July 1 to 4- From Spain To Scotland

I decided I’m going to compile my days on the ship into one blog post. Partly because I don’t have much to say about sea days and partly because I think most of you would rather read about my days in port instead of about my days on the ship. I’m also not going to write about everything that I do each and every day because that’s boring. Instead, I’m just going to keep notes of random thoughts I want to share with you.

July 1

Nothing of importance happened today.

July 2

Four days on the ship seems like a long time, and I hope it goes by quickly. I’m excited for Scotland, and I’m anxious to be in port again. I can’t believe it's already the month of July! That just seems crazy to me. It also just occurred to me that the 4^th of July is in two days. The 4^th is usually one of my favorite holidays, but it hasn’t even crossed my mind at all this summer. It made me kind of sad today to think that I won’t be able to spend the day with my family and watch the fireworks with Zane, but then I remembered that I’m on a floating college traveling through Europe and I stopped feeling sorry for myself.

I got bored in class today and figured out that I have been gone from home for 21 days. This is definitely the longest I’ve ever been away from my parents, my sister and my boyfriend. Strangely, I haven’t felt homesick much at all. Of course I have my moments. Every time I see a cute dog I miss Cailey. Every time I try a new, yummy food I wish my mom was with me. Every time I hear a cheesy, romantic love song I think of Zane. But I haven’t felt truly sad or homesick yet. Which is great! I’m doing a lot better than I’d thought I’d be at this point. I also calculate that I have 51 more days to go, so I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before it kicks in.

Apparently, the whole “let’s-be-adventurous-and-try-new-food” thing has turned into a “let’s-see-how-much-food-Jessica-can-stuff-into-her-face” thing. I’ve eating so much in the past two weeks it’s ridiculous. Both on and off the ship, I just can’t help but try everything! Like I said before, some people don’t like the food on the ship. But I love it! I think it’s great! And of course I need to eat while we’re in country! I need to get a taste of everything! I never had trouble with the Freshman 15 (that’s where you gain 15 pound your freshman year of college), but I’m starting to think they should call it the SAS 15 too. I think I might be in trouble. Will you all love me when I get home if I gain 15 pounds? Regardless of what your answer might be, I think I’m just going to keep eating a lot. It’s kind of liberating to have no self-control…

July 3

Today I met my “extended family” on the ship. At the beginning of our voyage, we had the option to sign up with the events coordinator to be matched up with a Lifelong Learner or a faculty member so we could form an extended family. My new ship mom’s name is Julie Roa. She’s working on the ship as the school’s Registrar/Assistant to the Academic Dean. Julie is originally from Columbia, but she’s currently working at the University of Virginia. He wasn’t able to make it to the meeting, but Joe Moon is my ship dad. He’s the Dean of Student Life. I haven’t met him yet, so I don’t know much about him. I also have three ship sisters: Jodie, Hannah and Gisselle. They all seem really nice, and I’m excited to get to know them all better!

Julie's Bio

http://www.semesteratsea.org/faculty-and-staff/julie-roa/

Joe's Bio

http://www.semesteratsea.org/faculty-and-staff/joseph-moon/

July 4

Happy Birthday ‘Merica! Nothing too special happened today except we got a really cool cake at dinner.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Scotland!

June 30- In Loving Memory of Heather Terman

This morning I woke up to the worst news anyone can receive. My mom emailed me to let me know of Heather Terman’s passing away. I was completely shocked. I’ve known Heather my entire life, and she has been a great friend to my family. She was in my dad's class in school, and my mom worked with her for several years at Hi-Country. When she married her husband Jay, Katie Shaw and I were flower girls at her wedding.

My favorite memory of Heather was going to a Shania Twain concert with her and Kathy and Katie Shaw. Katie and I were obsessed with Shania for the majority of our childhood, and being able to see her perform in real life was a dream come true. I’m glad I was able to share that experience with such wonderful people.

Heather was constantly involved in community events and fundraisers. I will never forget how much she supported my family four years ago when my Grandma Lynn was diagnosed with cancer. She helped organized a benefit to raise money for my grandparents, and she also helped plan the memorial service for my grandma when she passed away. I will forever be thankful for everything Heather did for me and my family.

