The main Japan adventure is over.

Last day is tomorrow and we explore Kobe. I am in awe because I am in love with this place so much. Trust me, there will be stories and many long posts in the next couple of days! I might not even be able to do it all before China (This weekend),  but I will do my best!

Yay for no shelves and rough waves.

 

The Day before Japan: My thoughts.

                Jan 26^th 2013

 

My thoughts

                I am so excited for Japan. Although it is a place I should know a lot about, I feel as though I know hardly anything. Japan is one of those countries that is so rich in culture and history. I am also nervous because this country will be my first time in a place that has a completely different language. I can’t wait to try and learn all about how they live and to try new things and make memories. I am really glad I have good friends to travel with since obviously before going into SAS that was something I worried about. I am still in awe that 1) were almost to our first country 2) we’ve only been on this adventure for just over 2 weeks. And 3) how much more learning and growing we have to do.

 

What I hope to learn

                I hope to gain better travel skills while traveling in a place you’re not familiar with. I hope to gain an appreciation for Japanese culture. I hope to learn some of the basic language terms. Lastly I hope to see things that make me want to learn more or make my jaw drop because it amazes me.

 

What I am most excited about

                Being on land. Culture. Food. Adventure. Sightseeing. Becoming more enriched in something I know so little about and probably have way too many stereotypes about.

 

What I am most nervous about

I am nervous because this country will be my first time in a place that has a completely different language. In Italy we had a professor with us who spoke Italian and there were many English speakers in Rome. In Guatemala many people I was with spoke Spanish or I could get by with the little I knew. Japanese… I have no clue how to read or speak it. Trying to get around with this language barrier. Other than that I am not very nervous J Japan should be a piece of cake, bring it, ill get nervous when India comes (Although I am unbelievably excited for India and it is the country I am most looking forward too!)

 

The tentative plan so far

Day 1- I have a field lab to a Zen temple to do mediation practices. Then were going out to celebrate a friends 22^nd birthday, hopefully to a karaoke bar because those are supposed to be huge in Japan. Sleep on the ship

Day 2-  Early train to Tokyo (Harajuku street? Fish market?  Palace?) Stay overnight

Day 3- Tokyo all day and then catch an overnight bus to Kyoto

Day 4 – Kyoto (take train to sleep on the ship, save money)

Day 5- Kobe (where the ship is)

 

Tonight is the Pre-port meeting for Japan and then I’ll be in bed early after since I hardly sleep due to the waves. I watched a lot of movies today because we can get newer movies for free on the public drive. So I watched Skyfall and Crazy, Stupid, Love. Our room is a mess because of last night still, they are coming to fix our closet but until then our stuff is just all over the already small room. The sooner this gets fixed the better lol,

If I don’t blog too much while in Japan, don’t freak. I will probably be making small posts on FB if I have wifi. Other than that though I will be enjoying my experience and I will give a full report and some pictures of my first trip. What’s crazy is that right after Japan we have 2 days of class and then BOOM were in China. So I am hoping I will have some good down time to blog and reflect on Japan before China.

I’ll talk to yall soon

 

Love

Casey

Cookie

T

Cassandra-Marie Jean Cole

 

Stormy night at sea, means no sleep at sea.

Last night we hit some really rough storms. Which means a whole night of drawers opening and closing, anything on shelves falling over, and even more fun: everything in the closet falling, including shelves that collapse and fall into the room. So needless to say I will be taking lots of naps today in-between classes. It’s still pretty rough outside…. But not too bad.

Another day, another dollar

Jan 25^th 2013

As frank a Resident at Atria used to say. Today was pretty good. I got some work done, went to my classes which are both talking all about Buddhism which I am loving. Spent time with my friends. Went outside onto the back deck and star gazed. It was a little chilly and windy, but it was peaceful. No one else was out there so laying on the deck and enjoying the night sky in the middle of the ocean. Looking out, the moon  lit up the sky and the light shined onto the ocean an made the water glimmer under it. After we ran into a Zumba class that just started and ended up joining in for 45 minutes. Zumba on a moving, rocking, windy ship deck is not easy but it was really fun! I am hoping to do it every “A” night J

                Now I am watching pitch perfect with my roomies and Cindy. She is pretty much our 4^th roomie. After were going to a cookie social for our “sea” the ship is sectioned off into seas, were the Caribbean sea! So tonight at 2200 were going to meet up with them. Tomorrow I have one more day of classes and then we will be in Japan! Pretty exciting. I am pretty wiped out from today so tomorrow I will key you all in on more J

Hawaii Feild Lab pictures!

