Spring 2015 - Day 1
Today was hard. After the excitement of boarding the ship faded away I just wanted to be alone. It is weird to have everything be exactly the same except the people are different. In one of my final blogs from last time I said that I didnt think I would ever be able to sail again because the ship wouldn't be the same without Dean Rita's voice as the announcements or Dr. Dave cracking jokes. There was definitely some weight to how I was feeling. When I got off the ship and found out that there was a chance to sail again I jumped at it because I was chasing that feeling. The feeling of being in a different country every week and the comraderie of our shipboard community. I craved the high that I was on when we debarked in December. Now that I am back on the ship I am expecting it to be that way already. For me to be completely comfortable with the people around me, for us to already have all the jokes, and to know all the ins and outs of ship life. Of course it isn't like that. No one knows each other and we are completely in the throws of being lost on the ship and having over whelming amounts of small talk with the people around us. It's exhausting and I find myself to be homesick on the very first day, before we had even left Ensenada.
Jessi and I woke up around 7 and managed to shower and shove all of our stuff back into our suitcases by a quarter of 8. I fit the majority of my art stuff in my duffles except for the stupid drawing board and the largest pads of paper. They told us we could only carry one small thing on the bus so I crossed my fingers and hoped that they would let me break the rules. Hey, I needed the stupid art stuff for my class, it wasn't like I was bringing it voluntarily.
We made fools of ourselves again trying to lug everything down to the lobby. We had Jessi's three suitcases and her backpack and my two large duffels, my backpack, camera case, and stupid drawing board. We shoved one of her suitcases in the elevator and while I was struggling to get my duffles through the door the elevator started with a scary sounding buzzer. It didn't like that we left the door open for so long. I stumbled in after my bag and the door closed with Jessi on one side and me on the other. "I'll meet you in the lobby!" She yelled through the door.
The elevator stopped on the 5th floor, which I didn't realize until I tripped over my bag getting out of the elevator and ran into two guys waiting to get on. They were both in uniform, my guess was that they came in on the huge battleship that was docked right next to the MV Explorer. They got in the elevator with me and when we reached the lobby they each took a suitcase and helped me get to the front desk. Jessi was really confused when she got out of the elevator and I wasn't waiting there for her.
The valet told me that we would be able to fit in a normal taxi and he was right. One of the bags had to go on the front seat but we made it work.
The Hilton lobby where we needed to gather was already bustling with people. We were instructed to leave our bags against a wall and head to a table to check in. I got in the line for last names N-Z and Jessi in the one including F. They checked me off on the sheet and then gave me a bunch of tags where I wrote my last name and room number: 3103. I needed one of every piece of my luggage including my stupid drawing board.
I went around to the other side of the table to where she was just finishing up as well. Her tags were in her hand. Her cabin number? 3102. I gasped and showed her mine. She freaked. It was better than roommates, we were neighbors! We were so excited.
They were really behind with the buses. We were supposed to be on the 8:15 bus and by 8:15 the 7:45 bus hadn't even left yet. We didn't even bring our luggage downstairs until almost 8:45. Everyone was holding starbucks and we were both starving so Jessi stood with the luggage while I went and explored to find it. The line was out the door and Jessi texted me that it was time to move our luggage when I wasn't even close to the front, so I abandoned the line. I guess we were going hungry.
They finally just told us to get on the 8:00 bus. We finally were loaded and on our way at 9:30. We were being taken across the border into Mexico to Ensenada where we would get on the ship. As far as I know the reason we had to embark in Mexico is because of our charter. Our charter allows us to only stop in the U.S one time so since we were going to Hawaii we needed to leave from somewhere other than the U.S. That is also why we end the voyage in England.
The ride was about two hours and about half an hour into the ride we reached the border. They came onto the bus and had us all fill out forms and then collected out passports and the forms. Half an hour later they came back and handed back our passports and we were on our way once again.
Our drive through Mexico was on a highway along the coast. And when I say along the coast I mean that we were on the two lane road and then there was a cliff and at the bottom of the cliff was the ocean. Oh, and the road was winding through the hills. Oh, and the speedometer on our bus was not working. I know this because we were sitting right behind the driver and the indicater rested comfortably at zero the entire time. To say it was thrilling is an understatement. I watched out bus driver extract his burrito and coke from a plastic bag, eat it and then put his garbage back in the bag. All the while driving with one hand and looking back and forth from what he was doing to the road. If we hadn't been on a cliff road I probably would have felt better about it but since I could sense my imminate death to our right side it was not the most comfortable drive.
