First day of classes

We started classes yesterday and I’m already thinking I’m crazy for doing this. We have 3 classes a day, EVERYDAY. I’m happy I brought my glasses because the amount of reading we do per night is insane.  I was completely overwhelmed yesterday after the introductions.  I’m taking Poetics of Travel, Italy and the Mediterranean in the Age of Renaissance, and the required Global Studies course.  I’m on my lunch break right now and this will probably be the only free time I get.

Yesterday my poetry class had me very scared for the upcoming week, but after the second class I think I am going to really like this class.  The professor is cool (you know those pensive poetic types) and the reading wasn’t so bad.  The writing assignments are going to be challenging, but in the good way.  I think this class is going to stretch my brain and force me to think about the places I’m travelling to in ways I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m thankful for the crazy part of me who thought an everyday poetry class would be fun. 
So far Global Studies is extremely boring. I’m not used to lecture style classes because we don’t have those at USF. We literally sit in a room with about 300 other people and he just talks. Yesterday he talked about logistics of the ship. It was literally all numbers like how many people live here, what happens to our water, how much fuel we use, how fast we go. Which is interesting, but definitely not what I want to be sitting through right after lunch in the room that is known for rocking you to sleep. The professor for that class seems energetic, so I’m hoping day 2 is a little more interesting.

The history class is the boogie man of the group.  I am scared sh*tless of that class.  There will be so much reading and memorization required for that I really don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for this.  Overall I’m supposed to be reading about 100 pages per night, which is literally impossible to do while still getting a decent amount of sleep and finishing work for my other classes.  I hope he covers enough in the lectures so that I don’t have to read EVERYTHING or else that class will be a nightmare.

I’m happy that we’ve started classes. I feel like I’m going to learn a lot about myself and the places we’re going. It’s definitely overwhelming to have class everyday and the days seem to go on forever. I feel like I’ve been on the ship for weeks, but it’s only been 3 or 4 days. (HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD!!) I started to get a little homesick, but it’s mostly better now.  I wish I had come on the ship knowing just one person because right now it feels like I’m in a completely different universe. It would have been nice to have just 1 familiar person with me.

I don’t know if I already posted this, but please send me emails. They are really fun for me to read before I go to bed and makes me feel like I’m still on planet Earth :P my email is smjohnston@semesteratsea.net I may not be able to reply right away, but I will eventually.