Part One: Embarkation; Paradise, thy name is Nassau

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Part One: Embarkation 

Here at the airport. We are waiting to see if Dad and Carol have seats on the plane. My stomach is hurting – its all nerves. “This is the hardest part,” I keep telling myself, “Everything will be better when the sun comes up.” Its official, the flight we were on yesterday morning has been canceled. By the grace of Zeus I found out there was going to be bad weather in Georgia and that flights were being canceled left and right so we re-booked ourselves through Florida. Great plan, except everyone else tried the same thing and Delta overbooked themselves. It was really hard to say goodbye to my mom and the boys, especially Rupert, though something tells me he’ll make it through to April okay.  “This is the hardest part.” I just have to keep breathing for a few more days. Once we get to Nassau and I meet some nice people things will get better. Once I see the boat things will get better. Once we are underway and the hard part is truly over, things will get much better. Rachel says that I’ll look back on this part and it will have blended into the whole amazing experience. If history is any indication, a week from today will feel like a month. A month from now will feel like a year. Before I left I sat on my bed and looked around my room. It looked smaller—which was weird because I had just removed the 3 suitcases. 

I keep looking around the airport for college age-looking people. I’m sure there will be a ton in FL, but I can’t shake the feeling that I am also sitting within 100 feet of another SASer right now. Possibly even my roommate, who knows. 

Here at the gate in Florida! The straw in my reusable water bottle set a few security men into a tithy. They tested it at least 8 times, and then decided when they didn’t find anything that they needed to pat me down. We had to check our carry on bags because they were too heavy so now its just me and my backpack (and several of my parents). I expected the sun to rise before the plan landed, but the sky did not begin to lighten until half an hour after. It was eerie and really freaked me out. I keep going through bouts of nerves bordering on nausea. The fact that I haven’t slept yet probably contributes to that. We met Carol’s sister Joy in the airport because she was there dropping off her husband. We had breakfast in Chili’s, which was a new experience for me. I’m sitting at the final gate now and DEFINITELY can pick out at least one or two other SASers. The huge over-stuffed baggage is what gives it away. I’m working up the desire to go over and meet them, cause the more people I know getting on that ship, the easier it will be to do. It won’t feel so much like I am sailing away from everything that I know. 

Paradise, thy name is Nassau. You know when you see those photos of the Caribbean and it looks unreal. Well – its even more gorgeous in person. No photos can really capture the color of the water. I didn’t believe those shades of turquoise and teal really existed in nature, but they do. When we finally arrived yesterday we headed straight for the beach and fell asleep by the water. We woke up to the lifeguards laughing at us. I got to meet a bunch of SASers, most of whom are actually from California or Massachusetts. Remember when I said I didn’t know a soul on this trip? That was a lie. One boy looked particularly familiar. When I found out he was also from LA I asked him where he went to high school “I didn’t go to high school,” he said. It came out that he went to Wildwood elementary and middle school and as soon as he told me his name is realized we were in the same advisory in D2. How weird is that? Everyone I’ve met so far has been extremely nice and my nerves are almost entirely gone. We went down to the docs at night to see the ship, which is pretty big but is dwarfed by the Carnival cruise ships that surround it; its about 1/3 or ¼ of the size.  Today we went to Blue Lagoon to take advantage of our free dolphin encounter. We got to play in the water with dolphins and see sea lions and hang out on this semi-private beach. We managed to buy cheep shampoo and some hangers and the hotel is positively crawling with semester at sea students – all of whose names I have learned and since forgotten. Except one girl - her name is Jenny and she is from California. 

Getting on the ship at 8am. My next post will be when we are underway!