A Crazy Beginning

Well, my semester abroad through Semester at Sea has begun!  I arrived in London mid afternoon on August 22nd and explored the city with Nicole and Tommy, two other students in my program.  To be honest, I am not a fan of London.  It's extremely similar to the United States, boring to walk around, and just plain expensive!  One British pound is equal to $1.54, so the exchange rate was pretty bad.  However, I was able to ride on the tube (which is like a subway in NYC), see Big Ben, get the classic tourist photo with a red telephone booth, visit Buckingham Palace, and take a stroll through St. James Park.  However, while all of that may sound cool to you (I hope at least one person is reading this!), my favorite part of London was the Patisserie Valerie.   The Patisserie Valerie is this super cute patisserie and sandwich shop, and their food was the best!  I got a sandwich that was covered in melted cheese with ham in between.  AND, people from London make their french fries differently!  In London, the salt is mixed with some kind of spice that makes the fries taste AMAZING!   Or maybe I just thought they were better because I don't have french fries very frequently.  After exploring, we then headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.




       

The next morning, I had to get up pretty early to catch the shuttle that would take myself and 26 other work study students to the ship a day early.  I loved being able to get on the ship early because I was able to unpack and pick a side before my roommates came the next day.  My room is like a quad, meaning there are two rooms connected to each other by a door.  Our bathroom is in one room and the large desk is in the other.  I chose the room without the bathroom because the inside room has more closet space, and you can't here the shower or toilet in it!  I was also able to explore the ship before everyone else arrived!  It is SO nice.  There are 7 decks on the MV Explorer, which notably includes a swimming pool, workout room, spa, campus stores, and about 4 dining areas counting the outside tables.  It's huge!  I still haven't figured out how to get around!  Once I was done working the parent reception for the parents of students attending, I had the rest of the night free.  Most of the work study students headed out to a bar/club, but since I'm not into that, I hung around the ship talking to a few girls, finished unpacking, and then headed to bed since I was still pretty jet lagged.   The next morning was embarkation day, and my job was to welcome all the new students to the ship and explain the check-in process.  It was really cool because I got

to meet pretty much everyone on the ship, even if I still can't remember most people's names!  But once embarkation finished and the boat sailed away from our port, the whole student body went to convocation to be "inspired" by a guest speaker who works with the government.  After that was over, pretty much everyone went to sleep.  And yesterday was literally orientation after orientation for like 8 hours.  It was exhausting!  Oh, and to top it all off, I got REALLY sea sick so I missed some of the orientation.  I mean, my options were to lay down in my cabin or get sick in the middle of orientation.  Needless to say, I chose to rest on my bed, where I put on my sea sickness patch and fell asleep for like 5 hours.  However, that evening was the activity/club fair, so I woke up to sign up for the extended family program, a service/volunteering club, passport to leadership, SAS money savers, a women's Bible study, and a co-ed worship/Bible study.  I'm excited to find out how I can participate in all of those clubs!  But until then, I'll just have to wait... just like you all are going to have to wait for another post about my first day of classes and work!   So until that time, here's to hoping I don't get sea sick anymore!  Prayers are definitely appreciated! 

 

Fun Fact: There are no stop signs in London. Weird.