Bahamas round 2

Maddie and I are sitting in our hotel room at the Sheraton, packing up all of our stuff to head back. People have been leaving Nassau since 1pm yesterday, so its been kind of emotional. We just said bye to Jody Austin and Kristin and it was rough. We're not last to leave, but it sure seems like we are. Yesterday we met our replacements for Semester at Sea at Senor Frogs and the beach. The Summer students boarded this morning and they were so nervous and scared. The May students were all acting like a family and sad to be parting. It's amazing that I was exactly in their shoes 27 days ago. We were joking yesterday before we got here that theres probably never been so many people sad to go to the Bahamas. That really shouldnt happen right?
I am a little excited to get home though. It's just the all day on an airplane part that is making me feel like I'm only leaving this place. I havent really thought about the fact that I'll be going home tomorrow.
We're going to find food now somewhere around here and check out of the hotel. After that we'll be at the airport. I saw my phone today for the first time in 26 days, so its comforting to know I still have it, but I wont turn it on until baltimore.

Homeward Bound

My bags are all packed and we're docking in Nassau now. I'm a little sad to see the ship leave! It was definitely harder to pack all of my stuff up from here than it was to pack up my stuff from the dorm.

I checked on my flight and it says im confirmed, but I dont know how to check for overbooking until I get to the airport. I hope its okay. Now I'm just using up my extra internet minutes. I conserved a lot of them, so I have extras.

Today I think we're just exploring Nassau. Last time we were so excited about the ship and stressed that we would be late that we didn't do too much exploring. I think today we're going to the beach to do some swimming. It should be fun! Then tomorrow night I'll be home, or at least in America.

I saw america today

We're docked in Freeport right now to fill up with fuel. It's weird to be docked somewhere without being able to get off or anything. I saw some more cruiseliners today... The first ones I've seen since nassau. We passed Florida this morning around 7 am. It was pretty cool. I was up since I had a final and all. When I get back, I have 1124 pictures to show you. And youre going to have to look at every single one. And a good majority are going on facebook. I think I know why facebook crashes suddenly... It's becasue everyone from semester at sea gets back on the same day and posts every single picture from their voyage. We had a poll to see what food everyone was looking forward to getting at home today... top answer with 76% is pizza!!!!! They said we may have issues adjusting to American food again though. I dont think it'll be too bad. I was only gone for a month.
The flights have been pretty chaotic for everyone getting back. Airtran and AmericanAirlines have overbooked basically every flight leaving tomorrow so people on the ship are running into problems. The Sheraton and other hotels in the area are all booked because the nest voyage gets on the day after we get back, so basically every passenger from both voyages now needs to stay. The one's with rooms (me) are at least lucky for now, but we wont know our flight situation until were within 24 hours of our flight. Im a little nervous! Im sure it'll be a little better than tomorrows flights.

Because I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind

Hey guys. We're on the open ocean now. Not really, we're passing cuba right now. We left Belize last night. This morning I had my spanish final, which I think went pretty good. Belize was so much fun. The first night we went out to a calypso bar (karaoke bar for locals) and had fun. None of us sang though, there was a set order. One of the guys only sang country music and it was funny because he was carribean, but he had his cowboy hat and everything! Yesterday I went to Lamanai Ruins. My trip was supposed to leave around 830, but it left at 7:40. Thank goodness i was awake! I'm glad I didnt miss it though. It was so cool. We ran up every ruin temple there... and they were high. But Christine H and I algreed that we had to get a picture on top of everything. As you can tell.. were pretty mature. On the way there we saw tons of animals. I got a picture of a bird and a crocdile... everything else is just blurs because we were on a really fast boat. Even my sport camera couldnt keep up.
Last night we got a cookout on board. It was an amazing tease of American food. I ate a cheeseburger and it had to be the best one I've ever had! The reason they gave us a cookout was because we were the first voyage to ever finish a voyage with 0 minutes dock time. To tell you how close it was... we were the first voyage to make it 3 ports in a row without dock time, and voyages have been going since 1963. So yeh... we're pretty cool.
Our formal dinner is tonight which is where we wear our formal attire. Im excited for it. No one knows if we'll have something other than pasta and potatoes, but I sure hope so!.

