As some of you may know I suck at
this whole technology thing so my blog will most likely be lacking in content
since I may not be able to access it very often. If you are looking for updates on what I’m up
to or whatever, and this blog that I have isn’t really doing it for you, then
please email me because somehow I have that working even though it was a super
complicated process. Here’s an update on
the first leg of the voyage.
Day 1: 1/9 The Beginning of a New Chapter
The first day of my trip was extremely
bittersweet for me. On the one hand I
was about to embark on an amazing journey, but on the other hand I had to leave
behind the people I care the most about in the world. These next few months will be difficult
without them by my side, but having email and being able to skype every once in
a while will definitely help.
We were all assigned times to be on
a bus that would transport us from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico. From what I have heard around the ship we did
this because the MV Explorer is a ship from the Bahamas, and it isn’t allowed
to port in two different US ports consecutively, so it couldn’t have been in
San Diego right before we went to Hilo, Hawaii.
Not sure how true that actually is but it’s the only explanation I have
for those of you who were curious.
Anyway, my bus time was at 10:30 am which was nice because I didn’t have
to wake up really early to catch the 7:00 bus and I didn’t have to wait around
for the 12:00 bus. But, as any day in
which someone is leaving goes, this one slowly started becoming sad and
real. I mean that it became “real” in
the sense that I had spent so much time preparing for this trip that the day
that I left seemed so far away, but it creeps up on you and then all of a
sudden it is right in front of your face about to smack you. It was finally hitting me that I am about to
leave on this trip for just about four months!
It was no longer a bunch of paperwork or planning or preparing. It was actually here and became very
real. As I am saying my goodbyes to my
parents and Keenan (the boyfriend), I can’t help but cry (I am my mother’s
daughter). I have never been more than
45 minutes away from my parents, and in the past semester I’m pretty sure I’ve
seen Keenan almost every day. Once
again, it became real that I was not going to see them or really talk to them
besides email for four months! That’s an
extremely long time for me and the people that I am saying goodbye to, so it
will be one of the hardest things that I will have to deal with on this
voyage. I get on the bus and grab a
seat. As we are pulling away, I try to
give my last waves goodbye to my little entourage; I’m not sure how successful
I was but I gave it a shot anyway. The
drive down to Ensenada was actually kind of pretty because we took a scenic
route that hugged the coast. But for
anyone who has ever really been in the car with me for any extended period of
time, I got a little car sick so I probably didn’t enjoy the ride quite as much
as everyone else.
We got to the port and I finally
set my eyes on what was soon to be my home for the next four months. It’s a beautiful ship, but it was almost
comical how small it looked next to this cruise ship parked just a couple of spots
over. I went through security and walked
across the little bridge to the entrance of the ship. It was shocking to me what it looked like on
the inside. I don’t exactly know why it was shocking because I’ve seen some
pictures and taken a virtual tour of the ship, but it is somehow different in
person. I had to travel up numerous
flights of stairs to get to the Union which is on the 6th deck to
finish checking in, and then I was finally able to go check out my room. On my way to my room, since my room is
located at the very back of the boat (second to last room) on the 4th
deck port (left) side, I ran into Jillian Nedved. We ventured on to try to find my room, and
when I got there it looked like my roommate had already been to the room but
wasn’t there at the moment. I dropped
off my stuff, and for a brief moment my roommate came in and introduced
herself, but then had to leave. Her name
is Shelley Shapasian and she is from Cleveland, Ohio and goes to Elmherst, a school
near Chicago. She’s a pretty awesome
roommate, so I consider myself very lucky.
I then went to explore the ship with Jillian.
