Our Last Port . . . Ever . . .

Well, I said goodbye to the MV Explorer and all my friends yesterday. I would have written a
little more towards the end, but I was out of internet minutes and I was also really busy. The last day of the trip (the 6th) was spent wandering around in a daze. We had never had a day with really nothing to do before. Not only were there no activities planned, but there was also no homework or studying to be done and there wasn't anything left in our rooms to distract ourselves with. At 11 a.m., they started the process of bringing our luggage down to the
2nd deck. I was a little nervous about the process since I had alot of luggage to bring down and a couple of the items were really precariously packaged. Luckily my awesome cabin steward, Dante, helped me out by tying up my box and garbage bag, and he even carried my box down for me. It was so nice. My friend Lauren and my roommate Courtney also helped me out. It really ended up going rather smoothly. I was just glad to get the bags out of our room and be done with them for a while. Besides that, the rest of the day was pretty much spent just hanging around, exchanging pictures, and signing people's books/maps. I got alot of signatures in my book/map, but unfortunately, there were alot of people that I never got a chance to get. It's alright though, because they gave us a CD with everyone's contact info. Lunch was surprisingly good with ravioli and peach cobbler. We thought that we might get a really good dinner since it was our last one, but alas, it was typically pretty repetitive and bland. I had my very last PB&J. Contrary to previous advice, they still had regular PB on the last day. I guess they learned their lesson!!!

It was a little chilly out on deck so we had to wear hoodies when we were sitting up on the seventh deck. We were still outside when the sun was setting. It was spectacular! Everyone came out for it. It was definitely one of the most spectacular sun sets that I've ever seen. And, it was special because it was the last one we'd see on our ship.

At 8 p.m., we had convocation. They announced the students who were graduating after this semester and those who had achieved straight A's in their courses. Out of almost 700 students, only 12 had straight A's. That just goes to show how seriously SAS has been taking academics. No more "kindergarden at sea." Some faculty members and students spoke and the choir sang. We all joined them in standing and singing, "America the Beautiful." The speakers were really excellent. For me, the tears started rolling during the first speech, and by the time we got through the last one, I was absolutely balling.

We knew we weren't going to go to sleep that night. And, we spent the remainder of the night doing the same things we'd been doing for the past couple days - trading pictures and music and signing books/maps. It was like a count down. 11 hours to go until we arrive . . . 8 hours . . . 6 hours . . . 3 hours . . . an hour and a half. Around 4:00 a.m., we started making these videos that we'd talked about making. One person would leave the room and we'd all record ourselves talking about them. Unfortunately, we didn't get to finish them all before the sun began to rise. Still, we did five.

*One side note. During all this, I was experiencing the greatest physical pain of my life. There has been something going on with my teeth since China. I can't pinpoint the pain, but the whole bottom side of my mouth feels like someone is sticking needles in it and moving my jaw up and down against the needles. It disappeared for a while, but on this afternoon/night it resurfaced with a vengeance. I was in the most intolerable pain. It would come and then go away for a little while. If I went and brushed my teeth, it would often make the pain go away. So, I was running down to my room to brush my teeth every fifteen minutes at one point. Then that stopped helping too. I went to the clinic three times. The first time, at 5 p.m. they gave me Advil. The second time, at 7 p.m., when the clinic was technically closed forever, they gave me Tylenol and Oragel. The third time, when I woke them up crying at 2:30 a.m., they gave me a little bit of a stronger pain killer and an antibiotic in case I have an infection and suggested that I ask students if they have any narcotics (which I found slightly amusing). After taking the new meds, my teeth started to feel a little better and it occurred to me that ice "might" be a good idea. So I gave it a try, and alas, sucking on ice has been my savior ever since. My teeth didn't start to hurt at all again until around 10 a.m. And, I've been using a combination of sucking on ice, brushing my teeth frequently, gargling with salt water, my antibiotics, and pain meds. It hasn't gotten so bad again. But, unfortunately, I will have no choice but to visit a dentist soon. And guess what!!! For the first time in my life, since I decided to go the poor student route and I'm too old to be on my parent's health insurance, I have no dental insurance. I'm not going to worry about it. I have no choice but to get whatever is going on fixed. So, I'll have to figure out the financial end of it. So, here's to unexpected surprises!*

So, now we're at 6 a.m. The sky is starting to get light. We pull on our hoodies and head out to the front of the deck to witness the most beautiful sunrise that I've ever seen. When we first got out there, we could just see San Diego in the distance, but by the time we went in for breakfast, we could make out buildings. The sunrise definitely rivaled that of Cape Town, if only because of the significance of the situation. There were tons of people out to witness it and people were playing sentimental songs on their Ipods. It was surreal. It's over . . . Yet, it still hadn’t sunk in. I thought we’d be up crying all night or something. It didn’t feel real. It felt almost anti-climatic. The second picture above is from the sunrise.

