I’m on the ship, I’m on the ship, I’m on the ship!!

Okay, so I almost starting crying when I got into my room (room 2010) this morning. I just can’t believe I’m here. I’ve had a lot of moments like that lately.

I don’t even know where to start. I was smiling so hard today that I felt like an idiot. I was one of the first six people to board the ship this morning, mainly because me and my roommates at the hotel were the only ones who got up as early as 6:00 am. My luggage was impossible to carry too and since we were at the ship so early there was no one to help us yet. It was a scene…the group of us hauling along, dripping sweat, stopping to take breaks, yet so happy because we were finally boarding the ship. Oh and my room is totally in the basement, but I do have a window and there is so much storage space that it’s ridiculous.

So yeah I’ve been in the Bahamas for the last two days. How crazy is that?! I flew into the Bahamas with Carrie, this girl who is from the burbs of Chicago, and we have been hanging out the entire time. She’s very cool, which was a relief since I spent my Bahamas experience with her. We got to our shotty hotel and instantly we ran into dozens of SAS kids. The lobby was full. And of course I got stuck in the doorway because my luggage was impossible for me to carry and it was hanging off from all ends. All the kids who came with parents were at the $200 a night hotel…but no, we stayed at the $60 a night place and split the room between five people, only $36 total! So cool. But our room was pretty shitty…our shower curtain wouldn’t even stay up so we all took showers without it. The Towne Hotel rocked because it was so incredibly social. There were parties around the pool both night with booze just lying out and music blasting and the hotel didn’t say anything until it got late enough that people were complaining. I played it sober both nights for the sake that I don’t want to make a drunken first impression on people and I was already feeling pretty euphoric as I was in the Bahamas!

Carrie and I didn’t have too much, or anything, to do the first day so on two different occasions we walked down to the port street just to glance at the Explorer, the ship we’re on. We were jumping up and down like little girls and taking pictures of our new home which was in the distance.

Oh and all the girls we stayed with at the hotel were awesome. Now that I’m on the ship I haven’t seen too much of them, but while in the hotel we were all together constantly, and stayed up talking for quite a while too.

I’ve hung out with Carrie, the girl I came with, and this other girl, Kim, the most. Kim is totally a free spirit and constantly smiling; she makes me laugh every time I look at her, kinda reminds me of Brenda Houy.

So yeah, the Bahamas were awesome. We swam in the Caribbean Sea on Monday, walking almost two miles in the heat to get to the Paradise Island beach. I had so many moments where I just had to cheer out loud that I was in the Bahamas and relaxing on a beach for hours on end. Of course we all got stung by baby jellyfish at one time or another. Oh, and I got a mad sunburn too.

Today Carrie, Kim, a bunch of other girls, and I were prancing around town, buying pop and snacks to store on the ship, and it started pouring out. I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve seen rain like this. The streets were flooding instantly and huuggge puddles formed. You couldn’t walk anywhere without hitting one. So we took off our shoes and ran through the streets barefoot…so cool…and dirty…but still, so much fun.

Time out. I’m totally having trouble typing this up. My roommate, Kathryn, keeps talking to me, but overall…I think that’s a good thing. She seems cool and I definitely think I’ll be able to share this tiny room with her. Then again, it is my first night on the ship.

I have so many mixed feelings right now, but I could best describe everything as “overwhelming”. I mean, I was just thrown on this ship with 650 other college students and every two feet I take I’m introducing myself to someone else whose name I most likely won’t remember. And on top of that I’m in such shock that I am traveling around the world, or traveling around “the fucking world” as Carrie and I like to say since it sounds even cooler. It’s just so amazing that I am on this ship at last and I can’t get over how blessed I am right now. When the ship left this evening and everyone gathered out on the deck to wave goodbye to their parents and the shore and what not…I couldn’t help but cry a little out of pure happiness. I am doing a Semester at Sea. This is probably the coolest thing I will ever do in my life and I just can not get over how lucky I am and that it is here at last.

Sorry, I’m just really pumped up right now. I’m overtired and stressed out too as all my close friends are in rooms across the ship and I don’t know too many people on my floor yet. But all in time.

Oh yeah, and I want to thank Allison for the awesome letter she gave me to read on the ship. It meant a lot…and so did the one hundred dollars. You rock.

I want to write more because I have so much to go on and on about, but I should probably hit the sack.

I’m doing really well and can tell that this semester is going to rock.

Much love.

It's finally here!

I leave tomorrow and am more excited than I can explain. Dad and I went out and bought binoculars today and now I’m set…I just crossed off the last thing on my list to pack.

