Follow this link for a more detailed virtual tour of the ship!

http://www.semesteratsea.com/campus/flash.html

And We’re Off!

This is crazy!  It has taken so long for this all to hit me, what I am really doing!  But it is hitting me now!  I can’t even explain to you what is like to be on a “cruise” with all collage students.  There are other faculty and staff, but everywhere I turn, there are even more college students!  Everyone is so excited to meet everyone, everyone says hi to everyone, and the general run down of information (name, state, school, major, year) and the conversations are off in all directions!  This is amazing, so amazing!

This morning (which started at 8:00 am), I stood in line for three hours to check into the ship, pulling my bags the whole way, which are heavy, really heavy.  Once I finally made it to the check on point, I received my room key/ID card/Credit card for the boat.  At the next station they checked and collected our passports, to be kept in the purser’s office.  Next was the baggage check. They went through all of our bags, and then loaded them up to be delivered to our rooms.  They were looking for electrical appliances, weapons and alcohol.  I finally made it to my room around 1:30 pm.

When I got to my room, I could see that my roommate had already been there.  One of my bags had arrived, so I unpacked that one, trying to get things settled, so it didn’t get to congested with my roommate and I both unpacking at the same time.  My other bags also arrived, one by one.  As I was just finishing up with unpacking, a fifteen minute warning for the cafeteria was called, and since I had not yet had a meal all day, I didn’t want to miss my opportunity.

Dinner was great (the food was average).  I got my tray, and one of the servers seated me with a whole new group of people.  As we eat we all exchanged our information, and began talking about he classes that we were in, what lead us to Semester at Sea (SAS), and kind of what we expected to get out of this voyage, all very fascinating.  Next we embarked on our first tour of the ship.  We got lost many times, and met even more new people, as we tried to figure out how to remember everything.  We slowly broke off to go find out if our roommates were there, as none of us had met who they would be living with for the next 100 days. 

When I got back to my room, there was a note on my bed, which was suppose to be a joke for me, but she didn’t know what she was up against!  The note was all in Spanish!  It ends up being that my roommate is originally from Chile, South America.  Not long after I was in my room, my roommate did wander in.  Her name is Maria, and she is from Texas.  She is a pre-med major, and also a senior.  This is her final semester before she goes to med school, which she is very excited about!  She started unpacking and we chatted about where we come from, our families and plans for the upcoming year (It is a very exciting year!)  Maria and I are going to get along just fine; she seems to be a ton of fun, very outgoing and adventurous! 

Suddenly, we realized that the boat was moving, we rushed from our room up to the top deck, to wave goodbye to all the parents on the dock (there were quite a few there!)  The ship left port at 4:00 pm.  While we were up there we met two other girls, and instantly found so many things to talk about.  We didn’t even realize that it was getting so late!  We talked until dinner time, had dinner together and then talked some more.  Maria and Annie are both from Texas, but from rivalry colleges (they decided that they could still be friends anyways). Katie is from New York, but goes to school in Maryland.  Both Katie and Maria have gone skydiving, so we talked about that a long time.  They couldn’t stop saying how awesome it was, so Annie and I decided we might just have to do it in Africa.  Kate lived in India for a month, so she is going to be our tour guide there, and is already giving us tips!  Maria is in charge of Puerto Rico, since she is not only fluent there, but she also has family there, so we’ll get to see the real Puerto Rico!  We really had a great time chatting.  We all went our separate ways, back to our rooms, to finish unpacking before our first orientation meeting (there are lots). 

Our first meeting was just about the general rules, policies and procedures for conduct on the ship (We were informed, we are on a ship not a boat, and on a voyage not a cruise.)  After that meeting, we had our first “Sea” meeting.  On a regular campus, the dorms have floors, or houses, we have Seas.  So, I live In the Baltic Sea.  There are 78 residents of the Baltic Sea.  (My neighbors are very cool; they have already given us tours of their rooms.  Maria and I talk to everyone, it’s fun!)  At our Sea meeting, we learned what our Resident Director’s (RD) expectations were and the rules of the Sea.  Since everyone is kind of feeling sea sick, including the RD, the meeting was very short and to the point.  I am feeling a little woozy, but not as bad as my roommate, she decided to just sleep it off, and is now out.  I just took my ginger to see how that would work.  Tomorrow is to be full of meetings and more meetings, and then we will all begin with what is to be our “normal” routine. 

