February 9, 2012

Per request of my grandpa, I have decided to send out a calendar of dates for my trip.

Bahamian Beginning: Arrived January 16 after a red-eye flight from LAX
Ship Embarkation and departure: January 19 20 (more than 24 hours behind)

*Bahamas blog post sent: January 20
*Seasick blog post sent: January 21

Arrival in Roseau, Dominica: January 23
Departure from Roseau: January 24

*Dominica blog post sent: January 25

Entrance to Amazon River: January 28

*Reading Day blog post sent January 28
*The Amazon river blog post sent: January 30

Arrival in Manaus, Brazil: January 31
Departure from Brazil: February 3

*If you like piña coladas… blog post sent: February 4
*Our boat is rockin! blog post sent: February 7

So all of that has already happened 🙂 for information on upcoming ports, go to www.semesteratsea.org (or .com i can’t remember) and click on ‘current voyage’, then “itinerary”

(And from now on, Grandpa, I will make sure to date my blog entries! 😉 Thanks!)

After two rough days at sea, yesterday (Feb 8) was Neptune Day! I love Neptune Day… We were woken up bright & early at 7am (or early in our case since our room is always a dark cave.) Some crew members had dressed up as funky “guards” of “King Neptune” and us “pollywogs” needed to be approved for sea travel. The guards were walking down hallways banging drums & cymbals. We headed up to the top deck after a quick breakfast, for a ceremony of acceptance of us “pollywogs” in which some people had some green/blue watery goo poured on their heads and then they jumped in the pool. For the truly brave, Neptune Day could also be called head-shaving day. And this includes girls. I’d say about 7 of us girls shaved our heads. I considered shaving all my hair, but I just decided to go with the side shaved look, I’d say I pull it off pretty well. It was quite a shock seeing my head after it happened and it felt so bare! But hey, it was a once in a lifetime experience!

Okay I’m lying 😉 didn’t shave my head haha don’t worry… Anyways, for lunch there were TACOS!!!!!! I literally ate 5 and a bunch of extra taco meat, cheese, salsa, guac, chips… YUM! After lunch we went to the top deck to suntan and read for a while. Then I went and took a nap for our small group discussions about our Global Studies final paper. After that, we all went to workout and watched somewhat of a sunset since it had been raining and was still cloudy. Later that night, we listened to Mohammed Sharif Ghale give a talk about his music career. He is a well-known Ghanaian music artist who joined us in Brazil and has been playing music every night. Last night he did a Bob Marley tribute so that was cool to listen to, since Bob Marley’s birthday was 3 days ago. After the performance, we hung out in our room and Malia and Katie and I all did our nails and snacked. Then it was bedtime 🙂 It was an overall great day. I am seriously so lucky to be here.

I had the seasick patch on and have been feeling great for the 3 days it works. This morning (February 9) I have Global Studies, which is the class on the 6th floor (out of 7) and in the front of the boat. I have started feeling pretty queasy already so hopefully I don’t get sick. I have yet to puke, so I’m crossing my fingers. This isn’t even the worst of it, and not even close, so I’m nervous, but will definitely make sure to keep up on my seasick meds, whether that’s the patch, my “sea-band” bracelets (which apparently are just placebos), or the pills.

Signing out from the seas, (approximately ‘2’20 in the middle of the Atlantic)
Kenzie