In the End is my Beginning

I've been avoiding writing this post. If I write it, it means that my time on the ship is really over and that there isn't another port waiting to be explored just around the corner. I'm writing this, sitting on my couch, watching netflix with regular internet, so clearly I know I'm not still on the ship but to be honest with you all a piece of me still is and will always be.

I knew that the experience I was going to have this summer would be incredible and life changing but I don't think I really anticipated the extent to which my life would be impacted or how challenging it would be. Just living on a ship for three months is a challenge in itself. You don't have a lot of space and you really can't ever escape (unless you are in port of course). If you don't plan out your laundry, you will either be stuck without clothes or you will be hand-washing things you really don't want to hand-wash. Walking on the ship can be a total disaster depending on how the sea or ocean decides to act that day. You get sick of pasta and potatoes at every meal. The internet is so slow that it can sometimes be hard to communicate with people back home, or even people on the ship with you. You don't have "your person" with you or a way to easily contact them when you are sad, upset, angry, or frustrated and just need a friend to talk to or hug. Sleep is never regular and you can walk around exhausted for days. But then you stop and have to think, I'm in the middle of the Mediterranean on a ship full of students who are here to study. With faculty who are so passionate about their subject areas that they go above and beyond just teaching in the classroom. I'm with staff who are so dedicated to their jobs that they miss out on time with their family on the ship and in port or who go literally days without sleep because they've been up talking to a student or looking after them when they were in a bad situation. I'm on this ship with people who care so much about making this a community, a home, and a family. And even though the internet is terrible, we have internet on a ship in the middle of the sea.

There is no community quite like the one on the MV Explorer. I'm never going to be in a setting again that brings together so many people from different walks of life. In higher education we talk about the need to bridge academic affairs and student affairs and a lot of time we struggle to do this on our home campuses. On the MV Explorer we walk over the bridge on a daily basis. This academical village creates ways for faculty and staff to interact that help to enhance the student experience. Faculty get to understand what it is like for student affairs staff to plan programs, handle emergencies, and live with our students. Staff get see the passion that faculty have and how what students learn in the classroom really matters when we start to teach about life outside the classroom. Students are pushed out of their comfort zones both on and off the ship and get to experience things and go places that many of their peers will never get the chance to. It is a community where faculty, staff, students, and even the crew become your best friends and your family and it is so hard to be home and not have them right there with you. Our voyage was quick and very intense so I can't imagine the amazing communities that are built on longer voyages where students have more time to get to know one another and don't just have to focus on their academics.

I spent a lot of time on the voyage learning about myself. This was not an easy summer for me at all. I was faced with really tough situations, some of which almost brought me to the point of packing up my stuff and coming home. If you know me though, you know that I am stubborn and don't give up easily. I might threaten to give up, but it isn't in my nature to throw in the towel. In those tough moments, I had to realize that sometimes you can't take care of yourself alone and you need others to support you and help you. I'm so glad that I had my student life family and other amazing faculty/staff members there for me when things go rough emotionally, mentally, and physically. I also struggled with my own identity this summer. For the first time in my life I was on a staff where both my race and my sexuality were in the minority. This was such an interesting experience for me because all of my life I've lived with my identity as being Scottish and have ignored my white identity. This summer my white identity stood out so much and it was something I had to deal with and better understand what it meant when interacting with others. This was also something that was not easy, but important and necessary to tackle. The other major thing I worked on this summer was trying to figure out my professional life and address some of the areas that I still need to grow in. I was very blessed to have a life coach in one of my coworkers who was willing to take the time to process with me and give me advice on how to be a better professional and how to handle certain situations when they come my way. WWJD now has a new meaning in my life and I'm happy to say that even after being back at work for only three days my coworkers here have already seen a new me and they are happy with what I've learned on the ship.