Well, I am going to go wander the ship a little before I fall asleep to the roll of the sea (it is defiantly rolling!)  It is so funny to walk down the hall, and every time we hit a bigger wave, every falls to that side of the hall… we all weave together.  We haven’t gotten our sea legs yet, but I’ll keep you posted on that one!

Everything is wonderful, more wonderful that I can explain, but believe me, I can already tell this is going to be one experience everyone needs to have!!

Lots of Love!!  Laura

This is part of the line behind me... a very long line!!

So, there are almost 700 students on this voyage, and we all want on the ship!  This process took over 5 hours!  But as you can see it is caos.  It was a hot day, so it is amazing that peopel were in such good moods, even with the long wait!

And yet more people!

The girl that I was in line with held my spot and I went to get some starbucks, definatly tasted better than I ever remeber!  I was so glad to see this sign!

This is jsut a picture of what the Bahamas looked like, or at least the oart that I saw.

You can see the ship behind the building here.  This is my new home!

This is the Atlantis from the ship.  I finally made it on the ship!

You can see the Bahamas behind me, we are getting ready to leave port!

This is what you see as you walk into the cabin. The bathroom is on the right and closet on the left. You can see that each bed has its own lamp and light switch controls for all the lights in the cabin which is very handy. This is the porthole size for decks 3 and up, deck 2 has the smaller round porthole. Ah yes, and the lovely art on the wall...

http://www.msnusers.com/SemesteratSeaFall2005/detailedcabinphotos.msnw?Page=2

Go here if you would like to see what the inside of my new room looks like!  Lots of detailed pictures of the space!

1-20-06

Today was really based on orientation and introduction to what we will be doing and the goals to accomplish over the next 100 days.  There were about 5 different sessions in all.  The introduction to the main class on the ship, Global Studies, was very interesting, and I know this class alone will teach me things about the world that I would probably not discover any other way.  Global studies, a class that we have everyday while at sea, consists of about 45 minutes of lecture and 40 minutes of a guest speaker lecture by someone from that country.  We will have different lectures everyday from a variety of leaders, ambassadors and residents from all over the world.  The opportunities are endless. 

            We also learned about safety on the boat, student life activities (Clubs and organizations to form and join while on the ship).  We had a meet and greet session on the entire faculty and staff aboard, as well as a presentation from the field office to give us pointers on how to have the best travel experiences.  Our last meeting of the day was our Sea meeting.  At the Sea meeting, we met who else lived in the same hallway, and where everyone is from (I am the only one from Michigan in my hall.  Rumor is that there are 17 students on the ship from Michigan, 16 of them are from Michigan State)  After all the meetings were over, a good sized group of us hung out and talked about what are plans are for travel in each country, what to be aware of, precautions, and the must sees of the countries.  We tossed the idea around of getting together to plan some independent trips, but nothing was really ever set up.  I have met some of the most interesting people!   I have not had any major issues with sea sickness.  The first day I was a little queasy, and today I was dealing with it even better.  My roommate is not doing so well.  She ended up spend almost the whole day in bed and in the bathroom, trying to adjust.  I went and hunted down some Dramamine for her, so hopefully that will help!  Just trying to be a nurse…

 this is my port hole!  A lot bigger than I thought I would get!  I am so glad that I chose to have an outside room!

This is the view of my room as you walk in the door.

And this is the opposite view from the window!

1-21-06

People are starting to get their sea legs, but everyone still walks in a zigzag motion down the hallways, bumping in to each other.  Today is the first official day of class, and people seem to be in a general good mood, maybe they are adapting to the motion of the sea, and the sea sickness is subsiding, regardless, the energy on the ship seems to be high today.  Today we learn more about Puerto Rico in Global studies, and then I also have my first Journalism class, which I am looking forward to (so hopefully, these entries will improve immensely!)  

