Day 3 and First Day of Classes

The day began with the opening and slamming of all of our drawers, the tv spinning around on the shelf, the items placed on the desk, open shelves, and nightstand crashing to the floor.  What a wonderful way to wake up!  At least it was only 5 minutes before my alarm went off.  After breakfast, I went to Art History class.  How exciting!  I fell asleep for most of the class.  I know you pay to go to class, but when you take medicine that puts you to sleep and the boat rocks then you have no choice.  Everyone sleeps constantly, but everyone is already accustomed to it.  Global Studies was interesting.  We began learning about the different cultures around the Mediterranean.   Our whole group, which is even larger now, was supposed to eat lunch together; however, only two of us made it to the location and time everyone agreed on: me and Clark.  After lunch, the two of us played cards, walked the ship, and played on the computers looking at the files on the server for each class.  We already have a map quiz in a few days, so we had to print off what we have to memorize.  My International Trade (aka International Economics) course was pretty exciting.  We began looking at various Macro and Micro Principles, but in a global way.  It was nothing too exciting, but still pretty neat.  The teacher seems cool and I think this will be the most interesting class I am taking on the ship.  Not as awesome as CofC’s professors, but in the rankings…(Hey Prof. Snyder, Hefner, and Heather!). After class, I met up with Clark for dinner and then chilled with the rest of the gang on the pool deck while watching the sun go down from our lounge chairs.  It was very relaxing.  It is actually pretty weird for me not having much to do.  I am fixing that though.  Each voyage, students work together on special projects, events, and committees like talent shows, sport tournaments, service visits in port, extended families (where students get adopted by the older generations on the ship like professors, staff, and life long learners), and the SAS Auction.   I volunteered to help organize the auction that has raised around 15 thousand dollars each voyage for the past few years.  All of you know me…I love doing stuff like this!  The proceeds go towards the SAS Scholarship Program and provides funds for other SAS events for our voyage.  I think it will be fun.  Our first meeting is tomorrow, so I will keep you posted.  Okay, back to day 3…  After dinner and watching the sun go down, we had a guest lecturer onboard telling us about different things to do and see in Spain.  It was pretty interesting.  Currently, we also have an inter-port student (this means that they are only on the ship while at sea between two ports) from Barcelona on the first leg of the voyage to help all of us with travel questions, etc.  After this lecture, we all headed up to the top deck of the ship (the observation deck) to star gaze with one of the professors.  There is not a better way to see the stars than out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.  Why?  There are noooo Walmarts, Targets, or other parking lots with millions of lights near us.  We got to see Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars!  Now it is time for bed.  OHHHH, BTW (that means “By The Way” for those of you that don’t know) we now keeping loosing an hour each night as we cross the Atlantic.  Last night and tonight we loose an hour of sleep.  That part sucks (maybe that is another reason we all fall asleep everywhere we sit…).  Ohh well.

Some fun facts:

So each day, the ”voice” comes over the speaker system and gives us the noon report.  This is basically the info that is published to the position report on the web.  Just incase you didn’t look at it, we are 646 nautical miles from Halifax and we have a mere 2,883 nautical miles to go until we reach Barcelona next Thursday.  Don’t forget this is our location at noon today.  The ship was475 nautical miles away from land (a little bity island somewhere over the rainbow…) and is currently floating in water that is 6090 meters deep with swells around 10 feet.  It was about 68 degrees today too in both the air and water.  The “voice” also has fun with the announcements.  For example, “Don’t forget to put your laundry bags in the hallway tonight if you would like them cleaned and are on Deck 4 Starboard and please do not disturb the bear in his cage located on Deck 6.”  Or “Many of you have reported sightings of dolphins near the ship.  If the dolphin has a black fin, then it is extremely poisonous.   Please do not look directly at the dolphin since it may spit venom in your eyes.  To look at the black fin dolphins, you must look at them using your peripheral vision being careful not to make eye contact.”  These people are crazy! 

I would also like to thank everyone for commenting on my blog or sending me random emails.  I really appreciate it!  However, some of you are not including your name in the comment or you are not choosing the name/url option when posting your comment.  Many of the comments are great, but I have no idea who wrote what.  It is okay to choose the anonymous option, but please please please include whom it is from!  Also, I apologize if there is a small random advertisement at the bottom of my blog entries.  I can't figure out how to get rid of it, so you will just have to ignore it.  Thanks!!!! 

I am off to bed, since it is officially 0:33!