Unbelizeable

Hi everyone. I am in Belize currently for the second day. We arent at a port really in Belize. We're parked off the shore and taking tenders to the shore. I am really glad I got to tender because it is a neat experience. I just wished they ran canstantly instead of at certain times. Yesterday I went and did a service visit to the Belize Zoo. It was destroyed by Hurricane Richard when it came through last year, so we were fixing a lot of it. My crew was shoveling gravel... so we got the short end of the stick compared to the paint tables crew and the plant flowers crew. It was fun though. I was the wheelbarrow to maddies shovel. The gravel pile was at least half a mile from the site on a patchy path. Every time my wheelbarrow was full I thought I wasnt going to make it over there. haha. The animals at the Belize zoo arent quite like the animals in American zoos. Only the "problem" animals are contained. The other animals like the crocodiles and howler monkeys were completely free. They stayed in their area though since thats where they were fed. The animals were really people friendly though. The place where we were putting down gravel was next to a giant bird cage. Im not sure what kind of birds they were, but they would follow us around and watch us like we were the attraction... oh and they kept trying to eat the rocks.. dumb birds. When we got back we were planning on exploring the city, but everything shuts down for the weekend, so nothing is open or anything. It's a little like a ghost town. We did find a good restaurant though. We went to a restaurant called Bird's Isle which is across the bay. Not many Semester at Sea students went there so we were a little worried at first. It was really good though! and cheap! Tomorrow is when finals start so I've got a lot of work to catch up on when we pull up anchor.

Less Guns this time

Hello from guatemala everyone! We are not in Puerto Barrios like originally planned. We are in Santo Tomas de castilla. Its a much smaller port. When I asked the man outside if they get ships often he told me excitedly "yes we got one 2 years ago!!!" It's tiny. Its been such a fun two days! Yesterday I went to see a mayan village called queheche. I felt like they didnt want us there and were only doing what the tour people told them too. I just felt really awkward being there and taking photots so i spent a lot of time getting to know some of the people. Spanish was theyre second language just like it was mine so it was rough. Our transportation there was a skiff for 30 minutes and then when we got to the dock... a pickup truck with a roll cage had all of us stand up in the back. The village was another hour from there. They fed us really good food though. I loved it. I really love plantains. They are in every dish down here. I dont know if youve ever had one, but they taste just like potatoes when you cook them right. So after the whole village thing, my gang of i think 11 people talked some people into staying at this beach hotel (it was called a hotel... but it had 4 rooms) to spend the night. We danced and played in the water. It was so much fun!!! A little scary at first just since i didnt have the safety blanket of sleeping on the ship, but i am so glad I did it. Unlike american hotels though, check out time is 7 am for everyone! We were up so early. When i got back i just layed face down on my pillow for 2 hours until my trip. Today I did kayaking. It was fun! It was a tandem kayak so that was a little weird. There were jellyfish in the river so i did NOT want to fall in! We spent most of the day at amitique bay resort at the pool! Pool is an understatement because it was the size of our yard. No lie. Now me moe and christina are going to the market. Hope to find something cool.

