The Last Day...

Today was our last full day on the ship.. which was kind of bittersweet.  I had been ready to come home once we set off from Morocco, but now that I'm almost home.. I kind of don't want to get off the ship.  I really can't wait for things like my own bed, American food, my car, seeing my family and friends and such.. but this was such a great experience that I'm not ready for it to be over. 

 

I woke up early this morning for breakfast.. and then I got to work on packing up all my stuff!! Our luggage had to be packed and ready by 1pm today so we could drop it off so the crew would have it ready for us when we get to Norfolk.  Packing was interesting... but I got almost everything to fit!  I still have some stuff left in my room that I either will be using/wearing tomorrow or just throwing away.. so I hope I judged everything right and I don't have a lot of extra things tomorrow that I don't know where to put! hahaha.  It's soooo weird opening my closet and seeing nothing because it used to be stuffed full of clothes and shoes.. I don't like it.  I don't like my luggage being away from me.. I hope I didn't pack up anything that I need!!

 

So after I had all my bags packed.. I went to lunch and then back to my room to wait for my Sea to be called so I could take my luggage down to the 'designated area' .. My Sea got called around 2ish I think and I took my extermely heavy (3) suitcases down the hall and then didn't know exactly what to do because the elevators were stuffed and I only needed to go down 1 floor... so thankfully my cabin Steward Shane was there to save the day.. so he carried my heaviest suitcase down the stairs for me and I took the other two which weren't nearly as heavy! Yay for Shane.. I'm surreee gonna miss him!!

 

Once our luggage was delivered we went all the way upstairs to the faculty/staff lounge to get our passports and our certificate of completion of the Semester at Sea Program... and then at 5 we had Convocation or 'Commencement' where we all graduated from Semester at Sea!  It was kind of long and boring, but it was cool because now I am an SAS Alumni!!!

 

After I graduated, I walked around the ship and made a sort of video tour of most places of the ship so people could see what my home for 67 days looked like!  It's gonna be a gooood one!

 

Tonight at 9 we had our last Pre-Port which was really funny because we got a green sheet which we always got for the other countries that had the trips that were going on.. the currency exchange, customs and things like that... and the green sheet for Virginia had things like 'homemade meal' and 'tour of Norfolk Airport' and just random stupid things.. it was really funny!  Pre-Port was good.. a few people cried, so that was cute!??  After preport we had a multi-media show where we watched a video and slideshow of the voyage which were both really good.  Then after that was over.. we had an iPod Dance Party.. our IT guy, Casey came up with it.... basically you had to download the mix he made and put it on your iPod, but we weren't allowed to listen to it yet.... then all at once the about 60 or so people who did it, all pressed play and you danced to the song playing on your iPod.  Everyone's was the same, but if you took your iPod out, it looked really funny because everyone was dancing together, but there was no music!  The dance lasted for about 34 minutes and every once in awhile an instructor would come on the song and tell you to do things.. first it was just jump, or wave your right arm.. then it split us into 2 groups where one group threw 1 shoe in the middle and the other group got it and you had to dance w. whoever had your shoe! hahaha... then we had to go around dancing to different parts of the ship.. that part was HILARIOUS becasue some people had no clue what was going on.. so they looked at us like we were crazy! It was soo much fun!

 

The iPod party ended on deck 7 way at the front of the ship outside which was nice b/c our captain again shut off all the outside lights so we could stargaze again... and this time i saw a shooting star!!!! It was sooo cool and I got to make a wish! haha.  Also, I saw Mars, which is soooo bright because apparantly it's the closest its been in a really long time.  So that was neat.

 

And now it's 12:30 and I'm about to go to bed, because our wake up call tomorrow morning is going to be before 6am!!!!!!  Breakfast is only running from 6-7, so we've gotta get up and get to breakfast in time.  Then, I'm going to come back to my room, shower, get ready, and pack up the rest of my odds and ends, and then it'll be a waiting game until I get to get off!!!

 

I can't believe I will be back in America tomorrow.. it's soo weird.. but as I said, I'm excited to be home, but sad to leave the ship :(

 

Next time I write, I'll be in the USA!

DONE WITH EXAMS!

Today I had my last two exams: one at 8am and the other at 10:45.. and so now I am officially done with schoolwork on the ship!  I sold my books back yesterday as well, and made a whopping $7.75!! So, that was pretty exciting! haha.

