seeing 2 continents at once!!

This will be a short entry.. but I thought I should note the fact that this morning (and afternoon I guess) I could see both Europe (Spain) and Africa (Morocco) at the same time!!!  This morning we had to stop for bunker (to fuel the ship) and we stopped in Gibraltor, Spain.. which if you look on a map is around the most southern-most point of Spain and really close to Morocco.  The re-fueling took forever! We were stopped there from about 8am until about 3pm, filling up our many tanks I assume.  It was a nice change of scenery, but weird to be stopped, see land and people, but not be able to get off the ship!  When we were pulling out of the harbor and had set sail again.. you could see the coolest thing, which I am soooooo mad I didn't get a picture of; if you looked back you could see the actual divide.. Africa on the left and Europe on the right.. and a big strait of water in between.. it was really cool to know you were looking at 2 continents at once!

 

Other than that, I was looking through pictures from Spain and I already want to go back!  This could be because I absolutely loved Spain or the fact that I had to get up and go to class today.. or both!  Also tonight, I passed a bunch of people in a classroom looking at jewlery on my way back to my room from the gym.. so I grabbed my roommates and some money and we went up there.  The jewlery being sold was for BeadforLife which is a nonprofit organization which provides really poor Ugandan women an opportunity to make money by making beads and jewlery made of the beads which are made of recycled paper.  Many of the women who make the jewlery are HIV positive.. so it was a good cause that the money went to and the jewlery was really pretty, so I bought a necklace!!

 

Ok. that is all for now!

 

Hope everyone has a good week!!

SPAiN!!

As I type this.. we are slowly being tugged out of the Port of Cadiz, and saying goodbye to Spain :-(

 

Spain was wonderful and I absolutely loved it here!  Everything is just a lot more slowed down than in the US and one of my favorite parts is that the whole city shuts down for lunch and dinner.  Seriously, most shops are open from like 9:30-1:30 and then from 5-9:30 or so.. just because of lunch and dinner.  Lunch in Spain is a big deal and lasts from 2-4.. you don't have lunch in between 2 and 4, you are eating lunch from 2-4, the whole time.. and then dinner isn't until about 10:30, and most Spanish people won't go until atleast 11 for dinner.  It's funny how everything is open so late, and then in the morning you won't see many people until after noon, since after dinner (which won't end until about midnight) most people under 30 go out until 4, 5, 6 in the morning!!

 

The town of Cadiz was amazing!  There is some really pretty buildings, landscapes and architecture here, and a lot of littles streets filled with shops and cafe's.  I am really going to miss sitting outside at a cafe.. that's all anyone does here!  Where all the cafe's are, nobody can really drive, so there are tables and chairs everywhere in the streets and it's kind of unheard of to be eating inside... not unheard of i guess, it's just so normal to sit outside.. but its so different than the outside seating in America.. the restaurants don't have fenced-in areas designed for eating.. there are just tables and chairs set up wherever there is room and most cafes set-ups flow into each others, and it's no big deal!

 

Eating in Spain was alright, a lot of seafood, which I don't like, but the food I did have was good.. and the desserts here are soooo good as well as the ice cream! yumm!  Also.. the famous drink of Spain is Sangria, which I had a few times at lunch and dinner, and that is deeelicious!  One of my favorite things here, though, was "chocolate churros" which are more of a breakfast food, but are served all day.. they are skinny sticks of deep-fried dough, and you put some sugar on them.. and then you get a cup of something like hot cocoa, but thicker, that you dip them in and eat them! ahh! sooo good.. another one of Spain's specialities!

 

Yesterday and today, I found myself at the beach for a little bit each time.. and let's just say the dress code at the beaches here is a lot different than in America.  it's no uncommon to see women without a top on.. actually it is pretty common for them to not be wearing one, and nobody thinks anything of it.. well except for tourists! so, that was interesting.. but the water was warm and very pretty, and we're still in the atlantic ocean not even in the mediterranean yet!  Today's beach we went to was the same beach/water where they filmed the part of the james bond movie with the famous scene of Halle Berry walking out of the water in her suit... yeah I was in that water and on that same exact beach!! the local boys will only talk about seeing halle berry in a bikini.. not about james bond at all! it's kind of funny especially because everyone thinks that was filmed in Cuba, when really it was right here, on a beach of cadiz!