Rock Me Mama Like A Wagon Wheel

Honduras was so much fun! Yesterday I went with my class to see the dam in honduras. They kept saying that it's the biggest in the western hemispere, but im not sure that's true. Honduras is rough to say the least! Oh my goodness. I saw so many guns yesterday. Like more than I have ever seen in one day. Civilians here walk around with pistol gripped shotguns and a lot of bigger guns... no AKs though. I was looking. We stayed in last night on the ship out of shear terror. The part of honduras I was in for my trip though was beautiful! There were just lakes and a dam and mountains. The military was there a lot since there was a bomb threat to the dam recently. We got within 2 feet of the shaft for the turbine, which has to be illegal. It was definitely dangerous! Cool though. Our lunch was amazing, I can tell we're getting closer to mexico. The food is cooling down a little. haha. But for real. It was the best so far. Everyone in the restaurant except us had visible guns though. I was a little uncomfortable. I asked if they took american dollars, and teh lady said yes so i got some grape ice cream... then she told me by ten was too large of a bill! Someone spotted me though, but what the heck. If you take american you take american. I didnt ask if she took ones and fives! Grape ice cream was amazing though. On the way back I heard "Wagon Wheel" on the radio between all of the songs of Spanish. I missed home a little in that moment.
That part was written yesterday. Today I went to a part of honduras that looked more like florida. It was like I was in a completely different country. We painted a fence today at the youth center. I have to say we did a pretty good job! It was fun! I have paint still on my skin. The only thing that gets it off is time and turpentine they said... so im choosing time. They made us wash our hands in turpentine and paint thinner before we ate.. but they were just saying "te lave" so basically just "wash" It burned a little. Weird things in different countries. I wenrt to an artisan market as well today and bought a picture from a man who was painting them. He was so good and just doing them on the spot. Oh and remember bagged milk? the water down here is in bags. Its weird. Tomorrow I will wake up in Guatemala! yeh!

Two days at sea later...

Hi everybody. Due to really screwy internet connections, my posts havent appeared up here for the past two days. Sad. Lucky for you guys... nothing really happened. There was a talent show and a sea chant competition. My sea got second place with our rendition of I'm on a boat. That means we get off the ship second in nassau. We docked in honduras this morning. It is pooring down rain. In costa rica we were greeted by a rainbow.... im hoping it's not an omen. Im going to go to my trip now! Ill update later.

On the Sea Again

Today was the last day in costa rica and I am actually sad to leave! It was so pretty here! Today I went to a cacao plantation and saw how chocolate was made. I had no idea it was a fruit! The seeds are the only part of the fruit that goes into making the chocolate! The fruit tastes nothing like chocolate and the seeds taste even less like it! After lunch at the cacao trails, we went to some sort of animal rescue. The animals were kind of just out and running around. They said the ones ho still needed help would stay while the ones who were okay would escape. Not much of an escape if they only have to walk out! I touched a monkey today who liked the bow on my shirt and I got followed around a bit by a baby nose bear. He was so cute. He was pawing at my legs and trying to eat my shoe laces. I feel like he almost wouldve gotten on the bus! I have some (close) pictures of him! I held a red eyed tree frog too! One on purpose and one just because he jumped on me! I heard howler monkeys! They are so loud and scary They sound like lions. its wild! I tried so hard to get pictures of dart frogs, but theyre too fast. :( Oh well now I am on my way around Nicaragua to honduras! with a paper to write. And I'll have everyone know. It did not rain today! yeh!!!

Pura Vida!

Hello all! I'm writing from Costa Rica tonight. I had decided that this is the most beautiful place I have ever seen!!! It's just like mountains coming out of the ocean and everything is a rainforest! Yesterday morning I went to Chiquita! I didnt find out until I got there that we couldnt take pictures of patent pending things (which was everything) so most of my pictures are of flowers from there. They fed us so well! When we got there, they had Pineapples for us with straws in them to drink out of! And we ate so much fruit. We had a complementary 3 course meal of casado. (meat rice beans and potatoes... same as everything down here) We found out when we left that we were the first ever group to tour chiquita! How cool is that! Dear maddy... I did not see a banana spider and I am disappointed! Be safe in Italy! I don't want thomas to have to save you. After that we (about 200 people from the ship) went downtown to the clubs... and they were not ready for all of those people. We were helping to run the bar! Haha. The deans are calling it the Salamander Bar & Club Service Visit. It was fun. The US Coast Guard is here too so at least theres a lot of Americans in port. This morning I was very adventurous. We did the canopy tour this morning at 7. That is where you zipline over the rainforest. The sun was rising so it was awesome. I wish I could do that for an entire day! It was not scary at all like i thought it would be.. we started on the groud so that was good. The poison dart frogs that are so pretty (and dangerous) are everywhere here. Its crazy.. I dont think i realized that they actually existed. After that I went white water rafting. Our guide was so cool. We sat at the front of the raft, went backwards, and stood up. It was only a class 3... so it wasn't even like the rivers in the Appalachian. Today we went in search of coffee after our trip to bring home, but coffee shops close at like 3. I guess that should be a duh thing since coffee is a morning drink. Tomorrow Im going to see sloths... even though you can see sloths from any rode that you go on. And I'll be at the chocolate farm. Costa Rica is so awesome. I dont want to leave to go to honduras. We asked today if we could skip it. Haha. I want to come back here and take everyone from home with me! Everyone here always says Pura Vida, which is kind of like the "super" or "awesome" down here but it's also a greating. Some people used it as a hello and goodbye. I love it. Im going to keep saying it. Pura Vida everyone!