I feel so blessed after this summer. Despite the challenges and despite the many, many tears that I shed throughout the voyage, I had an amazing experience. I was able to travel to places I've never seen before and that so many other people will probably never get to in their lifetime. I was able to build a community in 66 days and make connections with students that I hope has made their lives a little better and has taught them something. I creatively found ways to communicate with people on the ship and used probably a million and one post it notes as ways to talk and leave messages. I pulled off large community events like sea olympics (with my partner in crime Tiffany) in about five days with hardly any resources. I am still amazed by the things we were able to accomplish on our tiny little ship.

I've also left the ship leaving some amazing people and I think that has been the hardest and will be what takes me the longest to recover from and stop getting randomly sad about. My students were incredible. I didn't lose any of them on the voyage and a lot of other seas can't say that. They cared about the experiences that they got, befriended each other right away, and made me feel like I did an amazing job as their RD. The Baltic Sea was incredible and I feel so lucky to have been able to help build the community amongst the students this summer.

This summer I got to work with the most amazing student life team and with 6 RDs who fought for me, challenged me, drove me crazy sometimes (I drove them crazy right back), laughed with me, cried with me, and made me a better person by the time I left the ship. We had two amazing leaders in Christy and Stacey who kept us grounded, made us laugh more than any supervisors have made me laugh before, and who kept us focused on the vision of building our community. These two women worked so hard and supported us in so many ways that it will be impossible to thank them. This team was incredible. As was the entire group of staff members on the ship. Dean John did an amazing job hiring everyone.

And then there were my group of friends on the ship. Now these weren't my only friends, but they were the core group that when I wasn't on duty or didn't need a day to myself, I wanted to spend time with. At first, I didn't think I would get to be part of their group but after an amazing field program in Morocco, I was welcomed and had an amazing time getting to know them and having many late nights talking, laughing, and playing hilarious games. Each person in this group brought so much to our voyage and are incredible people and professionals. If you only knew the amazing things that they do in their real lives you wouldn't believe they are my friends. I already miss them so much, but I feel so thankful that I got to spend three months getting to know them, having them support me, and laughing together. 

The crew were also an amazing group of people who I am going to miss so much as well. They work harder than anyone else on the ship and a lot of them have long contracts that keep them on the ship instead of with their families. They take the time to get to know us individually and get excited when they see us back on the ship after spending days in port. They want to hear about what we did and how we are doing. And occasionally, they give us a hard time when we are cursed by duty and cause them to have long nights alongside us. They are incredible people I feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to get to know them and spend time with them. I know I'm going to miss some of them a lot.

So now is my final farewell. The end of this journey marks a new beginning for me because I am not the same as when I left. I have seen too much, experienced too much, and cared too much to be the same person. I only sailed around part of the world, but it reminded me of how big the world is and how much of an impact we can have on it. We may be different, but we are all humans and should care for each other and love one another. Thank you to all the people who made this summer possible, for the amazing people who made this summer unforgettable, and to all of you who followed me on this incredible journey. This is not goodbye to the MV Explorer, to Semester at Sea, or to the people who have left an imprint on me, its a big see you soon :)

I've Fallen in Love

Over the past week and a half I feel head over heels in love....with
Spain. Someone had to force me to get back on the ship yesterday evening
because all I wanted to do was stay. I don't know any Spanish, or anyone
in Spain, but I wanted to stay. It is a beautiful, amazing country, and
I really think that I'm going to make a new life goal to learn Spanish
over the next few years and move back.

We started our time in Spain in Barcelona. Barcelona is a beautiful
large city with some pretty amazing sights and architecture. It is
however a large city and if you have been keeping up with my blog you
know that on this trip I've really enjoyed the smaller towns to large
cities. That is still the case, but Barcelona was great. I started the
first day there on a field program which was a city orientation. We
basically did a driving tour of the main touristic points in the center
of the city and then went on a bit of a walking tour through one of the
older districts in the city. We made a stop at the Barcelona cathedral
which was beautiful and was having a mass in one of the small chapels
while we were there. After the cathedral we headed up the mountain
passing the Olympic stadiums and headed to the Spanish Village. This was
one of the my absolute favorite places that we visited. The Spanish
Village was created as an outdoor museum representing the different
styles, architecture, and culture of the different regions of Spain.
Aside from beautiful buildings and a gorgeous view of the city, the
Spanish Village is filled with little restaurants and shops full of
different types of artisans from painters to jewelery makers and a whole
lot more in between. I wasn't feeling very well the first day so I
didn't get to explore as much as I wanted to. After the orientation I
went back to the ship to rest and then spent a couple hours before duty
over at the mall near where our ship was docked. Duty was a breeze the
first night in Barcelona which amazed me due to how close we were to the
city center and all the bars.

