Day 4 on the ship and lots to catch up on!
Now I'm all situated on the ship. It's weird getitng used to the idea of a floating univeristy. Inside everythign looks like a normal crusie ship, but once out side on the deck it looks like spring break at the pool area. Not complaining though, I got a nice little tan in my bathing suit while catching up on some reading for class.
On Saturday night, after having meetings all day, we had a sort of activities fair where classrooms are set up with different clubs and activites and you can sign up for stuff. I put my name down for something where we're "adopted" by one of the life long learners and they will either sit with you at meals, have conversations, take you out in port.. stuff like that. The life long learners are all kind of old people so their fun to talk to. They could have gone on a cruise ship, but they'd rrather hang out with a bunch of college kids haha. I love when they come to sit with us at dinner just to chat. They're so cute thouigh, i just had two differnet people sitting next to me at the computer lab who i taught to use e-mail. The old lady was great, i showed her that there was a link on the desktop she could click that would take her right to her e-mail andf she said 'I'm going to show all my friends this! Their goign to think i'm so tech savey!" I also signed up for some intermeral sports (volleyball and soccer) yoga and an exercise class. They also have some language clubs so people can practice talking, and I think i'm going to start and lead a sign language one, it looks like at least a few people are either taking classes at home or are interested to learn. After all that business we had our little floor meeting me our "sea". The only funny thing that our person told us was that the maleria pills counteract birth control, and since she's been working for SAS they've had to send 3 girls home cause they got pregnant! After the meeting I wandered around for a little with Missy and met up with Griff in one of the cafe's for snack time! haha, every night at like 10 they put out cookies and little pb&j's!! After that a girl that is on my floor, Jade, and I sat for a while at the "bistro" where they have soda, coffee, chips, candy, cup of noodles that you can buy. We met this kid Mario, who was really interesting to talk to. His mom works for SAS so he is on his second voyage. He told us all about his last voyage when he went to turkey, croatia, and egypt (all the places that got taken off our itinerary) and all the bad things that happened to him. In turkey his wallet was stolen, in egypt he thought some locals we're taking them to a bar, but they ended out in some place that told them they owed the equivilant of $300 for drinks that they had. And in croatia, I guess which is near serbia, there are still active mine feilds and when hiking they walked right into one and had to figure out how to get out withoput blowing up. He has also been to most of the other places too so I think he could be really helpful in getting an idea of what to expect/waht to do in different places.
Monday morning classes started. I woke up right before my class at 9:20 (suprise suprise) and then had another class right after. The first class was global studies which is our big lecture class, kind of boring but maybe it will get better. After I had history of jazz which turns out to be kind of interesting. The teacher is kind of a music weirdo but he's nice. We learned about different instuments and types of sound so far. I already have readings for both classes, like 50 pages each. I just grabbed lunch cause it looks like i'll be missing breakfast (7-8:30) every morning. Some people actually think the food is good, It's a cafeteria line up and its pretty limited in selection, but they always have pb&j!
Last night was the first bar night which was pretty fun. Drinks started at dinner and everyone is allotted two during that time. Service starts at 6:30 and ends at 8 at the main dining room. It was funny to see everyone so excited to finally have a beer or a glass of wine after only 3 days without alcohol. They had a pretty selection with Budweiser, bud light (16 oz bottles!) Coors light, and miller light. and Then a couple choices of red and white wines. After dinner I went back tyo my room for a little to wait for my friend Cynthia (Texas) to get out of the meeting she slept through the night before. At 9:30 we met up at the pool deck where the alcohol was being served. We can at a great time cause it was just after EVERYONE got theirs drinks which i heard was a huuuge line. I had a wine cooler haha, but it was pretty good. Cynthia is really great and she's a huge dork like me, se we spent the whole time laughing at eachother and pretty much repelling any guys around us. She had the ingenious idea to get her two glasses of wine at dinner and pour them into a water bottle. After her meeting she drank all that and then proceeded to have 3 more glasses and another one of mine since I hadn't used my 5 allowed for the night. Their pretty strict about the alcohol service, we each have drink cards that are stamped when we get anything and confirmed with out ID to make sure we correspond with the card. Anyway, we mingled for a little and did the usual introductions with people. By the time everyones drink cards ran out everuthing winded down and i went to bed.
As for now, I'm waiting for it to be lunch time. I'm not used to having zero snacks to fill me meal to meal. Until then I'll try to do some reading again.
Peace!
