February 4th Bahamas-San Juan

Sunday, February 4^th

The night had passed by quickly, interrupted by random awakenings due to nervousness and worries that my alarm wouldn’t go off properly.

When it did go off – like a fire alarm – I actually had the nerve to snooze it for another 30 minutes.

Quick shower, picked out clothes and got ready with Cartoon Network playing in the background. I tried out the brush I had gotten that was supposed to substitute the hair straightener, but it failed miserably to the Bahamian humidity.

The view from my window was wonderful. I could see the bridge connecting Nassau to Paradise Island and, just beyond that, the MV Explorer. It was a baby compared to other multi-millionaire cruise ships, but it was there waiting to carry us out into the world.

I dragged my brutally heavy luggage to the lobby and hopped on to a bus. I was officially on my way, and I was nervous once again.

The bus drove through the street that was just one over from the dock. In between houses, I caught glimpses of cruise ships. We were close.

As the bus turned into the dock, I saw people, people, people. There were tourists, locals selling things, and students.

In midst of the excitement and nervousness, I felt camaraderie already to the tons of students hauling their overstuffed bags.

I got into line and talked to some girls (Jennifer).

After about an hour, we reached the check in where they took our passports, gave us our ID, and checked our bags.

Then, the ship appeared before our eyes. It was amazing. The SAS logo on the top of the ship made me smile. The inside was absolutely beautiful. It was so clean and comfortable. I loved it already.

After going through more check-ins, I finally headed for my room. 4163. 4^th floor. Aft side. I opened the door and was greeted with a very pretty and, so so so much to my relief, and intelligent looking girl. I should never judge by looks, but I had to admit I was a bit concerned of being roommates with girls I had seen who were not exactly dressed to go on a learning experience.

My new roomie Priya said she was also really scared about the roommate situation. We talked about how we were really here to learn, and I definitely felt that we were going to be ok. We talked and laughed, and then went up to the 6^th deck for some relaxing and meeting time where we met another huge jumble of people.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the water was an amazing blue.

We just kept on saying to each other that everything was so surreal. We had thought and talked about this for so long, it was unbelievable we were finally here.

We had out first meal on the ship at noon. The dining room was absolutely beautiful and the food was all you can eat. I had some salad, pasta, beef satay thingy, and later peanut butter and jelly on toast. Yum.

We wandered around for a bit and got a feel for the ship, and we headed back to the cabin for some unpacking. Packing and cutting back much as we can on luggage was the huge issue up until the last second for everyone, but Priya and I found out as we unpacked that there was actually a really good amount of storage.

We even struggled to fill up some random spaces!

Another thing about the cabin – there is an intercom system to broadcast any needed announcements. Now this kept going off about every 5 minutes. And it was LOUD. Some parent had misplaced their passport on the ship (it was visiting hours for any family that had flown into Nassau), some kid kept getting called to the purser’s desk…

Priya and I attempted to muffle these outrageously annoying announcements by putting a towel up with magnetic clips I had brought (magnets are the only adhesive we can use on the ship) but we failed miserably. It was really funny though and we got a really good laugh J

Soon enough, it was time to embark. We all streamed out on to the deck. Tons of parents were on the dock waving their kids off. The horn of the ship sounded, which completely blew our eardrums out. We slowly left port, and were on our way. Priya and I, along with Ashley (a girl we met on the deck) walked around the ship a bit more and then headed for dinner.

Again, I had salad, pasta, fish, and veggies. Yum, again.

I headed back to the cabin again to make sure the room was set up and clean enough for that night. On the ship there are outside and inside cabins, the outside ones having windows. Our cabin is an outside, and although it was a bit expensive it is definitely worth every penny. The sun streams through the window and we can see the water and sky stretching far, far, far.

The night consisted of an orientation meeting, which was basically a prep talk from some faculty, and a “sea” meeting. Each hallway is grouped together and has a residence director. They are also named after a sea. I am in the Arabic Sea with an RD named Melanie who kind of reminds me of Dean Tyler on vacation. (hahaha) We had our meeting on the deck which was definitely not convenient because of the wind and engine noise. We all had to yell to introduce ourselves.

After that I was simply exhausted, so took a shower and curled up in my bed.

The engine noise is pretty damn loud because we’re on the aft side, and even though the rocking of the ship is less here we could feel it pretty strongly once we laid down. And the sea only gets rockier from here on.

I couldn’t fall asleep right away, more due to the excitement of the day. So I put my ipod on and hurried myself to sleep.