I hate waking up at 7 AM on days where we lose an hour of sleep. I mean, I absolutely despise it with every fiber of my being, but I handle it with dignity and class. Anywho.
Grabbed breakfast with Nick and Will again, as I’m hoping happens most A days. It’s nice sitting outside eating with them, because I don’t really see them around otherwise and they’re both really, really cool. Afterwards I went inside and sat with Mallory until it was time for us to work. I went in an Joe was in there, and he spent the whole hour inside there with my trying on different sweatshirts and learning how to fold and having a really difficult time picking a sweatshirt. He went with a gray crew neck and we headed to Global Studies.
Global Studies... oh boy. It’s a really cool concept for a class, and I’m sure some days are going to be really, really interesting. Today was not one of those days. I honestly don’t even know what happened, but I know I feel asleep a little bit. After that, I went to my History of Musical theater class which was nice. We started talking a bit about what we’re going to do for the musical, and I’m super jazzed to start writing it because I’ve never written a musical let alone a play, so it should be a really nice challenge for me.
After class I basically ran to my room so I could take nap because I was just straight up exhausted. I took a solid half hour nap and woke up to go back to work, which was pretty easy and uneventful. It’s nice working there because I get to talk to a lot of people I don’t know if I’d necessarily talk to otherwise.
Then I had my global music class, which was mostly boring and uninteresting. I have a hard time in classes where the teacher just talks at me and I have no involvement, which is kind of how it’s going so far. I’m hoping that it gets better.
Then I had world theater and performance, which was amazing. Professor Williams is truly, truly amazing. Today we learned about the Sharman. The Sharman is basically everything wrapped into one. In certain parts of the world, people have a calling to become Sharman. He is everywhere. He is a comedian, magician, a mans search for meaning, a spirit medium, a master of all forms. (I’m sure a few AAU kids think of Jim Jarrett immediately) I don’t fully understand the concept yet, but it’s definitely something I’m looking forward to learned more about.
We went outside into the union, and Williams asked if any of us was sea sick or had a headache. I said I had a headache. Had had me and one other person lay on our backs on the floor, and everyone say around us. Everyone let out this guttural hum around us and rubbed their hands together and clapped, and when their hands were warm, they touched us on our legs, face, feet, whatever was closest to them. Our teacher started saying things like “I command the spirit of the headache to leave”, which was followed by more humming. The humming was a consistent thing. I know this probably sounds really crazy and stupid to anyone who wasn’t there, but it felt crazy. I immediately felt better and I felt this incredible connection to all of these people who I met few days ago, some of whom I’ve never even met. I felt safe and I felt this sense of community, like they genuinely wanted to heal me. It was very cathartic, and I hope there’s more of that to come when we wind up in the communities where this type of healing is still used, as opposed to modern medicine.
I then hung out with Nate and Sam really quickly. Nate left and Nate, Joe, Kevin and I went up to the front of the ship where we met Stephanie and someone else who’s name I forget, but they were both really cool. We decided to have a cuddle party on the deck before we get into Morocco. Pretty legit. They left and Joe, Kevin, Sam and I went down to dinner.
Dinner was awesome. I sat right near a window and Ryan came to join us. It was beautiful, sitting right next to the ocean seeing all of the colors of the water and watching the sky change colors as well. We had some really good discussions, and it was nice because I don’t hang out with Joe, Kevin, or Ryan as much as I’d like to.
After they left, I went and sat with Ali, Sarah, Liz, and Nick. We hung out for a bit, but I left around 7:30 because I thought I was meant to meet up with Kevin and Joe to talk about movies to make. Turns out they’re both, and I’ve got a meeting in half an hour so I’m just writing up this blog and getting ready to peace outttt.
“Romance is the sweetening of the soul with fragrance offered by the stricken heart” - The Lion and the Jewel
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The whole world is moving, but I'm standing still.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Sleeping late, taking names.
I woke up today at like 11 AM, which was absolutely glorious. I woke up a few times before, one being because Sam has no inside voice and the other was because someone mistakingly walked into my room. I knew today was the day our cleaner was coming, so I left $5 and a note that said he didn't have to make my bed and I asked if there were any extra pillows. When I came back, Farrah and I both had a second pillow which is AMAZING.