Here is a small sample from my field lab to the Volcanoes National Park! Since I am not sure what order these photos are going to show up, I will place headings later when I have Wi-Fi access! Other than that e-mail me with questions! Or the answer might be in a previous post since  J

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                      

Photos from the first day!

Pictures from the first day! I found a way to get them on my blog, they are smaller than the actual picture but they will give yall something to look at!

1)      My room

2)      First sight of the ship! SAS!

3)      Lifeboat drill, my high tech lifejacket

 

IT'S MEXICAN NIGHT

               Tonight is the highlight of every SAS’er dining experience. Since every night for dinner it is usually a pasta, potato and vegetable… taco night is everyone’s favorite! This is the first time having one and it was such a treat to have something different! Today was a pretty rough day at sea, we had some pretty high waves and last night we did too so I got hardly any sleep. We get to turn our clocks back another hour tonight though (although it is a pretty normal thing now). So were going to be 15 hours ahead of you guys! In my religions classes were highly focused on Buddhism which Is a lot of fun to actually learn about and it’s forms. In Japan on the first day I am going meditating in a Zen temple! So I am really excited to be enriched In that experience and see what It is like.

                On the second day of Japan me and friends have decided we want to go to Tokyo and spend 2 days there, then after were taking a sleeper bus to Kyoto to spend a day and then meet the ship in Kobe! It will be a long trip but I am really excited to get a good sample of Japan, even though it is the most expensive country I think we have found some pretty economical and safe ways to travel around. There are three of us so far and possibly 4. Tonight I might go to a seminar on Chinese history and a “fireside” chat with unreasonable at sea. But since I am lacking sleep I might be in bed early. Ta ta for now

 

Lots of love

Casey

I am now famous

http://www.semesteratsea.org/2013/01/22/the-need-to-study-the-ocean-oceanography-in-hilo/

 

Above is a link to where you can see me in a video that was posted on the semester at sea website and Facebook page! I am in this class and this is about the field lab I just had. I am in a purple bathing suit and in the classroom I am near the front of the room. I can’t watch the video because of internet restrictions but let me know how it was J

 

A day of relaxation and friends

Today I relaxed and enjoyed my first day on the ship with no class! I don’t know what the time difference is in NY but it is 8:37pm on the ship (or 20:87 for us who use a 24 hour clock). I met some new people while enjoying the sunshine on the back deck, did some schoolwork and more importantly I worked on my budget a bit. I decided to travel overland in China and Japan (the ship is docking in 2 ports and in between we can travel by land instead of by sea). So with that I had to make sure I had a good budget for it. It’s already pretty tight but as long as I stick with it I should be good. I tried to balance it based on currency difference, for example Japan is really expensive while Vietnam is one of our cheapest ports. I shall see how well this goes. Other than that I am studying now for classes (even though it seems like no one studies other than me and my friends. Oh well. I also keep getting distracted by the cute boys that keep joining us HAHA.  Nice to look at, but it’s time to focus on me J

Tonight we get to turn our clocks back, which is must better than is we were going the other way around and had to keep losing sleep! Have a good day everyone! I already got to experience the 22^nd and it was pretty nice so I hope you have a good one too!

The day I will never experience

Tomorrow you will all experience the 21^st, but I will be in the 22^nd. So weird! There will be one day that I will never experience. How many people can say that they have a day they didn’t have. The nice thing is that it is a Monday too!

 

Today I had a really nice day of classes and a day out in the sun. even though I put sunscreen on, the rays of the sun proved to be too much and I got a little too much sun. But I put on some aloe and now I am doing some work before we go to trivia night. Angela, Bridget, Kim, Cindy and I are going to be on a team! It’ll be a fun night, after I will try and stay up while we go over the international dateline. Tomorrow we have off so tonight is like a Friday J

Hope you’re all doing well

Love

Casey

Hawaii: A reflection

Before going into SAS I had a pretty narrow view of Hawaii. This was my picture of what Hawaii would be like: I would walk off the ship and at the entrance would be 3 hula girls dancing the hula and as we walked by they would place a lay right over our head. Right along the coast would be white sandy beaches and surfers riding huge waves. I can’t speak for all of Hawaii, but for Hilo, Hawaii this was not even close to reality.

Thank goodness for my anthropology class (Race, class and gender) for preparing me for the real Hawaii. Before arriving we did learn a lot about Hawaiian culture and the problems they are facing.

