SPAIN! (part one)

Spain. Was. Awesome. I can’t believe that four days can go by so fast. I am a journalist, so I will try and tell you as many details as I can and, keep in mind that that means this post (or possibly the next few posts, if I decide to break it in parts). I am also safely back on the ship and we’re headed to Gibraltar to refuel – I hope we get to see it from the deck.

We pulled into port Wednesday around 7 a.m. and I woke up early enough to get breakfast and watch the ship pull into the dock in Cadiz. I was so grateful to see something other than ocean, then, to actually to be able to get off the ship – that was even better! If you’re planning on traveling overnight off the ship, they recommend that you take your passport, so they call people by “seas,” which are like floors – I’m in the Mediterranean Sea – and after that you are allowed to disembark the ship. As soon as we were called I was packed and ready to go. I met Jordan and Shannon, who I was traveling with, in line to get off the ship and shortly after found Sara and Jane, who we had also planned to travel with. Sara and Jane are roommates on the ship and Jordan and Shannon are boyfriend/girlfriend from Connecticut. We walked through Cadiz and stopped to get some coffee, or café con leche, before heading to the train station. Then we got the train from Cadiz to Seville. On the train, a girl sat down near us while we were practicing our Spanish with a Spanish/English dictionary. Then she joined in on our conversation, which was a lot of fun! Her name was Cristina and she is a student in Seville, but is from Cadiz. She was helping us with our Spanish and we helped her with her English. She told us that she learned English after taking 9 years of English and French in grade school. So we talked then, when it was time to get off the train she even was nice enough to direct us to a taxi. That left all of us feeling good about our next few days in Spain.

We then settled into the hostel, which was actually really awesome. It was pretty modern with white marble-like floors and glass and steel stair railings as well as three computers with free internet, a nice lobby with lots of travel information, and a kitchen and rooftop terrace. We stayed in a room with three sets of bunk beds, so it was just the five of us until we came back from dinner and another girl traveling from South Korea took the sixth bed. Each bed also had a small safe in a bank of them outside each room that you could set a code to open and close. I really enjoyed our night there and was only disappointed that we couldn’t stay longer. We ventured out to see some sights in Seville, but ended up just wandering for most of the afternoon. We did see the Plaza de Espana, a huge building in a semi-circle shape that opens into a tiled plaza with a fountain, man-made waterway and bridges crossing them. Then we walked through one of the gardens of Seville to the cathedral there, except that we didn’t make it there before it closed at 5 p.m. But the outside was impressive by itself. We got some dinner and came back to the hostel after walking for a long time through the streets of Seville. We visited a department store, called El Corte Ingles (literally “The English Cut,” as in the English cut suit) that has a supermarket in the basement with housewares on the two upper floors. We bought some bread, queso manchego (“cheese of La Mancha”) and drinks and went back to the hostel. We enjoyed chatting and eating for a while, before deciding to go out again for some more tapas and retiring to the hostel once more.

On Thursday, we decided to go to Cordoba. We took the train from Seville to Cordoba shortly after getting some breakfast. After that we found the hotel, which was only a few more euro than the hostel. There we had two separate rooms, one that was a double and the other was a triple – and the bathrooms had bidets in them! (I meant to take a picture, but forgot). We wandered through Cordoba for a while, until finding the Mezquita (the “mosque”), which is actually now a cathedral. It was mind-boggling. The mosque was originally built in something like 732 and taken over as a cathedral in the 1200s. Really? I can’t even wrap my mind around something like that. They were doing some sort of work on one section of the building, so it seems like they’re continuously working on it. The sheer age of everything just is incomphrensible. The building is also enormous and is about 10 degrees colder than the outside. The huge arches throughout the entire inside are really cool looking because they’re striated in two different types of stone. If there’s anywhere Uncle Al is looking to vacation I would definitely recommend Spain, just for the religious relics and buildings. The entire building is also bordered on the inside by altars or shrines to matyrs and saints. Most of them were amazing portraits or statues in these sort of alcoves blocked off with wrought iron gates. The Mezquita also had a beautiful court yard with orange trees and this patterned stone pavement. It was probably the best thing I saw in the last four days.

There’s a bit of an update, although that’s not the whole trip. I will continue in the morning because I need some rest.

Photos!

Hey all - We're in Espana and the hostel we're at has FREE INTERNET! It's like nursing an old addiction, so I set up a photobucket account and hopefully this works, but you should be able to see some of my photos from Spain and the ship here:

http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv92/staceyfederoff/

It should work - sorry that the captions are sparse, I was trying to be quick. Hope you enjoy!

