Cont'd

On my third and final day, I went back to the beach and back into San Juan. We found a church with sketchy lifesize wax figures of dead religious figures. On the way back, we found a really cool bar that had 42 years of graffiti on it, everywhere. There was also a really cool restuarant with water going down all of the walls. We came back to the ship and said goodbye to San Juan. Here I am now. Day after sitting in the sun before class. 7 days before carnival in Brazil and god knows what else. One thing I do know is this experience is unlike anything- ANYTHING- I have ever done or could imagine doing. Less than one percent of the worlds population circumnavigate the world. I couldn't imagine anything better than this.

My trips so far

10 Minutes before I missed boarding call for the Bahammas 9 minutes of crying, more appropriately- sobbing, before the airport 8 frantic trips to convienence stores 3 days before I left 7 dollar taxi ride to the dock 6 packets of forms in the mail 5 months of tedious planning 4 immunization shots 3 long awaited months before the passport FINALLY showed up 2 prescriptions for mallaria and 1 acceptance letter to Semester At Sea And for fun? 0 books. 0 passport. You know, after 5 months you would think I'd have known what I'd be in for. I read alums advice relgiously, triple checked my packing list and scoped out the travel section in Borders. Course, the second the lady at the airport said, 'Passport please?' I knew this was not the start I had in mind when I realized my passport was 40 minutes away sitting in my scanner. By some miracle, I managed to make it 10 minutes before boarding time. Actually boarding the ship was a whole other ordeal. Two words: golf bag. While packing, I thought I found the undiscovered gold of luggage. Course, I didn't take into account that a golf bag would be awkwardly long and awkwardly heavy. Add another impeccably packed bag (thank you, Chris), a lap top case, and a book bag in 90 degree heat for an hour, and you have trouble. Just when you think it's over, more lines. Anyways, let's talk about my new home. 7 decks, 9 classrooms, 2 dining halls, 1 pool, 1 piano bar, and incredibly tiny lovable room. Excuse me, stateroom. It's legit. Haha... Saying goodbye was one of those experiences you can't forget. Everyone waved from along the dock, on a nearby pier, the entire side of Senor Frogs, and at the back of a nearby cruise ship. It's just that moment when you look down, see the water stories below, the land going into the distance when you think, 'Oh shit. This is real.' Up until that point, it had just been those 6 packets, 5 months of planning, 4 immunization shots, etc. Except instead of one acceptance letter, it's one crazy voyage that will change my life. Moving along, there wasn't much time from the Bahammas to Puerto Rico. At night we sit out on the deck and talk with the most unforgetable view ever. Some things you just can't wonder how you'll live without once it's in your system. It's hard to believe everyone else is going to regular school at home. This is so unreal. I'm on a vacation from life in paradise. No worries, no problems, no troubles except for the fact I have no books. When we arrived in Puerto Rico I spent the day walking, walking, walking... We were at a fort when other SAS-ers told us about a restuarant that I coincidentally wrote down and took a picture of. A little hole in the wall local favorite that apparently was on the food network channel (La Bombanero). Afterwards, we went across the street to another hole in the wall, and had a drink standing next to a line of slot machines. The handful of people in there looked like they had never even heard English in their life. That night, we followed two locals to a karaokee bar. For the record- I can cross out Spanish singer from my future. On my second day I spent the morning at the beach and my afternoon in Old San Juan. My mission is to find art in every country. I stumbled across this teeny little shop with oddities from all time periods ranging from antique bourbon bottles to an art gallary to mirrors you'd see on the Titanic. I bought a little statue that looks like ET lovingly named Bubba Rico, who just so happens to be from Venezuela. Oops.