The first few days

The past two days have been a total whirlwind! On Wednesday morning, I woke up early and got all of my things together to get the 8:30 bus (provided by SAS) down to Ensada, Mexico. SAS was running about an hour behind schedule, so we did not end up leaving until 9:30. The bus took two hours to get from San Diego to the port, but it was a very pretty and scenic route of the western coast of Mexico. When we arrived to the ship we got our student ID cards, handed in our passports and boarded the boat where we were put in an assembly line talking to the registrar, student health, student life and student accounts.

Then, we were allowed to roam around until our luggage arrived (mine didn’t come until well after the muster drill). We could also go down to our rooms which was exciting. Our room in the last room on the hall, and yes we do have a window. There are four of us, but our room is probably one of the coolest. There are no bunk beds! Instead, we have one room with two beds when you first walk in and then another room with two other beds with a door connecting the two. There is one bathroom to share between the four of us, and you can barely turn around in it, but Cassie and I have the room which is connected to the main room, and we are pretty sure there is more space in ours, which is good! The only downside is we don’t have a window.

We left port around 5, and got off to a rocky start. Tons of people were getting really sea sick, and I was starting to feel it, so I put on my sea bands and took some medicine. After dinner (which was not as bad as everyone warns you about) we went to the student union and were introduced to our professors and staff. After that, we had a hall meeting where they explained the rules and such.  Then the roommates and I went back to our room and pretty much crashed because it was such a long day.

This morning, Cassie and I woke up and went upstairs to have breakfast (it only goes from 7-8:30 every morning, so that will be a struggle). We then sat through an orientation for the rest of the morning, and until 3 in the afternoon, with an hour break for lunch squeezed in.

It is a super weird feeling looking out the window and not seeing any land. The Captain says that we’re 2,000 miles from Hawaii and once we get to Hawaii another 3,500 until Japan. These next few days are going to be rough just because they are the two longest times on the boat. Classes start tomorrow, and we will get to Hawaii on the 15^th. I’m a little homesick at the moment so I am trying to stay occupied and not think about it, but once classes start and I get in a routine I won’t even notice and it will go by so fast. I’m meeting tons of new people and we are all so awestruck that we are finally on the boat!

XO,

Sara