Today I walked up the gangway and swiped myself in through security on the MV Explorer for the last time. The next time I get off the ship, I will not be getting back on. Let me rephrase that, I won't be getting back on for this voyage. I have fully commited myself to doing whatever it takes to make a Spring or Fall voyage happen. This is not the last time I will be on this ship, just the last time for now.
I am in such a haze right now. I can't even cry about it yet. I went out on the deck and watched us pull away from Casablanca, and it hit me. This is it. As of tomorrow we have exactly one week left. I have felt so aimless and so restless all night. I've just been wandering the ship. I even started packing tonight, which I realize is a little premature, but I figured it would be nice to not have to deal with all of the stress when the time really comes. I have one suitcase fully packed. I may just be able to fit everything into my original two suitcases afterall. The only thing I'm worried about is that they might be overweight now.
Today was a good day. I slept in, ate lunch on the ship, went to get some wifi, and then went to the bazaar with Lindsay. I bought the most beautiful traditional Moroccan dress. It is long, kind of robe shaped, royal blue, with gold embroidery and multicolored sequins on the top. It's handmade too! I only paid 100 dirham for it, which is only about $13! I think I'm going to wear it to the Ambassador's Ball Dinner and then wear my dress from Greece to the dance. While we were at the bazaar, a lady approached us with pictures of henna tattoos (which I had been wanting), and before I could even agree to it, she grabbed my arm and started henna-ing me! I had absolutely no say in it, and I ended up having to pay. I would have been really mad if it hadn't been something I had been wanting. Ironically, as it turns out...I just wikipedia-ed "henna" (the concept of "wikipediaing" instead of "googling" still makes me laugh), and apparently the "black henna" they used is illegal in Western countries because of the frequency and severity of injuries. Great. Hopefully I wake up in the morning. Half the ship got henna tattoos...so at least I won't be the only one. It does look very cool though. My whole hand from my fingers to the middle of my forearm has all kinds of cool designs on it. She even wrote my name in Arabic (or so she said...for all I know it could be profanity). I know it is supposed to last a while. I hope it's still there when I go to school because that would be a really great conversation piece.
As we were leaving Casablanca tonight, there was an announcement from the Staff Captain that we would be facing very rough waters as we were leaving the port, and that the crew was on standby to assist anyone who needed help. The second he said it, everyone stumbled over from a big sway. The curtains on the windows were moving back and forth, people we walking in zigzags, a few things fell off my nightstand. It was crazy! I immediately went to get my anti-seasickness bands because I was starting to feel a little queasy. It has calmed down a lot, but the ship is definitely still swaying.
Today my new steward popped his head into my room. It broke my heart when it wasn't Edwin. I loved Edwin so much. It would always make my day when he'd say, "Hi, Alissa" as I'd pass him in the hallway. I wrote him a letter thanking him for everything he did and telling him how much I appreciated him and gave him an extra $30 tip in addition to the gratuity included in our tuition. He deserves every penny of it and more. If only I wasn't a broke college student, I would have without a doubt given him more. Edwin gets to spend 3 months at home before returning for his next 9 month contract. I hope that when I do my next voyage he will be there.
We gain another hour tonight as we head out into the Atlantic. This is great because my roommates and I have plans to get up at 8am to go to the campus store early because they are having a sale! I am SO excited. I'm getting $67 back for my textbooks (which is really nothing, but more than most people are getting), plus my roommate owes me some money, so I'm going to have a blast getting all kinds of SAS goodies. I'm going to be the biggest dork ever when I return with all of my SAS gear.
This is completely random, but it was on my mind. I have collected bills from all of the countries (Euro [Spain, Italy, Greece, Montenegro], Kuna [Croatia], Leva [Bulgaria], Turkish Lira [Turkey], and Dirham [Morocco]), and I'm going to make a page in my scrapbook with all of the currencies, and then I'm going to write what each exchange rate was at the time of my visit. I think that will be so cool since it will be completely different several years from now (not to mention that several of those currencies will no longer exist)! I'm so excited about my scrapbook. I have been saving everything, and I can't wait to start working on it.
Wow, this post was completely all over the place. Sorry about that. That's where my head is right now. I'm going to try to go to sleep soon. I'm feeling pretty seasick.
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