Greetings from the Pacific!

Hello all from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean!

I hope you all are doing well; I just finished a very long day of orientation, so I thought I’d orientate y’all to the ship and my experience so far! After a beautiful drive from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico, all participants went through security screening and boarded the ship. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good view of the ship for a picture, but I promise more in the future.





The first day, I must admit, was very rough; at this point you will undergo some education in ship life. At 4:00 yesterday all participants had a lifeboat drill, which required putting on our lifejackets and walking in silence to our assigned boat. This actually took longer than expected; the staff had to account for all of roughly 1000 people on the ship. Hopefully in an emergency, it will take shorter than 45 minutes! Because the ship fits 1000 people, I was naive and did not expect to feel the boat move…well, I quickly learned I was incorrect! Last night I became very sea sick and actually had to excuse myself from meetings because I was preoccupied. To be honest, I felt horrible and unfortunately made the cleaning crew’s job more difficult! However, so many staff members stopped to help me and take care of me. Once again, I am dumbfounded by the kindness of people. These individuals made sure I was okay, gave me water and medicine, and fed me saltine crackers. Without their help, I would have felt the effects of my physical health in other ways. It is reassuring to know that I am in good hands with individuals who are so giving of their time.


Enough about acclimation to ship life through physical means, though. I met my roommate Ashley Gainsa yesterday and we have quickly become friends. Although our room is slightly small, it really is quite fine. We have enough room for everything and know this experience is not about our room!

Tonight was the activities fair and I signed up to be an academic peer advisor and tutor students on the program in writing and for our required Global Studies course. I also signed up to be a part of an extended family with faculty and students and to help tutor children of faculty and staff on the program! Along with these activities, I signed up for a yoga class. I know I will keep busy with classes and these activities and am excited for the opportunities that these programs offer! Classes begin tomorrow so I will be back to the grind. I hope for my friends at Kenyon and other universities that classes today went well! I promise a more exciting blog entry after our first port stay in Hawai’i. I hope you all are doing well and know that I think of you often!