From England to Portugal; The Beginning of Adventures

At Buckingham Palace

Okay, this is great. I won't lie to you, traveling the world for work is not a bad gig at all. It's something I seriously want to continue in a multitude of ways, but one for sure. I want to do Semester at Sea again.

We're not even a full week into this program, including orientation, and I'm in love. I'm surrounded by creative, innovative intellectuals that have the same passion I do: travel. Plus, it's mixed with education. 

(Side note: All my London photos are getting thrown in here since I didn't have them for the last post.)

Buckingham Palace gates

There are already so many things that have happened that I will never have the words to do justice to, but thankfully I'm a photographer. We left Southampton on Monday, June 16th at 9pm, pulling away from the docks with the help of a tugboat that proceeded to spin us 180-degrees into the channel to send us on our way. For those of you who have never seen a ship dock or sailaway, it's really significantly less exciting in actuality than it is metaphorically. Personally, I love it. However.... When one realizes that it takes 15 minutes to pull away from the pier, it's not quite as "woohoo" as say.... A jet plane. But, it was the beginning of something wonderfully new. 

London's Eye

Big Ben

Proceed to multiple days at sea and hundreds of students, faculty and staff orienting themselves with EVERYTHING. In this, I was so happy to have been on ships before, though it is completely different. I at least understand which way is forward, that theaters are located forward (aka the Union) (and my office as well, in a little cave. No panorama deck 12 windows on this ship) and that dining halls are located in the aft. Basics... That put me ahead of everyone else. That, and the initial sea sick that everyone felt.... Nada for me. We got our assignments per port, as well as the class field labs that we'll be covering. Pretty much, everything I've been assigned is amazing, and I'll write plenty more about them later. 

Thursday afternoon began with the announcement that we were 19 nautical miles from Portugal, and though we weren't supposed to be in port until the next morning, we would be arriving at 2:30 pm. Friday was a planned academic day, where no one is allowed off the ship, regardless of us being in port. So we spent Thursday night and all day Friday looking over Lisbon from our outer decks, lusting after land. They made the announcement in Friday night that we would have early departure for this morning (6 am, no thanks) and late all aboard on Tuesday night (10 pm). The days in between are to do with as we please. 

Westminster Abbey

So last night, I didn't feel fabulous, took some NyQuil and woke up this morning with a horrendous head cold and decided it was better for me to spend a day in bed at the beginning rather than be miserable for the next week or so. I'm already feeling better and really looking forward to my next few days in Lisbon. Tomorrow I have a free day, and then I start my assignments! 

On Monday, my first assignment will be an Impact trip, where myself, hopefully Kara and her family, and one of our amazing psychologists will be taking students on a mission to the Casas do Gaitato, which is a private institute for educating and integrating young children and infants without families back into society. We will be there to be assisting with upkeep to the casas, including gardening, painting and maintenance to the grounds. 

The Mall. Just look at all those flags. 

Tuesday, I will be on assignment with Dr. Emilie Rissman, one of our amazing biology professors, for her Hormones and Health field lab. Her students and I will be going to the Lisbon Zoo and guided around their by one of their biologists. The students will be studying habits among primates, but we will be taken on a private tour of the zoo and into the veterinary section as well (though I don't know if I'm allowed to photograph there). Dr. Rissman will then be giving a talk at the zoo while I get to supervise (I can't believe they actually put me in charge of things!) the students while they continue to study the primates.

Big Ben. Again. 

Seriously, even if I just ended up doing my assignments in every port, they would be absolutely amazing! The classes I've already been able to attend make me sort of (not quite enough) want to go back to school, and I'm so loving being in an educational community again. It's also a seriously different educational community than SCAD. Next week, in Spain, I will be documenting with the photography class as Professor Robinson takes his class to museums and towns nearby Bilbao and lectures on the Spanish Civil war, and I'm excited to sit in on that class... With my degree in photography and all. 

The Eye

I've been approached multiple times about teaching a photo seminar.... And we'll see. I don't know how well I would do at teaching. Maybe a small one... But nothing on the scale that I think people want me to do. 

So, more stories soon, more adventures happening in the next few days and then assignments like crazy! 

Ciao! 

The London Eye and Big Ben

My first meal since San Fran.... it was amazing. 

The Grand Harbour Hotel, where we stayed for orientation

My meet and greet outfit. Ironically, what I wore meeting my boss in Miami for NCL... just this time without the leg brace and crutches. 

The MV Explorer

~All aboard. Next Port, Lisbon, Portugal~

The MV Explorer, Embarkation Day

Deck 6, Aft

Deck 7, Aft

My morning coffee view. Ain't bad, I guess. 

Through my cabin window, watching the other ships. 

An awesome photo of me taken by one of my work studies, Katie Rizzo. 

The Explorer

Gangway to Deck 5

My version of the Stairway to Heaven

Docked in Southampton, I was the last person on the ship at all aboard.

Our tug, pulling us out into the channel before spinning us. 

Students on multiple decks watching us pull away from the pier. 

The last Southampton sunset. 

Travel. Adventure. Back to the Sea.

It's amazing how much travel can affect your life. This is the longest amount of time that I've spent on land since setting foot on the F/V Wizard in September of 2012, and being so far from the ocean has let me see a lot of things in perspective. 

I certainly have a charmed life, but it is a lot of work. And it fascinates even me. Nine minutes ago I boarded a train in London on my way to Southampton and as I write I'm zipping through South London.... I haven't been on a proper train in months. Yesterday was a dream, landing in London, catching the tube to my hostel and running straight out again to meet with a friend from SCAD. 

