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!