The MV Explorer

I have officially been at sea for seven days now, so I thought it was time for an update!

Before we left port at Nassau, I spent a couple of days in the Bahamas with my parents and relaxed. I did get to ride in my first taxi by myself though. That wasn’t so relaxing… drivers in the Bahamas are a little crazy! But it was still cool. After checking in, doing some last minute shopping, getting my last Starbucks, and saying goodbye, we boarded the MV Explorer and embarked on our voyage to Spain!

The first couple days were a little rocky. Literally. I got over seasickness quickly though. It was a little hectic going through all the orientation, meeting so many people, and finding my way around, but I’m pretty used to life on the ship already. I live on the lowest cabin deck, deck 2, and even have a porthole window. The rooms are small but I’m not there much anyway. It’s too beautiful outside on deck! I’m taking four classes—global studies, microeconomics, public speaking about global issues, and classical Islam—and am just now starting to get involved in all types of clubs and organizations. I also have a lot of reading to do, planning for future countries, and different meetings and extra “community college” classes put on by Semester at Sea. These classes are all different, but some of the ones we have had so far have been a class on digital photography and another on food in Spain. On top of all of that, we have been losing about an hour per day!

We will reach Cadiz, Spain the day after tomorrow and will be there for four days. The first day I am going on a city orientation of Cadiz. The second day I am going on a bus tour of small “white” towns in southern Spain. Supposedly the buildings are all white, kind of like what you imagine the islands off of Greece to be like. The third day, a friend of mine and I are taking the train to Seville to meet up with a couple of our other friends who will already be there. The fourth day I plan to spend back in Cadiz. I plan on eating tapas and having what one of my lecturers called a cup of the best coffee in the world!

After Spain we have only one day at sea before we reach Morocco, so my next entry will probably include both Spain and Morocco.

Until Africa,

Molly

Calendar and Addresses

Hello! So, here is the blog I have promised so many of you. I still have a couple of weeks before I leave - we leave port from Nassau, Bahamas on January 19.

Here is a link to the calendar of the voyage and addresses for each port:
https://www.ise.virginia.edu/asp/mydocuments/S09/S09_CalCom.pdf

And here is a link to the Semester at Sea website:
www.semesteratsea.org

If you click on the Voyages tab along the top and find Spring 2009 on the Upcoming Voyages page, you can see a map of where I will be going.

Also, I found out that I will have free email aboard the ship, so I may not be using this blog as much as I originally planned, but I will still try to keep it up.

Until January!

Molly