Friday.
wow, okay, I have a lot to catch up on, like 3 days worth of stuff!
okay, so. I'll start with Friday, that's where I left off, I believe.
So. I ended up sleeping really late, until Emily came back from her SaS trip. I didn't even set an alarm that day! we went to lunch really quick and then met up with Sam and Laura to go out into Barcelona. Our plan was to go see La Sagrada Familia and then find an internet cafe or somewhere with internet. We accomplished the first part of said plan, after walking down La Rambla for a while. We ended up walking all the way down to Catalunya square. In between we saw a bunch of street performers. I think I might have mentioned them before. They are like nothing I've ever seen before! The best ones are those that stay perfectly still until someone throws some change in their pail. There was one on this particular day though that was dressed up like Alien, the costume was perfecto. Sam got a picture with it and it groped her face, lol.
OKAY. there are these flag things on some of the poles in the city that advertise portable toilets, apparently there is a problem in Barcelona with people just peeing on the street. >.> also, the flag is pink. like breast cancer awareness pink. It had a little stick figure man on it too.
o
/|\
|..
/\ '.
that's the best rendition of the picture I can do with a keyboard. You get the idea.
Just off La Rambla is a really neat market called la boqueria. It's a fresh food market, it has everything. seriously, fresh meat, fish, fruit, bread.. all the smells mix in such a delicious way.. <.< the fruit is really good though, and you don't always get a whiff of the fish market area. When we were there I got a kiwi drink, pretty much a cup full of pureed kiwi. It was so good!
After that we walked all the way up to Catalunya square. I knew that La Sagrada Familia was down the road to the north, but not how far down, so we stopped and asked someone. Laura started in English, I followed up in Spanish. It feels SO FREAKING AWESOME to put my Spanish to good use. too bad we're not spending all our time in Spanish-speaking countries. But anyway, so the lady said that we'd better take the metro because it'd be about a half hour if we walked there.
The metro is pretty much the same everywhere. except maybe Japan, where they pack people tighter than sardines.
La Sagrada Familia is really impressive. on the outside. well, I guess it's impressive on the inside, but it's under construction still (due for completion in like 2026 or something) so we couldn't walk around freely, and there were barriers and ropes everywhere. what I'm saying is, if you get a chance to go over there, save the money and just stare at it from the outside. unless you happen to go in 2026 or thereabouts.
So after that, it was about 630 I guess, and I had said that I would try to meet up with some friends to go out for the Spain world cup game. Buuuut that didn't happen because it took longer to get back to the ship than I anticipated. so. tragedy. upsetting. also because we didn't actually get around to finding an internet cafe, and Emily had toted her laptop around all day and I cut our time short for what would be no reason. That wasn't such an awesome time.
So we ended up just eating on the 7th deck and hanging out on the ship for a while. uploaded the day's photos. Then Sam and I went out and walked around Barcelona until 2am. It was really nice, Barcelona at night is so interesting! There are all these guys just handing out fliers for parties and bars and clubs and all kinds of night life. It's crazy. Also, there are a surprising amount of older people out and about in Barcelona at midnight. I was definitely not used to that! We walked around and found the beach, it was all littered with garbage though. I don't know if it's usually like that or if it's just because of the partying from the holiday and the world cup.
We navigated our way back from the beach and walked down really cool architectural bridge called La Rambla del Mar. We stayed there on a bench for a while and chatted and talked to each other in Spanish ^-^
When we were walking back to the shuttle to get back to the boat we saw these two guys dragging this girl who could hardly walk. She was hammered. It was really sad, Sam and I decided that we were glad that we hadn't gone out and partied hard. Partying in a country isn't experiencing it. you can party anywhere. it's pretty much the same, as far as I can tell. But anyway one of the professors was there and he helped them out and hailed a cab for them. When we got back to the ship we saw that same girl struggling just to stay sitting in a chair, with puke on the floor next to her. Yeah, she chose a great to remember Barcelona.
On the ship Sam and I watched V for Vendetta and fell asleep. and so ends Friday!
Saturday.
Sam and I got up and went to find the train station to Figueres! We left at about 1030. Emily was on an SaS trip that was due back around 1230 or so, so we were going to get all the info so we'd know what was up. Saves time! so we successfully did all that, with minimal trouble with the lady at the counter at the train station. her spanish was too fast and her english was too mangled. It was a little difficult, but finally we figured it out.
So we took the two hour train ride from 3 to 5 to Figueres! This, my friends, is where the wonderful painter Salvador Dali is from! I adore him. There is a fantastic museum there that he even designed. Thus, the main point in going there was for said museum. But before I get into all that, I want to mention some things I saw in the train on the way there :)
firstly, there is some really cool graffiti in Spain! and it's generally in pretty controlled clusters, and not all on like, people's houses. just on the concrete barriers near the train where nobody really cares.
Generally the countryside looks like anywhere else. Until you come upon the little towns along the railroad track and they are all very old 4 story apartment buildings with terracotta roofs. so much cuter than Alabama's rural areas. Just sayin'. OH. also, there are a lot of hay bales. I'm mostly saying this for dad's benefit. :) I saw them and I thought of our story about wild bales of hay! I didn't see any though, they were all secure in their fences.
So anyway we got to Figueres (for 17 Euros, btw, round trip). Once we walked out of the train station I insisted on having a picture by the first fountain we saw (you're welcome, mom :P see how well I'm doing, taking pictures of myself in front of things?). It was a fountain with 3 fish sculptures spouting water out. nearby there were some people sitting on a bench, who were making pretty good use of the fountain. as a cooler. for their beer. it was just chilling in the water, ready for whenever they got thirsty. Emily, Sam and I were all pretty amused by it. lol
On another note, it smells different in Figueres. different than any place I've been.
So we walked to the museum and discovered that it had closed about 30 minutes before. ridiculous! we came all that way. So on the fly, we decided to stay the night! But you probably already know that since you're such an avid reader of my blog. But for those of you who somehow missed that entry, we got a room in a really nice hostel (19 Euros per person), with our own bathroom and a tv in the room and clean sheets and internet! 1 Euro for 30 minutes. way better than the deals we get on the ship.
We discovered this hostel via our waiter at the restaurant we decided to eat at, which was pretty good. we also had a glass of wine with dinner. Wine doesn't go very well with fries, btw. We had a little trouble ordering at first, because "red wine" is not, in fact, vino rojo. it is vino tinto. and I knew this (shout out to Alonso here, pretty sure I knew that because of him), but I had forgotten, so we all felt silly for a few minutes after that misunderstanding. clearly we do not have wine that frequently!
After dinner we had some gelato and walked down La Rambla, where there happened to be an art festival going on! It was called the "Glam Festival" and it was really great! there were a lot of really nice paintings and jewelry, and some hand crafted leather goods. expensive, or I would have gotten something. But the coolest part of this festival was that they had a runway that these people would walk down holding pieces of art, mostly paintings. and they were dressed like 16th/17th century masqueraders! they had big white wigs and their faces were painted up and the ladies had on big poofy dresses! I loved it. It was so fascinating. coolest thing ever. :D (I thought of Hannah and Jess as I was watching!)
After that we were pretty tired and we needed to get up at 9 to get in the Dali museum! So we went to our room and laid around and talked for a while and watched some Spanish tv! I found a music video channel and they were playing songs we knew! from like 2001. lol. and some more modern stuff, and some Spanish stuff. it was a pretty amusing mix.
So this hostel didn't have air conditioning, just an open window. which was fine, until I woke up in the middle of the night with an intense fear that someone could just climb up on the roof ledge and reach their hand in and steal my stuff that was on the table directly under the window. So I got up and moved my bag. :P It's funny, because later on I was telling someone that story and they said "or they could have just come in!" and I didn't even think about that. I was just worried that they would steal my bag, which had all my important stuff in it. I think it's because our debriefing made us paranoid about pickpockets. (ps, we managed to keep all our stuff, though apparently 60 or so of the students reported incidents by the end of our time in Barcelona).
Sunday.
It is really easy to get ready in the morning when you have nothing to change into. Since we stayed in Figueres on the fly, we wore the same clothes and didn't brush our teeth and felt totally gross. woo!
Dali museum: 8 Euros.
I can't even explain to you how amazing it was. His most famous painting (the persistence of memory) is at the MoMA in NYC, but I saw originals of so many things that I've seen in books! the first one I saw there that I was in love with before was his painting Tristan and Isolde. I almost cried. It was so amazing. I took a lot of pictures, and I had Sam take a picture of me with his painting of the portrait of Picasso! That museum was so interesting. I could have stayed there for longer, but we had a train to catch! I was really tempted to by a mug or something from the gift shop. Actually what I really wanted was a tshirt with Dali's spindly-legged elephants on it, but those were like 40 Euros D: So I just have my photos as souvenirs.
Also at the museum we randomly happened upon a couple other SaSers who had stayed the night on the fly, too. Richard and Rachel, I have since hung out with them and they are pretty cool kids :)
OH. on another note, in Figueres, there are far fewer people who speak English. I was thrilled :)
Anyway, on the way back to the train station we stopped and had some really delicious pastries.
I slept most of the way back on the train, the countryside was less interesting this time around.
When we got back into Barcelona we had a couple hours still so Emily and Sam bought some souvenirs and we went back to the candy shop to get our favorite items.
Then we went back to the ship and I went to a presentation by Doctors Without Borders and that was the end of that day, pretty much! On ship time was 6pm and we sailed out of Spain at 9. ONWARD TO ITALIA!
actually, that night I played a cool game with Richard and Rachel (that I can't remember the name of... something that starts with a C...), then played spoons with a bunch of people, then watched Dr Horrible with the same people, then hung out with Sami until like 4 in the morning. woo! :D
Monday.
Italy Day, a day of seminars that I didn't go to. well, I went to the ones at 11 and 8 that I was required to go to, but otherwise, I hung out and laid out in the sun, jumped in the pool for the first time (cold!), had dinner with my extended family, and just relaxed before the hectic time that will be Italy!
A couple things to address:
you may be wondering, "Hayden, when do you go to class? Do you go when you're in port? Do you have class just when you're sailing?" Well my friend, I do not have class in port. We did not have class for Italy Day. We won't have class for Turkey Day. But we did have class all the way across the Atlantic, seven full days of class, including Saturday and Sunday. When we get back on the ship from Naples and we spend a couple days sailing to Croatia, we will have class again. In fact, the day we get back on the ship, there is a midterm exam in Global Studies. right after the barbecue that we'll have for the 4th of the July. fantastic, right? and Uncle Rex complained about having to go to class for 3 days out of the week :P Though really when it's all said and done, we only have about 22 days of class for the whole two months we're gone. BALLIN!
Thanks to the people who have emailed me so far! I love it :) I don't get to check the comments on the blog very often at all, so if you have the time, an email would be lovely! ehsloan@semesteratsea.net
I hope you feel sufficiently caught up now on my doings, it took me a long time to type all this up!
if you read all this, holla!
if you laughed at my rendition of the peeing stick figure, holla!
love and hugs dears, I'm going to sleep.
Rome tomorrow!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Just a quick post!
I will catch you up on everything that has happened lately in the next day or two, I just wanted to inform the world that I am staying in a hostel tonight in Figueres! not to worry, it´s not sketch, and I´m with Sam and Emily. we´re having a lovely time, we´re going to go to the Dalì museum tomorrow, I´m pretty stoked. I <3 him!
so yeah, all the things that I know you all are just dying to hear about will be posted tomorrow. probably. love you!
so yeah, all the things that I know you all are just dying to hear about will be posted tomorrow. probably. love you!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Barcelona, before and after
Before.
I have used 30 minutes of internet time over the past 8 days. Impressive, right? you try it. :P
I got my film camera out yesterday for the first time since I've been on the ship. took some pictures of Spain and Morocco as we passed by them.