Heather was an amazing woman, and she will greatly be missed. My heart goes out to all of her friends, family, Jay, Trevor, Misty, Cort, Ryann, and especially Don and Sharon. No parent should ever have to say goodbye to their child. Life is a precious thing, and none of us should ever take it for granted. All we can do now is remember Heather’s beautiful smile and her kind nature. She will live on in our hearts and in our memories.

~~~~~ 

After hearing about Heather’s death, nothing else seems worthy to write about from today except for one thing. I went back into Bilbao with some friends and picked up a couple of souvenirs. As I got off the subway station (I missed the last bus), I met another SAS girl who was also headed back to the ship. We started chatting, and she said she had to fly home the next day. I was shocked to hear this, and I asked her why she was going home. She told me that her ex-boyfriend who she had dated for six years was killed yesterday in a drunk driving accident. She was going home to his funeral and then coming back to SAS when we get to Scotland.

I couldn’t believe what she had just told me. I went on to tell her that a family friend of mine has just passed away yesterday as well. We talked for a long time, and she told me a lot about everything that had happened to her in the past 24 hours. At one point she said, “I think that we were meant to meet each other today. It’s a blessing to be able to talk to someone who understands what I’m going through.” Of course our circumstances were different, but I do feel like God brought us together today to be able to share our stories with one another. She was a sweet girl, and I wish the best for her and her family. I hope to see her again when she comes back to the ship in Scotland.

So my time in Spain has ended. We have four days on the ship, and then we’ll be docking in Glasgow, Scotland. Three countries down, seven to go.

June 29- Festival Of San Pedro

Today I was able to watch and be a part of a traditional Basque celebration, the festival of San Pedro (St. Peter). SAS arranged a field program (we had to pay for the tickets) to go to a nearby town called Sopelana to see the festivities at 10:00 am. As soon as we got into town, we saw a parade of people walking the streets. The group was headed by 4 gigantic human figurines that were carried by the townsfolk. I wish I knew more about what was going on so I could explain who the figures were supposed to be, but the truth is that I have no idea. Following the large “mascots” (for lack of a better word) were musicians, children dressed up in costumes, and adults wearing traditional Basque outfits. The parade went all through the tiny town and ended at a church where everyone gathered to have a Sunday service. We didn’t stay for that part, but the other events wouldn’t begin until 12:00. So Courtney, Lindsey and I just chilled in a café for an hour drinking espresso and eating pintxos. At noon, we went back out into the town and saw that the street were lined with vendors. They were selling everything from bags to clothes to toys to jewelry to art and just about everything in between.

Festival of San Pedro

Parade Through Sopelana

Sunday Service at a Chapel in Sopelana

In the center of town, some of the local townspeople were putting on a show in celebration of San Pedro. There were several groups of children of various ages who would perform a traditional Basque dance. It started off with the young children, and an older group would replace them as a new song began to play. It was very interesting and entertain to watch. Most of the people in the crowd were locals, and it was pretty evident that most of the tourists were from SAS. Everyone looked so happy and nice and like they were having a lot of fun.

We had the choice to go back to the ship with SAS at 2:00 or stay in Sopelana and come back later on our own. Lindsey and I decided to head back to the ship. We watched the Disney cartoon Hercules while we waited for her roommate, Katie, to return from a different field program. FYI, Lindsey loves Disney so I already know we’re going to be good friends.

After Katie got back to the ship, we grabbed some dinner and headed into Bilbao. Coincidentally, we met up with Courtney as soon as we got off the bus. The four of us decided to visit Casco Viejo or “Old Town” which is just the historic area in Bilbao. Casco Viejo has a lot of neat little shops and boutiques, so it was fun to explore. We got some ice cream and later some pintxos before finally returning to the ship at 9:00. Exhausted, I went to bed happy and dreamt of pintxos and gelato all night.

June 28- Living Life By A Spanish Proverb

“How beautiful is it to relax and then do nothing afterwards.” –Spanish Proverb

This morning started off a little slow. I got up fairly early and had breakfast, but the girls I was going to spend the day with wanted to sleep in a bit. So I got some good, quality homework time in and caught up on a bunch of reading. At 11:30, I met Arshia and her friend Ilwi at the dining hall for lunch. Then we caught the next shuttle into Bilbao.

We wanted to take the day easy. We stopped at the main shopping mall in town, and I bought a very cute dress (“made in Spain” by the way, I was super stoked about that). Then we meandered through town. We walked by the Guggenheim and stopped at a few souvenir shops. We also got some gelato at a place that would make you an actual rose out of your ice cream (see photo below).

Yummy Gelato Rose

Eventually we ended up in a little café/bar. We sat down for a while and enjoyed some pintxos and sangria. Apparently, pintxos are the thing to eat while you’re in Basque Country.

Ilwi and Arshia

 You’re probably wondering, “What is a pintxo?” About.com does a good job explaining.

