Orientation
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2006
1
2
20
Trip End
Dec 07, 2006
Pacific Ocean, Mexico
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Latitude 30° 21.9N
Longitude 122° 46.7W
12:56
Greetings from the Pacific Ocean.
I am currently about 340 miles west of Mexico en route to Hawaii. As of now we are on schedule to arrive in Honolulu at 0700 local time on Saturday, September 2.
I flew from Denver to San Diego on Saturday with my Mom, Lauren Keith, and her mom Brenda. We got into San Diego early and rented a car to get around. We saw Lauren's campus at University of San Diego, which is a very nice campus. That night we stayed at the Hotel Dana, a very nice hotel on the bay side. The parents had a reception on the MV Explorer (the ship that Semester At Sea takes place on) in San Diego that night. Meanwhile Lauren and I met up with one of Lauren's friends from California and Stephanie Brazil, another friend from Fort Collins who is going on the voyage.
Yesterday we were on the 10:00 shuttle bus from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico because it's a lot cheaper to get 700 people out of there instead of the US. As we crossed the border there were two guys pushing a black truck through the portal to get into Mexico. The drive was really cool along the Baja California coastline and we saw a lot of beautiful beaches. It took about two and a half hours to get to the boat and it was a very welcome sight.
After going through intense security and getting our ship ID cards, we were able to board the ship for the first time but had to go through a lot of tables of information before getting to our rooms. When I finally got to my room I was filmed by a cameraman getting my initial reaction, which may or may not end up on the final DVD.
Once we had all of our bags in our rooms we met some people and headed into Ensenada to get some food and drinks. It was a lot of fun and there was a mariachi band going around to play at the tables that added to the flavor of the place.
We went back to board the ship at 3:00 and continued to meet new people. We finally pushed off just after 5:00 and had a lifeboat drill shortly thereafter. There was dinner after that and then a lot of orientation stuff, which made everyone tired and not many people wanted to hang out afterwards opting for bed instead. I did meet a few other people and went to bed after that.
Today has been even more orientation. All day long we've had meetings and presentations about both academic and maritime regulations. Everyone is getting tired of doing these and is ready to get into a routine with classes and activities.
The ship itself is amazing. It was built 4 years ago and is the fastest passenger vessel in the world. There are four engines with a total of 45,000 horsepower and the ship is capable of 30 knots, which probably means nothing to you because it doesn't mean anything to me, but I figure that's pretty fast. My room is pretty small, but manageable. Every square inch of space is used for storage and we have our own bathroom with a shower. There is also a cabin steward who comes by every day to make our beds and clean up which is great. My roommate is Zach Ransom from the University of Pittsburgh. He's a real nice guy and we are able to live together fine as most guys on the ship do. I've met a few girls who already have problems with their roommates, but most people are getting along great. The food on the ship is also great, the crew also busses our trays and dishes. I've been eating on the outside deck for every meal so far, but I'll bet we see some weather before Japan. It's pretty cold out in the middle of the Pacific, but the air feels great and it's cool to see ocean all around you for miles, I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune in the next couple weeks, but for now it's fun. I've also managed to stave off seasickness so far. It's mostly a mental battle, but I'm also taking the free medicine they offer just to be safe.
If you want to contact me, either comment on this or send me an e-mail.