We arrived to the ship at noon. Thankfully in one piece. Seeing the ship and the thought of getting back on it made me a little emotional. I've waited for this moment for so long, it still seems a bit surreal.
We unloaded and went right through port security. On the other side of it we had two tables to stop at. The first one was where we signed a form saying we hadn't shown any symptoms of Ebola. The second table was where we handed in our passports and received our shipboard ID. It was at that moment that I realized I hadn't turned in a photo of me for my shipboard ID which meant that they reused my photo from my last voyage. Let's just say that it isn't a good photo of me at all.
It was then that we actually walked onto the ship. We entered through the deck 2 gangway and they scanned our ID.
It smelled like the ship. I don't think I ever realized the ship had a specific smell until I walked back onto it and it hit me like a train. The smell brought back a flood of memories, it was overwhelming.
We made our way up the stairs to the 6th deck where we went through multiple tables in the Union. They made sure we were fully paid, had our medical forms handed in, and had all of our Visas. They also had tables about academics and field programs in case we had any questions.
I didn't have any questions. I actually answered more questions than I asked. I hadn't really decided if I wanted to just come right out and tell people that I had sailed before or just act like one of the crowd. It turns out that people can tell you arn't new when you can give them perfect directions from one end of the ship to the other.
My first observation about the shipboard community is that there are an unnatural amount of guys over 6 ft tall. What is that about?! Everyone is so tall! And there's enough of them that I actually noticed that they are tall. It is weird. At least our basketball team will be pretty good this voyage. Ok, that's a sterotype but seriously, they are that tall.
By that point Jessi and I were starving. So we went to find out cabins so that we could dump our stuff. We went down to the third deck and then snaked our way through the ship towards 3103. We found it easily, it is right near the stairwell that leads right up to the dining rooms. But… 3102 was no where to be found. The ship is divided by odd and even numbers. Odd numbers on one side of the ship and even on the other. So Jessi's room was on the complete opposite side of the ship from me. Bum bum bummmm. We are not neighbors.
Also, my ID would not open my room. One of the stewards had to open it for me. My room is exactly the same, except this time I am on the inside so I don't have a window. It feels a lot less open and darker but I know I will get used to it. Molly had an inside room last time and I loved it so I'm not worried. My roommate got there before me because her backpack was on the bed. She claimed the side of the room that was mine last time so I will be opposite. My luggage wasn't there yet and neither was Jessi's so we went up to get food.
Lunch was only on deck 6 and as soon as we walked in and looked at what is was I turned to Jessi and said, "I'm tired of it already." She agreed.
It was a pretty terrible first meal. We were not impressed. I can't even remember what it was, it was that forgettable. There were roast beef sandwiches and while I usually love the sandwiches I did not like them. The bananas were really good though.
It was around this point that I started feeling off. I really just wish Molly was here. She and I were attached at the hip last time and it feels really weird to do things without her. Its just weird that the people are different. That I can't meet Lillian and Amanda and Marie for dinner and that Jessi isn't my roommate.
My roommate is really nice though, her name is Stephanie. She is quiet but we get along well so far. I don't know too much about her yet. Even after we ate our luggage wasn't there so we sat in Jessi's room and talked to her roommate while we waited for the lifeboat drill.
The drill was supposed to be at 4 but because of how long it took to get through immigration at the Mexican border all of the buses got there late and there were still students getting on the ship close to 4. The drill didn't happen until a bit after that. It was a a pretty normal drill. Except it was weird that Nathan wasn't there wearing his beanie and calling our cabin numbers. It also took forever because people didn't know what they were doing yet. Some got yelled at for talking while others got yelled at for wearing open toed shoes. It will get faster as time goes on and we all get used to it.
After that I found myself back in Jessi's room still waiting for our luggage to arrive. It was in this moment of downtime that the sadness washed over me. I was sad because Molly wasn't there and I was sad because I missed everyone at home. I just wanted to be alone to wallow in my sadness.
When the luggage arrived I did just that. I went back to my own cabin, unpacked, and let myself be sad.
Dinner was a little bit better than lunch but it still didn't impress me. At least there are bananas. We started movin during dinner so unlike in Southhampton no one was out on deck waving to us. It was a very unceremonious departure. But I didn't mind, everyone applauded in the dining room and that was enough for me.
After dinner we all went to opening convocation. We barely made it there, we were all falling asleep. Fitting almost the entire shipboard community is a challenge and we ended up on the floor in an aisle. They welcomed us, introduced the professors, and gave us information about orientation the next day. Our academic dean is british and so can talk to us as much as he wants, I also vote for him to be the one to make all the announcements. He talked to us about how Semester at Sea is an academical village and a living-learning community.
