Done

I am officially done with school work for the Fall 2008 semester!  I literally just completed my last paper and now have nothing to do but relax for the next 8 days of the voyage!!  Christmas break, here I come.  On the 7^th we will be arriving in Costa Rica, where 10 of my friends and I will be renting a house on the beach for two nights. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to grill out and play on the beach all day, without stressing over a thing.  I haven’t used a kitchen or even made my own food for 100 days.  I have never been more excited to grill a hamburger and hot dog in my life.  Since this is the last port, everyone is going all out and trying to make sure they have an awesome time with their friends on the boat.  Now that finals are over, this will be the first time we’ve been in port and not had to think about the work we would face once we got back on the ship.  Those three days in Costa Rica are going to be magnificent.

 

Once we get back on the boat on the 9^th, we have 5 days until our arrival to the United States!  During those 5 days we will have the Ambassador’s Ball, a talent show, Emma’s 21^st birthday, and multiple meetings on the disembarkation process in Miami.  My friend Annie and I have actually prepared a dance we are going to perform at the talent show.  I normally wouldn’t participate in something like that but our dance originated as a response to our experience in India and I have enjoyed choreographing and rehearsing so much that we thought we might as well perform it.  Plus, the entire shipboard community is extremely supportive. 

 

On the 11^th we will spend the day going through the Panama Canal, which I think is pretty neat. After that I have some hard-core packing to do.  It is going to be a really tedious process, especially since we have to record the items we have purchased in other countries.  With only a week left, people are getting very sentimental and discussing plans for how we will meet again.  We’re all going around and writing down everyone’s last names and contact information.  It’s weird that I have known these people for 3.5 months, but never communicated with them by cell phone.  It’s really starting to hit me that this trip is coming to an end.

 

Here is a little fun fact: From Nassau to Miami we have traveled at least 28,692 miles. (For this analysis we’ve used land or statute miles (5,280’), not nautical miles (6,076’). The ship hasn’t traveled along the line of shortest distance between each port. Generally it does follow a great circle route, but has deviated for storms, etc. So the distance we have traveled is probably a few hundred miles farther. For reference, the equator is 24,900 miles.