            Today started like what seems to be a typical day, but then again, I don’t know if any day will ever be a typical day.  Anyways, went to class, did my work out, tried my hand at washing clothes in my bathroom sink (not really an easy task.  The bathroom is tiny!  The toilet and the shower face each other with three feet in between them, and the sink and the door face each other with two feet between them, and now, consider that you are all over the place because the ship is constantly pitching and throwing.  It is hard to find a balance sometimes.)  Everything was going fine until my 2:15 pm class.  I am sure this is the worst place to have class in the whole ship.  It is a small classroom on the top deck, and today is defiantly the roughest day ay sea.  The classes are all an hour and 15 minutes long.  This classroom was really warm (or maybe it was because everyone was getting sick), and all the curtains were closed because it was so bright out, so we couldn’t watch the horizon to try and subside the sea sickness.  The class seemed to last forever!  (The class is called Health and Illness: Healthcare Policy in Global Perspective.)  By the time class was finally over, I was SO sick!  I went directly back to my room and slept for the next two hours.  My roommate has been sick the whole time and she is in this class with me, so it was really hurting her, so she left, and I got the rest of the information for her.  The class seems to be interesting.  In each country we keep a journal on the types of health care that we see, how accessible it is to the community, and how easy it is to find.  The journal is composed of what ever we want it to be; it can be a note book, pictures, a video; however we want to discover the system.  We also all pair up and select a country we are going to and present to the class in depth on that system.  It should be a good, but challenging class. 

            After my nap, I still wasn’t feeling so hot, so I tried to eat some dinner, but the rolls were the only thing that really sounded and tasted appetizing for the moment, so I stuck with those.  I met some girls from the Dominican Republic, and later they taught me some Salsa dancing.  After dinner, there was a briefing on Puerto Rico, the things to see and do, and the places to eat, as well as the places not to go to.  Over all, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on dancing and music and the significance that these traditions and customs have for the people.  I am learning about how the Caribbean has all these islands grouped together as one, and yet they are more diverse and owed by different countries had have different influences from all over the world.  The Caribbean is very diverse.  After our seminar, there were dance lessons scheduled for anyone that would like to learn some dances of Puerto Rico.  I went, because I enjoy learning all sorts of new things, and so, this guy is getting ready to teach us how to salsa, and he is asking if anyone there is there for the dance lessons.  Everyone kind of shrugged and sat back, but I said I was, so he was showing me the basic steps, and then we got into twists and turns (ok, learning a new dance is challenging all by itself, but add to that that we are on the top deck, and it is rough seas… this was quite the challenge!  But you all know how I love a good challenge!)  So all of this is going on, and I am just trying to keep up with this guy and follow his lead.  I had no idea that we were the only one’s dancing, and not only that, but they were broadcasting us to the satellite rooms as well!  More people did come and dance and I really had a great time!  I learned some salsa, cha cha, and bomba tonight, all native to Puerto Rico!  Now I feel more equipped for Puerto Rico! 

            Tonight we lose an hour.  As we go around the world we continuously lose and hour, until we have lost a whole day!  But since it is gradual, I don’t really have to worry about feeling “jet lagged” or maybe it should be called “ship lagged”.    We will be in Puerto Rico on Monday, so tomorrow I have one more day of class, and then Puerto Rico.  I plan on updating you all again once I am in Puerto Rico.  (I hear they have a Starbucks, so maybe that means free internet too!  Oh the simple pleasures in life…)

I really hope that you all enjoy hearing about my journey, and that you check my site often.  I will probably only be updating the site when I am in port, but occasionally I might do it while at Sea, I guess it all just depends on how busy I am in port!

And remember!!!!  I live in room 3094, so if you go to the communications website, which is linked for you on the SAS page of my website, it has address and dates of when to send mail by and where to, so you can send me some mail too!  So room 3094! 

This is our pool!  Little for 700 students plus faculty and staff!!  But we'll take waht we can get!

This is a typical view from the 5th deck, pretty nice, all you see is blue!

It still amazes me just how blue the water is!  I love it!  We get areport every day at noon, and one of the factoids is the water temperature.  The water temperature is 77 degrees!  But i think I will refrain from swimming for now, might be sharks below!

Ok, I hope you guys continue to check my site!  I miss you all, but am having a great time!  You'll hear from me more when I get to Puerto rico!

Love Laura

1-26-06

Today was an A day (we do not have days of the week while we  are at sea.  We have A and B days, and you go to what ever classes you have on that day.  Everyday at sea, we have Global Studies.  I thought it would be weird going to class on a Saturday or a Sunday, but you really don’t even realize the day of the week, it is just an A day or a B day.)  I had my global studies class in the morning, and then my health care systems class in the afternoon.   The global studies class is going well, but the professor jumps around so much that he is quite difficult to follow, and some times the class really starts to drag on.  He also gets side tracked very easily, so we hear lots of extra side stories, most of which are interesting, just not information pertinent to studying for the exam.  Our first exam in this class will be the day we before we get to Brazil, so, January 31^st. 