We went straight from opening convocation to our sea meetings. I am in the Red Sea and my RD is Morgan. She talked to us about laundry and safety and the schedule for the next day. She also had us sign up for shipboard families, which I did even though I could never replace my favorite moms Lori and Sarah! (Love you guys!)
I was appreciative of Morgan making our meeting short because even though it was only 9:30 I was exhausted. Returning to the ship was just as emotional as I thought it would be. I curled up in my little ship bed and hoped that I could sleep off the seasickness headache I already had.
Jessi and I woke up around 7 and managed to shower and shove all of our stuff back into our suitcases by a quarter of 8. I fit the majority of my art stuff in my duffles except for the stupid drawing board and the largest pads of paper. They told us we could only carry one small thing on the bus so I crossed my fingers and hoped that they would let me break the rules. Hey, I needed the stupid art stuff for my class, it wasn't like I was bringing it voluntarily.
We made fools of ourselves again trying to lug everything down to the lobby. We had Jessi's three suitcases and her backpack and my two large duffels, my backpack, camera case, and stupid drawing board. We shoved one of her suitcases in the elevator and while I was struggling to get my duffles through the door the elevator started with a scary sounding buzzer. It didn't like that we left the door open for so long. I stumbled in after my bag and the door closed with Jessi on one side and me on the other. "I'll meet you in the lobby!" She yelled through the door.
The elevator stopped on the 5th floor, which I didn't realize until I tripped over my bag getting out of the elevator and ran into two guys waiting to get on. They were both in uniform, my guess was that they came in on the huge battleship that was docked right next to the MV Explorer. They got in the elevator with me and when we reached the lobby they each took a suitcase and helped me get to the front desk. Jessi was really confused when she got out of the elevator and I wasn't waiting there for her.
The valet told me that we would be able to fit in a normal taxi and he was right. One of the bags had to go on the front seat but we made it work.
The Hilton lobby where we needed to gather was already bustling with people. We were instructed to leave our bags against a wall and head to a table to check in. I got in the line for last names N-Z and Jessi in the one including F. They checked me off on the sheet and then gave me a bunch of tags where I wrote my last name and room number: 3103. I needed one of every piece of my luggage including my stupid drawing board.
I went around to the other side of the table to where she was just finishing up as well. Her tags were in her hand. Her cabin number? 3102. I gasped and showed her mine. She freaked. It was better than roommates, we were neighbors! We were so excited.
They were really behind with the buses. We were supposed to be on the 8:15 bus and by 8:15 the 7:45 bus hadn't even left yet. We didn't even bring our luggage downstairs until almost 8:45. Everyone was holding starbucks and we were both starving so Jessi stood with the luggage while I went and explored to find it. The line was out the door and Jessi texted me that it was time to move our luggage when I wasn't even close to the front, so I abandoned the line. I guess we were going hungry.
They finally just told us to get on the 8:00 bus. We finally were loaded and on our way at 9:30. We were being taken across the border into Mexico to Ensenada where we would get on the ship. As far as I know the reason we had to embark in Mexico is because of our charter. Our charter allows us to only stop in the U.S one time so since we were going to Hawaii we needed to leave from somewhere other than the U.S. That is also why we end the voyage in England.
The ride was about two hours and about half an hour into the ride we reached the border. They came onto the bus and had us all fill out forms and then collected out passports and the forms. Half an hour later they came back and handed back our passports and we were on our way once again.
Our drive through Mexico was on a highway along the coast. And when I say along the coast I mean that we were on the two lane road and then there was a cliff and at the bottom of the cliff was the ocean. Oh, and the road was winding through the hills. Oh, and the speedometer on our bus was not working. I know this because we were sitting right behind the driver and the indicater rested comfortably at zero the entire time. To say it was thrilling is an understatement. I watched out bus driver extract his burrito and coke from a plastic bag, eat it and then put his garbage back in the bag. All the while driving with one hand and looking back and forth from what he was doing to the road. If we hadn't been on a cliff road I probably would have felt better about it but since I could sense my imminate death to our right side it was not the most comfortable drive.
We arrived to the ship at noon. Thankfully in one piece. Seeing the ship and the thought of getting back on it made me a little emotional. I've waited for this moment for so long, it still seems a bit surreal.
We unloaded and went right through port security. On the other side of it we had two tables to stop at. The first one was where we signed a form saying we hadn't shown any symptoms of Ebola. The second table was where we handed in our passports and received our shipboard ID. It was at that moment that I realized I hadn't turned in a photo of me for my shipboard ID which meant that they reused my photo from my last voyage. Let's just say that it isn't a good photo of me at all.
