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