                Going into Hawaii I was prepared not only to make it a nice “vacation” but mostly to make sure I make it a learning experience. I wanted to meet people, to hear stories, to experience the real Hawaii and not the one I had made up in my mind and many other people probably do too because of the way commercials and the media portray Hawaii. Keep in mind though that I also did not go to a very “touristy” part of Hawaii. In fact the ship docking in Hilo was a pretty big deal for the locals and it was almost overwhelming for 900 people to suddenly show up in their little town.

                There were things about Hawaii that I truly loved and one thing I didn’t like. So the best way for me to present this is with lists since it’s easier for me to organize thoughts that way.

 

Things I loved about Hawaii:

1)      Their pride and love for the culture. There were multiple times during our stay that when asking a question they would be so enthused to answer in detail. One example of this is the meaning of “hang loose”, according to their myths there once was a very friendly fisherman who always waved to locals in their way to work. One day though he was in a fishing accident where he lost is three middle fingers, so from that day forward when he continued to wave to locals they thought he was starting a new trend by waving with two fingers but in reality he had lost his fingers. This is just an example of one way they like spreading their culture. Another thing is they take pride in locally made items. In Wal-Mart they had 2 whole aisles filled with things made by locals or with the tag “made in Hawaii”, something I have never seen on mainland USA. Hawaii in many ways, especially culturally is not at all like the US.

2)      The wildlife. I loved the rainforest and the ocean. I have never seen a sea turtle before and while snorkeling I got to see 5 of them and a variety of life I had never seen before. Hawaii is one of the most biologically diverse places on earth.

3)      The friendliness of everyone I met. Weather it was a taxi driver, someone at the market trying to sell something, someone offering to take a picture for us or the cashier at Wal-Mart. Every person I met was so friendly. One of the most friendly experiences I encountered was with a man who owned a tour business. His name was AJ and for 40 dollars he would take you on a tour of Hilo and the volcano national park or for 2 dollars will take you anywhere in Hilo. One of the times we were catching a ride back to the ship from downtown Hilo, he picked us up along with another group of people. The other group of people wished to go to a waterfall a bit out of the way of the ship, so he asked if it was alright if we brought them there first, me and my friends said it was fine (2 dollars a person back to the ship is much cheaper and convenient then getting a taxi back), then at the falls he picked up other people who asked for a ride to a restaurant that was near the ship. So needless to say it took about 15 minutes longer to get back to the ship then it should have (we said it was okay). But when we got to the ship he told us to keep our money, apologized for the delay in our arrival and told us to have a safe trip around the world. Yes, it took longer to get back to the ship but he was professional and kind to us by giving us an overall free ride back.

 

Those are really the main things I really enjoyed about Hawaii.

 

Things I didn’t like about Hawaii:

1)      I wish we had gone to the other side of the island with the classic white sandy beaches and much more touristy things to do.

 

I really can’t complain about much else since the weather was still in the 70’s, it was beautiful and I had a great time.

 

Last night we had a seminar on “Oh! The cultures you’ll see” It wasn’t so much about specific cultures but how to approach different cultures. During this though, so many things went through my mind that I was pretty enlightened by. These are my thoughts solely and they are not meant to offend anyone. It’s just what I thought about a lot today.

 

One of the major things I really thought about was how much we are all truly alike as humans. We all need the same things, made of the same things, we are all trying to figure out life and our surroundings to the best we can. We shouldn’t look down on others based on their religion, what they find to be normal, when they do things differently or based on how they live. Especially if they are happy! Who are we as fellow humans to go and tell another cultures they are doing something wrong with their lives if they are happy. I personally think just because they do something different does it make them any less human then us or does it make their culture wrong? I am sure there are other cultures that look at how we live and see US as the crazy ones.

I also think we tend to stay in our comfort zones and view our culture as “better” because it is what we are comfortable with, but I think it’s the things that make us uncomfortable or make us feel heightened emotion that make life worth living. Things such as love, excitement, feeling nervous and more are what makes this world a more interesting place to live in.  

 

Just some thoughts I can look at later and reflect on how I feel now and how I might feel later.

               

I really don’t want to plan too much in the countries because i think that the best experiences I will have will be from the people I meet and the crazy stories I can tell after. I am so excited to live those stories I can tell in the future J

 

Love Casey

 

 

Living in a seemingly fantasy world that is SAS

Things I have grown to love about this shipboard community

1)      The ability to feel comfortable around strangers.

