January 22nd
Today Mom and I got up at 5:45 am for our 9:45 flight to Nassau, Bahamas... It's 9:43 in the evening right now and I'm exhausted! Alex was a sweetheart and woke up early to come over and say goodbye one last time. Our flight went well and was super short... the only issue was when we landed: the pilot hit the brakes big time and we all had to hold onto our seats to avoid smacking our heads against the seat in front of us. There were a whole lot of SAS students on the flight, so I introduced myself to a few of them. I was told that the SASers would stick out like a sore thumb, but I didn't realize how absolutely true such an observation is!!! The huge duffel bags and backpacks on college students really gave it away—also, if a mom was nearby, that was a sure means of separating them from the crowd. SASers and their parents swarmed Atlantis... Anyway, Atlantis is unbelievably huge and also unbelievably overrated. The room in which I am staying is a smoking room, and at one point, the light was nonfunctional in the bathroom. The service has been pathetic as well ; not so top-notch, in my opinion. It's a shame, too, because I'm paying a lot of money. But hey, I can see the beach from my room and there's a shark pool right under my window four stories down. The one really cool thing about Atlantis is the aqua life: around every corner it seemed that there were pools, beaches, and most importantly, aquariums or shallow pools with a particular sea creature in it—for example, stingrays, sharks, fish, huge sea turtles (!!!), and puffer fish! I flipped out when I discovered each new sea life pool, and you can walk right up to them! There are no rails, only warnings suggesting that it would be a bad idea to enter them. I met up with my future roommate, Tricia, after having met Carly, a girl I coordinated flights with for the Amazon trip. Mom is staying with Carly and her mom. Tricia, Carly, and I walked around Atlantis and explored some more—we went to the Dig, which is basically the aquarium, and there were the biggest flippin manta rays I've EVER seen in my life!!! It was amazing! The biggest one had a "wingspan" of fourteen feet!!!! That's over twice as much as I am tall! So after having an exhausting walk all over the whole island (practically), we all met up with our parents at the pier after the parent's reception aboard the ship for some dinner. We wound up going to Conch Fritters—it was the most boring cuisine that I imagine I will have during this whole trip. I am, yet again, not impressed with Nassau and I do not care to ever visit again. I'm sure the rest of the Bahamas is amazing and beautiful and uncorrupted by tourism, so I think I'd be up to exploring the real, cultured parts of the Bahamas. I also feel pretty disappointed because everyone I have come across has been interested in congregating together through alcohol. For example, everyone's meeting up at Senor Frog's tonight to get wasted and then have a happy time being hung over and checking into the ship tomorrow. I do not envy them in the least. I just worry that I will be hard put to find people like me, who enjoy a drink or two but whose object is certainly not to get wasted... Urgh. I also learned that our class is the largest that Semester at Sea has ever had: over 700 students! Additionally, there are 70% girls... ew. I dislike most girls (95% of them... no joke!), soooo I guess I'll have to settle. I just hope I make at least one guy friend, though, simply for my safety's sake, as I will be visiting countries where I might as well not exist simply because I am female. This world can be so unfair.
But hey, don't get me wrong! I'm so unbelievably grateful that I have this opportunity. It still hasn't quite sunken in yet that I'm in the freakin Bahamas and I'm going to leave on a ship tomorrow to see the whole world! The only thing I have felt as far as that goes is missing my friends very much, and wanting to call them every second to tell them about the experiences I've been having. I miss you guys terribly and I thought about you all a million times today! Alex, one hundred million things reminded me of you today and I really wanted to hear your voice and hug you!!! Trust me, Alex—I will think of you each and every day and each time I do I will mentally blow you a kiss :-)
I look forward to receiving your emails and hearing more secrets, Alex. Muah!
Much love to you all—thanks for reading my blog!
January 23, 2008: Day 1
Today I woke up early (7:30 am) and took a walk on the beach at Atlantis alone. It was really nice, but by 8 it was already super hot! So, I took a dip in the very cold pool and it felt so good. Then, I got ready to leave and we left in a taxi with some SASers and I met my first Southerners... it doesn't seem like there are very many. The whole check-in process took about an hour and 15 minutes for me, so it wasn't too entirely bad. First we waited in line to find out our room number and were given tags to put on our luggage. Then, we showed our passports to some people and then went over to the gate to drop off our luggage (it had to be searched for prohibited items) and got cleared by some officials and walked over to the ship. I saw the ship and I started tearing up—I fell instantly in love and I knew that I would soon call it home. We waited in more lines to turn in our passports (eek!) and then went over the ship to board it, where we went through a metal detector and had our backpacks checked. Then, I went straight to my room! My first impression was that it was really itty bitty, but now it feels quite comfortable to me. I anxiously awaited the arrival of my luggage because I was dying to unpack as soon as possible—I wanted to get settled in! Then, the parents came on board and I showed mom my room. Then, Tricia (my very nice roommate)'s parents came in the room and we talked until it was time for the parents to leave. We then had a lifeboat drill that consisted of having four rows and about five columns of people smushed up against the wall in long sleeves, pants, close-toed shoes, a cap, and our lifejackets on. Ok, so we were in the Bahamas.... it was HOT! We had to put up with that for about 30 minutes of just standing around. Then Tricia and I went back to the room and then went to a dining hall to get some food. While at dinner, we sat with two other girls who seemed really nice (Vanessa and Melissa). I'm sure we'll hang out with them again. We ate dinner and sat around talking for quite a while until we had to go to the introduction from the dean. After that, we met up with our sea (Adriatic Sea!!!), which is basically my hallway on my floor. Each hallway on each floor is a "sea". We will all compete during the Sea Olympics (I'm unsure as to when that will occur). That was pretty boring and consisted of typical "games" to get us to know each other (and they never work and didn't this time... you just can't force people into meeting each other—and therefore liking each other, which is the desired result by those who make us do this—so I just put up with it). After that, I hung back to watch the ship go along and I saw two other cruise ships in the distance, which was pretty cool. There was a full moon and I said a prayer and thought of my beloved friends and family... I miss you guys so much. I want you to know that I think of you guys all the time. Oh yeah, I also decorated my room with my pictures and Nicole's little painting she made for me ("Esperanza"). The ship's movement is much more pronounced than I had expected it to be—I have a headache and my back and knees hurt a little from the compressing and decompressing sensation. I don't think I'll be seasick but the headache doesn't help matters. I think I'll build up muscles in my back and stomach from having to keep my balance. I feel like I'm on a giant carousel horse from the motion, except that rather than going in a circle, we're going straight forward. Well, that's it for now. Much love,
Michelle :-D
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