Adios Espana

I finally have some time to just sit and relax. We are pulling out of port and headed to Naples, Italy and then right to Civitavechia (sp?) which is an hour from Rome. Spain was pricey but amazing. It's alright because I knew Spain and Italy would be the most expensive. Also, Greece is sort of in limbo as a location right now. I will update everyone if it gets changed. They legallized tear gas usage to contain the riots and such. On a different note, I've been spending a lot of time just thinking about life in general. I have some pictures up on my wall next to my bed from my childhood. This just reminds me of everything I've been through to get to where I am now. I wouldn't change a thing, because everything that happened got me here. Thanks to everyone for being part of that process...I guess I've just developed a greater appreciation for everything and everyone that I have in my life right now. Part of that realization is that these countries are awesome, but I don't think they'd be nearly as awesome if I didn't have the amazing friends I have with me. Having people go through this with me, definitely helps the experience. Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome with or without them. I'm just saying it adds a whole other dimention of growth. Okay, past the philosophical stuff...what have I been doing since Monday? oh, funny you asked :P Tuesday I didn't have any trips with the ship until 6 P.M. so after being up until 4:30 a.m. checking out the night life we all got up at 8:00 and went to the Monastery at Montserrat. I was up so late because that's what people do in Spain, we only really did one night of that though. I was really glad I got that experience. I'm sorry if I talked about Montserrat already, I just can't remember where I left off last time. So, it's a monastery wayyy wayyy wayyy up high. You have to take a tram or a sky lift sort of thing up there. I was really proud of myself because I didn't freak out like I usually do. This is a good sign because I've been working on my fear of heights since early on in highschool. I was actually able to enjoy it even though I was dangling hundreds of feet in the air. But that's a big part of this trip...personal growth and facing your fears. What I almost enjoyed more than the mountain itself is the little town we discovered taking the wrong train stop. We found this adorable little town where noone spoke english and we ate the BEST food, for cheap. Well, it was still euros ...no me gusta euros (I don't like euros). Thankfully we had two relatively fluent spanish speakers in our group, I can handle myself in a conversation..and my friend Jeff tries. haha By the time we finally got up on the mountain, I was slightly disappointed. It was overrun with tourists, which is I guess what you get when you go to a Pilgrimage spot. It was fun hiking around and their were a lot of trails you could hike free of charge, technically you could get there no charge because there was a road, but we're not allowed to rent cars. My one friend Alyssa forgot her inhaler though, so I went into the Monastery with her while others hiked the mountains, there they had candles you could light for a 1 euro donation. I mean there was a box you put money in on an honor basis. That was nice because we travelled far enough into the Monastery that there weren't many people except those coming out of the museum (which was VERY over priced, we didn't go in) So we just sat and meditated/prayed. I prayed for Tooter and Great Grandma, and others that I know that have passed away because I know they would have loved to have seen it. Then we came back to the ship along with Lindsay (my roommate and I are best friends now :)) and Jeff of whom were going on the Barcelona at Night tour with me. I did take a lot of pictures but the problem is all the internet spots were really far from the ship and noone really wanted to risk getting their laptops stolen. Supposedly Naples has a closer internet location so hopefully i can post a few pictures. On the night tour we got this amazing view of the whole city. We also saw a few monuments, and went to this relatively lame park that was a collection of fake buildings representing different areas of Spain. I appreciated it for what it was and moved on. I made sure to get a t-shirt (only 8 euro, not bad) and a magnet, for my collection. I like having metal walls. Then after that I ended up staying in and passing out and I was going to go to Park Guell in the morning (Gaudi park) with my friend Andy, he was supposed to wake me up, but he fell asleep at 8 p.m. and slept until 11:30 the next morning haha. I ended up sleeping probably 11 until 12:30 the next day when my roommate got back from her trip. Then a group of us, Andy, me Lindsay, Jeff, Todd (we managed to find a lot of guy friends, even though it's 75 25 girl to guy on the ship) and Craig all went to Las Rhambas (spelling?) and walked the streets there. Thankfully it's always sunny here in the summer, since everything is outside. It has been 85/90 and blue skies night and day, except Wednesday night there was a cloud and like four drops of rain for an hour. While we walked the streets we found the market and I drank like 4 smoothies. I had a small dragon fruit and coconut one, I've never had that much cactus fruit, but I wanted to be adventurous. It was amazing, then I bought a big jug which was about the size of three of them of the strawberry pineapple one. They were so fresh and amazing, and cheap. haha They had tripe and pigs heads and squid and a lot of weird things. But then they had huge fruit/dried fruit stands and little bars and spice stores and more normal meats like ham or steak. Although for the first time I saw a skinned rabbit, that was a bit creepy. My poor vegetarian roommate was freaking out. Then I met a really good looking guy at a little pasta stand, he spoke really good English and I ended up talking to him for about a half an hour while people went exploring. Then we split into two groups because some of us wanted to wander slower than the others. So me Andy and Todd just wandered the markets talking to people and having a great time, so after we met back up we decided to "get lost" we just kept walking down skinny roads that led to more tiny stereotypical European pathways. It was so fun, we made sure to stay on the good side of town. But it was sort of fun to just get sucked into the town, and I think it is one of my fondest memories of my experience up there with the small town near Montserrat. We stumbled upon a playground with tons of locals and kids and such and we just sat and watched all the goings on. Then Lindsay and I chased birds in a park hahaha  they have tons of pigeons. We have a funny picture, because you can't see the birds and we just look like crazy people. Which is sort of true. Then Andy and I wanted to take pictures all over and everyone else was hungry, and Todd went back to the ship to join the rest of most of S@S universe at some concert in a club. We didn't care for it. So Lindsay and some others wandered off and Andy and I got his really cool camera and we took cool pictures of the sunset in differeis nt places, like around this interesting statue and then of some headlights with a low shutter so it streaked across the pictures. I basically was his guard to keep people from stealing it and I helped him pick good angles/locations. Then we went to a really nice seafood restaurant. I had a stuffed crab for 12 euro....this thing was the size of a plate and the best crab I've ever had. One interesting thing though was the body was stuffed with lettuce, not like stuffing stuffing, It was really good, I also had an awesome glass of wine, and we had this custard, strawberry cheesecake sort of thing. Also Andy had really good fried calamari. Then I passed out and had to get up at 9 a.m. for a "Politics of Medieval Art" trip. I had to see a museum in Spain to compare to another museum somewhere else. It was the Catalyn museum. It was cool to see Frescos and paintings and such, just old stuff in general. Then we also saw the Gothic Cathedral of which was gorgeous and had an awesome garden with Swans. Then I promptly came back to the ship and napped for 3 hours and then had a group picture and dinner, and here I am. I will be getting up for one class tomorrow that we can watch on t.v. then write papers. We have nothing to do tonight which is why I wrote all of this. Have fun in Colorado Mangarella clan :)  I will be thinking of you. Also, HAPPPY BIRTHHDAYYY (tomorrow)  MOMMYYY!!!!!! :) :) You're still beautiful no matter how old you get. :) :)  Okay thanks for reading my novel, I hope you enjoyed!!

