LIVE FROM BARCELONA, SPAIN, ittttttts BLOG TIME!! (insert cheers of applause here.)

Location: Kyle's room having a blog party.
Song stuck in head: justin beiber. the end. my poor brain.


LIVE FROM BARCELONA, SPAIN, ittttttts BLOG TIME!! (insert cheers of applause here.) So after that cheesy moment….  

Yesterday morning we finally made it to the first country on our voyage, Spain.  After staying up way too late the night before, the group woke up bright and early at 0600 to watch the sunrise over beautiful Spain! As I stood there I realized that that was actually the first ever sunrise I’ve seen. Or at least that I remember. Haha I’ve always had plans to watch it, but then me being the night owl I am, I usually just wake up to my alarm, say “no way hose’” and head right back to bed. :]  However, this morning I woke up so excited for the day and witnessed one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  The sun rose right over the ocean so it looked like the rays just went on forever.  As it rose higher, it shined light on the fog-covered shores of Spain allowing us to glimpse our ship’s current path towards shore.

By 0700, everyone was starting to get anxious about seeing the pilot boat and witnessing the man make the big jump to the ship.  The “voice” (the man who makes all the announcements over the intercom system on the ship) told us all that the pilot would pull up to the left side of the ship.  So of course we all go to the left side and wait patiently. Suddenly, we see the pilot boat, and hes heading to the RIGHT!! Everyone watching witnessed all of us run to the right side of the ship getting there just in time to see the pilot swing around the back of the ship forcing us to run BACK to the left side.  Hahaha I’m sure it was a sight to see… but the morning jog was worth it and we got to see the man take a small hop onto the ship.  After a small cheer, people started heading their own ways, and most of our group got breakfast.  The breakfast was tasty, I snagged an extra yogurt again, and then we headed back out to watch us pull in to port in BARCELONA!!! US ambassadors and Spain customs representatives came onto the ship as soon as we were tied up.  While the customs people were doing their thing, the US ambassador gave a talk in the union and satellite rooms.  Us being the slackers we were just hung around in my room after realizing that our room also picked up the satellite room channel. HAH. So that was pretty sweet. As the ambassador finished speaking and we received our last debriefing, the voice came on and announced our ship was clear and we were good to go!

The group of us decided we would chill out for a little while and let the massive line to get off the ship die down.  After a few prank phone calls that Nina would have been proud of and multiple journeys to each person’s room, we finally got everyone together and off the ship.  As we took that first step onto solid land, we fell to our knees and kissed the ground! Ok, so we didn’t really kiss the ground (or fall to our knees for that matter), but we were definitely happy to have a steady footing! To get back and fort to our ship, we actually have to take a free shuttle service because there is currently construction near our port and we are not allowed to walk through it.  The shuttle drops us off right near the Christopher Columbus statue though, which is pretty much the access point for the main area of the city.  It is located right by Las Ramblas, which is very similar to Market Street in Charleston.  So we decided to explore around there.  Lacey, Heather, and Clark had to be back to the ship in a few hours to go on the SAS City Orientation field program, so the first thing on the agenda was lunch!  

Walking down Las Ramblas, there are all sorts of small shops and cafés on the sides.  In the middle there is another street that, like market street, is open to small venders or extra seating for the cafés. It is just an open stretch of brick road and it looks like there are regular vendors as well as spontaneous venders.  One of the really cool things was that they have these people in the middle that are standing like statues.  Some of them were really serious about it and would not move, but others were messing with people and would go from still to all the sudden moving and scaring whoever was near them.  They were definitely characters, but they looked like they were having fun! It is really hard to describe them, but I took some pictures so I will try and post those too.

A little ways down, we found a cute pizzeria café that we decided to give a try.  Both Kyle and I forgot the name, but I will probably think of it again and let you know!  OH!! It was the Ideal Restaurant. Not feeling very adventurous yet, Lacey and I split a cheese pizza while pretty much everyone else got the Croquettes.  Our pizza was EXCELLENT. We had both been craving pizza really bad on the ship haha so it hit the spot.  It was a lot different then pizza like home. I tried the croquettes and they were really really good!! So there you go Nicole! Already trying something new. :D aren’t you proud??

After lunch, the field program kids took off and headed back to the ship while the rest of us went exploring further.  We walked all along Las Ramblas and then took a side track to walk to La Sagrada Familia.  We stopped at a few small stores along the way and stopped to take tons of pictures of the buildings.  (basically we blended in perfectly. NOT! Haha) We saw tons of Gaudi buildings, which is a completely different type of architecture then we have in the states.  Each of them is so different that pictures really are the best way to describe them, so once again, I will try and put a few up here.  The La Sagrad Familia was BEAUTIFUL.  We did not explore much of the actual building because once we got there we realized ALL of us would want to go.  So we are saving that adventure for Sunday when the whole group can go.  Totally exciting!

We saw this man folding pop cans into little bowls and selling them for 1euro on the street.  They were so cool! We watched him make one, and Kyle and I both got one.  Mine is a Fanta Naranja (orange) can.  It’s pretty awesome.  With our first souvenirs in hand, we headed to the metro.  We found the Flamenco place that Lacey was going to with SAS that night, but it was closed.  So we picked up one of the flyers by the door that had the internet cite on it and made it our mission to find an internet café, which was also already on our list of things to do. 

Back on Las Ramblas, we found a small place that sold internet access: 1 euro for each hour.  Took a little bit of exploring, but now we know where it is! Unfortunately, we discovered that (as is logical) SAS had booked the whole place for the show that Lacey was going to, so we got tickets to the second show instead.  Checked Facebook for a minute, then headed back to the ship to go back and meet the rest of the group coming with us to Flamenco.  (I have discovered that pre-communication is key to successfully planning and following through with group journeys now that we have no phones… never realized exactly how dependent we are on technology until this trip!)

We headed back out, this time with cute shoes because we planned on walking to dinner on Las Ramblas the taking the metro all the way back to Flamenco.  We ate dinner at a place that came highly recommended by David Gies (the man who had been giving us the Spain Explorer seminars)  called the Attic.  It was AMAZING.  The 6 of us each got a different dish, and Kyle, Heather and I shared while the other three shared.  We had meats and they had fish. Kyle, Heather, and I got Croquettes with jamon (ham), veal with baked brie, and hamburger with caramelized onions and a fried egg on top. We were excellent at playing “pass the plate” and we would just each eat a third of the plate haha. All of the dishes were so tasty! Believe it or not, I actually tried all of them with the original ingredients and toppings! So I actually left the egg and onions on top of the hamburger and the brie on the veal! Go me :] I felt so adventurous. Except when it came to trying the octopus. That I was not adventurous enough for… hahaha maybe next time……

The atmosphere of the restaurant was really cool.  It was probably one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been in, like the meals we got would have cost at least 30 to 40 dollars each back home.  But here it was less than 30 euros for all three of our dishes and a bottle of water! (that is one of the weirdest things to get used to: paying for water.  And it’s not that cheap unfortunately!  I have a feeling that will turn into one of our constant expenses.)  so basically it averaged to about 10 euros a person for an amazing meal and a decent size amount of food.  We had good table banter, and the server even told us stories while we were there.  He told us in a mixture of English and Spanish that people who regularly visit Spain stumble upon their restaurant and then frequently return any time they are visiting.  He said they also have a strong group of regulars.  So basically the Attic was equivalent to the diamond in the rough. Thanks for the great advice David!! :]

