Brianna's Voyage of Discovery Hi all! I can't believe the time has finally arrived for me to embark on my semester at sea. And because so many of you are back at home provided so much support while I prepared to make this journey, supplied me with endless helpful tips, and kept my spirits high as the anxiety began to set in, it's only fair that I keep all of you in the loop as much as possible while I am on the adventure of a lifetime. After much frustration getting this blog set up, as the internet is a teensy bit slower out on the middle of the ocean than it is on land, I finally have a way to keep you all up to date in regards to all of the exciting things that I will be doing this semester. It just wouldn't be the same if I didn't have the ability to take you all with me in some way. While I just couldn't figure out a way to sneak all of you into my suitcases, I still want to invite you all to join me, by allowing me to keep you updated via WorldNomads, on this voyage of discovery. Bon voyage everyone!

Tonight I write from the bed that will be mine for the next 100 days.  It’s hard to believe that it’s finally arrived.  After talking this trip up for nearly two and a half years, I have to remind myself that this is it, it has started.  Right now it’s a bit of ecstasy and a bit of nerves, because I’ve discovered for certain the first of many things I will learn about myself.  I need my transition period and a time of adjustment.  I felt a surge of glee when I saw the MV Explorer in person for the very first time as I drove up to the wharf in the cab, but then I was certainly in a haze throughout the rest of the day up until the point when the captain began to turn the ship around to head out to sea.  At that moment, it became utterly real to me.  Not getting out of the cab with all of my luggage (which compared to most, was not very much at all), not standing in line for an hour in the humidity waiting to board, not handing over my passport to the SAS crew for safekeeping, not even walking up the gangplank for the very first time.  Granted, it was not like boarding the MS Zandaam carrying a case and a half of wine ready to party for a week either.  It was exciting, but not the kind of excitement I expected.  I wanted it to register right away, I wanted to be overcome with this sense of “this is it”, but none of that came.  I smiled and clapped my hands, anxious to get everything, all of the logistics of paperwork and classes and moving in, underway, excited to embark on a new adventure.  Of course I was excited.  I was boarding the ship that would take me to far away places.  I went through the lines of registration then went to find my room.  I met the Resident Director right away and he took me to my room, which was quite a thrill.  For one it is actually much bigger than I anticipated and I was delighted to learn that I completely under packed, so I will have plenty of room to buy and buy and buy all over the planet.  It also made the whole experience seem a little bit more real than the red tape process, because I was finally entering my room, my own bit of this ship to call my home.  After checking out the place- a small hallway lined with the closet and a stack of drawers on one side and the bathroom door on the other you come into the room, and the main bedroom area.  Two twin beds line the walls and a makeshift bedside table created by the pushing together of two sets of a stack of three drawers sits in between them underneath the rather large porthole.  When I read porthole on the papers, I thought, you know, Titanic porthole.  You don’t see much more than Leo’s head as you watch the water rise while he remains trapped below, chained to the post.  No, this baby is a window, a good three feet by three feet.  It drastically opens up the room, and sitting here writing this I love knowing that I can look over and see the waves that I’m listening to crash up against the side of the ship.  It truly is amazing, this place.  I’m absolutely in love with it, but I still need my period of adjustment.  I’m meeting so many amazing and friendly people, but I had a few moments of homesickness.  Looking 100 days into the future and realizing that I won’t see anyone I know and love until then, it scared me.  I felt like it was too long to spend in this foreign place.  But I know pretty soon I’ll feel settled in, so I’m not worried.  I just know I need to give myself time and not fret too quickly.  But I’m so incredibly excited though to see what kinds of relationships I will form with all of these people.  And my roommate is fabulous.  I got really lucky.  She’s energetic and outgoing, and very sweet.  She seems to enjoy going out and having a good time, but from what I can tell so far she’s very neat, so I think we’ll work together well as roommates.  So after touring the room for the first time and meeting the roommate, we went to discover the dining room, which was fairly decent food.  For both lunch and dinner I had salad and some decent steamed vegetables.  And of course, fit for college kids, they have multiple snack and coffee shops available to us, which I am quite excited about.  They also have late night snacks in the dining room, which for night owls like me is perfect!  I can munch on cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off as I write my blog!  Today after lunch we wandered, trying to get acquainted with the ship.  I’m surprised at myself though.  I spent a week on the MS Zandaam and feel as though I knew my way around it better right away than I know my way around here.  Perhaps because it’s also a campus and not just a cruise ship that things are not necessarily set up in a way that I would expect.  