And so it begins....

• Adeering's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from San juan

  San juan, Puerto Rico
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

And so here I am!!!! at our first port in Puerto Rico. Been here for two days now and we're leaving tomorrow. It's beautiful here. I would never guess its winter time!

So the boat is amazing and the people are just as great. Its sooo luxurious, spas, massage rooms, sauna's, tanning rooms, mani and pedi salon, maids for our rooms, I could go on and on. Surrounded by all these interesting, intellectual kids looking for adventure and trouble ;), just my kind of trip. Spent a few days in the Bahamas before setting ship to P.R., my room mates who I met on the Internet message boards for the trip all turned out to be cool and down and fun, still good friends with a few of them since we left the Bahamas. Didnt do too much there other than drink ourselves silly and get to know each other and the other 600 Semester At Sea kids who were staying at our same hotel. Got kicked out of the hot tub late night and invaded all the small Bahamian watering holes. 151 all the way (straight up NYC start the night Mami style). Filled rubbing alcohol bottles with vodka so that we have an ample stash of proof for the trip, since SAS regulates the # of drinks we can have on pub nights (by regulate I mean scare tactics that don't scare ME, no no no.)

When we took off for P.R. it was amazing. Lots of parents waving good bye, blah blah blah. I was thinking "my parents wouldn't be there if I offered to pay their way here, this sucks!" jk. The first night on the ship was great, just stayed up all night getting to know all these kids and swapping stories and smoking cig's- but no worries my rule is only one per night! We were on course to P.R. for four days, ppl getting used to their room mates (mine sucks) and hawking lots due to sea sickness. Its a good thing I (for some godly reason) don't get sea sick cause I didn't bring any pills or patches or wristbands or anything. I like to take the free pills they hand out though cause they give you the spins! Hehe.

Started classes, their really cool. Taking travel journal writing, digital photo, global studies geography, environ. politics and policy and globalization and international politics. Compared to Mills, classes are a JOKE and I feel so lucky to be able to experience "real college life" for one semester. Def wont learn anything in the classroom on the voyage, but I guess thats nothing to be complaining about! I fall asleep after like 30 seconds in class cause the boat is rocking back and forth, its terrible! I looked at my notes from GS the other day (its a 2 hour class) and all I had written was "Puerto Rico... narrow island 100 miles long" LOL. Met a lot of cool ppl in my classes, interested in all the same academic things I am, nerdy and cool just like muah, pretty sweeeeet. I also resolved to do my envt politics teacher before the semester ends despite the "no fraternizing with the staff rule" that has been heavily emphasized!

SO far I have one amazing girl friend, Jacy, a cool granola hippie type who likes all the same things I do (other than, and it goes without saying, she isn't quite the manhattan chanel snob who likes her Champagne free and expensive!) but its all good. I'm a hippie when I travel so it works out well. Other than her and a few cool chicks we have met together most of my friends are guys. So much fun! Too much fun. No one tells and appreciates a raunchy story and some luggies like a guy, am I right? Steve, Rex, David, Andrew and Jeff are the crew so far... getting bigger by the day!

So I only have classes every other day when we are at sea (when were in port we don't have any class at all cause all of us leave the ship to partaaaay and get silly). So on those days I work out, although running on the treadmill is hard when were in rough weather, lol, and I sit on the top deck by the pool and the other kids sun bathing. I'm basically a Negro, similar to summertime in Europe style, already. Still working on getting the nude sunbathing to be allowed, we'll see.

I'm applying to be a part of the SAS ambassadors group when we leave P.R. that meets with different ambassadors from all the ports of call that we go to and arranges diplomatic briefings with important diplomats for the rest of the SAS community to attend if they want to. Its an amazing opportunity and will be a really fun experience, hopefully it will add some challenges to the lack of difficulty I am experiencing in my classes. Never thought I would say that I miss classes that make me stressed out, right??? Where is o-chem when I need it, huh? LOL.

Puerto Rico has been great thus far. Gathered a group of wanderers with Jacy (my girlfriend) to come hiking in the rain forest, En Yunque Natl Park, yesterday. All the kids thought I was crazy when I asked the cabby "take us to the rainforest, come back in a few hours", haha. It was amazing we hiked to the top of this peak, no bushwhackers or ice pics (chris!) necessary. Then we found this castle and climbed to the top of it and pretended we were conquistadores. I swore the whole time that we had hiked so far that we were outside of the bounds of the Ntl Park and were about to walk right into some tropical pot farm and get assassinated, it was great. Lots of waterfall swimming, I broke out the swanky little shorts then and got a few strange looks but everyone will get over it soon enough I figure. Steve, Nate and I had to pick the leaches off Steve after we got out cause they seemed to like his juicy blood :), and there was a No Swimming sign, oops! We scaled a few waterfalls and acted hard core, it was great. Wandered Old Town San Juan today and took lots of cool pictures and layed in a few parks and battled last nights hangovers together, good times. Going out Salsa dancing tonight to mix it up with the hottie local boys, no worries thought all my guy possie is over protective and know when the hungry eyes come out- the best cock blockers ever :)

Off tomorrow night for (seven?) days at sea, arriving in BRAZIL at pre-carnival time, sweeeeet! Should be super Negro after that much sunbathing time. Cant wait to cross the equator, apparently its a huge deal and we all swim in pools of fish guts in honor of a pirate tradition. Lots of ppl shave their heads, but considering that I will be returning to Mills College in a few months means that would not be very appropriate, now would it. So, I'll check this blog at the end of our time in Brazil so write back to me all you lovelies! Miss you all, lots of pics of all of you magneted up on my walls in my room (and I've broken out the photo album already mucho times j+d)... I think my boring room mate is wondering why I have so many pictures of triple kisses and lesbian action and glass tables and sweaty dancing orgies and crazy naked costumes.... maybe I can help to broaden her horizons for our next 99 days together in a untraditional educational manner. I'm working on telling all the new friends all about our crazy times together...many many cig's down the road, nights sleeping up on deck with our mattresses, and a few more thousand nautical miles later I am sure each of you will be well known in the shipboard community, no doubt.