After an excellent meal, we took our full tummies and hit the street again.  Now this is where it got a little complicated…. Remember our original plan of taking the metro to the Flamenco place because it was a pretty hefty walk? Also remember that Heather and I put on cute, but less functional shoes then the Chacos (thanks gram and pop!!) I had previously been wearing?  Yeahhhhh well Clark and Kyle got the amazing idea to take the longest walk ever through downtown Barcelona instead of the metro… now, we did end up seeing some AWESOME places, but by the end Heather and I’s feet were DYING. And we also were going pretty much the opposite direction that we needed to be going for the Flamenco place… So by the end we are all pretty much running to the Flamenco place in order to make the show on time.  I am writing a paper for my global music class, so I really needed to see the whole show. Was a little frustrating, but looking back on it today, it was definitely worth the walk.  The only problem is that the shoes I was wearing gave me HUGE blisters on the balls of both of my feet :( oh wellllll they will heal :) not letting that stop me from exploring! It just means we are doing a little less walking and a little more metro riding. 

Anyways, we finally made it to the Flamenco show, and it was EXCELLENT. So cool to see everything that we have been talking about in global music in real life.  During global music I was slightly skeptical of the music, but when I saw it live I was enthralled. The entire performance was so full of raw emotion and talent.  I was pretty much speechless the entire time.  I am actually excited to write that paper!

After the show, we tried to run and catch the metro.  But because Heather and I had no luck at all between the two of us, of course we got to the station just as the last metro of the night pulled out… this led us to back track and try and catch a taxi.  Only problem was that there were 5 of us.  Which meant that we couldn’t take a regular sized taxi.  So we attempted to get a van taxi. Did you know that ALL of the van cabs in Barcelona could only take a maximum of 4 people? Well, now we all know! Since it was only our first night in town, we did not want to split up for fear of not being able to find each other later. Thus we began the long walk all the way back to the ship.  Ironically enough, we ran into Lacey and Daniel as we turned back on Las Ramblas.  Since we were tired of walking and still had a good bit of walking to the boat ahead, the two of them just turned around and walked back to the ship with us. 

On the way, we passed a Gelato store and got some.  I got “after hours” which was really just mint chocolate chip. Was quite tasty. They gave me a lot more than the rest of the group because I got the last of the pan! I didn’t even finish half of it before I was crazy full and passed it back to Kyle to finish haha. 

Eventually we made it back to the shuttle stop, took the shuttle and got back on the ship. Everyone was worn out.  The three of us girls had our nightly “girl talk” as we have begun calling it. Aka mission: ditch the boys (even if it means jumping on the elevator and shutting the doors before they get in :] true story lol).  We worked out details of the next few days seeing as Daniel, Clark, and Lacey were all heading to Madrid early the next morning.  Finally, around 2:30 we all passed out of complete and utter exhaustion from an incredible first day in Spain.

Now it is already 1:30 am tonight, and I am yet again tired from another full day! So you will just have to hear about it sometime tomorrow!! This blog keeping up is surprisingly tough business! I don’t want to leave anything out! Hahaha

Goodnight moon!

next stop: BARCELONA!!!!!

Location: outside the gym on deck 7 (watching daniel continue attempting to master the art of the perfect cartwheel...)
Song stuck in head: Into the Ocean--Blue October


So today was pretty relaxed. After staying up until 3am last night writing that blog and then losing an hour, I decided to sleep through breakfast and go straight to class.  Today was the first day I did not take any seasick medicine and I am THRILLED to report I did not get sick!!! YAYYYYYYY. After my classes got out at noon, I weighed my options of eating another peanut butter sandwich for lunch or taking a long needed nap.  The nap TOTALLY won, and I ended up sleeping until 5:30pm! Haha oops! But I am finally well rested (after a 5 and a half hour nap... score!).  So far on the ship, I have only averaged about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night, and it was starting to really catch up to me.  Thus the nap was just what the doctor ordered :)

I had a meeting for yet another group I signed up for… the Alumni Ball committee.  And once again a shout out, this time to both Gramma AND mom, guess who is in charge of the committee?! None other than Peter that you guys met the night on the ship! He seems really cool.  I met him the first day on the ship actually, but I completely forgot to let you guys know! When I found out his name I told them who I was and he was like “OH!!!! Your family was so nice!” haha so that’s 2 people you made a good impression on at least! :]  anyways, the alumni ball is a leadership committee that is in charge of planning the ball we have at the end of the voyage. I’m not sure if I will end up staying with it, but it was interesting at least.  I think I have already committed myself to a lot…. Haha oh well :]

Then again, I might just have been SOOOO hungry during the meeting that I could not pay attention… :D we will see! After the meeting, I finally got to eat some dinner, and then we just hung around the ship until our pre port meetings.

The night before we arrive in each port, we have two pre-port meetings.  The first is a logistical and the second is a cultural presentation about the country we will be arriving in.  We found out today that at 0700 the pilot will board the ship.  Apparently this small ship will come around to the side of the boat when we are about an hour away from port, and literally jump onto our ship while we are still moving!!! HOLY COW. From there he will help direct the captain into the proper port area to make sure we get there safe and sound :)  at 0800 we will dock in BARCELONA, SPAIN!! Next, some ambassadors and customs people will board the ship, and basically we just have to hang tight until we are “all clear.” After the signal, I am sure there will be a mad rush to the exit of the ship so that we can finally walk on land for the first time in 9 whole days!!

The group is all getting up for sunrise this morning, and then we are watching the pilot jump on deck because that should be awesome. After all the crazy stuff is over, Kyle, Daniel, and I are going to go explore Barcelona by foot!! We are going to also be looking for a place to watch Flamenco tomorrow night with some other people. Flamenco is a very popular style of dance and music in Spain.  We have been learning about it in my Global Music class, so hopefully I will be able to use the performance to also write one of my field papers for that class!! Score! Lacey, Heather, and Clark are all going on the City Orientation tour through SAS in the morning, so they will meet us back on the ship before we go to watch Flamenco.  Lacey is going to a Flamenco show through SAS, so we are going to try and go to the same place as they are and meet up with her. 

After the show, we are going to grab some dinner and maybe a cerveza?? Hahaha.  No, but really.  They advise us to go places like the bars and pubs to see how the locals live. So when in Spain do as the Spaniards do?? From there, we may join a friend of ours from the ship in a Spanish club somewhere.  It is her 21st birthday, so we have to go celebrate!! If that doesn’t happen though, we are probably going to call it a night and try to rest up for whatever the next day brings :) hopefully we will find an internet café, and we might be able to look up some more things that we want to do and figure out the logistics behind it all. 

Now it is time to head to bed! Sunrise is at 6:19, so we are all meeting and going to the front of the ship to watch it!

:]

ps: thanks to those who have commented!! Have not worked out how to email responses back to comments, but I have gotten them all!!  Love knowing that there is some one out there!! Hahaha

ANOTHER RIDICULOUSLY LONG BLOG POST (but very informative and interesting, totally worth reading- if I do say so myself.)

