I'M THE KING OF THE WORLDDDD!!!!

Thursday, September 1, 2011 (1:01am) - MV Explorer

now this is how i pictured the middle of the atlantic ocean. you know that old saying about how if a tree falls in the forrest but no one is there, does it make a sound? well we are right in the midst of a storm and it POURED today. who knew there was weather in the middle of the ocean? this probably doesn't bother you as much as it is bothering me... but if we weren't here right now, no one would know it was raining! yes, i'm weird... i know.

anyways, we're supposedly sailing through the gulf stream right now. it's pretty windy outside, but it is REALLY warm! which kinda caught me by surprise because i was thinking i was going to freeze half to death on this part of the voyage. maybe cus i watch titanic every chance i get and they were in layers of fur coats in every scene. granted they were crossing the atlantic in april and they were a little north of us, but still! then i realized I'M SAILING ON TOP OF THE TITANIC RIGHT NOW! maybe not technically directly over it, but in my head i am. which sparked a very lengthy and funny discussion at dinner tonight with brewer, linda, and jake. um. where are the icebergs? since when does the atlantic have icebergs anyways. people are literally in their bathing suits tanning, and you're expecting me to believe that this gigantic ship hit a damn iceberg and sank and killed like a billion people. yeahhh... no. plus, where's the debris? i realize the titanic sank 100 years ago, but in my head there should still be debris everywhere. or at least a sign saying "the titanic sank here." i know that's impossible, but "impossible is nothing." duh. brewer proceeded to wikipedia (not google cus that would use internet minutes) titanic conspiracy theories. (do it, it's pretty funny). jake concluded that it was just a ploy to get leonardo dicaprio a movie... naturally i think it was rene providing celine with the best career move of all time.

in other news, the waves outside are crazy big right now. my friend michael who i've mentioned before lives a deck below me, which is barely above water level when the water is calm. since we're in a storm, the waves are huge though so i demanded to go to his room to look out his window. the wake of the ship is higher than his window. like, we look UP at the waves. it was out of control and a little creepy. i guess when he was napping a wave hit his window and woke him up. and with titanic on the mind today, i wasn't real thrilled to be there, so we wondered up to a higher deck out of the potential reach of an "iceberg."

today i spent most of the day doing homework every chance i got because i hate being behind and professors don't understand that the first day of class is "syllabus day." on day one i started behind in all my classes... but i'm almost caught up, thank goodness. one thing that i didn't expect on the ship was that my lack of eating red meat was going to be an issue. i figured chicken was going to be on the menu every night because it's cheap, but red meat has been the protein option for lunch and dinner way more than i thought. it's not that big of an issue... but it just kinda surprised me a little bit. speaking of food... brewer and i have set some "house rules" (i guess technically 'cabin rules') regarding meal time. since pasta, pork, and potatoes are served ALL THE TIME (as per alumni advice and the back of our cabin painting), brewer and i are limiting ourselves to the consumption of only 1 potato and 1 pasta a day. so if you eat potatoes at breakfast, no potatoes for the rest of the day! and we're going halfsies on desserts. no abroad-bod for us! but no worries, in port... game on! and we decided no taking the elevator... just like no taking the tram when at usd.

speaking of usd, happy first day of classes everyone! my usd email gets forwarded to my sas email so i received the annual "welcome back" email from usd president mary lyons. i read it outloud when brew and i were doing homework and we both literally had tears in our eyes. don't get me wrong, i wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now... but it's so weird that everyone is there and we aren't. don't you all know that the world is supposed to stop when i'm not there? come on now.

little over half way across the atlantic & three more days til morocco!

off to bed. dreaming of not hitting any icebergs. byeee.

cold eggs and open water

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 (9:24am) - MV Explorer [finally remembered this part]

name one thing worse than cold eggs. i dare you to even try. because it's impossible. there are few things in this world that i hate more than cold eggs. now, try to guess what i have to eat every morning for breakfast. give up? COLD. EGGS. omg i'm dying here. breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and there is no buzz kill quite like cold eggs. why can't my dad or muma be here to cook me breakfast every morning? guess i'm going to have to get used to lukewarm food. wah.