We get to Barcelona tomorrowwww!! my first event is Lyric Poetry in Modern Spain, where I believe a Spanish poet is going to come on the ship and talk to us about what s/he does. I'll let you know how it goes. My next plan is to walk around the city with Emily! We didn't get the city orientation tour for Barcelona, since we could probably get a map and explore just as easily. :P Then after a few hours of that I have another SaS event: Flamenco with Dinner! I'm pretty excited about that one. :))
Here on the ship we have a choral group! (that's singing, for those of you who don't have a grasp on the English language). It's called the Coral Sea. ^-^ GET IT?! and of course, I joined in. :D We have had practice for about 3 days, but we don't get to be together again until after Italy D: the songs we're singing are all sort of Irish-inspired, because the lady who is our director-person (yes, that's a technical term) is from Canada and these songs are from Newfoundland, where apparently the Irish settled? I didn't know, I don't know a whole lot about Canada in general. Which is kind of sad, really, when they're our next door neighbor. I wonder if schools in the north teach more about Canada like schools in the south seem to teach more about Mexico. or maybe it's just because I took a bunch of Spanish classes and I happen to live in the south. >.> At any rate, I've learned a more about Canada that I ever had before.
On a completely random note, it really annoys me when people mispronounce nuclear. just so you guys know.
We made it into the port at Barcelona!!
After
I got up at 7 this morning to take pictures as we were coming up to the dock. It was great, I got some pictures of the city and some cool landmarks like the statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) and of La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi (if you don't know what that is, google a picture of it, it's fantastic). I think I'm going to go see it up close and personal tomorrow. :D
OKAY SO. let me go ahead and try to tell you, in order, what all happened today. Primero: I took pictures, as I said, had breakfast, and went to our diplomatic briefing, where someone from the US embassy in Spain came and told us what was up. It was okay, relations with Spain are generally dandy, so he just talked for a long time about the embassy. which was okay, since I may want to work in an embassy one day myself, but I got a bit bored with it all after a while. So I started looking around at people and I noticed one chick who looked kind of like Hayden Panettiere, so I took a picture of her, and a few other people I noticed. :P
SO after that I went back to my cabin and watched part of Singin' in the Rain while I dozed off before my first SaS event: Lyric Poetry in Modern Spain. So at 11 I went up to the 6th deck to hear some nifty Spanish poetry. Three people came to visit us, all Spaniards. The first one to talk to us was a grad student studying Spanish poetry, Blanca, and she told us a little bit of the history and about some major influential poets for Spain. (she spoke Spanish, our Spanish prof, Pedro, translated. I felt awesome because I understood like 80% of everything she said. woo!) Then we listened to a modern Spanish poet, whose name I cannot remember. sorry. So he read a couple of his poems in spanish, and then our poetry prof read the english translations. they are beautiful, rich poems, I will try to remember to find out who he was so you can look him up if you feel so inclined. I think it's something like de duc musica? at any rate, his last name sounded like musica to me. Then we had a nice little Q&A session and then it was over! before I left I had a little mini-conversation half in Spanish and half in English with Blanca and Pedro. it was cool. Pedro said I had a good Spanish accent, and that I shouldn't get nervous when I talk, but I can't help it! I tend to feel intimidated around people who are native speakers and when I get flustered I don't speak nearly as well, which doesn't make me feel any better. It's a vicious circle.
OH WAIT. I need to rewind for a minute and talk about us coming into port. So of course they had to tie us to the dock, and those ropes are HUGE. so that was cool. I got this picture of a dude pulling it, and when I turn the image vertical, it looks like he's climbing up a wall or something. heheh. Oh, and they were, of course, Spanish guys who helped us get the gangway set up and such. So they were all yelling at each other in Spanish about what to do, and I just got all kinds of excited. :P I was standing at the ..aft. (had to think about it for a second) of the ship outside on the 6th deck along with a bunch of other people and there were about 4 little kids next to me who were being adorable and shouting hola! at these large men. and well, then everybody started doing it, including me :P the guys were really cool about it, they said hola and buenos dias to us and waved, it was great :)
So okay, where was I? RIGHT. poetry. well that ended and I went back to my cabin and fetched Emily and we went out and about in Barcelona! It felt like we walked a lot, but after looking on the map when we got back, there is still a lot of Barcelona that we left undiscovered. We got pictures of the statue of Cristobal Colon, and the cool lions that are at the foot of the statue. and yes mom, I did get a picture of me with the lion instead of just a picture of the lion itself. Then we walked a little ways up La Rambla, which is the main street of Barcelona in the city center and we went down some side streets and saw some cool things, some cool architecture, and some interesting people. There were neat street performers who were dressed up in various ways and would stand still, posed, until someone threw a coin in their bucket, and then they would burst into movement for like five seconds! we saw a couple get ladies get very startled by it when they threw their coins in, haha. A lot of the shops were closed because today was a Catalan holiday and everyone had a biiiiiig fiesta last night! There were streamers hanging on some lightposts still, I took pictures. Too bad we missed it!
So we walked down this one side street and got some gelato. NOM. and as we were walking down this road, we were glancing into shop windows and exploring and whatnot, and we happened upon these three old ladies staring into a shop window that was chock full of knives! both pocket knives and throwing knives! I really couldn't do anything but laugh.
Then these three dudes tried to hit on us, but we just walked away. you know, as politely as possible. they looked a little sketch.
Then we went to lunch in this open plaza full of different restaurants. and pigeons. We ate at an Italian one, Emily's choice. It was alright, I had some tomato bread though, which was pretty tasty. It's pretty much toast with tomato guts smeared on it like jam. don't knock it til you try it!
Oh! we found this candy shop! It's called Si o Si and we spent quite a few Euros there to stock up on snacks and candies for the voyage :P I didn't have a chance to do that in Halifax, so I was super excited to find some goodies!
After we got our candy, we walked around for a little while longer and saw some more cool things, and then went back to the ship for a quick siesta before I went out to see Flamenco! wait pause. actually, this was when I watched Singin' in the Rain. not in the morning. lo siento, I get my naptimes mixed up :P
At any rate, I very soon got up to get ready to leave. There were a LOT of students going to dinner and Flamenco. we filled 3 buses. On the way there, they took us through a mini-tour of the city for about 15 or 20 minutes, which was really neat, even though the lady telling us about everything was kind of annoying. I found a lot of places I'd like to go to again though.
So we got to La Palacia de Flamenco and sat down at these long long tables that were perpendicular to the stage. We got fed our first dish, Seafood Paella (if you pronounce those L's I will punch you. double L's in Spanish make a Y sound) which was delicious. Then our funny host got up and told us about what we were about to see and yada yada yada. he also did a couple tricks. he is good at handstands. and can play the guitar. ...not simultaneously. I got a picture with him later. He is creepy looking.
THEN came the Flamenco show! along with our second course, which was chicken with some mushrooms and bell peppers and zucchini on the side. So Flamenco involves someone dancing while another person sings, very emotionally, and not always on pitch, though someone said that tonight's performance was "prettied up" a bit from what it is in more informal places. Usually when I think of Flamenco I think of a woman dancing, but men also perform Flamenco. There were two men in this show, one was older and had hair like Lionel Richie. The other was younger, with bad facial hair, and must have poured a bottle of water over himself every time he went backstage because he always came out with his hair drenched! when he spun around you could see the water droplets just spraying off of him. reeeeally hoping he wasn't sweating that much. ew.
Otherwise the Flamenco show was really neat. Oh, you might want me to describe exactly what Flamenco is. I mean, I didn't know much about it until I saw the show, so how could I expect you to? Well, it seemed to me that Flamenco is very much like the Irish Celtic Thunder shows. I'm pretty sure they wear the same kind of shoes. Though of course, there are different costumes, the ladies in Spain have their classic Flamenco dresses with either wide skirts for awesome spinning moves or hefty trains, also for awesome spinning moves. There is generally a lot more spinning in Flamenco, I think. and also a lot more hand movement. Like in Hawaiian dances. Also, Flamenco apparently originated in the south of Spain by some Indians who had migrated there. I think that's what they said. >.> But I'm pretty sure that's correct because the undulation of the singers' voices reminded me a lot of some of the Hindi songs that I have. Or maybe it's just coincidence that I noticed that. SO. In short: Flamenco is like river dancing + hula hand movements + spinning + hindi singing. It's quite the experience.
Anyway after that I came back to the ship. Thought about going out on the town, but then I ended up just chilling in my cabin with Emily, Sam, Megan, and Sami. We had a good time just hanging out for a little while. and now I'm really tired, I think that covers all the important stuff for today.
until next time!
I have used 30 minutes of internet time over the past 8 days. Impressive, right? you try it. :P
I got my film camera out yesterday for the first time since I've been on the ship. took some pictures of Spain and Morocco as we passed by them.
We get to Barcelona tomorrowwww!! my first event is Lyric Poetry in Modern Spain, where I believe a Spanish poet is going to come on the ship and talk to us about what s/he does. I'll let you know how it goes. My next plan is to walk around the city with Emily! We didn't get the city orientation tour for Barcelona, since we could probably get a map and explore just as easily. :P Then after a few hours of that I have another SaS event: Flamenco with Dinner! I'm pretty excited about that one. :))
Here on the ship we have a choral group! (that's singing, for those of you who don't have a grasp on the English language). It's called the Coral Sea. ^-^ GET IT?! and of course, I joined in. :D We have had practice for about 3 days, but we don't get to be together again until after Italy D: the songs we're singing are all sort of Irish-inspired, because the lady who is our director-person (yes, that's a technical term) is from Canada and these songs are from Newfoundland, where apparently the Irish settled? I didn't know, I don't know a whole lot about Canada in general. Which is kind of sad, really, when they're our next door neighbor. I wonder if schools in the north teach more about Canada like schools in the south seem to teach more about Mexico. or maybe it's just because I took a bunch of Spanish classes and I happen to live in the south. >.> At any rate, I've learned a more about Canada that I ever had before.
On a completely random note, it really annoys me when people mispronounce nuclear. just so you guys know.
We made it into the port at Barcelona!!
After
I got up at 7 this morning to take pictures as we were coming up to the dock. It was great, I got some pictures of the city and some cool landmarks like the statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) and of La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi (if you don't know what that is, google a picture of it, it's fantastic). I think I'm going to go see it up close and personal tomorrow. :D
OKAY SO. let me go ahead and try to tell you, in order, what all happened today. Primero: I took pictures, as I said, had breakfast, and went to our diplomatic briefing, where someone from the US embassy in Spain came and told us what was up. It was okay, relations with Spain are generally dandy, so he just talked for a long time about the embassy. which was okay, since I may want to work in an embassy one day myself, but I got a bit bored with it all after a while. So I started looking around at people and I noticed one chick who looked kind of like Hayden Panettiere, so I took a picture of her, and a few other people I noticed. :P
SO after that I went back to my cabin and watched part of Singin' in the Rain while I dozed off before my first SaS event: Lyric Poetry in Modern Spain. So at 11 I went up to the 6th deck to hear some nifty Spanish poetry. Three people came to visit us, all Spaniards. The first one to talk to us was a grad student studying Spanish poetry, Blanca, and she told us a little bit of the history and about some major influential poets for Spain. (she spoke Spanish, our Spanish prof, Pedro, translated. I felt awesome because I understood like 80% of everything she said. woo!) Then we listened to a modern Spanish poet, whose name I cannot remember. sorry. So he read a couple of his poems in spanish, and then our poetry prof read the english translations. they are beautiful, rich poems, I will try to remember to find out who he was so you can look him up if you feel so inclined. I think it's something like de duc musica? at any rate, his last name sounded like musica to me. Then we had a nice little Q&A session and then it was over! before I left I had a little mini-conversation half in Spanish and half in English with Blanca and Pedro. it was cool. Pedro said I had a good Spanish accent, and that I shouldn't get nervous when I talk, but I can't help it! I tend to feel intimidated around people who are native speakers and when I get flustered I don't speak nearly as well, which doesn't make me feel any better. It's a vicious circle.