Location:  Deck 6 Computer lab. 
Song stuck in head: Good Girls Go Bad. (Thanks Laceyyyyyy)

Good morning truth seekers!! Just thought I would greet my fellow blog viewers the same way us SASers are every morning by our global studies professor :) He’s a pretty cool guy. That is the first sentence he tells us every day to start class. Actually a pretty awesome phrase huh? 

now it is time to GET OUT THOSE GLOBES!! AND CHECK OUT OUR CURRENT SHIP LOCATION: we're presently sailing across the Alboran Sea in the Mediterranean (the tiny little passage between Europe and North Africa!!) hip hip HOORAY!!

Anyways, yesterday we had our second SOS (Students of Service) meeting.  I am starting to get REALLY excited about that group! We talked about several different service projects we are going to be able to do throughout the remainder of the voyage, and each of them sounds cool.  There are three particular ones that I really want to get involved in.  Our first one is a change drive of sorts, only with all the different currencies.  We are going to compete by seas…. Sorry have to diverge for a sec…

**(I don’t know if I ever explained this, but basically the decks are divided into chunks for RA purposes as well as events such as the “Sea Olympics” where we compete in different events to see which sea has what it takes to be the best. RAs ere are called LLCs, which stands for Living and Learning Coordinator.  For example, my LLC is named Elizabeth and a guy named Greg is an assistant LLC for all of the deck 2 students.  Our “sea” is the Aegean sea, and our theme color is black because black is “the color of total Sea Olympic domination” haha we even have a catch phrase of “BLACKOUT” yep. It’s some fierce competition here on international waters. Haha)

So to get back to what I was saying, we are going to do a change drive and compete by seas to see who can raise the most money.  The cool thing about it will be that we will be able to accept any of the foreign (as well as US) currencies.  That being said, we are going to try and collect money after each port when everyone is pretty much done with said foreign currency, and has nothing else to do with the loose change.  Hopefully the other fun part will be that the teams will be allowed to “paper bomb” each other.  We have not worked out all the kinks yet, but it will be a system of coins being plus points and paper money taking away points.  In other words, the seas can bomb each other by placing paper bills in other sea’s jars and only coins in theirs.  Should be interesting.  People were getting all complicated with the math, so finally Kyle and I offered to head the whole thing and be in charge of counting the money and figuring out the currency exchange and such. 

We're also working on an art exchange project for the orphanages we visit.  There are actually a good amount of kids ranging in age from 1.5 years to 17 years old on the ship, and so we are going to try and get each of them to help create a piece of art to give to swap with one of the orphans.  When we visit the orphanage, we are going to ask the kids to not only draw a picture to return to the child on the ship who contacted them, but also draw a second picture to become part of a collection of artwork.  Each orphan’s piece of art will be added to a book, and the complete book will hopefully either be given to the Semester at Sea program, or used as an item in the huge Auction we have. 

Which brings me to the last and final huge project SOS is hosting: the Auction.  Like I mentioned before, every year this auction raises thousands of dollars to help fund SOS projects as well as aid future SAS students.  In our meeting we decided on the theme of “The World is Our Circus: Clowning Around in the Mediterranean.” It was only appropriate especially seeing as we have had a guest CLOWN on the ship the whole time so far!! Yep, Grandma the Clown from the Big Apple Circus is on the ship with us.  He (yes, it is a man who dresses like a grandma clown… haha) even put on a performance the other day for us!! Was pretty funny stuff. Then we got to hear all about clown school and such… but I digress…. So we picked our theme of the auction, and now we are currently brainstorming items to auction off. We have both a silent and live auction, so there will be a LOT to do!! They said they usually try to aim for about 100 items or more in the live one alone!! Will be really cool to help out with I’m sure! :]

OH! And I totally met a girl that is in Alpha Phi Omega at Ohio State yesterday night!! We talked for a few minutes, but then we both had to run so we agreed we would have to find time to meet up and have “brotherly talk” HAHA. Awesome. Today I saw her in the hallway and yelled “APHIO GO!” it was really funny. She responded saying next time we had to hold up the “secret hand signal” sounds like a pretty cool aphioer to me!! :]


Day 8 (CLASS 6) June 22, 2010

Today was pretty relaxing.  Got through all my classes sea sick free yay!! Ive come to terms with just taking it every morning… might go talk to the health people and see if they can suggest anything.  Its just my one classroom that makes me sick.  I think it is because it 1) is in the very front of the ship, so it is rocking the most and 2) has all of the chairs facing towards the back of the ship. So imagine riding in a car down the windy mountains of West Virginia… facing backwards. So if I take the meds I don’t get sick, but they just make me drowsy in ALL of my classes instead. Oh well. Rather be sleepy then sick?

Besides that everything is great!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the people I have met on the ship so far.  Our group adds and subtracts each day depending on the location and time, but has basically become 6 of us constantly in the group.  Kyle, me, Lacey, Daniel (yep. Hes cool cause were name siblings alone… haha), Heather, and Clark.  Lacey, Daniel, and Clark actually all go to the same school in California.  Lacey and Daniel are EXACTLY like Kyle and I. It’s really scary how similar the two sets of us act… we keep pointing out new similarities every day haha its pretty entertaining looking yourselves in the mirror, not going to lie. Heather also is from California, but goes to a different school then the other three. She is a tiny thing. Weighs all of 108 pounds but man is she feisty and spunky when she gets going hahaha (and she is not afraid to eat 6 dinner rolls in one sitting either HAHA yes, she has done this multiple days in a row now even lol). I think that is the best part of the whole group: we all just crack each other up.  We all have the same goals and expectations of this trip, and we are all really down to earth people.  I am REALLY glad we all stumbled into each other. :D 

Lacey, Heather and I have been going to the gym everyday. It’s pretty entertaining attempting to use gym equipment on a ship, not going to lie.  The treadmills are the hardest for sure.  Ellipticals just feel weird, and Stairmasters alternate between some easier steps and some REALLY hard steps when the waves rock the ship. Haha.  So after our cardio time, we go onto the outside deck and do stretching, weights, abs, and a few gymnastics… yes, we do random gymnastics stuff. Heather was a gymnast, and is going to be a cheerleader at California Baptist University, and Lacey was a Cheerleader in high school. Add my dance and color guard skills and it’s a pretty entertaining scene.  Even MORE entertaining is when Daniel joins us and we try to make him to participate, which surprisingly doesn’t take much effort usually...  Two days ago it was bridges (which he failed at quite epically) and today we tried to get him to do cartwheels (now THAT was hysterical). 

And after that really long 2-paragraph sidetrack, I am back to today… I feel like this entire blog is the epitome of A.D.D. blog writing…. Anyways, so today after class and lunch, it was such a beautiful day that all of the 6 of us minus clark (who was lame and went to actually study like a good SASer…) threw on our swim suits and hit the top deck! Some of us tanned, and others like Kyle just “off-whited” (his phrase for the inability to tan). 