so yesterday we officially made it to open ocean. the real live atlantic is right out my window. orrr all around me. the water is so blue and pretty, and i'm pleasantly surprised with how calm it is. maybe i watched perfect storm a few too many times before this voyage cus i was expecting to borderline die on this part of the trip. still doing fine with seasickness, though some of my friends are struggling. it's pretty funny watching people try to walk though. getting from point a to point b takes a while longer because you have to walk in short diagonal lines to correspond with the swaying of the ship. personal space flies right out the window when the ship is rocking.

yesterday i picked up my drink card and figured "yay i can be classy and drink wine with dinner!" oh wait. WORST WINE EVER. like, worse than boxed wine. so now i have to pay $3.50 for a coors light. great. but last night was pub night which was really fun. basically everyone goes up to the pool deck and is allowed to get 3 more drinks on top of the 2 we're allowed at dinner. everybody gets to hang out and talk with an overpriced beer in their hand. fun times.

yesterday was the first day of B classes. global studies is really interesting because everyone on the ship has to take it, including lifelong learners and staff and everyone. lifelong learners are old people (sorry if i offend anyone with that statement, but they're pretty much senior citizens). the shipboard community is pretty interesting because there are 450 college students, plus lifelong learners. then there are the professors and their families as well as the staff and some of their families. it's also pretty cool that everyone is stuck in this space together. so you see you professors ALL the time. at every meal, in class, walking around. and there are children on the ship! SO cute!!

yesterday was captain jeremy's birthday! so we got cake at dinner, but it was horrible! who likes cherries in their cake, honestly? but the whole ship sang happy birthday to him so it was pretty cool. imagine a "slavinsky-style" happy birthday, but multiply it by like 1000. all around win.

this morning i woke up to add a fifth class at 7:30. i added "ethics and the making of us foreign policy." so i'm going to get 3 classes for my major finished and 1 core class. global studies doesn't transfer back as anything, unfortunately.

today all i have planned is class and work. i also have to sign up for a few more trips for some of my classes and i'm probably going to sign up for a few service trips too. can't wait to get to morocco... we don't arrive until saturday!

happy move-in week to all my USD people. hope this week is as unreal as it was last year. now i need to go get ready for class. OH and i saw dolphins yesterday at dinner when we were watching the sunset. still waiting to see whales though! we move our clocks ahead an hour again tonight. so i think that makes it 6 hours ahead as of tomorrow. yikes.

xoxo

WHAAALLLEEE!!!!!!

so. word on the street is that there have been not one, but two whale sightings since this voyage has begun plus dolphins this morning. um PISSED! i don't know where i was when this happened. or why they don't announce THAT over the intercom!? of all the things they announce... "hey... whale on starboard" should be the one thing they do. but there has been fog all day, so i probably wouldn't have been able to see them anyways. the fog kinda blows cus this is the last day we'll be able to see the land for the next week and we can barely see 100 yards off the ship. sad day. but we've officially hit the atlantic! which means the ship is really rocking now. i don't really feel it, but there are definitely people who are getting sick. my goal for today was to find someone puking... but i haven't yet. brew wasn't feeling good earlier today after she went to the gym. but i do know people are getting sick. as long as it isn't me, it's funny.

today was the first day of classes! so strange having to pay attention and take notes. don't they know this is a global cruise? who said anything about school?? and i have homework tonight!? RIDICULOUS! but. best part, we only have 46 days of class. out of 111. and technically, we really only have 45 more days of class. game on. some of you have asked me what classes i'm taking... so here they are. on A days i'm taking a class called united nations, international organizations and global governance. my other class that day is global music. then on B days i'm taking global studies as well as gender and development. i'm gonna try to add a fifth class, but i don't get to do that for another two days. it's kinda like high school with block schedule. win.

it was also my first day of work today. i'm working in the library for people who don't know. it seems like it's gonna be fun because i guess the library is the central location for everyone to come with questions and stuff. plus it's centralized, so i get to see everyone walking by so i get to see everyone while i'm working. yay!

other than that, a pretty uneventful day. we have snack time tonight for the first time. i don't know what that means, but if there are more bananas and peanut butter, it could just be heaven. when/if fruit runs out i am going to cry. also, tomatoes. though technically tomatoes are fruit. whatevs. and brew and i just discovered planet earth playing on one of our 5 tv channels. best day ever, since yesterday.

love and miss you all.

