On the Ship Finally

Hellllloooooooooo! Man the first time I had to talk in front of a group on the ship was crazy hard! I had to talk slowly before the rocking of the ship would push all my words out before I had a chance to organize them. Haha! I am already here on the ship! Yay! I will talk more about the first couple of days soon but first I thought I would write down some of my feelings and thoughts about the trip. My dear friend Arielle told me I should write down some things like my fears, what I want to see, what expectations I have and stuff like that, so I thought I would share some of that with you all.

Things I hope I will see on this trip:

Ø  -LOTS of children

Ø  -The sisters of charity in India

Ø  -A totally different way of living than I am used to

Ø  -Proof of Arashi (haha….I am going to Japan so why not)

Things I want to do:

Ø  -Play with children in each country

Ø  -Show God’s love to everyone

Ø  -Laugh a lot

Ø  -Make lasting relationships in each place

Ø  -Change the way I live my life

My fears: Most of the things I fear all relate back to loneliness, so I will just put that. Also I fear falling into the comfortable trap of just becoming a typical tourist and missing out on important opportunities.

Things I think are unreachable: At this point the only thing I think is unreachable will be getting go to an Arashi concert. It is a very sad reality, but I don’t really have $500 to spend on that…..Hopefully someday that dream will come true.

So yeah that is just what I was feeling before the trip and even now that I have been on the ship for a couple days. Another thing I wanted to show you guys is my awesome rainbow of currency!

Why it is shown like that i'm not sure.....but there you go.

Pretty awesome right!

Ok now I will talk about my first day aboard the MV Explorer.

I was luckily one of the first people to get registered since my last name starts with a C. I got to the pier at about 8:20 AM (5:20 denver time) and stood in line for 40 min. until my bags were all checked and I had gone through security. I then got the walk on the ship. The ship was giant! I had to walk up this tiny little staircase hanging from the side of the ship up to the 5^th deck.

Thankfully there were people who took our luggage to our rooms for us.

Once I got up I was lead to the Union, our main meeting room. As I was lead there people greeted me excitedly, it was almost like going on JTL for the first time. My new little brother Matthew was one of the greeters and he gave me a really big hug. That was very touching. In the union when had to complete our registration, sign stuff, check with the medical people, boring stuff like that. Finally I was able to go see my room. It was totally dark as I walked in and when I turned on the light it was sooooooo small. I almost had a panic attack. I arrived in the room before my roommate did so I decided to wait for her and start unpacking. It didn’t take long before I heard some struggling at the door and went to help my roommate with the heavy door. She was tired from her registration and was eager to get off the ship to spend her last couple hours with her parents. I was happy to be invited along to meet them and then to lunch. My roommate’s name is Nancy. She is a sweet girl from Nashville Tennessee.

Finally the time came for everyone to be on the ship and prepare to leave the port. After a introduction meeting and a safety drill with an inspection by the captain and his 2^nd in command we were ready to wave good bye to the remaining parents watching from the port.

Exploring the ship was fun. Nancy and I found a couple of our neighbors to join us. The ship was absolutely beautiful and the ocean totally breathe taking. It was easy to fall asleep that night with the rocking of the ship.

The next day was not so pleasant. We started meetings at 9 in the morning and we only got short breaks and meals time after that until close to 10 at night. It’s hard to stay awake sometimes with the rocking of the boat. But I am starting to get used to it.

! By the way my email address for those of you who didn’t get it is sccontreras@semesteratsea.net I think. If that is wrong I will correct it next time.

The Airport and Halifax

08/25/10
Wow! I am here! I am actually getting ready to get on a ship a sail around the world......It's true I am. Seriously! Really?
Haha. Well I will just start with that because it's true, but honestly I am still have a very hard time swallowing that fact. The whole past couple of days were so unreal. I mean I know why my mom was panicked, why I should have been....but I just wasn't. I wasn't sure what I was getting ready for.....I mean I knew....but it was just a fantasy to me. I thought saying good bye to people would help me realize that I am going to be gone for a long time and it was really happening. So I said goodbye to Tessa on Sunday, goodbye to all my friends, goodbye to Papa and Josiah after mass Wednesday morning, then finally goodbye to Mom and Isaac at the airport. At first being at the airport it felt like I was leaving for a nice little trip to Cusmapa or something, then I remembered why mom was so sad and freaked out.....I won't be seeing my family for a long time! and not just 1 month a long time, but a whole school semester! I remembered being in regular school and thinking towards the middle of the semester how I just wanted to be done with my classes, wanting to just get out and back home.....now I was going to feel that way only I wouldn't get to see my family at all until it was over. That is bad! I am one of the most fortunate girls in the world! I get to go see the world!!! I just really need to wake up and realize that this is really happening. 
OK enough of that! Tomorrow was a pretty normal day at the airport. It wasn't long until I met someone who was also going to Halifax to get on this cruise ship and travel on the world. Hehe. Her name is Louise.....I think. She is a 67 year old life long learner. Very nice and talkative! Unfortunately we lost each other in the craziness of Toronto Airport. That was a very bad experience, it was sooooo hot and humid and I had to drag my checked bags to be rechecked and there were long lines and having to go through customs twice, ugh not fun. The cool thing about that airport was how crazy diverse it was! so many different languages, but mostly a lot of Indian people and a lot of Asian people,  it was really cool. When I finally got in to Halifax and was waiting for a bus to take me to my hotel I met about 6 other Semester at sea-ers. So far they are all really nice.
My hotel is decent. No rats or anything.   