We had fun - walked all day after meeting a girl from Cadiz on the train and speaking to her back and forth in broken English and broken Spanish. We are going out in a bit to get dinner, which is actually really late in Spain because they take time for tapas and then lunch and THEN dinner.

Perhaps in Morocco I'll post pictures from Spain? haha.

Land ho!!!

We stopped!! I got up early enough to see the ship pull into the dock and watch the sun rise over Cadiz. I'm soooo excited to get off the ship! Hooray Cadiz! It was so awesome to finally see the city lights and skyline this morning. They're starting to call people to get their passports, so I'm gonna get ready to go! Yay!

ESPANA manana!

So, I’m all packed and ready for our first port – ESPANA! Or, Spain, for those of you still in the Eastern Standard time zone. We should be arriving at the port at around 8 a.m., receiving our passports at 8:30 a.m., then we have to wait for the ship to be “clear” after everyone has them. So, I should be in ESPANA around 9 a.m. tomorrow and all of you guys – except for maybe Katie – will still be asleep. My group’s plan is to meet outside the ship off the gangway and walk to the train or bus station (which, we were told only takes a couple minutes) in Cadiz. There will be five of us, four girls and one guy – two girls who are roommates, a couple and me. From there we will hop on some sort of transportation to Seville. We plan to stay there for one or two days, depending on if we feel we’ve seen enough things there, if not we were thinking of going to Cordoba. Then, the last two days, we were going to save some money and just come back to Cadiz so we can sleep on the ship Friday night, go back out to Cadiz on Saturday and be prepared for the ship to leave Saturday evening. I’m so excited! I don’t know if I’m as excited as first getting on the ship, but I can’t wait to finally see land again! I packed tonight so I could get up in the morning and go get breakfast in order to hopefully catch sight of the sunrise or land when it comes in to view. We’ll see if that works.

In the last few days, I’ve just had some normal (if you can call it that – we’re on a ship! How’s that for normal!) happenings. Going to class, eating with friends, studying and continuously still meeting new people. There was a meeting last night about starting an a capella group. I went and really enjoyed it. We set up two groups, one that is all women (since there were more women interested) and one that is co-ed, which has three men and about eight women. I decided to go with the co-ed group, which christened itself the “Sound Waves.” Clever, eh? We just introduced ourselves and sang the Star Spangled Banner together, but the ship has some sheet music in the library and one girl is a music major, so she might arrange some songs for us to sing. It should be fun!

We also had mandatory meetings, which are pre-port cultural and logistical meetings about Spain, tonight and last night. The speaker talked a lot about food, some of the festivals (but we won’t be there for any of them) and the night life. On the logistical end, the water and food are safe to eat and drink, because we’re in Western Europe. We were told that there are some pickpockets and petty thieves that target tourists, especially around ATMs, so we have to watch out for that. Otherwise, Spain should be lots of fun. I have to remember to work on some of my projects for class – all three of my classes want us to observe and find out about certain things in each port to apply to papers and such in the subject matter. For example, in English as a Global Language, we’re supposed to take notes and talk to someone about the use of English in Spain (granted that they speak English at all, I guess! Haha). I also need to remember to pick up a few things – maybe some free maps, postcards, menus, etc. – for the Vicarious Voyage program.

Visitamos Espana manana! Hooray! Buenos noches!

I'm All Thumbs

Today was another day at sea – got up on time, hooray! I went to breakfast and then to both of my morning classes. I came back to the room and set my stuff down and went into the bathroom. In a moment of absent-mindedness I grabbed the door jamb to keep my balance and…the door swung back and jammed my thumb. Oh, man…what an idiot – they warned us the first day about this. The doors are heavy so that they do swing shut, for safety and all that. The captain actually told us that people lose fingers that way. That was my first thought as I was trying to run cold water over my throbbing thumb but, thankfully, it was moving OK. My next reaction was to run down stairs to the second deck where the medical clinic is. But, of course, they were closed, so I ran up to the fifth deck at the Purser’s Deck, where we’re supposed to go in case of an emergency. They paged the physician who came and looked at it and said, “Yeah, you can move it so it’s not broken. Take some Advil.” So, that was reassuring. I kept ice on it for the next couple hours and it didn’t seem to swell too much and it’s actually not extremely black and blue, even though it still hurts a little bit. The funniest part about the whole thing is that the next time I checked my e-mail, Mom had sent me a message asking about a cough I had last week when I left: “How is your cough? You know how I worry.” Haha. So, no worries, right, Ma?