from, a non-whale seeing, non-seasick voyager

never go anywhere alone & don't blackout too hard

orientation all day long. i'll spare you the details, because if i'm this bored... i can't imagine reading about it. but since we're officially sailing the rocking of the ship is putting everyone to sleep. and the fact that they close all the blinds so it's dark for the projector. orientation is slowly turning into nap time for everyone. not sorry. and sleep is becoming valuable as we have to set our clocks forward for the first time tonight.

brewha and i are already doing magical things. so, like all of you SAS alumni told us we ripped the picture off the wall and read all the great things past voyagers wrote to us. we found our motto of the trip: "never go anywhere alone and don't black out too hard." um. life lessons people. i wish we could read the guys last name who wrote it... but kevin, whoever you are, i think i love you. it's pretty valuable information whether you're on a boat or on land. also, we had to sign a roommate agreement form, but us idiots didn't know we actually had to write notes on it... so we just checked everything off. "hygiene... check... public space... check". yeah we rock. we're also supposed to figure out how to resolve conflicts. and since i didn't have room to pack my lightsaber a la 732 1/2 jamaica... we had to brainstorm a little bit. final answer: walkoff... zoolander style. michael will be the judge. you know great things are happening in 3011. at dinner yesterday we were also deciding who would get the door if we sank like titanic. we agreed we'd go halfsies instead of rose letting jack freeze and die like a selfish bioootch. woopsies. anddd our light went out yesterday mysteriously when michael, brew, and i were sitting in our room writing blog posts. i think we have a ghost. we all agreed, as long as it's nice it's okay with us.

yesterday before the lifeboat drill the captain got on the intercom to talk to us. and he has a british accent!!! (saw him today... turns out he's a british ginger. i died a little.) brew, michael, and i decided he needs to do story time every night to rock us to sleep with his crazy sexy cool voice. if not story time, maybe fireside chats or something? we set sail yesterday , but we're in a river (St. Lawrence River) so the ship isn't rocking very much. but it does move a little bit and the san diegan in me thinks it's an earthquake everytime. keeping things interesting. speaking of san diego, tyler repstad was right... we're already being known as "those kids." and by those kids i mean USD kids. there are 62 of us on the ship. with only 447 students, that's a pretty solid percentage. lots of delts onboard.  my email address on the ship is free. please feel free to email me. it's nice hearing from home. my email is shslavinsky@semesteratsea.net.

loving life so far. kinda want to be like dj pauly d and run around yelling "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!" all the time. but i figure that's not a great way to make friends.

signing off from the pool deck. life's rough.

peace & blessings

the eagle has landed

hiii! i'm a little upset right now because i just tried to post on here and it deleted it and i wrote the most sassy thing ever and now i have to redo it. wah. anywaysss, i have no idea when i last updated this because all the days are running together. so, sorry if i repeat myself. i'm pretty sure i already updated about my arrival in montreal. which was way better than expected. i didn't really have any expectations for montreal cus i was only in the city for less than 24 hours, but i would definitely return again if i could. it was kind of a mix of SF and NYC.  the shopping of new york with the architecture and safety of san fran. and SURPRISE… they speak french. i knew they spoke french in canada… but i didn’t know that their road signs and everything are in french. at least in san diego i can fake spanish. french... not so much. i'm going to get really good at sign language this voyage, or at least sign language that i make up.

so yesterday we woke up at 8 in the morning. i stayed in the hostel with two other USD girls (cassie galentine & molly mccluskey) and some random french girl. us minus the frenchie met up with some other SAS people and walked around to get breakfast. we went to this crepe place called paris crepe. it was delicious! after that, we all walked forever to old montreal. which was BEAUTIFUL! the architecture was gorgeous. lots of pretty old churches and cobble stone streets. but of course it started POURING on us. which kinda sucked cus i really wanted pictures of everything but i was more worried about not ruining my camera day one. so we stopped at a little pub called Paul's or Jared's or something for a little. two of the other girls were also work study, so we shared a cab back to the hostel to get our bags packed and situated.

