Life’s a Day at the Pool . . .

Good morning America!!! It’s 8 a.m. here on the MV explorer. I know that I’m going to regret being up right now when I could sleep for an extra 45 minutes, but my roommate already left for her 8 a.m. class and woke me up. The last few days have been great. So far, things have steadily gotten better and better as I’ve let go of the real world and settled into ship life. For me, the realization of “OMG I’m really here” didn’t come all at once, but gradually. I had my first “pinch me” moment on Wednesday afternoon just a couple hours after posting my last entry. We had free time between our orientation meetings between 4-8 and I headed up to the pool deck in my swim suit with a couple girls. It was like spring break out there. College kids laying out, hanging out, in the pool, and at the pool bar (although the strongest thing you can get is a smoothie). I found myself hanging out in the pool talking and laughing with a bunch of kids from around the country when it hit me, “how cool is it that between classes, I can just hang out in the pool on the back of a ship in the middle of the ocean on my way around the world.” It was just a surreal moment.

Anyways, our orientations concluded on Wednesday and we started classes on Thursday. I only had class from 8-10:30 yesterday. It was really nice. I’m not looking forward to having class from 9:20-2:00 today. We had a Global Studies Wednesday afternoon and then our first scheduled one from 9:20-10:30 yesterday. Global Studies is the course that everyone on the ship takes that prepares us for the places we are visiting. The professor seems fascinating and I think that it’s going to be an amazing class. So far we discussed globalization and Latin American culture and had a guest speaker on Venezuela. The other class that I had yesterday was Literature of Travel. That professor also seems extremely knowledgeable, well-traveled, and engaging. Just from the couple of classes that I’ve already had, I feel like my mind has been cracked open and started to open up to new ideas. I am really looking forward to all the things that I will learn and the different points of view that I will gain. Although, I have to admit that I am still on summer mode mixed with last semester senioritis and right now I’m a little perturbed that class is interrupting my vacation, haha. I forgot to mention that our teachers lay on the reading pretty thick and it’s hard to squeeze in time to do it right now so I have to get on a routine there.

So besides classes starting yesterday we had another big event, our first pub night. Pub night is the only time that we are allowed to drink alcohol on the ship. They say that it happens almost every day at sea minus the day before arriving in port. You have to buy tickets and then turn them in for drinks. So pub night occurred from 2100 to 2300 last night. It was so much fun. The executive dean described the students as a group as extraverted people. And, I’d like to say, just imagine 600 extraverted college students drinking on a ship. It was a great time! The rocking of the ship was hilarious after a couple of drinks. I swear that it rocked way more than it had previously last night. People were just stumbling all over from the combination. But, it was all in good fun. You were only allowed four drinks so you could get a nice happy buzz but no one got crazy or anything. Which I’m sure is the point of the limit. Anyways, I had a great time letting lose and talking to tons of new and familiar people.

The only other major event that I can recall from the last 36 hours or so is our cultural pre-port last night from 2000 to 2100. We had a presentation from the Venezuelan expert aboard and the Venezuelan student, Christian on the culture of Venezuela along with practical tips on where to go, what to do, and what to eat. We have another meeting with them this evening called our logistical pre-port. My friend Kristen whose done this trip before last summer says that logistical pre-port can better be described as the scare the shit out of you meeting. It’s where they warn us about the security of the country and what not to do and share more tips on safety, etc. So, I have a pretty busy day – classes (Global Studies, Asian Religions, Environmental Geology), studying, dinner, then pre-port. Probably nothing terribly interesting to write about. I don’t want to bore you with details of ship life, although it’s an awesome adventure in itself for me . . .

I think that I am going to try to sleep on deck tonight so that I’m there to watch us pull into Venezuela tomorrow morning. Then I am going to spend the entire day Saturday exploring Caracus because I just realized that my trip to the rainforest doesn’t leave until Sunday early a.m. I’m pretty excited about just being able to go off and explore and shop for a day. Until then, have a good day America and I’ll probably come to you next from Venezuela . . .

P.S. I am so glad that I have this blog to update everyone with because I’m finding e-mail to be impossible. Maybe I’ll find a better way, but right now the internet is unbelievably slow and at 40 cents a minute . . . . So, my point is, please keep sending e-mail but please don’t be offended if my responses are short and don’t come often. I am going to try to just deal with e-mail in port at internet cafes I think.

P.S.S. Ok guys. I have been trying to load pictures to no avail. I'll see what I can do on my first day in Venezuela. For now, you'll have to rely on my words to tell the story. Sorry about that. I'd love to add a picture of me and some friends by the pool to this page to add some color.

Here is the latitude/longitude report from the noon announcements the last couple days

August 31st –
Latitude – 20 degrees North
Longitude – 74 degrees West

September 1st –
Latitude – 14 degrees North
Longitude – 71 degrees West

September 2nd –
Latitude – 12 degrees North
Longitude – 68 degrees West