My Health Care Networks class is amazing!  I absolutely loved it today.  The professor for this class has more degrees than anything else, really a smart lady!  She has 4 bachelor, 9 masters, and a PhD degree, and she is only like 25 year old!  It makes me feel like I need to go get a whole bunch of degrees or I am a slacker!  Anyways, today in class we talked about the different types of federal aid, like Medicare and Medicaid, and all the loop holes and stipulations.  It is a very confusing system, and corrupt in a sense too.  We are Reading a book called “As Sick As It Gets”, and it is very fascinating.  Today we focused on the uninsured people in the USA, and what that means to each of us, and the government, and how it effects everyone, and who the really winners and losers are In the system.  A very interesting topic and we had such great class discussion!  I have a feeling that I will finally have an understanding of the federal aid system!  (This will defiantly be beneficial to my Boards and my career!)

The rest of the day was a pretty average day.  My roommate and I hung out a lot, and really had a great talk.  We are really getting along great!  She was feeling better today than her previous days at sea, so it is good to see her “up and at ‘em” once again! I also signed up to take a bridge tour of the ship later next week!  I’ll have pictures of that for you then!  I have a bunch of reading to catch up on for class, but some days, it is so hard to read at sea, especially when it is rough, you just get sick from reading.  But that is my goal, to catch up before Brazil.  

Just as a side note, I absolutely loved Puerto Rico!  I had so much fun, and really became better friends and got to know more people on the different trips, but defiantly a great experience! 

Just one more Picture of me with the Ship in the back ground, we were on our way to the University of Puerto Rico for a welcome resption from the college students, so much fun!

2-11-06

Today was a great day!  The first bonus was that there were no classes today.  After we have had class for about 5 to 6 days in a row, we get a day off.  We don’t have days of the week on the ship, just A days and B days, so we really never know what day of the week it is.  So, as it was, today was a day off for us all.  It really came as a huge relief.  We have lost an hour about ever night the last 6 nights (every night but 1), and now we are 7 hours ahead of Eastern Time.  So, it is like having jet lag every day, but you can’t call it jet lag, so ship lag?  Anyways, I just feel like sleeping all the time.  I know the constant rocking of the ship really does not help my case at all, but if it is of any worth, I do have to get up earlier every morning.  So, our day off; the night before, since we knew there were no classes the next day, we ended up staying up until 3am, playing cards.  We played about every card game we could think of (except Mafia, still waiting for the perfect opportunity to break that one in, but my roommate knows the game!  We really do get along great!) And then when we could think of no more card games, we played spoons.  The only problem was that we didn’t actually have any spoons to use, so, we played “bracelets” instead, but all the same game really.  (Spoons is a game of speed, and highly entertaining, you should really just get a group together and play right now.  It is always a good time to start laughing more.)  The longer we played, the more people came over and joined our table.  (See, laughter really is contagious).  My roommate and I always go up to the dinning hall around 8:00 pm every night with 3 decks of cards (Phase 10, Skip-Bo, and a regular deck), and people always stop by and play.  We pretty much have a regular group that comes every night, so we basically started our own club.  It makes every day a great day.  So back to my original story, a day off of classes! 

            Maria and I were really banking on sleeping in, since we stayed up so late, and we really wanted to catch up on all the hours of sleep we have lost over the last week.  What we didn’t count on was that 10:00 am, our time that we signed up to work out, would come so soon.  (They have a very small gym on the ship.  You can only use the equipment if you sign up for it 24 hours in advance, if you can get a spot.  Maria and I keep each other accountable, and do really well as making sure we go every day at sea!)  We pulled ourselves out of bed at 9:50 am and made our way to the gym, barely awake, but we made it!  That’s half the battle!  After our work out, we were feeling much, much better. 

