Long post

Hey! I’m sorry that I haven’t had a chance to update my blog in a few days. It’s been a hectic last few days of classes. I’ll try to do better on updating the blog while we are in port.

Wednesday September 2nd. I think…

Classes at Semester at Sea are starting to get into a normal routine. I’m enjoying most of my classes, except for global studies, and I don’t think any of them are too tough yet. I got lucky with good classes. So far, I’ve just had a ton of reading, but I know at least one class already has a power point presentation due tomorrow.
I didn’t do much during this afternoon. My “B” day classes are over at noon so I took a nap until about 3. After that I went up to the top deck and studied next to pool. As the boat swayed, the water would shift to one side. It sounded like the way the tide recedes on a beach. It was very peaceful.

I went to one of the explorer seminars that night. Explorer Seminars are an evening lecture and discussion held by either one of the teachers or lifelong learners. They usually hold 2 or 3 different seminars each night. The one I attended was about noticing not just the cultural differences in the countries we visit, but really paying attention to the similarities as well. When I returned to my cabin, I got sucked into some British documentary about fish and oceans and finally went to bed. After tonight there is only one more night of losing hours!

Thursday
Today was extremely hectic! The Vicarious Voyage program had it’s first informational meeting tonight at 1745-1845 so I only had 15 minutes to eat dinner. We didn’t do much at the meeting except meet our group members, and find out which classroom we are connecting with (if we didn’t already know).

Afterwards, I attended the second meeting of the Alcohol Free group at 1900. The majority of us are going on the Cadiz City Orientation and have Friday free. We are not quite sure what we will do on Friday yet, but I think we will probably find a good restaurant to eat at.

I hadn’t planned on attending the LGBT group, but a few of my friends decided to go at the last minute, so I went with them. I’m glad we decided to go. There were quite a few (about 25) people. The Dean of Students, who is gay, talked about his sailing many years ago and how a group like this would never have happened. It was sad to hear how alone he felt.

At 2000 I attended the mandatory cultural pre-port meeting, which is where someone from Spain lectures about what to expect form the culture. Afterward, I had planned to watch a movie in the Union about the Jewish/Christian/Muslim regions of Spain, but I was exhausted by the time it came on. It usually takes me awhile to fall asleep, but not tonight. I was out the moment my head hit the pillow! Also, tonight is the last night that we will lose hours for awhile. YAY!

Friday(today):
The first half of the day was a fairly routine “B” day. I finished all of my classes and then took a nap until about 1600. After that I did something very out of the ordinary. I laid by the pool to get a tan! I only laid out for about 5-10 minutes but I’m sure I’m still going to burn anyway.

We reach Spain tomorrow! And we don’t have to lose an hour tonight! Just as classes start to become routine, we take almost a two week break. We will be in Spain for four days (Saturday September 5-Tuesday September 8). We have ONE DAY before we reach Morocco. This day is appropriately titled “Morocco Day” and we will have all the usual meetings we have before reaching a country. Everyone will have Global Studies class that day but all other classes are canceled. We will arrive in Casablanca at 8 am on Thursday September 10th and stay until Monday September 14th. Unfortunately, it’s back to the regular class routine after that. We don’t reach Ghana until September 22nd.

Bye all! Next blog will be from Spain!