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!