 

I am really bored now on the ship though.. It has been 24 hour quiet hours for the past 3 days, so nothing cool has been going on.  Tonight there is a talent show for the students, so that should be kind of fun and tomorrow is our Ambassador's Ball where I get to get all dolled up and go eat a nice meal finally.  Speaking of food.... we're seriously running out of food on this ship, like literally there is hardly any more fruit or lettuce because it gets put out like every other day, which really sucks.  and the rest of the food has been awful lately too.. thankfully we picked up some good peanut butter somewhere so i've been having a lot of PB&J sandwiches!

 

I started to pack a little bit today.. which took up a little bit of my time.  We have to turn our luggage in on the 21st at 1pm, so tomorrow I have to finish packing other than what I will be carrying of the ship.. it will be weird to see my room empty!!

 

Um.. I'm running out of things to talk about because nothing has been going on.... so  I think I'm going to go whale-watch before dinner.  Oh.. and we're only 1 hour ahead of EST time.. and we gain our last hour tonight!!!

 

PS. Our captain says not to worry about Hurricane Bill.. right now he's 1000 Nautical Miles away from the MV Explorer so we should be good.. in case anyone was worried =) 

Classes are OVER!!!

So.... it's day number 4 of our  10 day trek back to the states.  The first 4 days were our last days of class and as of noon today I am done with classes!!!

 

Today around noon I became officially done with my actual classes on the ship.. so now I've only got 1 final paper and 3 final exams left to go!  Tomorrow is my Global Studies exam, Tuesday is my roommates 21st birthday as well as a shipwide official study day.. and then Wednesday is exam day, where I'll take my last 2 exams!!!

 

Last night the captain turned off all the outside lights of the ship at 9pm so we could stargaze... it was pretty cool going outside and seeing how dark it was without the lights on.  I went all the way up to the observation deck above the 7th deck in the front of the ship and laid down for about 10 minutes and looked at the stars.  It sounds dumb.. honestly i thought it was kind of weird too, but everyone on the deck was laying down so I figured why not!? hahaha.  It was pretty cool though because there were a lot of stars out!

 

Nothing else exciting has really been going on... earlier today I went out to watch the sunset and the wind was so strong, I could hardly walk!!! In all seriousness, the wind had to be around 30 knots because at noon the wind was 22 knots, and it was strong, but most def. not as strong as later in the evening.. it was crazy!!

 

Well... I got to go finish my paper and review sheet for tomorrow... I will hopefully update again soon and it will be more exciting than this one!

 

Morocco - Days 3 & 4

Day 3

The third day in Morocco, I was supposed to go with two other friends to Marrakech, a city about 3 hours south of Casablanca, but we decided not to the night before because we were afraid we wouldn't get back in time on the last day.

So, instead I stayed in Casablanca.. and tried to find something to do!  My friends and I set out to find a movie theater that played movies in English.. since we were running out of things to see in Casablanca and a movie theater would take us out of the hot Moroccan sun.. but we couldn't find one.  We stopped in the Hyatt hotel and asked the Consierge desk and they said that the movies played were only in French or Arabic.. so we were out of luck!  The Hyatt Hotel, though, was amazing! It was sooo fancy and pretty inside.. the whole place when you walked in was shiny black marble and silver accents everywhere.  There were bright red rugs to walk on also.. and  in the lobby there was a Louis Vuitton store!!!  It was crazy!

After we couldn't find a movie in English.. we went on the hunt for henna!  My friends and I tried asking a local woman with her two girls, but they couldn't speak English.. but they tried to tell us where we could find henna with a type of charade-style motions.. it was really nice of them, but we still didn't get it.  So, we went back to a shop we were at the day before where the man spoke very good English and we asked him.  He ended up walking us there because it was not far away.. and we found a lady sitting on the steps inside the Bazaar with a board of designs and her equipment just set out on the ground.  Her daughter was sitting next to her on a piece of cardboard and offered my friend Kim the cardboard to sit on when she sat next to her.. it was so nice of the little girl, but Kim refused it because the girl needed it more than she did.  So.. me and my roommate Alyssa got our henna done.. and it was amazing!  That lady was soooo goood.. she did it really fast and all free-hand.  Alyssa got a design on her hand and up her wrist and I got one on my foot and up my calf.. both of ours were done in less than 15 minutes, which was way shorter than what we thought!