            At lunch time, it was just my luck, my favorite meal on the ship; Sweet and Sour pork and rice.  So the food on the ship was fine at first, but now all the food kind of tastes the same.  Also, when we are on our longer stretches, you can tell when it really isn’t a good idea to eat the fruit or vegetables any more.  The tomatoes are always the first to go, and by the time the apples go, you know that you just have to wait for the next port to start eating fruits and veggies again.  Well, we have been at sea for a good stretch now, and the tomatoes are mushy, but the apples aren’t too brown yet.  The main staple on the ship is Peanut butter.  There is always peanut butter and jelly sandwiches available, which I find myself eating more and more frequently.  Here is a fun fact for you.  Someone was asking the Captain about all the peanut butter that everyone is always eating, and he said they go through a ton (2000 pounds) of peanut butter every voyage, that comes out to 2 pounds per person per voyage.  That is a lot of peanut butter!!  I really have to catch up on my quota!  I do have to say though, for some reason, peanut butter hits the spot like never before!  So, that’s the scoop on food.  So, after lunch, we gathered our homework (yes, we do do homework too), and headed to the 7^th deck to get some sun, multitasking!  I have to tell you, lying out on the deck, the sun washing over me, reading my book; I really could get use to this!  I really love ship life!  I only stayed out for about an hour before I had to move to the shade, and even that was challenge!  Since we are so much closer to the equator, the sun feels really hot, really fast.

            So there had been this fantastic rumor spreading around the ship that the chef was preparing a BBQ for us that night.  I can’t even tell you how badly I just wanted a cheeseburger.  Later that night, when they made the glorious announcement, you literally could hear the whole ship cheer!  People even got together to go sing a thank you song to the chef.  And let me tell you, the BBQ that night was SO good, and my cheeseburger was tasty that I had to remind myself that we also got ice cream that night (another very special treat!)

            Later that night, we got together with our game gang and played Blurt! (Very fun!) as well as Phase 10, and Taboo.  We ended the day by watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and laughed until we cried.  What a day!!  Defiantly my kind of a day! 

Usually, everyday on the ship is pretty routine.  We get up at 7:45 am, (yes, Maria and I do everything together) we go to breakfast, come back study for 30 minutes, go to Global studies, come back and go work out, come back, shower, go to lunch, and then from 1:00 pm to 6 pm, we go to our classes (I have 1 in the after noon on A days, and 2 in the afternoon on B days.  Compared to the School of Nursing, this is cake walk).  When we are not in class between these times, we are studying.  At 6:00 pm, we get together with our friends and have dinner.  At 7:00 pm we go back to our rooms and finish up what ever we were working on for homework, and then we all get together for games and laughing at 8:00 pm.  I love it.  I think this is the first time I have ever felt completely on top of all of my reading, and I am actually ahead of schedule for the papers that are due in all my classes.  I am going to post my papers for you under “Stories” (a new link in the navigation bar to the left of the screen, it’ll be at the bottom.)  But here I will post my papers that I am writing for my Journalism class, which so far are very entertaining.  I am also writing a country report and a health care system report on Brazil, so if that interests you, read on!  They really are informative on the country!  Ok, I’m out, it’s time to play cards!!

3-4-06

Sea Olympics!

Today, we had our Sea Olympics!  This is a very popular day anticipated from the first day we got on the ship.  We had no classes today, and we all competed, in teams, for the reward of being the first one off the ship in San Diego.  I live in the Baltic Sea on the ship, (each sea is it own team) and we were the Baltic Blue Vikings!  We competed in events such as most creative banner for the team, egg spoon/crab walk/wheelbarrow relay race, synchronized swimming (hilarious!), orange roll relay, orange pass (gotta use our resources), board games, wet clothes pass (not nearly as bad as it sounds), ultimate twister, dodge ball, flip cup, scavenger hunt, chubby bunny, tug of war, H2O drop, big hair and karaoke/lip-sync contest.  The Baltic Sea was actually in the lead the whole day, we were doing so well!  (Maria and I rocked the Scavenger hunt!)  And it came down to the last event, the lip sync.  Our team refused to tell anyone the song they picked out, and after they did it, we understood why.  It was horrible. The song was not appropriate; my face was bright red the whole time.  It was disappointing because we had done so well all day, and even had the lead, and then they took last place in the lip sync, just because it was way to crude.  But besides that, the day was a blast!  I have a full DVD on today, so if you want to see our events, and have a good laugh, you should defiantly see them!  Here are pictures from the day!

P. S. we ended up in third place, so maybe that means we will be the third group to get off of the ship (out of nine) 

Brandy is in the Barring Sea, they were the black Bandits, and they came in first

 (sorry, i don't have a picture yet...)