 

It's sad to be leaving Spain because it was such a great country and the fact that I have finally managed to find my way around Cadiz, and now we are leaving.. and I will be having to find my way around Italy next!!  So, to sum things up: I loved Spain and want to come back!  I'm sure I missed a few things about what i did/saw.. so I will be posting when I remember them!

 

Now, it's back to reality called school tomorrow :-(  3 days of class, 2 essays and a midterm, and then ITALY!! Atleast we will be entering the Mediterranean Sea soon!!! Ohh.. and this morning from like 5-11am, we have to stop in Gilbraltor (I think it's still spain!?) to get more fuel.. so atleast I will get one last look of Spain in the morning before we head out for good!!!

 

PS.. If you're reading this and want actual emails from me, post your email in a comment so i can have it and email you!

PORTUGAL!!!

It is about 1am here and I just got back to my room, on our boat, in Spain, from PORTUGAL!!  Portugal was one of the few places we were allowed to travel out of our 'port country' to go to, so my roommate, friend from class, and I decided to go so we could see even another country!  It was an interesting journey, but it was definitely worth it!

 

We had to take a bus from Cadiz, Spain (where we are) to Seville, Spain, which is about 1 ½ hours away.. then from Seville we took a 3 hour bus ride to Faro, Portugal.. those bus rides were interesting.. on the bus to Portugal, the couple in front of us who had a kid with them starting puking! So that was not fun at all to be sitting behind a vomiting child!! yuuuck! Other than that… the bus rides really were used as sleeping time and seeing the country.. literally.  There are farms and stuff in spain, which I really wasn’t expecting so that was neat to drive through a lot of Spain and see things we wouldn’t have otherwise.

 

Once we got into Portugal, we walked around to find a place to stay and we saw a ‘residential’ which I believe is like a hostel and it really wasn’t as bad as you would think.. we had 3 twin beds in a room and then a balcony-type thing and a bathroom and all the floors were like tile.. so there was no gross carpet to creep me out!  The funniest thing was our key though.. it was a normal key with this big wooden block chained to it??? So everytime we left the place we had to turn our key into the front desk and get it back when we got back and wanted into our room!

 

After we got into our room we asked the lady at the front desk of a good place to eat.. and so we went to where she recommended.  All I have to say is Portuguese food is very fresh!  There was a tank of seafood right when you walked in the door, so when you order something they get it out and then cook it!!! Thank goodness they had chicken because I do not like seafood! The chicken was good and it came with rice which was really good and french fries, which we doused in oil.. as everything else is there!  After dinner we walked around, taking pictures and doing touristy things.. there was really no nightlife in Faro (it could have been because it was a Wednesday night!?) so we went back to our room to sleep around midnight I think.

 

Thursday, we all woke up and got ready.. and went to the ‘market’ across the street from our hostel and right next door to the bus station we had been at.. that was fun and they had a lot of really cool stuff.  I got an orange huuuge necklace that I really really liked as well as a tunic type shirt that was also pretty.  After the market we walked around the city looking in the shops and such.. and then we went to a pizzeria for lunch!  The pizza there was amazing which I didn’t expect because italy is known for their pizza, not Portugal!  After I ate pizza, I got dessert which was a great decision because it came out looking like a party! There was this like flower decoration thing in it so it made it look really neat.. but what I got was basically a sundae.. because it was chocolate ice cream (which is different there b/c there is little chunks of chocolate crispies in it) with chocolate syrup and whipped cream! Yumm!!  After lunch, we walked a lot more around areas we hadn’t seen and took a lot of pictures.  They really had some neat buildings and statues and the grass there is super green for some reason!

 

After we were done sight-seeing.. it was time to catch our bus back to Seville in spain.. and from there we went caught another bus back to Cadiz.. which is where I am now.. “home sweet home” it definitely feels like.. our dean was telling us you will see the boat and really be like ahhhh I’m home!! And she was soo right.. even though at first it seemed like a hotel or something, not at all where I would live.. now it has really turned into my home.. for the next 2 months atleast!!