I’ll learn of course, but as of right now I get confused pretty easily trying to navigate this place.  But it was fun getting lost, finding yourself on the same deck seven as you’d just come from.  I also discovered where my satellite phone doesn’t work, which as of right now is everywhere.  They really meant it when they say that you have to be out in the wide open because even on the highest deck but with the brightly-colored buildings on the island and the large legitimate cruise ship (because SAS is not a cruise ship) next to us, it wouldn’t work.  So I had a bit of a panic attack, worried that my parents would board the ship and I’d never find them because there were supposed to be about fourteen hundred extra people on the ship visiting before seeing us off.  But luckily as I kept attempting to work the phone, wandering around the deck searching desperately for a signal, I happened to look over the rail and right down at my parents, who were patiently in line to board.  They came to find me and I showed them around.  Well, my mom with the talent for navigation actually showed me around, and we took some pictures before they left.  I was quite surprised that they didn’t stay up until the time they had to disembark, but they were hungry and wanted to go eat.  I wasn’t at all put off by it, simply surprised seeing as this will be the longest period we have ever gone without seeing each other.  Seeing them get off the ship was a strange experience, realizing as I turned around to walk back in that I would be having innumerable priceless experiences before I saw them again.  But as Mimi says, it will be good for me to have this time simply for me, to do with it as I wish, to take to grow and learn and develop a better and in some ways very new sense of myself.  Here’s to that.  The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting in a large circle of college kids, forming relationships that I hope will continue to build beyond the first day of trying people on until you find your closest friends.  We visited and laughed until it was time for the world’s longest lifeboat drill.  It certainly passed the time though because as soon as we finished it was time to leave the dock and truly begin our journey.  It was at this point that it really hit me, that the overwhelming feeling of joy and excitement and awe washed over me, as I watched the island of the Bahamas remain put as the ship carried me and 701 other students into the Atlantic.  It was a beautiful moment, knowing that it was the one I had been waiting for, and knowing that I knew it was what I had been waiting for.  The feeling that I didn’t have when I first got on, it surely hit me when we started to sail.  I envy no one who chose to go to only one country.  For me, this is absolutely perfect.  I am going around the globe.  I’ve been repeating that to myself all day long and I have yet to register what that really means.  After sailing and having dinner, I met up with Katie and Lauren and we played cards in the Piano Lounge, Egyptian Rat Screw, us and four other groups of kids spread about the lounge.  It took us a bit but we eventually realized that we were all playing the same game.  Humorous, quite humorous.  Next came the orientation, learning again the importance of not sitting on the rail, smoking or if you must don’t throw the butts into the ocean because chances are they’ll probably catch some air and come right back on the ship to start a fire, and for God’s sake don’t slide down the rails in the interior of the ship because a few semesters ago a wave hit and threw a girl across the room as she was sliding down the hand rail of the main stairs and she broke her back.  Next came our “sea” meetings.  We are the Red Sea.  I like it, I like being the sea that parted.  It’s lovely.  It was another opportunity to meet people, and again I was pleased by just how many awesome people are on this ship.  People are just so friendly for the most part and willing to put themselves out there and be goofy for the sake of the introductions.  The roommate situation I believe has been worked out.  Katie and Lauren probably won’t room together, which I feel bad about because it wasn’t their fault.  SAS screwed up the paperwork so now they’re split up, but I’m glad they were flexible about it so we could all unpack our stuff.  I love having the room put together and not disheveled with suitcases and clothes and toiletries and shoes strewn about it.  It makes it feel more like home.  I loved coming back from our excursion to get water to a clean room.  It’s starting to feel more and more like home with each passing moment.  I am supremely happy, and can’t wait to start classes because I looked at my books and I have to say, I just love to learn.  I had a thought yesterday, that if I could do anything I’d marry someone rich who could support my want to travel then sit at home and just read books and write.  Write the things that come into my head.  The silly things, the intimate things, the evocative thoughts.  Morrie helped me reconfirm my love of books because with everything new you learn, it changes the way you think and you come up with whole new ideas.  What if my contribution to the world is to put together all of these thoughts and help open others to a new way of thinking, as others have done for me?  I want to travel and help people, but do that on a voluntary basis and spend the rest of my time reading and writing, contributing my thoughts to the world.  But then again, I don’t know if I could do that forever.  But Morrie certainly put the idea in my head.  But after 100 days on this ship, who knows what I will want to do.  I absolutely cannot wait to find out!