Time to “sea” the world

I boarded the MV Explorer today and am finally settled in my new home for the next two months. After a long wait to go through security and a tearful goodbye (on my mom’s part!) I am now here! Today was pretty uneventful and we had lots of downtime while waiting for everyone else to board the ship. Our rooms are small but pretty nice. Thankfully my cabin has a window, which brightens up the room a bit. The indoor rooms are really dark and kind of gloomy. My roommate seems cool (shout out to Kara for setting us up! Haha) and I think we are going to get along great. She is a rising senior at the College of Charleston and already the two of us have met other students and formed a little group to hang out with.

After unpacking, I explored the ship some before we had a mandatory safety drill. We were instructed to wear closed toe shoes, long pants, a long sleeve shirt, hat and life jacket during the whole procedure. Kids who didn’t dress properly had to go back to their rooms and change until we could pass the inspection. And boy was it HOTTTT standing out there! Thankfully that part is over! At 5:00 PM the MV Explorer set sail to cross the Atlantic Ocean. All the students went outside and stood on the deck as we sailed away from port. It’s hard to believe that I won’t be seeing land for another ten days! I had my first taste of ship food for lunch and dinner today and it was definitely sub-par. Pasta and potatoes seem to be the staple at every meal. I’m really glad I packed all those extra granola bars because I will definitely be eating them throughout the voyage.

Later on in the evening we had to attend orientation where they basically just gave us a quick overview and did some introductions of the crew and faculty. It was interesting to note that the SAS students come from 280 different universities and 74% are girls (oh well, I just want the foreign boys anyway!). We have a few “life-time learners” on the ship, the oldest of which is a lady who is 89! At the orientation they also made sure that we were aware to call the MV Explorer a ship and not a boat, and that this is a voyage not a cruise…very important distinctions. After orientation we had another meeting where we broke out into our “seas” which are divided up by decks. I belong to the Red Sea and basically we will compete as a group against the other seas in the Sea Olympics and other races and competitions. It’s now about 11:00 PM or 23:00 in military time (the time the ship runs on) and I am just now getting back to my cabin. The ship has definitely been rocking quite a deal but so far I’m not sea sick; let’s hope it stays that way! We have yet another full day of meetings tomorrow starting at 9 AM with breakfast at 7:30 AM so time for bed! Goodnight from sea!

Setting sail!

My cabin and home for the next two months