Panama... Panama (<-- song)

Hey guys! I survived Panama. Haha. It was so much fun. We're still in the port right now but on ship time has already passed. They had added time for when people are late, and we're so good that no one has been late at either port! So we get Toy Story 3 tonight as a reward. This was a really really interesting port, in more ways than one. Yesterday morning I went to the SOS children's village in Aldeous.  It was so much fun. We got to interact with the children and the tias. That is when I realized that I actually know enough spanish to "float" No one there spoke english, but we had chores to do. I talked to my tia and was so happy when I got back. That is a really surreal experience to have a conversation with someone who doesnt speak your native language. We had our cameras out and the children dont see them much, so a lot of us let them take pictures. I was so cute... but most of my pictures are feet. Who ever had christina's camera followed me so I'm on her camera. The girl who had my camera followed christina... so we're going to have to swap pictures. After that we tried to go to Panama City. Notice I said tried! So many students got off the ship after FDPs to load in taxis to Panama City. My taxi had 13 people 4 of which were adults. Somehow we got the rogue driver who REFUSED to take us to Panama City. He kept saying it was dangerous... even though he was driving us through old Panama (scary) I got a ton of pictures of the sites though during our 7 hour taxi ride.... yes 7 hours. I saw the milaflores (pacific side) locks, the president's house, a church with a shiney alter, a market, and a lot of other things against my will. At one point he even told us to "stay here" while he went and got dinner for an hour! We keep lovingly calling it the taxi ride from hell. Everyone but us made it over there. Good news is, we heard the city was slightly overrated and that there was only a beach... so it'll be the same everywhere. Good news is we got the best story. Today I went to the Gatun Locks (on the atlantic side). It was so cool. The ships are too huge!!! After that we went to the free zone. The free zone is a gated city near the dock. I got some local goodies while I was there and talked completely in spanish again. Cuantos Cuestos is my newest phrase.  We only have one class day until Costa Rica! We already have preport tomorrow! weird! I have so many pictures from the lock. It really looks like I was there for 10 days.

Mid Term Day Already

Hi everyone! Mid terms were today for everyone on bored. They were slightly stressful since we didnt know what to expect, but all in all my exam was really manageable.  It's been a while since I've posted i guess (all of 2 days) but not too much has been going on. We picked up a stow-away in Trinidad.  It's a pigeon, but the crew calls him a stow-away. We have named him Bob Marley since we assume he's Rasta. It's funny to see what's entertaining once tv and internet is gone. The crew has been feeding Bob and he even popped in on our dance. :) By the way we have a decade dance last night (THAT NO ONE HAD CLOTHES FOR) and it was Moe's birthday!!!  We also hit a little rough spot in the ocean last night, so that made the dance a little more interesting. We dock tomorrow in Panama and I'm going to the SOS children's center. It should be fun! Fun fact: panamanians.. as close as they are to the equator, do not wear tank tops, shorts, or sandals. So that kinda means we can't. Since were not "tourists" were "guests" It'll be hot. I just saw dolphins at dinner so we must be pretty close to land but I cant see any. We saw Aruba and Venezuela yesterday. That was pretty cool. Weve started to turn west and were about to be north so finally the sun doesnt rise in my room at 5:15. Now it's more like 6:30. Yeh!!! We have our Pre port for panama tonight and then after that it's bed then port!