there were about six of us that needed to get to the ship because us work study diva's got to board a day early! it was really convenient too because it took us roughly 2 seconds to get through security and another 5 minutes for us to get our bags. which was awesome because we got to unpack and get settled, and we also had time to explore the ship a little bit. i have a window, which is a godsend. the rooms on the inside are borderline unbearable. clausterphobia would definitely be an issue. we all had a meeting that evening, after eating dinner. the first meal on the ship was good! (give me a few weeks and i'll probably be writing about how much i can't deal with the food here). but until then, i was pleasantly surprised. but don't get me wrong, it was no SLP. the meeting was pretty pointless. but all 72 of us work study people had to go. then we were free! so michael (a guy i met the first night in montreal) got ready and went out to this pub night that someone set up. there were about 100 SAS people at this pub, which was really fun! i have a feeling that these next few days are going to be a lot like freshman year/sorority recruitment. "hi, i'm so and so... i'm from here but i go to this school... this is my major... and do you know this person from your school!?" such a blast, right!? michael and i stayed at the pub night the whole time cus it was his birthday (happy 22nd!) but we didn't end up going to the club after because we had to work in the morning. buzz kill.

so this morning i woke up at 6:05. not great. but i met michael and a couple other work study kids for breakfast. it was nice because that was the last hour before everybody else boarded the ship. then WORK. i worked all day long. best part. MADDY BREWER SHOWED UP!!!! um. real life. it kinda became more real when i saw my name on my door this morning and right next to mine was "madeline brewer". brewha and i conquer the world. more adventures to come. but back to working, i only got an hour break that i spent starring into maddy's eyes. cus i can't believe she's here. (didn't actually do that, but kinda). then i only got a 10 minute break for the rest of the day. so i ran up to the dining hall and sat with all the usd AXOs... which was beautiful. work was awesome though because i seriously had to check in every single person that came on the ship. and as my mom so nicely pointed out, it was prime time to scope out any potential boyfriends (or future husbands, as you warwick's staff are trying to marry me off every other day). but since i had a lanyard with my name on it & people recognized my face i got questions for the rest of the day.

after i got off work, i hung out with brewha in the room. thennn LIFEBOAT DRILL. what could be more fun than 450 students plus lifelong learners on the deck in... wait for it.... their life jackets. pictures to come. brew & i decided we need to incorporate lifejackets into everyday life in SD. next themed dance, life jackets will definitely be part of the costume. 80s yacht club repeat??

as of 5pm, we set sail! leaving montreal was a trip. we got escorted by the coast guard and we're on our way! michael, brewer, & i stood on the 6th deck forward and waved to all the people at the dock that we were leaving. it was awesome. just kept saying "is this real life?" every two seconds. conclusion: NO! i don't think so. totally surreal that we're on our way. montreal was fun, would totally go there again. but i can't wait to really start this voyage. we won't make it to open water until tomorrow. we have to get through some river first.

sorry this is so long, i've been doing so much and think you all should know.

so it's goodbye north america... hello morocco!

and ps happy move in day to my little sister marissa! GO LIONS!

OHHHH CANADAAA....

Montreal, Canada 8:18pm

i'm homesick. already. haha i've been here all of maybe 3 hours and the thought of anyone from home brings tears to my eyes. i knowww i should be super pumped for what's ahead, but i can't help it that i have a heart and i miss my people at home. i cried through the line at security when i could no longer see my fam & melis (who is slowly but surely becoming a slavinsky herself), through secondary and getting pat down by TSA. SIDENOTE, they pat down my hair. is head lice the new weapon of mass destruction!? i'm confused. anyways, i basically cried my way to minneapolis until i saw a few familiar faces at the gate to montreal & realized i'm not alone. so now i'm sitting on the top bunk in my hostel getting ready to go out. the hostel is kinda strange. never been to one, guess i need to get used to it for this trip.

in other news, i got the first stamp on my passport today! yay canadian land! is it bad that one of the things i'm most excited for is how cool my passport is going to look at the end of this? not sorry.

well, end of day one without a cell phone. i feel like a lost puppy. not sure how i'm going to survive when they take away my normal internet access too. agh.

me & my hostel roomies are getting ready and going out to find more SAS people! i board the ship tomorrow too. shit's getting real. ahhhh!

BYE AMERICA!

it hasn't quite hit me that i'm leaving tomorrow. but i finished
packing. i somehow fit my entire wardrobe into one suitcase. win. now
trying to figure out how to pack my dog and all my friends. could be
interesting. so long to all my friends and family i didn't have the
chance to say bye to. i'll be back one day. until then, keep it real.
and DO YOU. hahaaa you're welcome lars.

love & rockets.

