Start of Journey to Japan: days 1-3

Getting internet to work on my phone is hard in the middle of the Pacific. So I'm doing quick blurbs about each day that I'll post when it works

Day 1 (1/29): Wind. Rain. No sun=no tanning. Got 10 hours of sleep. 0930 Global Studies. 1100 Biology of Sharks. Lunch with Tania, Andrea, and Pat. Nap. 1400 Anthroplogy cancelled, Professor Weist was speaking at other Global Studies lecture. Reading, work, hanging out. 1730 dinner with the girls and Nick and Pat. More reading. 1930 stairmaster and gym. More reading and hanging out. Clocks go back 1 hour.

In the theme of this voyage ---sustainability--- I've decided to reinstate navy showers, Island School style. Also, I've decided to work out every day and cut out lots of carbs and junk. This is in an effort to better myself. Some people are here to "find themselves." Well I find myself at the bar eating. I believe I already know who I am, Island School and Miami have provided me with plenty of time to reflect.

Day 2: (1/30)
0800 Marine Bio. 1000 pedicure. 3 hours of tanning with Nic and Sam and caught up on all my readings. Dragged ourselves off to a useless Global Studies class about our projects. More or less we just sat there and admired our tans. 1600 workout pre dinner. 1730 dinner with the girls. Nic and I got bored post dinner and went down and had a few beers with Pat. Quick nap. Pub Night up on the 7th deck. Played cards and drank some more til they kicked everyone out.

Day 3: (1/31) *HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!*
Slept through all alarms to work out early. Global Studies was cancelled so I didn't bother to wake up til Biology of Sharks at 1100. Lunch with people outside. Glorious weather. Filled out customs and immigration forms part 9. It took forever. Apparently you have to declare if you bring perfume into random countries. Yet you don't have to declare other things. Strange. Anthropology was semi useless. I'm reading now and awaiting dinner. I'm working out late then probably going to Pub Night after. We gain an hour of sleep tonight! I think we gain 7 total on the voyage to Yokohama. It appears my birthday will exist. We cross the international dateline on the 3rd instead. The 2nd is no class day. So tomorrow night we shall rage. And eat excessively. Food from the dining halls makes charties look like 5 star dining. I'm actually jealous of campus food right now.

Love and miss from the Pacific.

Overnight in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawai'i

The trip from Hilo to Honolulu was just an overnight adventure. We left Hilo at 2000 or 8pm. We waved goodbye to land and retold our adventures.

After a relaxing night of eating excessive amounts of food, Nic, Sam, Becca, Tania, and I worked out in the gym then finished our workout on the 7th deck port side under the stars. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Everyone went to bed nice and early to rest up for Honolulu, or lulu as I affectionately call it.

I woke up early Wednesday morning at 0630 to the view of a cement wall outside my window. Apparently we made it to Honolulu. Tania and I grabbed an early breakfast and were soon on our separate ways.

I went to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology located on the man-made island of Coconut Island. We had to take a little boat over from the main island. The island is gorgeous and a marine science haven. Kaitlin, it reminded me of Honduras. Minus Kovacs and the scuba squad of course. We took a tour of the island and were shown the 3 blacktip reef sharks that they're studying. Along with a massive jack who thinks he's also a shark and 2 huge puffers. The puffers were adorable and kept coming up to the cement wall to look at us and beg for food. After our tour we had a lecture on common sharks and rays of the Hawaiian islands: the sandbar shark, blacktips, and several others. Then we went to the other side of the island and dissected 4 baby hammerheads that had been found dead in the bay. We went through the anatomy and cut them open. Out of the 14 of us there, I don't think one of the 5 guys touched a shark. 2 of them wouldn't even go near them. Haha it was really funny, the girls didn't seem to have any issues with it. Hmm the world appears to be changing. When we cleaned up we grabbed our snorkel gear and swam around the island. It was really cold. The water was probably 70, I could definitely have used a wetsuit. It was overcast and rainy, so not the best weather for being in the winter water.