After getting our henna.. we walked across the street to a cafe to sit for awhile while the henna dried so we didn't mess it up.  Unfortunately, I messed a little part on my foot up walking over there because my shoe rubbed it.. but we ended up fixing it and it still looks good!!

After that, we didn't do much that I can remember.. and we were on the ship for dinner.. and then they had a movie night where they showed Hitch so we went to that!

 

 

Day 4

Today was a sad day... it was the last day of our last port.. and the last time we'll see land for a long time!!  I couldn't believe getting off the boat this morning that the next time I get off will be in America!! That's such a weird thought to me!

We got off the boat early this morning so we could go to the Bazaar and do the last of our shopping and spend up the rest of our money!!  When we got to the Bazaar, most of the shops were just opening up since we forgot that our ship time is an hour ahead of Moroccan time.. so we wandered around for awhile until all of the shops opened up.  We shopped for awhile and then the other 2 girls with my roommate and I yesterday and today liked our henna so much they wanted to get some done too.. so we found the same lady again and they both got things on their hands!  After henna, we did some more shopping and managed to get back to the port gate in time for the last shuttle before they took a 3 hour break.. so we didn't have to walk all the way back to the boat with our bags! that was nice!!

We got back to the boat and I laid out for awhile before dinner.. and at dinner we got a cake from our friend kim's mom who ordered it for her and it said "homeward bound" which I thought was hilarious!!! So we ate that.. and then our captain said we were leaving an hour early.. so we departed from Morocco at about 7pm tonight and now we're 3 1/2 hours into our trek across the Atlantic! 

Now I have a busy week ahead of me.. 4 days of class, a day for our global studies test, a study day, a day for our exams and then 2 days of nothing and then we'll be in Norfolk!

 

I'm off to do some homework before class tomorrow!  Keep checking though because I will be posting some random funny things on the way home when I'm really bored!!

 

Casablanca, Morocco - Day 2

Today was our second day in Casablanca, Morocco. 

 

We had a later start this morning so everyone could get a little bit extra sleep before we set out.  My friends and I left the ship around noon (but 11am Moroccan time!) and caught the shuttle to take us out of the port since it's over a 20 minute walk!  Once we got off the shuttle and out of the port, we set out to find this place called the "Seaman's Center" which we heard was close to the port gate and has good burgers and fries, so we wanted to go there for lunch.  We wandered around the city for a little over an hour before we finally found the place.  At the front of the restaurant, there was a big gate and a sign that said it was a "private club" so we were confused, but a man came to the gate and asked us if we were Seamen, which we didn't really know what that was, so we showed him our SAS ID cards, and he let us in.  The big sign said it was some sort of US Seaman's Center.. so I think we had to show him our ID's so he could see that we were American and from a ship.. I don't really know though.

 

That same man led us in, and this place was so cool.  It was themed like the Casablanca Movie (I was told, since I haven't seen it yet!) and there was an inside, outside, and second floor, all with free WiFi, which I wish I would have know before going there!  We sat outside under an umbrella and right in front of a big waterfall, it was really pretty.  Everyone there was so nice and spoke fairly good English.  It was nice to have a good burger and fries finally!!  Our waitress when she first gave us our menu's looked at me, smiled, and touched my arm and told me I had very nice skin, over and over again. haha.

 