The second day I went on another field program to Montserrat which is
about an hour away from Barcelona. Montserrat is located on an amazing
mountain which is hard to explain so until I'm able to post pictures,
you should google image Montserrat to get an idea of what the mountain
looks like. On the top of Montserrat is a monastery which has between 30
and 60 monks who still live and worship there today. It is also the home
of a famous boys choir who sound amazing and were unfortunately on
vacation while we were there visiting. What Montserrat is most famous
for though is the black Madonna statue that was found in a cave near
where the monastery sits today. People from all over the world go on
pilgrimages to touch the hand of the Madonna. The line was way too long
to wait to touch the Madonna but we were able to see the shrine from
inside the church. We spent the majority of our time in Montserrat
exploring the different areas and going through an interactive
multimedia museum with the history of Montserrat which ended with a
video performance from the boys choir which was amazing. In my opinion,
we didn't really get enough time in Montserrat. There was so much more
that I wanted to do, like going to the top of the mountain, but our free
time just didn't allow us to do that. It was still great to be there and
explore what we were able to. The rest of the day I spent wandering
around Barcelona and doing more shopping. This was also the day that I
made the rash decision to chop all of my hair off at the Barcelona mall
near the ship. That was an interesting experience for sure. Luckily, at
this point my short hair is growing on me, but when I first got it done
I thought I had made a huge mistake.

The second night was our "big night out" in Barcelona, or rather it was
supposed to be our big night out of the trip, but we were all so
exhausted we only lasted until about midnight or so. We found a little
restaurant in the Gothic Quarter and had amazing tapas and homemade
sangria. Have I mentioned how much I love sangria?? After dinner we met
up with some other friends and started our night out. We found a tiny
little bar, had some drinks and then headed to the bar that Ernest
Hemingway used to frequent in Barcelona. It is this tiny little hole in
the wall that if you weren't looking for, you would walk right by. The
bar is very very old and you can tell by the cobwebs, dust, mold, and
bottles that are over 200 years old sitting behind the bar. The bar is
known for selling absinthe, so for the first time in my life I had some.
It was a very interesting process. They brought us the glass of absinthe
along with a small spoon, two sugar cubes, and a bottle of water with a
hole punched into the cap. We were shown the process of what we had to
do. Basically, you lay the tiny spoon across the top of the glass and
put the two sugar cubes on the spoon. Then you squirt the sugar cubes
with water and let them slowly dissolve into the absinthe. Once the
sugar cubes have dissolved you squirt a little more water down the side
of the glass and then the absinthe changes color. I had about two sips
and couldn't have anymore because I didn't like the taste. It was a
really neat experience and as a lit major, was pretty cool to be at the
same bar that Hemingway used to come to (even though he is not my
favorite writer at all). We headed back to the ship after the bar, so
our night ended much earlier than any of us originally thought it would.

