Embarkation Day!!!!

        So today we finally left!!! Goodbye Halifax, hello Spain! (although I will not be there until next Saturday) Oh what an exciting day this has been.

         First thing I did today was get checked in for the boat. Went fairly quick considering the amount of people there was, but luckily my last name let me go at 9AM local time, 5AM San Diego time. I head some storied about people on the boat not getting their luggage from the airline, so they were freaking out about not getting their luggage. Lucky for me though, I got my luggage and did not have to have that stress on me. At check-in their were surprisingly a good number or parents with their kids, and I also met those whose parents did not come with them, (my roommates).

        Met all my roommates around noon, since that was when we were all. I have three of them: Jason (an International Relations major in New Orleans, but from Nepal, [if you did not know it is a country just north of India], and the story he told of getting his visas made me happy I am an American and what the American passport is really worth; he said he had to go to India for two weeks, and apply for eight of the countries we are going to, had to bribe the people at the visa office in order to get his Canadian visa); Grant (a psychology/biology major from Nebraska, works in the campus store here on the ship); and Anthony (from Montreal, graduated from Georgia with a degree in psychology) there are four of us total in our room.

       So after that, the day mainly involved walking around exploring the ship and meeting everyone. I met a couple people and hung out with them most of the day. There were two mini-orientation type events, since tomorrow I am busy from 9AM local time to 9PM local time, tomorrow will be so much fun, (sarcasm is involved there). The orientation meetings introduced the crew, the teachers, and the staff. My Life Learning Counselor (LLC), Stephanie (she is kind of like an RA but more important), is really chill.

       Spent a couple hours on the eighth deck with a group that I met during our area's meeting (each "deck" has maybe four "areas" designated to represent groups within our decks, for example my entire block of rooms is the "Yellow Sea" group, there are about ninety-five of us in this group. We sat on the upper deck and sat and talked while looking up to see non-existent stars, since the moon was full and very bright.

          The captain warned us during one of the mini-orientation meetings that we will be heading towards a hurricane that is developing over the Atlantic, but he said hopefully he can avoid it. I took some pills that will hopefully help with the sea sickness, since the ship is pretty small and not as big as a normal cruise ship you feel the rocking pretty badly. Also I found out that you were supposed to take one at a time, and I did not know so I ended up taking both, ooops. Well it is about 23:19 hours local time, otherwise known as 11:19PM, or 7:20PM San Diego time, and I got to wake up at 8AM tomorrow to eat breakfast with a couple people I met. So good night, oh and also, it is 68% women, 32% male, and there are 604 students,(so that makes about 410 women, and 190 men) just so everyone knows.

P.S. Pictures on my facebook might not come that early as I would like, just because airtime on the ship chews up a good amount of money, and when my two hours and fifteen mintues is up, that is all I get unless I want to buy another two hours, at, what I am told, one hundred dollars. I am sorry but that amount of money is not worth it to me for two hours of air time. If I can do it in port, or maybe do it quick on facebook, I will let you all know as soon as possible right here.  Also, to contact me in an e-mail, if you want, my e-mail address is as follows

drewjgarrison@semesteratsea.net

Thanks,
Until my next post,

"So much more grievous are the consequences of anger, that the causes"
-Marcus Aurelius