Rain in the Rain forest... Who Would Have Thought

Today was my second day in Trinidad. I spent the day "liming" with a Rastafarian family in the rain forest this morning. Liming is the word here for hanging out or chilling. The Rastafarian family made instruments out of wood and other things from outside and they sounded really cool. They let us play a little too. After that we traveled just barely down the mountain to the river and went for a swim and picnic. "Lime" means picnic also, So I basically just spent the day Liming in general. The food was so good but it was incredibly hot!!! We had something that was like tortilla dough to wrap everything in and that cooled things off a little bit, but not much. It was really good though. It was curried duck, hot cucumbers/mangos, curried chickpeas, and rice and beans.  The river was surprisingly cold to be as far south as Trinidad. The water was clear though! and beautiful.  I took so many pictures from the rain forest today, but I'm not sure I'll be able to tell any of them apart. Oh and it did rain today. In the rain forest. I wasn't very surprised.  I'm so glad I got a chance to participate. We're actually leaving Trinidad now and will have three more days until Panama! Somewhere in between I have a bridge tour, which is where we get to see the bridge of the boat where all of the controls are.

We got that too...

Happy Birthday to my mom!!!! Im sad I cant be there, but I'm more sad that you can't be here. We spent the morning exploring Independence Square in Trinidad! I'm finally on land!!! It was so cool in Trinidad. The people were so happy to have us there because they do not get many tourists. The tourist island is mainly Tobago. When we got to the cathedral we met the man who manages the mall and his son. He said he loved Florida and talked to us a while, but thinking he was sketchy we left. We ran into his son later and he asked how we were doing, what we had seen, and if we had gone to see some of the sites he thought we should see. We realized they were just really happy to have us there. I learned  saying that Trinis have from our tour guide. They like to say "We have that too" in their own Spanglish+French language. They built a leaning light house so they could have a leaning tower and twin towers so that they could have those too. And there is a ton of KFCs here. And Churches chicken. Trinis really love Americans. They were so excited to have us there and were so happy to be in pictures with us. American flags and pictures of America are hanging behind the desks at these shops. We ate lunch in the port even though we were sort of scared. We just pointed to what we wanted and didn't even ask what it was. Mine was good though. They have RC down here too! They dont even have that in Raleigh really. Oh but I am so glad my Bird Sanctuary visit got canceled. Maddie, Christina and I went to the turtle vigil tonight and it was amazing. It wasnt like our Virginia Beach whale watch where we didnt see anything. We saw 3 huge turtles. Like 5-6 feet long!!! We got to touch them too. We took pictures laying beside them and touching them. Oh and we got to hold turtles that are only a few days old. They were so tiny! I loved it.

Half a Day from Port 1

Hey everybody. The MV Explorer is half a day away from our first port! When I wake up tomorrow we will already be docked! How exciting is that! The sea has been so flat but they told us it gets rough right before we dock. bummer. On a better note, I have basically gotten used to the wobbling. I thought I never would. Last night I met my "extended family" which is a program here on the ship that gives you grandparents and brothers and sisters on board. It started when the students had absolutely no contact with family and still continues now. It's pretty cool. My "grandpa" on board is a speaker they have on the ship who talks about his experience being in a POW camp for 4 years. I can't wait to hear it. I got a little more sun than I was hoping today because after I laid out, my class was outside for 3.5 hours. Ouch! I met my group for my engineering project (which is similar to the E101 project) and theyre cool. We're about to have our briefing on Trinidad to find out policies, laws and other necessary things! I am having the time of my life here.

Finally Sailing with Technology.. yeh!

Hey guys! I'm on the ship now and finally got my internet working! yeh! Happy Christening to Jackson Craver! Im sad I couldn't be there but I'm sending my love!! The ship is so cool. I'm still finding new things everywhere I look... like a refrigerator in my room! My classes are really fun, but hard. Today in Energy we made hydrogen fueled mini cars and powered a "house" with lemons. I by far got the best teacher here, but everyone feels that way about their teachers. We land in trinidad the day after next and I am so excited!! Nassau was pretty cool, a whole lot different than I expected. They drive on the other side of the road! I've made a lot of new friends here! It's easy to meet people here because everyone is so happy to be here and looking to meet people. Last time I checked we were a mile off the coast of puerto rico and we can see it. We have new "friends" on the boat from passing that are birds called "brown billed boobies" or something like that, so that captain keeps coming on the speaker saying "Dont touch the boobies" Its funny. Walking is completely weird here. Constantly running into walls and the pool sloshes like a wave pool. But in general, life is no worries!!!

