...And We're Off!

Well, we are kind of off. We left Southampton today around 5pm and set
sail for Morocco. We are actually currently anchored by the Isle of
Wright since Casablanca is not as far away from Southampton as the
number of say we allotted for it. We should be anchored here until about
10pm tomorrow night. So we are on our way, but technically we aren't
going anywhere right now (with the exception of rocking back and forth).

The past couple days since I last wrote have been very very busy. We are
on the ship now and clearly based on my last paragraph, the students are
also on the ship. We got on here Sunday afternoon and had time to find
out way our this absolutely beautiful ship. I've seen pictures, but let
me tell you, pictures do not do this ship justice. Unfortunately with
the internet situation, I can't upload any pictures to these blogs, but
when I get to port and am able to find wifi, I will make sure to share
pictures of the ship, my cabin, and our week of sailing. I have a cabin
all to myself and my wonderful steward Auxilios put my beds together
today so I now have a double bed for the rest of the voyage. The cabin
is actually a little bigger than I imagined with lots of storage areas,
however the bathroom is tiny. It is still a wonderful place to be living
for the summer and really I'm only going to be spending time sleeping in
here (and maybe the occasional "small gathering" in the cabin).

My students are amazing! I have 71 residents in the Baltic Sea and to be
honest with you, I have no idea how I am going to learn all their names.
My goal is to have it done by Casablanca, so I have about 4 days left to
accomplish this. I have several international students along with US
students from all over the country. A few of my residents came together,
so I am hoping that we won't have any roommate issues. It was so much
fun today though waiting in the hallway for them to get here and pretty
much bombarding them as soon as they got down the hallway. Seeing their
excitement has made me even more excited about this voyage. We also had
our first sea meeting tonight, so I was able to see all of my residents
in one place and have the opportunity to get to know a little more about
them. We are doing another meeting tomorrow night to discuss what type
of community we want, so I will be very interested to see how that
meeting goes. I have all boys surrounding my cabin, so that will also be
interesting especially with the 70 to 30% male female ratio.

One thing that I need to update you all on is that my voyage has had an
itinerary change. We will no longer be going to Istanbul. Even though
things may settle down before we were planning to be there in July,
there is just so much uncertainty and the city is not safe. College
students in Istanbul right now would also probably be a recipe for
disaster as so many of them would probably want to go see or join the
protests that are happening. Instead of Istanbul we will actually be
visiting two ports that I went to on a cruise I took in 2009- Crete and
Kusdasi (I know I spelled this wrong, but its 1am and I'm lazy).
Students are really excited to go to a Greek Island, but there are a lot
of people disappointed that we are no longer going to Istanbul. I had an
amazing trip planned and won't be able to get all my money back for it,
so I'm clearly disappointed but I 100% trust SAS and know that they are
making this decision with lots of information that I am not privy too.

I've done a really good job getting to know people so far and have
really enjoyed hanging out with faculty at staff. We have a lounge that
is just for us, so after a long day it is really nice to go up there at
night, enjoy an adult beverage, and socialize with other folks on the
ship. You should also know that I've found my twin who I was separated
at birth from, Tiffany. We have so many similarities that it is scary!
She is also on my desk right across from me so we get the opportunity to
see each other every day and we are actually working on several large
events together as well. We've taken lots of pictures together so I will
make sure to post some of those for you all!

Tomorrow is orientation for the students so it will be a very busy day
and then myself and two other RDs are responsible for planning the
activities fair tomorrow night, which is a HUGE task! The boat is
currently rocking me to sleep, so even though I would love to write
more, its time for sleep!