Arriving and Orienting

As you probably gathered from my lack of recent postings, I have not had much free time these past few days. Right after I arrived in Ensenada (BEAUTIFUL coastal drive, complete with a huge Jesus statue and gigantic Mexican flags) I started working with other work study students, greeting new participants and directing them to their rooms. Which was tricky because we didn’t even know where everything was located. That small detail aside, I enjoyed bonding with the other work study kids. I also met my boss and his assistant, and I think that I have not shown any computer weakness yet, thank goodness.

 

At 4, we all donned our life jackets for a boat drill. It reminded me of that game Sardines, we were so packed together. It would’ve been a perfect opportunity to get to know more people except for the sign reading “MANDATORY RULE #1: NO TALKING”. I never did pick up on any other mandatory rules.

 

Then unpacking! Which is much more fun than packing, if you ask me. I met my roommate, Brittany, who is a human development major and very easygoing. After dinner we went to the Welcoming Address by the Deans and Captain. They seem like a great bunch. Then I had a meeting with my LLC (living learning coordinator) who is in charge of our “Sea”, which just refers to a particular hall. I am part of the Mediterranean Sea, whose color is green (hooray!). It also happens to be the best Sea, of course. Because would you really want to be part of the Yellow Sea or the Baltic Sea? Exactly.

 

We experienced some rough waters the first night, and I saw several people dash to the bathroom in the middle of the welcome. Luckily I was wearing some Voodoo Anti Seasickness Bracelets so I avoided the nausea. However, it was pretty disconcerting to look out the window, seeing only ocean, and then two seconds later seeing only sky.  Besides the seasickness, we were also warned about protecting our phalanges. Apparently on ONE voyage SEVEN FINGERS were lost because the heavy ship doors slammed on them. Eek.

 

Monday was chock full of orientation, with no day off to celebrate MLK. However, the kids on the boat who are dependents of the faculty got on the intercom and sang happy birthday. We heard about Honor, the Global Studies class (I can now spout off the ten most populated countries in the world), the field program, health, safety, and community standards. After orientation finally came to a close, we had an activities fair where I, true to form, probably signed up for too many things to do. After the activities fair we played trivia! I am very proud to say that I remembered that Morgan Freeman replaced Walter Cronkite’s voice on the news, but not too proud that I didn’t remember that insulin was produced in the pancreas.

 

That’s about it for orientation, I’ll post about my classes when I’ve had the rest of them tomorrow. OH and my room number is 3058 and my SAS email is ewebb@semesteratsea.net, although if you send something to my UVA email (edw5b@virginia.edu) it should go through. Now I have to share a quote from Mr. White to wrap this up. He said that he wanted us to tell him at the end of the voyage , “Thank you Mr. White, my brain is full. Thank you Semester at Sea, my heart is full.”