Oh classes...

So I accidentally mixed up the time for one of my classes today. It was actually at 1215 but i thought it was at 1335! Oops! Thankfully we all live on one boat so I'm just going to try to find my professor and ask what I missed.

Right now we are figuring out the trips for the rest of the countries. There is a lot of "What are you doing in _____" going on. Its strange though because we haven't even made it to Cadiz yet and we are trying to think of what we will want to do and who we will want to travel with in Morocco.

I am also getting started working with the toddlers on board! I'm so excited!

P.S. Happy birthday a day late Theresa!

Still in the middle of the Atlantic...

The voyage is actually getting started though! Classes started today. I had Oceanography at 8:00. It was kind of strange because the classroom is just part of one of the dining rooms that they sectioned off for us. I have so much trouble paying attention in that class because its first thing in the morning and the sun finally came out so its BEAUTIFUL out here. After Oceanography I had Global Studies with everyone else on the boat. The professor for that class is hilarious! Its probably the first history class I've taken that doesn't make me want to rip my eyes out. He had a funny powerpoint that pointed out all the inaccuracies of the movie 300. I'm probably a little biased about his class though because he gave us M&M's to prove his point that America is 5% of the world's population and consumes 33% of the resources. I got lucky and was sitting in the front row so I got a whole mini-bag of M&M's and everyone else got 3 pieces.

Last night was the involvement symposium. I signed up to help with the Sea Olympics (its like Greek Week for S@S!), to have an extended family (a family on board is going to adopt me : ), and to work with the dependent children on board. I already met a couple of the kids because they were playing down the hall from me. Afterwards I sat around my cabin for a little while to get all my books ready for the first day of classes. Then me, Bridget, Jill, Lexie, a girl named Justine and a girl name Ashley went to the dining room for snack time. They had cute little finger sandwiches and dessert type foods (sprinkle covered chocolate balls anyone? they unfortunately ran out before i got there). Then we sat around the dining room with some new people whose names i can't remember and played spoons with straws and Kemps (SB09!!!).

Right now i'm sitting in my room, looking out the window, and trying to get enough motivation to start my homework. Its weird to be back to the high school ways of having class everyday and having homework every night. Its also weird not to have a choice about what I'm going to eat for each meal. Its nice to not have to cook or go out to buy dinner but I'm not much of a fish fan and the other meat they serve isn't up my alley either so i've been eating like a vegetarian for a couple days. It still tastes good though. Another thing I'm having trouble getting used to is that they don't serve pop here and their desserts don't have any chocolate in them so my usual sources of caffeine and energy are gone unless I want to pay the expensive prices at the 7th deck snack bar. I've been pretty tired for the whole trip so far. I'm going to have to get used to not having pop.

On the bright side i finally decorated my room! I have lots of chi o, jumpstart, SB09, and twinnie pictures up : ) I also put up a map of the world and i'm stealing Sarah and Kate's idea of tracking our progress throughout the voyage and then having everyone sign it at the end.

Thats all for now! I'm off to do some homework.

I am on a boat!! (finally)

So I'm finally on the MV explorer! I'm in room 4162 which is part of the red sea. I'm in a tiny little cabin (Depaul people think 1/2 the size of a cororan room) and surprisingly all of my stuff fit with room left over! My roommates name is Bridget Hogan (don't worry... i already made a Hogan knows best joke. or at least attempted to). All of yesterday was a lot of unpacking and sitting around doing nothing. We had a lifeboat drill which meant that we grabbed our super fashionable life jackets and stood around in the main dining hall for a while. Then I hung out with some people I met until dinner. Their names are Bridget (the roommate), Lexie (next door neighbor), Courtney (next door neighbor), and Jill (lives no where near us). Bridget is really funny and always has music on, Lexie is a cheerleader and is engaged and is very loud (in a good way!), Courtney goes to a private catholic school and you would think that she would be all quiet and conservative but she's pretty much the opposite, and Jill is just downright hilarious.
Then last night I was so tired after we had faculty introductions in the union that me and bridget just went to bed (while watching Planet Earth: The Deep Blue Seas which was strange because i actually felt like i was under water because the boat was moving!). This morning i got up ridiculously early (like 7:30! ewww!) to go to our first day of global studies. All we did was discuss the book that we were all supposed to read. Its strange though because barely anyone read it and the teachers know that and keep making jokes about it. Then i had orientation all day which meant sitting in the union trying not to fall asleep or at least sleep in a way that the speaker couldn't see. The waves have been really bad all day (they say that they aren't normally this bad... stuff is rolling around in our rooms.) and the union had all the curtains closed so I have been sea sick all day. I have sea sickness patches on and just took medi-meclizine and i'm thinking about putting my sea sickness bracelet on too... i hope we get to spain fast!
Classes start tomorrow and tonight i'm probably just going to hang around with some people i've met and play cards or something.

