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