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!

I’ve never felt so cut off from the world and at the same time so close to it.  I realized this when I spent an hour trying to check my email.  The reception is not entirely reliable, making it extremely difficult to utilize the internet at my will.  Instead, I am at the mercy of the location of the ship, the weather, and various other things when it comes to communicating with home.  And the internet was something of my last resort, since my cell phone has not worked since I left Atlanta.  I have no real easy way of getting in touch with you all back home, and at some instances I feel very depressed.  I want to know what my family is up to, what my friends are doing.  I want to know if they’ve left me text messages or voicemails for me to read and listen to so that I might feel closer to them.  I’m desperate for a line from my Mom, or the email from Facebook that says “’so and so’ has written something on your wall” and yet, I cannot know.  I feel isolated, withdrawn, lost out there in the world somewhere.  I know where you all are, relatively.  But you have no way to pinpoint my exact location.  You can only guess at my whereabouts on the sea and what I am doing because I could be anywhere, doing anything!  Knowing this inspires me all the more to go out and make the absolute most of this experience.  When I would normally have chosen to lie in bed and read, I go out and hang out in the Piano Lounge and see what comes of it.  In doing so, I can report back to you all about how we got a huge game of Catch Phrase going, how twelve of us sat in an oval and passed around the little plastic toy, how we yelled and jumped out of our chairs together.  I am pushing myself, but everyone back at home is pushing me too.  I am closer to them in that way, even though I cannot get in touch with them.  Ironic, being cut off from my world, but at the same time feeling closer to it.  And not only do I feel closer to my world in that regard, I am moving away from it and closer to the physical world out there as I travel the seas to see it, our planet, with my own eyes.  It confuses me, it overwhelms me, it delights me.  I cannot see my old world anymore, but I feel it more than before.  I cannot touch either world yet, but I can listen to the road that carries me away and towards them.  I miss the people of my old world, but I never want this journey of exploration to end.  I mean, how homesick can I get when I’m lying on a lounge chair, feeling the rumble of the propellers beneath me, listening to the waves crash up against the back of the boat as we steam through the night under the stars?  I look out and I see a black horizon.  I look down and I see black water dusted with white foam from the waves.  I look up and I see a black sky speckled with twinkling dots.  I pick out one star and stare at it, and I giggle as I realize that I feel like I am in a snow globe, watching the star move back and forth and all around in the sky as the ship rocks.  And nowhere do I see land.  I remember talking to my Mom once about how if I ever went into the armed services I would choose the Army rather than the Navy because I was scared of the water.  I hated the idea that if something ever happened, if I got lost on land at least I wouldn’t have to worry about getting tangled in seaweed or think about what creatures could be swimming underneath me (I had, and still do, a real phobia of feeling seaweed underneath my feet as I played in the ocean).  My Mom disagreed.  She said didn’t worry about what she couldn’t see.  But I’ve definitely changed my mind.  I’d choose the Navy any day of the week.  On the off chance that something did happen, I’d sacrifice feeling a little seaweed on my toes for the exhilaration of the sea.  There is absolutely nothing like this.  Even cruising for pleasure, with bottles of champagne at my fingertips and our own private veranda right outside of our room, it didn’t evoke the feeling of joy I am filled with right now.  I really think I just had an out of body experience.  It feels like this life isn’t even mine, like it couldn’t even be possible to feel this way.  It’s my damn-near perfect existence.  I am able to read and write and feel the wind on my face and listen to the water and know that soon I will be in exotic places.  And even though I do not have my family here with me, I know that in a way they are with me, and that they are waiting at home for me, waiting for my stories and loving me, wishing me well.  I am making friends and they’re wonderful.  My roommate and I get along incredibly well.  I am making friends I will know for the rest of my life.  And to think, I haven’t even arrived at my first destination yet.  Seriously, who wouldn’t want to have an experience like this, a semester of wonder and awe and amazement?  I’ve fallen in love, begun a love affair with this world.  In the words of Jane Bennett after she gets engaged to Mr. Bingley, “Can you die of happiness?”