Courtney and I had kind of a rough start this morning. We were supposed to start our first orientation meeting at 8:45. We figured that if we got up at 7:45 then that would give us plenty of time to get up, get ready, have breakfast, and head to the meeting; however, for some reason the time on both of our iphones were an hour late. We were awoken by a message on the intercom reminding all of the students that we had a mandatory meeting in give minutes. We jumped out of bed in a hurry and ended up at the meeting about 10 minutes late (not bad if I do say so myself).

We had orientation lectures for about three hours and talked about everything under the sun. The most interesting (and scary) thing that we learned about was that three- I repeat three- SAS students have died in the past eight years. How insane is that? One boy died while trying to get back to the ship from a bar while intoxicated, and he was ironically hit by a drunk driver. Sad. One girl was killed while diving off of a boat with a third party vendor (not with SAS). Safety regulations were not met, and she was hit by the propeller of the boat. Awful. The other guy died for reasons unknown. An autopsy was never completed. Terrifying. This all really hit home for me. Those kids were just like me in the way that they thought nothing like that could ever happen to them. They have friends and family who miss them. Those kids said goodbye to their parents just like me and didn't know that was the last time they'd ever see them. Of course, I'm going to be as safe as I can. I won't be coming home from pubs late at night by myself or diving off of a boat, but anything can happen to anyone. That's a really sobering thought.

Anyways, next was lunch and more orientation stuff. I went to dinner with my roommate and some of her friends (they have a group and they call themselves the "Land Sharks"). Afterwards, some girls and I headed back to our cabin and watch an hour of the Princess Bride (so fun!!). At 8:00, there was an activities fair where student could come together and form fun clubs and whatnot. One exciting event that will happen later in the voyage is that we're actually hosting a TedEx conference. For those of you who don't know what Ted Talks are, they're like short 10-15 minute inspirational lecture that are videoed and shared on the internet.

My three favorite Ted Talks:

Cameron Russell: Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y

Hackschooling makes me happy: Logan LaPlante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

Lessons from a hospice nurse: Alice Indrawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xs8qmk0OPc

So the night we get into Helsinki we'll be hosting our very own TedEx. Students, faculty, staff, and any other guests are welcome to audition. 6-10 people will be chosen to speak, but they also need crew members to help run the show. How cool is that?! I'm so excited. There were also a lot of other clubs for kids who are interested in things like yoga, dancing, and hiking. The only one I signed up for was Eat, Play, Love which is a group Arshia helped put together. Basically the club will just be researching fun and cheap activities to do at each port.

I just now got my SAS email set up on my laptop and phone. We only have a limited number of free minutes for wi-fi on the ship (100 minutes), and I'm tyring to save those for a time when I need help with homeowrk assignments. Fortunately, I can access my email anytime without using any of those minutes. So if you need to contact me for any reason, just email me at jessica.denboer.su14@semesteratsea.org. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Just a couple of sidenotes before I finish for the evening.:

1. For those of you who don't know, it's not just professors and students on the ship. Many of the staff brought their children and their spouses with them, so we have a lot of youngin's running around the ship which I really enjoy. There are also older people on the ship too who are called Lifelong Learners. They are people who have paid to travel with SAS but who don't take the classes. So really, anyone who has the money can go on any of SAS's voyages (after applying of course). One of the professors described our ship as a floating academic village, and I think that describes us perfectly.

2. Seasickness! As soon as we hit open waters, I could immediately start to feel the boat move. It was very disorienting at first. I don't know what I was thinking, but I always had it in my mind that we would barely feel any movement on the ship. That clearly isn't the truth. For the first couple of hours, the slow, side-to-side rocking kind of got to me. It never made me nauseous, but sometimes I felt so dizzy that I had to sit down for a minute. I took some seasickness pills, and that seemed to help. I feel much better now. All of the staff say that it takes some getting used to, but eventually we won't even notice.

3. The layout of the ship is very confusing. It's strange because there isn't a lot of room to move around as far as floor area goes, but there are seven deck stacked on top of each other. It's hard to remember which deck is which and where each individual room is. There are also two or three (I'm not really sure, see this IS confusing) places to eat. Plus, you can only go up or down a deck at certain staircases at certain ends of the ship. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before I figure it all out, but for now it will be an interesting learning experience. Oh yeah, and they go by military time here, so 4:00 pm is 16:00 and 11:00 pm is 23:00. Not too difficult, just different.

That's about all for today. Adios.