The water was somewhat cloudy. The coral heads were beautiful, but there weren't too many fish. There were a ton of sea cucumbers and sargent majors. I did see an eel and some filefish. Nothing too exciting. This went on for about an hour. I was pretty happy to get out of the water and dry off. And we were done there.

Back on the ship I showered and met up with everyone. We wandered around the shops and ended up going to Gordon B-something, some brewery, for dinner. We stuffed ourselves with garlic fries and chicken parm. The last American dinner for a few months! Birthday celebration number 1 for Nic and I.

We wandered the shops some more and ran into Pat. Nic, Sam, and I took the bus with him down to Waikiki to go to The Shack for some drinks. It took us about an hour to find it. Well worth the time. We met up with a bunch of SASers and hung out. We left after a while and headed down the main road to the beach. When I came to Honolulu with my family 4 years ago we stayed at the Surfrider Westin in Waikiki. We ended up going through this exact same hotel and hanging out on the beach there for awhile with even more SASers. Around 0130 Sam and I took a cab back to the ship to go to bed.

I got 3 hours of sleep. At 0515 my alarm went off in the dark and I had to get up to go to the Honolulu Fishing Village for the United Fish Agency's fish auction. This was one of the coolest things I did in Hawai'i. (You can laugh at this, most people have been. It's the inner nerd in me.). There were yellowfin tuna, albacore, moonfish, and others being auctioned off. Some of the tuna were huge, 174 lbs! They were going for $7.20/lb. Wow. You could not even begin to believe how cool this was. The fishermen and workers work there every night starting at 1am til 10am or so. There was some 50,000 lbs of fish there today. Some days it's up to 100,000! It was like one giant freezer. I posted a picture from my phone on facebook. Check it out. It's sick. The fishermen stay out at sea for 2-4 weeks then come in and unload it. We got the full tour. We grabbed breakfast at Nico's then had a lecture on Hawai'i's sustainable seafood. It was long. Wasn't too great. The guy was somewhat of a hater to anyone in this field of sustainable fisheries who doesn't eat seafood. So automatically I was displeased with this man. For those of you who aren't aware, I don't like seafood. After an hour and a half we were finally able to leave and head back to the ship.

Exhausted, I got changed into warmer weather clothes. Nic, Becca, Mason, and Nolan were just waking up at 1000 when I got back. So we walked around and got random food. I had my last Burrito (it is capitalized on purpose), unfortunately it wasn't from Chipotle. Oh well. I also accidentally got bubble tea. I was conned into it. I thought it was a smoothie. I did not enjoy it. Nolan left us and we took a cab back down to Waikiki. Becca and I scoped out bathing suits and Nic and Mason went down to the beach. We all did our own thing for a few hours then met back up downtown. We're currently in the cab right now making our way back to the ship to make it back for onship time. It's getting close...

We leave tonight at 2000 for Japan! It will be the longest time at sea. I'll try and post a few times if I can. I dunno if I'll be able to from the middle of the Pacific. Email me! sjchaston@semesteratsea.net

We get to Japan February 9th!

Miss and love.

2 days in Hilo, Hawai'i

I'm writing this from the 7th deck by the empty pool. It's 1630 and we made it back to the ship on time. I'm here with Nic and Tania laying out working on my Hawaiin tan. We've been in Hilo for the past day and a half. After getting in yesterday our first stop in port was Walmart. Everyone on the ship seemed to end up there to stock up on the essentials: shampoo, conditioner, trashy magazines, Hawaii trinkets, and chocolate. An hour later we unloaded everything on the ship and headed to the local market.

Taxi and buses loved us, we had no idea where we were and where we needed to go. On this quiet part of the island they made a fortune from the 700+ of us. At the market everyone stocked up on chips and beer and headed for the beach via the FREE bus. Transportation
in Hawaii=bomb. We took the bus to the first place we saw for food. Unfortunately that happened to be a hole in the wall Chinese food place called "Ocean View" or something like that. No such view. I ate some type of sweet and sour meatballs and chow mein or some noodle thing. We're pretty sure we ate dog/cat. It was not the best Chinese I've had.