OH WAIT. I need to rewind for a minute and talk about us coming into port. So of course they had to tie us to the dock, and those ropes are HUGE. so that was cool. I got this picture of a dude pulling it, and when I turn the image vertical, it looks like he's climbing up a wall or something. heheh. Oh, and they were, of course, Spanish guys who helped us get the gangway set up and such. So they were all yelling at each other in Spanish about what to do, and I just got all kinds of excited. :P I was standing at the ..aft. (had to think about it for a second) of the ship outside on the 6th deck along with a bunch of other people and there were about 4 little kids next to me who were being adorable and shouting hola! at these large men. and well, then everybody started doing it, including me :P the guys were really cool about it, they said hola and buenos dias to us and waved, it was great :)
So okay, where was I? RIGHT. poetry. well that ended and I went back to my cabin and fetched Emily and we went out and about in Barcelona! It felt like we walked a lot, but after looking on the map when we got back, there is still a lot of Barcelona that we left undiscovered. We got pictures of the statue of Cristobal Colon, and the cool lions that are at the foot of the statue. and yes mom, I did get a picture of me with the lion instead of just a picture of the lion itself. Then we walked a little ways up La Rambla, which is the main street of Barcelona in the city center and we went down some side streets and saw some cool things, some cool architecture, and some interesting people. There were neat street performers who were dressed up in various ways and would stand still, posed, until someone threw a coin in their bucket, and then they would burst into movement for like five seconds! we saw a couple get ladies get very startled by it when they threw their coins in, haha. A lot of the shops were closed because today was a Catalan holiday and everyone had a biiiiiig fiesta last night! There were streamers hanging on some lightposts still, I took pictures. Too bad we missed it!
So we walked down this one side street and got some gelato. NOM. and as we were walking down this road, we were glancing into shop windows and exploring and whatnot, and we happened upon these three old ladies staring into a shop window that was chock full of knives! both pocket knives and throwing knives! I really couldn't do anything but laugh.
Then these three dudes tried to hit on us, but we just walked away. you know, as politely as possible. they looked a little sketch.
Then we went to lunch in this open plaza full of different restaurants. and pigeons. We ate at an Italian one, Emily's choice. It was alright, I had some tomato bread though, which was pretty tasty. It's pretty much toast with tomato guts smeared on it like jam. don't knock it til you try it!
Oh! we found this candy shop! It's called Si o Si and we spent quite a few Euros there to stock up on snacks and candies for the voyage :P I didn't have a chance to do that in Halifax, so I was super excited to find some goodies!
After we got our candy, we walked around for a little while longer and saw some more cool things, and then went back to the ship for a quick siesta before I went out to see Flamenco! wait pause. actually, this was when I watched Singin' in the Rain. not in the morning. lo siento, I get my naptimes mixed up :P
At any rate, I very soon got up to get ready to leave. There were a LOT of students going to dinner and Flamenco. we filled 3 buses. On the way there, they took us through a mini-tour of the city for about 15 or 20 minutes, which was really neat, even though the lady telling us about everything was kind of annoying. I found a lot of places I'd like to go to again though.
So we got to La Palacia de Flamenco and sat down at these long long tables that were perpendicular to the stage. We got fed our first dish, Seafood Paella (if you pronounce those L's I will punch you. double L's in Spanish make a Y sound) which was delicious. Then our funny host got up and told us about what we were about to see and yada yada yada. he also did a couple tricks. he is good at handstands. and can play the guitar. ...not simultaneously. I got a picture with him later. He is creepy looking.
THEN came the Flamenco show! along with our second course, which was chicken with some mushrooms and bell peppers and zucchini on the side. So Flamenco involves someone dancing while another person sings, very emotionally, and not always on pitch, though someone said that tonight's performance was "prettied up" a bit from what it is in more informal places. Usually when I think of Flamenco I think of a woman dancing, but men also perform Flamenco. There were two men in this show, one was older and had hair like Lionel Richie. The other was younger, with bad facial hair, and must have poured a bottle of water over himself every time he went backstage because he always came out with his hair drenched! when he spun around you could see the water droplets just spraying off of him. reeeeally hoping he wasn't sweating that much. ew.
Otherwise the Flamenco show was really neat. Oh, you might want me to describe exactly what Flamenco is. I mean, I didn't know much about it until I saw the show, so how could I expect you to? Well, it seemed to me that Flamenco is very much like the Irish Celtic Thunder shows. I'm pretty sure they wear the same kind of shoes. Though of course, there are different costumes, the ladies in Spain have their classic Flamenco dresses with either wide skirts for awesome spinning moves or hefty trains, also for awesome spinning moves. There is generally a lot more spinning in Flamenco, I think. and also a lot more hand movement. Like in Hawaiian dances. Also, Flamenco apparently originated in the south of Spain by some Indians who had migrated there. I think that's what they said. >.> But I'm pretty sure that's correct because the undulation of the singers' voices reminded me a lot of some of the Hindi songs that I have. Or maybe it's just coincidence that I noticed that. SO. In short: Flamenco is like river dancing + hula hand movements + spinning + hindi singing. It's quite the experience.
Anyway after that I came back to the ship. Thought about going out on the town, but then I ended up just chilling in my cabin with Emily, Sam, Megan, and Sami. We had a good time just hanging out for a little while. and now I'm really tired, I think that covers all the important stuff for today.
until next time!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Rockin' & Rollin' and Gibraltar
Rockin' & Rollin'
It feels like we've been on the ship for at least a month now. It's so weird. I'll talk about something and say "Oh yeah, the other day.." and then it's like, "oh wait, that was yesterday." Time is so different here. There is always something going on.
Today the seas got rougher. We've been rockin' and rollin' all day. Back to stumbling about like drunks. I actually like it more this way though :P It's more entertaining. and you always remember you're on a ship!
We're getting really close to Gibraltar. I think we get to see it tomorrow. I'm really excited.
I was in Clare's room today and I saw other ships out her window! They're the first ones I've seen. Really the first other things I've seen out here period. besides the island and those dolphins in the distance.
I doodled today in Energy & Society. I drew a really cute giraffe! and a really goofy looking monkey. But I've never really attempted to draw a monkey before, so I guess it's pretty okay. It's like a 4th grader drawing as opposed to a kindergarten drawing :P
I got annoyed at some people today. But then Emily, Sam, and I watched Dr Horrible and I feel awesome again.
I found someone who loves musicals like I do! Clare, actually. So I think we're going to watch a movie together some time :)
I am oh so sleepy.
Gibraltar
Hi everyone! this morning I woke up at about 430. again. but this time I couldn't go back to sleep! so after lying in bed for over an hour tossing and turning, I decided to grab my computer, book, and headphones and go on up to the library. so I sat at a nice little window and stared at the ocean and saw the sun come up and read a little and watched Anastasia. So it wasn't a completely wasted morning, I suppose. then I went to breakfast. and by the time breakfast was over I felt incredibly tired! So I went to take a nap before global studies, but then I ended up sleeping until "the voice" woke me up at noon (I'll tell you about the voice shortly :P). but my roommate was right there with me! so we had lunch and heard that we'd be coming upon the Strait of Gibraltar very soon!
So I piddled around for a while and wrote out my itinerary that I have so far for the countries. Then it was time for Politics, woo! We had a group present on the essentials of Spain and then it was time to go up on the 7th deck and see Spain on the left and Morocco to the right! it was the beginning and ending of our adventure right there on either side of us! I took a lot of pictures :) It was SO windy on deck! I was afraid my camera was going to be swept out of my hands! even with it being so huge! my hair was whipping around everywhere and it got tangled from root to tip and I haven't even attempted brushing it out yet.
OH! while we were passing by Africa and Spain, we saw some whales!! well, their blowholes anyway. It was pretty cool, I got some pictures :) I keep trying to get really awesome photos of sea creatures and I am just not being very successful at it! D: but I have two months to try some more, so maybe I'll end up with at least one ballin-tastic one.
So since we were passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, my wonderful professor Mike Maniates cancelled our Energy and Society class! woo! so I went to all of half a class session today, haha. But yeah, we were all filing into class after having been up on the seventh deck for the past hour or so and Maniates comes over and is like "what are you doing?! get outta here! We'll make up class time some other evening or something!" so, you know, we're all in love with him now, he's like, the best teacher evar. :P
OKAY SO. I'll take a minute to talk about "the voice". we have shipwide announcement a few times a day and "the voice" is the person who always gives us those announcements. He's pretty hilarious, his delivery is kind of dry and sarcastic and sometimes he says things that are completely false. For instance: he's told us that there is a bear on the 6th deck! lol. beware. He is actually our assistant academic dean, I think. which makes his comments even more entertaining. He also says things like "what I'm about to say is really important, so.. if there are people talking around you.. feel free to, uh, kick them in the shins.." He does "question of the day" too, which are dumb things he (or someone else) overhears people asking, like "When we're in Italy and we want Italian food, do we just ask for food?" or "Will we go across the Atlantic on the way home, too?"
So we have extended families on the ship. Basically all the faculty and life-long learners and such get a group of four or so students to get to know and be well, like a family to them. So we had sign ups a couple days ago and we had our first extended family meeting last night. My "parents" for the ship are Prof Jost (rhymes with host, can't remember his first name at the moment. Walter, maybe?) and his wife, Marcella. They're pretty interesting people, we had dinner together with the three other girls who are in our family: Tammy, Vanessa, and Leah. It's another cool way to get to know people. I had never met those girls before, so we were all new to each other. We're planning on meeting again on the day between Spain and Italy, which is "Italy Day" where we'll have a bunch of seminars and whatnot on all things Italian. aaaand we won't have class! We have "days" for almost all the countries and everytime they say "Turkey Day" all I can think of is Thanksgiving. :P
On the ship we have laundry service. we just put our bag of clothes outside the door on the assigned day, and the next day we get it back all clean and folded and everything! This whole cabin service thing is easy to get used to :P
well that's about all for now, I'll post again in a day or two!
It feels like we've been on the ship for at least a month now. It's so weird. I'll talk about something and say "Oh yeah, the other day.." and then it's like, "oh wait, that was yesterday." Time is so different here. There is always something going on.
Today the seas got rougher. We've been rockin' and rollin' all day. Back to stumbling about like drunks. I actually like it more this way though :P It's more entertaining. and you always remember you're on a ship!
We're getting really close to Gibraltar. I think we get to see it tomorrow. I'm really excited.
I was in Clare's room today and I saw other ships out her window! They're the first ones I've seen. Really the first other things I've seen out here period. besides the island and those dolphins in the distance.
I doodled today in Energy & Society. I drew a really cute giraffe! and a really goofy looking monkey. But I've never really attempted to draw a monkey before, so I guess it's pretty okay. It's like a 4th grader drawing as opposed to a kindergarten drawing :P
I got annoyed at some people today. But then Emily, Sam, and I watched Dr Horrible and I feel awesome again.
I found someone who loves musicals like I do! Clare, actually. So I think we're going to watch a movie together some time :)
I am oh so sleepy.
Gibraltar
Hi everyone! this morning I woke up at about 430. again. but this time I couldn't go back to sleep! so after lying in bed for over an hour tossing and turning, I decided to grab my computer, book, and headphones and go on up to the library. so I sat at a nice little window and stared at the ocean and saw the sun come up and read a little and watched Anastasia. So it wasn't a completely wasted morning, I suppose. then I went to breakfast. and by the time breakfast was over I felt incredibly tired! So I went to take a nap before global studies, but then I ended up sleeping until "the voice" woke me up at noon (I'll tell you about the voice shortly :P). but my roommate was right there with me! so we had lunch and heard that we'd be coming upon the Strait of Gibraltar very soon!
So I piddled around for a while and wrote out my itinerary that I have so far for the countries. Then it was time for Politics, woo! We had a group present on the essentials of Spain and then it was time to go up on the 7th deck and see Spain on the left and Morocco to the right! it was the beginning and ending of our adventure right there on either side of us! I took a lot of pictures :) It was SO windy on deck! I was afraid my camera was going to be swept out of my hands! even with it being so huge! my hair was whipping around everywhere and it got tangled from root to tip and I haven't even attempted brushing it out yet.
OH! while we were passing by Africa and Spain, we saw some whales!! well, their blowholes anyway. It was pretty cool, I got some pictures :) I keep trying to get really awesome photos of sea creatures and I am just not being very successful at it! D: but I have two months to try some more, so maybe I'll end up with at least one ballin-tastic one.
So since we were passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, my wonderful professor Mike Maniates cancelled our Energy and Society class! woo! so I went to all of half a class session today, haha. But yeah, we were all filing into class after having been up on the seventh deck for the past hour or so and Maniates comes over and is like "what are you doing?! get outta here! We'll make up class time some other evening or something!" so, you know, we're all in love with him now, he's like, the best teacher evar. :P
OKAY SO. I'll take a minute to talk about "the voice". we have shipwide announcement a few times a day and "the voice" is the person who always gives us those announcements. He's pretty hilarious, his delivery is kind of dry and sarcastic and sometimes he says things that are completely false. For instance: he's told us that there is a bear on the 6th deck! lol. beware. He is actually our assistant academic dean, I think. which makes his comments even more entertaining. He also says things like "what I'm about to say is really important, so.. if there are people talking around you.. feel free to, uh, kick them in the shins.." He does "question of the day" too, which are dumb things he (or someone else) overhears people asking, like "When we're in Italy and we want Italian food, do we just ask for food?" or "Will we go across the Atlantic on the way home, too?"