I worked at the store today from 1200-1400, which was super easy. I learned how to use the cash register which is a really length process that could use some adjustments. It was easy, and a few people stopped in to say hi to me which was lovely.
I then sat in the piano lounge to get some homework done. I did a bit of reading, and then Sam and Nate came by and we decided to go hangout outside. It was absolutely beautiful out, and it was nice being able to see the ocean so much, which wasn't possible yesterday with all of the fog. The water was beautiful, a shade we decided to call royal aquamarine. It was literally the most perfect shade of blue, and the water around it was a perfect shade of navy. They left and I went to my room to work on homework with Farrah. We all went to dinner around 1730 and I ate way too much cake. Now I'm doing more homework, uploading photos, and backing up my computer onto my hard drive. Also I figured out how to send pictures, so I'll upload a few!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Welcome to the Space Jam.
It's probably easier to just update one day at a time, so I don't run around like a crazy person trying to remember every single thing that happens. So here's the rest of today!
Sam came over a bit earlier than expected, and we went to dinner to meet up with Ionna, Ali, Liz, Leanne, and a few other people. I wasn't super hungry, and I was actually feeling a bit sick, probably form being so incredibly tired. We wound up sitting out for a long time talking about our trips we're going to do, dinosaurs, naked skydiving, and other such things. I'm still having a hard time believing that I'm really here, that these people are real people and not just mega pixels on a facebook page. I love it.
After dinner I headed on yet another room tour with Nick, Nick, Ionna, and Ali (there's so many multiple names on this ship, I wish you all could know who I was talking about) I showed my room to the Nicks and Ionna and Ali, who are room mates, showed theres, which is really similar to mine in the whole "we live in the ghetto of the ship" thing. After, we went to Nicks room, which is AWESOME. He has this like, massive nook near his window, big enough to fit another mattress. I sat in there with Ionna and Ali, and the five of us watched old school music videos like "Air Force One" and "Youth of the Nation". We were thinking of movies that we could/should watch, and realized that Nick had Space Jam, which meant that we really, really needed to watch it. We all broke to do homework, which lasted all of 10 minutes. Ali and I went back to Nicks room and watched Space Jam, which by the way is STILL wonderful. I forgot how many great quotes are in that, like "spit shine!" and other such things. Also, the acting was terrible and Michael Jordan smiled all of twice throughout the entire film.
After, we decided to play a rousing game of Farkel, which I'm a bit of a pro at. It actually took a while for Ali or us to score, but I did win eventually. Also, the word Farkel is really funny. Sam came over for a bit and we all listened to some music and just basically hung out, cracked our backs, and gave/received massages. After Sam left, Ali and I hung out for a while and watched some of Nicks snowboarding videos as well as read his resume, which included relevant skills such as "multi functional employee at a sub shop" and "physically sit". We laughed for quite some time. I came back and showered, and now I'm getting ready for bed.
Currently playing on my TV is a map. We have a channel on our TV which shows our Latitude, Longitude, Speed, Course, Time, and Date. It also shows a map of where we are (which as we learned from my earlier post, is likely distorted). We're crossing over the North Atlantic Ocean at a speed of 21.1 knots (which means...?) Latitude 45 degrees 49.75N Longitude 049 degrees 52.47, and constantly in motion. Even today as I was sitting in class, watching the world go by, I had a hard time believing I was actually here. It still feels like a dream, and I feel like it won't feel truly real until we've actually hit Morocco. I'm sure I've said it before, but I feel so lucky to actually be here, experiencing the world first hand. So far, it's been truly beautiful. It's awesome because I've never really hung out with people who are studying physics or environmental science or marine biology, or anything really outside of something artistic. Frankly, I think I had some bias against those people, because I didn't think we would have a lot in common. So far, everyone has been amazingly open and willing to meet new people and talk to everyone, and I don't think that's an opportunity that every campus has readily accessible to them, so I feel so, so lucky.
"Even if you're making a small difference, you're still making a difference"
Day 3 and 4: Extra curricular and first day of class.