The last day in Barcelona was probably my favorite day. I was signed up
to lead a field program to the chocolate museum. If you know me, you
know I LOVE chocolate. I currently have a huge stash in my cabin which
probably won't last until the end of the voyage. To start with, our
guide was very beautiful, young, and a lot of fun so that made the field
program even more enjoyable. We started our program with a walking tour
of the gothic quarter which was really nice since I hadn't spent much
time there during the day. After our walking tour, we headed to the
museum where we got to wander around and look at all the amazing
sculptures made from chocolate while learning about the history of
chocolate and the relationship that Spain has with the delicious sweet.
After our tour we had our own private chocolate lesson where we got to
make a chocolate animal (I picked an elephant) and then were given bags
of chocolate and was paper to draw on. Most of us drew the ship. And we
of course got to sample chocolate. I tried the hot chocolate and oh my
gosh, it was amazing. I bought a bag of their cocoa powder so that I can
make some of it when I get back home. It was a lot of fun and our group
only had 10 people which made it an even better experience. After the
museum I decided to do the hop on hop off bus around the city. I managed
to do two of the three lines and it was really nice to sit back, relax,
and see parts of the city that I hadn't seen before. I really wanted to
get off at the Gaudi park, but the line was so long to get back onto the
bus that I didn't want to risk getting off and then not making it to
other places I was hoping to see. I did get off at the Spanish Village
though because I wanted to spend more time there. It was really nice to
walk all of the property this time and go into more of the little craft
stores. I bought a few things that I'm excited to bring back. After the
Spanish Village it was back to the ship.

We had two days at sea between Barcelona and our next stop in Spain
which is when I should have written and posted this, but things have
been so busy with our last ports being so close together that I just
didn't get around to it. Our second stop in Spain was Cadiz. This is
where I officially fell in love with Spain. Andalusia is the southern
region of Spain and it is probably one of the most gorgeous places that
I have ever been to in my life and I seriously want to move to that
region at some point if I can. Our first day in port I was able to get a
ticket for the city orientation which was really nice because we walked
the entire city as it is only 3 miles long. It was great to learn the
history and get a feel for where things were. We also had the
opportunity to go into the cathedral and the crypt of the cathedral. In
the afternoon I went back out, without a map, and just walked around
town. It was so nice and relaxing wandering the little narrow streets
and not being worried about where I was going or what I was going to do.
I ran into a couple co-workers so had a sangria with them at a little
place that sold drinks in giant mugs for only a euro and had cute little
sandwiches that you could order to go along with your drinks. That night
was our girls night in Spain, so about six of us got together and went
out for tapas at a restaurant that had been recommended to us by one of
our friends who had been to Cadiz before. It was probably the most
delicious food that I have had the entire voyage. If any of your ever go
to Cadiz, let me know so I can tell you where this amazing place is!
After dinner, only one other girl stayed out with me but we went to the
main square to hang out and then found a tiny little bar down one of the
small side streets that was a Simpsons themed bar (it was very
interesting) and sat there, had a bottle of wine, and enjoyed chatting
and people watching. It was an awesome night. When I got back to the
ship I stayed up pretty late chatting with two of my favorite security
people which was really nice since we don't have much time left with
them at all.

My second day in Cadiz was actually spent on a field program to Sevilla.
Again, we had a gorgeous tour guide (Spain has some pretty attractive
men for sure). Sevilla is absolutely gorgeous and I really wish I had
been able to spend the night there to do more exploring. We started our
day at a bullring learning the history of bullfighting which was neat.
Then we did a walking tour of the city passing by several different
sites including the cathedral that was built on a mosque, we visited the
royal palace, and also saw the gorgeous Spanish Plaza that was built for
the Spanish exhibition back in the early 1900s as well as a few other
places. The buildings around the city that were built for the exhibition
are all gorgeous and I wish we had done a tour of those as well. We also
got tapas for lunch again and I have to say, I think I'm also in love
with tapas. It is just so good and the perfect portion size as well.
After we got back to Cadiz, I got together with another group of friends
and took them to the tapas restaurant I had gone to the night before so
I had even more delicious tapas. After dinner a few of us went out and
continued to have a great conversation and a fun night.