So we have extended families on the ship. Basically all the faculty and life-long learners and such get a group of four or so students to get to know and be well, like a family to them. So we had sign ups a couple days ago and we had our first extended family meeting last night. My "parents" for the ship are Prof Jost (rhymes with host, can't remember his first name at the moment. Walter, maybe?) and his wife, Marcella. They're pretty interesting people, we had dinner together with the three other girls who are in our family: Tammy, Vanessa, and Leah. It's another cool way to get to know people. I had never met those girls before, so we were all new to each other. We're planning on meeting again on the day between Spain and Italy, which is "Italy Day" where we'll have a bunch of seminars and whatnot on all things Italian. aaaand we won't have class! We have "days" for almost all the countries and everytime they say "Turkey Day" all I can think of is Thanksgiving. :P
On the ship we have laundry service. we just put our bag of clothes outside the door on the assigned day, and the next day we get it back all clean and folded and everything! This whole cabin service thing is easy to get used to :P
well that's about all for now, I'll post again in a day or two!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sea life and C4
Sea life
Today has been a good day. :) Last night I was kind of blah, but today is nice. Looking out the window during class.. the water is so blue. Like, cerulean blue. find a crayon box and look at that colour, that's what colour the water is. :P looking at it makes me want to jump in and go swimming.
This morning Emily and I accidentally slept through global studies. it's just so hard to get up in the morning when we've been losing an hour every night! D: But I think pretty much everyone is determined to not take a nap today, it's been the thing everyone does because we've all be so tired! But now we have class and about a billion things to read.
I am trying to plan how I'm going to spend my time whe nI'm not on SaS field trips, and that's proving to be complicated without the internet at my fingertips! I don't know how people did things without technology :P it's so convenient, it's ridiculous. I'm finding that I enjoy doing things (for lack of a better term) the "old fashioned way", if you will. Looking through actual travel books like Lonely Planet guides and such is a different experience than browsing the web.
In Spain I think I am going to try to go to Figueres, which is the city in which the amazing Salvador Dali was born! There's a huge museum dedicated to him and many more Dali-esque things, which I would really like to see! Also it's convenient because it's relatively close to Barcelona. It's very unlikely that I would be able to make it to Bilbao for the Guggenheim museum or to Sevilla because they are pretty far away from Barcelona. So, those will have to be next time I travel the globe :P
Speaking of which, it's also looking like Venice will have to wait until the next time I travel the globe. :( It's a distance/time issue though that I just can't get around. Fortunately, there are other cool things to do in Italy that are much closer to Civitavecchia and Naples. Like Capri, which I've heard is a must-see.
I have been looking for sea creatures at every opportunity I can, but I haven't seen any yet. Apparently people have seen some whales, but I never hear about it until the next day! very sad.
It's very cold at sea, btw. well, not verrrry, but it's colder than I would have imagined. I have to wear my zip up sweater pretty much all the time. they keep it like 68 inside the ship. out on deck is generally comfortable, room temperature-ish, unless you're sitting in the wind. then you need pants and a jacket and maybe a blanket, too, depending on the day!
Shout out to Mr Andrew Hutto for sending me an email about what's going on stateside! thanks ^-^
Also if anyone (AHEM HANNAH) has any stories about America's Got Talent, I'd love to know what's going on.
I have a quote from my Energy and Society book that I'd like to share with you. It's from Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman. page 5, from the chapter "Where Birds Don't Fly". He says "...a place where birds don't fly is a place whre people don't mix, ideas don't get sparked, friendships don't get forged, stereotypes don't get broken, collaboration doesn't happen, trust doesn't get built, and freedom doesn't ring."
The place where birds don't fly is actually referencing the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. It's so secure, with a huge wall around it, no one really wants to go there. it's like a prison instead of a consulate, and it was said of it that "they don't let birds fly there" because how intense they are about security. Basically it, and another story in the book, illustrate how the US has become so concerned with security and fighting terrorism, that we have forgotten how to be a happy member of the international community. Because the Consulate, before it was moved and made into a fortress, was apparently a place where people went to learn in the library and mingle with diplomats. Now no one wants to go there. This chapter really points out how the US (and therefore the international view of the US) has changed, especially since 9/11. Friedman says we have become simply "The United States of Fighting Terrorism" and nothing else, instead of the innovative, leading country that we used to be known as.
Things to think about. agree? disagree? email me.
In other news, we are officially in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We have a little map on our tvs that is linked to the GPS of the ship, and we are smack dab in the middle. We saw some dolphins during dinner today! well, before you get too excited, they were really far away. so we didn't so much see them as their splashing about. because they're visible as little clusters of what looks like white cresting waves because of their jumping. so that's what we saw. and some birds, too. No idea what they're doing out in the middle of the Atlantic. getting eaten, probably.
Guess what! we don't have to change our clocks tonight! Praise Jehovah. But, apparently we're going to be passing by some islands belonging to Portugal at like 6 in the morning, so I GUESSSSS I'm going to have to get up and take pictures of that. :P
Tonight we had a nifty clown performance! I took pictures. And we also had a dance shortly thereafter, which was pretty okay. whoever was picking songs though was not the best at it.
So that's about all! nighty night.
c4
We don't go by dates here, we go by class days. and today is class day four: C4. I have to look at my phone if I want to even know what day it is! and today is Sunday, Father's day! shout out to daddy!
So I didn't get up at 6 this morning to see the islands we were passing (big surprise, I know), but it turned out we could still see them at 8 when we went to breakfast! so I didn't really miss anything :P except the sunrise, I guess. But I'll have plenty of opportunities for that.
For anyone who knows them, there are a few doppelgangers here. There's a guy who looks a lot like Grappler. There's also a guy who looks so much like Jonathan Williams that it startles me every time I see him, except this guy is a little more asian looking. There's also a guy who reminds me of Trevvor! Sorry gals, not seeing many doppelgangers of you.
Man, we have to advance our clocks an hour again tonight. I was so excited to not have to do it yesterday and now they've sprung it on us again. >:(
I saw dolphins today!!!! they briefly came up next to the ship and I ran over to the edge of the deck to try to get a picture, and I did! they're kind of far away, but I got them right when they were leaping out of the water! :D disclaimer: it's kind of blurry because I didn't have a whole lot of time to adjust my settings. :( but I'll get some better ones, I hope!
It's so weird waiting on people to email me. Everyone in Alabama is like six hours behind me, so I keep having to tell myself, it's okay Hayden, no one over there has even gotten off work yet! Time change is weird stuff, I tell ya.
Shout out to Miss Alisha Grant and Selena for my cute gifts they gave me before I left! That adorable little fishy notebook thing has come in super handy for leaving people notes on their doors! and they always know who it's from because I'm the only one who's awesome enough to have those! :D
I sat outside today around lunch time, it was so warm and nice and the sunshine was so pretty! I got a little pink on my shoulders. Just preparing for Barcelona, haha.
OH! in other news, I think I've found a way to go to Venice, and possibly Verona? With some luck, I'll be able to make it happen. *Victory dance!*
Today everyone in our sea put on orange facepaint like football players. I think I discovered more people who are in my sea today than I ever had before, haha.
Tomorrow is laundry day. which makes me think of Dr Horrible.
Speaking of movies I brought on the ship, :P I'm getting to share all my good kiddie movies with the kiddies onboard! an email went out to us students to ask about kid's movies and I was like "yes! I have a bunch!" because, as you all know, I'm a six year old at heart. So now they'll be playing on the ship's movie circuit so I'll even get to watch them on my cabin tv, heheh >:)
In my reading for Global Studies, there is a general named Fabius Cunctator. What a laugh!
We had our first map test today. I aced it, of course. I also got some extra credit points in my Politics class. yay me! It's because I actually did the reading. I don't think I have ever done so much reading for 3 classes. I guess it's because, in reality, there are only 22 days of class on this entire voyage. BALLIN'
anyway I'm exhausted, I'm sorry if I forgot anything.
love and kisses
Today has been a good day. :) Last night I was kind of blah, but today is nice. Looking out the window during class.. the water is so blue. Like, cerulean blue. find a crayon box and look at that colour, that's what colour the water is. :P looking at it makes me want to jump in and go swimming.
This morning Emily and I accidentally slept through global studies. it's just so hard to get up in the morning when we've been losing an hour every night! D: But I think pretty much everyone is determined to not take a nap today, it's been the thing everyone does because we've all be so tired! But now we have class and about a billion things to read.
I am trying to plan how I'm going to spend my time whe nI'm not on SaS field trips, and that's proving to be complicated without the internet at my fingertips! I don't know how people did things without technology :P it's so convenient, it's ridiculous. I'm finding that I enjoy doing things (for lack of a better term) the "old fashioned way", if you will. Looking through actual travel books like Lonely Planet guides and such is a different experience than browsing the web.
In Spain I think I am going to try to go to Figueres, which is the city in which the amazing Salvador Dali was born! There's a huge museum dedicated to him and many more Dali-esque things, which I would really like to see! Also it's convenient because it's relatively close to Barcelona. It's very unlikely that I would be able to make it to Bilbao for the Guggenheim museum or to Sevilla because they are pretty far away from Barcelona. So, those will have to be next time I travel the globe :P
Speaking of which, it's also looking like Venice will have to wait until the next time I travel the globe. :( It's a distance/time issue though that I just can't get around. Fortunately, there are other cool things to do in Italy that are much closer to Civitavecchia and Naples. Like Capri, which I've heard is a must-see.
I have been looking for sea creatures at every opportunity I can, but I haven't seen any yet. Apparently people have seen some whales, but I never hear about it until the next day! very sad.
It's very cold at sea, btw. well, not verrrry, but it's colder than I would have imagined. I have to wear my zip up sweater pretty much all the time. they keep it like 68 inside the ship. out on deck is generally comfortable, room temperature-ish, unless you're sitting in the wind. then you need pants and a jacket and maybe a blanket, too, depending on the day!
Shout out to Mr Andrew Hutto for sending me an email about what's going on stateside! thanks ^-^
Also if anyone (AHEM HANNAH) has any stories about America's Got Talent, I'd love to know what's going on.
I have a quote from my Energy and Society book that I'd like to share with you. It's from Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman. page 5, from the chapter "Where Birds Don't Fly". He says "...a place where birds don't fly is a place whre people don't mix, ideas don't get sparked, friendships don't get forged, stereotypes don't get broken, collaboration doesn't happen, trust doesn't get built, and freedom doesn't ring."
The place where birds don't fly is actually referencing the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. It's so secure, with a huge wall around it, no one really wants to go there. it's like a prison instead of a consulate, and it was said of it that "they don't let birds fly there" because how intense they are about security. Basically it, and another story in the book, illustrate how the US has become so concerned with security and fighting terrorism, that we have forgotten how to be a happy member of the international community. Because the Consulate, before it was moved and made into a fortress, was apparently a place where people went to learn in the library and mingle with diplomats. Now no one wants to go there. This chapter really points out how the US (and therefore the international view of the US) has changed, especially since 9/11. Friedman says we have become simply "The United States of Fighting Terrorism" and nothing else, instead of the innovative, leading country that we used to be known as.
Things to think about. agree? disagree? email me.
In other news, we are officially in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We have a little map on our tvs that is linked to the GPS of the ship, and we are smack dab in the middle. We saw some dolphins during dinner today! well, before you get too excited, they were really far away. so we didn't so much see them as their splashing about. because they're visible as little clusters of what looks like white cresting waves because of their jumping. so that's what we saw. and some birds, too. No idea what they're doing out in the middle of the Atlantic. getting eaten, probably.
Guess what! we don't have to change our clocks tonight! Praise Jehovah. But, apparently we're going to be passing by some islands belonging to Portugal at like 6 in the morning, so I GUESSSSS I'm going to have to get up and take pictures of that. :P
Tonight we had a nifty clown performance! I took pictures. And we also had a dance shortly thereafter, which was pretty okay. whoever was picking songs though was not the best at it.
