On the Ship at Last

Hey Everyone,


After a very long two days of travel from Denver to Atlanta and then to the Bahamas, and losing my bags along the way, I have settled in to my cabin on the second deck of the MV Explorer. Nassau was a very beautiful place, but it was a true tourist trap and most of the taxi drivers took advantage of the fact that you had no way else to get around. Our first night was a lot of fun; my hotel roommate James and I went with some fellow students to a local bar and met at least a hundred people from the ship. Meeting this many new people at the same time is crazy, especially trying to remember names. About 25 names in, I accepted the fact that I wouldn’t remember most of them so I just try to find a distinguishing characteristic about them and just go with that. When I see the guy I met who goes to Columbia, I just point and say, “Columbia!?” and he seems to be ok with this.
Getting on the ship took a long time as you can see by the lines in the picture, but I just tried to walk around and help people with their gigantic bags because I didn’t have to carry any myself. My bags did finally show up about an hour before the ship took off, which was nice because if it hadn’t I would have had to live the life of a vagabond for 3 more days, and I assume it is harder to meet new people when you smell like a garbage can.
The cabins are small but they are nice and have plenty of space for all the stuff I am sure I will accumulate over the course of the trip. Living here seems a lot like living in a hotel, because we never have to clean our own room or bathroom, or even do our own laundry. I had never been on a ship this large before so I didn’t know what to expect, but I haven’t had any seasickness problems yet. My roommate is George, and he is from Sao Paulo, Brazil and studies at Boston University. His girlfriend Daniela is on our floor as well and she is also from Sao Paulo. My roommate being from Brazil was actually a great stroke of luck because I had no idea what I was going to do the entire time in Brazil, but George has offered to show my around and take me to some of his favorite spots in Salvador. Today is just a lot of orientation meetings and another day to relax, and tomorrow we will have our first day of class. Saturday morning we will arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the weekend and I am sure that I will have many more pictures and I will post another entry after my time there. Well I am off to do some yoga, but I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from some of you soon.

Conor

P.S. I couldn't get my pictures to upload but I will add them when I get into port.
P.P.S. Tabby Rules!