Mother Russia

We have finally arrived in our first port, Russia. Stay tuned for a post about my time here probably Monday which is when we leave.

Today we awoke to some bad news about the voyage. Because of Ebola getting to Senegal, we will no longer be going to Senegal or Ghana. TALK ABOUT A BUMMER. I'm super upset but it's all about safety blah blah blah so I get it. We'll be going to two more European stops instead, stay tuned on what those are they told us we should know more info by Monday.

Today I have a field lab, which is basically a field trip for class. We have one for each class and we do a project on whatever we learn during it. The next two days will be filled with culture, sightseeing, finding myself, and TONS OF VODKA.

Here are some pictures of our cabin, the ship, and places I've studied. Now that I have wifi I can actually post them.

Life on board

So I'm currently sitting in my tiny cabin, me and Sydney were fortunate
enough to get one of the approximately ten smallest cabins on board
which only has one single staircase to get to. It's 1400 here which I
think is like 8 in the morning right now at home but I really have no
idea, I can't get a hang of this whole time thing. Even though our room
is super small, now that everything is organized and we decorated it
with pictures it seems a lot more like our room.

We set sail yesterday at about 5 pm our time, it was crazy to finally
have pulled away and actually be off to Russia, I believe we get there
at some point during the day Friday and are allowed to get off the ship
on Saturday morning. I have a field lab with my class the first day of
Russia so I won't be able to go off traveling right away, I think I like
that though so I won't have to try to figure it out on my own.

The ship is super pretty and big, there aren't a ton of places to go but
I'm still struggling to navigate and figure out which way which things
are. People are really friendly everyone smiles at each other and says
hi and sits with random people at meals which is cool, I'm working
really hard to try to smile rather than have my constant resting bitch
face. The store opened today so I woke up before it opened to get there
right away to make sure I could get stuff, they sell out so fast. I got
a blanket and sweatshirt which were stupidly expensive but definitely
worth it.

As far as the food goes Seasons is gourmet, 5 star dining. We have
breakfast from 7:00-8:30 so I haven't quite made it there yet, then
there's lunch from 12:00-1:00, dinner 5:00-6:30, then snack time at 10.
There is a very small amount to choose from, so far I'm a vegetarian on
the ship so I'm hoping they have some kind of chicken or some meat I can
eat soon, the fish is decent and they always have some kind of fish for
dinner.

Yesterday was orientation so we spent most of the day listening to them
talk about safety, academics, and other stuff. It was very very boring
and I definitely didn't get too much out of it, there were some
important things. There was also an activities fair so I tried to sign
up for a bunch of stuff that I was interested in, all the clubs and
activities are started by students so they weren't the typical clubs you
would think of. I signed up for two yoga things, zumba (we'll see about
that), volleyball, a club that is pretty much preparing for the next
port, and for a family. When you sign up for a family they match you and
a group of other students up with "parents" which are either lifelong
learners, professors, or other adults on the ship I'm looking forward to
finding out who my family is. I think all the clubs will be a really
good way to meet more people.

We had our first day of classes today, they seem like they won't be too
hard my professors are really chill and I already got out of my
marketing class early. One of the classes was in the union because it's
a double class so we needed the extra space. Since it's at the front of
the ship it was pretty rocky today and I could tell some people were
struggling. I haven't been super sea sick, definitely no vomit yet. I am
a little off though and its tough to walk around. I put on my seabands
and whether they actually help or it's in my head, I don't know, but I
feel better.

Overall, I'm really liking it so far and adjusting to life at sea fairly
quickly. I can't post pictures to the blog on the ship anymore because
we can't send or receive attachments so sorry about that, I'll try to
post some ship pics in a country. I also can't reply to comments because
I can't go on the internet but feel free to email me to talk whenever:
victoria.hancock.fa14@semesteratsea.org

BYE

To the ship

Today's the day we get on the ship, I'm wicked excited. If definitely be more excited if I didn't get up at the crack of dawn but what an you do, and anyways nothing brings out my bubbly personality like jet lag and lugging giant 4600 pound duffel bags through London's tube system which has a surprising lack of "lifts" (elevators) 

A few fun things about my time so far in London 

-I didn't sleep at all on my flight so thankfully I had a screaming baby to keep me company for 6 hours 

-Virgin Atlantic gives out free booze

-I realized just as I almost fell asleep on the plane that I forgot my rain jacket! Yes mom, I know you told me to bring two 

-Just as I got over that I realized I forgot to pack my sneakers (who needs em right?) luckily our hostel was in the ghettos of London, classic me still in the ghetto, so I found a fairly cheap pair of "trainers" and now I know my foot size in the UK 

London actually was so awesome though and I'm severely depressed to leave but also happy because it's EXPENSIVE. People are also so nice here they saw my lost little puppy eyes and just knew I had no idea what the hell I was doing and were always open to helping point us in the right direction and to help lug my bags up thousands of flights of stairs. 

