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.