In a normal situation at college, if you walked up to a table of people and asked if you could join them, it would most likely be a bit awkward and not at all normal. But on SAS every night I eat with different people and meet someone new. It is not awkward, there is no need to feel self-conscious about joining others at dinner, in fact it’s seen as “cool” to meet and eat with new people. Things like this just make us closer as a community.

2)      Kindness of others. It’s easy to talk to people and everyone is so willing to get to know others and strike up friendly conversation.

3)      Dinner conversations. I am not used to sitting and talk to people over dinner on a regular basis for over an hour every day, but it makes the night so much more complete.

4)      Ability to eat and easily contact professors. I have had the opportunity to actually get to know my teachers and have full conversations with them, something totally different from Oswego where a lot of professors are very busy and to meet outside of the classroom is restricted to office hours and otherwise it is much more formal.

5)      My roommates. Once a day we usually are all actually in the room and we all get along so well. We are all usually out studying, in class or something else which is good because we might get sick of each other otherwise since we live in a small room. But we all have different class times and things we are involved in.

6)      Every night seminars. It’s nice to know that beyond classes we have the opportunity to go and learn about things related to the next country we are visiting.

7)      Everyone’s love for travel, exploring and seeing new places

 

Today I had classes. It was an A day, so I had my Religion classes. I took a nap because I was not feeling so hot and now I am in my room relaxing before dinner. It is 6:30 our time, we were 6 hours behind you. I will post soon more about Hawaii, I am still gathering my thoughts and stuff, I posted more about the community onboard because it was on my mind all day. I hope to actually get a list of things I liked about Hawaii, didn’t like, thigs I noticed/ thought was cool. Maybe I will do that later tonight after dinner… who knows.

 

On January 20^th we will cross over the international dateline. With this we will completely skip over January 21^st, so that day won’t exist for us. So I hope you all enjoy that day since I will never experience it!

 

Love

Casey

 

PS: I love emails lol. They help distract me from schoolwork and make me feel connected to you guys since I always send out information but can only receive information through email. I have no clue who actually reads my blog so it would be cool to get an email sometime and see who reads it!

A day and a half in Honolulu.... but on a ship

So today was our first day back on the ship, We are docked in Honolulu so we can refuel, and staying longer than expected to avoid a storm. So I have been on Facebook and enjoying the internet before we leave for Japan hopefully tonight!

Hawaii was amazing, but not what you might expect.

 

Hawaii Day One:

                My roomies and I woke up pretty early, as the ship pulled into port it made our cabin shake like crazy. But we got up, realized we had phone access and then quickly got dressed for breakfast. While eating we called families, said hi and then headed to our room to pack for the day! The process of getting off the ship took a good chunk of time. First we were called up to the top of the ship by our cabin number to go through immigration (we go up, SAS hand us our passport, we stand in line and the border patrol looks it over and we give the passport back) and then once every person on the ship has done this, they allow everyone off based on field labs and programs. I was first off because of my field lab. To start the day we took a bus up, 30 miles into the Volcanoes National Park. It is amazing because even though the whole way to the park we traveled up the mountain, it is such a gradual slope you don’t feel it. The first stop we made was to a lava tube. While lava travels, the tops of the flows can harden while below lava flows quickly through the tube. What I found most interesting though, was what was inside the tube! Locals of Hawaii who believe in the volcano goddess Pele, leave her offerings wrapped in banana leaves on this mountain (I learned this in my religions class). So while just looking around the cave I found an offering in a corner and got so excited! I figured it was something I would never actually find.

Anywhoo, After we looked at the Lava tube we headed to a huge area where lava had flowed about 30-40 years ago. The while area was black, there were very little trees, the only plants were small green and red flowering bushes in the cracks of the ground. There were “pillars” of lava that formed over trees that would show how think the lava was over 16 feet tall. After exploring around the “wasteland” (It was literally a large field for as far as the eye can see that was once rainforest but destroyed by lava), we headed to the museum. By this time is began to rain pretty hard and so we didn’t get a good view of the top of the volcano. We did get to go into the government observatory though because our tour guide works there! So it was cool to see some of their machines that record data and look out onto the big “crater” that is on the top of the volcano. Basically picture a large dome, now on top of that dome there is a dip. That is the shape of the volcano.