08/26/10

My day started kinda late on Thursday. Although I had planned to get up at 8 am so I could have breakfast and then get ready for my day, unfortunately my alarm didn’t go off like I told it to and I woke at noon instead. This might have been heaven sent since I had only gotten maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before, and since 8 am in Halifax is actually 5 am in Denver. I still had some things to do to get ready for my departure so I didn’t leave the hotel until about 3 in the afternoon. The people at my hotel were super helpful and pointed me in the direction to the ferry I could take to Halifax, which was only a short walk from my hotel. My adventure as an independent traveler began then. When I reached the dock the smell of the sea hit me. I hadn’t been near the ocean for a few years but that salty smell is so distinct it was easy to recognize. While I was waiting for the ferry to come I looked across the bay to Halifax. The sky was full of grey clouds but it still looked pretty amazing. I think right then a wave of homesickness hit and I wished that my family could be there to see what I was looking at. It just didn’t seem right without them.

While the ferry was putting across the bay I saw something that excited me so much: a cruise ship sitting at the dock. My first sighting of the MV Explorer, which would be my home for the next 112 days, took my breath away.

No it’s not the giant one.

The blue one is the Explorer.

 I was excited to hopefully go and see it up close. While wandering around Halifax another blessing came. I met Professor David Toscano, his wife Nancy, and their son Matthew. I overheard them talking about sas (semester at sea) and went to see if they were going to be some of my ship mates. I was correct in the assumption. Nancy and I talked for a while, she asked me questions about where I was from, what I was studying. When she found out I was traveling on my own she was very surprised. I think they liked me because soon after I met them they wrote down my name and said they were going to make a special request to have me put in to their ship family. I am still not too sure about that, now that I actually get to pick my parents, I want to really think about it before I get stuck in a family……haha just kidding. I felt very fortunate to have met this family. It looks like I can’t go anywhere without becoming an elder sister, Matthew seems to be about 12.

Exploring Halifax was awesome. There were a lot of people around, and lots of interesting stores to look at, many book stores. I walked to the far edge of town where there was a super market and as I was approaching it I looked towards the bay, and there I had a second sighting of the explorer. I saw the flags first, flags from every country we would visit, then the sas logo. I got so excited and people must have thought I was crazy as I stood in the middle of the parking lot taking pictures.

One of the best parts of my day was dinner. I found this amazing Japanese restaurant to eat at. Inside it looked a lot like what a traditional restaurant in japan looks like, I think. I got to sit at the Sushi bar since I was alone and I ordered my favorite Philadelphia roll and Alaskan roll.  I watched the cooks as they prepared food. Although both the servers were white and blonde, everyone in the kitchen was Japanese. They were calling out things in Japanese to each other like “cream cheese onegai!”I was very proud when I could understand what they were saying. When I got my sushi I was a little worried….it looked like the rice was so loose that the whole thing was going to fall apart. Fortunately that wasn’t the case and as stuffed the first roll in my mouth I melted. I had never had such moist and fresh sushi before. It was absolutely amazing! I’m not sure I will ever be able to go back to high altitude denver sushi ever again. Dang it!

One of the best parts of my day was dinner. I found this amazing Japanese restaurant to eat at. Inside it looked a lot like what a traditional restaurant in japan looks like, I think. I got to sit at the Sushi bar since I was alone and I ordered my favorite Philadelphia roll and Alaskan roll.  I watched the cooks as they prepared food. Although both the servers were white and blonde, everyone in the kitchen was Japanese. They were calling out things in Japanese to each other like “cream cheese onegai!”I was very proud when I could understand what they were saying. When I got my sushi I was a little worried….it looked like the rice was so loose that the whole thing was going to fall apart. Fortunately that wasn’t the case and as I stuffed the first roll in my mouth I melted. I had never had such moist and fresh sushi before. It was absolutely amazing! I’m not sure I will ever be able to go back to high altitude denver sushi ever again. Dang it!

All in all it was a great day and although I only spent about five hours in Halifax I saw a ton of cool stuff. I want to go back again, especially if I can go back to the Japanese place! J

The Beginning

Hello! How are you.....? Haha. Welcome to the first post on my fabulous Semester At Sea blog. Woot! It has been a long journey to get to where I am now and for some reason it doesn't quite seem real to me....I'm told this is normal.
Hmmmm....lets see....first I think I will tell you about the title of my blog. The second part is easy enough to understand. For those of you who don't know yet, I am about to start a three and a half month long trip around the world with a study abroad program called Semester At Sea. I will be taking classes on a cruise ship and exploring 11 different countries as we come to them. The ship will be leaving from Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) and then ending in San Diego. So we will literally be going all the way around the world. I will be going to (in order) Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Singapore, Viet Nam, China, Japan, and Hawaii. This trip is going to be amazing.
The first part of my title is すばらしきせかい (Subarashiki sekai) which is Japanese for The Wonderful World. This is a song title from one of my favorite bands called Arashi. It is a very powerful song about how each experience in life, the good and the bad, is a blessing, it is all part of our journey in this wonderful world. This is kind of a larger theme in my life, and I wanted to use it as my personal theme for this trip as I have a lot of incredible, intense, uncomfortable, awesome experiences.
Well I think that is all I will post for now, I should start thinking about packing....hehehe.
I will probably post one more time before the trip starts.
Jya ne!