This evening there was a meeting about the “Vicarious Voyage” program that the SAS program runs. They have K through 12 classrooms that we correspond with over the course of the semester and send fun things from the ports so the kids can learn a little more about each of them. You were given the opportunity to be matched with a classroom near you before the trip began, but I just signed up the other night at the activity fair they had on the ship. Here, it turns out, one of the guys I know who is also from Penn State, Colin, was signed up with a group from Pittsburgh. He saw me without a group and suggested I join his. I looked at the address of the school – it’s a Pittsburgh address, but the teacher’s email address is “phsd,” so I think it’s in Penn Hills. How cool is that? So, we’re required to send them three “cultural packets” in 11”x14” envelopes and they’ll also send us some mail. It should be fun.

I also made some plans with some of the people I met the first night in the Bahamas – I didn’t really make too many plans for Spain, because there wasn’t anything in particular I wanted to see. There are four girls, including me, and one dude, who will be in our group. We plan to go to Seville for one or two days, maybe make it to Cordoba, then spend our last two days in Cadiz, the port city where the ship will be. There was also a presentation tonight by one of the professors about dining in Spain, so he gave us some good tips and Spanish vocabulary words that we can use when we get there. I think they should be pretty helpful!

I saw another ship today on the horizon, which was odd, because there hasn't been the sight of one the entire trip. Someone else mentioned another ship today too. I need to remember to take some sunrise/sunset at sea pictures for Dad. We’re moving the clock forward again tonight, so I will now be four hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

Adjusting, even though this is a weird place to adjust to

Guess what? I got up on time today! It was great – I got up, got a shower in our tiny little bathroom and went to breakfast.

The bathroom is as big as a good-sized closet. And because we’re in one of the refurbished crew cabins, the shower is only separated from the bathroom in one corner by a 3-inch high piece of metal meant to stop the water and the shower curtain is attached to the wall on one side. The first day I didn’t realize it wasn’t that good at keeping the water in the shower corner and my shirt sitting on the floor of the bathroom got soaked. But, I hung it on the bunk bed ladder and it did eventually dry.

Anyway, it was nice, because the sun was just rising as I was sitting down for breakfast. I might forget that I’m on a ship every once and a while, mostly while I’m immersed in some reading or something like that, but every time I look out and see the churning water and endless horizon, I honestly can’t believe this ship even exists. How can we be eating breakfast sausage and eggs in the middle of the ocean? They have a frozen yogurt machine on the seventh deck. And a computer lab on the sixth deck. And treadmills on the seventh deck. How is that even possible! We’re in the middle of the ocean! It just really makes me appreciate the crew and the staff and everybody running this 24 ton ship. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that food just magically appears for every meal, yet there’s no land visible for days in any direction. It’s crazy and amazing. And I can’t believe I’m a part of it.

There was an open mic night tonight. A bunch of people played guitars, a couple sang, one kid who I met at dinner a few nights ago played a melodica, which is like a flute-like harmonica thing with a keyboard on it, and he was hilarious. One girl rapped and one of the kids on the ship sang a Dean Martin song, which earned him a standing ovation from the nearly full Union – it was really cute. The thing that impressed me – and echoed the Executive Dean’s words on the first night – was that everybody was really positive about the people performing. Even when a couple of the kids screwed up or forgot the words to the song, everybody clapped and cheered. It was great. This whole environment as been positive and outgoing and friendly, I love it.

I turned in my final paper to register for trip in the ports for the first half of the trip. I signed up for a few things. I figured if I decided to change my plans, they have a system to buy/sell day trips, so I wanted to err on the side of signing up for too many, rather than signing up for too few.
I’m sure I’ll tell you all about them when I do the trips, so I don’t want to give anything away!

We are now three hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, for those of you keeping track at home. Strangely we didn’t have to set the clocks forward tonight, but I should still get to bed so I can get my breakfast record to two days in a row!

P.S. Let me remind all of you to EMAIL ME! Emails are slowly weaning me from checking the internet constantly because it costs money, so I check my email religiously. I prefer medium to long messages, but a short email will do just fine – and I promise to email you back as soon as I can. :o)

Finally Some Normalcy?