Then came breakfast. After, we lined up along the railings to watch the ship pull in. There were tons of parents waiting for us with signs. As we pulled in, I completely broke down and sobbed for probably the next half an hour. The energy was so touching. Everyone was so excited to see their loved ones and yet you couldn't quite get to them yet. My mom, step dad, and bro, and sis were a bit late, but I was still really excited when they got there. Noel's mom, dad, and puppy were there. Patti's grandma was there. Tiffany's mom and dad were there. Jackie's parents were there. Courtney's dad was there. After waving and stuff for a while, we went back to our rooms to get our carry-offs together and wait. Courtney's dad was taking pictures of us in our cabin window from the place where the parents stood. Of my closest friends, Noel, was the first to get off. She was in the third group. After they called the second sea, we all hovered around Noel somberly hugging her and telling her we loved me. The mood was somber. I felt like we were visiting her on her death bed. When her time came, we walked her to the gangway and hugged her forever. Then, we went up to the seventh deck to wait for her to get off. When she got off, we screamed to her that we loved her about twenty times. Then we went back in to wait.
Yellow sea was fifth. So that meant that it would be me, Courtney, Jackie, and Tiffany next. After they called the fourth sea, I realized that I had forgotten to sign the back of the wall art in my room. I had heard about doing this from a couple people. So, with about twenty minutes to spare, I pulled the art off the wall. And, I found two long notes from the occupants of the Fall 2004 voyage. It was filled with advice on what to do. It included specific trips along with tips like "watch as many sunrises and sunsets as you can" and "travel independently as much as possible." I did my best at trying to leave a significant statement and some good tips for those to come. So, for those of you going on the trip in the future, make sure to check the back of your paintings right away. Somehow leaving my mark on the ship, soothed me and at the same time made the whole thing a little more real.

So, then it was our turn, and Patti, Lauren, Kristal, and Kristen came to hug us goodbye. When I was about ten people away from stepping off the ship, I started balling once again. I stood for way too long with one foot on the ship and one on the gangway. Florentina told me to stop crying, that I should be happy - basically to suck it up. We had to use the stairs down from the fifth deck and with a book bag, a small suitcase, two shoulder bags, and a couple paintings, I was very relieved once I stepped off the last step onto solid ground. It was actually a really dangerous situation with all the things people were carrying out. Then, I went and found my other seven pieces of luggage and found a porter to take it for me. Some combination of Kristal, Kristen, Patti, and Lauren, called out that they loved me as I was doing the death walk out of the luggage area to the leaving area. I stopped and yelled back that I loved them too. The girls later told me that they were laughing at my cart filled with suitcases when they saw me from the deck. When I got to the area where the parents are supposed to pick you up, mine weren't there. Of course they were off marching to their own drummer in some place they weren't allowed to be waiting for me to come off the ship. *wink* I called them and was trying to explain where I was. For some reason I was starting to get hysterical. I couldn't understand why they couldn’t find me. Well, they found me and I hugged my mom forever. My step dad looked at my bags and laughed and my mom was like, "those aren't all hers." But of course they were. I said goodbyes to a couple more friends and waved at people as they drove away while my brother and step dad loaded up the car. Then we left.

We're staying at the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island. It's the most beautiful hotel that I’ve ever been in. I'm sharing a room with my bro and sis. It has a balcony with an amazing view of the beach and ocean. My mom and step dad said that they were on their balcony that morning and saw my ship coming in. Now, I've had an ocean view for the past four months, but this view is different because you can actually see the waves rushing in along the shore line. We sat on our balcony and watched the sun last night and then went for a nice dinner.