Day 3-
Went to try to find Sam for dinner, but I wound up running to Alex (the guy from San Francisco who goes to Chapam). We went up to deck seven to hang out but it was freezing. I went back to my cabin to grab myself a sweatshirt, which is when I wound up running into Sam. We went for dinner on deck six and Nate joined us. I had met Nate in person and we had been corresponding via facebook, but we hadn’t really hung out yet. It was fun, he’s the perfect amount of sassy and witty, and I thoroughly enjoy his banter. We had dinner with the anthropology teacher, Professor Frolander-Ulf. She was awesome, she said she thinks teachers should have a “rate my student” website which I thought was super cute, and she told us a lot of great stories. We hung around for a bit and enjoyed the beautiful sunset, which had the sky mixing shades of blues, greens, and purples as well as oranges, reds, and yellows closer to the sun. After that, we went to the involvement fair. The involvement fair was basically all non-academic activities that are going on while we’re on the ship, and you signed up for what you’d like to participate in. I signed up for an absurd amount of things, including a big brother/big sister type of organization which I’m excited about, as well as an extended family thing which is where you and a few other students get paired with a life-long learner and you have dinner together every so often. I’m really excited about both of those. I also started my own improv club as well as a film making club, which both got a lot of sign ups. There’s a crew member on the ship who trained at second city, and he’s going to be the staff member to help run it which is absolutely amazing. After that we had sea meetings, which mostly annoyed me because I couldn’t hear anything and it was all stuff we had already gone over and I just wanted to go to bed! We were crossing our first time zone and I knew day 4 would be super busy, so I wanted to get some rest. Also fun fact: Evan has an awesome room with a window but no alarm clock, so I call him in the morning to wake him up and he gives me a weather report. I absolutely love it.
Day 4-
Woke up around 7:15 and called Evan to say good morning/get the weather report, and then I called Luke because he asked me to make sure he was awake. I got ready as quietly as possible so I didn’t bother Farrah, and I headed up to breakfast at 8 AM. I wasn’t that hungry, but I grabbed a croissant and went outside even though it was foggy and kind of gross out. I sat with Robin and some guy who’s name I don’t know. We talked about school and the classes we had today, and then they both had to jet off to class, so I went inside and found Ali and Ionna. I had to leave at 8:15 to report to the campus store, where I pretty much just awkwardly stood around for an hour, but it was fun! One of my supervisors name is Chatty, and she’s really sweet.
At 9:20 I had my first Global Studies class. It was really weird for me because it’s a lecture style class, and so far my biggest college class has been like 20 people, and this one had about 200 or more, so it was really strange. We talked with the people around us about what we’re excited about on the voyage, and I wound up talking to mostly some faculty and life-long learners which was a nice change of pace. After that, our dean of students taught us that all maps lie, which I thought was an interesting topic. As he went into detail, it made SO much sense. They distort distance and land mass and shape, because you’re trying to squish this 3D object into a 2D object, which doesn’t really make sense. For example, look at a map. You see how Greenland looks like it’s bigger than Africa? Africa is roughly 11.8 million square miles. Greenland is roughly .8 million square miles. Crazy, right?! I thought it was kind of insane, because the way I’ve seen the world already changed and we haven’t even docked in any of our ports yet.
After Global Studies I had History of Musical Theatre. This was amazing. There’s five students, including me, and one adult who are taking the class, as well as our teacher. my teacher, Michael Williams, is fantastic. He has worked all around the world creating musicals, operas, and plays, and he runs the Cape Town Opera House. He’s also published several books. We have to present two musicals from a list he generated, and I’m presenting Spring Awakening and The Lion King which I’m excited about. This class is awesome, because there’s so few of us it’s very discussion based which I like a lot.
After that I went to lunch with two of the girls from my musical theater class, Francesca and CJ. I knew I had a really short break, so after lunch I went down to my room to grab my FDP sign up sheet because I wanted to turn mine in early. Turns out the sheet doesn’t explain any of the FDPs or list the dates, so I need to look it up anyways. At 1300 I went back to the campus store to work and wound up folding a lot of shirts with Julie pretty much the entire time.
I went to my Global Music class, which was moved from deck five to deck six. It was relatively interesting, but the rocking of the boat mixed with the lack of discussion made me really tired and I think I fell asleep, but I’m honestly not even sure.