Me

iHola!

So I woke up this morning, pulling into Spain with all of its palm trees and mountains :)  Not to mention the water here is gorgeous. My roommate wouldn't wake up because for the 10th day in a row we had to get up at 7 a.m. and of course we lost 6 hours along the way. When she finally did she was upset I didn't wake her up...but I did. haha We had breakfast at 8, because they said we had a mandatory meeting with a diplomat at an unknown time. Problem is they are always inconsistant when they process our pass ports and such. We didn't end up with the meeting until a little after 9. It was basically to tell us everything our speakers on the ship have. There are lots of pickpocketers, Spain is amazing, and stay out of ghetto. lol It makes sense there are pickpockets here, they have a 43% unemployment rate here, so unfortunatelly it makes sense. I can't wait to actually go into the city tonight, my friends are ranting and raving. I will post that up here as soon as I can. I actually spent my first hours in Spain driving through the countryside in a charter bus and then Snorkeling at Les Medes, a group of protected islands with caves, cliffs and a lot of sea urchins. It's located in a relatively upper class touristy area called L'Estartit It's quite close to France on the far end of Catalonia. We had a group of really awesome tour guides who gave us a small talk on why they preserve these islands. The water was really blue, and there are a lot more sail boats around this area than what I'm familiar with in the states. We took a small motor boat and the waves were huge and really rough, but the side of the Mountain we went to had really calm waters. They insisted I use a wet suit, and I ended up getting too warm with my water polo swim suit on. I even had to request a 1/2 length one. It was nice though because after about an hour of snorkelling a group of Californians and I (we all know they like cold water) jumped into the water to cool off. One girl from Texas started freaking out about how cold it was and went back on the boat. The rest of us jumped in and swam around with a couple of the guides. There were about 30 of us split up between 4 guides. The fish weren't as impressive as those you would see in the Carribean, but that was probably due to the side of the island we were forced on due to conditions. But I got to see rockier formations and caves than I've seen before. The cave was amazing, with light coming in from a little nook we swam through. Our guide had a flashlight to show us the orange, purple and red coral growing on the inside :)  Also there was a lot of red coral, which is rare. That's part of what they're protecting the island. I got to hold a sea urchin. I love them. They suck onto your hand and wiggle there spines. haha  Also, it was really refreshing to swim around and walk around instead of being on the ship. Granted, I do love the ship. I just loved seeing the country side and the people. There were huge sunflowers, corn fields (I can't escape from them), olives and grapes. Not to mention these giant trees with big bright orange flowers. It did remind me a little of PA in some places. I think a lot of things will always remind me of home. Some people are really welcoming, and others just look cranky...but I will get time to meet more people soon. I actually need to get this salt water off of me and get ready for dinner. They don't eat dinner until 10 here, and they don't go out at "night" until like 1 a.m. I will try and update again soon!