Samantha and Meghan is in the Red Sea, and they are the Red Sea Ringers, and they came in 5^th place.

Jen is in the Arabian Sea, they were the green Lepercons, and they came in 6^th place.

I’m glad that it was a fun day off from classes!  And!  We also got a BBQ today fro mthe staff (we defiantly love staff!), so once again, I had a wonderful cheese burger, and it tasted so good!  Our motto for ship food is now “it’s not bad, but it’s not good” so that pretty much sums up the every day food…. Oh well!  Cheers to a great day!

And This is how the day ended, as the captain would say "like glass, Baby!"  I have never sea the ocean so still!  It is ahrd to believe that this is still the ocean, not a lake!  Beautiful!

April 20, 2006

Ambassador’s Ball

This was a night all six of us girls had been waiting for!  We all had dresses made for each of us when we were in Vietnam and now we could finally wear them! Some of us had classes that ended at 5:00 pm, and dinner started at 5:15, so we had not very much time to make ourselves beautiful!   As we made our way up to the dinning hall we were greeted with a dinning hall like none other we had seen!  It was all decked out!  WE sat down at our assigned table and were served a delicious five course meal (now we know the ship is capable of good food…)  After dinner we had an hour before the slide show would began, so we played cards and Sam entertained us all.  She just happened to spill some salad dressing on her dress during dinner, so we were all giving her a hard time about it.  The slide show finally started and we all smiled, remembering our own memories of this journey, each in our own world. 

After the slide show, we had yet another hour before dessert.  Now dessert, we had heard of so many good rumors about this dessert tonight that we defiantly didn’t want to miss it.  Maria kept trying to push us out the door, but we were all so busy swapping pictures that we couldn’t just get up and leave.  Maria and Jen went ahead and secured us a spot in line.  When the rest of us finally showed up, the line was out the door, and around the ship!  We fell into line behind Maria and Jen, and anticipated this wonderful dessert.  When it was finally our turn, we were not disappointed!  There were over 15 different chocolate desserts to chose from… or to try a little of each!  Everything was so creative too!  A feast for the eyes, and the stomach.  It was a fun night!

April 23, 2006

We knew this whole voyage that the ship would be bunkering in Hawaii on the way home to refuel. We all had a little inkling of hope that maybe they would let us off the ship. As we got closer and closer, we soon realized that they had decided to bunker in Hawaii in the middle of the night so we wouldn’t be so sad that we couldn’t get off. So, we arrived at 11:00 pm. We thought they would be there until at least 7:30 the next morning, so we decided to sleep outside that night just to get the most out of Hawaii. Even though it was dark outside, it was still torture to be on the ship with Hawaii right beneath us! Since we were back on USA soil, everyone’s cell phones were working again, and that meant that everyone was on their cell phones. Lucky for the six of us girls, Brady had a cell phone that worked, and she was kind enough to let all of us make some calls home.

I first called Chris and thought I would catch him on his way to work, but he didn’t answer, so I called my brother Ben to say hi to him on his way to work. It was 6:30 in the morning, so the time that both of them should be on their way to work. Well, Ben answered his cell phone and it was obvious that I had just woken him up. I asked him if he was running late, and he decided to inform me that it was Sunday. I forgot about the whole days of the week thing. On the ship we have A days and B days. We have class everyday since days of the week don’t exist on the ship. I told Ben I was sorry for waking him, and decided I had better wait a couple of hours before I call my mom and dad to get some more details on when they were coming to San Diego to pick me up. I waited until it would be 9:00am at home. I called home, and once again, Ben answered the phone again, but a little more awake. He informed me that Mom and Dad had left earlier that morning for the airport to fly out to San Diego. Dad had some business to do in San Diego, so he was getting all of that done before I got there. I should have called my parents at 6:30 like I had originally planned; they would have been there then! I tried to reach Chris again, but still no answer, so I tried my Dad’s cell phone, but I didn’t have any luck with that either.

Sam, Brandy, Jen and I all gathered our stuff to sleep out on the deck and found some lounge chairs to sleep on. Once we were up there, we were all being optimistic and decided the chairs were comfortable and that it wasn’t really that windy. After trying to get situated for 30 minutes, we all decided to just try and sleep; it was 2:00 am after all. Around 3:00 am, we were all still wide awake. A little while later, Brandy’s cell phone rang, and it was my dad calling me back. I found out that they had a layover, and would be in Sand Diego to do business. My mom asked me how I was doing with all of the time changes and I laughed, it was 3:00 am and I was wide awake.

