I set up this blog so my family and friends can follow me as I travel from the Bahamas to Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Morocco on the M/V Explorer as part of the Semester at Sea program. I will be gone for 66 days so we will see how well this goes. I already failed miserably by not posting until I got on the ship and am now surrounded by water but its okay, the important part is I made it on the ship, never thought the day would actually come. Did I cry? Eh, I teared up a bit but I am too excited for the upcoming journey. I’ve already met a lot of awesome people and enjoyed hanging out with them in the Bahamas.

We got in late the first night around 8ish and by the time the whole entire check in fiasco was over (they gave us keys to an occupied room) it was almost 10. Thankfully we ran in to my cousin Tom who happened to be staying in the same hotel during the same week and had a few drinks with him and ate nachos and cheese fries, not bad for my first meal in a foreign country.

Wednesday we spent the day poolside and I met a few of the kids on the beach. They so far have been the ones I’ve spent most of my time with. I ate a conch fritter at the Poop Deck!! And I almost ordered a lobster.. ALMOST.. I ended up getting the usual plain noodles with butter, sufficient enough for me. Not so sure how the rest of the trip is going to go with the food. So far I have heard people gain about 10 to 20 pounds on the trip but I can’t imagine how. We have water, fruit punch or some weird drink that looks like ice tea but isn’t. It is good though. The food isn’t too varying either. Tonight they had salad, macaroni salad, potatoes, jerk chicken, shrimp fried rice and some vegetable medley. I stuck obviously with the salad, potatoes, tried the macaroni salad and of course had a piece of bread. The rolls may be the only thing that gets me through. It shall be interesting.

Anyway, back to the Bahamas…

I met up with one of the girls from the trip Wednesday night and we ventured to meet some of the other people who were going to be on our trip. We ran in to a lot of students who had just returned from the shorter May semester aboard the M/V Explorer which was pretty interesting because they had a lot of good advice (mainly to watch the alcohol consumption before boarding the ship because they will breathilyze you after you return from port.. looks like I’ll be staying in hotels at every port.. haha just kidding).

Did I mention we went to the casino on Wednesday night after dinner?!?! Dangerous!!

By Thursday I was ready to begin being a tourist. We headed down to the straw market. If all markets around the world are like that I will have a great time! Very excited for the new cultures. We had lunch at Hard Rock Café and I actually ate a cheeseburger. I figure I’m just going to go all out on this trip. A hamburger isn’t much but for me it’s a big step. I’m also trying to get use to taking pictures and carrying around my camera. I have been slacking the last few years and I’m looking forward to having great pictures of my trip. I will try to post some when I get in to port and have an Internet café. Internet is limited on the ship. We have 125 minutes for the entire trip but so far it hasn’t been too bad. It is an adjustment getting use to not having a phone or Facebook but everyone with me is in the same situation so it is working out. The boat isn’t too big so its easy to find everyone. E-mail is free however. My e-mail is mkslagel@semesteratsea.net if anyone needs to get a hold of me. I am going to try to check it several times a day. My phone will be on but it is expensive so I am trying to limit it to emergencies. A text now and then is okay too.

Thursday night my sister Emily and I met up with a bunch of students and we went to Senor Frogs for dinner and drinks. So far I have met one girl who is friends with my step cousin and another girl who is roommates with one of the girls I’ve gone to school with since Preschool. It’s interesting how small of a world it really is. My roommate is also from Pittsburgh (Murrysville) but she grew up for a short while in Shaler and is now Pre med at UConn so I’m in good hands.

The hardest challenge for me right now is remembering everyone I have met. I can barely remember faces let a lone names. A good majority of the ship is from California and we have a large population of students from UVA and Boulder. There is only one other student on the boat from The University of Tampa and she is going in to her sophomore year. Did I mention the boat is also 75% female? Fun fact.

I will try to post later about ship life and my day today at orientation. I hope I get the chance. Class starts tomorrow and we are setting the clock an hour forward tonight which means I get an hour less of sleep before waking up early for my 9:20 class. Oh well!