Smooth Sailing

This is going to be a long one, so you might want to save this post for when you have some time...
I moved onto the ship 2 days ago (June 16th) and have been pleasantly surprised ever since I left the villa.  My cab driver was the best from all of the Bahamas. That cab ride was the perfect end to the Bahamas because my driver was down-to-earth and actually had a conversation with me. We compared Hawaii to the Bahamas and he talked about the new building that was going on.  I really wish I could have talked to him longer because the entire time in the Bahamas I was curious about how the local people felt about the extreme amount of tourism there.

Since I got this sweet work-study position, I got to move on the ship a day earlier than everyone else. I literally just walked right onto the ship. No lines or waiting at all. I didn't realize how much of a blessing that was until the next day when I was filming the line all day. People waited for HOURS in the heat and I got to bypass all that, unpack, and pick my bed before anyone else.  I'm in a triple, and being economy, I was expecting a closet. I lucked out AGAIN. I got put onto deck 4 so we have one of the bigger cabins with a WINDOW. Some people paid about $2000 more than we did and didn't even get that! My roommates are Rebecca and Sylvia. They are both really nice. Luckily none of us brought a lot of stuff, so we all fit pretty well. Our cabin is actually pretty spacious for sharing with two other people.

I'm a little nervous about my job because so far it's been pretty demanding. The first day I had to work from 7am to a little after noon in the sun with very few breaks.  Since I'm the Videographer's Assistant, I kind of have to be there whenever something needs to be filmed. By the end of it, I was exhausted. I think I either have allergies or I'm sick, which is really unfortunate.  Yesterday, everyone else came onto the ship and it got a lot more crowded. It was nice to get to hang out with the other work-study people the day before because I am actually familiar with a good amount of people.  I have 3 other people that sort of work with me. We are the Communications Department, and there's 1 Photographer's Assistant and 2 Communications Assistants. We all work in the same room and somewhat work together. I actually have my poetry class with one of them, Jeremy, so that should be pretty cool.

We haven't started any classes yet. Instead we've been in meetings ALL DAY LONG. These are the most brutal. Sitting in what they call "the Union" for hours and listening to people talk about Honor Codes and Safety and Plagiarism is even more difficult when the boat is rocking back and forth. I've been so sleepy. My roommates and I have been taking naps almost every break that we get. I've never slept this well.  It's a little bad that I'm not out being social, but my body needs the rest and I've been meeting people at other times. 

More GREAT news. When I was going from station to station making sure I had all my forms filled out I was given a piece of paper that was kind of like a checklist. First I went to the accounts table because I was curious about when I had to pay the rest of my tuition. On the paper it had the amount still due (after my scholarship and work-study grant) it said "Amount due: $5995" which I was expecting.. What I wasn't expecting was that right below that it said "Aid pending: $5995" I had to read it about three times, I couldn't believe the bottom of the page that said "Balance : $0" I was completely speechless. My eyes got really big and I guess my face was weird because my supervisor looked at me and asked if I was okay. I said "I'm better than okay! I just found out I'm doing this voyage for FREE!" I'm not sure how much of it is grants and how much is loans, but I'm so blessed in so many ways to be able to actually have money to spend while I'm in the ports now.