are so close to the US. I believe that we are probably in US waters
right now. We all finished our exams and papers and everything went
well for that. On the night of our exams Brittany's mom had sent her
a cake for celebration, so I had a tiny piece of that before going to
my ship board "parents'" room for a graduation party for the two of us
who were graduating. We all dressed up nicely and stood out on her
balcony (only teachers have balconies) and watched the sunset as we
ate cake and cookies and had a pretty awesome evening. Then I went
back downstairs to join my friends and play some Cranium. Packing was
just about finished by the time yesterday afternoon came around.
Yesterday was amazing! I slept in and hung out for part of the day.
Last night was the Ambassador's Ball, so we all got dressed up and had
a fancy dinner in the main dining hall. Afterwards we still had about
2 hours before desert was going to be served and dancing would
commence, so Katie and I, still all gussied up, went to be dorky and
watch Evengelion. Later on we went back upstairs where I finally met
Dean Mike Zoll who I've been meaning to talk to (and apparently he's
been meaning to talk to me) since he went to UVM and met my mother at
the parent's reception the night before we left Canada. Desert was
delicious! We covered our plates in cakes, tarts and other savory
sweets and sat in the union as we waited for dancing to begin.
Dancing was a lot of fun! Until about 10 girls stepped on me in
stilettos (how they were walking in them on wooden floors on a rocky
boat, I have no idea) and then a guy stepped on my Achilles tendon and
I almost fell over it hurt so bad. We decided to use this as a good
stopping point and headed back to Katie's room where we finally had
out sleepover. Katie, Emily, Alex and I all slept in their room and
talked and played Uno until late and woke up early this morning to go
to breakfast.
For the rest of today we just hung around, packing the last bit,
hurriedly watching the last few episodes of Evengelion (only the movie
left) and signed each other's maps and journals with the occasional
tears. We had to bring out luggage to our drop off areas and pack
overnight bags so we had what we needed for the next day. For most
people this also meant figuring out what would be their carry on
luggage for the plane. I was lucky I was driving. We are all quite
sad that we will not be seeing each other every single day anymore.
This is so different from going to college and leaving because at
least for college you know you have those few years together, then you
leave. We feel almost like we've been cheated. We have spent 2 and a
half months together and seen each other every day and now we will go
for months or years without seeing each other. I will miss these
people. We are already talking about ways to get back together.
Tonight we had convocation which was just like convocation for most
schools, but much shorter (which was good since they started it at 5pm
and dinner is from 5:30-7). They had all the graduates stand up and
there were only about 5 of us in the room, but I know there are many
more that weren't there. Afterwards we all went to dinner, had our
final discussion group meeting and later that night we had our final
preport meeting. For most ports they told us facts about our upcoming
country and things that we needed to keep in mind when going around
the country and talking with people. They also gave us some tips on
what we should do and not do while we were there. For returning to
the US there was no change. They told us about the currency, the
local customs and government as well as the current issues that we
should talk to locals about. We all laughed and cried. It was a lot
of fun. Directly following the meeting we had an ipod party. For
those of you who do not know what this is, it's where everyone
downloads the same track or playlist onto their ipod. We all had the
same track which was a mix of songs. At the same exact time everyone
presses play on their ipods and we all dance with our headphones on.
It started off in the Union. It was really funny to take off the
headphones and look around. It looks like everyone is dancing to no
music. At one point during the track a voice came on and said that we
were all supposed to run to the piano lounge and dance there…so we
did. Then we had to go to Tymitz square and dance there and do the
wave. Of course, those who were not involved in the dance party all
decided that this was extremely amusing to watch. The last place we
went was out onto the deck. The captain had agreed to turn off the
lights again, so there was a lot of people out there already, lying
out watching the stars. Some of them got really annoyed with us
dancing around them, but we couldn't hear their rude comments unless
we took off our headphones. We all had so much fun. When we were all
done we cheered and went to our rooms.
…I got interrupted, so now I will write about the rest of the night.