We ate lunch after and headed toward a beach in Hilo called Richardson’s beach. It is not a huge beach, and not really known for its coral reefs, but! It had a reputation for being a great place to swim with sea turtles! So we got out snorkeling gear on and explored the reefs. The reef was very pretty, lots of colorful fish, sea cucumbers, sting rays and sea turtles! I saw 5-6 of them while I was snorkeling and attempted to get a pictures of my swimming near one (a friend took it for me). After snorkeling, our field lab ended and we headed back to the ship. To save money me and friends ate on the ship after showering and changing cloths. Me, Kim, Cindy and 5 others then got a van to take us to Wal-Mart and Starbucks to get some wifi and snacks to bring back on the ship. While In Starbucks locals were playing poker out in public, which on mainland USA would probably not be allowed haha. After a long day we headed back to the MV explorer and went to bed.

 

Hawaii Day Two:

               

                We woke up early to grab breakfast and headed to the farmers market. I was blown away by the beauty and uniqueness of the market. I thought it was really cool to see people selling a he variety of fruit and goods. One man had a pile of coconuts, and was making a hole in them, and selling them for people to drink the juice. Other people sold crafts, animals and more. Me and Bridget got freshly made smoothies and I bought a picture from a man who did photography. We spent a lot of time really just walking around and enjoying the nice weather. We grabbed some wifi again and then headed back to the ship for some lunch. After lunch we walked on the coast and enjoyed the beach. We had to be back to the ship by 6 (although to avoid lines were told to get back earlier so we don’t get “dock time” (if your more than 10 minutes late you get penalized… every 10 minutes is an hour you must stay on the ship in the next port before you can get off )). So we got back and did schoolwork, then we left Hawaii at around 8pm!

 

Last night the ship got yelled at because of students behavior in Hawaii. Apparently a resort near the ship had 32 rooms booked through SAS students. On the night we were there, 200 students all took over the hotel with on average 6.5 students per room staying overnight. The hotel had to kick students out destroyed the hotel rooms. Just say that SAS did not get a good name In that hotel after security had to maintain them. Luckily the hotel didn’t make any arrests, but the Dean of students was pissed. Out of 600ish students, 200 had to give us a bad name in the small town of Hilo, Hawaii. But after we got to hear more about the Unreasonable companies that are trying to expand or grow their companies! They each had the challenge of giving us a “pitch” with 20 slide, 20 seconds a slide. It was really cool to see them do this for the first time and see what exciting companies they are creating.

 

Today I am trying to catch up on schoolwork, enjoy the sunshine and enjoy having a phone for another day! Hehe

 

Love ya

Casey

 

PS: I plan on writing later or tomorrow with a list of things I particularly enjoyed about Hawaii and or what I found different or interesting!

 

 

Voyage Itineray

List of the ports, how long we are staying and more. Addresses are if you want to send me a letter or card.

Hilo Farmers Market

Very yummy fruit smoothies. Lots of really cool produce and lots of locally made items!

ALOHA

Speakers, Desmond Tutu and Hawaii plans!

Something happened yesterday that I will never forget. As I was walking past Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I greeted him, and he stopped, shook my hand, asked my name, said “God bless you”, gave me a warm hug and walked on with a huge smile on his face. I cannot describe what it feels life to be treated so kindly from someone who is world known, very wise and doesn’t even know me. I was in complete awe for a good 15 minutes.

 

                I know I have made lots of posts lately, but I heard a speech last night and it was so amazing I wanted to make sure I wrote some of the great points made before I go to class and also give an update of what I will be doing in Hawaii since I won’t be on my blog until after Hawaii or late tomorrow night.

 

                For starters, on this voyage is a company created by a fellow SASer. It is called Unreasonable at Sea. It was formed to bring young entrepreneurs together who have world changing ideas onto this ship to learn, grow and pitch their ideas to the countries we will be going to. Well, also sailing with the unreasonable institute is mentors. These are people who are entrepreneurs and are doing things to help change the world. Last ngiht they lectured at the Union and told us about their program and then gave us an interview of one of the mentors.

 

                http://unreasonableatsea.com/portfolio/hunter-lovins/

 

                Her name is Hunter Lovins is such a pretty amazing woman. She was a great speaker and really got the crowd excited with her thoughtful advice and wise words. Although they are things I am used to hearing, such as “You only have right now”, “You don’t know how much time you have on earth”, “and Doing something with your life you enjoy is the right path to happiness” were some of her words of advice. She has such an impressive background and the idea that this lady is on our voyage and spoke to us 500 college students, blew my mind that she is one of 10 people on this ship that want to speak with us, want to help young entrepreneurs and are helping change our world.