At 3:30ish we finally saw land!!!!! We passed through the Straight of Gibraltar and at that time were squeezed in the middle between Spain on our left and Morocco on our right with only a total of 8 miles between them! So cool. Unfortunately it was really foggy, so while we could make out the land, our cameras failed miserably at getting any pictures of either side. WE DID SEE DOLPHINS AND WHALES THOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

After that, the group finally split for a few hours, and I got a nice shower before I headed to dinner to meet my new Extended Family! ((Special shout out to GRAMMA!!!! GUESS WHO IS IN MY EXTENDED FAMILY!?!?!! The woman that you and mom talked to in line with me before I got on the ship!!)) for those of you who don’t know who that is, her name is Mrs. Campbell.  Before I got on the ship, she as well as other faculty and staff members were walking through the line saying hi to everyone.  She and my grandmother hit it off, and next thing I knew they were talking and the line was moving.  I don’t even know how long Mrs. Campbell talked with us, but it had to have been at least 20 minutes!! So when I went to find out who my extended parents were, I was shocked to see her come up to meet us! We recognized each other and she gave me a huge hug hahaha she also said that my gramma and mom were “such sweethearts” and to “tell them I say hi” so a big “hi” from her to you guys!!  She is the studio art teacher on the ship, and she and her husband (Mr. Lewis I think? I will have to check on their names and spellings.. you guys know I can’t spell to save my life!) “adopted” me as well as 2 other SASers into their extended shipboard family.  This was another program I signed up for through the LLCs meeting where I learned about SOS and such.  Emma, Justin, and I will get to meet up with them throughout the voyage and share stories, life advice, and in general just get to learn more about each other.  it’s a pretty cool program.  It made you feel a little special getting an invitation to dinner with the family on the cabin door :] 

After a long, but very fun dinner with them, I met back up with “the group” (as I have dubbed them) and we went to another Explorer Seminar.  This time the guest speaker was a fellow SASer who was actually from Spain.  He gave us advice and travel tips for Barcelona, which we will put to good use when we get there bright and early THURSDAY MORNING!!!

Now it is officially bedtime.  We lose our last hour before Italy tonight, so that puts us at a total of 6 hours ahead of Charlotte time.  It’s officially 2 am here and only 8 pm there!  Annnnnd I have to be up to breakfast at 7:30am! (though I did think of mom and gram this morning as I snagged 2 extra raspberry yogurts from the breakfast buffet for later!! Hahaha! They will make good snacks/ meals for when I get sick of peanut butter sandwiches, which will be soon I’m sure haha)

So GOODNIGHT from across the globe!

:] :]

HAPPY (late) FATHER'S DAY!!!!!! <3

hello out there!! First order of business a huge:
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!!!! to my dad :] :] I know it is a day late, but I literally did not get on a computer yesterday! Sorry! Haha (speaking of which, dad you should email me at my new email address because I cant get your email from my other one :( please and thank you!!).

currently sitting on the 7th deck by the pool and enjoying life :)  today is a little colder than yesterday, but that definitely has not stopped people from suntday anning! haha  we have been frantically working on trying to book things in italy.  the other night we managed to all get flights, so now we are just down to hostels/hotels to stay in while there.  its crazy how much you learn to appreciate unlimited internet access! SAS gives each student 125 minutes, but past that we have to pay for it.  just getting gmail to forward and booking flights took over half my internet time! oh well :) thats what it is there for right? Italy is going to be so fun though. we have an awesome itinerary planned.

day 1: get off the ship at port and take the first bus/ train we can find into rome. explore rome for the day, and stay in a hostel that evening. 
day 2: go see the vatican, then catch a plane to venice! spend the evening in venice and stay at a hotel there.
day 3: venice venice and more venice :D another night at wherever we stayed the night before.
day 4: fly from venice to naples spend whatever time we have checking out each place. we will end up beating the boat to naples (it will be at sea on its way to naples that day), so we are tong to stay in a cheap hostel there.
day 5: take a day trip to the island of capri.  it is supposed to be so beautiful. we are going to try and take the earliest ferry there, and the second to last ferry back to see as much as we can. then we will save money by sleeping on the boat that night.
day 6: take a day trip to the city of pompeii, explore there, and sleep on the boat that night.
day 7: our last day in italy! :( we will spend the day running around naples and/or any close places to make sure we are back on the ship in time!

So yeah. Its going to be awesome and totally worth the planning.

The past few days have mainly been just getting into the flow of things.  Classes, meetings, food, etc.  there is ALWAYS something to do on here!! Yesterday night lacey, heather and I went to check out the gym.  Let me tell you. Treadmills and stair steppers are really difficult to do when the ship is moving!! Not only are you getting a work out, but you are also learning to think like the waves (yes, that is supposed to sound dramatic) so as not to fall off said exercise machines.  Was pretty fun though.  Even if the entire time we were on the stair master we were wondering why we were doing that when we have to go up 5 flights of stairs a ridiculous amount of times a day! We’re going to be pro at stair stepping by the end of this trip for sure. :]

After our intense workout, we of course hit the late night snack… hahaha the most entertaining part was when one of our friends Daniel walked away, heather came up with the brilliant idea to run and hide from him.  So of course us being the mature college students that we are literally scooped up Battleship and ran off. Poor Daniel. He was a good sport about the whole thing in the end. And we all got some good laughs out of it :]

So far today we have had classes and lunch.  Now I plan on attempting to catch up on some reading for my classes.   Wish me luck!! :D

:]

ridiculously long update on the journey so far!

Another day on an amazing journey!

 

Today has been a little stressful, a group of us just booked all of our italy plans online. And let me tell you, slow internet+foreign websites+time limit on internet= STRESSFUL!!! I’ve already used over half of my allotted 125 minutes and that was only to book two flights and attempt to get my email forwarded to my shipboard one… oh well! Still totally worth it! :D

 

I didn’t really get to finish telling you what happened the other days….

 

Day 2 on the ship was basically an ENTIRE day of orientation stuff.  Was kinda lame cause we were all in satellite classrooms instead of in the union because there are so many of us. They have not exactly worked all the kinks out of having the largest SAS voyage ever yet…. Probably one of their biggest problems is working the satellite classrooms.  Not to mention they were going over all the rules like don’t fall of the balcony, which I think we all figured out after the 3^rd time they said it. Haha  

I did get to meet some more pretty cool people and we just spent any of our free time exploring the ship and playing cards until it was time to go to bed to get ready for classes in the am!! We also had to set our clocks ahead another hour. (now +2 hrs from charlotte time zone)

 

Day 3  (CLASS 1) we hit pretty rough seas over the night, and waking up at 7:00 to get breakfast did NOT help my stomach! I was really excited for classes, though and got into my first class, History of Art I, right in time.  Unfortunately I lasted about 20 minutes before I had to leave because I was too sea sick.  I went to the health services area and they gave me a stronger sea sick medicine and an excuse for all of my classes.  Good thing, because as soon as I got back to my room I passed out on my bed and did not wake up until 3:00pm! Talk about drowsy medicine! Sometime in there some crew members came in and had to close our port hole because of captain’s orders.  With the port hole shut, our roule is literally pitch black, so I can definitely see how I would sleep until 3!

