Updates!!!

Hello all!

Sorry my last update was really short and had many typos... figuring out the ship internet and whatnot was not easy, but hopefully I got the hang of it! I can't check Facebook at all until I get to an internet cafe in the port cities; our internet access via the MV Explorer is super limited.

Please please please email me exclusively at mrtrausch@semesteratsea.net and NOT my yahoo account.

If I don't respond on facebook, its not personal--just email me instead or comment on my blog!

Okay... ANYWAY... I just had my first class. Keep in mind it is SUNDAY today and I started school! Yuck! But the days of the week have no meaning anymore; its either ship days or port days. I'm taking a big globalstudies class that everyone on the ship takes. It could be really cool, we'll see! I'm also taking World Cinema (YAY!), a class called The World in Literature and Film, and a class on Chinese, Japanase, and Indian Theater. One more class today, then two more tomorrow.

Let me describe my room on the ship. Well, firstly, the MV Explorer has different levels of cabins, from deluxe suites that will set you back an extra $10,000 (NO JOKE!!!), to regular double occupancy rooms, to economy suites that you share with 4 people. I signed up for the economy suites under the pretense that it would be two doubles connected by a bathroom. Well, those cabins DO exsist, but they are not in use. Why aren't they in use, you ask? Well they are on Deck 2, and Deck 2 is empty--reserved as a quarentine space in case of an outbreak of swine flu!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! So, instead of a double connected to another double, my roommates Ashley (!!!), Kelsey, and Liz, and I are in a room that was formally used as a crew cabin. As in the workers of the ship. As in there are 4 of us in one tiny room that lacks a window, any desks, any decorations, lamps, a counter top in the bathroom, a clothesline for drying clothes, full size closets, and dressers! Oh, and the normal cabins open with our Semester at Sea ID cards; our door opens (with a loud bang) with this huge, bulky key!

Hmmm.... yeah, not what I expected either, considering most of my classmates have nice little doubles. Some rooms even have balconies! Honestly, I'd be happy with a window so it isn't pitch black at 7:30am every day....

When I see the townships in South Africa, I know I will have NO complaints with my room, but still, I paid so much to be here, it would be nice to have a liveable space. That all being said, I really love all my roommates. I decided that I would rather live in a crap hole with people I like then in a mansion with people I hated. So, all in all, we're making it work. The other students who live in our hallway, also staying in crew cabins, are in the same boat... no pun intended... and we have all bonded. We call our hallway "The Ghetto" of the MV Explorer! LOL!!!

The MV Explorer is amazing! I've been eating meals outside on the decks. Imagine eating dinner with nothing, and I mean nothing, but the Atlantic Ocean surrounding you! It's surreal. Right now we're sailing to Cadiz, Spain, and for the next week (!!!!) I will only see boat and ocean. Weird. For this reason, I'm actually glad classes are starting because the ship is mentally boring without something to do, even if its homework. But I've met soooo many cool people and everyone hangs out in the lounges on the various decks. It is like freshman year all over again, where you sit with different groups of people every night, and ask and answer the same intro questions every five minutes! But I've already really bonded with some of the other students, so that's good.

I just can't wait to get to Spain so I can send postcards, check facebook, and get off this dang ship! Not that I don't love every inch of the MV Explorer, I'm just tired of rocking back and forth, getting lost, and never knowing where I'm supposed to be.

Also, everyday we keep loosing hours. I'm going to loose I think something like 24 hours by the time we get home to San Diego. Goodbye sleep! Seriously, though, GOODBYE sleep (breakfast ends at 8:30am! WHAT is that!?!?!)

Please email me at mrtrausch@semesteratsea.net

Love and miss everyone,

Monica