Then I had my World Theater and performance class with Williams again, which was also amazing. We talked about all the different kinds of theater in the world and we got into a discussion about wether or not theater is accessible to everyone. I disagreed with some of what people were saying, but we ran out of time so I didn’t really get the chance to voice my opinions.
I’m meeting up with Sam in about half an hour to get dinner, so until then I’m going to do a bit of homework and look into the FDPs that are offered!
PS- Does anyone actually read this? If so send me an email, nrsouza@semesteratsea.net , I’m feeling super disconnected from the world! Well, from the outside world. Obviously I’m more connected to the world then I’ve ever been before.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Night of day 1, day 2, and day 3: karaoke, random phone calls, and meetings.
So basically to sum this up: I'm writing in a journal every single night stuff that I don't write on my blog, so if it takes a few days for me to update, there is no chance in hell that you're actually missing out on any part of this adventure. I heard that if you don't journal, you WILL forget things. So far I've only been here 3 days and I'm already looking back and thinking "When did that happen?" because there's constantly SO much going on.
As of my last update:
night of day 1:
I went and hung out in Sams room for a bit, then we grabbed dinner and got ready to head out to Montreal with Farrah, Jimmy, and Julie. We all left around 20:30 and walked to the metro station which was a few blocks away. on the way we saw a snipper of a real mariachi band singing to someone at dinner, which was awesome. Farrah had never been on public transportation or a real underground train before, so that was exciting for her. We took the metro two stops and walked a few blocks to McKibbons Irish Pub, which is where one of the SAS kids had set up a VIP room for all of us. It was completely packed and most people were already drunk because it started at 18:00 and we didn't arrive until 21:00ish. When Sam and I FINALLY got to the front of the bar, we eac had a jager bomb and then I grabbed a vodka-sprite (shocking, right?) Sam and I shared celebrity status, everyone kept on saying "You're from facebook! You're the girl with the passport!" and other such things, which was really awesome because all of these people who I've never met were telling me how excited they were that everything worked out and that I was here. We mingled for a while and met a bunch of people. At 22:00 karaoke started with Ashvin and someone else doing "Don't Stop Believing" so I of course had to join. Shortly after that Sam and I sang "Proud Mary" because I knew that tomorrow we would, in fact, be rolling on a river. We left the bar around 21:15 and took the metro back, and we wound up meeting some other SAS people in the metro station. When we got back to the ship, Sam and I creeped on this wall that they have that has everyone's photograph, name, major, and college. When we went to go to bed, I wound up on the complete wrong side of the ship and I found my way back after about 20 minutes of sheer confusion, because this ship is massive, confusing, and my room isn't even on the map!
Day 2:
Woke up around 6:30 AM to get ready for the day, because we had to be on duty by like 7:15 which was super shitty. Farrah and I left for breakfast around 6:45 and met up with Jimmy, Marek, and a few other people. I didn't eat much because breakfast makes me sick and I was just so fucking excited.
People started boarding at 8ish, but I didn't have anything to do until 10, so I hung around and met a few people. I decided to start working at 9 instead, and I just had to make sure everyone had all of their paperwork in and ask them about international cell phone plans. It was pretty boring, but it was nice to meet a bunch of people.
I ran into Ali and we left to go get lunch. We grabbed a big table in hopes that people would join, and they did! I met a bunch of new people, including Evan who I'm madly in love with. he's studying acting at NYU so we're going to be pals. A group of us went exploring around the ship, up to deck seven to see the pool and basketball court and all of those fun things, and as I was exploring I was asked to report back to duty. I was directing people from the staircase to the Union, which is the biggest meeting room that we have on our ship. A pretty large group wound up forming around me and I met a bunch more people. Kevin and I were talking about rooms, and Farrah, Jimmy and I decided to show him what a real economy room looked like. After that, we went over to his room which is on the same deck (because deck 3 is the place to be) We took down the picture to read the tips that past SAS students write on the back, the best one being "don't get bled on by a ghanaian hooker". We all chatted for a bit and then went back out to explore a bit more. A group of us toured each others rooms and I went to hang out with farrah and Causey in his room, which was cool because his room has an actual porthole window.