 

Well.. I am heading off to bed, for a full day in Cadiz tomorrow! Two more days in spain!! I will write about spain probably on Saturday or Sunday.. so look for it then!

Happy Father's Day!

It's so hard to keep track of the day of the week and date, but all my professors reminded us today in class that it was Father's Day!  So Happy Father's Day Dad!!

 

On another note, I am officially in Europe now!  Last night we crossed over the line that divides Europe from North America!! It was later, around 9pm or so, and we passed by 2 islands (the first land we've seen since Tuesday) which were islands formed like Hawaii, over hotspots!   The islands were really mountain-y looking, and apparantly belong to Portugal, which I found out today!

 

Yesteray. I saw dolphins for the first time this trip, and I saw them again today during lunch!!  It was exciting to just see them jumping out of the water while swimming!  Also, yesterday afternoon  I went to the deck to read for class and it was cloudy and somewhat chilly, but about twenty minutes later, the skies turned bright blue and the sun came out, and it was hot!!  I ended up getting a little red, and have huuuuge tanlines since I didn't wear sunscreen/wasn't wearing a suit or anything since I went out when it wasn't sunny.  I was only out there for a little over an hour and it was crazy how much color I got! We are obviously getting close to the Mediterranean now!

 

Two more days of class and then Wednesday morning we will be in Spain!!! I am planning a trip to Portugual the first day and staying in a hostel that night and going back to Spain for the remainder of our time!  I am excited since I will get to see yet another country!!

 

Also, I cannot wait until we get to ports to eatt!!! The food here is ok, but very predictable:  every day we have a pasta, meat, salad, and some form of potatoes.  Other random things are added, but nothing is that good, I guess it's good enough for cooking for 1000 every day, 3X a day!  But, Naples, Italy is the place where pizza was invented, so I am really looking forward to that!

 

That's it for now!  No time change tonight!!!!!! It's the first night we haven't had to lose an hour!!

 

PS. Julie Klein.. I know you're reading this and I got an email about your message via FB, but I don't get on it, so email me here so I have your email address pleasee!! jafaber@semesteratsea.net

 

=)

 

OOOOH We're Half way THERE!!

Today was the second day of class!!  I cannot believe that I have been waking up since my first class is at 8:30, and that's the earliest I have ever had a class! ALSO, today was my first Friday Classes EVER!  But, that is going to change since I have Friday Classes next quarter at OSU :(  Ohh well! 

 

So, we are half way to SPAIN.. and set to arrive Wednesday morning!! I am sooo excited for Spain because I will be spending two days in Cadiz and also spending two days in Lisbon (Portugual)!  We are only allowed to cross borders into another country in Spain, to Portugal, and in Bulgaria, to 2 countries that I forget.  So, me, my roommate, and a few others are going to take a bus/train into Portugal from Spain, which is only about 3 hours away!  I am really excited to see even another country!

 

The waves today were BAD!  I am pretty sure we passed through a storm because it was raining for the most part of the day, and the waves were really bad and rocking the ship like crazy! I thought it was fun!  Yesterday, though, the sun came out and it was about 65 or so degrees, so I sat outside on the deck after lunch until about 4 and then after dinner until sunset.  Honestly, I love just sitting outside with the ocean all around me while I have to do my homework and readings, wayyy better than inside like I had to do today!  Unfortunately, though, when I went to take a shower last night, I realized that I had a sweeet farmer's tan on my chest from where my shirt was, so that was cool?  I didn't realize I was going to get tan since it really wasn't that hot out! Oh well.. plenty more tan lines to come!!

 

I randomly popped in the campus store today, since it just opened yesterday and was really crowded then.. I wanted this sweatshirt I didn't see in the store yesterday, but was in the window.. and what do you know.. they had ONE when I went in, so of course I got it!  I have been told if you want to buy any SAS gear, to do it at the beginning of the voyage because they don't restock, so when they sell out, it's gone :-( So I did it now!  Oh.. and this little people's sweatshirt was on sale and it says Semester at Sea, so I had to get it for Zander, I couldn't resist!