There were a bunch of black sand beaches. The water's gorgeous here. We walked along the road and went to several rocky beaches and tide pools. We scoped out the marine life and enjoyed the sun and tanned.

We found an abandoned house and explored the island. Eventually we headed back to the MV Explorer to get ready for the luau. Some van drove by and picked us up and dropped us back off. We showered and got pretty. Becca, Shannon, Tania, and I went together.

We took a tour of the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. No one knew this was part of the night. I never thought of going to school in Hawai'i. It's a small school of about 3000. They're the Volcans, I can only imagine a mascot running around dressed as a volcano. So after our tour we went to the Agriculture campus for the luau. They taught us how to make leis and performed hulas and other Hawaiian and Samoan traditions. The food was ehhh. I was so psyched for a pig roast. No such luck. There was pig, that was the best part. We had chicken long rice, which is gelatinous and looks like worms. Not bad if you don't look directly at it. Macoroni and potatoes. Salmon. Rice. And poi. Google poi. It's a major Hawaiian food, it's some type of ground up taro root or something. It's NASTY. It tastes like paste, actually paste might taste better.

Post luau we ate more food. Americanized food. Aka burgers. There's only a few little bars around here that the SASers took over.

Got up early today, 0630 and had breakfast. I went on a trip for my Marine Bio and Bio of Sharks class. We went to a tide pool and collected things: brittle stars, sea cucumbers, teddy bear crabs, etc. Then we went out on. 20 foot outboard engine power boat. We went out looking for the humpbacks. We spent 2 hours chasing them. They were everywhere! Mothers and calves, males, everything. Towards the end they started approaching our boat. They're gorgeous creatures. I've got about a hundred pictures of blue water. I didn't manage to get any pictures of them breaching though.

When we got back we went into the historic part of Hilo and got food. I snagged a delish chicken parm sub with some new friends. I forget most of their names already.

Wow, interjection. Girls sitting next to me just posed the question, "why do we even have armpits?" Haha. This is what life has become with no class and infinite time to ponder the mysteries of life.

This guy gave us his card down by the dock to come back and stand up paddle board. We came back to the ship then Emily, Tania, Nic, and I snagged a cab back to the dock. We paid $20 to paddle board. This is my new obsession. I have zero balance and was up in one minute. It was so relaxing and so cool.

3 Hawaiian guys covered in tattoos showed us how to do it and guided us up and down the river way by the docks past the boats out to the ocean. We got epic tans from the reflection off the water. We jumped off and swam in the cold waters to cool off. Eventually we had to leave. The guys bought us frappacinos. What a service. I didn't realize how much I missed Starbucks til that moment. Then they took us back to the boat for free, we didn't have to get a taxi or anything. Spectacularity at its finest.

All in all, Hilo was really sweet, I could definitely live here. The language is so crazy cool. That's all for now. We're leaving for Honolulu at 2000. We should be there early tomorrow.

Love and miss.

Emerging from the Abyss: Hilo, Hawai'i

Finally we find ourselves at the port in Hilo, Hawai'i, the big island. As I write this it is about 0730 here. Ill probably be posting this from the beach when I finish and were let off. Everyone had to go those immigration/customs this morning. The first announcement was made at 0530. So early. Tania and I set our alarm for 0500 to get up and see us pull into port. When it went off we got up and looked out into the dark to see land (!), lights, and a few boats directing us in. Thank god we have an outside cabin (thank you dad!). After the excitement of seeing land (I don't think you can even comprehend the excitement of seeing land after being on the ocean with nothing around). So Becca, Tania, Nic, Nick, and I are going to the beach and wandering around Hilo for the day when they finally decide were all cleared. Everyone has been out tanning on deck 7 the past few days as we entered the warmer weather. I thought Miami was a bunch of sun worshippers, but literally every minute not spent in class or the gym yesterday Nic and I spent tanning. Were working up to changing races.