Love to all,

Gwen

 

We made it! Med. Sea

So, I was peacefully eating lunch today, some yummy beat salad and black bean and veggie mix, when the librarian comes over to chat. I know her from my many trips there to use the Spanish-English dictionary, and other various things (We tend to go old school with limited internet). All of a sudden Morroco comes looming out of the fog, it was awesome, and not even 10 minutes later you could see the mountains in Spain. Then it all hit me. I'm really in between two completely new continents. Not only that, but I'm on a ship looking over the water eating my lunch like that's a completely normal thing. Then I meet the assistant dean of whom informs me that she is an administrator at my brother's college (Duquesne). So not only did I meet the assistant dean which is nerve racking enough, but I'm in my swim suit on the deck of a ship eating beats, of course I got some on my shirt, and now I have to chat with her about Pennsylvania. It was a good conversation, but I am not used to meeting such formal people in such an informal setting. But really that's a good example of how life is on this ship, people from all different ethnicities, backgrounds and even ages just coexisting, and quite casually ...normally. Granted there are a few of whom think they are better than everyone else and are only travelling to spend money and be drunk a lot, which is quite unfortunate because that's not what this trip is about. I would be lieing if I said I wasn't going to drink, but I plan on being responsible and being with responsible people...just to help anyone who may be worrying. So to continue my story, as dinner approached we arrived at the Strait of Gibraltor. So I was laying out while taking pictures of the landscape, giant tall mountains with little buildings nestled in. Also big houses of which probably belonged to the people driving around the many sail boats that were out. Then when I was trying to change for dinner itself, I noticed a ship practically on my porthole.......it was there refueling and I actually got a video of it coming towards us. Even though we've only gone through a straight I've already begun to feel some of the culture shock, old buildings mixed with new, friendly people waving from small yachts. Not to mention again, I was sitting on a cruise ship, eating dinner, between Africa and Europe AHHH. Oh, 2 silly facts. One, the apes of Gibraltor, are actually Marmasets(spelling??). Regardless if you're actually on the rock of Gibraltor (we did not get off the ship) they steal your food and they're supposed to be really entertaining :) Second silly fact. So the two sides of the straight are called the Pillars of Hercules, one is the Rock of Gibraltor, and the other ....was something else I don't remember..but the point is one is Africa and the other is Europe, technically in Spain. For some reason Spain owns the pillar on the African side and no Africa doesn't own the other side, Britain owns the Rock of Gibraltor (the other side). People do weird things. Another thing I'm up to is I signed up for an "extended-family" which is a life long learner or a kid that you get to have dinner with and celebrate different things with etc. I have this really sweet lady that I had met previously. Some groups are made up of 8 people some, like mine are only four. They mixed people up so friends aren't put together. This way we meet more people. It was sweet because the person I was assigned to, Jeanne, sent me a post card to my room today from the Bahamas and was thanking us for dinner and offering to help us get our trips set up etc. I am sorry this is so long, I am just taking it all in. It finally hit me. And I love it and I never want it to end...however I do miss everyone. Hug my puppy for me (and everyone else of course) I am aiming to post pictures online on Tuesday. We have to plan it very meticulously because of the high number of pick-pocketers, laptops are really important and that would suck to get stollen. My group has started brain storming ideas for communication and not losing anyone. When we are out and about we are going to leave sticky notes on our doors, after actually memorizing each others door numbers. You know, I'm at the gym until _____ join me if you'd like :) etc. etc. or  Hey I decided to go off with some friends so I won't be joining you on the trip to..lets say the Sistine Chapel. We'll have to write down our room numbers though...Everyone just seemes to know where Lindsay (my roommate) and I are because our room is 2012...which is doomsday and therefore easy to remember. So we have that, for if someone gets stuck on their trip late or generally changes their mind to be with us. That way we know if we need to look for them. Plus before each port we're all making a list of top five things we want to see and coming up with times different people can get together. Now this doesn't mean we won't swap people, just means we'll expect someone to meet up with unless there's a sticky note or they tell us they're going off with another group. No big deal, as long as noone is alone. This way, we all have someone who knows where we are, and can look for us if we've disappeared. Paranoia maybe, but it makes this less stressful. So we established this system, but we're actually going to plan out Spain and Italy. Spain will be nuts because they don't even eat dinner until 10 at night and they eat like hobbits throughout the day. Then if you want to go to a dance club, even the traditional ones, they don't open until 1 or 2 a.m. It's okay...I didn't need sleep. But I'm looking forward to the markets, with all the fish and vegetables, and eating in the bars. Just people everywhere chatting eachother up, kids and adults. Everyone. There is so much more I could say, but it is almost 2 a.m. and I have class at 8 a.m. good night! :)

