Hi Guys-
So I’ve decided to keep a word document journal of every day, because I went to write my blog post for the past two days and could not even remember what happened yesterday. So much goes on in a day, and it'’s already hard to keep track of everything, so I'’m going to “type” everything down from now on. I think the last day I have on the blog was Thursday, Jan 13. Sorry if these blogs aren'’t super interesting! We haven’t gotten into a port, so it’'s pretty much the every day routine stuff. I swear they'’ll be a little more exciting after we get off the ship, but until then I need to keep Grandma happy by posting “EVERYTHING.”☺
I had my first class, Global Studies, on Friday morning. Catherine and I are both in the same class, so we walked up together. This is the one really big class that everyone is required to take. Our professor spent the time talking about the syllabus, and then the geologist on the ship talked to us about where we are and where we will be going. It was all really interesting, and he gave us a heads up on passing Montserrat tomorrow. We were separated into random small groups of seven, and Catherine and I were randomly put into the same group out of 50 groups..crazy. We do research with our group on a certain subject in a country we are going to. We have chosen to research about poverty in Ghana. For my section, I will be researching how poverty affects education in Ghana. I’m also hoping to get onto an FDP that goes to a hospital focusing on women & childbirth, so that I can compare child-birthing methods in Ghana to that of the United States.
I was done with classes by 10:30, and had the rest of the day to lay out and relax.
Today was way busier. I had three classes pretty much in a row. My first class, Physical Oceanography, is pretty much a repeat of the Geology class last summer. Luckily I realized that before I left, and brought my all of my notes from it. I signed up for an FDP (kind of like a Field Trip that you do with a professor in a port) in Mauritius. We will be taking a glass bottom boat out to the coral reefs and studying the marine life. Afterwards we go snorkeling. We'’re required to do at least one per class, and I thought that was a fun one. My second class was Sociology: International Perspectives on Violence. This class seems pretty interesting. I’m not quite sure what FDPs I'’ll be doing for it yet. My third class is Abnormal Psychology. During our next class, we'’ll be given a group, a disorder and a country that we will research. No one else but our professor knows what we have, and we study it for the entire semester. On the last day, we present the case to the class without saying what it is, and they have to try and figure it out. I think it will be fun. It'’s really cool for us to be studying all of the places we'’ll be going to. The professors base their classes on the port that we will be arriving in next, so the information is relevant to our destinations. The classes are pre-requisites for nursing school, so it'’s nice to get them out of the way, while still learning a lot.
We arrive in Dominica in 8 hours! A group of us are going to wake up at 6:30 so we can get to breakfast and watch as we get to port. We’'ve never gotten up early enough to make breakfast… so I'’m really hoping we stick to our plan! We’'re going canyoning tomorrow morning. We’'ll be repelling down waterfalls, and jumping in crevasses filled with water. It looks pretty crazy, but really fun-
Hoping to have wi-fi while we’re there so I can upload some pics!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Greetings from the MV Explorer!!
I am ON THE SHIP!!! Everything is so crazy here! I met up with Matt (he had
gone to dinner & Senor Frogs with us on our last night in the Bahamas) and his parents the morning of the 12th, and we took a cab together to the ship. His family is from Truckee in Northern California, and they were so nice and helpful on our last day in the Bahamas. They wouldn't let me help pay for the cab, and Mr. Hardy carried some of my luggage all the way to the ship with me (there's a LOT of it). Catherine was working outside, so she came over a couple times while we were waiting in line and took pictures with us. It took about 35 minutes to get through the security line, and when we got out of the building the ship was right in front of us. I took video and pictures of us walking up to the ship. Ok, so somehow I ended up in a huge room on the third floor! I definitely paid for a room on economy or 2nd, so I'm not quite sure why I got it but it's so nice! The room is meant to be for three people, but there are only two of us so we have lots of space. I ate lunch with a couple of guys who live by me, and my roommate came a little after lunch. Her name is Sara and she's from Dallas, Texas and is really nice. Catherine met with the head nurse, and told her about me going into nursing after graduation. She's an ICU nurse at UCLA, and wants me to be introduced to her and I am SO excited. I guess she told Catherine it's too late for me to do work study, but that I might get to do things in ports or something along those lines.
Leaving the port in the Bahamas was so much fun. The parents were going wild down below, and some even ran along the side of the ship as we started moving. I have pictures and video, but I can't send those through the internet so you'll have to wait until I get into a port that has wifi.
