February 6^th, 2007

Hi Everyone,

It’s my first day of classes here on the MV Explorer. Things are going quite well on the ship though I miss everyone at home terribly! I’ve met some pretty cool people here; I’ve met others that are pretty dumb. But I guess that’s all a part of being here on this trip and really anywhere in the world. Hopefully I’ll be posting this tonight once my computer is configured to the network, but who knows.

Oh and while I can think of it: Coreen, I’m going to try in EVERY way possible to post on the 8^th, but I’m going to be in Puerto Rico and I am going to the El Yonque Rainforest that morning until 2ish. Provided that I can manage to find an internet café at an alright price, I’ll be online so I can upload a picture and a blog to go along with it! If not then my deepest apologizes!!!

Okay so anyways, the ship: The ship is gorgeous! Very small though in comparison to the real deal. I can definitely feel the waves and it is understandable why many of my peers are currently found seasick and in the bathroom. I took the seasickness pill on Sunday before I boarded and then late last night and so far I’ve been okay except for when I’m hungry, which surprisingly has been quite often! I really don’t understand it because most of the time I can get away with prolonging a meal or whatever, but because of the motion its like my stomach is ultra sensitive. So while in Puerto Rico I will be stopping at the Wal-mart to purchase lots of snacks and more sunscreen because I’m pretty sure I didn’t bring enough. Most of the ladies spend their time on the deck sun-bathing, I’ve sat on the deck a few times, always in the shade though. I do not want leathery skin when I come back. A nice tan would be nice, rough skin would not! So lots of sunscreen, water and shade for me thanks!

Also before I forget a bit of a breakdown of our ships demographics. There are 702 college age students, 17 lifelong learners, 138 faculty and staff and 108 crew members. Of the 702 students most come from Colorado (70 of who come from Boulder Colorado) and the top majors are Business, Psychology, Unknown and Political Science. We have 15 International Students, most of who were already in the United States for College Educations, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, and Panama. They included some other statistics that I can’t quite remember, so unfortunately that will have to do. The faculty and staff have brought family and children so we have ages 7 months old to 91 years old on the ship and it was explained to us that we are now a new “village”. Oh and I guess I should explain what Life-long learners are, they are senior adults who have decided they don’t ever want to stop learning so they board with us and sail around the world. Many don’t actually leave the ship but others are mobile enough to do so. One of the most interesting rumors which I think I even remember hearing before hand was there was one couple who continually did it year after year. In their fifth year, which would have been Spring 2004, the husband passed away. At that point in time it was discovered that in fact there is a morgue on the ship and they had a sea burial for him. The wife continued on the trip the rest of the time, after all she doesn’t have anyone to go home to! So in case any of you were wondering yes we have a morgue and yes they could conceivably throw my body overboard as part of a burial if you didn’t feel like shipping me back home ;)

On a brighter and much lighter note, I’ve made friends! Yea!!! There is a group of us, I think it usually is about 5 but at some points we have about 10 people! We meet for meals and the occasional activity outside of class. At the moment I’m alone in my room, but as I will write below, at 5:30 I’m meeting for most of them for dinner! We are quite the group, I don’t think I would have pictured any of us getting along nearly as well as we all do. We will have to see if this group sticks together by the end of the trip! I certainly hope so, I hate making new friends in the middle of a semester!

Today was our first day of classes. I woke up at 7am (which was tough- we lost an hour last night so we our officially one hour ahead of your time!) and had breakfast with Leona and then went to Elements of Directing. At one point she mentioned how she needs a stage manager to help her collect her thoughts- I nearly died. After she went through introducing herself and a lot of the course, we had to talk about why we chose the class and what we hoped to get out of it. 3 of them were business/communications people who need theatre credits, a one was interested in film, one was interested in script writing and then a few did theatre when they were in high school and thought what the heck. In the middle of that it was my turn and I started with “Well, I have a feeling I’m going to regret saying this by the end of the semester but I was active in my college back home.” Judy (the professor) interrupts me and is like “you’re a stage manager!”, I started to laugh and nodded and said I’ve done 8 shows and gave a little back up story about it. For the rest of class she was like I’m going to have my stage manager remind me what time it is (and of course I had left my watch in my room!) and at the end of class I had to make a list for her of the order of our presentations for next class. (I have to do a “self-portrait” with objects and put them in a way that reminds me of myself. Her example was dragging the plant over to her to represent her need for nature, overturning a chair because she like to examine things on all sides, a neat pile of books for her directing organization and a scattered group of papers on the floor. Oh and a bag her daughter had bought for her to represent her family) So now I have to sit and ponder this while I’m in Puerto Rico! At the end of class, I was the last to leave and she winked and me and said “we are going to get along GREAT!” and I laughed and she started talking about stage managing for a living and I told her no, that I probably wouldn’t and she looked at me with these stern eyes and asked Why not? Have you even thought about it? And I let her know that I really want a job that will give me a stable income, and I don’t want to live in the lowest of places and she (exasperated at this point) says, Stage managers have the highest paid job in the Theatre realm. You would be a safe bet for making money there, plus they are in major need at this point, they need some good stage managers! We are going to have to do some research this semester and we will find out everything for you! So I guess, here it is day one of class and I’m already persuaded to change my major, which I don’t mind, but it’s so… out of the ordinary! I don’t know, I guess I will be learning a lot about everything this semester, including job opportunities. So then after that was Global Studies in the Student Union. Today we discussed Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. It was alright. I have to start studying though- we need to learn the majority of countries in the world (continent by continent) by the end of the term! I guess my fear of it not being “geography” was way underestimated! Then I read more of my David Eddings book on the deck by the pool, in the shade though. At 12 I met with my group for lunch and then continued reading on the deck until my 2:15pm class which was Critical Issues of the 20^th century. Its not going to be as interesting as I thought it would be. More lecture then discussion and a BUTT ton of writing. I have a book to read a week basically! And then I took a look at the “campus store” there are a lot of cool things, nothing that really struck me as something I definitely want, except maybe a pink semester at sea t-shirt/sweatshirt. But I think I will wait till after Puerto Rico to spend that money. Tonight’s plan is 5:30pm meet for dinner, 6pm is computer help to get onto the ship’s database and then pre-port meeting at 8pm to discuss Puerto Rico! Hopefully either late tonight or early tomorrow morning when the internet is much faster I’ll hop online and post this for all of you!

Puerto Rico will be quite exciting: Weds is a trip to Old San Juan, Thursday is the Rain Forest as I said and Friday will be the Kayaking trip that I’m incredibly excited about!

Well I think this is long enough for now, and I really want to relax a bit on the deck before dinner (its 5pm) so I should get going.

Oh and one last fact: Last night we lost an hour so we are officially one hour ahead of all of you!

Love you all! Hope everything is great in the states!

~Jennifer

p.s. Sorry no pictures yet, I didn't download onto my computer yet!