Life In The Atlantic

Where do I even begin? This adventure has started off nearly perfectly. Aside from a few seasickness scares, and brief moments of missing friends and family, I am finding it quite easy adjusting to the luxurious lifestyle this ship has to offer. Who wouldn’t like to wakeup to beautiful sunrises, and fresh ocean breezes? The faculty is great, my fellow students are friendly, and we couldn’t ask for a better crew. It is hard to not feel a sense of selfishness at this point in the voyage.

There are some great service opportunities that I am excited to take part in. One of the professors founded a program called the “$100 challenge.” The concept of the project lies in the principal that small changes make a big difference. He told us a story that reminded me of a childhood memory with my dad. We used to take a little sailboat out around the St. Michaels harbor and visit a small beach by the Perry Cabin condos. Thousands of baby horseshoe crabs washed onshore unable to get back to the water. We would walk up and down the beach throwing as many back into the river as we could. To the outsider it may seem like a pointless effort since there was no way we were going to save all of the crabs. But to the life of the few we were able to save, our effort made all the difference. This analogy is applicable to helping fellow humans. We will be sent into different countries in small groups with a mere $100, and ask the indigenous people what we can do for them. This is what service is about.

I never thought I would be so genuine to say I am very excited for classes to start today. After sitting through long lectures yesterday on safety, health, and general guidelines to living a board the MV Explorer with the ship rocking and full bellies, it will be nice to finally use my brain.

Sailing Lingo:
Port-Left
Starboard-Right
Bow-Front of the Ship
Aft-Back of the Ship
Ship-Boat
Voyage-Cruise (Taboo to say cruise or boat)

holy ship

so pops, zomo and i have been hanging out in halifax for the past couple of days. this is such a rad city. zoe and i have been on the lookout for other SASers and boy do we stand out. they have been rolling in like crazy today. i actually recognized a few of them from facebook...creepy.  this morning we woke up, and pops got his cup of joe before noon, a first since we have arrived here.  we walked down to pier 22 this morning and the mv explorer was docked. it looks just like it does in all the pictures, i am excited to see what the inside looks like.

first leg of magellan.

life is good. 

the plan: pops flew to boston to stay with drew and josie for a week; zoe and i drove up to maynard to pick up pops; we are hanging out in cape cod for the weekend; driving up to halifax, stopping by maine to meet up with nima on the AT; mom and the hargroves will fly up to halifax where everyone will see off kelly rose and me.

despite our goal of departing st. michaels at 9pm on thursday evening to arrive in maynard, massachusetts in the wee hours of friday morning, zoe and hit the road at 11pm. after a visit to grandma florrie, some last minute packing and a trip home for a forgotten retainer, we were finally on track.  thinking we were invincible from our recent 30 hr drive home from colorado, zomo and i thought the drive was going to be cake. not so much. there was a ridiculous amount of construction, and i didnt squeeze in  my regular daily nap i have unfortunately gotten used to. the 9 hr drive was a battle to stay awake.

as soon as we got to maynard, zoe and i passed out and slept until 1pm. we are visiting friends drew and josie that we have known forever. we just hung out all day trying to stay cool in the hot humid weather currently plaguing new england. for dinner we had a traditional brazilian bbq, which was quite intense for someone who just fell off the vegan wagon.  so much MEAT. around 4pm antonio, the boss of the contractors currently working on drew and josie's house showed up with a 30 lbs slab of dead cow-no exaggeration. there were more left overs than most bbq's i have attended begin with (i will be posting pics to prove the absurdity of this bbq). 

the bbq had an interesting crowd.  accompanying antonio, representing the brazilians were elmer, alex, and "the guy from new jersey" (he didn't speak english, and josie says he has jersey tags on his car).  elmer was an intimidating looking bald northern brazilian--and he let antonio know how much better north brazil is than the south. alex looked very familiar and it wasnt until later when drew pointed out that he resembled lurch from the addams family that i realized where i recognized him from. also hanging out was jason the backyard neighbor.  jason gave zoe and i an amazing tour of his yard. and he has a sweet setup. he has all kinds of light fixtures and a sweet back porch.  i love how excited he was about the future of his backyard.  it will be fun to see it in several years.

on saturday we woke up early and made the 2 hr drive out to the cape. i just love coming out here to cape cod. i have been coming here with my family to visit drew and josie every summer since i was 7. there are many memories at 64 skipjack way.  

i have no complaints so far with my big adventure.  it has been more of a vacation than anything else.

