Orientations and Such

1st full day at sea was great!   We had rounds of orientation meetings that were about safety, activities, rules, classes, and everything else.  They each lasted about an hour or so, and they went pretty much all day.   During our 1&1/2 hour break around lunchtime, I went back to my cabin and took a nap :)  Then I went up to lunch, where I met and sat with a couple of girls that go to Clemson? Clemmenson?  Something that starts with "clem."  We also had what they called an "involvement symposium" where we signed up on email lists for fun activities on the boat.  I signed up for yoga/pilates, internship/research workshops, a pre-engineers club, and (mom, you will be happy) a Catholic mass group.   Apparently one of the lifelong learners is a retired Catholic priest and has offered to say mass, so that works out nicely.  Oh and one of my friends Brett and I are starting a makeshift choir; we'll see how that goes!

Karyn, the girl from Stanford, and her roommate Megan are both really nice.  We (Karyn, Megan, Brett, and I) hung out in their room between the orientations and dinner and watched The Matrix on the TV system.  The two girls next-door to me (Lee and Caitlin) are really nice too!  After hall meeting tonight, we wandered around and found some people playing cards and joined in on their game.  We played apples-to-apples and then spoons, but instead of spoons we had to use the small red-striped coffee stirrers/straws.  The crew doesn't trust us with utensils outside the dining room...

Dinner was real delicious.  We had yummy citrus-y fish, a broccoli side dish and BOSTON CREME PIE!!  I love me some boston creme pie; anyone who has seen me on boston creme pie day at the stanford dining halls can vouch for this fact.  They also served it at late night snack - so much for having a hot bod this summer.  I can already tell I'm going to be obese before we see land again.  They throw food at us constantly.  OH! and they ALWAYS have cheese cubes. Every meal.  I think this is what it would be like in the dining halls in heaven - boston creme pie and neverending cheese cubes.

Tonight we have to push our clocks up one hour as we cross into another time zone, so there goes an hour of sleep!  So much for being rested on the first day of classes :-/  And the captain sent out a message saying that tomorrow should be one of the roughest of the trip; something to do with tides and winds in this part of the atlantic.

I hope y'all are having a wonderful summer!  I'm excited to come back home and trade stories and pictures!