¡Barcelona Mañana!

It's almost midnight on Wednesday, June 23, and we're going to be in Barcelona tomorrow!!!!!  I am so excited!

The ship is supposed to start docking around 7, and they told us to expect lots of announcements over the ship's speakers.  We have a pilot pull up next to us in a little boat, board our ship, and then help direct the captain into the port.  Then we have all sorts of diplomats and customs people come aboard.  They said it would probably be until around 11 or so until we can actually get off the ship, and my friends and I are going on a trip at 1, so we are just going to eat lunch on the ship and avoid the crazy mad rush to get off the boat at 11.  One sad thing though - they said our passports aren't going to get stamped!  They said with big groups like this, the port patrol and customs agents do a big mass check-in without going through individual passports.  So thats a bummer, but I'll still have all the pictures to prove I was there! :)

The trip we are going to go on tomorrow is a city orientation trip - they take us in a bus to all the major tourist sites, show us around, let us get out and take pictures, etc. That lasts from 1-5, and then we are on our own for the night!  We're planning on going back to the boat, changing, and going out to dinner. apparently the nightlife gets going around midnight - so much for sleep this summer!   my trip to Montserrat the next day, though, doesn't start until 10, so i'll be able to sleep in then :)

the water has been beautiful and calm ever since we went through the Strait of Gibraltar into the mediterranean. no more crazy atlantic waves!  i don't even have on the seasickness patch anymore, and i'm fine.  i've heard that reverse seasickness exists, though - people get nauseous when they go back on land :-/  I hope that doesn't happen!

when we went through the Strait, it was a particularly foggy day, so we couldn't see details clearly (all my pictures look like big blue/gray blobs), but it was really neat anyways!  look to one side, and see Europe. look to the other side, and see Africa.  it was pretty awesome.

We don't have class again on the boat until after Italy, so that's really nice!  It will give me time to catch up on the readings for class (maybe…)  We had our pre-port briefing session this evening at 8, and we had people from lots of different areas of expertise talk to us about food, travel, medical care, money, excursions, etc.  I'm really hoping I don't get pick-pocketed!  Enter: non-stylish travel belt from target :)

Alright. It's officially midnight, and I need to get some rest for the big day tomorrow.  I love you all! 


PS - email me sometime!  cnensley@semesteratsea.net   if you happen to send pictures or anything of the like, they put up a 50KB limit on attachments for the sake of not overloading the ship's server.