The past two days have been filled with orientation meetings. They have been long and pretty brutal. I got seasick last night, but had ginger ale and felt a lot better by the time I went to sleep. We have different activities we do on the ship. The students and passengers are all divided up equally into different seas. Catherine and I are both in the Caribbean Sea. There's a Sea Olympics halfway through the voyage that we'll participate in, and we make cheers and do other fun things together. We were also divided into small groups of about ten people that we will meet with every once in a while and talk about experiences in ports. We have a professor, a field trip coordinator and a lifelong learner leading our group.
We arrive in Dominica on Sunday the 16th, a lot sooner than I thought. I'm excited to start getting into the regular schedule tomorrow. I have Global Studies tomorrow from 9:20-10:35, and then I'm done for the day. So much has happened since we got on the ship, and I'm probably forgetting to write a lot of it, but I'll update soon-
Miss all of you~
Bridget
gone to dinner & Senor Frogs with us on our last night in the Bahamas) and his parents the morning of the 12th, and we took a cab together to the ship. His family is from Truckee in Northern California, and they were so nice and helpful on our last day in the Bahamas. They wouldn't let me help pay for the cab, and Mr. Hardy carried some of my luggage all the way to the ship with me (there's a LOT of it). Catherine was working outside, so she came over a couple times while we were waiting in line and took pictures with us. It took about 35 minutes to get through the security line, and when we got out of the building the ship was right in front of us. I took video and pictures of us walking up to the ship. Ok, so somehow I ended up in a huge room on the third floor! I definitely paid for a room on economy or 2nd, so I'm not quite sure why I got it but it's so nice! The room is meant to be for three people, but there are only two of us so we have lots of space. I ate lunch with a couple of guys who live by me, and my roommate came a little after lunch. Her name is Sara and she's from Dallas, Texas and is really nice. Catherine met with the head nurse, and told her about me going into nursing after graduation. She's an ICU nurse at UCLA, and wants me to be introduced to her and I am SO excited. I guess she told Catherine it's too late for me to do work study, but that I might get to do things in ports or something along those lines.
Leaving the port in the Bahamas was so much fun. The parents were going wild down below, and some even ran along the side of the ship as we started moving. I have pictures and video, but I can't send those through the internet so you'll have to wait until I get into a port that has wifi.
The past two days have been filled with orientation meetings. They have been long and pretty brutal. I got seasick last night, but had ginger ale and felt a lot better by the time I went to sleep. We have different activities we do on the ship. The students and passengers are all divided up equally into different seas. Catherine and I are both in the Caribbean Sea. There's a Sea Olympics halfway through the voyage that we'll participate in, and we make cheers and do other fun things together. We were also divided into small groups of about ten people that we will meet with every once in a while and talk about experiences in ports. We have a professor, a field trip coordinator and a lifelong learner leading our group.
We arrive in Dominica on Sunday the 16th, a lot sooner than I thought. I'm excited to start getting into the regular schedule tomorrow. I have Global Studies tomorrow from 9:20-10:35, and then I'm done for the day. So much has happened since we got on the ship, and I'm probably forgetting to write a lot of it, but I'll update soon-
Miss all of you~
Bridget
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Ready to set sail on the MV Explorer
Hi Everyone!
Sorry I haven't been on here for a couple of days. We have had so much fun, and little time to go on the internet. Our hotel is amazing. There are pools everywhere, with caves and waterfalls you can go in, and we are right on the beach. Catherine came in yesterday (Monday) afternoon around 3. She was so excited to see the view from our hotel, and it still hadn't hit us that we were in the BAHAMAS. A year ago, we would have never thought that we would be here during our last semester of college.
We put on our suits, got drinks at the bar downstairs and went straight to the beach. It wasn't too hot out, but was still pretty nice weather. We took lots of fun pictures of us jumping on the beach..we were REALLY excited to be reunited after a month of not seeing each other.
We met up with my roommate and her friend back in the hotel, changed into clothes and went to Senor Frogs for dinner. We got there pretty early, and had no idea how crazy it would get a few hours later. It was soooo much fun. SAS students started trickling in throughout the night, and it was packed by 10. The workers at Senor Frogs were so fun, and we had a lot of fun...
Catherine and I took a cab back around midnight and went to the pool and jacuzzi. Catherine stayed in our hotel that night, but had to get up in the morning to go to the ship and start her work study.
