A rather boring blog post

I have officially made it to all my classes, I have developed a horrible habit of sleeping in between them, the food is already getting old, and Russia is getting closer..

I wanted to take a second to kind of quiet some of the rumors that go on about Semester at Sea. It is no worse than a regular college or university in terms of the drinking, sleeping around and type of people you find. I know SAS has been called booze cruise and the floating mattress and I just wanted to point out that any college could be called the stationary mattress and that drinking occurs everywhere. People will or won't take advantage of the ability to drink both here and at their home university, same thing with sleeping around. Ports can be extremely dangerous, but if you are smart and responsible you lessen the chance of anything happening, same as at home. Anyways..

Semester at Sea is even better than any school academically just because we get to live what we are learning! I am such a nerd I can't even handle myself sometimes but I am legitimately so excited for my classes. I had race and ethnic relations, marine biology, and world literature today and the work load seems to be a little more challenging than it does usually just because we are expected to do things while we are in port. Our first port is St. Petersburg, Russia and my planner is full of assignments to read Russian poems and short stories as well as many chapters from the race and ethnic relations textbook. I need to sit in port and listen to Russian music for my popular music class, observe racial relations and write about it, answer questions about marine life and relationships and something else I am sure I am already forgetting.

It's really overwhelming and seems already a really challenging thing to keep up with, but after the initial period of holy crap this is so much work I realize that this is going to make my experience, both in port and overall, ten times more beneficial, memorable, and worthwhile. I am going to get 10x more out of the ports if I am forced to engage. Normally I'd be about shopping and cafes and I can still include that when I go around and explore but now I will need to observe a little more, go deeper and really get to know the city I get the chance to see.

I need to stop taking naps though, I keep crawling into bed at any and every hour of the day. I just feel so exhausted lately! I will soon be forced out of that habit, however, as I am already behind in reading. Dinner outside on deck 6 tonight, it is unbelievably hot out right now, the water surrounding us reflects the sun quite efficiently and I am sure I have a burn on one side already. The first pre port cultural seminar is tonight and I am really excited for that. I realized I knew nothing about Russia and learning about it can only benefit my time in port.

Keep emailing and commenting! Maren.douglas.fa13@semesteratsea.org
Hope all is well at home. After tonight I will be 8 hours ahead of you in Tampa time.

XXoO (Beeg kees, beeg kees, little hug, beeg hug)