Day 1!!! I'm on a SHIP!!!! (not a boat)

Today has been a very very long day!

We woke up pretty early in order to give us enough time to pack up all our stuff and load it into the car and head over to the ship in Halifax!  Our loading time was scheduled to be at 10:20.  We made it to the pier at 10:30.  Unfortunately, we were about a half mile down the road from the door. Now that is our opinion, but I really don't think we are that far off in our estimations.  I have pictures but you guys won't be able to see those for an extremely long time.. 

So after an hour and a half of standing in line and slowly moving forward we were told that from 12-1 the customs people get a one hour lunch break... not okay.  so me Kristi and two girls that were in line next to us went to get lunch while the Pierson's guarded our luggage.  Thank goodness they were with us!!! If you are reading this is was much appreciated! THANK YOU!
Seeing as I was unable to eat breakfast this morning due to nerves and I think my typhoid pills, that I finished today, that was my first meal of the day.  So we get back in line and by about 1:30ish we were starting to enter the customs deals.

Overall that went really smoothly.  They checked our passports, took them to hang on to for us in between the countries, and gave us our SAS ID cards which also act as our room keys.  Then we got in line to go have our carry ons checked and ourselves while our bags were scanned as well.  When I walked through the scanner thing I beeped!!!!  What the heck!  I felt like dad every time we go to the airport.. I had to go over to the side and the guy had to scan my body with the hand held thing.. It beeped.  Right under my belly button and by both my armpits.. gr.  His thoughts, my shorts zipper and my bra.  Oops :) 

After that ordeal I got my carry on stuff and it was time to walk up the steps that take us on the ship!!! (if they have a specific name I don't know it yet, sorry)  The steps were crazy though.  I was carrying my purse, laptop bag, chips, and big bag of all other snacks, and the steps were teeny tiny and like two inches height difference and a lot of them! I was sure i was going to tumble backwards onto Kristi and Becca and Stephanie (the girls we stood in line with) So three hours later we are on the boat!!! Now only about 10 tables of stops we had to make to verify information and get tid bits of stuff just craziness.  Not really sure I remember what all was said at those tables anymore! One thing I know is that I signed a form verifying that I am responsible for that big amount of money I am waiting to come to me (Mom this is info for you!) 

Finally we are able to head to our rooms to set down all our stuff!!!   By this time my snack bag was ripping so we really had to hurry!  we get to the door and.... neither of our keys worked!!!!!!!!!!  NOOOOO!  Oh and we found our room because our luggage beat us to it and was waiting for us in the hallway. So we drop the food there and had to go the Pursars desk to get  them reactivated. Funny how they don't tell you it costs a dollar to do that everytime and that your phone, credit cards, and camera can all deactivate it. Great.

So we get in drop our stuff, see our 3 roommate has been here already, but she wasn't in the room.  Now we get to explore the ship and see where we will be staying for the next two and a half months!  We walked everywhere we thought we could find, we missed a few things but we will figure it our.. It's very confusing! =) we headed back to our room to start to try to unpack all our stuff. We got a little start into that but just broke the surface before an announcement came on about do a drill to learn our muster stations and the procedures that go with it.  So we had to put on our long pants, long sleeves, closed toed shoes, hat and our lovely orange life jackets!  We looked good =) again pictures at some point in the far future.

After that whole thing it was time to go to set sail! We took our life jackets back to the room and headed to the back decks.  we waved to people on shore and then away we went. well after doing a 180 one way and 360 the other (to test the compasses or orient them or something to that nature).   And off to the ocean we went! Scary!

It started feeling pretty bumpy right from the start so along with the motion sickness pill I took this morning I added the rest bands.  I'm not alone though because everyone feels light headed and can't walk straight.  One adult on the boat I believe a wife to one of the professors, passed us wobbling and said, "We used to pay good money for this!" haha quit funny. Really you feel like you're drunk and just bouncing back and forth a bit or loosing your balance. 

After waving goodbye we headed back to the room to finish unpacking. We have a lot more room than we anticipated but that is much thanks to my closet organizer thing that I brought along! much needed for three girls in this tiny room!! As far as the room goes I took one for the team right now and took top bunk, Kristi and I said we would rotate though!

As soon as we were done unpacking we went to have dinner.  We did good and sat with a girl named Sarah who was sitting alone and in the end Sarah was able to help us set up our emailing accounts so that was good! So after dinner and setting up email it was time for our welcome meeting. We met all the important people on the ship and i learned that the front of the boat is forward the back is aft to the left (facing the front) is port and right is starboard.  I'm learning sooo much already! You should all be so proud! =)  Also this is not a boat but a ship. We are on a ship and our ship has boats on it haha=) the people that are like the main guys are really funny i enjoyed it!  And the one is our "voice" for the summer
he gives us all sorts of announcements all day long and jokes in it all it's great! during the meeting it was really rocky... we were in the union which is forward on the ship and lots of people were feeling it.  When the captain came down to say a few words everyone stood to clap. then everyone fell forward and yelled wooooooohhhhhh  yeah it was funny.. After this meeting we had a meeting with our "sea" which we are the Bering Sea.  It's based off of the cabin you are in.  So we got some more information and finally able to call it a night!

So now i am laying in bed and the ship is a rocking and i have yet another headache.. i think i might learn to ignore headaches after this voyage.  Oh yeah we are on a voyage not a trip or cruise.  Another thing mentioned =)  so anyways im really tired and my head hurts and so its time for bed. 

Someone told Kristi and I to think of it as rocking in a rocking chair, hopefully that helps..

Oh so by the way this is always going to be the main way to find out whats going on any emails are added information that i need to add separate from this... basically i don't want to spend all my time typing the same thing over and over again.. this has already taken me forever to write!! so love you all blog again tomorrow! hopefully i start to get some sea legs by then, but im kinda doubtful of that happening... night!