I had an awesome week home and got to see so many people, and I already miss a lot of them, but I’m definitely ready to go. I hate being all sappy on my blog because I know that the people I write about may end up reading this and yada, yada, yada, I feel stupid overall, hence why I’m not going into detail about the party Tuesday night, or how the girls gave me a new yacht club necklace to have on the trip since I lost mine last summer, or how Bill cooked me dinner, or the awesome time I had seeing everyone at the UC. Allison always read my blog when I was up in Alaska because she liked to hear my take on events; and I found it awkward…maybe that’s not the right word. When I got home though Bill had left me the nicest instant message:

“im actually really excited for you because your getting to travel and see the world, which is what i think everyone in college should get out and do. your going to experience much more than i can imagine, even much more than you can imagine and for that im happy for you.”

I’ll be in the Bahamas tomorrow afternoon and won’t board the ship until Tuesday morning. Then it’s unpacking, meeting my roommate, orientation, and finally classes begin. I feel like I’m starting my freshman year all over again. By Saturday I’ll be in Venezuela, how cool is that?

I just flew for the first time this summer and now I’m traveling around the world...I am so lucky.

When I say keep in touch, I mean it.

Much love.

so i'm home.

the flight home wasn't too bad and these people i barely knew who were on the ferry to juneau with me drove me around with them during my six hour layover and i got a free crab dinner, valued at $30 dollars, from some family friend of theirs and got to see a movie...which totally beat sitting in the Juneau airport, looking at the mass quantities of stuffed animals they have displayed.

we had to put Bailey to sleep the day i got home, which was friday. it was awful. mom had warned me that she was sick but i thought she would last a little longer until i saw her and realized that unless we took her to the vets right away she would die in our front yard. it was really rough. and despite the fact that she was only seven years old, it was her time to go.

i miss allison!! and i know she loved reading that. but she's called me pretty much every night since i got home and given me alaska updates. oh and she gave me a kick-ass going away goody bag as i got on the ferry thursday, complete with vegan food and a comfy bra that she knew would work wonders while abroad.

ha and some random guy paid for our chipotle on friday after my mom joked that he could go ahead of us in line if he bought her a burrito. when we went to check out we were informed that he had already paid for our entire meal, including drinks. he was headed out the door by the time we found out and apparently wanted no recognition whatsoever because he just nodded his head at us and walked out after mom exclaimed, "Did you really pay for our meal??" we've been analyzing why we did it every since.

the girls came to visit me in the burbs on friday night. it was so great to see them.

but yeah. i've just been packing and trying to get stuff done before i leave Sunday morning for Semester at Sea. i am unbelievably excited.

it's good to be home for this week though, if not to just catch up with everyone so that they don't completely forget about me. my cell phone works right now and i'm reachable, but only for a week, so call me and update me on life.

5 more hours in Alaska and then I'm off to Chicago. I had a great summer but I'm ready to be home. I already have my whole week planned out, and am hoping to see as many people as possible. But yeah, I can't believe I've already been here two months. I'll be honest, at some points of this summer I couldn't wait for my plane ride home, but all in all it was totally worth coming up here...I got to see part of Alaska, hike, camp, meet a variety of people, make money, and live with my sister. So now on to my next journey.

I'm taking the ferry to Juneau . I was supposed to fly, but I'm terrified of flying out via LAB airlines because everyone here says it stands for "legs, arms, and bones". Plus it's raining out and the flights are cancelled as of right now. So yeah I leave shortly.

Bailey is super sick and will be gone soon, as in Monday. It'll be a sad week at our home.

But on the upside I see my family tomorrow, the yacht club tomorrow night, and everyone else next week. And next Sunday I leave for Semester at Sea!

Can't wait.

My cell phone will work as of tomorrow so I will be reachable at last!

K, off to finish packing.

So we did Upper Dewey Lake on Wednesday. It took quite a while, and at one point I nearly threw up, but I did make it. Upper Lake is right between these two mountain peaks, making the view up there beautiful. And we did swim, although I don’t know if you can call it swimming since I only dunked my head twice because the water, which is glacial runoff, was freezing. I’m so relieved the whole hike is over with though, not that it wasn’t worth it, but all summer I had been dreading it because it is such a steep journey.

Hmmm what else.

The last week or so we’ve eaten dinner with a variety of people. Last Saturday Allison and I ate dinner with Alisa and Holly, two sisters who are in Skagway for the summer and who remind Allison and I of ourselves. Although they use phrases such as, “Cute!” all the time and Allison and I usually stick with “Cock!” Then on Sunday Sheila, Allison, and I went to the Pizza Station with Ed, an older guy who works for White Pass. Yep. And then Wednesday night we went ate dinner with a bunch of White Pass employees who invited us over. Not that anyone really cares. But I haven’t written in my journal all summer so I’ll probably just end up printing these blogs out for memory sake, and damn it, I want to remember that yes, I did have friends in Skagway.