So that's about all! nighty night.
c4
We don't go by dates here, we go by class days. and today is class day four: C4. I have to look at my phone if I want to even know what day it is! and today is Sunday, Father's day! shout out to daddy!
So I didn't get up at 6 this morning to see the islands we were passing (big surprise, I know), but it turned out we could still see them at 8 when we went to breakfast! so I didn't really miss anything :P except the sunrise, I guess. But I'll have plenty of opportunities for that.
For anyone who knows them, there are a few doppelgangers here. There's a guy who looks a lot like Grappler. There's also a guy who looks so much like Jonathan Williams that it startles me every time I see him, except this guy is a little more asian looking. There's also a guy who reminds me of Trevvor! Sorry gals, not seeing many doppelgangers of you.
Man, we have to advance our clocks an hour again tonight. I was so excited to not have to do it yesterday and now they've sprung it on us again. >:(
I saw dolphins today!!!! they briefly came up next to the ship and I ran over to the edge of the deck to try to get a picture, and I did! they're kind of far away, but I got them right when they were leaping out of the water! :D disclaimer: it's kind of blurry because I didn't have a whole lot of time to adjust my settings. :( but I'll get some better ones, I hope!
It's so weird waiting on people to email me. Everyone in Alabama is like six hours behind me, so I keep having to tell myself, it's okay Hayden, no one over there has even gotten off work yet! Time change is weird stuff, I tell ya.
Shout out to Miss Alisha Grant and Selena for my cute gifts they gave me before I left! That adorable little fishy notebook thing has come in super handy for leaving people notes on their doors! and they always know who it's from because I'm the only one who's awesome enough to have those! :D
I sat outside today around lunch time, it was so warm and nice and the sunshine was so pretty! I got a little pink on my shoulders. Just preparing for Barcelona, haha.
OH! in other news, I think I've found a way to go to Venice, and possibly Verona? With some luck, I'll be able to make it happen. *Victory dance!*
Today everyone in our sea put on orange facepaint like football players. I think I discovered more people who are in my sea today than I ever had before, haha.
Tomorrow is laundry day. which makes me think of Dr Horrible.
Speaking of movies I brought on the ship, :P I'm getting to share all my good kiddie movies with the kiddies onboard! an email went out to us students to ask about kid's movies and I was like "yes! I have a bunch!" because, as you all know, I'm a six year old at heart. So now they'll be playing on the ship's movie circuit so I'll even get to watch them on my cabin tv, heheh >:)
In my reading for Global Studies, there is a general named Fabius Cunctator. What a laugh!
We had our first map test today. I aced it, of course. I also got some extra credit points in my Politics class. yay me! It's because I actually did the reading. I don't think I have ever done so much reading for 3 classes. I guess it's because, in reality, there are only 22 days of class on this entire voyage. BALLIN'
anyway I'm exhausted, I'm sorry if I forgot anything.
love and kisses
Friday, June 18, 2010
It's a slow day
Hello, world. Today has been relatively slow. Getting back into the swing of classes again. There is so much to read for every class. I'm drowning in it! But at least the majority of it is interesting, particularly Hot, Flat and Crowded. I think you should read it. I've only gotten through about the first two and a half chapters so far, but I am really enjoying it.
I feel like I am tired all the time. the rocking of the boat kind of puts me to sleep, and we have been losing an hour every night. every night we have to set our clocks an hour forward. This is why I keep going to straight to my cabin for naptime after Global Studies. even though I try to read stuff, it just doesn't happen.
I've signed up for a few more SaS trips, so when I'm in port I'll definitely have plenty to do. Though I do have a few days open for independent travel/exploring. I think I might take a train to another city while we're in Barcelona, but I haven't decided where to yet. Also I want to do something in Italy, I really really want to go to Venice, but that's so far north from Rome, I don't know if I'll be able to.. especially if I can't find someone to go with me. So I might end up doing something else, though I have no earthly idea what that might be.
I've been getting emails in from all the activities I signed up for. :) There is a meeting tomorrow night for us to plan our Mediterranean Sea olympics, and there is also mass going on tomorrow night and I would like to try to make that. There was a big game night tonight in the Garden lounge - one of the dining rooms on deck 6. I taught some people how to play Nertz, but they were kind of blah about it and I got sad because that game is super awesome! they played it once and didn't even give it another chance :(
oh, I went to the on-ship campus store today and bought a really pretty SaS t-shirt, and also an orange bandana so I can be all spirity for our Sea, because our colour is orange. Either tomorrow or the next day we are all going to put some orange facepaint on and represent! I'm kind of excited, whatwhat! I also bought a water bottle thing that is by camel-pak and is reusable and all that jazz. and it's also orange, go me! I got a post card too, just because I felt like it would be a pretty good souveneir. Don't worry though, I will send you guys postcards from the countries I visit. :)
I'm in a mood tonight. It's like I want to be social, but I want people to come to me instead of me going to them. I'm being high-maintenance social, lol. So instead of being out there I'm just chilling in my cabin writing this blog and will probably be reading important things soon.
I have checked my email at least ten times today. MOM! HANNAH! DAD! WHOEVER! Email me about your activities too. I miss the contact. I keep waiting for you guys to email me back, and I have to wait even longer when I wake up in the morning because it's like 3am your time, and you're definitely not emailing me then!
Let's see, what else? I feel like as the days go on my posts are going to become shorter and shorter because my time will just be spent in class all the time. And what is there to say about that stuff, really? I guess I could give you some interesting quotes or something, would you like that?
I'm meeting and recognizing more people now, it's always nice to be waved while walking down the hallways. :)
I can't think of much else I did today, sorry! it was a slow day. I promise to be more interesting tomorrow :P
I feel like I am tired all the time. the rocking of the boat kind of puts me to sleep, and we have been losing an hour every night. every night we have to set our clocks an hour forward. This is why I keep going to straight to my cabin for naptime after Global Studies. even though I try to read stuff, it just doesn't happen.
I've signed up for a few more SaS trips, so when I'm in port I'll definitely have plenty to do. Though I do have a few days open for independent travel/exploring. I think I might take a train to another city while we're in Barcelona, but I haven't decided where to yet. Also I want to do something in Italy, I really really want to go to Venice, but that's so far north from Rome, I don't know if I'll be able to.. especially if I can't find someone to go with me. So I might end up doing something else, though I have no earthly idea what that might be.
I've been getting emails in from all the activities I signed up for. :) There is a meeting tomorrow night for us to plan our Mediterranean Sea olympics, and there is also mass going on tomorrow night and I would like to try to make that. There was a big game night tonight in the Garden lounge - one of the dining rooms on deck 6. I taught some people how to play Nertz, but they were kind of blah about it and I got sad because that game is super awesome! they played it once and didn't even give it another chance :(
oh, I went to the on-ship campus store today and bought a really pretty SaS t-shirt, and also an orange bandana so I can be all spirity for our Sea, because our colour is orange. Either tomorrow or the next day we are all going to put some orange facepaint on and represent! I'm kind of excited, whatwhat! I also bought a water bottle thing that is by camel-pak and is reusable and all that jazz. and it's also orange, go me! I got a post card too, just because I felt like it would be a pretty good souveneir. Don't worry though, I will send you guys postcards from the countries I visit. :)
I'm in a mood tonight. It's like I want to be social, but I want people to come to me instead of me going to them. I'm being high-maintenance social, lol. So instead of being out there I'm just chilling in my cabin writing this blog and will probably be reading important things soon.
I have checked my email at least ten times today. MOM! HANNAH! DAD! WHOEVER! Email me about your activities too. I miss the contact. I keep waiting for you guys to email me back, and I have to wait even longer when I wake up in the morning because it's like 3am your time, and you're definitely not emailing me then!
Let's see, what else? I feel like as the days go on my posts are going to become shorter and shorter because my time will just be spent in class all the time. And what is there to say about that stuff, really? I guess I could give you some interesting quotes or something, would you like that?
I'm meeting and recognizing more people now, it's always nice to be waved while walking down the hallways. :)
I can't think of much else I did today, sorry! it was a slow day. I promise to be more interesting tomorrow :P
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Orientation Day and First day of classes
This is yesterday's and today's post all in one. I'll probably start posting every other day, so they'll probably be long entries!
Orientation Day!
Today has been pretty much full of lectures. We had to get up, first of all between 7 and 830 because that's what time breakfast is served, and then we had to be at the Union at 9 for three long hours of lectures about safety and procedures and conduct and all the necessary things that go along with being at a college orientation. BORING. Except for the intro to our global studies class. Our professor is pretty entertaining.
I'm going to take a moment to talk about my breakfast. I was going to go to breakfast with Samantha, she called my cabin this morning, but apparently the room phones are a little faulty? we couldn't hear each other. But I went to breakfast anyway and figured well, if I run into her cool, if not, oh well! So I got some funny textured eggs and some fruit and some OJ and I sat with a girl named Iliya, she was really nice :) and then a life-long learner (henceforth LLL) joined us at the table! Her name is Pam, and she was really interesting! I learned that the LLL's don't actually have to go to orientation or take classes or whatever, they just audit them if they want to. And Pam wants to take intro to Spanish! she was pretty happy to be like, lounging at sea. haha. LLL. that's gonna be me. :P
SO anyway. lectures. blah blah blah.
Then we had lunch, except for Emily (my roommate) and I didn't even go to lunch, we were so worn out just from sitting through those lectures that we just went straight to our cabin and napped until the next round of lectures! which was at 130, and we woke up at about 122, haha. but luckily right after that a ship-wide announcement went off, so we would have made it anyway.
So yeah that next two or three hours of lectures was much more interesting. We had Grandma the Clown come out and dance to Britney Spears for us. lol. So that was like the introduction to the future talent show we're going to have (exciting!). the crew is apparently going to do some performances for us too.
Then we talked more about safety and alcohol use and watched this video called Haze, where they talked about this poor guy who pretty much got hazed to death. died of alcohol poisoning in some frat house in Colorado because he was a pledge, and the frat dudes had given the pledges X amount of alcohol and told them they had to finish it all or they couldn't leave or something. It was really sad, and really stupid that they did that. :( So yeah, that was to tell us to not overdo it and to also watch out for each other. Because that guy died because all the dudes did was tell him how messed up he was and put him on a couch in another room when he was just about passed out. and they drew all over him. instead of calling 911.
on a lighter note, I met my teachers, and I also met the Spanish teacher whose class I am hoping to get into! His name is Pedro. and he's pretty white lookin'. he sort of reminds me of a scrawnier version of Carey Elwes. but has some accent that I can't quite place. I didn't get a chance to ask him where he's from..
So after the teacher meet and greet thing it was almost time for dinner, and by then I was starving! So I had dinner tonight with Emily, Samantha, Sarah, and Laura. we had a good time talking about tv shows and movies and random things that are different between Canada and the US because Laura is actually Canadian :D
Then I went down to the next deck and ran into Brittany, so we chatted for a while until the Involvement Seminar, which was blessedly short and we actually got to get up and walk around to different rooms and sign up for things. :D So I signed up to be on the Sea Olympics Committee, which I talked a bit about in my last blog. I also signed up for intramural volleyball and dodgeball (AWESOME). Then I went to check out what kind of religious/spiritual stuff is going down, and I signed up for sunrise meditation, bible study, interfaith discussion group, and catholic mass! because apparently we have a retired priest or something on the ship and he volunteered to hold a mass for those interested. I think it'll be interesting, I've never been to a mass before. I really want to go to one in Spain or Italy. That would be fantastic. Then I went over to intercultural stuff and signed up for a discussion on that, and also a movie night! AND! I went to another table and signed up for choir :D cause, well, I love to sing. :P ALSO I signed up to be a global ambassador for Semester at Sea, which means I get to tell people at my school all about it and recruit them!