I was supposed to meet the girls for dinner/drinks at eight. I almost didn't go because I was so beat. I laid down and was trying to sleep when Noel called me at 7 to see if I needed a ride. I dragged myself up and took a shower and then called her and told her I'd go if she could drive me. I figured if all I had to do was drag myself downstairs and have a couple drinks, I could make it. I would have felt so bad ditching out. Noel's dad ended up driving and we picked up Patti and Tiffany as well and got a little turned around, so we ended up showing up around 9. Lauren, Monica, Kristal, Kristen, John, and Tyler were already there. Noel's boyfriend met her there. It was so nice getting to meet him after hearing about him all semester. We really only had about an hour before they closed down. Then the real goodbyes started. When we were saying goodbye on the ship yesterday, it was like, "well, we'll see you tonight for dinner." So, it wasn't too bad then. This was bad. It still didn't feel like it was really happening. But, we knew that it was. We hugged each other so tight, some people cried, and we told each other we loved them over and over again. On the I love you thing . . . It's really strange. I definitely don't go around telling my friends that I've known my whole life how much I love them, but it doesn't seem weird in this situation. I truely love these girls. They've been like my family for the past four months, and we've experienced so many amazing and emotional things together.

We parted ways with Noel, Monica, Lauren, and Patti, and Tiffany, Tyler, and I went back to John and Kristal’s hotel room to drink and sit around for a while. It was such a parallel to the beginning of the trip when John, Jay, Dave, Patti, Kristen, Kristal, and I sat around in a hotel room at the Atlantis drinking 151 and Kool aid (thanks to Kristen). I hated to leave, but around 1:30 a.m., I woke up Tiffany, said my last goodbyes to John, Kristal, and Tyler and we grabbed a cab back to our hotels. It really hadn’t yet sunk in that that was it for us. It truly just felt like we were in another port. I think that the next couple weeks of separation are going to be rough. After dropping Tiff off, and for the third time of the night, I saw our ship in the harbor beautifully lit. It looks so alive. It’s so hard to believe that no one and nothing is left of our voyage.

Of course, when I got to the hotel, it took me half an hour to find my room. Apparently 6530 is on the fifth floor instead of the sixth. Should have known. Finally, I went to bed around 2 a.m., where I proceeded to wake up every twenty minutes.

At 8 a.m., my mom called me and told me that we were going to Sea World. I was like, “What?” I had planned to sleep in and lounge, but I wanted to be a good sport, so I got up and got ready. We went and had a nice breakfast in town. I was so tired and I am so sick that I know my mom knew I really didn’t want to go to Sea World. I didn’t really care to go there anyways. The only thing I really cared about seeing in San Diego is the zoo. They said that they understood and dropped me off at the hotel room. I really just wanted to lounge today.

So, I came back to the hotel room, opened the curtains and balcony door so that I could enjoy the sound and view of the ocean, and took advantage of the free internet. Wow. That’s a contrast from having to horde internet minutes. I tried to nap for about three hours, but I woke up constantly. Around 3:30, I ordered a small salad from room service. After months of exotic food in port mixed with ship food, it was nice eating a simple, flavorful, somewhat healthy meal. My family will be returning from Sea World soon and we’re going to go have dinner. One of my friends and some of her friends are coming to ice skate at the ice skating rink at our hotel tonight. So, maybe it will work out for us to all do it together.

I had some e-mails from people at home and some IMs from both people at home and SAS friends today. It was good to have some time to process my thoughts today. It’s finally sinking in that its all over. As I recount my last day here, I am feeling the emotions that should have gone with the actions yesterday. It was and still is hard to believe that it’s really all ended though. It all went so fast. There are so many things that I’d like to do and so many people that I’d like to know better. But, I leave with no regrets. It’s been an amazing journey.

I can’t tell you what I’ve yet learned from the whole thing yet. I need more time to process it. I will come back on here and do it once it comes to me. Until then, thank you so much for sticking with me on my journey. If I don’t know you, have a wonderful holiday season. If I do, I can’t wait to see you again. I get home Sunday afternoon.



SURPRISE!!!

But, don’t leave me so soon . . . My adventure’s not quite over yet. If you remember from the beginning of this blog, I was supposed to graduate and start a job in December/January. Well, I’ve changed my plans. You might have noticed that I didn’t participate in the convocation ceremony. I’m actually going to Argentina to study Spanish next semester and planning a road trip to visit my SAS friends around the country in the summer. I’ll be graduating in May or August and starting my new job in September. I have to work out all the details, but I’m leaving at the end of January. I’m going to continue this blog. I probably won’t post terribly frequently until I leave for that, but I’ll still update you on post SAS, pre-Argentina news. Everything is really still up in the air on the details of Argentina, since I just sort of planned it from the ship, so it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.