Surfing on a Rock-it. Crunch.

Jagged perfume bottles strewn ‘cross bathroom tiles…White paper bags lying atop tiny silver cylinders…Walking along without placing feet in front of each other…Excuses for bumping into people that have been attractive to you for three months…Doors swinging wide looking for precariously placed digits…

All in a Day’s Work.

It is number ninety-six here on the MV Explorer and boy was it characteristic of things that I will both miss and not miss about living on a SHIP…

Today is the first day of finals for this crazy semester that I can’t possibly forget. Also, there was a storm north of where we were sailing all day…so…the ship was rocking quite a bit -much more so than normal Ship rocking (that none of us really even feel anymore). I actually find it weird when we are docked in port and I get in my bed on the SHIP and the boat does not rock me to sleep…. Nevertheless, it was exam time and everyone was walking out of line. To put it into my perspective:

0700---wake up; get ready for the day (while rocking hard)

0730-0758---breaky-break (tea, yogurt, cereal), last minute exam prep (still rockin’)

0800-0905---take and finish exam early (rock, rock, rock)

0915-1000---naptime to clear head and catch up on sleep (rockin’ the day away)

1000-1130---study for other final later in the day (hard rock steady)

1130-1245---LUNCH! (Still more rock-age)

1245-1345---study study read read (hard rockety)

1345-1440---group study times (can you guess?)

1440-1447---chill out on the back deck for brain clearing (rock me)

1455-1600---get thrown against wall while sitting and taking essay exam (TY Ocean!)

1610-1730---relax with friends (talk about rockin’?)

1730-1800---sit outside with friends eating (astonished that boat still rockin’ hard)

1800-1930---celebrate a friend’s birthday, yeah ice cream cake (rock around the clock)

1930-2000---study in room (hasn’t left yet)

2000-2130---pre-port Miami style (watching people sway while speaking in union)

2130-2345---chat with erik and matt, etc. (fall over a bit because of rocking)

2245---have a hard time falling asleep because of rocking, but hey! We retarded the clocks!

So that was my day. All I can say is that it was really really not a very fun thing to have to take Dramamine (for the first time, I might add) and ibuprofen @ 0700 because I didn’t want to do poorly on my exam. I am very glad to not have to try and concentrate and do well on papers and exams because the place where I reside is affected by some outside power that causes it too violently and quickly shift from side to side. If I didn’t have those responsibilities I would be totally down with the boat SHIP rocking whenever it could. However, it really just is not fun or enjoyable to try and take –not one, but TWO exams in that situation.

To be fair, I really am going to miss living on a vessel in the middle of the ocean:::

Being able to wake up and see nothing but straight blue all around me

Eating with nothing in sight but the blues of sky and sea (and clouds too)

The most beautiful sunsets and sunrises ever

The constant (gentle) rocking from head to foot that puts me to sleep every nite

The superhero feeling I get after shaving in these showers

How clearing my head is as easy as walking up to Deck 7

These things will be sorely sorely missed, no doubt. Obviously there are many other things I miss. However, I am also really looking forward to getting home and being in South Carolina for more than A week and half (JUNE), having a kitchen and a GROCERY STORE (!), boiled peanuts, consistent weather (whether it be SC or BOSTON!), my family and friends….you know…everything that goes along with returning home. It has been a long and fantastic three months and I would do it again in a second. However, it will be nice to get back to a new and different lifestyle.

(oh and if you haven’t guessed, the boat tossed my perfume to the ground so now my bathroom can smell very very very nice all the time for the next four days)

One Is Silver and the Other, Gold.

I don’t know what it is about these people but I am going to miss them so much. They are all so interesting and caring and free ---so enjoyable. I mean sure, yeah, we’ve traveled around the world together and gone through so much –we’ve really seen it all. It is so sad to think that it is now coming to an end. So Soon.

I’ve lived on a SHIP with these lovely ladies and gents for days, weeks, months (exactly 92, at the moment I write this!). It will be, and is, so difficult to say our goodbyes. We will never again be in the same place together like this. Again. EVER.

These beautiful friends I have have been with me as I’ve realized so much more about myself than I ever knew existed. Who knew I could cross the street like a superhero in Vietnam, speak Spanish to get by in Spain, or walk through impoverished streets without breaking down completely in India? These people have been there for all of that. How am I going to say goodbye to that? They have helped me reach this state of myself and boy, are they gorgeous while doing it!