It was then that we actually walked onto the ship. We entered through the deck 2 gangway and they scanned our ID.
It smelled like the ship. I don't think I ever realized the ship had a specific smell until I walked back onto it and it hit me like a train. The smell brought back a flood of memories, it was overwhelming.
We made our way up the stairs to the 6th deck where we went through multiple tables in the Union. They made sure we were fully paid, had our medical forms handed in, and had all of our Visas. They also had tables about academics and field programs in case we had any questions.
I didn't have any questions. I actually answered more questions than I asked. I hadn't really decided if I wanted to just come right out and tell people that I had sailed before or just act like one of the crowd. It turns out that people can tell you arn't new when you can give them perfect directions from one end of the ship to the other.
My first observation about the shipboard community is that there are an unnatural amount of guys over 6 ft tall. What is that about?! Everyone is so tall! And there's enough of them that I actually noticed that they are tall. It is weird. At least our basketball team will be pretty good this voyage. Ok, that's a sterotype but seriously, they are that tall.
By that point Jessi and I were starving. So we went to find out cabins so that we could dump our stuff. We went down to the third deck and then snaked our way through the ship towards 3103. We found it easily, it is right near the stairwell that leads right up to the dining rooms. But… 3102 was no where to be found. The ship is divided by odd and even numbers. Odd numbers on one side of the ship and even on the other. So Jessi's room was on the complete opposite side of the ship from me. Bum bum bummmm. We are not neighbors.
Also, my ID would not open my room. One of the stewards had to open it for me. My room is exactly the same, except this time I am on the inside so I don't have a window. It feels a lot less open and darker but I know I will get used to it. Molly had an inside room last time and I loved it so I'm not worried. My roommate got there before me because her backpack was on the bed. She claimed the side of the room that was mine last time so I will be opposite. My luggage wasn't there yet and neither was Jessi's so we went up to get food.
Lunch was only on deck 6 and as soon as we walked in and looked at what is was I turned to Jessi and said, "I'm tired of it already." She agreed.
It was a pretty terrible first meal. We were not impressed. I can't even remember what it was, it was that forgettable. There were roast beef sandwiches and while I usually love the sandwiches I did not like them. The bananas were really good though.
It was around this point that I started feeling off. I really just wish Molly was here. She and I were attached at the hip last time and it feels really weird to do things without her. Its just weird that the people are different. That I can't meet Lillian and Amanda and Marie for dinner and that Jessi isn't my roommate.
My roommate is really nice though, her name is Stephanie. She is quiet but we get along well so far. I don't know too much about her yet. Even after we ate our luggage wasn't there so we sat in Jessi's room and talked to her roommate while we waited for the lifeboat drill.
The drill was supposed to be at 4 but because of how long it took to get through immigration at the Mexican border all of the buses got there late and there were still students getting on the ship close to 4. The drill didn't happen until a bit after that. It was a a pretty normal drill. Except it was weird that Nathan wasn't there wearing his beanie and calling our cabin numbers. It also took forever because people didn't know what they were doing yet. Some got yelled at for talking while others got yelled at for wearing open toed shoes. It will get faster as time goes on and we all get used to it.
After that I found myself back in Jessi's room still waiting for our luggage to arrive. It was in this moment of downtime that the sadness washed over me. I was sad because Molly wasn't there and I was sad because I missed everyone at home. I just wanted to be alone to wallow in my sadness.
When the luggage arrived I did just that. I went back to my own cabin, unpacked, and let myself be sad.
Dinner was a little bit better than lunch but it still didn't impress me. At least there are bananas. We started movin during dinner so unlike in Southhampton no one was out on deck waving to us. It was a very unceremonious departure. But I didn't mind, everyone applauded in the dining room and that was enough for me.
After dinner we all went to opening convocation. We barely made it there, we were all falling asleep. Fitting almost the entire shipboard community is a challenge and we ended up on the floor in an aisle. They welcomed us, introduced the professors, and gave us information about orientation the next day. Our academic dean is british and so can talk to us as much as he wants, I also vote for him to be the one to make all the announcements. He talked to us about how Semester at Sea is an academical village and a living-learning community.
We went straight from opening convocation to our sea meetings. I am in the Red Sea and my RD is Morgan. She talked to us about laundry and safety and the schedule for the next day. She also had us sign up for shipboard families, which I did even though I could never replace my favorite moms Lori and Sarah! (Love you guys!)
I was appreciative of Morgan making our meeting short because even though it was only 9:30 I was exhausted. Returning to the ship was just as emotional as I thought it would be. I curled up in my little ship bed and hoped that I could sleep off the seasickness headache I already had.
