sunshine all day!

So overall today has been pretty wonderful! And this is because it was not really windy and dark, but warm and sunny! So I sat out a lot today and (tried) to get some homework done, I actually think I’m kind of burnt as the sun out in the middle of the ocean nearer the equator is probably a lot more intense than my Midwest sun that I’m used to. (so it’s a good thing I brought that aloe even though half of it spilled in my suitcase) But it was just really perfect, because it was warm but not hot because of the wind and perfect sun.

OH! By the way we left from San Diego CA not San Francisco (which I spelled wrong anyway), but I guess documentation of this stat the captain wanted to throw us into being used to ship life, so we were going at full speed (30knots) at the beginning and now we’re doing much less, today about 13! And it’s really calm and wonderful, like the ocean is purple it’s so blue! And behind our ship (it’s a ship not a boat I guess) it’s this really light aqua blue, it’s cool. I think I’ve decided I’m going to keep all my classes, half the ship is dropping and adding and I don’t really want to deal with it.

my architecture teacher is this hilarious incredibly ancient woman who we saw fall asleep the first night of lectures and she’s going to be hard, she’s really hard to hear and has already assigned a lot of homework, – also rumor has it she’s a genius! She invented some part of the Suez Canal, that helps… I have no idea but I’ll let you know when I find out. She’s lived everywhere and seems like she knows (or at one point knew, she seems a little loopy) a lot, after one class I can already give you a run down on some basic physics involved in architecture… kind of. My Globalization Macro class teacher is really very funny and does not seem too hard, also this class has a lot of hot guys in it. haha, I’m going to keep the philosophy class because even though it’s completely pointless for me it will be good to do some deep thinking and a discussion orientated class will be good for making friends (and hopefully not enemies!). Anyway I feel like I am learning A LOT. My mom said this school would probably be really easy because the teachers are here to see the world but University of Virginia just took full control of SAS this summer (rather than partial which they have been the past 2 years), and they decided they really wanted to up the academic reputation and all that, it’s pretty intense but also I guess you just learn a lot because traveling and meeting new people you learn a lot about yourself, and also it’s really easy to get interested and really learn about issues and history of places that you’re going to be in soon! Right now in Global Studies we’re learning some overall stuff and also views of Americans from different countries… which is good so I don’t get myself killed somewhere.

Today was also good because I found out I did get the field trips I wanted! In China I will be in Beijing and in Xi’an and in India I will be doing it all! Seeing the Taj Mahall and Delhi and Veranasi… where the holy river is! Please don’t judge my spelling, it’s horrible. Ahhhh but it’s very exciting to know where I’ll be going. All have to worry about is planning Japan and Hawaii. But I’m making more friends, I met another girl from DePaul tonight and there are two boys from DePaul in 2 of my classes!

Life on here is definitely easy to get used to. We have these swipe cards, which are like magic, as they are the only way to pay for things and seemingly without consequence. I’m pretty impressed with the prices of things though, really they could charge us a ton of money but a massive bottle of water is $1.50, a bag of pretzels are the same price, I got a (really really good) smoothie today for $3.50. but I don’t want to get out of control as this little card can buy me things like pedicures and haircuts and massages from the spa as well… haha I’ll just say, “well mom I had to buy another book! French Manicure was the name of it.” Anyway it is on MY credit card but yeah. Today outside was really really nice. And I was out of class by 10:35 so I guess that helped, it’s funny because my only time commitment was my 1-2pm exercise appointment, and I felt like I had a lot to do. Haha. By the way today I did the elliptical and it was a lot less nauseous process than the treadmill. Also we had lunch with some life long learners, whom are old(er) people on the boat along for the trip and they sit in on some classes. It was interesting/nice to talk to some adults but they made me mad because they’ve been all over the world a lot and Hawaii 7 or 8 times, and all the countries on our trip except Egypt and uh, I just felt like it wasn’t fair. But maybe some day that will be me?? We’ll see.

tonight we retard our clocks another hour! To retard is the proper maritime terminology for setting back one’s clocks when traveling through time zones. So we retarded the clocks last night and will do so again tonight. I really think that traveling around the world in the direction I am going is the only way to do it, we get to sleep an hour later almost each day, going in the opposite direction I’m not sure I’d make it, breakfast closes every day at 8:30am and though I eventually hope to teach myself to eat less than I am in this first, getting comfortable on ship week, I am allowing myself to eat… what I need to.

So now this is quite long and as much as you miss me you’re probably not even reading this! So my cell phone currently reads “cellular at sea” which is cute and funny and means I’ve been receiving (but cannot send) text messages! And have gotten a bunch from my mom which make me very happy and I’m not sure I’d be alive without them, I might have thrown myself off the back. Miss you! :( :( :( now I'm going to bed because it's 10pm and I am TIRED. haha. But I bet Brett, my roomate, and I will chat and chat instead.

on the ship!

