Honolulu, Hawaii

Aloha!!
The past two days i spent running around Honolulu and it was fabulous!  After we got on the boat in Hilo, it moved to Honolulu.  Our first day in Honolulu was Wednesday and we had all day.  Me, Jamie, Erica and Andrew were going to go to Diamond Head but after we found out it was an hour bus ride, we decided to skip that and head to the beach!  We went to Waikiki beach and just laid out all day.  Tess and Stephanie met up with us on the beach and Wednesday was actually steph's 21st birthday!  So they met up with us on the beach and then me, steph and andrew decided to get some surfing lessons and go surfing!  Our teacher was Tony and we were literally on the sand for about 3 minutes, and then he was just like.. alright lets get in the water!  Paddling out is not fun AT ALL!  my shoulders were on FIRE from paddling so much.  Once we got out there though we caught some waves.  I got up each time but the first couple times i would only be up for like 3 seconds before falling down.  After my like 3rd wave though i could ride one.  it was awesome!  and me and stephanie actually caught the same wave one time and rode it for soooooo long!  it was kinda annoying though because i could have rode so many waves longer, but there were so many people that i had to jump off before i crashed into them.  but it was awesome!!  After surfing, we went back to the ship and showered and we actually stayed in a hotel in Waikiki wednesday night for stephanies birthday.  So we went to the hotel and got ready and then went out to dinner at Duke's, which is this awesome restaurant on the beach.  It actually kinda reminded me of Hollister on the inside.  I had Huli Huli chicken which was sooooooooooooooooooo good!  everyone said how their food was amazing and the service was amazing too (stephanie made sure to tell the hostesses that it was great service, great food and our waiter nick was awesome).  They also brought out this HUUUUUUUUUUGE ice cream cake slice to stephanie, which we all ended up eating because it was soooo big, and it was free!  how awesome is that?! hahaha.  After Duke's we went to Senor Frogs.  It was fun and i actually met people from Belmar there!  what a small world. we stood there and chatted about monmouth and the jersey shore for a long time.  and if anyone has ever heard the song "i'm on a boat"... it came on last night at senor frogs and everyone from SAS got up and was dancing on the stage because that is our life!  we're on a boat! hahah. After senor frogs, we went to zanzabar but decided not to go in because it was late and no one wanted to pay a cover charge.  We then just went back to the hotel and crashed. 
This morning, we woke up and went back to the ship and then went to Wal-mart where we stocked up on snacks!  On the ship, we only get 3 meals a day and then you can buy snacks from the pool bar all day but that can get expensive.  After wal-mart, we came back to the ship and then me and Tess went out to buy a Japan railpass.  A railpass can only be purchased in the united states and not japan, and its a train ticket that is valid for 7 straight days and you can use it as many times a day you want on any train besides the fastest bullet trains.  Since we want to do a lot of travelling in Japan to many cities, we decided that would be the cheapest thing to do instead of just buying tickets at each train station.  Also, Japan is VERY expensive and you could easily spend 100 dollars on 1 train ticket one way and that is on a sleeper train... not a bullet train.  so it will be really convienent and now we dont have to worry about transportation and language barriers in that department.  After we got our rail pass, me and tess just wandered around Honolulu and the Aloha tower stores and then eventually went back to the ship around 4.  When i got on the ship i wrote some post-cards out and made some phone calls... since i wont have my phone again until May 5th.
The ship pulled out at 8 tonight.  I was up on the 7th deck while we pulled out and its weird to think that...
a) we wont be seeing land for another like 10 days
b) we are leaving america until may 5th
c) the trip basically is just beginning!
everyone on the deck was waving goodbye to land and yelling bye to it because we wont see it and wont see america til may 5th.  its crazy to think that!  I've heard that this stretch is going to be a little rocky weather and wave wise but once we are in japan, it will be smooth sailing between countries.  also i have a feeling that once we get to japan, this trip is going to flyyyyyy which i'm nervous about. hahah.  and its just so weird that like... our school is a ship!  this whole trip so far still amazes me and i love every second of it. 
wow, today was a long post! 
oh!  my email adress too is cmtammany@semesteratsea.net
email me if you guys have any questions or even just to say hi!  getting emails is the highlight of my day.  oh! and i was on facebook today and it was odd because i havent had it in so long that i wasnt even on it for long! shocking i know, since im ALWAYS on it haha but im getting used to not having it.  so yea, emails are great because i have no contact with the outside world. hahah.  i should be posting pictures soon too.  probably while at sea ill buy some internet minutes to do it and when i do i'll post the link on here if you arent already my facebook friend or don't have one. 
well, i need to go to bed... i'm EXHAUSTED and there is no such thing as sleeping in either which sucks. hahah.
so until next time!!
captain tam!