And this is the most exciting bit: the media center people are looking for photographers/videographers/writers to contribute stuff which will end up on the SaS website! and also a cool student-pics slideshow! So I signed up for that, and then I was talking to the photographer, Kris (she is the only one for the whole ship, no wonder she wants contributers!), and I showed her a couple of my pictures that I had taken today on my camera and just talked with her a while and she liked my style and my enthusiasm so much that she said to come to the media lab some time and hang out and talk and help her out! I think we liked each other right away, she said we'd have a lot to talk about! She said that I could come help make the powerpoint and pick out the photos and be her photo editor!!!! PHOTO EDITOR!! CAN YOU TELL HOW EXCITED I AM?!?! She told me that she was looking for someone for that, that a lot of people had come up who were interested in photography a little bit, but I'm the first who came up really excited about it all! She said that especially after we leave Barcelona she will need help because there will be a flood of student submissions that will need to be gone through and then put up on the website before we get to the next country. AND I GET TO BE THE PERSON TO HELP HER! :D She is also a photography teacher at .. I can't remember where, but it's legit, and she could write me letters of recommendation and stuff! :D yay connections! So this opportunity has renewed my enthusiasm for taking pictures and capturing moments and I am SO THRILLED to be part of this!
So yeah. exciting :)
Then we had another sea meeting and I signed up to be part of our Olympics, of course.
and that's the end of today! bedtime.
First day of classes!
So the sea woke us up at about 630 this morning by rocking our ship and throwing some of our things across the room very noisily. I suppose it just wanted to make sure none of us missed breakfast or classes.. It was cool, kind of funny, and a little bit scary! But then we just went back to sleep for an hour and got up for breakfast. After breakfast was our first Global Studies class, and we had already had our intro, as I'd said before, so this was legit class. I took my laptop to class and took notes on it. I did pretty well, I've never done notes on my computer before. But here we don't have the distraction of internet because it would take our time and megabytes, and I thought maybe handwriting would be a little more difficult on a rocking ship :P though really the rocking isn't so bad.
After Global Studies I decided to go ahead and attend the first meeting of the Spanish Conversation class because I was thinking I might pick up a fourth class, which would be fantastic to get another credit.
After that I promptly went back to my cabin and napped through lunch. this seems to be a trend of the past couple days.
Then I had class at 255, my comparative politics class. I think I am really going to learn a lot! And as I've said, my teacher is awesome for that class. He also wrote the book that we're using, which is much less dry than the last political science book that I had.
Immediately after that I had five minutes to run to Energy and Society, the class that I am actually most excited about. Our introduction to the class today was really fascinating. He sort of debunked the ideas that if everyone uses say, energy saving flourescent light bulbs it will make a big difference. basically that's impossible because there's no way that you can for sure get everyone on board. Yeah, you should do those things as much as you can, but just those small things aren't going to change the world. He said "yeah.. it's like you should floss too" and we all laughed a bit. But he made some interesting points. Like the world changes by a group of people finding those pressure points in society or government that will cause a change. And really, the majority of us would just go along with it. He's really realistic about the change that we can institute and the change that we're causing by our energy consumption. It's really fascinating.
I have a lot of reading to do for all my classes. I've only finished about 30 pages of it now.. and I have over 100 more to read by tomorrow. Things go by so quickly on the ship!
Which is why I have decided to not pick up a 4th class. So much reading just for the 3 that I'm already registered for. I think I will ask the teacher if I can come sit in on classes every once in a while, just to have some Spanish practice. I wouldn't have time for all the assignments and readings for four classes, especially if I want to get any sleep or get to know people at all.
I went and talked to Kris (the photographer) today in the media center, and she showed me the computer and programs I'll be using, I'm so excited! I'm going to learn a lot about digital photo and programs and whatnot, while getting to be a part of this awesome documentation of our trip! :D I wish I could upload some of the pictures I've taken so far, but it would just take up way too many megabytes. So you'll just have to wait until I'm either in port or until I get back stateside.
Tonight there was an Explorer Seminar about cool things in Spain.
There was also a stargazing session held by the cool cool Scottish Astronomy professor. he wears a white sweat band around his head all the time. it's fantastic. he's quite a character. :)
So that's pretty much it, I have to take a shower and read some more now. the dreaded school portion has begun.
oh ps, just to let you know what my email address is again: ehsloan@semesteratsea.net.
love and kisses!
Orientation Day!
Today has been pretty much full of lectures. We had to get up, first of all between 7 and 830 because that's what time breakfast is served, and then we had to be at the Union at 9 for three long hours of lectures about safety and procedures and conduct and all the necessary things that go along with being at a college orientation. BORING. Except for the intro to our global studies class. Our professor is pretty entertaining.
I'm going to take a moment to talk about my breakfast. I was going to go to breakfast with Samantha, she called my cabin this morning, but apparently the room phones are a little faulty? we couldn't hear each other. But I went to breakfast anyway and figured well, if I run into her cool, if not, oh well! So I got some funny textured eggs and some fruit and some OJ and I sat with a girl named Iliya, she was really nice :) and then a life-long learner (henceforth LLL) joined us at the table! Her name is Pam, and she was really interesting! I learned that the LLL's don't actually have to go to orientation or take classes or whatever, they just audit them if they want to. And Pam wants to take intro to Spanish! she was pretty happy to be like, lounging at sea. haha. LLL. that's gonna be me. :P
SO anyway. lectures. blah blah blah.
Then we had lunch, except for Emily (my roommate) and I didn't even go to lunch, we were so worn out just from sitting through those lectures that we just went straight to our cabin and napped until the next round of lectures! which was at 130, and we woke up at about 122, haha. but luckily right after that a ship-wide announcement went off, so we would have made it anyway.
So yeah that next two or three hours of lectures was much more interesting. We had Grandma the Clown come out and dance to Britney Spears for us. lol. So that was like the introduction to the future talent show we're going to have (exciting!). the crew is apparently going to do some performances for us too.
Then we talked more about safety and alcohol use and watched this video called Haze, where they talked about this poor guy who pretty much got hazed to death. died of alcohol poisoning in some frat house in Colorado because he was a pledge, and the frat dudes had given the pledges X amount of alcohol and told them they had to finish it all or they couldn't leave or something. It was really sad, and really stupid that they did that. :( So yeah, that was to tell us to not overdo it and to also watch out for each other. Because that guy died because all the dudes did was tell him how messed up he was and put him on a couch in another room when he was just about passed out. and they drew all over him. instead of calling 911.
on a lighter note, I met my teachers, and I also met the Spanish teacher whose class I am hoping to get into! His name is Pedro. and he's pretty white lookin'. he sort of reminds me of a scrawnier version of Carey Elwes. but has some accent that I can't quite place. I didn't get a chance to ask him where he's from..
So after the teacher meet and greet thing it was almost time for dinner, and by then I was starving! So I had dinner tonight with Emily, Samantha, Sarah, and Laura. we had a good time talking about tv shows and movies and random things that are different between Canada and the US because Laura is actually Canadian :D
Then I went down to the next deck and ran into Brittany, so we chatted for a while until the Involvement Seminar, which was blessedly short and we actually got to get up and walk around to different rooms and sign up for things. :D So I signed up to be on the Sea Olympics Committee, which I talked a bit about in my last blog. I also signed up for intramural volleyball and dodgeball (AWESOME). Then I went to check out what kind of religious/spiritual stuff is going down, and I signed up for sunrise meditation, bible study, interfaith discussion group, and catholic mass! because apparently we have a retired priest or something on the ship and he volunteered to hold a mass for those interested. I think it'll be interesting, I've never been to a mass before. I really want to go to one in Spain or Italy. That would be fantastic. Then I went over to intercultural stuff and signed up for a discussion on that, and also a movie night! AND! I went to another table and signed up for choir :D cause, well, I love to sing. :P ALSO I signed up to be a global ambassador for Semester at Sea, which means I get to tell people at my school all about it and recruit them!
And this is the most exciting bit: the media center people are looking for photographers/videographers/writers to contribute stuff which will end up on the SaS website! and also a cool student-pics slideshow! So I signed up for that, and then I was talking to the photographer, Kris (she is the only one for the whole ship, no wonder she wants contributers!), and I showed her a couple of my pictures that I had taken today on my camera and just talked with her a while and she liked my style and my enthusiasm so much that she said to come to the media lab some time and hang out and talk and help her out! I think we liked each other right away, she said we'd have a lot to talk about! She said that I could come help make the powerpoint and pick out the photos and be her photo editor!!!! PHOTO EDITOR!! CAN YOU TELL HOW EXCITED I AM?!?! She told me that she was looking for someone for that, that a lot of people had come up who were interested in photography a little bit, but I'm the first who came up really excited about it all! She said that especially after we leave Barcelona she will need help because there will be a flood of student submissions that will need to be gone through and then put up on the website before we get to the next country. AND I GET TO BE THE PERSON TO HELP HER! :D She is also a photography teacher at .. I can't remember where, but it's legit, and she could write me letters of recommendation and stuff! :D yay connections! So this opportunity has renewed my enthusiasm for taking pictures and capturing moments and I am SO THRILLED to be part of this!
So yeah. exciting :)
Then we had another sea meeting and I signed up to be part of our Olympics, of course.
and that's the end of today! bedtime.
First day of classes!
So the sea woke us up at about 630 this morning by rocking our ship and throwing some of our things across the room very noisily. I suppose it just wanted to make sure none of us missed breakfast or classes.. It was cool, kind of funny, and a little bit scary! But then we just went back to sleep for an hour and got up for breakfast. After breakfast was our first Global Studies class, and we had already had our intro, as I'd said before, so this was legit class. I took my laptop to class and took notes on it. I did pretty well, I've never done notes on my computer before. But here we don't have the distraction of internet because it would take our time and megabytes, and I thought maybe handwriting would be a little more difficult on a rocking ship :P though really the rocking isn't so bad.
After Global Studies I decided to go ahead and attend the first meeting of the Spanish Conversation class because I was thinking I might pick up a fourth class, which would be fantastic to get another credit.
After that I promptly went back to my cabin and napped through lunch. this seems to be a trend of the past couple days.
Then I had class at 255, my comparative politics class. I think I am really going to learn a lot! And as I've said, my teacher is awesome for that class. He also wrote the book that we're using, which is much less dry than the last political science book that I had.
Immediately after that I had five minutes to run to Energy and Society, the class that I am actually most excited about. Our introduction to the class today was really fascinating. He sort of debunked the ideas that if everyone uses say, energy saving flourescent light bulbs it will make a big difference. basically that's impossible because there's no way that you can for sure get everyone on board. Yeah, you should do those things as much as you can, but just those small things aren't going to change the world. He said "yeah.. it's like you should floss too" and we all laughed a bit. But he made some interesting points. Like the world changes by a group of people finding those pressure points in society or government that will cause a change. And really, the majority of us would just go along with it. He's really realistic about the change that we can institute and the change that we're causing by our energy consumption. It's really fascinating.
I have a lot of reading to do for all my classes. I've only finished about 30 pages of it now.. and I have over 100 more to read by tomorrow. Things go by so quickly on the ship!
Which is why I have decided to not pick up a 4th class. So much reading just for the 3 that I'm already registered for. I think I will ask the teacher if I can come sit in on classes every once in a while, just to have some Spanish practice. I wouldn't have time for all the assignments and readings for four classes, especially if I want to get any sleep or get to know people at all.
I went and talked to Kris (the photographer) today in the media center, and she showed me the computer and programs I'll be using, I'm so excited! I'm going to learn a lot about digital photo and programs and whatnot, while getting to be a part of this awesome documentation of our trip! :D I wish I could upload some of the pictures I've taken so far, but it would just take up way too many megabytes. So you'll just have to wait until I'm either in port or until I get back stateside.
Tonight there was an Explorer Seminar about cool things in Spain.
There was also a stargazing session held by the cool cool Scottish Astronomy professor. he wears a white sweat band around his head all the time. it's fantastic. he's quite a character. :)
So that's pretty much it, I have to take a shower and read some more now. the dreaded school portion has begun.
oh ps, just to let you know what my email address is again: ehsloan@semesteratsea.net.
love and kisses!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
On the ship!
oh my goodness.
this place is amazing!
and confusing! I'm going to need a day or two to orient myself to everything! Also, our poor cabins are tiny. but my roommate seems pretty chill. Her name's Emily, she's from California and she's tall like a model!
I've made some pretty cool friends already, and I'm excited to make even more. oh and I met one of my teachers, the one for my comparative politics course. He is pretty old and has crazy facial hair and I like him very much!