Here I am my second full day on the ship! It’s really VERY nice. My room is much bigger than I thought it would be (I could have packed more clothes… though maybe not). Everything is really pretty cool, I had my first day of classes today, my teachers were really funny and I’m thinking I might stay in all of them. I think I’m finally getting used to the back and forth of everything, I only really have felt sick twice and once was earlier today when I was on the treadmill, which was an experience that as soon as I got off I told myself I would never do again, though hopefully I’ll forget that by tomorrow. The food is really good! Which is bad. My roomate is nice, she’s really friendly and funny, so that’s good. People have been really really friendly in general, which is nice. There are a lot of attractive guys, though the ratio is like 400 to 200ish, and most of them are very california, which is not hot. I'm feeling kind of lonely so today to make myself feel better I went shopping, that is I bought magnets, (as I forgot mine at home! ! !!) but I suppose it kind of helped. I can’t think of anything to say right now really and I’m going “out” (up to the pool deck bar) with some of the girls I met in a bit, so I’m just going to leave it with these pictures and I’ll write more later and post it on here. These are pictures of the ship leaving Mexico! and also one of San Fransisco and... umm haha one of the Mexican border. mmm and now my pictures are not loading and my minutes are being sucked away. I guess I'll stop for now and try and to do it later. sorry, they're not very good yet anyway! I don't even have any of the ship. Love and miss you all and wish you were here becasue I'm definitly missing my real friends :(
haha
but seriously.
but it is really really awesome.
<3

in San Diego!

Here I am in San Diego and had to set up my computer for the day because I have to figure out why the machines are uprising against me! haha uhhh I am a technology idiot and broke my phone (which may explain why I didn't return or answer any phone calls and I'm just really mad because I had put all my addresses for post cards into it! but I will find away to recollect addresses), and also my ipod broke so I'm trying to figure out what's up before I get on with all the friend making... which will commence... as soon as possible, the hotel is packed with SAS kids and... well... yeah I"m going to have many friends soon. haha here's the official itinerary:

Ensenada Mexico
Depart
Monday
27 August
1700
(tomorrow! ahh! my bus leaves at 8!)

Honolulu, Hawaii
Arrive
Depart
Sunday
Sunday
02 September
02 September
0700
2300

(Cross International Dateline; Lose one day)

Yokohama, Japan
Arrive
Wednesday
12 September
0800

Kobe, Japan
Depart
Sunday
16 September
2200

Qingdao, China
Arrive
Wednesday
19 September
0800

HOng Kong
Depart
Monday
24 September
2300

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Arrive
Depart
Thursday
Tuesday
27 September
02 October
0800
0600
(On-ship time is 2300 on Monday, 01 October.)

Bangkok, Thailand
Arrive
Depart
Thursday
Monday
04 October
08 October
0800
2300

Chennai, India
Arrive
Depart
Monday
Friday
15 October
19 October
0800
2300

(Transit Suez Canal on Tuesday, 30 October)

Alexandria, Egypt
Arrive
Depart
Wednesday
Sunday
31 October
04 November
0800
2300

Istanbul, Turkey
Arrive
Depart
Wednesday
Sunday
07 November
11 November
0800
2300

Dubrovnik, Croatia
Arrive
Depart
Wednesday
Sunday
14 November
18 November
0800
2200

Cadiz, Spain
Arrive
Depart
Friday
Tuesday
23 November
27 November
08002300

Miami, Florida
Arrive
Friday
07 December
0800

I've made this as long and as complicated as possible! I'm sorry... but I will talk to you all soon and report on my adventures!!

two weeks!

Well, it's two weeks until I leave! In two weeks I will be on the boat, meeting my roomate, checking everything out... unpacking my stuff... HAHA, why am I writing these things... walking the gangplank, opening my room door, unzipping my suitcase, putting up my magnets... all for the ffiirrrsssttt time. haha well my point is I hope this all happens becasue I just dropped all my classes and am taking a leave of absent next quarter from DePaul! so if not it will be a slow quarter.

