Busy days in the sun and relaxing nights under the stars

Alright, so it’s day 4 of classes, day 5 that we’ve been at sea and day 6 since actually boarding the boat. I’m FINALLY used to where everything is on the ship and don’t get lost anymore  I am exhausted, but no time to nap until later. Classes are going well. I really enjoy all 3 of them. I had my first quiz in oceanography. Definitely the first ½ page multiple choice quiz I’ve had in college. It was awesome! I just sat there staring at the finished quiz and thinking about the 2 hr 4 question chem E quizzes or pillar courses. It was glorious. So, what have I done since the last time I wrote a blog entry? Lets see!

I joined the Activities committee. We have a dance planned for tonight. Everyone wanted a themed dance save 2 of us. It didn’t make sense to have a theme since everyone packed 2 suitcases and I’m sure no one came prepared for an 80’s dance! It’s not like we can just run to goodwill! (though we did see Islands yesterday. The captain changed the route so that we would sail through two of the Azores islands (Corvo and something else). Or something like that. They are basically in the middle of the Atlantic and owned by Portugal. There were people living on them, which was insane since it’s so far from anything!) ANYWAY, so dance tonight. We have a film festival to plan for the end of the semester at long with little open mic nights in the piano lounge. These things are definitely going to make our remaining few days at sea go very quickly! (not just the days between here and Spain, which is only 2 ½!!! Well less since every day is only 23 hours for us!) My days are packed with classes, meetings, and doing the loads of homework/reading for classes. It’s insane!! My ethnomusicology class just continues to get more intense. It’s great! I hardly ever look at the clocks in class. Despite the 3 hrs of sleep I got last night, I didn’t check the clock in Global Studies once! The professor is fantastic. He is very good at getting everyone interested. Everyone shows up 45 minutes early to class to get seats in the union to be in there in person. I just sit on the floor in the front of the room and time flies! He makes everything so interesting.

I’ve been attempting to keep up with working out. So far I’m 2/4. The good thing is that any amount of exercise on the ship is magnified with the balance issue! Sooo the ½ hr that I work out on the bike or elliptical is about equal to an hour in the gym at home! Lifting weights is definitely an interesting time, but the workout you get is sooo good especially for your core! Anyway, you don’t really care about that, BUT if you do, work out on a boat… it’s intense.

Yesterday it was sunny in the afternoon, which was really nice. I grabbed a lounge chair and layed out in the sun for 2 hours and now have a nice reddish appearance to my face. Ha ha. But there is really nothing like laying on a chair on the top deck of a huge ship on your way to Spain! There were dolphins surfing our wake. It was great. I missed the ones that were right next to the boat though. I had to attend a meeting, but I will see them.. don’t worry… Apparently when we sailed through the islands, there was a pod of dolphins circling out in the water getting up speed so that they could let the boat pass us and surf the wake. I had no idea they were so intent on surfing the wake on ships, but apparently it’s a major source of entertainment for them!

Yesterday we had a guest speaker, well inter-port lecturer, from the US speak to us about spain. His list of credentials was insane! He was even knighted by the king of spain recently. His name is David Geis and he’s a pretty intelligent and amazing man with sooo many accomplishments! Today I’m having dinner with a group of other students and the IT guy, Casey, to brush up on my Spanish. I don’t remember how to make past tense verbs! There is another speaker on how to drink in foreign countries without getting arrested. I’m really amused to hear this.

I have the final list of SAS planned trips that I signed up for, finally. I’m very excited about them. It’s going to be a great time and I have time in the countries to do independent travel as well. In the next entry which should be some time today, I’m going to summarize the trips that I have signed up for and add my thoughts on other things I want to do in the other countries that aren’t really set in stone. I know I’m going to get a LOT busier with a lot of exams coming up soon between spain and italy and papers and all sorts of field reports. So I might as well tell you now what I’m doing on what days!

I’m forming some great friendships on this trip too. I met another kid from pitt that is in Delta Chi and he’s fun to hang out with (thanks for introducing us before we left Matt). My roommate is still awesome! We’re very much a like, it’s scarey! But she is really cool! I can’t wait to see who else I bond with while on trips!!!! I just am trying to soak up every minute that I’m at sea. I know that the whole 6 days of classes before reaching a country is a lot and annoying to some since there is nothing but water around us, but I just can’t get over what I’m doing! We’re on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic taking classes and being sent out of our comfort zone to travel the world! (well the Mediterranean) with 720 kids we’ve never met before in our lives! Well.. most of them! It’s such a great experience. And yeah, the whole several days at sea before getting there and on the way back are long and tiring, but they are just so different than normal school. It’s not something I want to rush at all! And with this time zone thing, it’s all I do is rush! Haha, since we lose an hour basically every night.

Anyway, I have to go get lunch. I missed breakfast again this morning! And I am working out at 3, so I need to eat before then! (I’m am SO going to miss these 3 meals a day!)

Email me at mlvukmir@semesteratsea.net if you want to keep in touch! I usually save at least an hour a night to reply to email (which hasn’t been needed!)

-Mattie