 

I woke up to MUCH calmer waters and a MUCH better stomach thank goodness!! Apparently I was not the only one feeling the huge waves! When I finally left my cave and went up to the docks, there were a bunch of people talking about how sea sick they had been all day.  I felt fine the rest of the day, and we just hung around the ship. 

 

They opened the bookstores in the morning and there was literally a line down the hallway of people waiting in line.  Luckily I slept through most of the hassle, and while the stores was pretty well raided, I managed to get some pretty cool SAS stuff including a hoodie, long sleeve shirt, lanyard (for my ID), waterbottle, and some other small stuff before it was all gone. SCORE! You should see all the SAS gear walking around the hallways these days. Haha boy do we SASers know how to represent our floating campus! :]

 

Later that night, we attended the first Explorer Seminar.  These are optional and happen daily at 2000 (8pm).  That night, we listened to a professor from UVa (who is also going to be the academic dean for the next voyage) talk about where to go and what to see while we are in Spain.  It was really interesting and DEFINITELY got us all pumped for Barcelona!!!!!!!

 

That evening, we got to sign up for all these subgroups and organizations on the ship.  The Living and Learning Coordinators set up groups based around leadership, service, health, academic support, career support, and a lot others that each had multiple opportunities for students to get involved.  Boy did we go CRAZY signing up for things!!!!! :D  you all know me, im such a joiner…. I signed up to work a lot with the service group.  We are working on organizing and holding the voyagely (is that even a word?!) auction that raises money to help fund scholarships for future voyagers as well as future SOS (students of service) projects.  I also signed up to help with the ambassador’s ball through the leadership organization.  Have not gotten details about that yet, but will keep you posted! We signed up for all different kinds of exercise things including zumba, yoga, palates, and I don’t even know what else at this point! I signed up for a couple in the career support groups too.  One for education majors (that I unfortunately could not attend the meeting tonight for), another for grad school advice, and some other one that I honestly don’t remember any more!! Haha oops! :)

 

Over all a pretty decent day if I do say so myself! Might have been a bumpy morning, but hopefully we don’t hit rough seas like that again for a while.

 

Day 4 (CLASS 2) 

***from now on, my day counts are going to be a little bit more tricky.  Cause not only do I have an actual count of the days on the ship, but we also have to keep up with class days too! So hopefully I will keep to the format you see here… if not sorry!! Ill do better next time I promise!! :]

            After losing yet another hour of sleep (now were at +3 hrs from charlotte for those counting), I woke up at the ungodly hour of 7am to get some breakfast before my 8am class.  Boy is that going to take some getting use to!! The seas were calm, and I was feeling much better about making it through the entire day of classes :] still took some sea sick meds just in case though. Haha.

            All of my teachers were really understanding of all the sea sick students, and just told me what I had missed.  So no problems there! Sweet. I really like all of my classes.  Art history is fascinating to me.  It is so cool to learn all of the different terms for the kinds of sculptures and buildings.  I think that is going to turn out to be my favorite class!  Global studies is slightly more complicated with the satellite seating, but kyle and I just hang around the Art History classroom so that we have good seats to see the projector.  Thankfully they are starting to work out the kinks with the technology.  Apparently the first day was kinda stressful because the powerpoint the professor was using had itty bitty little writing that students could not read.  The professor fixed that as well as other little kinks like repeating questions students ask into the microphone so that the satellite classrooms actually get to hear the question.  The professor himself is pretty funny. He keeps adding little pop culture references you have to catch them fast or else you miss it completely. Actually makes you want to pay attention huh?!  Global music could be cool. The professor seems really awesome, though so far it has just been really easy stuff like classifying instruments into different systems. It has lots of potential though!! :]

 

The professor from last night talked again at the second Explorers Seminar, and this time he told us all about the food and meal times in spain. Lets just say we are NOT going to have to worry about not getting enough to eat in Spain!! If anything, we are going to get spoiled being off the ship… so far we have seen three consistent parts to every meal on deck:  pasta, potatoes, and salad. Mmmm my three favorite things! NOT. Oh well. I have learned to appreciate pasta, and I am trying some of the less scary potatoes.  At least they have had bananas and some other dishes like Caribbean jerk chicken! (favorite so far hands down! Yum!)

 

After his talk, a group of us met up to discuss the possibilities for travel during our time in Italy.  Kyle and I had been talking to people and seeing if they wanted to join in on our crazy trip ideas, and turns out we had a whole small group of us totally interested! (we felt so popular :] haha) we spent about an hour discussing possibilities and then made plans to book tickets and reservations the next day (aka today).

 

Then I headed to bed because we were told to add yet another hour to the clocks for the morning! I think the time adjustments are the hardest part so far about the trip.  Im already not a morning person, so 8am class is hard enough! But now we are 4 hours ahead which means that when I wake up at 7am here, every one at home is still in lovely REM cycles because it is only 3am there. Totally jealous guys!!  Thankfully we only have two more hours to gain before we get to port in Barcelona and another 5 days to get there!!

 

Day 5 (CLASS 3):

            HEY LOOK I AM FINALLY UP TO TODAY AGAIN!! YAY!!!

Anyways, this morning was the hardest morning YET to wake up. We tried to get up early to go to zumba at 0700 before breakfast, but failed miserably! Haha ended up getting to breakfast at 0750 just in time to grab a box of cereal and head straight to class. 

            Classes were pretty good. I accidentally summed them up above so just refer back to those :]  the only difference was that I was SOOOOO tired by global studies and global music I was falling asleep in the desk!

            After classes, I was planning on taking a nap, but I ended up eating lunch with a really good group of people and we ended up talking up until dinner time.  Was totally a better option than a nap in the end. 

            We had dinner, then another Explorer Seminar.  This time there was a clown!! He did a show and then talked about what it was like to live the life of a clown. Was pretty cool and definitely got a lot of laughs! 

            The Italy group met up, and the 6 of us finalized our plans for italy.  But you will just have to wait until tomorrow to hear the plans cause im tired and ready for bed!! :] hows that for a cliff hanger??

i'm on a SHIP!

it is crazy to think that i have already been on this ship for 4 days!! after a while it is starting to feel normal. so i promised i would give a long update as to the ship goings so here goes nothing!! btw this is going to be a BEAST of a post, so be prepared!! :]

first off, on the last full day of canada, mom gramma and i tried to squeeze as much as possible into the hours. we started the day by going back to peggy's cove to do more rock hopping. was beautiful.  we went down the other side of the lighthouse and got to see almost high tide.