3...2...1... LIFTOFF!

7:53pm (La Costa, CA)

maybe i should update this thing? idk. well it's final countdown... i leave on wednesday at an ungodly hour and it is all hands on deck/complete mayhem at the slavinsky household. between me leaving for four months and babychild marissa leaving for her first semester of college this week, i think the slavinsky's are getting borderline certifiable. come over, i dare you.

so a lot has happened since the last time i updated. i booked a lot of trips. which is just code for i spent a lot of money and am crying about it. but it'll be worth it, right!? it better be! here's the game plan. in morocco, i'm doing a casablaca city orientation with interior of mosque. what mosque? your guess is as good as mine. the next day, i'm high tailing it outta casablanca to marrakech to do an overnight camel trek into the desert. cus come on, who doesn't want to ride a camel!? then we come back and i'm staying the night in marrakech because i heard it's really cool. then in ghana i'm doing a village experience for one of my classes where i get an authentic african name. real life. next stop is south africa where i have a million things to do in 5 short short days. on the agenda so far is a one day safari, a habitat for humanity trip, a township homestay, hiking table mountain, and visiting robben island. for one of my classes i also get to go to a lecture for the institute for justice & reconciliation. big things! probably the most excited for south africa. my two big trips are scheduled for india and china. i get to see the taj mahal in india and visit and sleep on the great wall in china, as well as see the terracotta warriors.

those are just some of the trips i am going on. excited doesn't even begin to explain what i'm feeling. but before i even get to do all this, i have to get myself to montreal, canada. that means packing. and if you know me, you know two things. first, i leave everything to the last minute. and second, I HATE PACKING. i cannot stress enough how much i despise packing. almost to the point of hiring someone to do it for me. i literally don't have one thing packed. so this is cool. pretty sure i'm done buying everything though, so that's good.

anyways, this might be the last blogpost before i leave. so adios amigos! see you all in december. don't do anything fun while i'm gone. okay, good. i'm gonna go conquer the world now, if that's alright with you.

xoxo, gossip girl

SEMESTER AT SEA BUCKET LIST:
-drink a coca-cola in every country (diff. recipe in every country!)
-sleep on the great wall
-see a real live giraffe
-see the taj mahal
-find a husband (unless the Warwick's staff can find one for me in SD)
-ride a camel
-zip line in costa rica
-climb table mountain

Holy shit it's August!?$%@

Monday, August 1, 2011 9:26am (La Costa, CA)

I repeat, HOLY SHIT IT'S AUGUST!!!! That means in a mere three weeks I will set sail for my cruise around the world. I say cruise because some people (namely my mother and father) are downplaying the fact that I will be gone for 4 months sailing around the world by saying "yeahhh she's just on a cruise ship." Like no big deal, I'm gonna be around the world in 111 days. Bon voyageee!

But really, if you haven't heard... as of August 24 I will be flying into Montreal CANADA to board the MV Explorer for the Fall 2011 voyage of Semester at Sea. What is Semester at Sea you ask? Just what it sounds like... a whole semester AT SEA! Casually visiting 14 countries while circumnavigating the globe... and getting school credit at the same time! All around win if you ask me. If you click that picture at the top of this wonderful BLOG you can see my itinerary for the semester!

Yesterday, I booked my trip to the Great Wall while I'm in China and I am currently in the midst of booking my trip to the Taj Mahal while I'm in India. Shit's getting real! I mean, I've only ever been out of the country to go to Mexico... and like all bratty San Diego kids, I don't think that really counts. Woops. So I have no idea what to expect, but saying I am excited doesn't even begin to explain how I'm feeling. I'm also completely stressed out that I'm gonna be gone for 4 months. I've never been away from my family for like 4 days... so this is gonna be craziness. Is it bad that I'm kinda the most sad about not seeing my dog for a semester? Hahaaa sorry guys, but it's the truth.

Well now that I've successfully put off doing ANY preparation for this trip this entire summer, I've got big things to do these last few weeks. On the agenda today: get a FLIP cam (don't laugh...), go to Verizon to figure out what I'm gonna do about a phone situation, and go to the bank. Yay for a relaxing day off work!

Over and out,
Samantha