Today really wasn’t that eventful, although it started out badly. I swear I set my alarm last night. I had it all planned out: I got a shower yesterday night so that I could sleep in at least a little bit before going to class again at 8 a.m. today. Well that didn’t work out so well when I finally woke up and it was 8:30. AGH! 8:30! Luckily though, unlike Penn State where everything is basically a 10- to 15-minute walk, this is just a climb up three flights of stairs. Thankfully, because this was our first B day, I didn’t miss much – our professor was just going over the syllabus, talking about sociology, etc. I still feel terrible about it – I’m not usually one to miss class, even though am I occasionally a little late :oP. After that the day improved. Nothing really noteworthy – I’m finalizing the trips I want to go on, since the paper is due tomorrow. I tried to do a little research about Spain. I was reading about Cadiz, our port city, and about Barcelona, since I think that might be where I’d like to go. I kind of was interested in seeing the Rock of Gibraltar, until I realized that the area around it is actually considered British land even though it’s on the tip of Spain. Other than that, I’m pretty much up for anything in Spain.

Did I mention that there’s one girl I met that has the exact same schedule as me? Her name is Blair and she goes to the University of Miami for…guess what? Journalism! She seems pretty easy to get along with, so I think I’m going to try and plan some things in Spain with her. Blair and I both signed up today to see a Flamenco performance with out English professor, one of the class-specific trips, or FDPs – field directed practica.

I also talked to a couple a few times, Jordan and Shannon, and I might try and see what their planning to do in port because they seemed pretty well traveled. They are from Connecticut and Jordan has couch surfed in Europe – which is where you find people on the internet who will let you sleep on their couch for a night or two while you’re traveling. They seem pretty open-minded, so maybe I can tag along with whatever group they’re getting together.

About that class, “Our Nomadic Urge to Travel in Peace.” The professor seems like the interesting English-professor type that won’t just lecture us into the ground, but he also was a little crazy spouting off obscure theories of teaching and quoting some random mystical stuff about ways of thinking. We’re going to be working on a “mulit-writing” project, which I understand to be more like a collage or a assemblage of writings as well as things we pick up in the countries all centered around a theme of some kind. It was a little overwhelming for the first day, but that’s how classes like his usually are.

Today’s Global Studies, which was before English, was far more interesting than the first class. We talked about the Caribbean and the three professors that spoke did a good job of covering the background of the island group briefly – talking about the discovery by Columbus, the sugar industry there, which eventually gave way to the slave trade. The class even discussed pirates (who, actually, did drink a lot of rum but didn’t bury treasure or make people walk planks). So it was interesting and informative (and infinitely more exciting than yesterday’s class). I did get a better seat right next to a monitor, so I could take notes more easily today.

It’s odd that our rooms are on the inside of the ship, so then it’s always pitch black without the lights, which is part of the reason I’m having trouble waking up in the morning. Our cabin, the little Hobbit Hole it is, doesn’t make for much of a comfortable place, but I wish I could come back to it for a little more of a haven. It also doesn’t help that my roommate, Liz, is never here because she’s usually with her boyfriend. I guess I just need to adjust and get more acquainted with people and everything will turn out well.

First Day of Class

So, I had planned on getting up bright and early at 6:30 for class so that I could get a shower and go to breakfast this morning before class at 8 a.m., but I guess it makes a difference when your room is pitch black without the light on, no matter what time of day it is. I hit the snooze button a few times before I even realized what I was doing. And then it was 7:20. Oh, well. I have a few more days at sea to get it right.

I did make it to class on time, however, which is more than I can say for everyone in my first class. Two people came in late, haha. The schedule works on an A/B system, which means the days have an alphanumeric numbering, so today was A1, tomorrow is B1, the next day is A2, the day after that is B2, etc., etc. Except that everyone takes Global Studies every day, regardless of whether it’s an A or B day. My 8 o’clock class is Linguistics 200: English as a Global Language. It should prove to be interesting. My professor is from the UK and remarked while taking attendance about my Russian name, later telling us that he is fluent in a few languages, including Russian and also taught Russian in Canada. Pretty cool. We’re required to keep a journal in port and remark on our interactions with the usages and non-usages of the English language, interviewing people and making observations (Hmm…that sounds like some other job I’ve had).