 

Well, another clock change tonight is happening.. which means every day I've been here has basically been 23 hour days!!  Atleast we will be gaining 7 hours on the way back to the states!  The whole ship rocking all the time and the time changing things are really wearing everyone out, including me!  I always hear people talking about how sleepy they feel all the time, especially when the rocking of the ship is minimal, because it's calming.  So, I am going to try to finish my book for tomorrow and head to bed somewhat early!  Still gotta get up for 8am class tomorrow, on SATURDAY... and SUNDAY!  Who would have thought of class on the weekends!?

 

 

 

First Full Day at SEA!

So.. today was our first full day at sea.. and it may have not been a good one for most people.  The waves have been really bad since last night, I think around 15-25 feet, so the boat has been seriously rocking since last night!!  To describe what it feels like is kind of hard.. if you’ve ever been on a cruise ship and maybe had one night of bad water, and felt the ship moving…. Times that by about 20!!!  There hasn’t been an hour since we pulled away from nova scotia that you couldn’t feel the boat rocking!  If you’ve never been on a cruise ship, imagine being on a rollercoaster 24/7 because you get that weird feeling in your stomach most of the time because of the waves.  I think it’s neat, but a TON of people were getting seasick today.. to explain it more – one of the crew members who has been working on this ship for 11 years got seasick today!! It is crazy!  Walking is the hardest part because you run into everything and everyone, but nobody cares because they are all in the same boat (hahahaha, get it?).

**Oh and mom, don’t get nervous because of the weather, I promise we’re safe, the captain said its only a 5 on a 1-10 scale.. so stop worrying!

 

Anyway… today was full of orientation type deals.. and it was wayy boring!  Oh well.. atleast it’s done!  Tomorrow is our first day of classes, and my first class is at 8am, which will be hard because I <3 my sleep =)  OOOOH and to make matters worse, we are AGAIN changing time zones tonight, so I have to set my clock an hour ahead before I go to sleep.. so now I’m losing yet another hour =(  Let’s see if I can make it to my first class tomorrow!!!

 

FUN FACTS:

Girl to boy ratio: 77% girls, 23% boys!

Distance to Cadiz, Spain: 2407 Nautical Miles (as of noon today)

Temperature today at noon: 54 degrees.. COOOLLLD!

Average Speed: 16 Knots… if anyone knows what that means let me know.. b/c I am trying to figure out how many mph knots are!?!?

Wind Speed today: 25 Knots!! Faster than we are going, but still I don’t know how fast that is!?

 

I think that’s it for now, I have to go read a book since half of it has to be finished by C2 (class 2) which is Friday!! And I should head to bed soon too since I’m losing an hour of sleep tonight! 

 

I hope we finally get to warm weather tomorrow, I’m ready to lay out!!

 

email!

So.. I forgot post it.. but my email here is jafaber@semesteratsea.net .. feel free to send me emails =)  I am trying to find a way to get the comments on my blog sent here, but right now I can't figure it out.. so i will see your comments later or just email me!

I'M ON A BOAT =)

So.. today we boarded the ship.. and now I am currently ON A BOAT and on my way to SPAIN!!!

 

I woke up this morning around 7:15 (ugh.. so early!) and got ready to leave the hotel and head to the ship!  I grabbed a muffin out of the "special people only" continental breakfast - you had to have access to the 6th floor and swipe your hotel card on the elevator to the 6 floor and into the room to get the breakfast? weird. But, i got a muffin and went back to my room to make sure all my stuff was ready to go! 

 

We went to the lobby and a lincoln navigator was waiting for me and the two girls who i shared a hotel room with.. yeah we rode in styyle to the port!!  It was only 5 dollars a person and he loaded/unloaded our luggage for us (which was a TON!).. so that was cool.. then came the dreadful process of checking in.  The line was really long and there were many steps in the process before we even got on the ship, and the whole time I had my 2 carry-ons and half of the time my other luggage with me!  Needless to say, i have bruises on my shoulders from wearing my bookbag all day yesterday and this morning!  I am sooo glad I no longer have to lug that stuff around!  But, finally we went through security (a few times) and then we were on the ship!!!!!

