So I am finally on my worldwide journey and it has already been a whirlwind and its only day 6! I left Wiltonia on Wednesday after making a scene in the airport as usual. We knew my bags were grossly overweight, but we were hoping to only get charged for one. This was before we met Edouard. Our lifesaver of the day. He turned a blind eye and let use re arrange stuff so one bag weighed 58 lbs and one weighed 56 lbs and he didn’t charge us at all! I was also almost late for my flight and didn’t get on I had to turn on the tears. Finally, I got everything through and got on the flight. Mom, dad and Tim stood at the security gate crying and watching me go (very depressing). Got to Halifax pretty easy. My cab driver was very nice and told me all about how he has invested in a pig farm in Cuba.
It was really hard leaving my hotel room Thursday to get to the port. I had to say goodbye to facebook and the internet…very sad. Also this was it the last hurdle before I got to the big boat. My cab driver was slightly incompetent and dropped me off very far away from the entrance to the port. I did a great drag and pull rally down the sidewalk with my 4 bags and even fell on my ass in front of everyone…great first impression. Finally 2 people offered to help and I got all my bags inside and started check in. I met s nice girl in line and was finally on my way up to the boat! They took all my big luggage so I thankfully only had to haul my backpack up the 4 flights of rickety steps to get to deck 5. I had time to spare before my first meeting and went to room. As I got there my cabin steward, Shane, was delivering my bags to my room. Then Aleks and I explored the boat and had a short meeting about Work Study. I met my supervisor and fellow campus store workers and we all had lunch together. We then folded about 20 boxes of 100th voyage shirts.
After we were done folding I unpacked my room, and had my only break down. I was going to go into the town of Halifax with some girls, but we ended up missing each other and I had nothing to do. There were only 80 kids on the boat that first day and I walked around trying to find people, but no one was around. We were allowed to leave the boat and lots of kids parent’s were still there so it was very empty. Thankfully, I still had a phone and talked to Olivia, which made me feel a lot better. Especially after she gave me the pep talk “You can hang out with losers and freaks at first they won’t be your real friends just people to get by with for a little while.” So I took her advice and went to dinner alone…which was super hard for me. I met some kids and ended up walking around Halifax with 2 random kids. Halifax was wicked cute. They had lots of little shops and hippy stores and cafes, obviously I loved it. I ended up liking the guy I went with, but the girl would def. have been on Liv’s list of freaks, but it got me by for the evening. I went back to the ship and ran into some kids that were going to a club where all the kids in town were headed. I went out with them, but a group of 8 of us broke off and went to this great martini bar. It was fun and much better to get to know 8 kids better than to head to a crazy club where you can’t really meet anyone.
The next day I had to work and help everyone board which was boring but I got to see Elan, Nicky & Drew so it was good to see familiar faces. I went down to meet my roommate and was hit with a huge surprise. She was on SAS with her boyfriend of 5 ½ years. I was stunned, with all my worrying about a roommate this was nothing that I could have even IMAGINED as a problem. Totally not what I wanted to be dealing with for 4 months especially after paying all this money.
I left the boat for the last time to walk around the boardwalk section with Kareem, Kelsey, Katie & Dan who are all work study kids. We kissed the ground and bade it a fine farewell as we boarded the boat for the next 8 days.
Fun Fact: Halifax is only 70 miles from where the Titanic sank…I found this out as we were leaving.
The boat left with a little fanfare we had bagpipe players and all the parents there waving as we left. It was very strange seeing land for the last time for a week. The boat rocked way more than I thought it would. Before I left everyone was adamant that I wouldn’t feel it unless it was bad- well they all lied to me. The first night we had a little welcome meeting and my head was spinning. I did learn that there are 520 students from all 50 states and something like 438 different schools. Including the staff, faculty and crew we are sailing with about 925 people. The union where all the big events are held is at the front of the boat so it is the worst for movement. I took a seasickness pill and went to bed.
Saturday was orientation so it was just meetings all day…very boring-very painful, but the medicine helped and I wore the dorky bands and those helped too. After orientation I headed up to the gym to try out the elliptical machine. Man, that is hard to do on a rocking boat, but I figure I am burning more calories since I’m holding on for dear life the entire time. Unfortunately, the gym is so small you have to sign up for times, but I haven’t had a big problem with that yet. My friend Katie was on the treadmill and whenever a big wave crashed into the boat she would brace herself with the wall and we would all just look around at each other thinking about how ridiculous this was.
There was also an activity fair or event symposium as they called it on Saturday. I signed up to be adopted by a Lifelong Learner, and signed up to work on the voyager book & a lot of aerobics classes and I was already signed up for the vicarious voyage program.
The other days have passed by pretty quickly I was taking Global Studies, Anthropology of Food & Culture, World Cinema and Comparative History of Women, but I dropped Comp. History because the teacher was so scattered and unclear I didn’t want to be struggling here. I switched into the History of Jazz for Graham so I can talk to him about it when I get home. All of them are super interesting except for Global Studies, which is the course the entire boat has to take. It is just dull and focuses exclusively on Globalization, which is a lot of repetition from AP Environmental Science & Poli. Sci. I already have a presentation due Thursday.
Sorry this is so long a lot has happened these first few days! I have been thinking loads about Tim (duh) and his first day at work yesterday! I am so proud of you and sad I couldn’t be there to see you. I am also So proud of Liv for getting a job! I knew you could do it…it just took you some time! And my Phi Mu’s I am sure you are kicking so much ass at recruitment and I wish I could be there to see it, but I trust you all. Just remember the #’s don’t matter that’s not how we got to where we are! Ok off to bed we have lost an hour the past 3 nights so I am exhausted! Spain Friday!
xoxo
xoxo
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