After that was Global Studies, which everyone on the ship, including Lifelong Learners, children and families of the professors, etc. have to attend. I was in a bad spot today and couldn’t see the main screen with the PowerPoint on it very well, so I’ll hafta get a better seat tomorrow. Anyway, our professor for that one seems a little eclectic. He has shoulder-length silver hair that kind of reminds me of Gandalf or Dumbledore without a beard, but he has a hippie look about him because he wears the round glasses like John Lennon did. BUT, his class today was boring. :o( I’m hoping it was just an introduction and it will get better from here. He talked about the transfer of energy in ecosystems from the sun to plants to animals to humans. I’m pretty sure I learned that from Bill Nye in middle school and I don’t know how that relates to global studies directly, but I’m interested in the rest of the course. We’re supposed to discuss each of the ports before we get there with a little bit of cultural and historical background. We will also be having other professors speak about the countries as well, almost like guest speakers.

After class I ate lunch and instead of trying to find someone who I could sit with, which is what I have been doing otherwise, I just sat by myself outside on the deck and watched the waves go by. There are two dining rooms, both in the rear of the ship, or aft, one on Deck 5 and one on Deck 6. The one on Deck 6 is technically the main dining room, although they both serve the same food and both have outside areas attached to them. Because I’m so used to it from school, it’s weird to me that they don’t close the dining rooms they just take away the food. The space is available throughout the day to study and talk and pass through to the outside decks.

They opened the campus store today, so it was really busy with people trying to get t-shirts and sweatshirts and various other things, like mugs, key chains, pins, and bandannas for example, imprinted with Semester at Sea, its logo and the like. I actually had a few minutes before my first class to go in and buy a green water bottle with the logo on it (I have a water bottle, but it has a filter attached to it to be used in the ports, and the straw makes a whistle-y noise when you tilt it). I also had to get a shirt with “Spring 2009 Voyage” across the front and all the flags of the places we’re going. If anyone wants anything from the store, let me know and I’ll get it for you. They had all kinds of different t-shirts and sweats, so I’m sure I could find you something, but then again, I imagine it’s not as cool to have one if you haven’t gone on the trip. :oP Either way, let me know.

There was also an activities fair this evening. It was pretty much organized chaos with a tiny ring of tables in the Union and 700 students trying to sign up for activities. They had various tables set up, one for a battle of the bands, one for academic study groups and tutoring, one for helping organize intramural sports and exercise classes, just to name a few. I signed up for the Students of Service, which apparently does service projects or something, I dunno, sounded up my alley. I also wanted to look into the Vicarious Voyage program, which pairs us with an elementary school class and we send them back things and write to them about our travels. The only other thing I signed up for was the Extended Family program (so did practically everyone else I talked to – their sign-up list was huge), which pairs students with Lifelong Learners and other students to create a “family” or sorts. Sounded interesting.

I need to finalize some field programs if I want to go on them – things like a Japanese homestay and program on socioeconomic problems in India. The Dark Knight was playing in the Union, but I had seen it a few times, so I passed on that and got a jump on some reading for class.

I'm aboard!! And trying to save internet minutes!

EDIT: Sorry...I said time for bed at the bottom for a reason...I wrote this three times because I didn't save it in my email last night - and sent it to the wrong place. Because I was tired I wrote sjfederoff@semesteratsea.COM, but it should be .NET. So, SJFEDEROFF@SEMESTERATSEA.NET So Jamie, send that email to me again.
------------------

Ahhhhh! This is so freaking awesome!! I'm on the ship!

I got up ate some breakfast at the hotel, caught a cab with two other SAS guys (even though it was only a few blocks our crap was heavy), then stood in line with them for around two hours. It went quick though, since we just chatted with each other and the other SASers in front and behind us. I had met both of them the night before at the hotel, and they both seemed like cool dudes. As we were waiting, some staff members with the Semester at Sea were coming by telling us to make sure we had our passports handy. And, as the three of us were looking for them, one of the guys, Brendan, says, "Oh no, I forgot my passport!" Luckily enough, because the line was so long, he had enough time to take a cab back to the hotel and find it -- in the night table drawer with his iPod (AGH! I'm glad he found that, too!) -- and get back in line with us. We were nice enough to scoot his bags up with ours while the line was moving.

Then, we finally got on the ship! First, we got name tags and luggage tags with our cabin numbers on them. Next, we headed through the security scanners so they could screen our bags. Then, we were given our SAS ID cards -- mine is kinda messed up since they used my not-so-good passport photo and it turned out stretched across the card and my ID number was written on a piece of tape covering where it says "Rank" instead of "ID #". Oh well, it's still pretty cool! Then we waited in line to get everything checked before we got on the ship. You have to swipe your ID card every time you get on and off the ship. And the crew screens you each time you get on the ship, so you don't carry any prohibited items on to the ship. Then, we went to the Union (it's more like a large auditorium -- but cruise-style with little swivel armchairs and big bench couches) where they had a bunch of stations set up where they handed us paperwork to make sure we finished paying our tuition and registered for any more trips and were given health insurance cards. Then I got to find my room! It was so exciting, except, because my room is a newly-refurbished crew cabin, so I couldn't get in using my ID card (which is what many of the regular cabins use), so I had to get a regular key with my room number on it from the Purser's Desk, which is pretty much like the bursar and they do administrative things. So, I ran back down to the cabin and started unpacking.