We spent awhile at that place and then we were headed back into the center of town to walk around the Bazaar again.  We did a little shopping and starting talking to this one Moroccan man who had met some of the people off our ship the day before.  He had 'MV EXPLORER' written on a piece of paper that he pulled out of his pocket.  Then he asked us if he could take us to his shop.. since there were five of us, we said sure and followed him.  We got to his shop, which was a clothing store and we all didn't really want to buy clothes, but we thought we'd be nice and look around.  But as soon as we got in there, he pulled out six chairs and told us all to sit.. and then he just talked to us for a little bit about Morocco.  He also touched my arm and told me I had beautiful skin and that I could be his sister.. haha.. he was very excited I looked Moroccan and gave me a big hug and those kiss things that French people do.. he just kept smiling and telling me how much I looked like I could be his sister.  After this he asked us if we wanted some mint tea (mint tea and hospitality are huuge in Morocco).. we declined, but he insited and that his mother would make it for us.. so he sent his cousin and got us a pot of tea and six cups!  The tea was actually very good even though I don't like mint very much.  We sat there and drank the tea while he talked more about Morocco and how they love Americans and how Moroccans are very hospitable, which we could see.  He told us how his cousin lives in America.. in COLUMBUS, OHIO to be exact.. and I couldn't believe it.. I told him that's where I'm from.. and he hugged and kissed me again, and I think that made him like me even more than he already did!  He said his cousin has been there for 12 years and is studing Biology at... OSU!!!!!!  How weird is it to run into a random Moroccan who has a family member in my same city!?! It was crazy!! He gave me his cousin's name and I had him write it down so I could try to find him on the internet and tell him that I met his cousin in Morocco!  After this, he taught us some words in Arabic and wrote them down for us.. and he also wrote all of our names in Arabic for us, which was really neat!  We all stayed for awhile and I bought a shirt for pretty cheap since he liked me.. and then he walked us back and showed us all the little ships where they make the shirts, dresses, leatherware and all that stuff.. it was pretty cool!  He was very nice and told us to come back tomorrow for tea and we don't have to buy anything! haha

 

Once he walked us out, we all were tired and out of money, so we headed back to the ship.  We missed the shuttle and the next one wasn't for over an hour, so we just walked back.  It took waaaay more then 20 minutes, but I don't think we walked exactly the right way.. but still, it took a really long time!  On our walk back to the boat we saw some crew from another ship and they wanted a picture with us, Americans.. which was funny.  We finally made it back to the ship after turning the wrong way and having some people stop and tell us we were going the wrong way and then the police offered to take us back, but we said no even though they were nice.. but you never know how corrupt they are, especially after hearing stories about the ones in Turkey and even some in Egypt who ended up getting fired after we left.  

 

So.. that was the sum of my day today.. and now I have to find the 2 girls I may be going to Marrakech with tomorrow and figure out if and when we're going and all those cool details...

 

I may not be able to write tomorrow.. so if I don't I definately will on Wednesday!

 

 

Casablanca, Morocco!

Today we arrived at our last foreign port, of Casablanca, Morocco!  All of our passports had to be stamped before immigration cleared the boat, so it took a long time, and we weren't cleared until after 11am (when it's usually no later than 10).  Since it took so long, my friends and I decided to stay on the boat and eat lunch at 11:30 before leaving the ship.

 

After we ate our lunch, we set out to experience Morocco!  The port is really big and it's a far walk from where the boat is, so there are shuttle buses that take us from the boat to the gate which is nice!  The first thing we did was walk to the big Mosque, which we heard a lot of good things about.  The walk there was kind of long and very dirty and dusty.  The sidewalks were covered with dirt, so the bottoms of my white pants are now brown!! haha.  When we finally got to the mosque, we realized how increadible huge it was!  Honestly, words can't describe how big this place was, and it was gorgeous.  We wanted to go in and look around because we heard the inside was just as pretty as the outside, but visits inside weren't until 3 and it was only 1, so we didnt want to wait.  The only people allowed in at the time were male worshippers, which we clearly weren't.  It was alright though, because we got to peak inside a little from the open doors. 

 

After the mosque we walked back toward the port, and to the Bazaar they have that is really close to our boat.  The Bazaar was huge and filled with some really cool stuff.  Morocco is a very colorful country, so most all of their things are very colorful as well.  The exchange rate for Morocco is 8 Moroccan Duhraims to $1, so we definately benefit here!  The soda I bought ended up being like 35 cents or something in US currency.. it was crazy!  I bought a lot today, but didn't spend much money at all, which was really nice!  I got some really cool jewlery, tea cups, and other random things that I liked.  We ended up spending a lot of time at the Bazaar, and we were all really tired and sore from holding our bags by about 5:30, so we headed back to the ship.

 

Casablanca really isn't that touristy of a town, so there isn't much to see or do, but I had a good day today, and didn't mind coming back to the ship somewhat early to catch up on some homework and relax.  I am planning on going to Marrakech, Morocco, Tuesday and Wednesday, which will be nice because I have a feeling I will have done everything I wanted to do in Casablanca by the end of tomorrow. 