Still in Halifax

Today was really chill. Me and my mom just walked around Halifax and picked up some last minute things (turns out I forgot a beach towel! I would have been pretty sad if we hadn't remembered because we can't take the towels out of the rooms). Then tonight I went to dinner with a BUNCH of S@S-ers. We took over this restaurant called The Argyle and all got dinner together which was pretty entertaining because no one really knew each other's names or anything. I met about 20 people and I can probably only name about 5 of them... Yep 5. Ki, Greer, Harry, Nate, and Courtney.

I don't really know what time it is right now because my computer didn't automatically switch but I'm tired so i'm going to get all my stuff together and go to sleep. I have to get up ridiculously early to get on the ship (HAHAH!! sarah and kate! i didn't call it a boat!!).

The first day!

So even though I'm not on the boat yet I'm still considering this the first day of my trip.

The first of mine and my mom's plane rides was pretty interesting. My mother had the pleasure of sitting next to a 70-something lady who had just had Lasik eye surgery and was slightly drunk because she hates flying. Since this lady (who was a teacher) had some opposing views on education and I'm a bit opinionated, I thought it might be best if i just listened to my iPod for the sake of all those around me.

Our second flight was delayed by 2 hours which wasn't that bad because we met 2 other people going on S@S. (I can't actually remember their names right now but they were a boyfriend and girlfriend from Colorado. So cute!) Then the flight was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we couldn't get our carry-on's under the seat in front of us and I got scolded by a guy who didn't speak english for making him wait.

Today was the first time I was ever in New Jersey or in Canada! I learned that Canada really is its own country and even though they accept American money, listen to American music, and are almost the same, it is not America. I found this out when the car we rented was telling us how many miles til our destination and all the signs were in kilometers. (PS speed limit signs in Canada don't say speed limit... they say Maximum *insert number here*).

Another funny part of the day is that my mom carried all my text books here in her carry on and, seeing as how I have 7 books for this trip, it was pretty heavy. So heavy in fact that it broke my mom's shoulder strap. It worked out though because then instead of carrying it we just dragged it like it was on a leash.

Thats all for now... tomorrow my mom and I are just bumming around Halifax and then Tuesday i get on the boat!!! (ship)

It's finally here!!

It is finally time to fly to Halifax and get on the ship!!

Tomorrow morning me and my mom are flying to Canada, eh. On Monday my mom is going to some parent thing on the boat while i'm going to meet some other S@S-ers for dinner. Then on tuesday morning I board the ship at 8:00 AM (perks of having a last name that starts with an A). I just finished packing for the second time because the first time I packed my bags were so heavy that I couldn't carry them. I'm getting really excited to leave but I keep finding last minute things i have to do. The current thing i'm working on (aka procrastinating doing) is finding my headphones so that i'm not bored out of my mind on the plane. Other than that and a couple other things I'm all set to go.

If i didn't get a chance to see you recently then BYE!! I'll see you in September! I get back on the 22nd and then i'm getting my wisdom teeth out. So with the exception of going to visceral (because Nick says that having your teeth taken out is no excuse) i'm probably going to sit on my couch, watch TV, and go on facebook for a couple of days.

T-11 days and 10 1/2 hours until I'm on a boat!!

So I should be packing right now but its a little bit overwhelming so instead I'm watching TV and playing with my blog. Getting ready for S@S is more work than I thought! I only have 11 days to...
- pack everything I'll need for 2 months
- buy any thing I'll need for 2 months
- move out of my apartment
- take 2 final exams
- write a research paper
- figure out how to turn off my phone while I'm on the boat (I should start calling it a ship... apparently calling it a boat makes people mad)
- convert some money to all the different currencies I'll need
- tell chase where I'll be so they don't think I'm stealing my own debit card
- and finish off my dance classes at Visceral (7 left...).

Ok... that made me want to stop being lazy.