Phew. Made it through the first week and weekend here at SEA. As expected, it's been a little weird getting back into the groove of school, but it's going! Here, we stay in our classroom all day (except for breaks and lunch) and our teachers alternate courses. I love having the small class size that we do, In addition, I love knowing these are the people I will be learning with on a tall ship soon enough too! Each day we have about three out of our 5 classes, and everyday we have a hefty amount of reading. This weekend, although Labor Day weekend, was basically a weekend of reading. But we all managed it for the most part and are ready for the 2nd week of our shore component to begin!
Last week, our Captain (Nautical Science teacher as well) went over our actual itinerary for the trip, and although the dates may always change since we'll be sailing, the destinations will stay the same! We will be starting in Pango Pango (Pago Pago), American Samoa --> Apia, Samoa --> Mata'utu, Uvéa (Wallis) --> Leava, Futuna --> Suva, Fiji --> Auckland, New Zealand (second shore component).
We will be typically staying 3 days at each port stop, and our longest stretch out at sea will be from Fiji to New Zealand (about 14 days). This won't just be a cruise, because we'll be sailing for most of it, helping navigate, taking care of the ship, keeping watch and getting minimal hours of sleep. In addition, we will be continuing research on projects that we begin here in Woods Hole and learning more about the places we visit, the oceans we sail, and how to sail. I'm one of the few people that has sailing experienee in my class (and still very minimal), which I was kind of surprised to find out. Some of my new friends (classmates) know they get sea sick and/or haven't been on boats much, but EVERYONE is ready to go on this adventure-- and that's what makes me excited. We are all here for different reasons, mine can be found in my first blog post, others are starting their first years of college later, some needed more credits, some just like sailing, but we all are damn excited to do this. As we trudge through our homework, I think it just sits in the back of our minds that this month we'll be setting out to sea!
Despite all the homework, we've been trying to explore the area and become closer as not only classmates, but also friends. On Friday, some of us road bikes into the quaint little town of Woods Hole.
Saturday, we had a Bike Fest (AKA biking safety event), where I just barely lost the "slowest person to the finish line" race. Later, we again went to the beach. Except by this point things had gotten a little more serious and we all brought homework with us...
Sunday, some of us biked into the still small, but larger town of Falmouth for lunch. We experienced the herds of Labor Day weekend Cape Cod tourists... but it was fun!
We couldn't really find a place for all our bikes, so we decided to stick together...
By the time we headed home a storm started rolling in and it ended up pouring with lightning and thunder in the evening! The weather since then has been soooo humid. Sometimes, I swear I must be in Hilo or something!
Today, I literally spent hours upon hours reading but walked to the beach for sunset and had a lovely evening with my housemates. All in all, it was a long but good Labor Day Weekend! Sunday was also my Mom's birthday, and I'd just like to now insert an obligatory mom/daughter picture from us last year on her birthday.
Now I think I'll just leave a section with all the interesting little things I've experienced thus far:
~Mostly everyone else here can get to bed before me, because my friends and family are three hours behind and talking to them happens later, and thus pushes me writing this blog post back into the hours of the AM....
~The UC's are actually pretty affordable when you compare them to the small private universities a lot of my clasmates attend
~But Canada still wins for cheapest (we have our token Canadian, she's awesome, and sidenote they have some awesome coinage, ay)
~No one is obsessed with Disneyland out here. What a sad world.
~Talking to the one girl that goes to UC Davis from the other SEA class about In n Out made my night
Anyway, this is where I think I should stop rambling and get to bed. If you read all of this, thanks for taking the time-- in a few weeks I will be cut off from the world and you won't hear from me at all, so enjoy it while you can ;)
~LTK
Last week, our Captain (Nautical Science teacher as well) went over our actual itinerary for the trip, and although the dates may always change since we'll be sailing, the destinations will stay the same! We will be starting in Pango Pango (Pago Pago), American Samoa --> Apia, Samoa --> Mata'utu, Uvéa (Wallis) --> Leava, Futuna --> Suva, Fiji --> Auckland, New Zealand (second shore component).
We will be typically staying 3 days at each port stop, and our longest stretch out at sea will be from Fiji to New Zealand (about 14 days). This won't just be a cruise, because we'll be sailing for most of it, helping navigate, taking care of the ship, keeping watch and getting minimal hours of sleep. In addition, we will be continuing research on projects that we begin here in Woods Hole and learning more about the places we visit, the oceans we sail, and how to sail. I'm one of the few people that has sailing experienee in my class (and still very minimal), which I was kind of surprised to find out. Some of my new friends (classmates) know they get sea sick and/or haven't been on boats much, but EVERYONE is ready to go on this adventure-- and that's what makes me excited. We are all here for different reasons, mine can be found in my first blog post, others are starting their first years of college later, some needed more credits, some just like sailing, but we all are damn excited to do this. As we trudge through our homework, I think it just sits in the back of our minds that this month we'll be setting out to sea!
Despite all the homework, we've been trying to explore the area and become closer as not only classmates, but also friends. On Friday, some of us road bikes into the quaint little town of Woods Hole.
Later that night, our "RA" like dude here had an ice cream social for us and the other class, which may seem a little silly to even bring up... but look at all this ice creammmm!
Sunday, some of us biked into the still small, but larger town of Falmouth for lunch. We experienced the herds of Labor Day weekend Cape Cod tourists... but it was fun!
We couldn't really find a place for all our bikes, so we decided to stick together...
Today, I literally spent hours upon hours reading but walked to the beach for sunset and had a lovely evening with my housemates. All in all, it was a long but good Labor Day Weekend! Sunday was also my Mom's birthday, and I'd just like to now insert an obligatory mom/daughter picture from us last year on her birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
~Mostly everyone else here can get to bed before me, because my friends and family are three hours behind and talking to them happens later, and thus pushes me writing this blog post back into the hours of the AM....
~The UC's are actually pretty affordable when you compare them to the small private universities a lot of my clasmates attend
~But Canada still wins for cheapest (we have our token Canadian, she's awesome, and sidenote they have some awesome coinage, ay)
~No one is obsessed with Disneyland out here. What a sad world.
~Talking to the one girl that goes to UC Davis from the other SEA class about In n Out made my night
Anyway, this is where I think I should stop rambling and get to bed. If you read all of this, thanks for taking the time-- in a few weeks I will be cut off from the world and you won't hear from me at all, so enjoy it while you can ;)
~LTK
What fun! And I know you are also working hard in the classroom. Also, something tells me you will be eating at In n Out every night you are home before you sail. Maybe even sneak a double/double on board?
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