The time changes have been killing us all! We went eight nights in a row losing one hour each night (and you though day light savings was tough). We are losing another hour tonight, and then two more, and then we would be in San Diego. Then I would have to lose 3 more hours once I got home. I will have lost a total of 24 hours. It is a lot harder traveling east and only having 23 hour days. On April 20^{th, we actually repeated the day, so we had a 48 hour day (a very long Thursday), and an 8 day week. Before we crossed the international date line, we were 17 (I think) hours ahead of eastern time, and then we crossed and we were 7 hours behind eastern time. I had to give up on trying to figure out what time it was at home in case I needed to make a phone call or anything.}

The ride back home is a 13 day stretch of not getting off the ship; talk about cabin fever! We have four more days left (which I still can’t believe) and then we will be on land again. It’s really going to be different getting off knowing I will not be getting on again. It will be fin to have my parents there waiting for me though! I do miss them all! Right now, we are planning on getting off, meeting up with our families, and then all six of us girls and who ever is picking us up is going out to dinner. On Saturday, we are all on our own, and then having one last dinner together before we all go our separate ways the next morning. It really is sad that everything is coming to an end, but I know I have made some friends on this voyage that I am sure I will have for a life time. They are all such good girls! Also, my friendship with Barbara & Phil and Maggie & Barry are ones that I will also treasure, they are such great people! Semester at Sea has been such a great experience for me!

4-27-06

Today is our last day on the ship. I think we are all trying not to think about that. Semester at Sea has been one of the most amazing adventures of my life, and something I wouldn’t trade. I loved learning the new cultures, and went through plenty of shocks, and I know that going back into my own culture will probably be the biggest shock. We all joke about going shopping and trying to bargain for our groceries, or not even feeling sorry for the beggars, since we have seen real poverty. We all joke about staying away from ships for a while, or how we will never eat pasta or peanut butter again. We all get confused about which side of the hall way we are suppose to walk on, and a little nervous about driving on the wrong side. We are all ready to go home and see our families and loved ones; we are all ready for our own bed, our "normal" schedule. We all feel that we are ready to go home, but we all know that we will always miss this experience, and each other. The kind of bond the six of us have is unlike any other friendship. We have spent the last 100 days in tight quarters, in all or our good and rough days. I feel like I have known these girls for years, but it really has only been three and a half months. We have all of our funny inside jokes that nobody will understand when we go home. And of course, we all have our annoying traits we are ready to leave behind. In the end though, I know that I will miss these girls more than any other part of this voyage.

We spent all day yesterday packing, and should have been exhausted, but we are all experiencing "ship lag"… basically, our bodies are so confused, we have no idea what time zone we are in any more. (It was 4:30 in the morning before we even felt tired last night, which meant many, many rounds of Phase 10.) But the packing is done and it has all been hauled down to the bottom of the ship to be off loaded as soon as we get to San Diego. Our rooms are empty, bare and sad; a constant reminder that all this is coming to an end. Everything is so bitter sweet right now. We are excited to see our families, but we wish we could keep this close contact as well. It’s difficult, but it’s good. I’m ready to see my parents tomorrow and the rest of my family and Chris on Sunday.

Today Maria, Meghan and I graduated with the ship’s ceremony. We all went to the indicated room; they lined us up, and handed out our graduation caps, which were the triangle hats from Vietnam. The ceremony was way too long, and the adult passengers that we have adopted as our parents away from home, sat in the crowd and cried as they watched us graduate. Our final day here is almost over, and I think some of us are even scared to go to sleep tonight, just to make it last that much longer. We are all a little anxious about getting off the ship will all of our stuff, getting through customs, and greeting those who will be there to meet us. It’s already the beginning of the end. We saw the world, so now, hopefully, we can come home and change the world! I will see you all very soon, so get ready to sit through some pictures! Love, Laura Rouch

Thank you to all of you that sent each one of us on this journey!  I know we all learned more than we ever thought we would, and we collected great friends along the way.  Thank you!!  Keep checking for updates my summer, my nursing boards and the wedding!  Thanks for reading all along the way! Love Laura