Hi from the Pacific!

Chris says that I must not be a fan of blogging on the ship....I guess that's true! I just don't really think about it or feel like I have anything to report about ship life. So this one's for you Chris!

 

WOW. So we're in the PACIFIC OCEAN! I've never seen the Pacific before. That seems funny to say considering I could have said something similar during every minute of this trip! "I've never seen....the Bahamas, Dominica, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, or (insert anything here!) before." It's certainly been an incredible journey....one that I would never have expected to have in a million years.

 

There have been times (especially in the past few days) when I'm wandering about the ship, and I get this thought in my head: "Is this real life? Am I really on a ship, studying, and sailing my way around the world?" And then I pause and think to myself..."This is ridiculously AWESOME!!"

 

We were told that in order to take full advantage of these last two weeks, we need to continue to live in the present. Thoughts of home, what I'm going to eat, do, and see are all trickling into my daydreams. There are times when I wish more than anything that we were skipping Hawaii and going to San Diego. Not to hate on Hawaii or sound snobbish but I mean Hawaii...really? After all these cool places we have been, do we REALLY need to stop in Hawaii for an overnight? And other times I am STOKED to be going to Hawaii because I never want to leave this ship! Some days I wish that all my friends and family could just fit in my pocket so I could just keep going 'round and 'round the world. Maybe I should consider Cruiseship Management as a career....nah just kidding...but I sure can see how some of our crew members get hooked on this kind of lifestyle. (Though I'm sure it's a little bit different for them!)

 

So the other day I decided to start writing down the foods that I would like to eat when I get home. Lately, conversations have revolved around the last day on the ship, and what food we will eat as soon as we get off the ship. Here's a little snippet of my list:

 

FOOD!!!!!

Chipotle

Lucky Charms/Reese’s

2% milk and chocolate milk

Pork chops with garlic

Flank Steak

Salad with hidden valley ranch

Burgers

Corn on the Cob

Sour cream and onion/ salt and vinegar/ original Lays

White Cheddar popcorn

Mashed potatoes AND gravy

Mexican chicken

White chicken chili

Tortilla soup

Grapes/apples (Pink Lady) /peaches/ cutie Clementine’s

Snap peas and garlic

Boneless chicken breasts with white rice or light and fluffy noodles

Chips and guac

Nachos with queso

Cream cheese & Hormel chili dip

 

As you can see the majority of it revolves around snacks....I really miss snacks. Though if they had free snacks on this ship....I'm pretty sure I would have gained even more weight than I already have. I guess that's why they sell butterless, saltless popcorn...mmm.

 

Finals week on this ship is SO much different than at any land campus. First of all, I only have one exam. Yeah....really stoked about that one! I have final projects in all my other classes. All of my work is due before Hawaii, which means after Hawaii, I am HOME FREE! Wooo hooo! But I can't get too excited....this week is going to be rough!

 

Lets see what else....I guess I should avoid the elephant in the room and talk about roommate situations. Yeah....so I have never had huge roommate problems before. I consider myself to be a fairly easy going kind of person to live with. I mean that's just my opinion anyways! So when I started on this trip, I found out I was living in a quad. This means that when you look into our room it looks like a double. There's a little secret door that opens up into another room that is the same size as the double. So it's fairly spacious compared to the other economy cabins! I definitely lucked out. For the most part, the roommate situation has been fine. We certainly aren't the best of friends but all four of us do chat once in a while and are courteous to each other. About half way through the voyage my roommate found friends who decided that their room made them homesick. So they've more or less been hanging out in our room when the seas are rough. For the past month this has become frequent and they have started hanging out in our room ALL day AND night. It's gotten a little ridiculous to the point where I can't get to my bed, closet, or go to sleep at 1AM because there's a party happening 5 feet from me. So I finally got sick of it and said something the other day. Not much progress has been made but I hope to get it resolved in the coming days. Everyone needs their personal space. I only can deal with sleeping in the same room with so many people! Plus....it IS a fire hazard and against policy to have more people living in your room than is allowed. We'll see how it turns out.

 

Not too much else is going on. I'm just trying to keep myself in the present and enjoy these last few weeks of the most incredible adventure of my life. It's hard to live in the present when you know that home is just around the corner. I can't wait to pull into port in San Diego and see Chris standing in the crowd. It's going to be bittersweet for SURE. I'm thinking that tears are definitely going to happen considering I well up even thinking about leaving all these friendships behind. I shouldn't think about it like that. The memories we have made as friends and the experiences I have pushed myself through as an individual have been exciting, heartwarming, challenging, overwhelming but most importantly have shown me that the opportunities life presents are limitless. This trip has made me hungry to explore our world even more. Somehow I think, this is only the beginning! : )