 

The weather here is different.  In Egypt, we would eat outside on the deck for breakfast at 8am, and the sun would be so hot already we would be sweating.  But here in Morocco, this morning there was a really nice breeze during breakfast and it wasn't that sunny or hot out yet.  The heat didn't really hit until about 2pm today, and it did get pretty hot.  There is usually a nice breeze though, since we're on the coast of the Atlantic, which is nice.  Morocco is another Islamic country, so out of respect, we are supposed to cover our knees and shoulders again.. so it makes it even hotter when you're wearing pants and a tee shirt! 

 

Another weird thing here is that the boat and Morocco are on different times.  We all thought we were supposed to gain another hour before reaching Morocco, but apparantly it's the captain's call when we change, and we didn't.  So when we got off the boat this morning, all of our watches were saying it was 1:15, but the big clock by the bank was flashing that it was only 12:15... so now it's very confusing because our ship is going to be an hour ahead of Moroccan time this whole time! Ughh!

 

Now it's time for some more homework and then off to bed!  I will write about Day 2 in Morocco sometime tomorrow!!

No More Mediterranean :(

Today is the day before Morocco, and we stopped around 9am to refuel in Gilbraltor, Spain.  This is the strait that is directly between Spain and Morocco, and when outside you can look one way and see Europe and the other and see Africa!!  I got a picture this time, so I was excited about that!!

 

Refueling took a long time.. I think we left Gilbraltor around 6 or 7.. and at about ten til 8 we had passed through the strait and were out of the Mediterranean Sea and back into the Atlantic Ocean :(  It was a sad realization that we were not going to be sailing in the Mediterranean anymore, but atleast we still have 4 more days in another country. 

 

At our Preport meeting tonight, one of the assistant deans actually teared up when talking about how this was our last foreign port, and how we've all grown so much as travelers.. it was sad.. but i for sure didn't cry! haha..

 

So, nothing new has really been going on these past 5 days we were at sea.. I already talked about the Crew Talent Show and the only other thing we had was a Shipboard Drive Auction which happened Thursday night.  There was a silent auction that went on for most of the day for things like clothes, jewelery, different foods, souvineers, and a bunch of other random things.. and then at 8:00 that night we had a live auction in the Union, and we all got paddles and everything.. it was way cool!  This auction was crazy.. all the money raised goes to different funds around the ship, like scholarships, greening of the ship, crew funds, etc.. and we raised over $25,000 on it!  Wow!  There was a lot of trips and such which went for good amounts of money.. like a trip to Pakistan went for $2500 and there were two of them, so thats $5000 right there.  There was also trips to different places around the US like Philidelphia, LA, Charlottesville, Alaska, Mississippi, Colorado and some others I forget.. there was also a trip to Nassau, Bahamas.. I bid on that one for awhile, but stopped because it reach $1000 and I have no where near that kind of money right now!?  Other things that were auctioned off were a map of where we went signed by the captain and crew (went for $750!), the chance to be "the voice" and do the announcements for a day, the ability to pick out the menu for a day, a milk and cookies party, internet minutes, your own outside room.. all kinds of random things.. they all went for a lot of money, but that was the point, to raise money for the Shipboard Drive.  It was really cool and fun even though I didn't win anything!!

 

So now, we are headed into Morocco and will be there tomorrow!! I'm really excited about Morocco, but not that excited that this is our last foreign port and the next time we dock will be to debark!  The water is really rough right now, and we were warned at preport and earlier today in our Dean's Memo that the seas get pretty rough coming into and going out of Morocco because of the two currents coming together there.. I think this means the Mediterranean and Atlantic meeting there or something??? But.. the seas were really rough on the way across the Atlantic to Spain, but I think these may be worse because we were advised to secure things and when you walk around the ship, different things are tied up or fastened down for precaution.  Right now, it's not too bad, but it's more rocky than usual.. but I'm sure I won't even notice the worse parts because it will be during the time I am sleeping.

 

Oooh, and everyone is so confused right now because of time zones.  We were supposed to be 3 hours ahead of Egypt in Morocco, which means only 4 hours ahead of EST, but we only gained 2 hours total, so we'll be 5 hours ahead of EST, and we all think we're going to be an hour off of what the people in Morocco say the time is!  This will be funny tomorrow trying to figure out exactly what time it is!?! haha.

 

Ok, well I'm off to watch some Friends episodes from my lovely cabin steward before bed!  I will write about my first day in Morocco tomorrow!!!

 

PS, if anyone is counting, I'm looking at my calendar and today marked exactly 2 weeks until I'm back in America! Woaaah!