I actually first said hello to my roommate, Liz, when I was in the Union checking in. She was seated at one of the tables handing out papers and said, "Hey, you're my roommate!" But, because she is doing work study, I got to come back to the room and unpack by myself, which was nice because our room's pretty small. It's maybe half the size of a room in Pollock or East at Penn State. We don't have desks, like they do and our room has a bunk bed (Liz claimed the bottom bunk before I even had a chance, since the work study students had to get on the ship a day earlier than everyone else). We have a bathroom with all the usual amenities, a TV that gets six channels -- one showing the boat's position and announcements, two or three others showing movies and one or two that are turned off unless there's something on the closed-circuit TV that broadcasts from the Union to the satellite classrooms (I believe there are four of them) because the Union's not big enough to hold everyone. Anyway, there's also a fridge, one wardrobe with a door and section for each of us, three drawers under the bottom bunk, a set of four drawers next to the bed, above that there's a shelf and a bulletin board.

Then, just as I was about down unpacking, Liz came back to the cabin and said she was heading off to find her mom and brother who had come down to the Bahamas with her, so we both walked down and off the ship and chatted a little more. She went on to the hotel and I just wandered around for a bit. I left her right in front of the Straw Market, a weird flea-market type place under one huge tent. Each vendor had a tiny slice of each aisle, so all of their stall were about 10 feet tall. And they were selling tourist stuff, mostly. I believe I read somewhere it's called the Straw Market since many of them make and sell straw baskets, but they also sell much more expensive baskets -- knock-off designer purses. I just walked through and took a few photos, although many of the local Bahamian women were trying to get me to buy something. Then, I was walking around by the dock and asked a woman where I could get a newspaper and she gave me directions to a pharmacy about two blocks away. I find the Bahamas extremely interesting. I believe I read somewhere what percentage of the industry there is tourism; I can't remember the exact number, but it's at least half. And it's a weird atmosphere that made me a little cynical about the whole place. I mean, sure there's a Hard Rock Cafe there (I walked in and decided to buy a pin), but there's also buildings that are totally empty, shacks in the shadow of giant resorts and a general feeling of disconnect between the tourists and the locals.

I was glad when it finally time to get on the ship again, although, I regret that I was and am currently surrounded by water, but didn't get to go into it, or even put my feet in, while I was in the Bahamas.

I unpacked, which was easy because I met my roommate while we were checking in -- she's doing work study -- so she wasn't around while I unpacked. Then, she came back to the room and we chatted for a bit while we got off the ship. We were allowed to do that as long as we were back by 2:30. Then we got back on the boat and did the lifeboat drill. Then we shoved off!! Or embarked, or whatever...anyway, it was awesome!! All the parents were on the dock waving and they just got smaller and smaller and smaller...until you couldn't see the Bahamas at all anymore. While we were watching the islands disappear, I met a few girls (one who's in 3 classes with me and a journalism major!) and we noticed they were serving dinner, so we went and ate together. Then, we had an orientation meeting where we were introduced to the dean, the captain, the senior crew and the clinic staff.

After that we met with out living-learning coordinator (like an RA) and our "sea,", which is basically our section of the ship down the hallway with even numbered cabins. We're the Mediterranean Sea, and the others are like the Agean, the Adriatic, the Yellow Sea, etc. Jason, our "LLC," did two exercises, one where we lined up according to our rooms and the other where we lined up by hometown in the shape of a map. I was sooooo tired, physically and mentally, so nothing else too exciting after that. I slept good, except Liz got up in the middle of the night and didn't close the door the whole way we she was done, so it was whapping back and forth and woke me up earlier than my alarm. The shower was nice, a good temperature and pressure, except, since our showers are only delineated from the bathroom by a 2-inch high piece of metal and a shower curtain I didn't realize that water would go everywhere. It's OK though, only my shirt for the day got all wet.

The rest of the entire day was almost all orientation, separated by meals and the INAUGURATION! I went to breakfast with Liz (and her boyfriend and his roommate) and to lunch with a girl I met at the broadcast of the inauguration, Grace and sat down randomly to dinner with two guys, Johnathan, who, it turns out, is a good piano player, and Isiah.