My last day in Cadiz was actually spent outside of Spanish territory in
Gibraltar. I had really been looking forward to this trip mainly because
I had grown up hearing about Gibraltar and used to have a crown coin
with Gibraltar on the back of it when I was younger. It was a pain
getting there thanks in part to the lovely relationship that Spain and
Britain have with each other over the territory, but we made it there
and had an amazing tour with a great guide named Karen. If you don't
know, the main road in Gibraltar is also its airport landing strip, so
on our walk to meet the buses we got stopped on the road and got to
watch a plane land and another take off. It was really neat because we
were so close to it. Our first stop in Gibraltar was to the World War II
tunnels that were dug out and had men (and women who were nurses)
staying in them for over 3 years. It was really neat to see the tunnels
and the pictures of the armed forces who stayed there. We also got to go
stand on a balcony that they made so that the men could take smoke
breaks when they were working and the balcony is literally cut out right
in the side of the rock. There are over 30 miles of tunnels in the rock
and we only got to see about a tenth of the tunnels which is crazy to me
with how much we did see. Our second stop was to tunnels that were dug
during a war with Spain back in the late 1700s. They were the
inspiration for the World War II tunnels (which by the way, Eisenhower
stayed in during the war) and had a really neat history for us to learn
about how the rock has been a defense system for years and how the rock
itself protects those inside of it from any harm such as bomb explosions
and such. After the tunnels we headed to St Michael's Cave and the top
of the rock. On our way up to the cave we drove the majority of
Gibraltar and it was really neat to see the different architecture which
showed the history of the rock and who had ownership of it at different
points in history. When we got to the top of the rock, we saw lots and
lots of monkeys, including one that jumped into our bus as soon as we go
there. It was really cool to see all the monkeys hanging around and
interacting with the tourists. There were also a ton of baby monkeys.
The neat thing is that every monkey on the rock is tracked and taken
care of. The cave was beautiful and I am looking forward to posting more
pictures so that you all can see it. After the cave we got about 30
minutes to walk around town, find lunch, and make it back to the bus.
During this time is when one of my favorite moments of the entire trip
happened.

On our walk back to the bus I had stopped and bought a bag of my
favorite British crisps and was eating them as we walked to the grocery
store to stock up on food. Most of the monkeys in Gibraltar live higher
up on the rock, but every once in a while, one or two will make their
way down to town. We turned a corner and all of a sudden I saw a group
of tourists looking at a monkey. I didn't think anything of it until the
monkey looked right at me, jumped off of the bridge it had been sitting
on and came to attack me. I panicked as most people would, but instead
of just dropping the bag of crisps, I handed it off to the assistant
librarian who was with me. I have no idea why I did this, I guess I
really just didn't want to lose my crisps. Well, the monkey saw me do
this and then literally jumped on the assistant librarian and wouldn't
get off. She finally had the sense to just drop the bag of crisps and
then luckily the monkey got off of her. So in short, I tried to
sacrifice our assistant librarian to the Gibraltar monkeys to save a bag
of monster munch crisps. It was hilarious and I really wish we had a
picture of video of the entire experience.

After Gibraltar it was back on the ship and we sailed to Portugal. We
had almost the entire next day on the ship since we weren't going to
arrive in Portugal until 4pm and none of the faculty or staff had any
responsibilities while we were sailing, so the faculty threw an RD
appreciation party for us in the Glazer Lounge. I won't go into details,
but it was an amazing night and we closed down the dance party around 3am.

Technically I'm already back on the ship from Portugal, but I'll wait
till my next entry to let you know about my time here. I'll be home
really soon and then I can post pictures of all the things I've been
telling you all about!!

Fabulous France

For those of you who read my blog about Malta, you know that I had a
pretty bad time. Luckily, France was amazing so this is a much more
positive blog than my last one :) I was really excited to be coming back
to France for the first time in about four years. I took French from 7th
grade till my freshman year in college and I have always wanted to
travel to more of France. For the record, my french skills are terrible,
I know enough to get by but not enough to really have conversations with
locals. The last time I was there was in 2009 and I only went to Paris
so to get to explore some of the south of France on this voyage was
something I was really looking forward to.