That night Alex, Katie and I slept out on the deck. It was really
windy and humid, so it was quite cold and since we weren't aloud to
take out bedding out of our rooms and I had already packed everything,
all I had was my sweatpants, the shirt I had been wearing that day and
two sweatshirts. I wore one and used the other for a blanket. It
really wasn't cold out at all, but the humidity with the wind made it
feel cold. I shivered for most of the night and at around 3am Katie
saw me shivering and shared her blanket with me. At around 4am they
wash the decks, so the guy woke us up and we wandered down to Katie's
room where we fell asleep again and woke up that morning to someone
singing over the loud speakers.
It was a very relaxing way to wake up. We wanted to get up for
sunrise anyway, so we got up for breakfast and watched the sunrise
while we ate. Then we just sat on the deck as we pulled into Norfolk,
VA, USA. We were accompanied by tons of dolphins. They were jumping
and swimming everywhere. It was really cool. A great way to finish
our final stretch home. Everyone cheered when they sounded the "bell"
(much less melodious than it sounds, trust me). When we all saw the
crowed of parents on the shore excitement went up another notch on the
deck. Everyone was jumping and cheering and waving. I saw my parents
standing there on the dock holding their signs. We stayed up there
until we docked (we were up there for about 4 hours) and then went
downstairs to finish packing and get dressed. For the rest of the day
we waited to get cleared. We hung out, exchanged photos, had a few
crying bouts and we made video messages for each other on their
cameras to be played when we returned home. We also wrote each other
notes on maps or journals to be read at a later time. Occasionally
someone's parents would call and say that they were on the battleship
across the way (which was easily seen from the window) and we would
all get up and start waving.
It took our ship much longer than had been expected to get cleared by
customs. We apparently had about 25% more luggage than a ship our
size usually has…whoops. When the first group was called everyone
became frantic. We all felt like we needed to see everyone and hug
everyone. I said goodbye to my first person at the first group. The
second group wasn't called for almost 2 hours because we still had too
much luggage. But after that things went far faster than any of us
expected. Group after group was called and we hugged, cried and said
goodbye as our friends were slowly called off the ship. Quite a few
of us live in the same hall, so we all left together. When they
called the sea before us, we all went to our rooms and got ready. By
this time all of our eyes were dry and as we walked off in a group, me
wearing a had which I had safety pined a tassel to for my graduation.
Customs hardly took any time at all. We just basically had to walk
through with our luggage. Walking out of customs, we walked into a
sea of hugs and tears and smiles. I said goodbye to everyone I saw
and met up with my parents and we began our drive back home.
Our plan was to get to New Jersey last night and I was going to try to
meet up with Alex (a friend from Goucher), but we got in some really
bad traffic and didn't get there until 12:30am. On our way, we
stopped at Joe's Crab Shack and while I was completely overwhelmed by
the number of people and the noise, it was good to be in the US where
I could understand what people were asking me and they could
understand me. It was a bit shocking, and still is when everyone
understands what I'm saying to them. I find that I don't read signs
because I expect them not to be in English. Sometimes I say thank you
or hello or goodbye in another language.
Last night we spent the night in a Sheraton that looked more like a
castle than a hotel and I felt like I'd get lost in my big bed with
too many pillows and a huge comforter. Right now I'm in the car,
driving the rest of the way home. We'll probably be there at around
3pm. I'm excited to get home and see people. I am however still
quite sad about leaving my ship and my ship friends. Hopefully we
will see each other really soon.
They warned us from the start that we would come back changed and I
think it's true. I'm not sure in what ways I have changed, but I know
I have. I'm happy to be home, but I want to travel again soon. I wan
to go back to all of the places I have been. I want to go to Luxor in
Egypt. I want to explore more in Morocco and talk with more of the
people there. I want to have the relaxing meals and life in general
like we had in Spain. I want the family and community atmosphere that
we encountered everywhere. I want to barter again in the Grand Bazaar
and make friends with random people on the street. I want to talk to
the kind people in Croatia about how proud they are of their
government and their history. I want to help them all. I want to
tell my stories to everyone. I want everyone to go through this.
I would not recommend the Summer voyage to anyone because of the
number of people that are only there to party, but I would definitely
recommend trying this. Ship life, as well as port life were an
experience worth having. I will try to post some pictures soon.
Thank you to all of you who read and posted. I hope you enjoyed
reading about my travels. I may write more as I continue to get used
to time back at home. I may think of stories I want to share.
I'm home now!
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