The inauguration was awesome!! It was so cool to be able to see such an historic moment, even though we're in the middle of the ocean. All the computers on the ship had to be turned off so we could receive the broadcast well enough. I loved seeing all those crazy people there in D.C. Later tonight, they threw an inauguration celebration with fruits and cake and deserts along with sparkling cider. Then I went out on the deck a little bit, because I had been feeling a little dizzy and not-so-right for a while, but I think that helped.

Now I need to get some sleep! We're turning the clocks ahead one hour, which I hadn't really thought about until someone brought it up yesterday, but I don't think I'll ever be able to get ahead! I have two classes tomorrow, the first one, English as a global language at 8 a.m. and the next one, Global Studies, at 9:20 a.m.

A note on why there aren't any pictures:
I'm allowed free e-mail, but you're not allowed to have them over 50 KB. Which, sadly means text but no pictures, so that's why you don't see them here. I'm trying the feature that can go directly from email to posting on your blog, so hopefully this works! Also, I'm getting my e-mail from PSU and G-mail forwarded to this account now which, I CAN NOW CONFIRM IT IS SJFEDEROFF@SEMESTERATSEA.NET. So send me lots of e-mails!!! I would also like to ask that you send me your email address if you expect to get emails from me -- I can't remember everyone's.  :-(

Time for bed. E-MAIL ME!

Flying and waiting to be on the BOAT

I was told by an older gentlemen, labeled as an uncle with "a zest for life," that after touring the MV Explorer, our ship, that we're no longer allowed to call it a "boat". It's a "ship". (They had a parents' dinner and tour tonight for family)More to come on that when I get to see it tomorrow!

It has been an interesting day. First of all, GO STEELERS! I wore my Steelers shirt today while flying (I saw a Steelers-themed plane parked next to my connecting flight in Charlotte) and will faithfully wear it during the SUPER BOWL! :o) We'll be at sea - so maybe they'll have it on TV? I actually met a few guys and a girl from Pittsburgh. One guy's dad actually grew up in Sutersville! (Mom: ask Pap if he knows who Mae Keegan is.)

Anyway, rewinding to this morning. The whole family got up bright and early to take me to the airport with my ginormous bags. It was uneventful - except that the hockey bag was 65 pounds! Haha - that's good for four months. And I mistook my receipt for a boarding pass. And that paved the way for the rest of day to be without mistakes. I met the girl I chatted with on Facebook, Audrey, and we got on the flight to Charlotte, then once we got off that flight, we scarfed down an Italian hoagie we split before getting on our connecting flight to Nassau.

As we were descending toward Nassau, I noticed two other girls near me who were about my age and asked if they were on the Semester at Sea - and, of course, they were. So, we had to wait in a really long line to get through customs (which basically consisted of someone stamping my passport) and chatted and did introductions. I shared a cab with a those SASers, then settled down at the hotel, only to find the NFL on TV, enough to watch the Eagles lose (sorry, Tim). Lots of SASers were here at the Towne Hotel (which isn't anything "to write home about" but is a place to sleep) and many were hanging out in the lobby, so the standard greeting became - "Semester at Sea?" We exchanged a lot of names I might forget, but among them, it seems, are some pretty cool people. I met one guy watching the Steelers/Ravens game from Baltimore. And I already mentioned the guy who's dad grew up in Sutersville. Crazy. One girl from Iowa. Some from Colorado. Some from California. Some guys from Boston. I think that's the think that makes it a little complicated - I have to remember where people are from and what school they go to AND their name! But everybody realizes that we'll probably forget. Among my conversations I also met a couple people in the same classes as me, and two on the same deck as me. Hopefully I'll remember some names, but I think once we're 700 packed on a ship I'll see people a lot more often.

The nervousness is gone. I'm soooo excited for tomorrow. Bright and early checking in at 8:40. I can't wait.

Leaving TODAY (well, tomorrow)

I am all packed and ready to leave in the morning. It's so weird that after all the planning that I've done for this trip I'm finally about to leave. I can't believe it.

Here are the two huge bags I'll be taking...



I'm so nervous. I can't wait to go. I'm really excited.