Our first day in France I was on a field program to a little town about
30 minutes away from our port Marseille called Aix-en-Provence. I've
found on this trip that I have really enjoyed when I get the opportunity
to go to little quaint villages/towns. Luckily for me, Aix-en-Provence
is just that, a quaint town with beautiful walkways, fountains,
balconies, and shopping. Our tour guide took us on a walking tour of the
town to begin with which was a really nice introduction to the area. We
got to see some of the different areas of the town, learn more about its
history, and visited a beautiful cathedral. You would think by now that
I would be sick of all the churches that we have visited, but I
absolutely love going into them and seeing how beautiful they are.
Churches for me are also a very peaceful place so its also nice to spend
some time reflecting when I visit different churches around Europe.
After the walking tour we were given about three hours of free time to
wander around. At first I was with a group of other staff members and a
few students but ended up breaking off from the group and wandering by
myself for about an hour and a half. There are really nice outdoor
markets in Aix-en-Provence so I spent some time walking through those,
shopping, and eating pretty much every single pastry I could get my
hands on. There was also a great tourist office where I was able to get
information and maps for the places I was planning to visit the rest of
my time in France. It was really nice to just stroll around, go down
random streets, and take in the sights of the town. There were also
several French men playing musical instruments such as accordions
throughout town which made it really feel as though you were in France.
After we got back in the late afternoon I spent the rest of my first day
relaxing on the ship since I was on duty. Luckily duty in Marseille was
not bad at all!

My second day I decided to travel to Avignon which is about an hour and
fifteen minutes by train north of Marseille. I was originally planning
to just go by myself, but a student was talking to me and mentioned how
they really wanted to go but didn't have anyone to go with. We decided
to go together and at first I was really worried about traveling with a
student but it ended up being an amazing day. The student and I are very
similar so I think that helped make the day really good. For those of
you who don't know, Avignon was the home to Roman Catholic Popes for
about 100 years when the French popes decided to move the holy seat out
of Rome. Avignon was also home to the two French popes who were elected
at the same time as Italian popes when there was a split in the church.
It has a really interesting history and the main site is the Papal
Palace. We started our morning there and took about two hours to walk
through the entire palace. It was a really interesting site and a great
start to the morning. Right next to the Papal Palace is a large
cathedral with nice gardens surrounding it. We went into the cathedral
and then spent time wandering around the gardens. There was a little
pond/lake in the middle of the gardens that had a cafe next to it so we
also decided to sit and relax for a little while enjoying the scenery
and the little ducklings that were swimming in the pond next to us. From
the gardens, we headed down to the second most famous sit in Avignon,
Pont d'Avignon which is the unfinished bridge that goes across most of
the Rhone river. I was really excited to visit the bridge because one of
the first songs I learned in French class back in middle school was Sur
le Pont d'Avignon. I felt as though Ms Harris would have been so proud
of me for going to Avignon. The entrance to the bridge included a free
audio guide so that was really nice to help learn more about Avignon,
the construction of the bridge, and other useful information. Our last
adventure of the day was taking a small shuttle boat from one side of
the Rhone river to the other and then walking throughout the island that
is surrounded by the river. After our off road adventure, we headed back
into Avignon found a coffee shop with wifi, got some dinner, and then
headed back to the train. It was a great day overall day :)

My last day was spent with a group of friends walking around Marseille.
We didn't really have a plan so we just wandered, spent most of our time
near the Vieux Port, ate lots of French bakery items, and enjoyed
several stops at little coffee shops. It was a nice ending to my time in
France, but I really wished I had more time so that I could have visited
Nice and other areas in the south of France. Last night we sailed from
Marseille to Barcelona and several of us had a very good night hanging
out, drinking wine, and playing fun games in the faculty/staff lounge. I
paid for our fun today in Barcelona, but already I really like the city
and can't wait to explore more. I'm on duty tonight and it looks like it
will be another rough night just based on how many students have left
the ship. Fingers crossed it goes well!

So Long, Farewell Malta

I have honestly been avoiding writing this blog but I figured since we
are pulling into a new port in about 9 hours, I couldn't put the blog
off any longer. I feel bad for Malta. Yes, I understand Malta is a
country so it doesn't actually have feelings, but I feel bad for Malta
because I had such an awful experience and am so glad that we are now
far away from the tiny little island. In my last post, I wrote about how
excited I was to go to Malta because I didn't know much about it and had
no expectations so I'm really disappointed that it wasn't as great as I
thought it would be. I know that it has to be a great place because one
of our ship security officer's really talked it up as being awesome and
a lot of fun, but that was not what I got out of the country.