As we wandered from the London Eye across the Thames to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and then stroll through Saint James Park to Buckingham Palace, we discussed how Europe has become so... Familiar. Though I haven't been here in almost four years, the endless travel in my life has made things like taking the Tube and catching a train significantly less daunting. I suppose I can thank the subway in New York for that.... Which I've managed to navigate in a less than functioning state (the flu and some serious pain killers) and I've survived it every time. 

So, as I speed backwards toward Southampton, I feel like I have plenty to reflect upon, as well as be nervous for. I absolutely can not wait to be back on a ship, there is no doubt in that. The experience is going to be so insanely different than what I'm used to though.. Shooting what I want to shoot, getting to actually document and write... It's not quite portraits and sales. And while I'm incredibly nervous, the excitement is something I almost can't contain. Ten countries in 66 days. Of course, I've seen pictures of these places, but I know it will be nothing in comparison, specifically with the adventures I'm going to have,.. And be PAID for. There are a lot of people who pay a lot of money for what I do... And it sometimes shocks me that more people don't attempt to work for it like I do. I certainly understand the somewhat lack of work ethics in Americans (I'm talking about 75 hour weeks for minimal pay... But the benefit is beaches, adventures and new countries on the regular) but I feel that the younger generation of Americans (my own age and younger) are starting to have this insatiable desire to travel. And it should not be pushed aside. It should be fed, watered and pushed along to fruition. 

Travel is so important. It has become the majority of my life, living out of a suitcase and waking up in new places every day. It's hundreds of maps torn out of guidebooks and being thankful for my compass on my iPhone, as well as just getting lost and hoping you can find your way back. It's trains, planes, busses, rental cars, plenty of u-turns, a really good pair of headphones and accompanying playlists, money conversions, a wallet full of change I can't spend at home and the never ending search for a decent wifi connection. 

So, here I am, cuddled up with my elephant pillow pet (little kids keep telling me the like it. I'm such a grown up), sans wifi on a train to a city I've only known about for 8 months to start a job that terrifies me because I care so much how it will effect me and hope that my work can compare to those who have preceded me. 

Here's to adventure, to pictures, to life changing experiences. 

I can't tell where the journey will end, But I know where to start....

Okay, I'll admit it. I've been listening to Avicii's Wake Me Up on repeat for days. It makes me want to dance, makes me want to cry, makes me want to want. And these past few days have been interesting. After working for Norwegian Cruise Line for an entire year, I sent in my resignation from sunny St. Kitt's on Monday.
But wait, I'm sure you're thinking that my life looks like any traveler's dream... The Caribbean for four out of every nine days, New York City in the interim, then switching ships and sailing down the Mississippi out of New Orleans and landing myself in Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize, Honduras, the Caymans and Jamaica.
Yes, it has been wonderful. And as I'm sitting here in a hotel room a mile away from JFK airport and the insane amount of city lights surrounding me, I'm missing the ocean already. There is nothing like living at sea- especially at night. Being on a floating city, surrounded by your own lights, listening to the waves break from the bow, the lovely breeze off the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea and sounds of music from somewhere.... and all the stars in the sky above the glorious black of the sea.... This hotel room is far from where I want to be. And I almost wonder if I will regret leaving, but I think that it's best to walk away with the memories I have for now. Taking this job, my "dream job" if you will, gave me so many things, but makes me miss so many others. I know that I can't have the best of both worlds... But I want to.
Saying goodbye to this city tomorrow morning and flying into Portland will be going back to the real world. In the last three weeks, I've said goodbye to so many people that I don't know when I will see again, and it breaks me just a little bit. My little Latvian, my crazy South African's, the Filipino Mafia, all my loving Eastern European boys, the best Nepalese boy with a camera I'll ever meet, the older, more fabulous, Aussie version of myself, a few insanely wonderful Brits, my amazing Kiwi sister, and then the other American's that are as crazy as me and love life on ships. It wrecks my soul to not have them around me on a daily basis... And it might just kill me to not be on the water, waking up in a different tropical, beautiful place every single day.
At least for a few months. I know I have other adventures in store this upcoming summer with Semester at Sea. And that will reunite me with some of the people I've met in the past year.
But ships change you. Life at sea is different, time is different. Friendships happen in moments and last forever, relationships happen in a blink of an eye and are over just as quick. Two weeks is two months, one night's party is 10 days of gossip, one kiss spreads rumors like wildfire. You dance all night and work all day, just to wake up and lay in the sunshine with a mojito or mango daiquiri in hand... massages on the beach before working a nine hour shift... then drinking all night until the sun comes up and you start all over again. And work, work work. SEVENTY FIVE HOURS A WEEK... work. Take a million pictures, let your eyes bleed from staring at a screen, take in the amazing views of the ocean all day. Fall asleep to waves crashing and listening to every noise the ship has to make, cuddling in a twin bed, shower curtains that cling to your body every day, sand everywhere always. And work, and drink a beer and repeat. Sneak into the buffet, coffee and croissants every morning, dancing down the hallways, celebratory songs... ship to ship calling. Finding good wifi is like finding gold, and the anti social tendencies of every crew member with wifi is ridiculous. Pink wine and friends with ridiculous names, loving people when you don't even know where their country is.... Ships are crazy. Crazy, beautiful and full of amazing memories and I'm so sad to walk away. Getting on the plane tomorrow means it's over for now, and I know I already miss it... but I need nights in a real bed, a bottle of wine, my cat, my best friends, cell service, real wifi. COOKING MY OWN FOOD... And maybe staying in the same place for a little bit will be nice.
We'll see how this goes. I'm already restless and can't wait for Europe, and don't know if I'm buying a flight back from there at all.... So many places are calling my name, and my camera and I are ready. I took almost 60,000 images this year. I'm ready. I know where to start.