:P
So, here's what's gone down. Got up this morning and lounged for a bit with Samantha until we had to leave to get to the dock. We decided to walk the few blocks with all of our luggage! it wasn't bad, but we had to take a couple breaks, haha. It was only about three blocks, but when we actually got to the pavillion where everyone was in line to get their bags checked, the line was so so so soooo long that we had to walk about two more blocks just to get to the end of it! We got there around 11. But we didn't actually get on the ship until like 230! Ridiculous. It was because all the people working had to like take a break or something between 12 and 1. so everyone in line was forced to just stand around aimlessly. It's a good thing it was a pretty day, because if it had been drizzly or raining, SO many people would have been pissed! One of the teachers coming down the line talking to everyone said that the workers taking a break like that had never happened before in his experience. I don't see why they couldn't just take shifts or something, so at least a few people would be trickling through the line steadily. But we finally made it!
I've taken some cool pictures of the boat and stuff, but I'm not going to be able to upload them until we get to an internet cafe in Barcelona or something. I don't want to kill my ship internet time too quickly! So I'm sorry, but you'll just have to take my descriptions for now!
The ship has 7 decks and I'm staying on deck 3. I don't have a window :( but there are plenty of places with cool views!
....
so several hours have passed since I wrote the above section, and we are definitely out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean now! well, not in the middle exactly, but there is nothing but a vast expanse of open sea all around us! It's very exciting :) I got a little bit teary eyed though today when we actually pulled away from port. I'm going to miss talking to my mama all the time. We had a big orientation meeting tonight and got to see who all our academic advisors and faculty members are :) They are all really fun looking old people. haha. :P
I found out that I might be able to sign up for another class! If I can manage it, I really really want to take Spanish Conversation, it would be fantastic.
We have phones in our cabins that we can use to call other cabins, it's the coolest thing! I tried it out today to call Sami's cabin, he's this really cool guy from Saudi Arabia! There are so many different people here. Our dean(? I think? someone like that) read out the statistics of who all was on the ship, it was fascinating. there are just over 1000 people total on the ship. 740ish students. 75% girls! some 25ish countries, and 49 of the states! but we don't know which one is missing, lol. Apparently no one cared to figure that out before the presentation tonight.
The food is pretty good here, but I heard it gets old by the end of the voyage.
The boat is rocking SO MUCH! It doesn't make me sea sick though. Some people don't feel well, but I just think it's like being in a cradle. until you're walking down the hallway and you look like a drunken idiot falling against the walls. lol. I feel like I'm going to get used to the sway of the ocean and then get back on land and still be swaying myself. haha. I guess we'll find out when we get off the ship in Barcelona! NINE DAYS ON THE OCEAN!
Today we had our first Sea meeting. Our halls are called "seas". Like we sort of have RA's and they help us out or take care of us or whatever we need and they help us build a grand ol' community. So we're the Mediterranean Sea :) And! this is the coolest thing, we have Sea Olympics! So all the Seas on the ship (there are like.. 8?) compete at the end of the voyage in whatever Olympic games we come up with! It's very exciting. Oh, also, our colour is orange. :D I'm pretty excited for these games. I'm going to sign up tomorrow to be one of the coordinators for our Sea. I met this other girl who's really excited about it too! Her name's Clare and we're going to work together to make our Sea WIN!
I really wish I had a room with a porthole.
Apparently taking a shower on a rocking ship is challenging. I haven't attempted it yet, but my roommate just did and she said you pretty much had to brace yourself against the wall. haha. So. looking forward to that. :P I anticipate some cuts on my legs from shaving, lol.
There are nifty framed pieces of artwork in everyone's room, and on the back of them are tidbits of advice and stories and good times from past SaS travelers, it's really hilarious and really intersting! because not every summer voyage goes to the same countries that we are visiting on this one. Some have gone to like, Denmark, Russia, Sweden, France .. all kinds of places. It makes me want to just take another voyage. I met a guy who is here for the 2nd time. One of our teachers (who happens to be from Scotland! AWESOME!) mentioned that once we get off the ship, we will spend the rest of our lives trying to get back on it! I rather believe him :P just in the first day I already want to come back later in life as a life-long learner or something. Speaking of which, our oldest life-long learner on board for this voyage is 90! And some of the professors and staff brought their families too, so we have little kids running around and the youngest of them is a year and a half! so we have quite the age bracket this summer. :)
I got my email account set up with semester at sea. It's ehsloan@semesteratsea.net, if you care to email me. :)
Classes start on Thursday, tomorrow is going to be a day full of more orientation. yeehaw.
Our cabin steward's name is Achilles. I giggled.
It's weird to have my phone just be completely useless for any contact. but it's a good watch. I just set it on airplane mode so it's not roaming or trying to find signal.
I got sunburned today from standing in line for 3 hours. D: I didn't even think to put sunscreen on. boo.
I love being at sea! We had a safety drill today right before we left, that was tons of fun. We had to put on awkward life jackets and walk to our "musters" where our life boats are. the rule was that we had to participate in this in complete silence, but I think 3/4 of the students must not know what silence means -.- I gave glares to some people who wouldn't SHUT UP.
This is a really long post, and I haven't even had the chance to tell you about the more interesting people I've met. I'll get around to it eventually. On a slow day or something.
It's a ship, not a boat.
It's a voyage, not a cruise!
this place is amazing!
and confusing! I'm going to need a day or two to orient myself to everything! Also, our poor cabins are tiny. but my roommate seems pretty chill. Her name's Emily, she's from California and she's tall like a model!
I've made some pretty cool friends already, and I'm excited to make even more. oh and I met one of my teachers, the one for my comparative politics course. He is pretty old and has crazy facial hair and I like him very much!
:P
So, here's what's gone down. Got up this morning and lounged for a bit with Samantha until we had to leave to get to the dock. We decided to walk the few blocks with all of our luggage! it wasn't bad, but we had to take a couple breaks, haha. It was only about three blocks, but when we actually got to the pavillion where everyone was in line to get their bags checked, the line was so so so soooo long that we had to walk about two more blocks just to get to the end of it! We got there around 11. But we didn't actually get on the ship until like 230! Ridiculous. It was because all the people working had to like take a break or something between 12 and 1. so everyone in line was forced to just stand around aimlessly. It's a good thing it was a pretty day, because if it had been drizzly or raining, SO many people would have been pissed! One of the teachers coming down the line talking to everyone said that the workers taking a break like that had never happened before in his experience. I don't see why they couldn't just take shifts or something, so at least a few people would be trickling through the line steadily. But we finally made it!
I've taken some cool pictures of the boat and stuff, but I'm not going to be able to upload them until we get to an internet cafe in Barcelona or something. I don't want to kill my ship internet time too quickly! So I'm sorry, but you'll just have to take my descriptions for now!
The ship has 7 decks and I'm staying on deck 3. I don't have a window :( but there are plenty of places with cool views!
....
so several hours have passed since I wrote the above section, and we are definitely out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean now! well, not in the middle exactly, but there is nothing but a vast expanse of open sea all around us! It's very exciting :) I got a little bit teary eyed though today when we actually pulled away from port. I'm going to miss talking to my mama all the time. We had a big orientation meeting tonight and got to see who all our academic advisors and faculty members are :) They are all really fun looking old people. haha. :P
I found out that I might be able to sign up for another class! If I can manage it, I really really want to take Spanish Conversation, it would be fantastic.
We have phones in our cabins that we can use to call other cabins, it's the coolest thing! I tried it out today to call Sami's cabin, he's this really cool guy from Saudi Arabia! There are so many different people here. Our dean(? I think? someone like that) read out the statistics of who all was on the ship, it was fascinating. there are just over 1000 people total on the ship. 740ish students. 75% girls! some 25ish countries, and 49 of the states! but we don't know which one is missing, lol. Apparently no one cared to figure that out before the presentation tonight.
The food is pretty good here, but I heard it gets old by the end of the voyage.
The boat is rocking SO MUCH! It doesn't make me sea sick though. Some people don't feel well, but I just think it's like being in a cradle. until you're walking down the hallway and you look like a drunken idiot falling against the walls. lol. I feel like I'm going to get used to the sway of the ocean and then get back on land and still be swaying myself. haha. I guess we'll find out when we get off the ship in Barcelona! NINE DAYS ON THE OCEAN!
Today we had our first Sea meeting. Our halls are called "seas". Like we sort of have RA's and they help us out or take care of us or whatever we need and they help us build a grand ol' community. So we're the Mediterranean Sea :) And! this is the coolest thing, we have Sea Olympics! So all the Seas on the ship (there are like.. 8?) compete at the end of the voyage in whatever Olympic games we come up with! It's very exciting. Oh, also, our colour is orange. :D I'm pretty excited for these games. I'm going to sign up tomorrow to be one of the coordinators for our Sea. I met this other girl who's really excited about it too! Her name's Clare and we're going to work together to make our Sea WIN!
I really wish I had a room with a porthole.
Apparently taking a shower on a rocking ship is challenging. I haven't attempted it yet, but my roommate just did and she said you pretty much had to brace yourself against the wall. haha. So. looking forward to that. :P I anticipate some cuts on my legs from shaving, lol.
There are nifty framed pieces of artwork in everyone's room, and on the back of them are tidbits of advice and stories and good times from past SaS travelers, it's really hilarious and really intersting! because not every summer voyage goes to the same countries that we are visiting on this one. Some have gone to like, Denmark, Russia, Sweden, France .. all kinds of places. It makes me want to just take another voyage. I met a guy who is here for the 2nd time. One of our teachers (who happens to be from Scotland! AWESOME!) mentioned that once we get off the ship, we will spend the rest of our lives trying to get back on it! I rather believe him :P just in the first day I already want to come back later in life as a life-long learner or something. Speaking of which, our oldest life-long learner on board for this voyage is 90! And some of the professors and staff brought their families too, so we have little kids running around and the youngest of them is a year and a half! so we have quite the age bracket this summer. :)
I got my email account set up with semester at sea. It's ehsloan@semesteratsea.net, if you care to email me. :)
Classes start on Thursday, tomorrow is going to be a day full of more orientation. yeehaw.
Our cabin steward's name is Achilles. I giggled.
It's weird to have my phone just be completely useless for any contact. but it's a good watch. I just set it on airplane mode so it's not roaming or trying to find signal.
I got sunburned today from standing in line for 3 hours. D: I didn't even think to put sunscreen on. boo.
I love being at sea! We had a safety drill today right before we left, that was tons of fun. We had to put on awkward life jackets and walk to our "musters" where our life boats are. the rule was that we had to participate in this in complete silence, but I think 3/4 of the students must not know what silence means -.- I gave glares to some people who wouldn't SHUT UP.
This is a really long post, and I haven't even had the chance to tell you about the more interesting people I've met. I'll get around to it eventually. On a slow day or something.
It's a ship, not a boat.
It's a voyage, not a cruise!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Adventures
Hi :)
I get on the ship in the morning! :D
Today I met even more people! I went to a used bookstore with Lex, and we also checked out this really awesome store that has a TON of chucks! I really want to get a pair. O_O Then we went to this ice cream shop called Sugah! and then we walked further down the dock and saw the ship!! well, the butt of the ship, but still!! I think at that point was when I got really excited. :)
OH. let me tell you guys about my awesome rooming experience. haha. So I didn't actually book my own hotel room, I was going to stay with Josh and Christina and Jeff and just split a room with them. It's actually Josh's room, and I tried to meet up with him like all day yesterday, but we kept being in different places and hanging out with different people. So when I had actually arrived at the hotel I just stowed my luggage and whatnot in Chris and Justin and Brandon's room along with Marcus, who had come in on the same shuttle. So my stuff was in a different room than the one I was actually supposed to be staying in. But then after I couldn't get hold of Josh, I just decided to go out and have fun and whatever! So by the time we got back to the hotel it was like 1 or 130 and I didn't want to go banging on Josh's door, that'd just be mean to wake people up. So I ended up being a fifth person in the room I had originally put all my stuff. with the four dudes. lol. and they ended up being the people I went to breakfast with too, they're pretty awesome. :) SO. then this afternoon Josh and I finally just set a meeting time where we were going to meet in the lobby of the hotel and get my stuff to the right room. But then he ended up sending Jeff in his place! So I didn't even MEET Josh until tonight at the big meet & greet dinner at Argyle, and I only sort of met him by accident because I was going to all the tables to tell them that we were going to Cheers again tonight! I just laughed to myself about the whole thing haha. But yeah so I'd put my stuff in their room, but then at dinner tonight I met Samantha, who was all alone in her room! so I've moved in with her now instead of being in a room with five other people who I haven't even spent any time with. haha. So yeah, my living situation has been pretty interesting for the past two days. But it's been fun :)
I'm really excited to meet my roommate tomorrow. I really hope it's not some high maintenance girl! saw a couple of those at dinner tonight. eep! o.<
I am so in love with Halifax, btw. It is the coolest walk-around city down here by the port and stuff! It's cold here though. I have definitely gotten used to hot and muggy Alabama weather!