then we got back just in time to see the local oceanography institute.  we totally lucked out!! i had read about it in a guide book we picked up for nova scotia, and was REALLY excited to go. we got a little turned around getting there, but we made it eventually only to find that you had to make tour reservations in advance :( buuuuut we just happened to be in the right place at the right time, because just as we were about to give up and leave, a tour guide popped out of no where and said she would gladly give us a tour!! so so cool. she was really nice.  she is working there over the summer to get credit for grad school.  i told her a little about sas and she said she wanted to look into it! haha so there you go sas, one possible recruit. :) oh, and did i mention I GOT TO HOLD A LOBSTER. yep. im so cool now. hahaha anyways, it was really interesting going around the place. definitely lots of interesting stuff, but even cooler was that after i left i KNEW i had made the right decision to change majors to math and secondary edu. i thought the information she gave us was fascinating, yes, but i realized that i would not want to do it every day of my life. summer job? HECK YES. but life? no thanks i think.  plus i would smell like fish everyday. mmmm. delicious. not! haha

after that adventure, we got cleaned up and headed back into downtown halifax.  mom, gramma, and kyles mom went to the dessert reception on the ship while kyle and i met some other SASers and went to dinner with them.  we had a LOT of fun.  was awesome to have so many people from so many different states and schools at one table... then you turned around and realized that the ENTIRE restaurant was overrun with SASers and realized just how many people read facebook events... HAH. anyways, was fun meeting them. we got caught in the rain on the way back to the hotel, so when my mom and gramma got back i was SOAKED.  totally worth it though.  im still hanging out with some of the kids i ran into that night :D and it was fun getting on the ship and already knowing some people. 

back at the lovely hotel, we repacked all my stuff and hit the sack! i could barely sleep i was so excited :]

SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP
day 1: tuesday, june 15th
the morning came so fast! i felt like i had just finally nodded off to sleep as my alarm clock rang, and from there it was SHIP TIME!
had our last breakfast at the hotel before heading to wait in line to get on the ship. my check in time was 9:20am, but by the time we got there ate around 9:15, the line was already crazy.  kyle found me in line and stood with us for a little while.  he had already gotten on the ship and managed to meet my roommate. yep. once again kyle meets my roommate before i do! he said she seemed pretty chill and that she and he actually had class together lol. the only one he doesnt have with me. he pointed out his room from the pavilion. was pretty funny.

2 hours and about 30 minutes after arriving, i FINALLY got all the way through the ridiculous lines, intense baggage checks, metal detectors, AND pat downs. then i was walking aboard the MV EXPLORER!!! we had other check in stuff and paperwork to fill out, but luckily i had filled out most of that before getting to the ship, so that went by fast. my roommate was taking a nap when i entered the cabin, but she woke up when i came in. her name is Jacquelin, but she goes by Jack.  she told me that she and her boyfriend had taken the red eye in, so she was still getting used to the time adjustment.  her boyfriend is doing a work study on the ship in the bookstore. i met him a little later that evening.  both seem pretty nice, though they are pretty much attached at the hip. 

i got back off the ship after scoping out the room and had lunch with mom, gramma, kyle, and his mom before our final boarding for good! we all said our goodbyes, and kyle and i went to explore our new HOME!

we met one of kyles roommates back in his room.  his name is nick.  seemed like a cool kid. he was on his way out to work out. hahaha oh boys.  no sign of kyles other roommie, so we went back to exploring.  ended up finding our way to the work out area on the upper back deck (deck 7) and managed to run into nick again! turns out he found the other roommie and they both hit the gym. HAH. so his other roommate is named daniel. and daniel introduced us to his friend lacey.  they are good friends from school and did the trip together. (sound familiar yet? lol) anyways, lacey and i instantly bonded over how many humps there are on a camel and the boys bonded over ridiculous things that lacey and i were doing/saying.  needless to say, the 4 of us became fast friends.  we ended up ditching nick (the only one actually working out), but not before giving him the nickname "champ" which has sense stuck to the point of i had to get kyle to remind me of his real name already... oops! haha :]

so the 4 of us ended up going on adventures trying to find our ways around the ship until it was time for the safety boat drill... oh boy the safety boat drill. was not that complicated, just long and tedious.  they make you wear long pants, long shirts or jackets, and closed toed shoes with your lifevest.  most entertaining moment was when one of the crew members was practically dragging one of the guys back to his room because he had on bball shorts and a tshirt.  he was telling her over and over again that he literally had no warm clothes... good luck buddy! this ship is COLD!

anywho, after all the silly stuff, we finally embarked after doing a few circles around in port (to fix the compass apparently). 

we slowly accumulated more people to our group during dinner and while we played cards (uno has been well worn already), and i eventually it the sack after our ship meetings.  was one of the best sleeps i had in a LONG time. :]




and now its almost time for dinner!! so i will have to catch up on the other 3 days later... those posts probably wont be as long thankfully :]

on the ship!!!

hey guys!!
sorry it is taking me a little while to get this thing back up to date!!! and unfortunately, tonight is not the night for updates :( just wanted to let you all know i am safe on the ship and having a GREAT time!!! and hopefully i will get some sit down time with the laptop tomorrow and write you guys a novel on how amazing this ship really is.

for now, i have to head to bed! its 2:00am here, and i have class at 8:00am! yikes!

:]

IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY.

IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY. IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY. IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY. IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY. IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY. IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY. IM GETTING ON THE SHIP TODAY.

just letting you share in the excitement im feeling!! :] :]

i load at 9:20, and at 5:00 we are setting sail towards SPAIN!! if you want to contact me (which i think you should because i will feel special and loved haha), my email on the ship will be:
dlireton@semesteratsea.net
 or you can post a comment (you do not have to be a member of blogger to post a comment. just click anonymous by the comment thingy.  from there you can type your message and put your name somewhere so i know who you are!! hows that for cheating the system?? haha)

thank you so much to all those who have supported me in going on this trip. especially my family and close friends.  i have received nothing but encouragement and excitement from the time before i even applied to right now in the hotel of halifax as i count down the final hour and a half. without your support i would not have had the bravery or enthusiasm to do this journey!!

wish me luck! keep in touch! and hopefully i don't get sea sick!!

:]

this is the final countdownnnnnn

location: halifax
song stuck in head: kids--MGMT
mood: refreshed

and finally!! i can make this blog get up to present time!!

saturday:
after a beautiful sunset in sydney, and a good nights sleep, we woke up and hit the road with our only destination left for this leg of the journey: halifax.  but of course, us being us, we skipped the highway and decided to take the scenic route :]

for those map lovers out there like my poppa, :] from sydney, we went along route 4, crossed over the ___ causeway, and took 344 down through all of the little towns along the coast.  we saw so much beautiful scenery. blue ocean, pretty small towns, lots of quaint little villages with small houses on huge chunks of land.  some of the houses were more worn than others.  there were lots of fishing boats at the houses, and even more lobster pots.  344 turned into 16, 16 to 316, and so on and so on all the way around the boarder of that chunk of nova scotia.  eventually, we found ourselves in dartmouth, ns and found our hotel. it only took 2 kids in the gas station and an older gentleman to point us in the right direction! :] 

and so we made it to HALIFAX!!! the hotel is awesome. the rooms are beautiful and the beds are so soft. annnnd they have an awesome pool! complete with a pretty sweet waterslide :] we tested it out about an hour ago... muy bueno.

finally, today.
this morning, i got to sleep in while gramma and mom took a walk.  we had an excellent breakfast at the hotel. (im all for waffles in the am.) after breakfast, we headed into halifax to see the city.

it is by far the most developed and populated area of canada we have seen yet!! we walked around and eventually met up with kyle and his mom to head to peggy's cove.