                Tonight there will be another speaker after our mandatory pre-port meeting. They lecture us on health, safety, culture and ect. I am really excited to hear another speaker tonight.

 

                In my Oceanography class, it was announced that tomorrow for our lab, we will not only be visiting the volcano national park and hiking up the volcano, but after we will be going snorkeling in the coral reefs! I am so happy that I get to experience two major Hawaiian tourist experiences in one day and because it is a lab, I don’t have to pay for them up front! (I pay indirectly through tuition). So tomorrow I am waking up early (maybe early enough to see the ship arrive port?), then off to the volcano!

Ive got my swim trunks and my flippy floppys

I have just finished my classes for the day and got a hilarious message from Chelsea. She told me to make sure I am listening to “I’m on a boat”. So while I am writing I am listening to it. This afternoon we have a beautiful sunset over the horizon. HAWAII IS SO CLOSE!

                Tomorrow I have classes and then the day after Aloha Hawaii! Every night we have 8pm meetings in the union (a large meeting room on the ship), of which we can learn things about upcoming countries. Last night was about the wildlife/ volcanos of Hawaii and tonight is about the culture.

I had religion classes today, during which we were asked (as long as we were comfortable) to share our religious background, it seemed as though almost everyone in the classes came from completely different religious backgrounds. It was so interesting to see such a variety of people on the ship. I myself grew up going to catholic mass, considered myself Christian for a time and now I am at a point in life where I really don’t know where I stand religiously.

                I really hope with these classes I can become much more educated on religions, especially ones that a lot of people have negative views on in America such as Islamic and Muslim beliefs. I think that on top of taking this journey it is a lot to also look at myself spiritually and others spiritually but I am keeping an open mind to other religions so I can better understand what they believe, why they believe it and their culture around their religion.

                I really am enjoying my classes so far, although some require pages upon pages of dull reading. I know I am writing a lot on the ship, but in port I won’t have my laptop, so posts will mostly come after I am there. I have lots of time to waste on the ship. Me and friends spend a good chunk of time a day at a table emailing friends, family and updating blogs. I am back to the books now.

TATA FOR NOW               

Casey

 

PS THERE IS AN UNCONFIRMED RUMOR THAT THE DALAI LAMA MIGHT BE JOINING US! The dean won’t deny or confirm this rumor…so maybe?!? That would be truly amazing!

A morning at sea. Thoughts

I woke up, had a small breakfast and headed out onto the deck. It is one of the most peaceful places on the ship. I can sit here, on my laptop or with a book for hours. No matter what direction you look in, all you can see is ocean. There is no other ships out here, there is only the MV explorer, a few birds and whatever life is underneath us. I normally despise mornings, but for the past few days it has been pretty easy to get up and get ready for the day.

                My roommates both have early morning classes on A days, so once they leave I usually relax in bed and gradually get up since my class is not until 12:50 and 15:20. (we use a 24 hour clock on the ship). I actually eat breakfast on the ship since it is the best meal of the day, and then I have been out on the deck since breakfast. It is a a little windy, but its 70 outside. It’s beautiful. I have a lot of reading to do, but I take frequent breaks to look out and see if anything new is visible. This journey is really does make you think. You have so much time to yourself or to learn about others. Right now it is about 10am on the ship. The sun is occasionally peeking out of the clouds and I am enjoying some cold water I purchased before going outside. Water is free, but the free water has a funky taste and I got seasick after drinking a ton of water so I am kind of scared to drink it again even though it’s safe to drink.

                It’s interesting to look out behind the ship, the propellers churn up the water and cause the water to become less dense and more oxidized. Because of this it changes the color of the water to a very pretty light blue as we sail. So for as far as the eye can see there is a trail of light blue water in the middle of a dark blue sea. I would say the dark blue water reminds me of Moby Dick or some other sea story, it’s not a scary blue, but a cold water blue. The sea water is actually 65 degrees though so it’s not freezing!

Anyway

I am going to try and get schoolwork done before my class.

If there is lots of spelling and grammar mistakes I apologize I am a horrible editor and I need to work on making sure I double check my writing.

Casey

Day two of classes

I had all of my “B” day classes today. One is Oceanography, the second was a “Race, class and gender” which is anthropology.

In Oceanography, mid-way through class, our professor stopped and pointed out the window of the room, then herded us outside to all look at a bird. It’s a bird that lives only in the pacific ocean, it spends 2/3 of its life out in the ocean. It lives on very little and in order to stay alive it doesn’t flap its wings, instead it glides with the wind to keep alive. I always thought that the was only life below the ocean this far out, but apparently there is still life above, which interested me immensely.