 

Me

Incoming from between Bermuda and the Trans-Atlantic Ridge

iHola! :)

 

It's amazing how a group of people can transform a cruise ship into a college campus. The first day of classes I seriously looked around and it felt like college. Also if the swells don't change their size I hardly notice the ship moving anymore. I'm sorry if my updates are short for now, but currently we've fallen into a college style rhythmn. I get up for class at 7, go to breakfast then go to class from 8 until noon. After that I usually drop off my stuff then go to lunch, which is where i try and meet new people since none of my friends can go at the same time. Then I either do homework or lay out by the pool. Hang around, and then go to dinner with a HUGE I mean clan size amount of people. The staff is always amused how many people we can fit around one table. It's usually pretty even for us, guys to girls, just a bunch of really down to earth funny people that I love to death. Then we either do more homework or just hang out before picking a seminar or a movie to go to. Then we all just email or blog, hang out outside, then go to bed. Obviously there are variations of that plan, and others have class at different times. I saw two seminars today. One was towards a leadership stamp I'm trying to get on my diploma for the experience, that was on what type of personality you have. The other was on Spain, more specifically the food to eat and avoid, along with eating habits and culture to be aware of. Unfortunately some things are hard to explain that I've experienced. Well I need to read a chapter of my marine biology and head to bed, for anyone wondering I'm in the Mid-Atlantic time zone :) 

to be continued....

Gwen

Greetings from the Atlantic :)

Hello Everyone!!

 