Waiting is not Fun

Hey. I made it to Baltimore!! Not Nassau yet. We still have another 5 hours from this point on. I found Maddie Fahnley early on in Charlotte.... and I mean early!!!!! now I'm sitting in the airport and don't know what I'm supposed to do. Bored kind of. It doesn't help that all the other SASers are BRAGGING about where they are (you know who you are) oh well. I'll be there soon.

Ready or Not

Well. It's my last full day in America for a while! That is just so surreal. My flight is in 21 hours and then I'll be outta here. My bags are packed and huge!!!! I thought I was packing lightly but I guess not. I am leaving Rocky Mount today, but I don't fly out until 7:30 tomorrow. My mom and I are staying overnight in Charlotte so that we can be there in time for my flight. Its only all the way across the state. But tomorrow I get to meet Maddie Fahnley before I fly and then the whole rest of the gang around 3. It's so weird knowing you'll meet people youve been talking to online.
So I've never really had to fend for myself in an airport before. The last time I was in an airport my aunt and mom were responsible for guiding me around so I paid attention to pretty much nothing! I cant even remember what an airport looks like other than right before you get on the plane. I'm getting my boarding pass tonight at CLT, so that maybe I'll slightly know what I'm doing early in the morning when I'm sleepy and excited. I was up this morning at 8. That would never happen on a normal summer! But I'm excited and I cannot wait to explore!

This is where I'll be. Wish me luck.

Packing Just Got Real

Well, This is the week. In 2 days I will be on my way to Charlotte to prepare for my flight!!! I've actually gotten to the point that the suitcase has been set open! But not so far that anything has actually gone in it. I'm struggling to put anything in there because i want to put everything in my carry on. Why can't you just keep all of your bags with you?!?!?! I don't mind sitting with a giant suitcase for an hour or two. I've been on plenty of band trips more crowded than that.
I've got a list of all of the addresses that I will try to grace with postcards while I'm gone. I've talked to 2 different people about it and one said that I would be able to mail them out flawlessly and the other said that it would never work. So I guess I'm just testing the postal system down there. I'm kind of curious about it. I hope they get to you guys!
I didn't realize how much I was going to miss everyone until last night when I was talking to Ben and Jamie. And I'm only going to be gone for a month!!! I'm such a baby. I couldn't imagine being gone for any longer than a month.
I'm super excited though! The only thing packed is my camera (and it is ready to go with batteries and the memory card in) My memory card allows for 2400 pictures, so expect that many. Well... I really should pack! like really...

16 days until take off

It's finals week here at NC State, which has been keeping me from imagining all of the cool things im going to be doing a little over 2 weeks from now!!!! I have basically everything I need for my trip. Now I've just got to get it all together. The piggy bank is growing and I got all of the trips I wanted! I can't wait to be abroad.. but until then, I'll be locked away studying for finals. Wish me luck

Getting Ready for my Trip

This is the first of many posts that will be up here for you guys to read. I created this blog so that my friends and family could see what I'm up to when I'm off on my study abroad trip. I figured I would go ahead and make this now before finals got started up! That and I'm too excited about this summer! I had my orientation for NC State today so that I am officially all but physically ready to fly out! We went over safety information and passport stuff and we got to hear where everybody is going this summer! Mine is by far the coolest. I'm pretty sure the whole room was jealous. I've been meeting all kinds of new people on facebook that are going on this trip with me, and basically no one can stand the wait! I've started up a little piggy bank that is going to be added to my fun money fund for the trip. Every time i think about how excited I am for this summer, I put in a dollar, or whatever change i have, since twice already I've have just spare change near me. I'll post a picture of the pig, just since I want a picture up here to test things out. See if I like this background and such. This is probably my last post until May, so I'll see you then!!