I'm so grateful to have this amazing opportunity. I want to say thank you to my mom and dad -- I'm so blessed that they are understanding and supportive enough to let me take a four month journey across the globe. I also want to mention my Uncle Marty -- without him I might be normal, instead of following through with crazy, crazy things like this. And my grandma -- she was such a supportive, inspirational person and I think about her almost every day. I wish I could be sharing my experiences with her, but I know she'll be there in spirit. And, I wish I could share stories with my great-grandma, G-ma Alice, who once also took trips overseas and used to regale me as an awestruck child with tales about all the artifacts that she brought back. She also is part of the reason I can take such a journey -- she faithfully gave savings bonds for every special ocassion, and I find it only fitting that she inadvertently has funded most of my trip. To all, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, I should get some rest before beginning my adventure! I'll miss you all. My next post should be after leaving the below 30-degree weather in southwestern Pennsylvania and safely landing in the 70-plus degree weather in the Bahamas.

Shorter hair...and amount of time left at home. (One week to go!)

I knew that I couldn't take my 17-inch ponytail with me on this trip. It would just get in the way and was about time I got it cut anyway (My last haircut was about two years ago). So I went from this...



With this...



To this!!



Ahh!!! It's so different and weird, but it's just the appropriate change for this trip. I planned on putting my hair up in a scarf for some of the travel in the ports, so this short hair will be much easier to allow for that. When it's in a ponytail I get used to it and forget that it's short, but when it's down, I miss my security blanket and still haven't gotten used to it not being there.



Also, earlier this week I went back to the travel clinic. Since the SAS itinerary changed, I wanted to make sure I didn't need any other vaccinations, which, it turns out, I didn't. Mom took me shopping this week, too, and we bought a few shirts that were actually made for fly-fishing, I believe. They're made of nylon and have a vented back and sleeves for hot weather. I sent away for a heavy-duty iPod case, a vinyl skin for my laptop, and some breathable shoes that will dry quickly, in case I get them wet. So, in my final stages of preparation, I also got my phone updated with the World Traveler option (yeah, that's me... :-D ) and am ordering a cheap phone to use, so I don't lose my good one. I'm also planning on getting currency from the bank from each of the countries we're visiting (who knew you could do that?), as well as picking up things like shampoo and such that I need to get before taking on the daunting task of packing!

And, it's really, really strange that all my friends went back to Penn State this weekend and I didn't! Good luck to everyone in State College this semester!

Mom and Amy also created this map on the fridge to track my progress during the trip...lolz:



It's me on the ship! :o)




A note on communicating with me:

DO NOT CALL MY CELL PHONE. It will probably end up costing me and/or you too much money.

It will be best to email me during the trip. The Semester at Sea provides everyone with an e-mail address. Mine will most likely be sjfederoff@semesteratsea.net, but I will confirm that once I am totally sure. I have also set up my G-mail account to receive my Penn State account's email, which will then forward it to my Semester at Sea account, if that makes any sense.
Anyways...send it to either:

sjf5034@psu.edu
staceyfederoff@gmail.com or
sjfederoff@semesteratsea.net (once I'm actually on the ship - like I said, I will confirm this)

I won't be on the Internet a lot, because the Semester at Sea only allows the participants a limited amount of free time on the Web, because of the large number of students and the poor connection or something like that, I can't remember. Regardless, I will only have 125 free minutes on the Internet (excluding a few sites like the SAS e-mail, this blog, and a few others as far as I know), after that the ship charges for extra minutes. So, I will not be able to use Skype, update Facebook very often or hang around on AIM or G-chat. I might use the internet a little in the ports, but I don't plan on taking my laptop with me every time I get off the ship.

OR you can leave a comment on this blog! I would love to know everyone who is reading the blog, so that I can keep you all in my thoughts and answer questions if I forget to write about something.

OR if it is an emergency or something timely, please call my house (I can email you the number, or you can look it up under my dad's name, Joseph, we're in the book) and hopefully someone will answer or get back to you. Or, e-mail my mom at suefed@comcast.net and she will act as my secretary. :o)

OR you can refer to my earlier post and send me a letter at one of the ports. This is the document with our schedule and the port agents' addresses if you'd like to send me anything. Note that it is recommended to NOT send packages because of customs. But, if you can plan ahead far enough, I enjoy letters and postcards and things of that sort. :o)


Gifts

I'd also like to use this post to take requests for reasonable gifts. Let me know the country you would like a gift from and I will try to remember to get you something while I'm there. If you would like anything specific, please let me know about that, and if it is more money than I am willing to spend, then I will request that you either give me money for it within the next week or pay me back when I get home. Request gifts by leaving me a comment here or sending me an e-mail.