So just a reminder, if anyone wants to contact me my working email address is gthompson@semesteratsea.net. I'm having a great time, and getting a kick out of living on a ship...but to start at the beginning. Boarding the ship was a bit tough due to the giant duffle bag that I had, and they didn't have any carts or anything. I found a group of guys that were willing to help me carry it, and then I was in line so I just drug it through security. It was insanely hot that day...it was about 95 with a million percent humidity. Although I think I spent many hours just staring at the water. I don't know what it is about the water but it just mesmerizes me. I know it sounds corny but I think the movement of the ocean is like the breath of God. But back to the story, as I was going through security the guy checking my bad (they searched every single one) was confused that I only had a straightener and not a curling iron. He was also quite impressed that my roommate and I had preplanned it that one would bring one and the other would bring the other one. That way we don't have two of everything. So I got on the ship and they sent us in a huge circle around the ship checking different paperwork and making sure we had completed all of our questionares, tuition payments, medication check in etc. etc. Just seeing wave after wave of people was mind boggling and most everyone is incredibly friendly. Everyone wants to talk to and meet people. I have a base group of friends but I'm definitely trying to just meet everyone, I'm talking to professors and adult learners etc. People have such interesting stories, I mean there was a kid playing the electric ukellele last night..how awesome?! There is also a group of people trying to spend at least $10,000 in every port we visit...which is insane...and people who are here mainly because they got so many scholarships, who otherwise wouldn't be able to be here. Today a group of my friends and I became silent because this girl from China seriously rocked out on the piano, we gave her a standing ovation when she was done. I really hope that's what she's doing with her life, because it took our breath away. Pretty much since we've been here it has been a lot of orientation sort of speeches and figuring out the ship and getting our sea legs. It's funny, the Atlantic is a lot rougher than the Carribean. I love it though, I get a kick out of wandering around like Jack Sparrow (drunken pirate for those who don't get the reference). Some people are really sick though...but they do have dramomine and the generic form of the less-drowsy kind. I've been taking 1 of the less-drowsy a day..I'm going to try tomorrow without it to try out my sea legs....a navy test :)  I love my port hole. I seriously stare out it...and the sunsets are just mind blowing. Oh, but before I forget the time changes tonight, so I will be one hour ahead of everyone, so keep that in mind. As everyone knows, I love food...it's actually pretty good. However it's a lot of potatoes rice noodles and veggies. So we all get hungry pretty quick..but it's nice not getting all those fillers, the food tastes better. If I really wanted to I could spend $35 and get top class food. They have a private room that you dress up for and such. Oh, and the ship...it's a good sized ship. It's really not huge, but it's big enough. There are about 1,000 people on board. I have put posters up on my side of the room, I put one of a giant iceberg I love over my head, some pictures of family below a giant poster of the world they had here for me. Also I've decided to buy a magnet from every country to put on my wall. They're relatively cheap, everywhere, and our walls are magnetic. I'll most likely get t-shirts too. Well I have a book discussion that they just announced we need to get to, so I will update soon, and I check my email at least 2x a day so feel free to leave me one! I miss everyone :) ...I can't believe I'm actually doing this..

 

Love,

Me

 

“Man cannot discover new oceans

unless he has courage to lose sight

of the shore.”

-André Gide

Grammar

I apologize for my grammar...but I've almost been up for 24 hours...so ...it is what it is :)

Bahamas

Well this is my first official post for my SAS (Semester at Sea) trip this summer, 2011. Today was long and exhausting. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. in order to fly from  (Thanks Aunt Patti!!)  Pittsburgh to Houston then to the Bahamas. Also, there was a 15 minute layover, which isn't technically legally. Not to mention, even at 6:00 a.m. there was a half hour wait at security. Thankfully I was there early, because my one bag was a good 7 pounds over. So I moved my peanut butter into my carryon, the man helping me said it was fine. So of course I get to security, and the man all super serious discusses how he has to check my bag. I figured he was going to take one of the toiletries I had..no he tosses my peanut butter into the trash can :(   They don't have very much of it in Europe..oh well i suppose I'll survive :-/ .   I thankfully made my Houston flight and met a nice family that helped me get to my hotel and split a cab with me. From there I checked in and was instantly surrounded with college kids..it was a bit of a shock, I knew a lot of them would be staying there but not so many. Turns out even the kids who weren't staying there had come over to swim in our pool and hang out at our beaches. So I put my stuff in my room and spent some time meeting new people, swimming in the pool and the ocean. Of which was GORGEOUS today. I almost didn't want to leave, but then I remembered I get to spend the next week staring at the water <3   It's a bit odd, this is the same hotel I stayed at as a kid but they gutted it out and made all the interior different. After swimming a large group, a full bus of us, went to Senor Frogs for over priced mediocre drinks and decent food. I had a cajun fish sandwich which was okay. Some kids went absolutely nuts..and we were all quite concerned, then we figured out there was a large group of highschool seniors there. A few of them had to be taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning...sheesh..oh well. My friends and I had a few drinks that were on specials and that we had buy one get one coupons for. Then we all got tired of the crowd, so after some dancing and cramming into a taxi we went for a night swim in the ocean. Which was fun, and the moon was amazing and there were probably 30 of us in there...then we rinsed in the pool and now I am typing on here...I have to reorganize my stuff and board the ship at 11 a.m. tomorrow. This means I get to sleep until 9:30..so hopefully I can find conch chowder for breakfast..not sure how well that work. But I promised my mom I would eat some..I watched a man cleaning them at Senor Frogs, but it was way over priced. Better luck tomorrow ?? I'm already glad I'm going on this trip :)   Lots of love to all! I will try and update again soon.