Nick corbett, this is for you, my from Nicole Hazard goes to Pace! She lives across the hall from me. She's a sophomore, but I don't think you guys know each other. I'm bringing my Pace towel to the beach today! Miss you and hope you're loving Italy. I try to read and comment on your blog but my phones sketchy on the ship.

So were in Hilo til tomorrow night then Honolulu Wednesday til Thursday. You'll probably be getting texts and phone calls from me for the next 4 days. PLEEEEASE answer. This is the last time ill have calling capabilities for this trip cause its still USA unless I buy a calling card.

We've all put on bathing suits and make up and attempting to look nice for really the first time. Its looking nice out, were SO excited. Anyways were off to eat breakfast and hopefully get off the ship. And that's the announcement clearing the ship!!

days have no real relevance at sea

i'd like to start out by saying this:i made a "stupid" comment when i was signing up for my classes for semester at sea.  i said that i was taking 8am and 930am classes and that they wouldn't be bad because time at sea would be different.  now, when i said this, everyone laughed at me and told me that was one of the stupidest comments they'd heard.  i'd like it to be known that, in the direction we will be traveling this whole journey, we will constantly be turning our clocks back and gaining sleep.  so all of you can bite your tongues and recognize my accidental intelligence, thank you very much.  we turned our clocks back last night from west coast time (3 hours behind east coast, since that's where you all are), to 4 hours behind east coast time, or in my phone it says alaskan time.i worked out for the first time this afternoon in the little gym on the 7th deck, i signed up last night for a stationary bike. i was slightly afraid as i heard horror stories of people breaking ankles trying to run on the treadmills. i wanted to run so badly, but we're in rough seas.  also, you can only sign up for 30 minute increments since the gym is so small and there are so many students and faculty on the ship.  the bike turned out to be much more difficult than i'd anticipated.  i put it on random, but as the ship rolled from one side to the other, the bike went forward then backward, either hurting or helping my momentum.  it was actually like riding a bike up and down hills without the hill setting. i definitely burned more calories than the machine said.  it was rough.  all of the machines say "exercise caution in rough seas," you don't usually see that sign at the gym.basics of the ship: i live on the 3rd deck on the outside with a window, cabin 3039. the dionysus deck. decks 2, 3, and 4 are all cabins. deck 5 has the nice dining hall, or whatever it's called, the main desks (aka the purser's office) and a classroom, deck 6 has the library/casino, the computer lab, the union (where we all meet at times and for global studies class), 8 classrooms, the piano lounge, bookstore, c store, school store, teachers' cabins, and garden lounge/dining hall. deck 7 has some cabins for teachers and  guests, the pool, the pool bar, gym and spa, and i think that's it.  apparently this ship, the MV Explorer used to be a grecian cruise ship.  each of the floors has a greek god or goddess name and there are quotes in greek at the staircases.last night i went to a reading out on the 6th deck of jaws.  everyone huddled in a circle with flashlights and read under the stars.  i could get used to things like that. there weren't too many visible stars last night, but it was slightly cloudy.  i hope to see obscene amounts in the future. when it gets warmer we'll sleep out on the deck under the stars.  i can't wait for that.today was warmer, thank god. i was pleasantly surprised after global studies to go out on the 7th deck on the port side and realize i didn't need a sweater or jeans. we laid out in the sun for a few hours til dinner time.  the food is good, but it's repetitive. fails.there are a few seminars and things tonight. so i might go and check them out after i do some reading for classes. the rocking and rolling of the ship makes me really tired and it's a constant battle to remain in the upright position, degree of difficulty 3.3 (you would probably only find that funny if you watch competitive diving, and if not...well then...nevermind)the waves have gotten bigger, but the sun is still shining with no clouds in the sky. last night at 3am tania and i were woken up by the crashing over of one of the night tables. apparently everything is not bolted in. this both confuses and perplexes me, as we have not yet hit the big time waves and storms. i can't wait til our first storm. i think i'm one of only a few people looking forward to storms.on a bright note (note i don't say brightER, because, well, everything's pretty damn bright and joyous), i met a guy with a box tattoo today. for whatever reason that made my day. something fascinates me about someone who has a box tattoo.  forget about ridiculous tattoos, to quote my bureau from island school "simplicity is key"sorry to everyone i've been bbming with, my bbm on the ship goes in and out of working. i don't really know why. but if i stop responding mid conversation it's because the ship has lost my signal or something. anyways, that's all for now. love and miss