We left for our room to figure out where to go for the lifeboat emergency drill training. Turns out if there's an emergency, we have to walk up two flights of stairs and go to the complete opposite side of the ship. basically, we're completely fucked. (hi mom!) It was pretty fun though, because we had a sassy old man in our group.
After that, it was time to leave! A bunch of us went up to deck seven to watch the skyline slowly fade. It was amazing to actually begin the voyage. It was so overwhelming to reflect on everything that it took to get here and watch it all disappear. We laid on the lounging chairs for a bit and then headed down to deck six for dinner.
Evan, Andrew, and I sat at a super crowded table outside and met some amazing people. I met someone named Alex who studies film acting at Champman but is originally from San Francisco, and we talked a lot about San Francisco and acting and we discussed potential for films to do while on the ship, which I'm really excited about because Kevin is a director and he brought all of his film equipment.
After dinner, Evan and I went to mingle more and stumbled upon a massive game of apples to apples which Ryan brought. It was super fun! There were so many people who had never played, including some of the life-long learners so it was fun explaining it to them. I won the word "extreme", which is very fitting. This kid Skyler challenged me to know every single persons name in a week, sooooo fingers crossed that happens.
We went to the rails to watch our very first sunset, which was beautiful. I can't wait to be on open ocean and watch it disappear completely into the horizon. We went to the Union for a meeting, where they said a lot of inspirational things about the trip, including ubuntu, which basically means that I'm who I am because of you, and you're who you are because of me. This really resonates with me, because it's something that I've noticed in life and something that I think is so true. We were then introduced to all of our professors. After that, we broke into our "seas", which is kind of like teams or villages, and did introductions and played a few ice breaker games.
After that, I went to Sams room for entertainment and met his room mate, Kevin (there's a lot of people with the same names on this ship...) We have phones in our cabins which we can use to make phone calls to other cabins, so we decided to start dialing random numbers and inviting people over to come hang out. It actually worked! Luke, Woody, and Natasa all came over and we played a few card games including kings in the corner and slaps. Slaps got super intense, as it usually does and Woody was way too good at it. We went to the snack bar so Sam could get something, then we ventured up to the view deck, which was awesome. It was really cold, so Sam and I ran down to grab sweatshirts and while we were down we ran into Ali, Evan, and this other girl who's name I currently can't remember. We went back up and ran into everyone else who we were with leaving, but that was fine, we still went up. There were a few more people there, Emma, Rachel, and Sarah (I think Sarah) and we talked about constellations and other things that prove how close everyone on this ship is going to get. Emma told us "never trust a guy with shorts past his knees", which I thought was really hilarious life advice. We left around 00:15 and I came back to shower, which was absolutely ridiculous because my shower is tiny and the curtain kept on sticking to me.
Day 3:
Woke up at 7:23 because it seemed like a solid time to set an alarm for. We grabbed breakfast at 8 on deck five, which was good because there was a huge rush really quickly after that. Today was relatively boring, we've been pretty much sitting in the Union all day at meetings hearing logistical stuff. We got a two hour break, which I used to take a nap and then have lunch. The second half of our meetings was even more boring, but I saw with Luke and he kept me fairly entertained. We concluded the meetings by having a meet and greet with our teachers. I AM SO EXCITED TO START CLASSES. My acting teacher runs the Opera house of Cape Town and he's super nice, and for our history of musical theater class he said we're going to be COMPOSING OUR OWN MUSICAL. UMMMMMMM HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO LIFE. They're also putting together a play in his acting 1 class to perform in South Africa, which I'm going to try to get in on. I am SO excited.
Now I'm going to call Sam and see what he's up to, and perhaps go get dinner. Either way, it's time to get out of the room and go be social!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
First day on the ship!
Woke up today around 7:45 AM because I simply could NOT sleep in the first place. I was just way to excited and ready to go. I took a shower and we all got ready and headed out for breakfast around 9 AM. We found a super cute looking place, but it didn’t open until 9:30 so we decided if we didn’t find anything better we’d come back. We ran to this little CVS type store to pick up a few last minute things and headed back to the cafe.
And it.was.amazing.
