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.