The first day in London I was sure I was going to die but after a nap I was a new person (those who know me know exactly how tired I must've been because I do not nap) we didn't do any sightseeing but we hung out in our Bentley friends' apartment they rented, they're also going on SAS... shoutout to Kira, Wes (our dad/photographer), Tyler, Catie, and Elena. They lived right in picadilly circus which reminded me of Times Square but with older buildings and slightly less people. I made my first LEGAL purchase of alcohol which was pretty cool and didn't get carded which bummed me out, but a big eff you to the people who say I look like a twelve year old. We went to a bar/club which was a ton of fun and made it back to our hostel safely, go us for being super responsible.

Our next day is much more family friendly, not that Thursday was too crazy (as far as you know). We decided to just be super touristy which was so much fun. We had a little bit of a late start thanks to the combination of lack of sleep and a late night. We again met up with our crew and set off on the tube.

We didn't want to pay for stuff so we went to 

-Buckingham Palace

-saw Big Ben 

-the London Eye (didn't ride it, long lines, expensive tickets, whatever), -took classic phone booth pics 

- went to the British Museum which might have been the coolest place ever I could've lived there for the semester and been happy and still not seen everything I would have wanted to see.. Here is me posing with a statue and the Rosetta Stone 

-then last we went to King's Cross because it would've been so wrong not to go visit my friends at platform 9 3/4, I of course repped my Slytherins 

For the night we just hung out in our friends' apartment because we had to be up early and going out would've probably caused us to miss our busses to the ship.

I've decided to try to get a shot glass and post card from every country hopefully that's possible. I'm also trying to shotgun in every country... Wait what? Family no you didn't hear anything. It was between that and a mugshot in every country so we decided the former was smarter, see? I'm already making smart decisions.

Okay the tube is almost back to the airport where we get on a shuttle to the ship. I'll try to update you guys with some ship life stuff and pix as soon as I can idk how internet/email will be once I'm there so bear with me. Apologies for the formatting of this post I'm on my iPod

DEUCES

The day has arrived

Today's the big day, nobody from Bentley or Semester at Sea has called me yet to say they've made a massive mistake and I actually can't leave the country so I think we're good to go. I takeoff for London today at around 9:40 PM and we'll be arriving in London around 9:10 AM (4:10 AM here, really looking forward to the jetlag!!!) Since we'll be hopping around timezones for this entire trip I'm just going to give up on sleep for the semester and sleep for two months when I get home.

I've finally (over)packed so today is all about fun stuff like paperwork, eating everything in sight, and trying to get Sydney out of bed. We've decided that we are going to try to smuggle a cat onboard the ship so stay tuned for that. For those wondering, here is a picture of my home for the next few months:
The ship looks big and fancy, but realistically we'll be sleeping in a small closet next to the engine. We don't get onboard the ship until Saturday so we'll be blindly traveling around London for the next couple days, if you have any suggestions of fun things to do, see, and eat let me know.

Here is an accurate summation of my current feelings: When you are going on a roller coaster and it locks you in and starts moving and in your head you're thinking "Shit, what have I done, now I'm trapped and I can never get off this thing" But then you get off and you run right back in line because it was awesome. At least I hope the second part is true.

I probably won't post anything until I'm on the ship and settled in so wish me luck, I have to make friends on this thing. Thankfully I inherited my dad's outgoing personality so it shouldn't be too hard.

I leave in a week, help (practice post)

This post is just me practicing to see if I can manage to post blogs through email since I'm about to spend 3 and a half months with no internet!!!

Since we're a week away from my flight to London, I'm pretty much completely ready to go with all my packing, shopping, and various preparation done (as evidenced by this picture I'm trying to attach if that works too)


If you decide to follow my blog throughout my trip aka if you are a member of my family, I promise I'll try to post regularly and I may even occasionally talk about things I do aside from consuming alcohol. Just kidding, I won't be talking about that at all (contrary to the name of this blog) there will likely be occasional profanity so viewer discretion is advised. It wouldn't be entertaining or like me if I wrote this like a school assignment.

As many of you already know this trip I'm referring to is my study abroad program, Semester at Sea. I embark from Southampton on August 23rd and I will be back in the good ol' USofA on December 8th. In between that time I will be traveling to 14 different countries. I will also be taking class. Sucks, I know I feel the same way. Here is our voyage calendar which shows the days we're in countries and which ones I'm taking classes.

I don't really know what to expect since I've never been out of the country or on a cruise ship so let's hope that I have a good sense of direction and don't get seasick. I won't really have access to a phone except occasionally in port when I have wifi and will be using Viber mostly to call my mom so she knows I'm not dead in a hole in Russia or something. I will have access to email almost all the time so please email me (victoria.hancock.fa14@semesteratsea.org) so I know what's going on in the world and your lives.

So that's all for now, stay tuned for updates on my experiences in countries, ship lyfe, and  who knows what else.

Feel free to comment and give me ideas of things you want me to write about too, I live to please the masses