Peggy's cove was such a fun small village.  they had this long winding road that literally just went in between the rocks wherever it could.  was also pretty steep.  we ate lunch at the little restaurant at the top and then went to see the lighthouse.  it sits on top of these huge rock piles.  we all felt like amateur rock climbers as we hopped from one to the other.  the rocks seemed to go on forever.  would be a neat place to go back and do some more rock jumping if we ever get the chance! would LOVE to see it at sunset too! im sure it is spectacular.

after dropping kyle and his mom off back at their hotel, we proceeded to walmart (yes, they do have them in canada!) and picked up the last few items on my shopping list that i was unable to finish before we left home.  was funny to see all the different yet similar items in the store.  for example, their candy isle.  they had a lot of american classics like kit kats and hershey bars with just different packaging, but other things like m&ms were replaced with things called "smarties" (basically the same thing, different name it looks like). there were things like that all over the store. and another cool thing was that everything has both english and french! makes me wonder if soon america will have everything in english and spanish...

now i have everything off my list except Dramamine and allergy medicine, so we will get those tomorrow sometime. back at the hotel, we relaxed and did some laundry while working out and hitting the pool. now its bed time in the ireton/florack room!! tomorrow will be a busy day!!

last day on solid land for 9 days!! crazyyyyyyyyy

sometimes things are so beautiful that you have to turn around and see them twice.

location: halifax, NS
song stuck in head: 
mood: productive.

ahhhh such a beautiful day in halifax :]

now, where was i the other day? oh yes.
friday:
in the morning, we started our trip up cape breton island. was soooo beautiful! i got to take my first FERRY!! haha it ended up only being this little cable ferry, but it was cool to go over :]

Englishtown Ferry

after getting off the ferry, we were all really hungry, so we stopped at the Clucking Hen. they had AMAZING sandwiches. they used homemade bread that was so so good.
then we continued to make our way to the cape breton highlands national park of canada.  at one point, there is this HUGE incline up the side of Cape Smokey. there is a sign at the bottom that says we are about to climb 725 feet in the next 1.3 miles. like i said. HUGE incline. on the way home, we ended up turning around and going back up and down just because the views coming down the mountain were that beautiful. we decided it was now or never, so we turned around and hiked that car right back up the mountain. (pretty sure our little rental doesnt like us too much :] hah)

view coming down from Cape Smokey

If there is one thing canada has, it is GREAT parks.  they had a public park at the top of the mountain, and there was a fence that allowed us to walk all around the top of the mountain.  it is amazing how blue and clear all the water in canada is (except for the chocolate river of course...) the only word i have been using to describe it is "untouched" there are very few docks and boats out on the water up where we were.  it was so interesting to see.

pretty flowers on Cape Smokey

crystal blue waters below Cape Smokey

view from Cape Smokey

from there we left Smokey and proceeded to ingonish beach. walked on the shores for a little bit and then headed back down the road to find a hotel for the night.  we drove down and across to Sydney just in time to see another of the most beautiful sunsets i have ever seen.

sunset over Sydney, NS

Sunset over Sydney, NS

Sydney was so beautiful.  it reminded me so so so much of charleston.  there was a pretty park that ran down the shore line like the battery does, streets of shops similar to king street and market street areas, and they even had silly one way streets! 

overall pretty amazing day. now i only have saturday left to catch up on! sweet!! but for now, we are headed in to halifax while the weather is pretty :]

new blog picture finally!!

location: Halifax!!!! 
song stuck in head: someday-- rob thomas
mood: accomplished

finally got my sunset picture i took the other day to show up on my blog!! yay! it only took me about a half a million tries.... and now that i finally got it figured out, i do not have time to write a blog entry... dang :( good news is we made it to halifax, ns and so we are now in our hotel for the next 3 nights! sweet!

that being said, the plan for tomorrow is to get up, hit the gym in the hotel, and try to update the rest of this blog and get it up to speed with the current day (which has been a bit of a challenge!)... all before we meet up with kyle and his mom to head to peggy's cove in the afternoon! lets see how it goes!

saving old people is something we do best....

location: sydney, australia... jk. sydney, nova scotia :]
song stuck in head: into the ocean--blue october
mood: creative

so as promised here comes a ridiculously long post! yay! or i assume it will be... seeing as it has to tell 3 days worth of adventures. and boy do i mean adventures.

wednesday:
so there was this one time that we were about to cross into canada, but decided to pause for a moment and use the last rest area of the usa.... little did we know that our 5 minute potty break would turn into a 30-45 minute search and rescue of a little old lady and her old man friend.... the rest area that we stopped at turned out to be the sight of a lighthouse, and apparently the older woman and man were BIG lighthouse fanatics.  like BIG is an understatement. they had pretty much traveled the US looking at lighthouses. no joke.
anyways, gramma and i knew we had gotten ourselves into trouble when the older woman asked to accompany us to the lighthouse (that we didnt even know existed). we walked down this path through the woods only to realize that it was not really a path and that there was no clear direction to it. it was also pretty steep and not safe pathway even for us. did i mention the old woman was walking with a cane?! so as we turn around (and she continues down the fake path), we see that the older man has also decided to join in the fun. now, the old man not only was walking with a cane, but also had a patch over one eye... and a tracheotomy. yep. it was interesting.
so we finally get him to come out of the woods, but by the time we get up there we feel guilty having left the old woman.... unfortunately i didnt have good hiking shoes on (because we were not planning on hiking) so i waited on the top as mom and gramma literally searched the woods for this woman. they found her at the base of a ledge. so gramma pulled her up by the cane while mom got down to push her up from behind. im sure it was a sight!
eventually we got both the man and woman back to the picnic benches safely and finally journeyed on to canada, but we have been making fun of gramma ever sense. :] and of course i snapped a picture of the lighthouse... from afar.

Whitlock Mill Lighthouse

the canada border was pretty cool. we got across with no problems, though when we explained the whole trip the boarder patrol man was pretty impressed. and of course, our first purchase was ice cream :] haha it was tasty.

from there we drove up to St. John, New Brunswick and stayed the night.


thursday:
in the morning, we traveled from st. john up to the hopewell rocks.
along the way, we saw some pretty cool things in the fundy national park.  first off, we saw this crazy cool cloud, which is when we decided we needed weatherman cam there to tell us what it was.

crazy cool cloud in Fundy National Park

we loved how it just covered the whole place.

THEN. we saw a MOOSE. i was so excited!! and mom was able to snap a really awesome picture :]

my first ever moose siting!! :] Fundy National Park

we made a few more stops along the way, but ultimately made it to the hopewell rocks in the afternoon. these rocks are located on the bay of fundy. here we were able to observe the worlds largest change in tides! at high tide the water can reach up to 46 feet.  we walked all along the rocks it was so amazing! was a bit of a difficult hike at times because of all the algae and the slippery rocks, but very cool.  we were not able to stay to see both high and low tide, but we were told how far up the water would rise against the rocks and saw low tide.

The Flowerpot Rocks.

