So it is Friday January 14th (may be posted at a different time it just depends on when I get internet) and it still hasn’t fully set in that this is my life for the next 4 months. I got on the ship on Wednesday and have been so busy ever since. I got to the port in Nassau at about 10 am and got behind what seemed like 100 kids in line. It went by fast though because there was so much excitement in the air and everyone’s parents were still with them so I met a lot of people. My dad stayed with me until I got up to the front an then it was time for the parents to leave. It wasn’t hard to get on the ship, just went through some metal detectors and got some paper work and went up to check out my cabin. I am on the 4th deck inside. The room is great, way better than I was expecting. My roommate wasn’t there yet though and my bags were still on the way up so I listened to my growling stomach and decided it was time to see what kind of food I will be eating on the ship for the semester. I was kind of nervous because Hanna was checking people in since she is work study and my roommate wasn’t here yet so I didn’t have a wingman. I feel like this is my 3rd freshman year because since I transferred this is the 3rd time I am meeting all new people. I knew almost everyone is in the same situation as me so I figured I could make a new friend quick. Sure enough I did and a big group of us went up and ate. Everyone was so giddy and excited that we were finally on the boat.
Later on I met my roommate in the room. Her name is Jill and she is from Long Island, New York. She plays lacrosse for a small school in Long Island. She is really nice and we have gotten along really well so far. Since our room is inside we don’t have a window but there is a mirror that covers the wall at the head of our bed so it makes the room feel a lot bigger. I thought it would be really hard to wake up since it is so dark in our room but it hasn’t been bad yet. We had our life boat drill around 4 so Jill and I found our “muster station” (English accent) and met some of the lifelong learners on our deck. Lifelong learners are people of any age who are basically doing this as a cruise. They can sit it on the classes if they want but basically they are just in it for the ride. There are about 60-70 of them and a lot of them are older but there are a few kids too. They fit in with the faculty and their families so it is hard to tell who is who. Today I ate lunch with a girl that is a sophomore in high school and her parents are both professors and she is taking a semester off put is taking some classes that will later count as college credit.
Our captain is British, go figure. He has a sense of humor when he gives us safety speeches but you can tell he is a little uptight too. He hates seeing kids have feet on the furniture so that is something we have all been making an effort not to do. Our ship was scheduled to leave at 5 pm but some kids got caught up in all the storms that were happening on the east coast so we left at 8. The embankment was amazing! I had been waiting to hear that horn blow for months! All the parents that were still there gathered on the dock and we got on all decks hanging over the railings and waved goodbye. As soon as the first horn blew everyone was cheering and yelling and taking pictures it was so cool!
The vibe on the ship went from pure exhilaration and slowly dwindled down to dizzy, unfamiliar sea sickness. 20 minutes after we left the port we had a meeting in the union and packed 600 kids into a room with a small stage where kids were sitting in all the aisles. It is in the front of the boat so you can really feel the boat rock. Kids were dropping like flies as soon as they started feeling sick. I never remember feeling sea sick on cruises before but something about being packed in that rocking room with all the kids was not sitting well with me either. We had 2 other meetings after that one and the last one we were playing a stupid ice breaker game and all I could do was stare at the door out to the deck debating if I should get some air or not. When everything was done around 11 I went to bed and slept like a baby. I felt much better the next morning but then my roommate was really sick. We has to sit in the union all day long again for an elongated version of what we had heard the night before. Kids were still getting used to the rocking of the boat and I’m pretty sure 75% of us were struggling to keep our eyed open through all the orientation. I can’t believe that was just yesterday because it felt like it was a whole week long.
Today was the first day of class. Everyone is required to take Global Studies so half went this morning and my half goes tomorrow. I had a Geography of Cities Around the World class as 10:45 this morning. They suggest you take 12 credit hours of class but in order for me to graduate on time I need to take 15 so I am trying to add that geography class as my 5th class. The grades don’t transfer to TCU just the credits so all I have to do is pass. My other class today was an International Marketing class. I didn’t get a great feeling from either class because the teachers seemed as confused as us and I think we were all looking to them for more guidance but I guess we are all on this journey together. My marketing teacher is the same teacher I have for another class so hopefully tomorrow I get a better impression. After class I found Hanna and we went up to the pool and laid out. It felt so great. The deck was just filled with kids and music was playing and the sun was shining. We keep meeting so many people but without a good way for us to communicate since we don’t have phones or internet you just have to wait until you run into that person again when you want to hang out with people. I’m sure we will come up with a system later once we find people we really want to hang out with but for now we just keep meeting more and more people.
We each get 125 minutes of internet for the whole voyage! There are certain educational sites we can use and our semester at sea emails unlimited but that is our only connection to the outside world. So if anyone would like to get a hold of me my new email is ejmadden@semesteratsea.net. I plan to post my blogs, check my other email, and send a few pictures at an internet café in the ports we go to. My email only lets me send and receive text so I would love to send pictures but I can’t and I can’t receive them either.
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