                The class has a field lab (For each class we are required to go out on a lab with the professor), in Hawaii and we are going up a volcano. I don’t really know what to expect for this but I am excited because obviously vocanos and Hawaii go hand in hand. I hope to go to a beach bonfire on the first night. One my second day in Hawaii I really just want to enjoy the beach, maybe see a show? Who knows. My second class is not my favorite, mostly because it has a lot of dull reading. If I could I would switch out, but I don’t want to mess up my financial aid and stuff. So I will suffer through it haha

                I found out our ship has a spa. Life is rough when your living on a cruise ship that has 25 dollar massages, facials and more. I am actually looking forward to getting a massage at some point. I just got back from dinner and we are so lucky. At dinner it is buffet style, but they have waiters who come around and help with drinks and take your plates away. It’s really nice that even though we have schoolwork, life on the ship is really nice. Especially once you get over being sea sick, stumbling through the hallway and the fact that a lot of things will cost you extra. For example I have to pay 6 dollars for a load of laundry (ew). But I brought detergent so I can do some in the sink J

 

Anywhoooo

Keep in touch

Love you

Casey

E-mail

Hey! So just wanted to give a heads up that email is up and running! I love checking it since it’s my only form of internet usage that’s free!

Cassandramarie.cole.sp13@semesteratsea.org

 

I would love to get small updates, a hello, or tell me your life story hehe J

 

Love

Casey

First day of class!

I am definitely having a better day then yesterday. I was able to eat lunch, and able to pay attention for my first day of classes!

Basically we have A, B, study days and in port days. While on the ship classes rotate between A and B.

                My first class was Religions of the world. My second was Anthropology of religion. So basically my “A” day schedule is religion classes lol.

I really enjoyed classes, it’s very different than a traditional class which I love. The class size is pretty small. The classrooms have couches and chairs instead of desks which is more comfortable and the classrooms are all near the same area. I love that the professors seem to all be very friendly, and more focused less on hard grading but more on the experience. I love that at lunch or dinner we eat or talk with professors and lifelong learners (people who are older and pay to take this journey for their love of learning and traveling). I love that this really is a floating campus, a floating family.

                The atmosphere on the ship is amazing. People are so so so friendly. Everyone is in love with this program and everyone has been planning for this voyage for a long time. At our welcoming ceremony, we were told that less than 1 percent of the world has a college education and less than 1 percent of the world has circumnavigated the globe. I am doing both with makes me so lucky, blessed and grateful.

I am now off to dinner with friends and then doing some schoolwork before an early bedtime J

Love yall

Casey

HELLO FROM THE MV EXPLORER

Hey everyone!

I am sorry I am a couple days behind in posting. I will explain! Here is what I have been up to !

 

Jan 9^th

The day of departure! Such an amazing day, the excitement was high and everyone was so ready to go. I woke up at around 7 am to go downstairs and wait for the bus to bring me to Mexico (where we would meet the ship). The buses ran a tad late, but at around 9 am I boarded the bus and met my first friend Ivana, a girl from Mexico who goes to the University of San Diego! The energy on the bus was high, people talking, introducing and talking about the adventure to come.

                As we rode on the bus along the shore of the pacific we all kept an eye out for our new home: The MV Explorer! Around 11am, as we came around a corner we saw it, sitting in the bay! It looked relatively small, especially because it was sitting next to a carnival cruise line which is literally 3 times the size of this ship. HUGE. Next came security and boarding. Took about an hour to get through security and t hand in the necessary paperwork. I was the first to my room, I have 2 other roommates, both of which are very sweet! Bridget from NH and Kimberly who is from orange county, CA. The room is set up with a set of bunk beds and a twin. I have the twin J. The room is fairly nice, it has a fridge, TV, 2 closets, and five drawers. After a quick lunch I went and explored the ship with Ivana, came back and met Bridget and spent a good chunk of time just walking around the ship. I decided to try and get internet working but failed. We then had a lifeboat drill, which meant everyone getting a lifejacket on and standing in lines and being prepared in case we ever had to actually get off the boar. After trying a few times, they made the announcement that we were about to leave the port and for everyone that is not sailing to get off. So with that I went out to the back to watch the ship take off! Everyone was out on the deck and we cheered as the engine roared and we began moving. We sat outside for a while and enjoyed the breeze and watched as Mexico disappeared.