It was called cafe theatre, which means I knew I would be kind of in love with it. When you walked in, there was this super cool ambient lighting that made it feel really cozy. We sat down at a booth and the walls were lined with chalk boards and old records and a large fork and spoon. Bryan, Julie, and my mom ordered mimosas but because I despise orange juice I decided to get a sangria, even though I’m not actually a huge fan of that either. My sangria came and first of all it was MASSIVE. Straight up huge. It had slices of oranges in it as well as apples, and a large decorative slice of apple too! It was actually pretty freaking delicious. Next, Julie and I split a banana and walnut toast and then we each ordered a banana and nutella sandwich, which was carmelized. We got the toast first which came with a vanilla butter and it was amaaaaaaaazing. Then the sandwich came. And I died a little. Literally. It was the most amazing sandwich I have ever consumed in my life. the waitress asked how everything was and I said “too amazing to form words for”, which I think may have freaked her out a bit.
After we ate, we went to the dollar store to buy some more things then to a pharmacy to get vitamins and what-nots, then we headed to the hotel to pack everything up and GET GOING! We packed really quickly and almost left.... until Julie realized her passport was gone. We spent a solid half hour literally tearing the room apart. We might have flipped both of the mattresses over and called the help of a sweet housekeeping lady. Bryan and I went down to the car, even though Julie swore that she didn’t leave it there. Turns out, she did! We gave it back to her and loaded up the car and we left!
We actually didn’t have any trouble finding the boat, because Bryan was driving and he’s significantly more clever than a GPS. Almost as soon as I walked in I saw Farrah who I’m rooming with, which made me indescribably excited. Then I saw Sam who I’ve been chatting with on facebook as well as skyping, so that was also insanely exciting. We said our goodbyes and went through security and checked in and got ready to go!
I had the hardest time ever finding my room. I went to the complete wrong side of the ship and there weren’t any signs pointing me in the right direction. I kept looking at maps until I found it!
It is TINY.
I walked in and I went “umm... what?” We have a bunk bed, two dresser-closets, a fridge, a TV, and shelf, and a small drawer. We also have a bathroom with a really tiny shower, which Sam says “is not a shower, it’s a fountain”. At first I was kind of frustrated because some economy people got rooms with windows and single beds and a lot of space, but I’ve definitely gotten used to it already. I unloaded some stuff and left to go find people. I found Sam and we started exploring the ship. I ran into Farrah, who was equally as confused about the location of our room and I showed her where it was. She had a similar reaction.
Sam and I walked around the ship, gaining people and losing people as we went. I’ve met a lot of people who seem pretty awesome, and I’m going to have an impossible time remembering everyones names. A group of us sat and ate some finger sandwiches and hung out, then decided to go to our rooms to unpack a bit and meet up at 16:30 (4:30! yeah military time!) for dinner. Farrah and I figuring out who’s stuff was going where, and we decided to just unplug the fridge and use that for storage because we didn’t need to refrigerate anything. It was definitely a bit of a dance, but we’ve definitely figured things out and I think there’s actually going to be a decent amount of room to do things. I’m completely unpacked and it’s starting to look like people actually live here already, which is super excited.
We left for dinner and I ate a salad because I wasn’t super hungry, but it was really good. It had mango poppy-seed dressing which was surprisingly delicious. Right after dinner we went to a meeting where they talked about work study means and we met some people, then we split up into our individual groups. I really like both of my advisors, but I can’t remember their names right now. One of them is from Jamaica and the other is from the Philippines. They basically said it was an easy job and we’re going to have a lot of fun. Then they started giving up tips, like not to get too drunk and don’t try to sneak anything on and to look out for each other, and they told us we basically can pick what hours we work. We work two hours a day, and we can split them up if we want to work one hour in the morning and one at night or whatever, which I really like. Everyone in my work study seems pretty awesome and I’m oddly excited to work retail again.
After we left, I came back downstairs and finished unpacking, while a group of us made plans for tonight. We decided to go out around 8 PM, so right now I’m just getting ready and I’m going to go meet Sam and try to figure out how email works (if you’re reading this, it means I figured it out!)
Here’s to a night out on the town!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Border line shenanigans.
