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!

As of noon, February fifth, we have gone 357 nautical miles.  We have 450 some nautical miles to go before Puerto Rico and we are 46 nautical miles away from land, a small island of the Turks and Caicos Islands.  At one of my many nights at Bertolini’s, a man I met, John, told me that while I was at sea, go stand on deck and look at the water all around you.  Comprehend the fact that there is no land whatsoever for miles and miles.  Then, he said, imagine jumping off of the ship and into the water and having to swim to the next port of call.  I haven’t stood outside and imagined it yet, but just looking out the window at the 77 degrees Fahrenheit water with swells of .7 meters, about two feet, stroking my arms and kicking my legs for 350 nautical miles, I’ve already come to the conclusion that I’m keeping my ass on the ship.  At orientation yesterday, we heard that the ship is traveling at roughly 20 miles an hour…?  And no, he did not say a speed of 20 knots.  He said 20 miles per hour, but perhaps he meant knots.  If not though, twenty miles seems awfully slow, and a bit impossible to have gotten us 357 in the past 17 hours.  But I’m just a passenger.  I leave the logistics to the Captain.  But working out…working out was the experience of the ship thus far.  For one, you have to sign in to use the machines because there are about twelve of them and seven hundred of us students, but the real problem was this.  I used the Stair Master, so not only was I walking vertically in place, the movement of the ship was pushing me slightly sideways horizontally.  And then, my brilliant self decided to pass the time by reading, so while moving back and forth, up and down, literally, I was looking down at the magazine resting on the screen of the machine.  I almost fell off the thing at least three times.  And of course, getting off a workout amchine when you’re on land is already a challenge because your body had gotten accustomed to moving, but on a ship you feel like you are tipping and walking a little bit funny when you in fact are tipping because of the ship.  Basically, working out is an easy way to completely disorient yourself and your center of gravity.  After the workout adventure we had lunch and attended our first class aboard Semester at Sea.  Have you ever sat on a couch and watched your professor give a lecture on a television screen?  Perhaps at bigger schools you do that, but where I come from, Lake Forest College, it’s unheard of to have a half of the students in the Student Union, the main meeting room for the campus, listening to the lecture and the other half scattered about the ship and gathered in any of the five “satellite classrooms”.  This is where I was, perched in an easy chair in the Piano Lounge watching my professor on TV.  Coolest.  Thing.  Ever.  And rumor has it, this course, the Global Studies course that all of the students must take as an introduction to all of the countries that we are going to visit, is going to be broadcast in our bedrooms.  If this is so, we can simply wake up and turn on the TV and be in class.  I can’t imagine that they would actually do this because come on, how easy is that?  But I’ve heard it claimed by many, so we will have to see.  I’ll definitely keep you updated.  But for now, watching class on TV is pretty impressive.  It was the highlight of my day.  That and playing Catch Phrase in the Piano Lounge with a group of twelve students.  You feel pretty special when everyone walking by looks over and asks “What’s going on?  Oh, cool!”  A lovely way to spend the evening after a long, long day of orientation meetings.  I don’t know if I’ve ever been so happy for classes to start, and I enjoy school and my classes.  I love them in fact, but I’ve been orientated to death.  So tomorrow morning, I get my wish.  Global Studies, Physical and Mental Ideology of the World Traveler, Life on a Blue Planet, and Marxist Philosophy.  It's going to be a very long, but very good day.