Now Samantha and I are going to go down to the lobby and play some cards with other SaS kids or something :) then it's bed time!
SHIP TOMORROW AHHH!!
I get on the ship in the morning! :D
Today I met even more people! I went to a used bookstore with Lex, and we also checked out this really awesome store that has a TON of chucks! I really want to get a pair. O_O Then we went to this ice cream shop called Sugah! and then we walked further down the dock and saw the ship!! well, the butt of the ship, but still!! I think at that point was when I got really excited. :)
OH. let me tell you guys about my awesome rooming experience. haha. So I didn't actually book my own hotel room, I was going to stay with Josh and Christina and Jeff and just split a room with them. It's actually Josh's room, and I tried to meet up with him like all day yesterday, but we kept being in different places and hanging out with different people. So when I had actually arrived at the hotel I just stowed my luggage and whatnot in Chris and Justin and Brandon's room along with Marcus, who had come in on the same shuttle. So my stuff was in a different room than the one I was actually supposed to be staying in. But then after I couldn't get hold of Josh, I just decided to go out and have fun and whatever! So by the time we got back to the hotel it was like 1 or 130 and I didn't want to go banging on Josh's door, that'd just be mean to wake people up. So I ended up being a fifth person in the room I had originally put all my stuff. with the four dudes. lol. and they ended up being the people I went to breakfast with too, they're pretty awesome. :) SO. then this afternoon Josh and I finally just set a meeting time where we were going to meet in the lobby of the hotel and get my stuff to the right room. But then he ended up sending Jeff in his place! So I didn't even MEET Josh until tonight at the big meet & greet dinner at Argyle, and I only sort of met him by accident because I was going to all the tables to tell them that we were going to Cheers again tonight! I just laughed to myself about the whole thing haha. But yeah so I'd put my stuff in their room, but then at dinner tonight I met Samantha, who was all alone in her room! so I've moved in with her now instead of being in a room with five other people who I haven't even spent any time with. haha. So yeah, my living situation has been pretty interesting for the past two days. But it's been fun :)
I'm really excited to meet my roommate tomorrow. I really hope it's not some high maintenance girl! saw a couple of those at dinner tonight. eep! o.<
I am so in love with Halifax, btw. It is the coolest walk-around city down here by the port and stuff! It's cold here though. I have definitely gotten used to hot and muggy Alabama weather!
Now Samantha and I are going to go down to the lobby and play some cards with other SaS kids or something :) then it's bed time!
SHIP TOMORROW AHHH!!
In Canada!
Hi everyone! I made it to my connection in NY and now I'm just waiting to get on the plane to Halifax. It's been smooth sailing so far, let's hope that continues once I'm actually setting sail on the ship! haha, yeah you like that pun.
I'm about to meet, face to face, my first fellow travelers! Some girls who are also SaS students are connecting here, too. I can't wait to meet them! and everyone else, of course!
Oh ps. I got super lucky on baggage. I think the weight limit is about 50 lbs or you have to pay for an oversized bag. well GUESS WHAT. my luggage for two months of travel was 48 LBS! I guess that means I didn't overpack, haha. Which is good, because baggage fees are terrible anyway.
So now I've got my computer out and I'm listening to my iTunes and waiting to board. I can't get the "free wi-fi" to work though, so this post will actually happen a bit later. and will probably contain some more information. woo!
Good morning! So I dunno if you guys know this, but Halifax is not, in fact, part of the eastern time zone. I got confused for a minute at first because of the Atlantic time zone. I kind of forgot that existed for a bit. :P
So.. where did I leave off yesterday? I met up with people from SaS at the NY connection! sort of by accident, we had to get our tickets stamped because we were on a one-way flight or something and they thought we were running away to Canada. or something. So anyway, all of a sudden instead of just the two girls I was meeting, there were like nine of us! So we went through to the plane and arrived in Halifax pretty uneventfully. We had to fill out these forms for Canada to go through customs, basically saying we weren't bringing certain things into the country and blah blah blah.
Got my first Passport stamp! it was pretty cool. the officer was like "reason for entry?" to which I replied "I'm a student with Semester at Sea." and I felt AWESOME.
So a bunch of us sat around the airport getting to know each other and waiting on a couple other people to show up. Then we got on The Airporter, the bus thing that took us downtown to the hotel. btw, Halifax airport is way the heck away from the actual city! but the city is ballin'-tastic. it's like right by the water and there are a bunch of hills to walk up and down, and some cool buildings!
So we got to the hotel and I stashed my stuff in someone's room and we went to get bubble tea. which is okay. the tapioka balls or whatever are not very appealing. Then we went to Argyle bar & grill and met up with some 20 other SaS students to have some supper, which was great because by that time I was STARVING.
After that we went browsing around town and ended up at Cheers, this bar and dance club of sorts. When we got there it was like completely empty! So we all had a drink and hit the dance floor, which was SO COOL, it had like disco balls and light shows and a fog machine and weird techno music lol. so all the SaS students were hanging out and jammin' and being ridiculous, and then at like midnight the Canadians starting pouring in, apparently their partying starts late! But fellow SaSer Chris and I left at like 1, and apparently after we left it just kept picking up! But I was exhausted, so I probably couldn't have stayed out any later, even though those Canadians I met were pretty cool people. :)
I've met a lot of people so far! I'm working on remembering all of their names... There are so many of us, it's ridiculous. I'm having a great time though getting to know everyone. I've met people from all over the country! No one else from Alabama, but I met a girl from Texas and a guy from Tennessee, so there are a couple other southern people, haha.
So now I think we're about to go to this little cafe across the street and get some breakfast. Well, brunch by now. I'll probably meet some more people, haha.
Getting on the ship tomorrow morning!!
I'm about to meet, face to face, my first fellow travelers! Some girls who are also SaS students are connecting here, too. I can't wait to meet them! and everyone else, of course!
Oh ps. I got super lucky on baggage. I think the weight limit is about 50 lbs or you have to pay for an oversized bag. well GUESS WHAT. my luggage for two months of travel was 48 LBS! I guess that means I didn't overpack, haha. Which is good, because baggage fees are terrible anyway.
So now I've got my computer out and I'm listening to my iTunes and waiting to board. I can't get the "free wi-fi" to work though, so this post will actually happen a bit later. and will probably contain some more information. woo!
Good morning! So I dunno if you guys know this, but Halifax is not, in fact, part of the eastern time zone. I got confused for a minute at first because of the Atlantic time zone. I kind of forgot that existed for a bit. :P
So.. where did I leave off yesterday? I met up with people from SaS at the NY connection! sort of by accident, we had to get our tickets stamped because we were on a one-way flight or something and they thought we were running away to Canada. or something. So anyway, all of a sudden instead of just the two girls I was meeting, there were like nine of us! So we went through to the plane and arrived in Halifax pretty uneventfully. We had to fill out these forms for Canada to go through customs, basically saying we weren't bringing certain things into the country and blah blah blah.
Got my first Passport stamp! it was pretty cool. the officer was like "reason for entry?" to which I replied "I'm a student with Semester at Sea." and I felt AWESOME.
So a bunch of us sat around the airport getting to know each other and waiting on a couple other people to show up. Then we got on The Airporter, the bus thing that took us downtown to the hotel. btw, Halifax airport is way the heck away from the actual city! but the city is ballin'-tastic. it's like right by the water and there are a bunch of hills to walk up and down, and some cool buildings!
So we got to the hotel and I stashed my stuff in someone's room and we went to get bubble tea. which is okay. the tapioka balls or whatever are not very appealing. Then we went to Argyle bar & grill and met up with some 20 other SaS students to have some supper, which was great because by that time I was STARVING.
After that we went browsing around town and ended up at Cheers, this bar and dance club of sorts. When we got there it was like completely empty! So we all had a drink and hit the dance floor, which was SO COOL, it had like disco balls and light shows and a fog machine and weird techno music lol. so all the SaS students were hanging out and jammin' and being ridiculous, and then at like midnight the Canadians starting pouring in, apparently their partying starts late! But fellow SaSer Chris and I left at like 1, and apparently after we left it just kept picking up! But I was exhausted, so I probably couldn't have stayed out any later, even though those Canadians I met were pretty cool people. :)
I've met a lot of people so far! I'm working on remembering all of their names... There are so many of us, it's ridiculous. I'm having a great time though getting to know everyone. I've met people from all over the country! No one else from Alabama, but I met a girl from Texas and a guy from Tennessee, so there are a couple other southern people, haha.
So now I think we're about to go to this little cafe across the street and get some breakfast. Well, brunch by now. I'll probably meet some more people, haha.
Getting on the ship tomorrow morning!!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Postcards!
Just a quick note:
If you want a postcard from a cool place while I'm gone, send me your address! you can either post a comment to this post, or email me! (colourcrazed@gmail.com) you could Facebook me too, as long as it's in the next two days!
:)
If you want a postcard from a cool place while I'm gone, send me your address! you can either post a comment to this post, or email me! (colourcrazed@gmail.com) you could Facebook me too, as long as it's in the next two days!
:)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Six more days of waiting!
My departure is rapidly approaching!
A week or two ago I ordered some stuff online and I'm waiting on it all to ship to me. I hope it gets here in time! I'm waiting on two more things, I think. I got my luggage yesterday! Yay big duffel bags! They are about Hannah sized. ;) I also have bought some of my essentials, like shampoo and razors and germ-x and such. I feel like half of my luggage is going to be things that aren't clothes!
Oh! okay, two exciting things:
1: I got my foreign currency for the countries I'll be visiting! It's so pretty! I wish the US had pretty money. I'm tempted to just keep it instead of spending it because that's how cool it is!
2: My camera finally arrived!!! *dance* so I'll be able to take amaaaaazing photos to share with you :) I spent a good 20 minutes messing with the functions and whatnot this morning. It's pretty sweet. (It's a rebel T1i, for those of you who care to know.)
So I'm feeling nervous and excited and anxious to go! I'm mostly just nervous about getting to Halifax and finding the people I'm staying with. After that things will be a piece of cake!
Oh another thing, I won't have a phone while I'm abroad, so I'll be relying on this blog and email to communicate with the rest of the world! We'll get our own SAS email address when we're on the ship, and that won't take away from my allotted internet time, so look for that! I'll post it as soon as I know. Otherwise, leave me comments here! or send me an email telling me how much you miss me to colourcrazed at gmail dot com :) Facebook comments are also welcome, though they probably won't be looked at very frequently at all.
AHHHH SIX MORE DAYS AHHHHHHHHHH!
A week or two ago I ordered some stuff online and I'm waiting on it all to ship to me. I hope it gets here in time! I'm waiting on two more things, I think. I got my luggage yesterday! Yay big duffel bags! They are about Hannah sized. ;) I also have bought some of my essentials, like shampoo and razors and germ-x and such. I feel like half of my luggage is going to be things that aren't clothes!
Oh! okay, two exciting things:
1: I got my foreign currency for the countries I'll be visiting! It's so pretty! I wish the US had pretty money. I'm tempted to just keep it instead of spending it because that's how cool it is!
2: My camera finally arrived!!! *dance* so I'll be able to take amaaaaazing photos to share with you :) I spent a good 20 minutes messing with the functions and whatnot this morning. It's pretty sweet. (It's a rebel T1i, for those of you who care to know.)
So I'm feeling nervous and excited and anxious to go! I'm mostly just nervous about getting to Halifax and finding the people I'm staying with. After that things will be a piece of cake!
Oh another thing, I won't have a phone while I'm abroad, so I'll be relying on this blog and email to communicate with the rest of the world! We'll get our own SAS email address when we're on the ship, and that won't take away from my allotted internet time, so look for that! I'll post it as soon as I know. Otherwise, leave me comments here! or send me an email telling me how much you miss me to colourcrazed at gmail dot com :) Facebook comments are also welcome, though they probably won't be looked at very frequently at all.
AHHHH SIX MORE DAYS AHHHHHHHHHH!
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