Today I woke up just after 7 AM to see that Boy Meets World was on TV. Uhm, if I had known that I would have been waking up at 7 AM allllll summer. I finished packing, uploaded some photos, and we were on our way to Canada!
The ride wasn't terribly exciting, just really pretty and filled with me trying to fall asleep with a cooler right next to me. My mom, dad, and I didn't really talk much because I think we were all really, really tired. We wound up making AMAZING time and the ride really flew by. We got to the border in about two and a half hours and stopped at some cute little restaurant for food. I got chocolate chip pancakes with vermont syrup and it was delish.
Then, shit got really interesting.
So, we're approaching the Canadian border and I'm thinking "Oh Man! We're going to be in Montreal in like two hours and I can go meet my new pals and start this amazing voyage!". We hand our passports to the dude, and he asks us to pull over. I'm thinking this is standard procedure and that everyone has to pull over to the left because there were a bunch of other cars there. False.
We get inside and we tell the customs officer about my trip and he seems really excited and nice. Then we sit down for about five minutes, relatively confused about why we're in there in the first place. The customs agent asks to speak to my dad, and then we remember:
My dad has been denied getting into Canada before because he has a criminal record. Woops.
So my mom starts crying and my dad is kind of arguing with the guy. He comes over and he's like "They're not fucking letting me in the country" which makes me have a minor heart attack. I'm wondering what the fuckkkkkkk we're going to do because there's not really a way to sneak him in. We tried arguing with the border people, because my dad hasn't been in trouble since he was 21 and he's 52 now, you'd think they would ease the fuck up. It definitely did not work, and the guys only suggestion was to drive all the way to Burlington, Vermont and send me on a bus to Montreal.
Fucking. Rude.
They tell us to drive around so we can pick up our passports. We drive around and my dad gets out of the car, "with an attitude", so my mom goes after him to stop him from creating a ruckus and winding up getting arrested. About a minute later, she knocks on my door with a massive smile. I'm thinking that maybe we convinced the dude to let us in, but it was way sweeter than that.
"The guy behind us got denied into Canada too and his daughter is doing semester at sea!"
Um, incredibly twist of fate?
I get out of the car to go introduce myself, and we get acquainted. Her name is Julie, and her brothers name is Bryan. Turns out they're from Standish, Maine which is only about a half an hour from my house. We start talking and realize that we're both work study kids who need to board the boat a day early. After a bit of deliberation and in the middle of line to get back into America, we realize it would be a lovely mixture of epic, zany, and crazy to just... carpool. So we did! After we got our passports back from U.S customs, we loaded Julie and Bryans stuff into my car and took my dads stuff out. We said our goodbyes and my dad and her dad headed for the states, while Julie, Bryan, my mom and I made our second attempt at getting into Canada. And it was a success!
We think that we're home free and we get to know each other during the drive. Turns out we both rather enjoy Nutella and we'll be on the same camel riding trip in Morocco, so that's pretty awesome. When we were about 8 miles away from Montreal, we hit a ridiculous amount of traffic. It took us about two hours to clear it, and we continued to follow the GPS.
That was our second mistake.
We wound up driving in literally a circle for a little while. For a bit we just thought that all traffic circles looked the same and we were in a different part of town. We were wrong. We stopped to use the bathroom and pick up some wine coolers. After this, we wound up back on the highway heading AWAY from Montreal. Julie and I cracked out wine coolers and started drinking, because there really was no other viable reaction to this. We turned around and headed back for Montreal, deciding to just follow the road signs for a bit and then turn on the GPS when we felt we were near.
AND IT FINALLY WORKED.
We wound up at our hotel (which was actually only their hotel, but we're chillin in here too) and clapped and celebrated. Legit, I have never been happier to see a fricken hotel in my life. We set our stuff down and went out to eat, because we were all ravenous and it was about 8 PM at this point. We went to a restaurant called Scores which was sort of like an Applebees/Chilis. I had a super good salad and a fucking delicious chicken, bacon, and pesto-mayonnaise sandwich which I only ate half of. We came back to our room, and we're now hanging out watching some TV show about a guy who got stuck on a mountain in Transylvania or something.
After everything with not thinking I could afford the trip, with my passports, and with today's endeavors, I am going to kiss the ship when I see it tomorrow.