Ensenada to Hilo

so here i am, it is officially day 2 of being at sea. let me backtrack a little bit

sunday morning i woke up really early at 630 and got ready for my 730am bus from san diego to ensenada mexico. i said my goodbyes to mom and dad and was on my way to mexico. my entire bus was all new england people and i sat with a girl from norwell. it took about 2 and a half hours to get past the border and into mexico and down to the port.

at the port we got off the bus and went through security check points and signed in and were given our ID card/room card and number. FINALLY we got onto the MV Explorer. i made random friends with people from boston. i dropped off my backpack in my room down on the 3rd deck, room 3039. one of my bags was there already. i went off and explored the ship with two of the boston boys and we got lunch together.

the rest of the day was a blur of meeting different people whose names i can't remember and repeating my name, where i go to school, and where i'm from.

i met my roommate about halfway through the day. she's really cool and nice. her name is tania and she's from hilton head and goes to winthrope (i'm sure i've spelled that wrong)

we left port about an hour and a half later than we were supposed to at 1850. everything here is in military time, which is pretty BA if you ask me. it's a little hard to get used to, but i'm thoroughly enjoying it.

we had orientation meetings and floor/hall/sea meetings. we live in the "yellow sea" (whatever that actually means). everyone was crammed into the union, which is the big meeting place. the seas were rougher than they expected and everyone started feeling sick and looking sick. they gave us sea sickness medicine, but most people still got sick.

so much for having a ridiculous first night. but then again they don't even start serving alcohol until tonight, which will make this trip interesting. although we're limited to how much we can drink per night.

yesterday was our first official day on the ship. the rocking of the boat makes me sleepy, bad news for my classes. i was lulled off to sleep early sunday night, still somewhat on east coast time. everyone seemed to be in the same position.

pro: the water from the faucets is drinkable
con: the water tastes nasty. i'm not talking island school eleuthera water, i'm talking NASTY water

we had orientation and information sessions all day yesterday. horrifically boring. most of it was common sense stuff or stuff we'd already figured out. too much, too late in my opinion. the food has been pretty good, tacos, pasta, chicken, red meat, salad. i hope it stays good and doesn't get too repetitive.

after dinner last night we had an organization fair sign up. the clubs they have aren't like miami, but i signed up for a few. hopefully we can start up a scuba club, i keep running into people who dive. and those are the people i want to hang out with.

for the most part the people are cool, but i have say the frat and sorority people are not high on my lists of people to associate with. there are so many that i feel like it should be called "greek life does the world" hahaha well, that works in several senses of the word "does." and yea, i know i do have friends in frats and sororities at home, but all the same.

thank god for marine science people and other crazy people.

after the organization sign ups i ended up hanging out with a few girls from my floor who are from all over the country: new york, florida, and the west coast. i'm trying not to limit myself to friends from the northeast like usual.

classes started today. i got up early and went to the school store with becca and bought SAS gear: sweatshirt, sweat pants, tshirts. we had breakfast then went to global studies together at 930. the projects for that class seem a little overwhelming, but hopefully manageable.

at 11 i had biology of sharks. people are much more normal in that class. THANK GOD. and they dive. THANK GOD.

at 1400, after lunch, i had my anthropology class. i sat with a bunch of people, non-greeks, and enjoyed it.

again, the rocking of the ship does start to put me to sleep.

oh, and brenton, if you read this, i met your friend will. randomly by chance at lunch.

