On the high seas

Date: June 15, 2008
Location: The North Atlantic
Lat: 44°25.08N Long: 062°15.5W

Wow, I'm finally on the ship and it is truly impressive. There are tons of great amenities on board, not to mention 3 girls to every guy, odds like that aren't bad at all. It's pretty impressive finally getting under way. It's pretty offsetting to see land slip by the porthole as the ship moves out to sea. I still can't really believe that I'll be in Bergen, Norway in 9 days.

Most of today was standard introduction stuff. We met our RA and that sort of thing, plus participated in a lifeboat drill which was pretty boring. At least I'm making friends and getting out there, people are pretty friendly so it's not hard. It's a good thing to given I'll be moving all throughout Europe with these people.

So far I don't mind the motion. I can certainly feel the motion and the vibration of the engines, but in terms of getting seasick. I'm totally fine. I hope I'm not jinxing myself though. They say that we're supposed to have a glass sea going out across the Atlantic, so that should hopefully bode well. I'm going to sign out since we have a pretty early morning with a whole new round of meetings and introductions and that sort of thing. But so far, things are looking good around here.

Date: June 16, 2008
Location: The North Atlantic near the Grand Banks
Lat: 44°37.88N Long: 055°9.76W

Ugh, what a long day. Today was essentially an entire day of meetings. Some were rather interesting and clearly important, such as the briefing about the procedures for getting off the ship and field practica. Others were just long and tedious, such as the brief on the UVA honor code.

Nothing important really happened. It's been more of the same. We saw some whales on the side of the ship. It was kind of funny how some of the girls were just flipping out being extremely excited about the whale tails. It didn't exactly knock me off my feet, though it was cool, and it was a better than work.

I'm still getting used to working out on a swaying deck. It's hard to cleanly lift weights when you're worried about the ship pitching in the Atlantic swells. It's even more fun when the basketball games are happening. I played 3-on3 pickup, earlier. The guys I ended up with were both pretty tall so I mostly just dished the ball out to them, playing the point, but I got a few layups on my own. The courts really small, maybe half the size of a racquetball court, this is compounded by the fact that there’s a steel bulkhead against one wall and a net against the other. At least it opens up some real exciting passing opportunities.

There are a lot of immature people on the boat. That's to be expected I guess. This might make things real interesting when the bars open the taps tomorrow. Like a lot of people played cards and just slept through the meetings today. It's just disrespectful, but I guess they probably don't even realize it. Not a smart move if you ask me. Yeah, the cultures will be fun to experience, but we are here for credit, getting nine credit hours for 3 hours and 45 minutes of class a day isn't a bad deal, I intend to take advantage of it.

Date: June 17, 2008
Location: The North Atlantic past the Grand Banks
Lat: 45°9.82N Long: 046°52.56W

Well we finally had the first day of class. I really don't think it will be too hard at all. Mostly just reading and writing a few papers. Since I'm a history major I doubt I'll have a problem at all. I think the global studies class will be pretty easy. It kind of makes me laugh because everyone else is complaining really hardcore about it, but it seems pretty much no harder than a normal 200 level history class. I guess the only difficult part of it is that the classroom is at the bow of the ship so it gets the most wave action. It doesn't bother me, I just sway with the ship and go with the flow, but I heard someone puked in the earlier section. I actually saw them heading out of the room and puking since I was in the computer lab.

Speaking of the computer lab, I'm still having problems connecting to the internet. The IT ladies have a lead on it so hopefully I'll be able to connect soon. Besides that, everything's going smoothly.

Since we're heading east they keep setting the clocks forward an hour so it gets later and later real fast.

Date: June 18, 2008
Location: The North Atlantic
Lat: 48° 26.22N Long: 041° 44.28W

The sea finally picked up today. I guess it's about time; the sea has been glass so far. I didn't see anyone get sick but I saw some people run out of the student union pretty fast. The union's located at the very bow of the ship so it gets the most wave action. I have two classes up front, but outside of a chair pitching a little bit, I can't even notice it.

Today was pretty much more of the same. Classes keep going on. I find them pretty interesting. It seems that the major theme of all of my courses is the identification of Russia. The Russian elite have strived to be considered a member of the Europe, however, the population is much more Asian, plus many vectors, such as the extent of Roman law and other factors can be used to say Russia really is not European. I don't know though, I have a lot more days of class before I can answer any of that stuff.

I submitted my trips packet for the rest of the voyage. I have some really cool stuff lined up. I've decided I'd probably get more out of doing the Semester at Sea led trips then going independently. The good thing is that choosing to do the trips they run is not hampering what I wanted to do at all, and in a lot of respects it's a big time benefit. I would not have much of an idea what to do in Croatia and now I'm going to get to see the Croatian maritime museum in Dubrovnik, as well as visit a small town that was a Greek and Roman colony until destroyed by the Slavs.

I'm also going to get to see the Acropolis and the Greek Archaeological museum in Athens and see the Saronic Islands. Not to mention Pompeii, the city of Naples, and even the San Gennaro Catacombs. I have even more neat things lined up too.

Another day's pretty much over and life is good.