En Route to Turkey

Well… we were supposed to leave for Istanbul at 2300 two nights ago, but we didn’t end up leaving until about 1830 last night. The seas were SUPER rough as a result of major storms in the Mediterranean, so our captain kept stalling our departure - for good reason! As a side note, our captain and his team are awesome guys. After hanging out with them at the Captain’s dinner, I feel totally comfortable chatting it up with them anytime I see them. Before meeting them, they seemed like untouchable high-ranking officers – but now – they’re just regular guys out at sea! Our captain is from Croatia, so I know that he is really looking forward to steering us into Dubrovnik. Anyway – as we finally began to pull away from the dock last night, one could look out past the breakwater and see all of the large white caps!! My body was clearly not ready for the rough seas – I had my first major bout of seasickness. Boo. I guess it was bound to happen eventually.
I felt like total crap until curled up on my bathroom floor and felt the coolness of the tiles on my body. There was something about that spot that really helped, but I also knew that Joe would probably be a little disturbed by the fact that I was sleeping on our teeny-tiny bathroom floor. So… I forced myself to get up and moved into the little hallway outside our bathroom door and curled up by our closet. This spot was also helpful, so I slept on the floor all night! Pretty funny. I actually slept really well, except for the few moments when the ship would lurch into the air and then CRASH down from the front end. I was expecting to be a little scared, but it was actually kind of cool (once I felt better).

Anyway – we are VERY excited to be on our way to Istanbul! Everyone was getting very antsy to get underway because we had all been stuck on the ship in the port of Alexandria for almost 24 hours. It’s no fun to look out the window at a city and not be able to get off the ship. Istanbul sounds like a fascinating city, so everyone is psyched. Joe and I are going on a 3-day/2 night Semester at Sea trip all over Western Turkey, which sounds like a great trip. I’m really looking forward to it.

Life on the ship has transformed for me into a much more relaxed, almost cruise-like experience. Imagine that! Having the Sea’Lympics over with was a major load off, so I’m trying to take on a few other projects to help lessen some of my colleagues’ loads. Other that, I’m trying to hang out with the students on my sea, read books, and enjoy all of the amazing aspects of being on a ship… I don’t want it to end!!!

Until next time…