other side note: i've never in my life met so many girls with nose rings. seriously, at this point i find them so mundane they're like double ear piercings. i thought everyone in miami had them, that was until i came here and experienced everyone trying to be an individual

i'm glad classes have started and there's more to do and more people to meet. it's nice.

random other thing, i was looking at the schedule for the semester and saw that we cross the international dateline on feb 2nd, which means we lose that day and go from feb 1st to feb 3rd. now for those of you reading this i assume you know what that means. MY 21ST BIRTHDAY DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST. it literally goes into the abyss. and to add insult to injury, we don't have class on the 3rd. so, had my birthday actually been in existence, we could have partied without worrying about classes. fear not, i'm determined to celebrate in every port with anyone willing to celebrate with me.

i love and miss you all: mom, dad, scott, susan, dv, kasey, kaitlin, nick, etc. you know who you are

i've set up my email here and you can send me emails at sjchaston@semesteratsea.net
i do still get emails on my phone and can bbm and facebook somewhat

Entering the Abyss (Part 1)

445am my alarm woke me up after a 2 hour nap. Hardly a legitimate sleep. Per usual I was packing til the very last minute and attempting to cram in everything that's been on my to do list since I came home from miami pre christmas. (And yes, I managed to get most of it done)

I successfully made it through security, miracles. My patiences for security is zero. Miracles they let me through with my attitude and I have yet to punch any of them. New security frustration...after going through the metal detector thing (successfully, I might add) the woman motioins to my pokemon wristband that I must take it off and go through again. Yes, clearly I'm hiding cocaine under it and am a huge threat to the safety of others. This is after I've spent 10 minutes taking off my boots, finding my liquids, prying my computer out of my overstuffed backpack, and pulling off my belt. No small tasks at 6am aka the hour of death.

I'm at the gate and its 630am. Our flights 720. I say our because my parents are accompanying me out to the west coast. Last time in Boston for awhile. We're flying into Los Angeles and driving down to San Diego.

I find myself constantly looking around trying to decide who on my flight is doing Semester at Sea with me. Any flash of Patagonia or North Face jackets or bags and I assume they are. Not a very accurate assumption considering its winter in Boston and most people own outdoor gear that never find themselves outside for more than 10 minutes at a time. I, at times, being one of these people.

And I'm sitting here in cowboy boots,
jeans, and an army shirt with massive sunglasses on my head. So I don't exactly fit the description that I'm even looking for. Fails.

And I just heard final boarding call to miami. I'm resisting every urge to get up and run and go south back to all my friends not going abroad.

I'm gonna nap before the long flight. We're flying first class---the perks of traveling with m&d. I'll post later when I make it out west. Goodbye Boston, Batfrog, and all my friends. I'll miss you all.

Feel free to email me s.chaston@gmail.com or facebook me since I've got my crackberry

From the Blackberry

I will have so much faith in my phone if I can write from it. This is only from needham, but all the same. Success. (if this posts and you can read it). Also, posting pictures of the epic explosion that is packing/my room. I'm posting these so you can feel sorry for my parents

And so it begins...

so i find myself lying on my bed amidst papers, forms, clothes, shoes, etc. that are all somehow supposed to fit into 2 duffel bags and my backpack. there's no way that's going to happen. and of course i'm still putting off packing. i've gathered

everything, it just needs to be sorted and packed. but tomorrow is THE LAST DAY of packing and being home before i leave for san diego and eventually ensenada, mexico.

maybe if i take a quick nap i can pack after. i'm exhausted from getting up so early today. i got up at 830 and drove to mattapan to go to the mattahunt school. i talked to mrs. ashley's class about my trip. i showed all the kids on a map where i was going and roughly what i will be doing. that actually made me even more excited about my trip. i've posted 2 of the pictures from this morning of the kids at mattahunt.

i'm getting nervous about going. but the nervousness has really turned into excited energy. not that i'm feeling that energy part right now. it's more laziness right now. well, i should go pack and figure out if i can hook this blog up to my phone to keep it updated while i'm away. the map at the top highlights the ports we will be docking (is that the proper ship language?) at throughout the semester.