My guess is that not many of you have heard of Malta before. It is a
tiny little island located in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily.
I believe its only about 50 miles from Sicily, so it is really close.
For a tiny island it has had quite a rough time and a lot of different
countries have occupied it or had influence over it. The capital city,
Valletta, where we docked was built by the Knights of St. John who were
basically given the island as their home when no other European nation
would host the Knights. It has a heavy Catholic population with 365
cathedrals spread throughout the island. There is a mixture of Arabic,
French, Italian, and English influence in Malta and recently they have
been hit with the issue of people from North Africa who are trying to
illegally immigrate to Europe ending up falling short of countries like
Italy or France and ending up in Malta. This has led to a lot of tension
between the Maltese and immigrant population as well as high amounts of
racism on the island. Malta became an independent country in the 1970s
when it broke off from Great Britain, though it does still belong to the
larger Commonwealth of Nations (so a similar type relationship to what
Australia, Jamaica, and Canada have). Basically, Malta is a little bit
of a lot of countries which I think has led to some of the issues they
are currently struggling with.

Malta was probably the hottest place that we have visited so far. It was
absolutely miserable and in the height of the daily heat you really
couldn't stay outside for more than 30 minutes. This general
uncomfortableness attributed to my bad time in the country. So now I
guess I should let you know a little more about my actual experiences in
Malta. The first day I slept in which was really nice. Well, technically
I got up at 6:30am to watch us come into port because I had been told
that it was beautiful. It really was and I am very glad I got up to
watch us come in. After watching us pull in and having breakfast, I did
go back to bed for about four hours. In the afternoon I led a field
program to the Three Cities which are part of the ancient area near
Valletta and where the Grand Inquisitors Palace is. We walked a lot,
everything was closed that we passed, there were literally no people out
and about, and we didn't see as much as we thought we were going to. The
Grand Inquisitors Palace was interesting, but a little hokey to be
honest with you. It was also way too hot to be walking so much and I had
several older lifelong learners on the tour who really needed to go back
to the ship after a few hours. I stayed in the rest of the night after
grabbing dinner at the Hard Rock because I was on back up duty from 8pm
to 8am.

I've been cursed with duty since I got on the ship. I pretty much never
sleep on duty and get to deal with a ton of incidents. In residence
life, duty is part of your job anywhere and you learn to deal with it.
It is probably the hardest part of my job on the ship, but for me it is
still part of my job so I do it thoroughly and to the best of my
ability. I thought that maybe because I was backup things would be
easier this port. Well unfortunately, the students also didn't love
Malta and felt a little bored, so they decided to go to a beer festival
on the island and to the area with lots of nightclubs that have very
cheap drinks. I didn't sleep that night at all which was really
frustrating and pretty much ruined my original plans for the next day
and made me just overall super grumpypants the rest of the time in
Malta. We also had several students injured cliff jumping (even though
we warned them multiple times not to go) so a lot of our other staff
spent their entire time in Malta helping those students. I have four
more port duty nights left and I'm going to try my best to go into them
with a better attitude and then hopefully if I have rough nights they
won't affect me as much. I'm also on duty the very last night in port of
the voyage (in Lisbon) so that may be a rough night. We do have two
extra days in Lisbon that are class/study days where the students can't
get off the ship so I'm already planning to book a hotel or bed and
breakfast the night after my last duty for my own mental health and
well-being. If you would like to contribute to the Lynsey is going to
need to get the heck away from the ship for a night after being on duty
in Lisbon fund, please let me know :)

After getting a few hours of sleep on day two, I headed out to Valletta
which again is the capital of Malta but is situated on the top of a very
large hill. Luckily, they have built an elevator that only costs a euro
that takes you up 27 stories to the top of Valletta so that you don't
have to climb the stairs/hill if you are lazy like I was. Valletta is
actually really nice with some historic sites, beautiful cathedrals, and
lots of shopping aka my weakness. I just wandered around town and then
happened across a movie theatre that was playing Monsters University
which was the movie I was most upset about missing this summer, so I
decided to go see it and luckily walked in right after a showing had
started. It was also a nice way to escape the heat and the movie was
awesome. I walked around town a little more after the movie, picked up
some things in the shops and then decided to go to the nice waterfront
area by the ship for dinner. It was really nice to just sit by myself,
have a delicious pizza, and a pint of cider. I was also able to meet up
with some friends that night and go out for some drinks for a few hours
which was another nice way to unwind.

