And so my adventure begins!!

Friday August 29th, 2008
Well, here I am on the first night on the ship! It is pouring rain and lighting because we are going around the hurricanes! Crazy for our first night! But I need to back up and start from Wednesday. Dad and I flew down to Nassau, Bahamas just fine, with the exception of them leaving our luggage in Atlanta. On any other occasion, this would have been a minor mishap in which we would not immediately freak out. However, I was about to embark on a 4 month journey around the world, and Dad was doing his own 3 week world tour for work. So that was oh so fun for 24 hours tirelessly waiting for my clothes to come and Dad to calm down about everything. Dad and I attempted to lay out by the pool all day, which was pretty difficult without bathing suits and the same clothes you traveled in but we managed. Last night I met some of the girls I had met and we went out to dinner and to senor frogs. Seeing the boat for the first time was the weirdest thing! We all realized this was finally becoming a reality.
This morning was the start of the big day. The humidity was unbearable and imagine 700 college kids with 2-3 bags each sweating and crying with their parents, it was a long but exciting morning. Check-in was super easy and I went up to my room. I adore my roommate, she is very nice so far which is great and a huge load off my shoulders. Her name is Rebecca Child and she is from northern California and goes to UC Davis. Today was extremely long….we all unpacked, wondered around aimlessly trying to find everything on the boat, ate lunch, had a life boat drill, and then our parents got to come on the ship to see everything and say our last goodbyes. We finally departed from Nassau and then had an orientation meeting with everyone and our “seas.” There are 9 different sections of cabins on the ship all named after seas, we are the red sea and I adore our RA. He looks, talks, and acts just like Seth Rogen! The humming and rocking of the ship is really calming and is making everyone pretty sleepy, that and the combination of the sea sick pills haha. I can’t believe I am here doing this, and in the middle of the ocean! I also cannot believe that my first day on the ship is over, this is semester is going to be incredible.

Thursday September 4, 2008
Ok…so it took me awhile to get everything situated but here I am in the piano lounge studying haha. Everything is just fabulous! All 4 of my classes are great and I am excited about all of them. I have had a lot of reading…and I am actually doing it which is incredible, I’m fascinated about all the subjects and the lectures aren’t boring at all! Everyone on the boat is getting supper anxious to get off…tomorrow we would have been on the boat for a week straight and Brazil is going to be very interesting with 700 stir crazy college students haha. I got a little sea sick the 2nd night, as did the rest of the ship but since then I have been great. At night everyone goes out on the decks and we are limited 4 drinks within like 4 hours or something but everyone (even our teachers!) are all out there playing board games and stuff, its hysterical! I don’t know what else everyone wants to know! Haha…since internet is so expensive on the ship my FREE email is: ayallen@semesteratsea.net so please use this because I check a lot and it has been so fun actually emailing all of you! Definitely makes my day when I get emails from you guys!
We had a random stop in Puerto Rico because we were trying to get around hurricanes Gustav and Hanna so that was interesting. We couldn’t get off the boat but we pretty much saw Puerto Rico. The seas have been great except the one day we were near Hanna…which is really funny to see everyone try to walk around on the ship when it is rocking back and forth! For the past week it almost feels like we are in a constant little earthquake, but everyone seems to enjoy the slow rocking because it puts them asleep. It is unreal to be sitting there taking notes in class and then look out the window and just see ocean! I can’t even begin to describe it!
Tomorrow is apparently Neptune Day because it is our first time crossing the equator which is a HUGE deal…I guess they wake us up really early and have obstacle challenges for us all day and people shave their heads (which I’m sorry to say I kind of was considering lol, but I guess we will see after tomorrow…I don’t think I will do it but it goes to a great cause! Haha) We don’t have class and I guess there is a huge celebration while we cross it and tomorrow night…so I’m sure that will be fun! Well everyone is outside laying out on the decks and I am about to take my book and go join them after my next class which is “Politics in India and Pakistan.” I will definitely keep everyone posted about what goes down tomorrow…and please email me if you want! I would love to hear from you guys! J
Signing off from somewhere in the ocean along the shores of Guyana…