 

I went through some more registration processes then went to find my room!!  I am in a quad (which was a great choice).. it is 2 regular sized rooms, connected with a door and we all just share a bathroom.. my room has a window, and up by the window is enough space to fit your mattress and sleep there!? So.. that is cool. and right now we are using that for storage!  I hopefully will post pictures of the room soon, but through this free email account, we can't send attachments or pictures.. so you will have to wait to see it.. but believe me it's nothing special.. tiny and bland, but it works!

 

After getting unpacked (which took forever!!!!!!!!!) we had some time to relax and then at about 1600 (4 o'clock.. we run on military time) we had to have our lifeboat drill, where everyone puts on the life vests and looks really good and stands where your lifeboat would be.  That took awhile, and it seemed even longer b/c it was cold here!!  I cannot wait until we are further south and it's not so cold!

 

We had a few more things tonight, but all in all, it really just was an unpacking and figuring things out day.  Tomorrow, though, is booked and we have orientation-like things to do all day, so that should be fun!  I am wayy tired now since it's been a long day.. so I think I am going to take a shower and head to bed.. and I do realize  it's not even 11 yet, but that's ok. Oh, and in Nova Scotia, we are an hour ahead!?  So, i believe we still are only an hour ahead since we haven't gone that far yet!?

 

More to come later.. tomorrow is our first full day at sea!!

 

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA!

I have finally arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where our boat is currently waiting on us to house for the summer =) It's been a long day of flying, but I decided I want to own a plane when I get rich, they're so convinient.

Today.
I woke up early and headed to Cleveland Hopkins Airport for my flight at 11:10am. I flew Air Canada, and our plane was called Air Canada "Jazz" and it was lime green, and really small! There were maybe 15 people on this flight.. so we all had to spread out through the cabin to make sure the plane was balanced!? That flight was only to Toronto, Canada, so it only took about 45 minutes and I was wide awake, staring out the window the whole time!
Getting off that flight, me and two other girls realized we were all SAS'ers and we were all catching the connection to Halifax. So now, we headed to customs where we were asked random questions, like what were we doing in Canada, and such.. then went and had to pick up our checked baggage (which was heavyy!). In this process, we ran into another SAS'er, so we all stuck together to catch our connection. Security took awhile at this airport, so we got to our gate as the plane to Halifax was boarding, so I had no time to rest between flights! That's ok, though, I slept almost the whole way on that flight! This plane was much much bigger.. and there were TV's on the back of the chairs, even though i didn't watch them, it was neat. That flight was a little less than 2 hours, but we went through a time zone, so we lost an hour in the process.
Arriving in Halifax was easy.. I just grabbed my luggage, bought a bus pass with the others, and we waited on the shuttle bus to take us to our hotel!

Now, I am sitting in the hotel room after going to dinner with some girls from the plane trips. I am exhausted and have to wake up early again tomorrow, to board the ship!!!

Hopefully i will have time to write tomorrow!

Jen T

ONE WEEK =)

Only one week away from flying out to Halifax!!!!

Unfortunately, as of now I still have 3 more days of school with 4
finals to go :( Then it's home for a few days to pack, and then I'm
off!

I promise I didn't write this just to make everyone jealous of how
quickly I am leaving, I wanted to try and make sure e-mailing my post
would work, so that's really what I am doing!

=)

Getting Ready!

So, I created a blog for my communication technology class, and I decided it would be fun to create another for my summer at sea!

This blog should make it a lot easier to keep everyone updated on what I am doing and where I am!

If you don't know.. this summer I am studying abroad through the program Semester at Sea through the University of Virgnia. I will be on a cruise ship to the Mediterranean for 67 days while taking classes. This is not a typical cruise ship, but one designed specifically as a "floating campus" with classrooms, a student union, a library, and many other things you would find at a college.

I will be leaving from Cleveland on June 15th and spending the night in Halifax, Nova Scotia that night. Then, around 8am on the 15th, I will be boarding the ship in Halifax to embark for the next 67 days. I will be back in the states, in Norfolk, Virginia, on August 22nd!

Here is the link to Semester at Sea's website if you're interested: http://www.semesteratsea.org/

Jen T