My last day was actually my favorite day in Malta. One of my co-workers
was supposed to lead a field program but because of having to help an
injured student he could no longer lead it. I volunteered to give up my
spot on the trip I was scheduled to be on and lead his instead and I'm
really glad I did. The trip was called "The Local Experience" so it was
supposed to give participants a glimpse into life in Malta. We had a
really small group, only 6 people in total. We started the day going out
to a market in Malta where locals were shopping for produce, meat,
household items, and other interesting items ranging from clothes to
touristy things. It was really neat to watch the Maltese interacting
with each other as they were going about their shopping. After that stop
we headed to what is called a "band club" which is essentially just a
bar that is open all day but it has bingo, pool, and mostly just old men
that are patrons. We were able to sample two local pastries and the
local soft drink while we were in the band club. The pastries were
delicious but the local soft drink was yucky. There was a cathedral
across the street so we ran over there and got to look inside which was
really nice. Every church and town in Malta has its own Saint and on the
Saint Feast Day they have huge parades and celebrations. During the
parade large, heavy statues are carried that either show some sort of
image of Christ or the Saint and this church had one of the statues on
display so that was nice to see after having talked about the festivals
and parades on an earlier field program. Our next stop was to the
Limestone Heritage Center which talked us through the history of
limestone in Malta and the progression that the industry experience.
There was actually a really neat display with and audio guide that was
very informative. Then there was a little petting zoo in the back with a
few animals including the cutest little baby donkeys. Our last stop was
to the cliffs on the west side of the island, so yet again I stood on
the edge of a country! It was a beautiful view and I'll post pictures
once the internet gets a little better. We then drove through parts of
the island that I hadn't seen yet including the ancient Medina and
Rabat. I really appreciated having the opportunity to see more of Malta
even if it was through the window of our minibus. I spent the rest of
the afternoon napping on the ship since I was still pretty tired.

If it hadn't been for all the incidents, my lack of sleep, and the crazy
heat I really think I could have liked Malta. I think I'm going to put
it on my list of places to come back on my own without students if I
ever win the lottery and have the money to travel. Malta is my least
favorite port up until this point, but maybe that means things can only
bounce back up and get better from here! I've spent the past couple days
having really important and productive general life/professional life
conversations with some folks on the ship so I think I'm at a really
good point to move forward for our last three weeks and have a great
ending to this voyage. Positivity and living in the moment are going to
be my mantras for the next 19 days. We get to France tomorrow and I have
plans all three days that I am excited about (though I'm not excited
about how much trains cost in France) and then we are off to Spain.
Voyagers have the choice to sail with the ship to Spain or travel on
their own similar to what we did in Italy, but I've decided to stay on
the ship for the journey. I'm super super excited about Spain so I'm
anticipating getting their like a little kid on Christmas Eve :) Even
with bumps in the road, and not really enjoying Malta, life is good and
I am so lucky to be on this ship right now.

Oh, on another note, we had the ship auction last night which raises
money for the Semester at Sea Annual Fund (the fund provides money for
scholarships etc) and I wasn't planning on buying anything, but somehow
I ended up coming away with a hairdo done by one of the shipkids. It is
my favorite shipkid who is either 6 or 7 and she is going to be styling
my hair for me and is so serious about it. She came up to me first thing
this morning and made me schedule my hair appointment with her and gave
me strict instructions about what I need to do with my hair that day so
that she can style it best. My hair will probably be super funny
looking, but I'm excited. She is going to style it on Taco Night on the
ship so I will reveal my awesome hairdo to everyone at Taco Night and of
course take a picture, with my stylist, to share with all of you on
facebook!