Sea-Sickness

So we're finally on our way from the Bahamas to Dominica after huge dilemmas in Nassau. To put a long story short, because of pointless visa problems due to the carelessness of the company that was supposed to get them for us, several students were delayed in their arrival to port, and the officials on the boat decided to wait an extra day for them. We also ended up leaving Nassau twice: we had to leave the port because another ship had to take our spot; and then we came back around later in the day to pick up the remaining students. All in all, a hot mess.

On our first full day of sailing, I experienced the worst sea-sickness. I vomited twice throughout the day, and it was highly unpleasant. I'd rather not go into detail about my misfortune because it conjures up horrible visions of me bent over the toilet and other not-so-pretty things. Anyway, I had no idea what my reaction would be to being on the ship, and now I know that it's a bit harder to develop my "sea legs" than I had originally thought. A day later, with a few Dramamine tablets in my system and a pair motion sickness bands on my wrists, I feel significantly better than I did yesterday, so hopefully it was just a one-time occurrence.

Other than that situation that left me quite bed-ridden, I've been having a pretty decent few days. As you can imagine, there were hours upon hours of orientation-type meetings meant to acclimate us to our new sea lives, and those spanned in excitement from bland to extremely bland. And meeting people has been similarly freshman-orientation-like, and there's a clear division between people who are here for academic pursuits and those who clearly couldn't care less (who still think that Dominica and the Dominican Republic are the same thing). I'm not going out of my way to meet people because a majority of the people I encounter are members of that second cohort, though I apparently have a fan club of sorority girls from ASU who I thoroughly enjoy.

Nonetheless, the MV Explorer is amazing. Even though it's quite quaint, it's adorable. Already, I notice that the food is quite repetitive (a carbohydrate fest of pasta, rice, and potatoes), but I'll get over it. There are decks upon decks to sight-see, even though there's not very many things to see in the middle of the ocean. Apparently, we were passing by Puerto Rico during lunch, but I can't really confirm that as true. And classes have been interesting, with amazing faculty with great backgrounds, though the class work is excruciatingly painful as usual. I chuckle to myself when I describe my major to people, the Globalization of Music & Dance Culture, and I also felt extremely nerdy when I started name dropping my teachers only to realize that two of my professors on board know two of my advisors from home.

Anyway, tomorrow, we're going to reach Roseau, Dominica, a true unique gem in the middle of the Caribbean. I can't wait to share those experiences with you!