                Next came the welcoming ceremony, which crammed most of the ship in 3 rooms to hear a speaker welcome us, introduce teachers and Desmond Tutu our guest aboard the ship! He asked we call him Father, stood up, everyone gave him a standing applause and then he left to head to his room. They didn’t take too long to welcome us since the next day we had 12 hours of orientation to get through. I headed back to my room, me and my roommates unpacked and unpacked and then we headed to dinner. Dinner is buffet style, usually pasta, salad and meat of fish. We sat down with some other students and talked. We stayed long enough that another group of students came by, we each introduced ourselves and then stated an interesting fact. It seemed as though almost everyone had something really cool to say. The first girl to introduce herself set the bar pretty high. Her father takes in inventers and tried to get their products on the market. Her dads  company has the rights to pillow pets! She also told us that she writes the poems for inside the tags of pillow pets. The next guy to introduce himself is a YouTube partner, has over 30,000 followers on his channel and gets paid for the advertisements on his channel. Another girl is a singer and Tyler who is friends with Bridget said he has 2 adapted Asian siblings. After dinner we finished unpacking and headed to bed early because we all weren’t feeling too hot.

 

Jan 10^th

 

Sleep was better than expected on a rocking ship, out room is by the engine so it’s like sleeping on a plane, a constant load noise. I still didn’t feel too great though by the next day, but we headed to orientation, which was just sitting in a room and watching a TV of a man speaking. I fell asleep because I started to feel sick. I skipped lunch and went back to bed to try and feel better. I learned the hard way that I should have taken medication or have brought a sea sickness patch. I have hand bands that are supposed to help, but so far not too much luck. My day wasn’t too exciting, mostly sleeping. I did go to dinner and tried to eat with not too much luck. After spending about an hour outside on the deck with friends after I began to feel better. The cold, wind and fresh air does wonders to sea sickness. I finally headed over to IT which was an hour wait and got my email working.

                I shoot a quick email to mom and dad and went to bed fairly early.

 

Jan 11^th

 

Today I woke up feeling a tad better. I took a shower, did some laundry in the sink and now I am outside on the deck blogging because inside it Is much more rocky and harder to concentrate. I will post later again if something interesting happens. Today is the first day of classes so who knows!

 

Love

Casey

The night before the ship sets off

Everything is packed
I feel great
I'm not really nervous anymore :)
I'm ready to go!

Tomorrow morning I get up at 7am
Take an 8:15 bus to Mexico to board the ship!

I will keep in contact through my blog and email! I cannot post pictures easily because of Internet restrictions, but I will do what I can!

cassandramarie.cole.sp13@semesteratsea.org

Shoot me an email!

Love you all
Casey

First photo: my luggage tags with room number
Second: rock sculptures a man was making in the bay front area
Third photo: hotel room, view from room!

I am in California! Leaving in appx 36 hours!

Yesterday I spent 8 hours traveling by plane, then got to LA around noon!

View from the plane!

Then I was picked up by my dad and we headed to In-and-out burger!

 My first time there, was very yummy!

   

Then we headed over to downtown LA! (I don't know why they are sideways...)

Then went north to drive on the pacific coast and see the ocean!

After we checked into our hotel early, ordered pizza and called it a night!

Day 2:

DISNEYLAND

Just a few pictures from today :)

Tomorrow is a relaxing day, then WED IS THE DAY I LEAVE!

So very excited

Having an amazing time and I haven't gotten on the ship yet.

The night before the start of my Journey (added late because of laptop issues)

Tomorrow I start my trip by flying to California!
The way I have handled SAS since I paid my deposit:

1 year before SAS: Overly nervous and excited. preparing all the time and anxious to talk to anyone about it who would listen

6 months before: Silent about it, hardly brought it up

4 months ago: Stressed about paperwork, visas and more. Excited but more nervous

1 month ago: Physically sick from thinking about it, overly excited.

Now the night before:

My expectations of tonight: Feeling sick, no sleep and lots of tears

Reality: Peace. Tired and ready for bed

I am ready to go.

Ready to travel, explore, change, grow and most of all experience a trip not many people have done before me. Not many people can say they have traveled to around the world.

I am so blessed, and lucky. 

This is all able to happen for me because I was blessed with a Great Grandmother who valued education and wished to see that we her grandchildren were able to go to college. I know most people wouldn't have this opportunity to do SAS and because of her... I can.

Bring it world