Allison, Walker, and I were the only people working today because there was only one cruise ship in town, so we had what Al and I called a “negligence party.” Basically we took extra long breaks and got stuff done while on the clock because we only had each other to report to.

Tonight is Sheila’s last night in town so we invited her to eat dinner with us before we have our farewell drinking party with her. I’ll miss my roommate, but I won’t miss hearing her blow dry her hair at 4 a.m.

Oh, and randomness. Last night Allison made us tacos for dinner and she went to the trouble of making guacamole for us to eat with them. Anyway, she set the finished bowl of guac on the table and moments later Bob, the same guy who peed on our couch, is leaning over the table to read something while she shaves with an electric razor! He was shaving right over our food. Allison nudged me in shock and we both froze as we watched him. Al finally walked over and scooted the bowl over in disgust. I was laughing so hard I was nearly in tears, don’t think Bob even noticed.

Home in exactly one week. In Venezuela in about three.

Ooo and I have 52 hours in the last four days that I’m working next week.

Anyways, hope all is well. Much love.

Get this...I ran into Mrs. Petique and Mrs. Miller, my second grade teacher (they were both second grade right?), today! Allison was with me at the time and we were both freaking out. I mean, we're up in Alaska and we see thousands of tourists each day so to see a face you actually recognize is crazy. On top of that, it was sunny and in the 80's all day and for one I got to wear a tank-top...AND Jenna Wyse called me and left me a voicemail...And Pavel, one of the security guards for the Diamond Princess, went out and bought Allison, Walker, and I Alaska T-shirts to thank us for giving him a cake and a mini-birthday party on the dock last week for his 26th. So yeah, today was a good one...of course there were tons of bugs out because it wasn't windy, and my acid nearly made me throw up a bit ago, but I'll get over it.

Day off tomorrow. We're hiking to Upper Dewey Lake and I know I'm going to die and request way too many breaks along the way.

It rained for 13 of the 14 hours that I was at work today. So glad to be done for now.

Plus I barely got any sleep last night because Sammy Joe told me a funny story and I kept thinking about it and laughing to myself in bed. I reminded myself of Amy and how when we used to share a room she would start laughing randomly in the middle of the night. Although when I woke up this morning I didn't lay in bed counting outloud.

Anyway, time to get home...I work in nine hours.

Had a good weekend. I got to see a woman’s logging show, pigs racing, and I climbed a mountain. And on top of it all, it’s 1:30 and I’m already off work for the day, a rarity.

Haines was a good time. We ate a lot of food and walked the length of the town many times. And thanks to mom, we had a travel Scrabble board with us and got through a couple games. The first night in Haines we spent the night in a trailer owned our coworkers family but I was miserable because I was over tired and didn’t feel like I was on vacation because I was a guest on someone’s property and we had to invite him everywhere we went in turn and it just didn’t seem relaxing to me at all for some reason. It wasn’t the best night I’ve had. So on night two we headed to a campground with was further in town and all was well at last.

When we got back on Saturday we only had to work four hours, which was awesome. Then that night Allison, Walker, and I headed to the “Mustache Bash” which was the party held out at the Gold Dredge. Nearly every guy there had grown a mustache for the party and most of them looked pretty ridiculous. There were even girls with mustaches. And both the two boys that were my crushes for the week were there…and I have a date tonight with one of them. Although I’ve been thinking about this and I have no idea what we’re going to do, there’s nowhere for us to even hang out since we both live with so many people…so yeah.

Allison, Walker, and I hiked AB Mountain, or hell as I call it, yesterday. Mom you would have been proud of me…for the last quarter of the hike to the top I was on using my hands with every step, reaching in the mud and grabbing roots or whatever I could find to pull myself up. It was tough. The first two hours of the hike weren’t too bad but the mountain makes this drastic cut upwards at one point and from there on it’s pretty vertical. It was frustrating. The hiking path was barely visible at some points and you could see footprints from people we had slipped in the mud throughout the upwards trek. At a lot of points I had to pause and figure out how I was going to maneuver myself up, looking for anything to grab at and anywhere to place my feet. And I couldn’t help but think about the way down. I fell quite a bit on the way down, but once I had completely muddied my butt I didn’t care anymore and I started getting down on my butt to make it down some of the steep rocky areas. Allison and Walker are much better hikers than I am, so I went first for most of the hike, so as to keep them from getting ahead of me. Man, they were patient with me. We hiked for six hours and my body is still feeling it. I really am glad that I stuck with the hike and didn’t turn around, but at the time it was really rough for me. The view up top though was beautiful, it looked down on the town of Skagway and we were so high we had really good views of some of the neighboring glaciers. And we saw a porcupine on the hike, which was a highlight for me.

Millie is back from Norway and I plan to call her tonight. Heck yes.

But yeah…good weekend for sure.