Day 53...What...I spent the day in Gibraltar?!?

Day 53/C18, August 6th:

Just another day in the neighborhood, but this one is pretty sad!  Today is the last pre-port of the voyage!!!  We arrive in our last port tomorrow morning and then we are headed home on an 11-day trip across the Atlantic.  I bet you didn’t know this, but we actually were in Gibraltar all day!  We were anchored right off the shore refueling for about 10 hours.  It was very weird being on the ship and seeing land on both sides.  We don’t see that very often! 

I finally got to get rid of that stupid Global Studies paper!  It felt great!  Now, I only have the final exam left in that class.  However, I have two papers, a test, and a final to complete in International Economics and a paper and final exam in Art History.  The paper for Art History is due the day after the auction (second day on the ship after Morocco).  I don’t know how all of this will get done, but it will get done one way or another.  I am telling you that living on a ship and taking classes while seeing the world is not easy people.  WE ARE BUSY!  I won’t trade places with you though…I love it!!!

I am excited to see Morocco!  It should be very different yet again from all of the countries I have seen so far.  I have two SAS trips: a visit to the SOS Children’s Village and an evening with a Moroccan family.  Both should be fun!  The evening with a Moroccan family will be a unique experience nonetheless.  They pick us up at the ship and take us in small groups of 3-6 students back to their homes for dinner and conversation.  I really don’t know what to expect! 

We also learned at pre-port that we can be much more relaxed with what we can eat and drink that in Egypt.  We are still not advised to drink the water, but we can eat produce that has been washed and brush our teeth using the local tap water.  We also don’t have to take pepto tablets before each meal unless we feel that we should.  I know I will be taking them just in case!  I don’t need to get sick from my last port!  This allows us to try much more of the unique Moroccan cuisine.  I can’t wait!  Are we there yet? 

Rough plan:

Day 1: Wait for passports to be cleared, train to Marrakesh, explore, spend the night there at a hotel.
Day 2: Explore Marrakesh some more, train back to Casablanca, sleep on the ship.
Day 3:  SOS Children’s Village in the afternoon, Evening with a Moroccan Family.
Day 4:  Explore Casablanca, cry as we step off the last piece of foreign soil on the 102nd Voyage of SAS. 

Noon Report for August 6th:

No Report from the Bridge, since we were anchored in Gibraltar.  We change our clocks to +5 hours from EST tonight and then again to +4 hours from EST on August 7th (Day 1 of Morocco).  YEAH!!!!  I love 25-hour days!