January 21, 2011,

        So I just realized all of my latest blog posts have been sent to the wrong email address and haven’t been posted, so sorry this one is really long.  Today is day 2 of being on the Amazon River! Although brown water may not be considered the most luxurious of things, the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Being in Brazil has been great so far, and we haven’t even touched land yet. I have been busy with classes over the past few days but we don’t have class tomorrow, we have a “reading day” which I guess is supposed to be used to catch up on classes, which I may have to take advantage of. I am actually hoping for sun because its been pretty cloudy and rainy the past 2 days, which actually worked out nicely because I needed my sunburn to heal in time (apparently I underestimated the sun’s strength at the equator). Another fun fact, Maggi and I missed laundry day (which apparently only occurs once in a blue moon) because our cabin was ignored and no body posted signs to let us know.  Anyway… our room has turned into a gigantic drying rack for hanging all of our hand washed (in sink) clothes which we are desparate to have dried in time for Manaus on our arrive on Sunday.  Tonight we have an open mic night as well as “club union”- which is supposed to be a dance party. Considering they limit us to only 3 drinks a night, we’ll have to see how hoppin’ it becomes.  Anyway, I’ll try to get these blogs posted right away. 

Ps. Real sorry for all the midwesterners suffering the -15 degree weather. 

Keira


January 18, 2011

    So today marks day 6 of my Semester at Sea journey. We are currently headed towards the Amazon away from Dominica. Dominca was an amazing two days. On Sunday, when we arrived in Roseau, a group of about 20 of us went on a tour around Dominica. We started with a four hour hike up a mountain to visit this amazing waterfall, Middleham Falls, which we were able to swim in and jump off cliffs around. It was definitely a good workout, and most of us are still feeling sore muscles two days later. Our tour guide Cynthia was the best. She told us all about the island (not the same a the Dominican Republic, check a map) and the history, and all about her life and family. After going to Middleham we headed to Trafali falls to see the "mother" and "father" waterfalls which each came from different sources, but merged together at that one point. Lastly we went to Mama tia's hot sulfer baths, which we very relaxing. We were supposed to snokel at champagne reef, but the owner tried to scam us, so we got some money back and gave it all to our awesome tour guides. On the way back to the ship we stopped at a roadside "bar" and tried rum punch and the local kabuli beer... which started an impromptu dance party led by non other than our awesome guide Cynthia. After the tour we all went out to the local hole in the wall bar, J.R's. After about an hour we head to the dance club, Krazy Coconuts... which was a massive semester at sea party.
    On Monday, Maggi and I signed up for the SAS Whale and Dolphin Safari... we saw absolutely nothing! The group that went on sunday saw about 20 whales... and we got nada. After that we wandered the town and went to the markets and then to post office to send out some postcards. Cynthia met up with us at the cafe and we met her daughter and hung out with her for a while before getting back on the ship.
   Last night, after taking off from Dominica we hit rough seas, so for the past 24 hours this boat has been nothing but a sea saw. I didn't sleep at all, and was convinced we were going down like the titanic. Since our room is so far forward in the ship, and so low... I could hear every wave hit the side of the ship right next to the wall of my bed... it was like a thunderstorm. My professor this morning advised us that we need to learn to trust the ship... so tonight, i'll work on that, along with plugging in my headphones.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep better up to date on this blog. We should be hitting the mouth of the Amazon in the few days and I cannot wait for Brazil!

Hope everyone is staying warm and having fun back in the states. Miss you all,
Keira

January 14, 2011

Today I spent the day going to my two classes and laying out on the deck tanning with Colleen (Colleen Connely). I wish I could say I'll be working very hard this semester, but I have a good feeling this may feel more like a vacation than anything. We are actually stopped in Puerto Rico right now gassin' up the ship, which apparently takes about 6 hours. Good thing about being stopped even though we can't get off the ship is that we have phone service, because we are in US territory, AND the boat isn't rocking nearly as much. Had a girl vom this morning 10 mins into my 10:35 class from sea sickness. It is not really considered gross to throw up on ship... it has become completely acceptable and normal. Luckily I escaped sea sickness entirely, with only a small head ache and some drowsiness. Well, I'm off to go read for Global Ethics and enjoy the beautiful stars.

Keira