First Days at Sea

So many of you have probably been checking this blog pretty regularly, I apologize for not being more regular on my posting. The first week has been quite hectic and I haven’t had time to sit down and put my thoughts on paper.
The night I stayed in Nassau was pretty standard. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened, just hung out with some newfound friends at a bar and watched some football, stupid Steelers. The real fun began when we got on the ship the next day. Actually to be honest the “fun” began 2+ hours before I got on the ship, as the luggage machine had broken down and they had to figure out a way to get everyone’s bags on board. I waited in line for 2 hours, just to get my bags searched for paraphernalia, none of which was there to be found. I was fortunate enough to meet a few people in line and find out a few interesting facts about the Semester and the ship. As I waited in line, a father turned to me and asked me “how do you like your chances.” My response was one of “what do you mean?” He responded by telling me that the ship was going to be 73% female and only 27% male. This was an interesting experience to say the least.
After boarding the ship we had some time to hang out. I found that my roommates name is Graham Nott and he is from the University of Nebraska. He seems like a very nice guy and we are getting along swimmingly. Yes I used swimmingly in my blog, I found it only necessary as we are on a ship…
Then it was time to leave the Bahamas and head across the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Cadiz, Spain. We had a beautiful view of the islands as we left too.
The next day was Orientation. This was the longest orientation I have ever been a part of. It started at 8 AM and didn’t end until 9 at night. The ship was rocky, the material was dry, and I didn’t have time to meet other people. I was able to hang out at a jam session of about 5 musicians singing along. That was a lot of fun as it was just an impromptu jam session between newly acquainted friends.
Yesterday was my first taste of class. Global Studies was boring and long, but since it’s a required class for everyone on the ship, I really can’t do anything about it. Next came MICE. It was a lot of fun. We began to talk about music, how we like music and what MICE is. It is about the creation of impromptu music using laptops and other acoustic instruments to make new music. If you go to YouTube and search MICE Music or something to that effect, you should be able to see some past performances from the class at UVa. Then came The Theory and Practice of Money and Banking. This class was pretty dry as the professor is an older gentleman, but the material should get better as we go. Finally came Physics for Mariners. This should also be an interesting class, but since in our first class all we did was go over the syllabus so I’ll keep you updated on that.
That should be it for now. I’m enjoying myself and I can’t wait to post again.