Who will ever believe or understand the crazy good feelings of sweatiness and grooves at our Ipiz dance parties on the back of Deck 5? How about our gargantuan “family” Thanksgiving Dinner at Gibraltar? It seems that these three months have exacerbated all of our needs for friends and companionship so that the community we have now is so beautiful and unique and real in a way that generally takes much longer to develop.

These people know, as Darby rightly put it, “what makes me tick.” My parents knew too as they sent me along on my own lucky, lucky way. They sensed the intensity that would ensue from these travels and delightfully and excitedly urge me to find new friends and companions. I guess I completely underestimated this experience because I am so surprised by it all ---so overwhelmed by all of this love and understanding.

more amazing.

This country really is fantastic.
Sitting down feels amazing here. Places i´ve sat today:::

in a chair in front of a computer @ a hostel

at a cafe with two friends and a pitcher of sangria

at a bakery with a friend and a cup of coffee

in a chair in the kitchen of said hostel eating a delicious meal

i´m tired as anything but I just wanted to post quickly. i love everything here. always.

can we talk about spain?!

As you all know...i love the amazingness out of this place.

It is too good...even the south!

Alex--i cried knowing i would be here sin tu.
so so so so so so sad.

españa is not the same without my bestest friend ever but really...the south is very beautiful...i look forward to this time and i think i will be posting quite a bit.

take care all of you. buenas noches.

eerie romance and some rain

Yesterday morning was one of those things that just cant be touched. I woke up around 6:30 and went out to the front deck to take in the amazingness of the Dalmatian Coast at sunrise. and WHOA. It knocked my senses into high gear. This place is ridiculously beautiful. It is everything I had hoped for and many of you know that this is one of the most important ports to me as far as pre-planning went. Yesterday I spent in Durbrovnik walking around and chilling out in the Old City which is entirely within some amazing huge stone walls. I walked around with my friend Darby from Virginia, my friend Cara from Pennsylvania, and my friend Zoya from Bulgaria and we stopped and had some wine and olives and cheese to get out of the rain that was freezing us up into little ice cubes. We continued on and then met up with a bunch of other kids from our crew to celebrate our friend Mike's 21st birthday over dinner and a few drinks. Dubrovnik is TINY. It was impossible to avoid the other kids from our program but we mingled as best we could/wanted to.

It is amazing to think that earlier today on my drive from Dubrovnik to Split I drove through some of the most beautiful landscape in the entire world. The Adriatic Sea is truly a sight as it is met some fantastic mountains dropping off and dripping with such central european feeling and charm. We stopped in Makarska for a coffee break and at some point along the way I was in BOSNIA as well. How crazy is that!?

I remember being a child and hearing about all of these places because of the wars. I cant believe that I am here right now.

This drive reminds me very much of the Amalfi Coast but somehow it is much more beautiful to me here. Maybe itis because I am experiencing it alone. But this coutnrz really does seem to fit my style. The mountains are so old looking as they fall into the sea. The red-roofed structures seem to fit so perfectly with the very Central European looking flora. The trees even seem to scream ˝im better looking than you˝ (like everyone else in the country). There is certainly a regal air amongst these beautiful landscapes.

Though it is beautiful it is hard to forget that onlz fifteen years ago there was brutal fighting going down in this and other nations in the former republic of yugoslavia. its reallz wild to think that croatia is younger than me! There is definitely evidence of this civil war throughout the countryside.... Also we were really heavily wanred about unexploded landmines. Ive never even thought of worrying about őff the beaten path˝ before.

As beautiful as the country and the mountains and the roadways and walled cities and red-roofs and tiny beaches and orange groves and olive trees and muted colors and brilliant water and palm trees and cragginess and pomegranates are...

the people here are even more beautiful. i could absolutely fall in love and stay here forever. thez are such striking, amazing looking poeple that just a mere gaze can cause even the strongest of us to completely melt because of the placidity, beauty, and emotion in their eyes. Im not kidding either. These people are damn good looking. They are just as interesting and nice to look at as the land ive driven through...

alas...im being kicked out of the internet cafe...hope this is good for now...suggestions for ANDALUCIA anyone? I will be in Sevilla.