After Catherine had left, Olivia and I headed down to the beach. There was a local man selling coconut drinks on the beach, and it was really fun watching him cut it open. I tried real coconut for the first time. I thought it was kind of gross at first, but by the end of the day I loved it and ate almost half a coconut. We just hung out around the pool/beach all day and caught up on some reading we need to do for classes. Catherine got back from work around 6:45 and we went downtown to the "Fish Fry" for some authentic Bahamian food. I'm really trying to taste all of the different foods, but it's hard not to want to order chicken fingers when I see some of the things on these menus. We really wanted to try Conch before we left, so we got a platter to share of grilled conch, lobster, shrimp, and conch fritters. The grilled conch was rubbery like calamari, but was pretty good! We took pictures, but they're on Catherine's phone so I'll have to upload them later.
After dinner we walked down to Senor Frogs again and had so much fun with the workers and other SAS students. Everyone is so nice and excited about leaving tomorrow~
I have to get up in 4 hours to pack and leave for the ship so I'm going to sign off the internet- This is probably the last time I will be able to update my blog myself since we only have email for free on the ship. I'll be emailing Aimee my blog posts from now on, and she will be posting them (thanks aimers).
See you all in 3.5 months!
Sorry I haven't been on here for a couple of days. We have had so much fun, and little time to go on the internet. Our hotel is amazing. There are pools everywhere, with caves and waterfalls you can go in, and we are right on the beach. Catherine came in yesterday (Monday) afternoon around 3. She was so excited to see the view from our hotel, and it still hadn't hit us that we were in the BAHAMAS. A year ago, we would have never thought that we would be here during our last semester of college.
We put on our suits, got drinks at the bar downstairs and went straight to the beach. It wasn't too hot out, but was still pretty nice weather. We took lots of fun pictures of us jumping on the beach..we were REALLY excited to be reunited after a month of not seeing each other.
We met up with my roommate and her friend back in the hotel, changed into clothes and went to Senor Frogs for dinner. We got there pretty early, and had no idea how crazy it would get a few hours later. It was soooo much fun. SAS students started trickling in throughout the night, and it was packed by 10. The workers at Senor Frogs were so fun, and we had a lot of fun...
Catherine and I took a cab back around midnight and went to the pool and jacuzzi. Catherine stayed in our hotel that night, but had to get up in the morning to go to the ship and start her work study.
After Catherine had left, Olivia and I headed down to the beach. There was a local man selling coconut drinks on the beach, and it was really fun watching him cut it open. I tried real coconut for the first time. I thought it was kind of gross at first, but by the end of the day I loved it and ate almost half a coconut. We just hung out around the pool/beach all day and caught up on some reading we need to do for classes. Catherine got back from work around 6:45 and we went downtown to the "Fish Fry" for some authentic Bahamian food. I'm really trying to taste all of the different foods, but it's hard not to want to order chicken fingers when I see some of the things on these menus. We really wanted to try Conch before we left, so we got a platter to share of grilled conch, lobster, shrimp, and conch fritters. The grilled conch was rubbery like calamari, but was pretty good! We took pictures, but they're on Catherine's phone so I'll have to upload them later.
After dinner we walked down to Senor Frogs again and had so much fun with the workers and other SAS students. Everyone is so nice and excited about leaving tomorrow~
I have to get up in 4 hours to pack and leave for the ship so I'm going to sign off the internet- This is probably the last time I will be able to update my blog myself since we only have email for free on the ship. I'll be emailing Aimee my blog posts from now on, and she will be posting them (thanks aimers).
See you all in 3.5 months!
Monday, January 10, 2011
View from our balcony in Bahamas
My roommates said something about a pool and ocean view last night, but I had no idea that I would wake up to this in the morning. Not sure if I ever want to leave....
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Welcome To The Bahamas
Finally getting to writing on this after a really, really long weekend. Good news is: I made it to the Bahamas! We bought a different flight on Friday morning because we were worried about my layover in Atlanta. This flight went straight to Miami, and it worked out perfectly because my original flight ended up being canceled and I would have been stuck. We got an email from Semester at Sea today, and I guess a bunch of students are stuck in the storm and can't get to the Bahamas.
Anyways, last night we had a Bon Voyage party with family and friends.
It was SO good to see everyone one more time. People stayed until around 10, and I stayed up packing and re-checking all of my passport and visa info until 3am. We left for LAX at 4am and everything went super smoothly.
There were 3 SAS students sitting by me during our layover, and we shared a cab to our different hotels once we landed. It was fun seeing the entire customs section of the airport in the Bahamas filled with SAS students and families. Olivia (my roommate in the Bahamas), her friend from home, and three SAS students who all go to Vanguard with her were waiting for me to get to the hotel so we could go to dinner. We ended up walking to this Italian place a couple blocks down. It was late by the time we got back, and we're all super tired from traveling so we decided to call it a night and the guys headed back to their hotel.
