Living the good life on the MV Explorer & in Puerto Rico!

Well I’m officially off on my voyage and we have departed our first port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. I boarded Sunday, February 4th around noon after over an hour wait to get on. That night & Monday we had orientation. Tuesday I had my first official day of class. For the first time in my life I have an 8am class! Eek! What was I thinking?!? Luckily my mom sent me with over 100 teabags (cause y’all know I need my tea in the morning to function) and it is my political science course about International Conflict Resolution which I think is going to be very interesting. After that I had Global Studies which the entire ship takes together. In this class we talk about where we are going and about issues facing our world. It has a main coordinator but different members of the faculty and other guest lecturers take turns contributing to the lectures.
Wednesday we got to San Juan a little before 8am. I ate breakfast out on the deck so I could watch us come into port. Shortly after we docked the governor & the secretary of state came on board and gave a speech. It was really cool to get to hear him speak about Puerto Rico and what he feels are their challenges. After that I went on a bus tour of Old and New San Juan. On the tour we got to go to the Capital building, one of the forts & then we were dropped off in Old San Juan for lunch & an afternoon of leisurely seeing the city and shopping. That evening welcome receptions for SAS students were held at four area universities. I went to the University of Puerto Rico which was a blast. There was dinner and pina coladas followed by an address by the chancellor and then salsa dancing! (which Americans are really funny to watch doing when they are partnering a very good Puerto Rican dancer)
Thursday I went with a group to the south of Puerto Rico specifically to Ponce & the Tibes Ceremonial Center. Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico and has a lot of museums and a very fun open air market area and about the coolest fire station I’ve ever seen. That night I went to dinner in old San Juan with a friend from NCSU & a couple other people then we welcomed the students from the places we had visited the night before onto the MV Explorer.
Friday I took a trip to the Yunque rainforest for a hike through part of the forest. It was about a two hour hike and in the middle we stopped at a gorgeous waterfall for a quick swim. The rainforest was cool but we didn’t really get to see any animals except a few birds and lizards. Afterwards we had lunch at this tiny local place at the foot of the mountain. Puerto Rican food is a lot of rice & beans, plantains, seafood and fish. After lunch we wend to the Luquillo beach which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Puerto Rico. It’s at the base of the mountains of the rainforest and surrounded by beautiful palm trees. The water was so clear and pretty white fish were swimming by.
Saturday was my second day of classes. I had my world history, 1400-1914 class. My professor is kind of crazy & scatterbrained. We somehow went from talking about the state of the world in the 1400s to talking about the modern day abortion debate in America….But I think I am going to learn a lot from him and the class. I have to reread “Things Fall Apart” which I read in tenth grade with Dr. Busonik (remember Katie? Haha!) I also had my macroeconomics in global society class as well today. I am really looking forward to this class. My professor seems really good and the class is going to be very interesting since we are specifically looking at the countries we’re going to. But probably the best part of Saturday is that Desmond Tutu said good morning to me when I passed him on my way to class. (See Rach? He & I are tight already!)
So maybe you’d like to hear about the boat while I’m at this! I mean ship-they do NOT like it when you call it a boat. Or a cruise-we’re supposed to say “voyage.” Well, I will say this, I am going to be very spoiled by the time I get back to the states cause I am living the good life. Our room & bathroom gets cleaned every day—our beds are made for us, the bathroom is cleaned & restocked by our cabin steward! There are two dining halls on the ship where the food is completely prepared (and very good-I was slightly concerned it would be like eating at Fountain) and the tables are bused. My favorite place to do homework & reading is out on the deck where you can watch the waves and see the most terrific sunsets (you have to be careful with that one though-I definitely got a little sunburned my second day on ship!). Today we even went by several islands in the lower Antilles (like Barbados). The cabins are pretty tight quarters but after the “semester of 49” where Rachel & I were literally 49 inches apart from each other, it’s not really a change for me.
It's been really funny watching people get their sea legs! We all stumble around here looking like we've been at the puerto rican rum whenever the boat decides to toss and turn. Then when get off on land you feel like you're still moving! It's so weird!
Thanks to everyone who’s been emailing me! I miss you all & wish you were here!
I arrive in Brazil Saturday, Feb 17th and will try to upload some of my pictures that week.
Love,
Emily
P.S. Just so you know-there is a phone number for the ship if you need to reach me in the event of an emergency & my mom has that number if you need it.
P.P.S. The internet here is very slow so if you send me an email/facebook message please don’t think I’m ignoring you if it takes me a couple days to respond!