First 2 days of classes!

Well today was the 2nd day of classes. It feels like I've been on the
ship for so long now. I can't believe its only been a few days!
Yesterday I had Popular Music around the World. We're required to go
on 2 field trips for that class. They sound so fun! They're both in
South Africa. One is an intimate hip hop performance! (They'll be
performing for just us) and then they'll invite us into their homes
for dinner and socializing! And the other is similar, but Jazz music
instead! Yesterday I also had World Theater and Performance and the
trips I'll be doing are seeing a Japanese theater performance and a
dance performance in India. Today I had anthropology of food. The
field trips I'll be doing for that class are a Japanese tea ceremony
and most likely cooking a 3 course meal in the amazon in Brazil. I
had Global studies as well and I love the professor. He's so
engaging. I learned so much! And we learned about Dominica-where we'll
be arriving in a few hours and it was just so fascinating!

The ship arrives in Dominica tomorrow at 8am. The plan is to explore
Dominica with a group I've been hanging out with until 1. Then I'm
going on a tubing and Garden pool visit. I'm very excited for that.
Dominica is covered with a beautiful tropical rain forest and has big
mountains, beautiful waterfalls and hot springs! Can't wait! I think
we're staying in a cabin for the night and celebrating a couple
birthdays.

Its been sunny everyday. The past couple days I've hung out by the
pool after class. Life on the ship is so wonderful. I'm really
enjoying the rocking of the ship! I've never slept better.

I just had a really good, long chat with my roommate, Julie. She's so
great. We're pretty different from each other but we get along really
well and have had really great conversations. I'm starting to learn
that a huge part of this experience is going to be breaking out of
your comfort zone and not doing things that are normal and what you're
used to. Its really easy to do the comfortable, settling into a group
thing. We spend so much time with each other (even though its only
been a couple days). We're stuck on a ship together, and the ship is
actually pretty small. I'm learning that it will be so much better to
spend time with different people, meet as many people as you can, and
to not hang out with the same group of people all of the time. Thats
the norm, and thats what we're used to, so its really hard to break
free from that. I've noticed that doing that isn't really cutting it
for me so far, and I need to dig deeper and meet more people (above
the acquaintance level). There are so many great people to meet here,
and its never been easier to meet and spend time with them.

I feel like I'm learning a lot already and we haven't even reached our
first port yet. I can't wait to see what Dominica brings!

Friends back in NY-miss you and love you so much. Being away from you
and around different people makes me really appreciate you guys and
feel even more blessed to have you in my lives. Wish you were here
right now! Good luck in school tomorrow Ithaca loves!