August 27 2010 ? MV Explorer

First of all, my email is up and running so if you have sent me an email within the last three days to my normal accounts I probably have not gotten it.  Please resend it to smmech@semesteratsea.net.
We didn’t sleep very well, despite trying to go to bed early, and we stayed up late talking.  Waking up at 5:30am was miserable—I felt super jittery and eventually got up to go to breakfast at 0630.  Ellie and I say with some folks who were university ambassadors, and I promptly made an ass of myself by laughing really hard when I heard that you can’t bring orange juice onto the ship because people can pour alcohol in it and glue the seal back in—I can’t help it if I think that’s creative!
Turned out my job today is pretty much only to sit down in Deck 2 with Ellie and Donna, greeting people as they move in.  We had an animated conversation with who guys, Aaron (from San Rafael!!) and Steve about the book, A Small Place, we read for our required reading, and helped people log into their emails.  Aegean Sea, I can already tell, is the BEST sea—so many people came by to sit with us, it wasn’t even like we were working, but meeting new people and socializing.  I hopefully established I wasn’t “the mean fun-hating ol’ RA” when we started swapping goofy stories of how we’d heard students sneaking alcohol aboard—sounds like too much work and too much at stake (two things I immensely dislike) and I don’t know why people would bother. 
Around noon Donna said she was holding a table for some of us to have a “sea family” lunch, so I quickly pointed out that one side of the caf had no line, and Josh, Danielle, Meredith and Jessica sat down together with Donna.  We had a grand ol’ time chatting even after we finished eating, and then we went on a roommate hunt for Josh and Meredith, who were still missing theirs.  When there was no such luck, we crammed into my cabin to view as much as we could of the 2005 Semester at Sea’s Storm Stories and showed them the back of our hanged picture.  After they left, Ellie and I tried taking a little nap around 1400, but the paging system kept going off, asking for people who’d left their luggage in the terminal (get it together, ya’ll), and once Donna came by looking for Ellie, so there were no naps to be had.  At 1445 we went into the Union, where 700 students were packed to hear the welcome speech by the VP of Academic Success at Semester at Sea.  She gave an amazing speech on “Who are you?  Where are you?  And what are you to do?” which talked about being vulnerable in new places and how this was an opportunity to really have a different perspective about the world, and what we must do to help others.  It was really powerful and I’m going to try to go into the ports now with this purpose—discovering what I am to do, with the privileges and opportunities that I have.
After that, Ellie and I grabbed out lifejackets to prepare for our lifeboat drill, which is very serious business.  We went up to deck 5 to the portside (left) B, where we were roared at to not speak and to keep silent, which of course caused a big fuss in all the students because god forbid that college students be silent for longer than a few minutes.  A woman shouted off names and rooms, calling roll.  It was stifling hot (for some reason they told us to wear long pants and sleeved shirts for this drill?), and despite the fact that we all had our lifejackets on, them explaining how to put them on and etc was extremely slow and tediously brutal.  It was like all the airplane safety presentations that had been ignored over the years came back abruptly with a vengeance, and we were glad to leave our military-straight rows of three back to our cabins, and immediately back up again to Deck 7 (where I hadn’t been yet) to watch the boat pull away.  Deck 7 is amazing, with an empty pool, a bar where many were sucking down smoothies, and gym equipment.  We watched the clocks tick closer to 1700, and the tugboat that pulled us out and away from the dock did a crazy doughnut in the water before motoring away. 
Next to me a girl said, “We’re the luckiest kids in the world.”  And suddenly I was aware of how true that was—I can already tell that this is going to be one of, if not the best, experience in my whole life.  I am truly blessed to have been given such an opportunity. 
We screamed and cheered as a man hoisted the ropes tethering us to the dock into the water, and smoke burst gloriously from the steampipe.  Boats honked tribute at us, and we responded with waves and honks back from the Explorer. 
And then we were going, going, gone—Halifax fell behind us as we picked up speed, passing lighthouses and pine forests until we broke into open ocean, the Atlantic. 
I grabbed dinner with some folks I didn’t know as the waves began to rock us gently.  I’d taken a meclizine sea sickness tablet a couple hours earlier, so I felt as right as rain, though I hear there are some hurricanes in the Atlantic ahead, so I better not get too ahead of myself—I’m sure the worst is yet to come!  Fear not about the hurricanes—the captain said we can outrun them, and even if we can’t, it’ll be one hell of a story.
I slept for about a thirty minute catnap (cat crash) before heading into the union for a lot of the same speeches as the night before, as well as a little bit of info about all the faculty, so I can recognize them around the ship.  I’m seriously considering either adding or auditing World Short Stories or Writing Around the World, but I’ve heard that might be too many credits.  Still, auditing would be great, so I’ll probably sit in on the lecture on Sunday morning.  The ship doctor said that we would have some rough seas ahead, and I’ve definitely been noticing the rocking on the upper decks, though deck two it isn’t nearly as noticeable, for which I’m very grateful.  Some are already getting seasick, though I’ve felt find with just a really persistent headache, which I think is probably from just being dehydrated. 
We had an official Aegean Sea meeting in the “main” dining hall, and man are there a LOT of people in it, as well as a TON of Chapman folks.  Hopefully I leave knowing at least everyone’s names.  I pretty much dragged myself back to my cabin at 2200.  Never have I looked forward to an 8AM alarm more, as I need a very welcome good night’s sleep.  This day is so busy I can’t even remember half of it, and have to look at my journal to see everything I did!