'Pintxo' is a 'Basque-ified' take on the Spanish word 'pincho', which itself comes from the verb 'pinchar', which is 'to pierce'. Pinchos are traditionally pierced with a cocktail stick, to attach it to the piece of bread that they invariably came attached to. However, as Basque cuisine has evolved, the food is now less likely to be pierced to a piece of bread than before. In the Basque Country, you are served 'pintxos'. It is never written 'pinchos' and they are never called 'tapas'. This is the case regardless of whether it is served 'pinchado' to a piece of bread with a cocktail stick or not. Even if you're served a plate of risotto, it's still a pintxo. (http://gospain.about.com/od/tapasinspain/qt/pintxos_pinchos_tapas.htm)

Pintxo Bar

As soon as we left the café, it started to rain. We all huddled together under Arshia's umbrella and hurried to the bus stop. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for the next shuttle to the ship. Once we got back to the MV Explorer, we had dinner and chatted for a while with another group of SASers. We decided the weather was too icky to go out again, so I went to Arshia and Yiting’s room to watch Sherlock.

For you Sherlock fans (I know you’re few and far in between), you HAVE to see Season 3 if you haven’t yet. It’s is absolutely AMAZING!!! I was able to watch the first episode before I left, but I didn’t have time to watch the other two. Thank God Arshia has it downloaded on her laptop! For those of you who don’t watch Sherlock, I highly, highly recommend it. It’s hands down one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

The geek rant is over. I decided not to finish the last episode, so I have about 30 minutes left to watch. I’m saving it for another rainy day. So yes, today was a lovely, lazy day in Spain.

June 27- Hola Basque Country (aka. Northern Spain)

We’re in Spain! How incredible is that? After breakfast, Courtney and I met up with a group of friends and we headed out into Spain for the day. Technically, we aren’t docked in the actual city of Bilbao. We’re in a nearby town called Gexto. Bilbao is farther inland, but SAS is providing us a shuttle to run us back and forth all day (which is really nice). Gexto itself is a pretty cool little beach town, and I’d like to do some exploring here before we leave. Today, though, we went into the heart of the city. You can guess what we did first… we saw the Guggenheim! It was pretty incredible.

"Puppi" at the Guggenheim

This cute little dog was playing in the fountains! Made my day.

The Infamous Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim's Spider Sculpture

Amazing Street Art

Lindsey and Courtney

Tada! Bilbao's Pride and Joy

Our big group then split into smaller groups. Courtney and I went into the Guggenheim with two girls named Lindsey and Mari. I didn’t know what to expect because the Guggenheim is a modern art museum, but I’m really glad we went for one exhibition only: Ragnar Kjartansson’s THE VISITORS. It was utterly amazing. Like it’s one of those experiences I can’t describe with words. It’s something you just have to see for yourself. However, I’ll try to give you an idea of what it was like. It’s just this small, dark room with 9 screens placed on the walls. A group of musicians got together and recorded themselves singing/playing their instruments in different rooms of an old, beautiful house. Each screen shows a different artist in a different room. So for 60 minutes, they have this incredible jam-sesh, and it’s absolutely beautiful. You’re never able to see all of the screens at once, so you just walk around the room and watch one artist play while listening to all of their music creating this beautiful, haunting song. It was one of those rare moments where I completely lost myself. You know how when you see or hear something amazing that makes goosebumps pop up all over your body, and then you just sort of stop existing? And you can feel the music inside of you? And the vibrations of each note rings in your heart? That’s what it felt like.

We spent over an hour in that room. We watched the entire performance and then some. After we left, we figured we weren’t going to anything that cool in the rest of the museum, and we were right. As it turns out, I really don’t like modern art. I guess I can see why some people might like it, but it just seemed kind of dumb to me. Like, “Oh cool, there’s a floating chair with some random plate around it.” I don’t really get it. It’s like the artists are trying to be really deep and really unique, but it just doesn’t make much sense in the end. To each their own I s’pose.

Courtney, Mari, Lindsey and I then left the museum and followed the river down to the “Old Town” (the oldest part of the city. We got some food at a small restaurant there. I had two small sandwiches, one cod and one sautéed mushrooms. They were cheap, but they really hit the spot. Then we started wandering back towards the city center. We got some chocolate ice cream at a street vendor. Then a piece of chocolate cake at a bakery… And then some chocolate crepes at a coffee shop… So we definitely got our fill of sweets for the day.

When we were done stuffing our faces, we took the shuttle back "home" and had a light dinner back at the ship. We all decided to go to bed early because we’re exhausted and we have three more days ahead of us. You gotta pace yourself when docked at a port city!

As a side note, apparently we are in “Basque Country.” Although it is technically a part of Spain, Basque is like its own independent territory. The Basque people would claim that they are NOT Spanish, they are Basque. They have their own history, culture and language. So far, I have yet to see a Spanish flag anywhere in the city, but I’ve seen plenty of Basque flags.