Hilo, Hawaii

yesterday, sweet diane (our lady on our intercom system) woke us up at 5:30 in the morning to tell us that we were pulling into hilo and that the international custom people would be coming onto the ship at 6.  like really?  my alarm was set for 6.... please don't wake me up prior to my alarm.  but i got up anyway at 6 and we got some breakfast and were SOOOOOOOOO excited to see land.  me and my group of friends had absolutely NO idea of what we were doing yesterday, we were just gonna wing it.  so we got off the ship and walked a little and then decided to grab a taxi and went into downtown old hilo.  we then got a FREE (how great is that?) bus and then went to rainbow falls.  it was pretty dried up but then when we hiked up the trail... we ran into fellow SAS'ers and found out that if you hiked to the back of Rainbow falls, there was a place you could go cliff jumping and there was a waterfall you could swim up to.  so naturally.... we hiked to the back of rainbow falls!  and we encountered cliffs that were 20 feet high about and we went cliff jumping!  and it was AWESOME!  talk about a rush!  after rainbow falls, we went into hilo and grabbed something to eat and then we went to the beach and just sat there teh rest of the night before coming back to the ship.  back at the ship we grabbed dinner and then went to the local bar across the street from the harbor and i met a lot of cool locals and what not.
today we woke up and went to a tour today with our lady suzy q that we met yestrday.  we went to a beach and then went to the hot water springs which is basically a pool in the middle of the beach that is hot because teh magma from the volcanoes heats it up.  and we were there for a while before we went to some shack and got THE BEST ice cream ever (i got kona mud slide which was like coffee ice cream with pieces of oreo cookies i think and some swirl in it) and some french fries which also were amazing!  after the shack, we went to Boiling points which is a bunch of little waterfalls and i went cliff jumping... AGAIN!  but this time they were like 40 feet and it was not nerve racking at all!  i just went up, counted to 3 and went!  and it was AWESOME! granted, my butt took a little bit of a hard hit cuz i landed on that instead of my feet but it was awesome!! we met some locals there too and the one girl lik einspired me to just go up there and jump without thinking and tahts exactly what i did and it was great.  today was probably my favorite day (considering we only had like 2 days though at land so far) but still.  it was awesome.  i met a bunch of people from the ship and everything so its fun. 
tonight we leave Hilo at 8 and make our way to honolulu.  stephanies birthday is the first day we are there so we dont know what we are doing yet.
but until next time!  see ya in honolulu!!
christine

tomorrow!

Tomorrow we get to Hilo, Hawaii!!! :D finally!! 
yesterday and today, the seas were very calm and there was like no rocking which was good.  i laid out today for about an hour between my classes.  i think i can get used to this life.  it was so warm and nice out!  last night we had a pre-port about hawaii and tonight we had a pre-port again and it was just telling us how to be safe and what to do in hawaii and what time we have to be on the ship and how tomorrow morning is going to go with disembarking.  we have to get up atlike 6:30 which sucks but whatever. 
currently i'm watching pearl harbor.  its the scene where its getting attacked and i love this movie but its so depressing.  i'm not going to pearl harbor when i'm in hawaii because i already did it in 2007 and honestly... its too depressing for me.  today in my sacred places class we talked about memorials and what not.  don't get me wrong, pearl harbor is beautiful but that kinda stuff creeps me out.  i love ben affleck though. hahah. 
well i should probably get going.  i have an exciting day ahead of me tomorrow and i cant wait!  i hope i dont get landsick! hahah.

rough seas

After i posted yesterday about rough seas, we recieved our dean's memo which we get everyday just telling us what is going on that night, tomorrow, if we need to change our clocks and just what is going on on the boat.  in yesterday's memo we got a thing about why the seas are so rough and heres what it said...
"The MV Explorer was diverted from its planned route to Hawaii to avoid a massive storm that is still pummeling the West Coast of the United States.  The storm slammed the West Coast yesterday with hurricane-force wind gusts, large hail, and torrential rains.  Although we have avoided the worst of the storm, we continue to experience rough seas generated by one of the most powerful low pressure systems since record keeping began in the 1800s.  The Captain is using the stabilizers to reduce the effects of the seas, and is maintaining moderate speed since we are on track for our arrival in Hilo.  At present, Hawaii is experiencing good weather."
Thankfully Hawaii is having nice weather!!  Today in my food class we were talking about this storm we are missing and how rough the seas were and while talking about it, a huge swell came and i along with a couple others in the class went falling over in our desks.  typical typical typical.  i thought karma already got back at me for laughing at the girl in global studies!  but at least we aren't like the 2005 voyage where there were 75 foot swells.  I'm not going to lie though, its fun sitting up on the top deck in a chair and just sliding with the deck.. although last night a particularly huge rocking came and i went crashing into ricardo and the glass barrier.  Speaking of last night, it was a lot of fun.  We went up to the top deck and just hung out and met some cool new people.  we played thumper, and never have a i ever, and this weird 21 game, and then just talked and told stories. when your at sea this long, with no tv, no cell phone, no internet besides email, you have to get creative.  and you don't feel stupid or silly playing games like that because everyone else is doing it!  and it is actually quite entertaining. 
anyway...
today we didn't have global studies which was pretty sweet.  i ended up not going to qi-chong because i went to bed late and honestly... 6:45 is waaaay to early for me.  but i did get up and go to breakfast and got a sweet power nap in afterwards before my classes started for the day.  i got a pretty sweet long sleeve t today too.  it says "spring 2010 voyage" on it and then underneath, all the countries and their flags of where we are going and in order. 
oh! and last night...for all you jersey shore fans.. i heard this rumor that Mike "the situations" brother was on this ship.  and i got EXTREMELY excited!  and it just so happens that my roomate Neha has the People magazine that has the Jersey Shore cast in it, so i looked up his last name and then me and Megan went to the board that has all our names and pictures on it to find him.... AND HE WASNT THERE!  so whoever started the terrible rumor, i want to know where it came from / how it started! hahah. 
tonight, we gain an hour of sleep! i could get used to this.  this whole trip we are constantly gaining hours of sleep instead of losing them thankfully!
well, until next time!
christine

