Catch up time!!! Hope you like reading...

Feb. 4th, 2007
One Crazy Day!

I’ll have to admit to it, the day of boarding the mv Explorer, I woke up a tad bit crabby. Whether it was due to lack of sleep or nerves, I’m not quite sure. After having packing up ALL my belongings, we caught the taxi to take us to downtown Nassau, where the ship (NOT boat, as I have been corrected hundreds of times already) was waiting… as well as hundreds of kids already in the loooong line to go onboard. Luckily the time went by quickly and before I knew it, I was on the gangway, checking in, and would soon be wandering around aimlessly in the pathetic attempt to find my room. After about 5 lonely minutes in my room, I was bored! My roommate Jessi showed up shortly after and we met up with the girls from across the hall. Later that day, my parents and brother came on board for a little while before the last goodbyes. After they got kicked off the ship, we had a life boat dill (ugh, something that I hope none of you ever have to experience). I almost missed waving goodbye to my family as the ship started leaving without warning. I would have felt so bad since they waited 2 hours, but luckily I barely made it to the deck in time to yell loud enough to get my brothers attention. It wasn’t until the ship turned and they went out of sight that it finally hit me that I was leaving for 3 and a half months to go around the world… def. a weird, terrifying, and exciting feeling.

Feb. 5th, 2007
Ship Life

This day was a fun filled day… full of meetings and lectures on how not to fall overboard or set the ship on fire. I did skip the lecture on ship safety in order to hang out near the pool and catch some of the last rays. I haven’t gotten sea sick yet, and I actually enjoy the rocking of the ship. As one person put it, “it’s like being drunk all the time.” I’ve been meeting a lot of new people, but it’s 100 times harder than normal to remember everyone’s name. I’m excited for class to begin only because I’m hoping to get to know people better. It’s hard because you hang out with a group of people for awhile, but then you separate and probably won’t see them all again and end up hanging out with a different group of kids for a bit. It’s something I think I am going to have to get used to, at least for a while. Tomorrow is the first day of class… then I arrive in Puerto Rico. What a tough life. J

Feb. 6th, 2007
Let the stress begin

Oh, classes are going to be H-A-R-D. Lots of reading, lots of journals, lots of tests in a very very short time. The rocking of the boat during class just puts to sleep besides. I’m done with class at noon both class days, so hopefully I can get stuff done then. I met up for dinner with some of the other’s going on my indy Amazon trip. I’m really excited for that. Otherwise, I just spent the day wandering around.

Feb. 7th, 2007
I’m too tired to write. I’m going to bed.

Feb. 8th, 2007
Feb. 7th, Second Attempt

Yesterday (the 7th) we arrived in Puerto Rico. I woke up just in time to see the sun coming over the horizon, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu doing his morning walking. J The Puerto Rican Governor gave a talk. The press was crazy. Sadly, the first place I went was a walgreens in Old San Juan. I picked up some aloe since I was a little lobesteresk from the sun. In the store, I could have sworn that the ground was moving, and I actually went on one food and spread my arms out as if I was balancing myself. A little embarrassing to say the least. Walking on land has never been so difficult. I was also able to call Christopher which made my day, even though I felt bad about waking him up. Whoops. Later, I went kayaking in a beautiful bay about an hour away from San Juan. In the evening I went to a local college for a welcome reception. I was super tired, so I was ready to go back to the ship to sleep afterwards and that’s exactly what I did.

Feb. 8th, 2007
By Far the Best Day Yet

AMAZING. I woke up at 6 to go with 10 others to the Tanama River. There, we went hiking in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. We hiked to a cave that had a river running through the bottom. At the cavern entrance we could hear all the bats from above. We had to wear hard hats with lights and made our way through the cavern to a sleep edge way up high that overlooked the river below. Later, we went down the mountain a little further and walked though the river under the cave arch. It was so pretty. The pictures I took don’t do justice. We walked down stream where we went to an organic farm owned by a family. They made us lunch which was amazing. We ate in the open-air kitchen overlooking the mountains and the view was breathtaking. Afterwards, we repelled off of a cliff and zip lined across the river’s canyon. After making it back to the ship in one piece, I had to leave to go see the bioluminescent bay. The water in this particular bay has the right conditions (which I won’t get into but did learn!) that allow phytoplankton to live. These tiny organisms light up when you move the water. It was the neatest thing. We got to swim in it and my body glowed. I felt like I had gone to a nuclear power plant and drank something I shouldn’t have. J

Feb. 9th, 2007
BEACH!

Today I went to the rainforest and one of the best beaches on the island. I actually tried selling my ticket, but luckily it didn’t workout. I met up with a great group of people and had a blast. The rainforest was beautiful, as is everything it seems. We did a 2.5 hour hike all up hill. We were able to stop and take a dip in the waterfalls along the way. We ate a traditional Puerto Rican lunch at a local restaurant. We then headed to the hot hot HOT beach (not to make any of you at home jealous). I had to apply spf 55 three times in 2 hours because I felt like I was melting. The water was so blue and warm… I could have stayed there forever. Sadly, we did have to leave. The group then went to Old San Juan quickly for a drink and food shopping before departing. (Chrissyface, I picked up two cans of squirty cheese and a box of wheat thins J) Great day but completely exhausting.

Feb. 10th, 2007
En Route to Brazil

We are back on the water just as soon as I get used to walking on land again. More classes. More work. More stress. This is going to be A LOT harder than I expected. It’s hard to balance everything. Socializing is more important than studying right now because you don’t want to miss anything… yet you could get behind super quickly. Ugh. Not much news otherwise. I was a hermet crab and stayed in my room most of the day doing readings. I fell asleep at 5 and woke up at 7:30 to find that I completely missed dinner. Oh well. It’s pretty rocky on the ship… bumping into the walls yet again.

Feb. 11th, 2007
“Don’t let school get in the way of your learning”

That’s my new philosophy that I quoted a fellow SAS’r from. J I hope that my grades don’t transfer… Another day of class and sun. My first exam is tomorrow on my b-day. A little bit of a bummer. I don’t understand how I can have an exam when I have only had one class, but whatever floats their boat (no pun intended). Excited for pub night and celebrating my b-day which I have a feeling will end up with me sad in my room missin’ home and my two chris’s…