Oh Yeah...

The Itinerary:

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Cadiz, Spain

Casablanca, Morocco

Accra, Ghana

Cape Town, South Africa

Port Louis, Mauritius

Chennai, India

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Hong Kong/Changhai, China

Yokohama/Kobe, Japan

Honolulu/Hilo, HI

San Diego, CA

If anyone wants to send mail or track my voyage---

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/fall-2009/fall-2009-staying-in-touch.php

Life Funk

I have tried to write this blog for a while now. But all motivation to accomplish anything creative or worth while has been lacking.  I have been in a what I like to call a "life funk."  Since returning home to St. Michaels from my big west adventure, I have found myself taking too much advantage of my recent 21st birthday and eastern shore partying opportunities.  I have given up on my veganism--which was really important to me for over a year now.  Without a steady job, laziness is accompanying the hot humid weather, and self-pity revolving around a failed summer romance has been fierce. But the time has come my friends, for me to pull myself out of this funk. 

And today of all days seems like the perfect opportunity to do so.  For the first time in a couple weeks I remembered my dream.  Although it was not that interesting or action-filled of a dream, it was a big progression, especially since Zoe and I are still trying to learn lucid dreaming, and possibly meeting in a dream (see blog entry "california dreamin'").  Also, yesterday I had a wonderful day relaxing with a dear friend, Kate Groop--who recently found out she was pregnant (yay).  

On top of it all, I have been stressing about preparations for Semester at Sea, which I leave for in less than a week. I will be sailing around the world on a cruise ship, taking classes from first-class professors for the next 4 months with my friend Kelly Rose. I want to embark on this adventure with the right frame of mind.  I am ready to let go, and begin enjoying life again and loving people.  I am excited for my future, thankful for my past, and ready to be content with the present.

So...Semester at Sea:

Most conversations revolving around the voyage conclude that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Although I concur with this conclusion, I am not without fear.  I am a little apprehensive about the luxurious lifestyle I am told the ship has in store for me. The crew of the ship makes our beds and tidies up our rooms while we are in class, there is a full spa and many other ritzy amenities not common to most students. One reason I love traveling so much is that I have usually done it with simplicity. I just feel it is a little hypocritical to be traveling to third-world countries in "first-class" style.  I may feel differently about this once I am on the ship...

I am eager to meet people on this trip.  I will be meeting people from all walks of life: fellow students from the United States, natives of the countries I am visiting, the crew of the MV Explorer, professors from top-notch universities, speakers, politicians, other travelers, the list is endless. When I look back on my road-trip it is mainly the people that I remember. And I am sure there are many people I will be meeting in the next 4 months that will be friends and acquaintances for the rest of my life.

Another aspect of SAS that I tend to forget is the academics.  I am currently enrolled in 4 classes: Terrorism and Insurgency; Global Studies; Sustainable Env. and Econ. D'ment for Emerging Nations; and Freedom of Movement from a Cross Cultural Perspective. All of these classes have super interesting yet hefty reading lists.  

let it bead

since the kate wolf fest, this summer has been the summer of zomo and lizly. we have seriously been together 24/7. i am so thankful to have a sister like her, she is so cool. i am sad when i think about how long it took me to figure this out. but enough of this mushy gushy stuff...

we have been making jewelry alot recently, and both of us have become obsessed with beads. we schemed up a plan to have a bead shop named "Let it Bead" somewhere on the coast of northern california or maybe in colorado, who knows where we will end up.  but i am pumped because we are trying to learn glass blowing. 

the only complaint i have about traveling so far is the difficulty of committing myself to large long term projects.