today we are about 1000 miles from hawaii! woohooo! it's only been 4 days on this boat and i feel like everyone is starting to get cabin fever/can't wait to get to solid land.  there are still people that are extremely seasick which sucks. 
i woke up at 645 this morning to go to meditation from 7-730 where basically i fell asleep for that half hour.. so i guess i got the hang of meditation down! hahah. today is actually really bad with the rocking.  we are only going like 11 knots an hour which is extremely slow and the sea is rough today.  i picked some day trips that i wanted to take today and i am doing the cu-chi tunnells with a temple visit and the mekong delta day trip in vietnam.  and i am doing a service trip in india.  it was nice out today so i went and laid out on the top deck and tried to get some reading done.  it was so windy though that i ended up wearing my shirt and shorts a majority of the time.  i have a meeting tonight after dinner for students of service and then i'm probably going to do work the rest of the night.  i want to get up early tomorrow to go to qi-chong which is from 645-730.  i want to see what it is.  also we dont have global studies tomorrow so it will be perfect to wake up, go to qi-chong and then eat breakfast and go back to sleep until my classes. 
well until next time!
christine

Today was the first day of B classes.  I had 3 classes today which were global studies, anthropology of food and sacred places.
In global studies today, the ship rocked one way very hard and this poor girl toppled over with her chair. i saw the whole thing happen and i thought she was going to catch herself or not fall over but i was wrong... and i let out a laugh.  but as everyone knows, karma's a bitch and my next class which was anthropology of food, i took one step into the room, the ship rocked the way i was walking and i fell forward knocking 3 desks out.  typical.  great way to start the class! haha. after sacred places, i read out on the deck for a little because it was BEAUTIFUL out and like 70 degrees. 
Last night was our first night that alcohol was being served.  everyone was on the top deck just hanging out, drinking and meeting new people.  Today was actually kinda boring / packed with classes.  But tomorrow at 7 am i have meditation which i'm looking forward to.  and its A day again, so i only have 2 classes and then i'm done at 1215 and im hoping it will be beautiful out again so i can lay out and get some color.
until next time!
christine

Greetings!

So today was the first day of classes!  The classes I’m taking are global studies, human voice in performance, anthropology of food and sacred places.  Today I just had global studies and the human voice in performance.  They both seem like cool classes.  Global studies has almost 300 students in the class though because only 2 sections are offered and the whole ship has to take it.  It was overwhelming though because I am not used to having classes that big since the max size at Monmouth is only 37 students and I never had a class that big.  My voice class seems awesome.  We sat on the floor in a circle the whole class and she told us to wear gym clothes or sweats and be barefoot for the class because it is a lot of breathing and stretching exercises.  My classes ended at 12:15 and then I went and grabbed some lunch.  After that I just sat in the piano bar and sent out some emails and what not.
Let me back track though….
I flew into San Diego on Saturday and met my roommate Tess, who is actually one of my friends here on the ship.  On Sunday we took a bus to Ensenada, Mexico, and my shuttle was at 8 am and we got there around 11.  Sunday was spent moving in, meeting people and orientation.  My roommate is Neha, and she is from Michigan.  We were supposed to leave on Sunday at 5 but because of immigration issues, we didn’t leave the port until around 8ish.  It’s crazy that this is where I’m going to be living for the next 100+ days! 
Yesterday was filled with orientation… aka lectures.  It got pretty boring.  At night though was our involvement fair.  I signed up for pretty much everything!  I signed up for extended family which is when you get set up with a lifelong learner or  a professor on the ship and other students and you start a little family and eat meals together whenever.  I also signed up to hang out with the kids that are on the ship, so I will be doing anything from babysitting, tutoring, or just hanging out with them.  I also signed up for yoga, meditation, students of service (which is we do a bunch of community service projects in port) and chi guong (?) (I don’t know what it is really called cuz I kept calling it the wrong thing last night, but its apparently a dance meditation type thing).  Last night was trivia night too!  Our team was pretty good but the last 2 rounds we totally fell apart. 
That’s pretty much it for me!  I can’t wait to get to Hawaii and get tan!