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