Emails

Hey everyone! Hello from Sea!

We're now more that half of the way to Cadiz, Spain from our original port in Nassau, Bahamas. I am planning on doing some independent travels in Spain to Seville, I hear its incredible. I also want to try to visit some costal towns because they are rumored to be quite beautiful.

I would like you all to email me if you can! my email is elwestfall@semesteratsea.net  this way I know I have your correct email addresses and the ones that I requested by text earlier I don't have because they are on my blogsite and I can't access that without spending my online minutes (which I have 2 hours max of before having to pay for the rest of the trip).

Hope you're all doing well and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY KATIE DARLING!!!!

LOVE
Em

First Day at Sea

Hi to all; I'm extremely frustrated because I just typed up this HUGE long email/blog update and somehow it deleted the entire thing and didn't save it. I'm a little hacked off. :( Lets see if I can remember what it was I said.

I'm already annoyed because I can't figure out how to select all my contacts to send an email to nor can I find a way to even find my contacts to send anything to. I ended up just putting all the emails in a word doc and copy/pasting.

Day 1: LONG. Orientation: We started off pretty early with some presentations on safety, who is who in staff and faculty and then a live feed of the inauguration on the big screen in the Union (which is our largest lec hall thing). We had lunch and a couple twenty minute breaks when everyone seems to flock to the decks in the back to lay out and soak up the rays as well as try to gulp the fresh air and get rid of their sea sickness. I don't know if this amount of rocking is normal but a lot of people seem to be getting sick. I haven't yet, but I keep getting bad headaches. I'm drinking water and trying to stay hydrated. :) More safety presentations and then a depressing showing of the trailer for the Movie HAZE about the hazing and incident of the student at CU who died in a Frat rush. The most represented university on the ship is CU with 80 people. Everywhere you look seems to be a CU or Boulder piece of paraphernalia. The stats are 73% girls and 27% guys. The guys seem mostly cool but there are a few womanizers for sure. But that's the same anywhere you go.

There are also families of the staff on ship and the kids (about 20 of them) range from 10 months to 17 years old. They are all home schooled and are VERY lucky. hahah. In addition to that there are the life long learners who are older people who are graduated and still wanting to learn. They range from 26ish to 60's and above. The ship has about 730 students and 300 faculty, staff, Life-long learners and crew.

My roommate's name is also Emily and she is from (I think) portland. She's also from a small university and we seem to be pretty compatible. I think it will be good.

I am running out of battery so I'm going to cut it short. But if you didn't get this as a blog update and email then pleace send me your email because I don't have it.

Love you all and hope to hear from you soon.


Love,
Em

(Update: Since this wasn't posted right here is another update. This is my 2nd A day (we have A and B days and basically no weekends. We have different classes on each day other than the Mandatory Global Studies class which everyone takes and its everyday. My classes seem to be going well but I can't really tell because I've only had one day of each and that's the typical set up day. We're deciding what trips we're going to take through SAS for a couple of upcoming ports today. TOUGH DECISIONS! More on that later!)

I'm in Nassau!!...

...And I left my glasses, in their case, with my contact case.... On. My. Vanity. *smacks forehead repeatedly* Yeah. Whoops! We were so concerned that we had all our bags (we had ten including carry-on) and all the insulin and random bags packed full of fun things like sensors and sets that I completely forgot to grab them. Needless to say after almost 16 hours of travel and travel delays and it being windy and night when we got here so that we couldn't fully enjoy the BEAUTY of Nassau, I was less than pleased to figure that out.

HOWEVER.

Its beautiful here. The weather is nice (shorts and a tank top!) the food so far has been delicious and the people are super friendly. (There was about a half an hour when I walked from Paradise Island to Downtown Nassau and through it by myself where I got a little uncomfortable- but I got back to the wharf/buses and the hotel and everything just fine. :)

I even lost my first ceremonious three dollars on penny slots. The first machine a sat down on I won like 50 cents right off the bat. Then I proceeded to lost everything after that. haha but thats the nature of gambling and at least it was 3 dollars and not 30. It was fun though. My mom and I sat down and played the old ones where you still see the wheels spin and you have to pull the lever on the side to spin them. Its pretty fun. And LOUD. Every time you win, lose, print, spin all sorts of bells and whistles go off and lights blink. That part is annoying but I have to say, its nice not to have to stick to the stupid carpet paths anymore.

Tonight I'm going to Senor frogs to meet up with a bunch of people from the boat (most of them at staying at the Atlantis resort and I'm off that island to the west of Nassau). My parents are sippin' drinks and learning about what I'm going to be doing for the next three months on the ship as I type this out. My mom's text "were sitting here in this most deluxe union/theater eating sweet little snacks and drinking wine... you are soooo lucky! wait til you see it!" .. Thanks mom. Lets remind me how much they WON'T be serving those sweet little snacks while I'M aboard. Its like sudexo... its really good when it needs to be, but what they feed the students is a completely different story. But I'm not really complaining. I'm mostly just trying to find something to whine about, because from what I can tell... there isnt much and I'm thankin' my lucky stars for this experience.

Anyway. I love you all and tonight is my last night with internet for free and all that jazz (of COURSE facebook is down for repairs). I'll be emailing my updates to my blog so make sure you check it often. I'm going to try to write down things that make me think of all of you and write about them here. (For instance today at the Atlantis Aquarium I saw manta rays. It reminded me of Old Man and the Sea as well as Beach Music. Which made me think of Smailes' class and Ernest Hemingway which lead me to Jacque and her hatred of Hemingway as well as everyone in that class. Ahhhh You guys are everywhere! I take you all with me in my heart! hahahahaha I'm cheeeeesy.)

Anyway, Its really pretty outside and I should be sitting out there soaking it up. Maybe the lady is done cleaning my room now. If not, I might go buy an over priced starbucks in the casino next door.

Love you all.

3...2...1...

Alright. Here we go. This is it.

Hold your breath and Jump.
Holy cow I'm so excited.

Trips paid, bags.... kinda... packed, Diabetes managed,
everything has been delivered, new bags, camera, water bottle,
and about 200 granola bars. (Looking at my diabetes food bag is
like looking into the suitcase of a guilty kid at fat camp trying to
smuggle candy bars in. I feel a little silly :)

It's finally here, I've been waiting for it, and talking about it, and
dreaming and planning and finally.... in 2 days, I'll be headed to Nassau, Bahamas
to start my voyage.

I'm honestly thanking my lucky stars for this opportunity. I really am.

Dylan, Good luck in Africa. I love you. Thanks for the coffee :)

Final Countdown!

So I have 6 days until my parents and I leave for Nassau! I feel like
there is SO much to do still! I've paid for a couple independent trips
(one in Morocco and one in China) and I'm learning to keep a close eye on
my money. I think I might upload Quicken to take care of my money
spending!!

Speaking of money, I got my foreign cash today. Its so cool. Viet Nam's
bills have a watermarked plastic piece in them. A lot of the Asian
currency seem to have current leaders or at least leaders that aren't as
old as the ones we have on US bills. Also, It seems like the US is
different in that there is only one language on the bill. haha China has
several it seems like. South Africa has animals on theirs which I thought
was kinda cool. Mostly though, getting all these different currencies
makes it all the more real that I'm doing this, it makes it seem like its
going to happen a lot sooner that I think.

If anyone has anything they specifically want from someplace that isn't
huge or really expensive or hard to explain to customs let me know. (for
example, I'm not going to bring back any swords from Japan. Sorry.) I'm
going to keep a list and as long as its not unreasonable I'll try to get
it, or at least a picture :)

Love you all!