go with that. I’m off to have a fun first night and get to know some of my soon-to-be shipmates…maybe one will even be my roommate! (I find out who she is tomorrow when I arrive…I hope she doesn’t snore). Tomorrow I board the MV Explorer at 11am, and I am so excited to see what it’s like. I can’t wait to get settled into my cabin, and I’m more than a little worried about how I will fit the 3 bags worth of stuff I brought into what I’m sure will be very limited space. Packing a little lighter probably would have made my unpacking job tomorrow pleasurably less exciting, but oh well, I wouldn’t want any part of this trip to be boring anyway.
Hopefully tomorrow I will get my Summer at Sea email address, which I can use as much as I want without eating into my free email time, so please use that one once I post it. In the meantime, feel free to send me messages via facebook or at ginnyscholtes@cox.net
Love from Nassau,
Ginny
I woke up this morning in Laguna Hills and headed out with my Mom and Dad to LAX at 6am. It was drizzling by the time we arrived, June gloom setting in just in time to say goodbye, and I gave Mom and Dad hugs goodbye to last 2 ½ months.
I flew through security and worked my way through a maze of temporary walls (LAX is undergoing construction, although promises to be “gorgeous” by the time it’s finished) to my gate. Once I got there, thanks to construction four gates worth of passengers and their carry-on bags were crowded into one gate’s worth of space, so I turned around, sat down in a café and had a croissant sandwich and an iced tea until it was time to board the plane. The plane was giant…so giant that it needed two aisles to accommodate passenger flow and so awesome that the first class seats were there own little cubbies with feet of leg room, foot rests and chairs that reclined completely flat. Was I jealous? Never. I made good use of my 2-inch reclining seat to begin reading the assigned reading book for the Summer at Sea students, The Triumph of the City. Admittedly, if Delta’s HBO section had included Game of Thrones like they advertized, that would not have happened.
I landed in Atlanta with my book halfway finished and stomach mostly empty, so I found myself a tuna sandwich, ate half and stowed half, and head off to the tram. If there’s one thing I love about the airport in Atlanta, it’s this tram. Whenever I take it I always hope my connection gate is as far away as possible so I can ride it longer. But alas, I was in terminal T and going to terminal A, which are right next to each other. Was riding the tram necessary? Definitely. I found my gate: a flight headed to Nassau (which incidentally is pronounced “nah saw”, not “naw sow” like I had been pronouncing it for the last year whenever I told people about this trip…what a noob). The plane was just late enough boarding to miss its departure time, so we chilled out another 20 minutes or so waiting to get a place in line for take off. This delay ended up working out for me, though, because I finished Triumph of the City with about 5 minutes of flight to spare. During that time I chatted with the women next to me who was heading back home to the Bahamas after coming to the States for her granddaughter’s graduation.
We landed around 8pm Nassau time. I love landing on islands because you get so low to the ocean before hitting the runway. Even though it was dark twilight by the time we were landing, I could still see the turquoise water (dimmed, of course) and see straight to the bottom, a few reefs breaking up the white sand. It makes me a little sad I’ll only be here for tonight and tomorrow morning, but I can always come back ☺
In baggage claim all the parent-less college age students found each other (what else would we be here for other than Summer at Sea embarkation?). I shared a cab with a few other girls, and drove on the LEFT side of the road to our hotel, which I was not expecting since the driver seat was still on the right like in US cars. I think the girls in my car felt a similar sentiment because the first turn our driver made out onto not-1-way road we all looked at each other like uhh… oh ok, it’s supposed to be that way. Once we got to our hotel, the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort (Summer at Sea did a deal with them so pretty much all the students are staying here tonight), we ran into several groups of other parent-less college students that, surprise, were here for Summer at Sea. One of the groups, who had clearly flown into Nassau yesterday, greeted us with high fives, giant frozen rum drinks in hand, yelling “Deck 3 is the best!” Too bad I didn’t fly in yesterday. Once inside it took about ten years to check in, mainly because the woman checking in one of the lines (the one I was in, of course) mysteriously vanished in the middle of checking in the group in front of me and did not return the entire time I stood in a different line and was checked in by someone else. Needless to say, I was quite relieved to get into my room and walk out onto my balcony overlooking the waterfall pool, the ocean, and one of the most beautiful harvest moons I have ever seen.
My phone and computer are still reluctant to leave the States…at least time zone-wise. My phone still thinks its 6:15 and my computer 8:15…but the clock in my hotel room says 11:15 so I’ll go with that. I’m off to have a fun first night and get to know some of my soon-to-be shipmates…maybe one will even be my roommate! (I find out who she is tomorrow when I arrive…I hope she doesn’t snore). Tomorrow I board the MV Explorer at 11am, and I am so excited to see what it’s like. I can’t wait to get settled into my cabin, and I’m more than a little worried about how I will fit the 3 bags worth of stuff I brought into what I’m sure will be very limited space. Packing a little lighter probably would have made my unpacking job tomorrow pleasurably less exciting, but oh well, I wouldn’t want any part of this trip to be boring anyway.
Hopefully tomorrow I will get my Summer at Sea email address, which I can use as much as I want without eating into my free email time, so please use that one once I post it. In the meantime, feel free to send me messages via facebook or at ginnyscholtes@cox.net
Love from Nassau,
Ginny
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Last Night in the States
Hey guys!
As this is my first blog post, I suppose I should take some time to explain my title. Shocking though it may seem, I do not know how to ride a bike. As a soon to be junior at Stanford, I have spent two full years walking countless miles across campus and refused multiple offers (and botched several attempts...sorry Katie, Murphy, and Faith) to teach me how to ride a bike. I'm not sure exactly why I, normally a logical person, continue to avoid the most efficient mode of campus transportation. But no matter the reason, I enjoy living the pedestrian life.
The second half of my title is more straightforward. Summer at Sea is the two and a half month (June 17- August 20), eight-country (Bahamas, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Morocco) voyage that motivated me to create this blog. Details can be found here:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/upcoming-voyages/summer-2011.php
Check out the Itinerary/Calendar page; it will help you know where I am at what dates.I will find out my shipboard email once I board the MV Explorer on June 17 and post it then, along with more details about the trip and the ship. I know this post is a little sparse, but I'm still packing for my 9am flight out of LAX tomorrow morning :)
Love from Laguna Hills,
Ginny
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