Okay…first blog entry, its going to be long cause its covering about a week so…here it goes.

Today is the 6^th day we’ve been on the boat. So we have 2 more before we get to Hawaii.

The first day was crazy. They said it would take about 2 and a half hours to get from San Diego to Ensenada. Well, it really isn’t that long, expect it took about an hour just to get across the boarder. They boarder guards were decked out in army gear and had small sandbag barricades everywhere. I was just waiting for the tank to come around the corner haha. The area was either really pretty or pretty impoverished…but interesting either way. I didn’t take any pictures because my camera was stuff somewhere under my seat. The one thing I wish I had taken a picture of was this HUGE colored statue of Jesus. He was on this hill alone and had to be at least 25-30 feet tall, probably taller. I think it’s only appropriate that Israel, or maybe even Florida, have gigantic statue of Moses :)

Getting on the boat was exciting and not too ridiculous…but it did have more security check points than an airport. The first meal was salad, some type of potatoes, some type of pasta, some type of meat, bread rolls, soup, and peanut butter and jelly. Some of my favorite foods! You’d think I’d be in heaven, except for the fact that it’s essentially the same meal every day for lunch and dinner…just different types of each. Breakfast is really good, however. But I found out today that there is NO cream cheese. How can you not have cream cheese? It’s like a sin in the world of Natalie. I’m making due with butter I suppose.

The first two days on the boat were orientation…BBBOOORRRIIIINNNGG. The worst part about it was that they kept emphasizing the same things over and over again and never talked about others. They were all just really repetitive and condescending, but I guess it’s all important stuff.

The seas have been really rough. We’ve hit swells ranging from 10-12 feet. People have been getting sick every which way. I got a little nauseous the first day and today but it was nothing a little Dramamine couldn’t fix. If you were sick enough they had to give you a shot in the bum…not fun. The boat is so rocky that one minute you see all ocean and a second later all you see in sky, and then back and forth back and forth. It’s actually really soothing at night when you’re trying to fall asleep.

The water has been so rough because apparently there were some big storms on the west coast. We’ve avoided a few out here in the ocean. The waves have been so bad that they had to close down the elevators, the gym, closed the pool, and tied off the chairs by the pool. You’re constantly walking on slant and into walls. Last night was one of the worst. The drawers next to our bed don’t stay closed and nothing stays put on your shelves because of the rocking. But last night, we must have hit this waves and everything came crashing to the floor…EVERYTHING, including my computer (which now won’t stay shut). And because the drawers keep slamming open and closed you can’t sleep because all you hear is bang...bang...bang. But my roommate, Abby, and I have gotten some tips on how to fix it. In class, people keep falling off their chairs. It’s just a mess, but other than that everything’s good.

They have had to slow down the ship because rumor has it we used up to much fuel the first 3 days by going fast that they only way we’ll make it to Hawaii is if we go slower to preserve full. Uh oh.

These past four days have been classes. Everyone has to taken this Global Studies and there are two sections so half of the ship is in each. The professor is crazy. He’s really animated, but a little all of the place. He also doesn’t really censor himself so some things he says come off as really racist or stereotypical…but you laugh because your like ‘oh my god I can’t believe he just said that.’ Overall, he’s a really fun teacher.

I’m a little disappointed with my photography class. Today was the second day of it. I thought it was going to be a photography professor who happened to pick the topics of architecture and landscape, but rather it’s a architecture professor who just happens to be able to use a camera, more or less. If I didn’t already know about film I think I would be so lost. The book doesn’t really use laymen/more commonly used terms. Instead of lens it uses the term objective, which is fine, but it doesn’t say that they are using that term in reference to lens so most people have no idea what it talking about. Today, he went over camera usage and again, thank god I know film. I could have taught it better…no joke. He would bring up a topic and talk about it and it’s functions without explaining what it was in the first place. I think in the end it will be fine. I just had higher expectations I guess.

My digital photography class is going to be a lot of work but a lot of fun. We have a one minute film due next week…with no editing...shouldn’t be to hard once I come up with a storyline. Then we have to 3-8 minute digital stories over the span of the semester. Along with that we have to do six installments of “show” for SeaTv. For this, we are broken down into production teams and go from there. SeaTv worried me at first but we saw a bunch of examples and it looks like a lot of fun, but a lot of work. And on top of that we have to keep a journal/scrapbook of what we do on our trips in the country and another one on our contributions to SeaTv within our production group. So it’s a lot of work.

My collage class is just a glorified scrap booking class. It seems fun, but a lot of work as well. We have to do a drawing a day. She said it only has to be like a ten minute thing…but what sketch is that good when only done in ten minutes? Clearly, being the perfectionist that I am, it takes a lot longer.

Besides all of the above…not much else is going on. I’ll write more often and shorter in the future.