Tuesday I leave for Chicago for Tara's birthday and then to Texas to visit Sarah Frye! ! ! mmm it's going to be sad to say goodbye to all my chicago friends. :(
but I'm excited for this week! it's going to be a good one.

waste of blog space

So, the internet is an interesting place. I just found this picture of my brother. he's in a trash can.

anyway... I guess that has absolutely nothing to do with me, but it's been a slow summer and maybe I'm living vicariously. haha.


so yesterday I joined the fall semester at sea facebook group!! Hopefully I'll meet some facebook friends to become real friends... and then I can post pictures of myself trying to be funny with my friends doing things like... hiding in trash cans and all that. HAHA. uhhh ok. sorry this is a waste of blog space. buuutttt yes, so, talk to you later then!

mmmm

also, none of it is confirmed! ahh.
I just thought I'd add that. Because I would like to say that I am most definitely, without doubt, going to be gone, studying abroad on a boat somewhere in the wide world (though at this point I think I'm considering this as an extension of summer adventure, rather than school... so I guess we'll see if that comes back to me)... but I guess I can't... because nothing online says confirmed... only waiting.
so I am waiting...

but! very excitedly and in a positive way and all that.

around the world in 100 days!

I am returning to the world of blogging because I'm studying abroad this fall, I'll be taking 4 classes on a boat called the MV Explorer with Semester at Sea while sailing around the world and stopping in several ports. I'm really really excited and nervous because I signed up last minute (at the end of June!) and just heard (in July) that I'll be getting on Shuttle number 2 at 8am in San Diego California going to Ensenada Mexico on Monday August 27th to get on a boat for 100 days that sales around the world, stopping first in Hawaii for the day, then Japan, China, Hong Kong; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Bangkok, Thailand; India; Egypt; Istanbul, Turkey; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Spain and then finally, on December 7th, back in the good ol USA in Miami Florida, were I will go strait to the airport and come back to my home in Minnesota and I believe.... because my mother has already booked this flight... missing my dear friend Sarah Lawson's 21st birthday in my home in Chicago December 8th... though 21st birthdays don't come along every day so I guess I'll see if there's anything I can do to reach this location absent from my itinerary!

Anyway... I think I'm pretty much concentrating on talking about the US because I guess that's all I really know about!! I've been to Hawaii... I know what I like there, the beach, but all things considering I know about... nothing about all the countries I'll be going to! I didn't mention the ports in China, India and Egypt (Qingdao, Chennai, and Alexandria) because I have already had to preregister for class trips traveling around those countries but in the others it will be up to me (and... who ever my friends are!) to plan them ourselves. I've gotten travel books and am reading some fiction books taking place in the countries I'm going because I don't want to look like an American idiot, I'm also (trying to) read up on American history as I don't want to look like an American idiot... anyway really it's all very exciting and I can't wait for everything to start.

I like that it's so last minute because I definitely feel like a change of pace from ordinary crazy Chicago life and Minnesota this summer has been great but slow; it's been very exciting, though stressful, overnighting to get visas and calling all over the place to get stuff set up. I have to start packing, it's hilarious we just got a checklist in the mail today of what to do preparing for your departcher, it's like "one year before departcher" "six months before" "one to three months before" "the last month" haha, but like I said I'm also really nervous, not that I'll get sea sick or not have any fun or be homesick something ridiculous like that, but I've been reading a lot of people's semester at sea blogs and no one mentioned being scared, so I wanted to make it perfectly clear for anyone like me reading this sometime who's like -- what the f, why isn't anyone nervous at all about making friends?? Because I am.

I am really a people person, people make my days and I surround my self with good people, I wish I had an already acquired friend (haha) coming with me, but I don't, so I'm just going to be myself and make friends with every fun cool sensible interesting person I can, and hope for the best that I'll find a group of people who want to go to the beach with me in Hawaii, travel through japan by train with me... hit all the spots I've been recommend to in Croatia with me... plan fun and new things with me, do wild and crazy things with me, but not be careless... be interested in talking about and doing stuff I'm interested in... party all night with me... haha uhh kidding mom, but I hope that I can make friends on the ship like I have made friends all my life, I know that everyone who's going will be there to experience all the countries to their fullest and I'm being confident that I'll find the ones that want to do it in the same way that I do.

I'm also nervous because from what I've read the classes sound really pretty hard! I'm signed up for Global Studies, which everyone takes, so that will be cool; a macroeconomics class, which should be cool to learn while traveling around to different poorer countries and also business countries like Hong Kong; I'm taking a philosophy class, which will likely be confusing but... maybe help me to be more deep... or something; and then.... this is so scary... I got signed up for a class... because I registered so late....... about THE SCIENCE OF ARCHITECTURE! ahhhhhhhhhhh, oh my god it looks so hard, the syllabus is 22 pages! all my others are 3! the first line is about how architecture isn't about the aesthetic but about the affects of nature and... physics... and math.. and ahhhh! well. I guess we'll see if I make it. but this blog is now here so you can now read for yourself to see what I'm up to and if I'm alive or not!

entry the first

bbbllllooogggg. mmm well I haven't written online since my angsty teen days. haha, hopefully now that I'm well into my roaring 20's, the past two weeks have been filled with glamour and adult like functions, I will find myself better at this, I don't think it could be worse! Though... I suppose we'll see.