Here’s the basic layout of the
ship. On the 2nd deck there
are the economy rooms and the “hospital” which is really more like a doctor’s
office than a hospital; the 3rd and 4th decks are just
rooms; the 5th deck has one of the two dining halls, Tymitz square
which has the Purser’s Desk and Activities Desk and Field Office, and there are
some rooms on this deck too; the 6th deck (from front to back) has
the Union (which is basically like a lecture hall and they use it for large
meetings and large classes and stuff that requires a lot of room for sitting),
the computer lab and library, the store, numerous classrooms (I think there are
nine total), a piano lounge and lots of tables and seats, and a dining hall
that leads out to a sitting area outside; finally the 7th deck has
the faculty/staff/life-long-learners lounge, rooms, the wellness center and
weight area (the weight area is outside), and outside on the 7th
deck there’s a little basketball court, snack bar, pool, and lounging
area. For a small ship it is still
fairly big and confusing, so if you’re going to go on this trip someday just go
and explore and get lost the first day. Slowly you will figure it out, but it
is almost guaranteed that you’ll get lost and/or confused.
After some exploring, we were
called to do a mandatory lifeboat drill.
We went back to our rooms to get our life vests and wait for further
instructions. This drill ended up taking
like an hour or so to finish. I’m sure
it is important to know what to do just in case something does happen, but at
the time this whole drill just seemed silly.
After the drill Shelley and I went back to our room and started
unpacking. While we were unpacking we
saw the horizon moving out of our window; we were finally embarking from the
port. As exciting as it was, it was also
one of those “real” moments. We were
actually doing it; we were leaving to go out to the sea. It was a weird and somewhat frightening
moment for me, but at the same time I was excited. It was a similar feeling to how I felt in the
weeks leading up to this trip. When
people asked me if I was excited for it, I wasn’t definite in my answer. Yeah I was excited, but I was also very
nervous. The best comparison that I
could come up with is the feeling you get right before you go on a
rollercoaster. When you’re standing
there in line, you know it’s going to be fun, but for some reason you still get
nervous and get butterflies in your stomach.
That’s how I felt for about a month leading up to this voyage.
For the first half hour or so I was
completely fine, but, in the middle of unpacking, a sudden wave of nausea hit
me like a ton of bricks. Before my
voyage I talked to a friend who went on it a previous semester, and she said
that the ship rocked a lot more than a normal cruise ship since it is
smaller. I have never been on a cruise
so I didn’t really know what to compare it to, but my mom went on one and said
she didn’t get seasick at all and it was basically no biggie. With all of this information I thought I
would be fine and it wouldn’t be too bad.
Little did I know the first night on this ship would include some of the
most nauseating feelings I have experienced in a long time. I am pretty susceptible to motion sickness in
cars though, so I don’t know why I thought it would be different on a
ship. Sorry, I don’t mean to scare off
anyone who is reading this who will be on future Semester at Sea trips. For the
record, many of the students and other people on the boat were completely fine
and didn’t feel sick at all. However,
for the students that did get seasick it was not a very pleasant
experience. Walking was probably the
hardest part because the boat moves so much that your body gets tossed around
and it is difficult to walk straight.
The first few days walking down the hallway to my room (which is the
second to last room at the very back of the boat) felt like walking around when
you’re drunk (not that I know that feeling, mom). The whole image of the long hallway was
twisting and turning before my eyes which probably made me more nauseous. Luckily, Jillian came to my room in the nick
of time and we went to the 6th deck to get some fresh air which
helped a little bit. A little later I
ran into Shelley who looked pale in the face, a face that was unmistakably
seasickness. All of us were feeling like
complete crap and went to try to find the hospital which was a venture in
itself since we were so flipped around and couldn’t find how to get there. We finally got there and found some
medication and then went back to the deck outside to try the fresh air thing
again. We were trying to hold out until
this meeting that was supposed to happen at 2000 (yeah they use military time
for everything which isn’t terrible for me because it’s the only math I get to
do every day haha). We found out that it
wasn’t mandatory so we all rushed down to our rooms to lie down and fall
asleep. Lying down was the only time
that I didn’t feel super nauseous. The
fact that I only got like 4 hours of sleep the night before, mixed with the
rocking of the ship like a mother rocking a baby, made sleeping extremely easy.
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