Mom and I against some of the Hopewell Rocks. So huge!

climbing up and over that pile was the hardest part! note the emergency tower (top right)

because of the change in tides, they have put an emergency tower in one area in case you end up stuck out while the tide rushes in. 

view from the top: the Flowerpot Rocks

it was really crazy how much mud there was! the water was completely brown. was rightfully called the "chocolate river."

far out you can see the muddy water. so dark it almost blends in with the mud.

this is what the entire shore looked like. it was full of rocks and these little shells with creatures in them. (plus grammas foot...)

by the end of the day we were worn out! but we did not get to sleep without seeing this amazing sunset. the colors were so gorgeous that it was pretty much impossible for my camera to really get the full affect. i tried my hardest and got these cool ones, but the image of that actual sunset will forever remain in my mind.

such beautiful colors. the water actually had a lot of cyan to it after the orange.

lovely church in the corner.

just wait until you see the sunset pictures i got today :] but as always, it is now late and i have to go to bed so that i can begin my adventures again! hopefully tomorrow i will finally be able to catch this up to our current location. and of course add pictures for it.
sleep tight everyone!

belated entry: but last day in the USA!!! :D

location: new glasgow, canada!!

song stuck in head: in the middle-- jimmy eat world

mood: worn OUT. :]


didnt get a chance to post yesterday. we got into the hotel in the evening and ran out of time. buuuut i DID get to upload some pictures!! eventually i will get them up... just not enough hours in a day! here is one of my favorites from yesterday though :]

Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

now lets see... yesterday:
we drove from the hotel to the other side of acadia national park (schoodic point). we walked way down along the rocks on "Big Moose Island" where the waves were crashing. it was so much fun! got to rock hop :] then just sit and enjoy the warm rocks under our bums and the beautiful waves in front of us.


after that, we jumped back in the car and headed to "Little Moose Island" where we hiked along the beach and up the island. these islands are just made up of giant rocks. so we were basically rock hopping all day. we met a ranger along our travels named charlie who was very helpful answering some of our questions ranging from where the paths began (his response "just venture around" or something similar), how far up the tide comes (far enough that we had to make sure we got back to our car in time before we got stuck on the island!! crazy), and even random questions about local lobster catching customs (to which he tried to give us advice as if WE were about to start fishing... HAHA)


then it was time to hit the road and head up to CANADA!! :]
and i have SO SO SO much more to write, but it is late(ish) and we have to get up early tomorrow :( so canada will have to wait until another day... but just you wait... the stories include old people, light houses, and moose, oh my! so get excited :]

The rocky shore of Maine: Big Moose Island, Acadia National Park

acadia national park :]

location: bar harbor, maine
song stuck in head: summer girls-- lfo (oh yes.)
mood: refreshed

yesterday was so much fun! we made the drive from rockland up to bar harbor, maine just fine.  explored the little town of bar harbor, which was so cute! it actually kind of reminded me of charleston down by market street just take away the open air market in the middle and you have bar harbor: lots of shops and little side streets to explore. even has a little park at the end! looks like a great tourist trap just like the market in chucktown haha.

we ate a late lunch at a little diner that over looked the rocky coast line. it was soooo beautiful!! walked a little down by the water's edge, but it was pretty dang cold, and of course us southerners didnt pack enough long pants.... was still fun though :)

after that we checked out the Acadia national park. that was probably my favorite spot yet!! it has this awesome road that leads you through the park all around the coast.  it takes you all the way up to Cadillac Mountain and from there you can get out of the car and hike around a little bit. made us so thankful for all that we are able to be doing right now. the views were absolutely amazing. got some awesome pictures that i will upload later!

there was an awesome spot called "thunder hole" where basically there is a kind of vacuum created between the rocks and the water.  as the water is pulled out, we can see all the rock crevices, but then the water rushes into the closed area and causes air pockets, which forces the water up. it actually does sound like thunder, and the water can reach crazy heights depending on the level of the tide. we got there at the perfect time to watch the change from little burbles of water to when it actually sprayed a good bit! wasnt a record breaker, but was still awesome to see!! :]

it started to pour down rain as soon as we got back on the road, but only lasted about 10 minutes or so. apparently we had great timing :]

made our way to a hotel a little outside bar harbor, and now we are packing up getting ready to leave! in fact, i am being told to pack it up haha so thats all for now folks!

we cross into canada today :] here goes nothing!!!!

"you can't go wrong with any choice. especially when it comes to ice cream flavors"

location: rockland, maine!
song stuck in head: come on get higher--matt nathanson
mood: adventurous

day one of my travels is done! laying on the bed of the hotel we stopped at as i type this :]

woke up at 6:15 this morning and my mom gramma and i successfully flew from charlotte to boston!

when we got to boston, i also made a stop at the currency exchange center to get some euros.  i had originally planned on ordering currency through bank of america, but ran out of time, sooooo back up plan was just getting stuff at the airport. unfortunately, they didnt have any of the other currencies i needed, but at least i have euros to get me started.

we got the rental car just fine. ended up with a dodge charger. its pretty nice. only has 2000 miles on it! and satellite radio! sweet.

ate lunch at a lovely restaurant in boston that was right by the water. we got to look out over the water as we ate and planned out a little more of our trip! was delicious too.

moved on from boston, got a little sidetracked in marblehead, mass.... hahaha we made sooooo many legal turns (and probably some illegal turns by accident) before getting back on track. oops! but it was so pretty that it was totally worth it!

past that we mainly just stayed on route 1 and saw some amazing scenery. found a random little ice cream shop that was delicious too!

now i am sitting in the hotel in rockland, maine while gramma and mom take a walk. about to head to the gym they have in here and check it out. early to bed for all three of us so we can get a fresh start in the morning!! next stop: bay harbor, maine!

 :]

i can almost feel the ocean air....

location: last night in good ol' fort mill south cacalackie
song stuck in head: help, i'm alive-- metric 
mood: so excited i could practically pee my pants! (but won't, because that is un lady-like. :])

suitcase one: 45 pounds
suitcase two: 47 pounds
bookbag/carry on: stuffed
the inability to sleep the night before the journey of a lifetime?: priceless.
(insert cheesy mastercard/visa pickup line here)

in about 9 hours i will be boarding the plane from charlotte to boston to begin my journey abroad!!

boy what a crazy week this has been! we have had so much family in town for the twins graduation, and everyone left this morning. so for the past 24 hours i have been frantically throwing things together for my trip!

it has been such an amazing summer so far. i cannot even begin to describe it. i think the best part for me has honestly been being able to get so much closer with jamie. until this past year we were sisters, of course, but we were not nearly as close as we are now. its really awesome being able to honestly call my sister one of my best friends this summer.  we realized how alike we are and somehow managed to bond over that... and our ridiculous abilities to pick out EVERYTHING exactly the same at target. literally. from matching shoes and purses to matching dresses and shorts we are bound to pick up the same things even if we are not shopping together. its entertaining.

anyways, back to the journey. i don't know when i will be able to update this next. depending on where my gramma, mom, and i stay during our travels, i may have internet and therefore be able to post. if not, then the next post might very well be from aboard the mv explorer!! and will also be done via email, so we will see how that goes!

now i am off to pack up the absolute rest of my junk and catch a quick shower. have to wake up at 6:15am and there is NO WAY im waking up earlier than that to take a shower... hahaha ugh. have i mentioned yet that i very much dislike getting up before the sun?? guess that will have to change during this trip. :]