I wish I could tell you all how beautiful the Bahamas is, but I got here at night and have not been able to explore or see anything yet at all! I guess I will just have to update this soon. Our plan for tomorrow is to do this snorkeling adventure. It's a four hour tour, and they take us out on a boat. The first hour is exploring a cave or something....the second is snorkeling around a shipwreck....and the third is snorkeling with sharks ( I guess they put bait at the bottom way below us and we watch them). I'm not completely sold on the idea....I was all about the cage diving with Great Whites in South Africa when I'm in a cage...this just sounds crazy though! I guess they're little sharks though so I guess the next time I update this you'll know if I chickened out or not!
Ok, I'm running on one hour of sleep so I'm going to wrap this up. I miss you all!
<3 B
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to all of my family and friends!
2010 ended with lots of parties, surprises and fun-
My dad surprised us all and flew Brendan home from Washington D.C. for my mom's (Dec 16th) birthday. They canceled his earlier flight to Syria, and he stayed in HB for his birthday and Christmas. Brendan left for Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday and will make his way to Syria soon after New Year's to study Arabic. After a couple months of studying, he and his girlfriend Quinn will be attempting to be the first people to walk the entire (700 mile) Abraham path. It will take them a couple of months to follow the path through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The path is a connection to people of all faiths and cultures and serves as a reminder of our common origins, despite cultural differences. Brendan says it's pretty safe..... but we are all still hoping it goes by fast and he gets back home soon.
Raffi also left from LAX on Wednesday to go to Mexico City and surprise his mom. His sister picked him up, and they had a big New Year's with his family in Mexico. He'll be there for the next month.
Our house is getting smaller and smaller. A week from Sunday, Connor will be the only kid at home!
I'm starting to think a little about what to pack. I've looked at blogs of some of the other SAS students and they had their bags packed like months ago....
Now that two of the boys are gone, and Connor goes back to school on Monday, I think I will get everything ready to go in the next few days. I got a big Nikon camera for Christmas that I love and am starting to use. I also got a really cool backpack from REI that I'll take on all of our trips off of the ship.
Catherine and I have started thinking a little bit about what we want to do in each country. Brendan said that when he was on it people always wanted to do something different than what they planned, so we shouldn't worry about buying trips and planning things ahead of time. Then again, this is coming from the guy who is going to walk 700 miles with just a compass....not exactly my idea of fun!
Thank you SO much for all of the stickers that were sent to my house. We have 85 packs of stickers, more than I ever imagined getting. There will probably be a thank you video soon from K&K:)
2010 ended with lots of parties, surprises and fun-
My dad surprised us all and flew Brendan home from Washington D.C. for my mom's (Dec 16th) birthday. They canceled his earlier flight to Syria, and he stayed in HB for his birthday and Christmas. Brendan left for Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday and will make his way to Syria soon after New Year's to study Arabic. After a couple months of studying, he and his girlfriend Quinn will be attempting to be the first people to walk the entire (700 mile) Abraham path. It will take them a couple of months to follow the path through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The path is a connection to people of all faiths and cultures and serves as a reminder of our common origins, despite cultural differences. Brendan says it's pretty safe..... but we are all still hoping it goes by fast and he gets back home soon.
Raffi also left from LAX on Wednesday to go to Mexico City and surprise his mom. His sister picked him up, and they had a big New Year's with his family in Mexico. He'll be there for the next month.
Our house is getting smaller and smaller. A week from Sunday, Connor will be the only kid at home!
I'm starting to think a little about what to pack. I've looked at blogs of some of the other SAS students and they had their bags packed like months ago....
Now that two of the boys are gone, and Connor goes back to school on Monday, I think I will get everything ready to go in the next few days. I got a big Nikon camera for Christmas that I love and am starting to use. I also got a really cool backpack from REI that I'll take on all of our trips off of the ship.
Catherine and I have started thinking a little bit about what we want to do in each country. Brendan said that when he was on it people always wanted to do something different than what they planned, so we shouldn't worry about buying trips and planning things ahead of time. Then again, this is coming from the guy who is going to walk 700 miles with just a compass....not exactly my idea of fun!
Thank you SO much for all of the stickers that were sent to my house. We have 85 packs of stickers, more than I ever imagined getting. There will probably be a thank you video soon from K&K:)
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