To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted- Bill Bryson

Day 1
        So I am finally aboard the Explore for a semester around the world. There are about 580 students from 241 universities, 23 life-long learners, and around 30 professors. It’s hard to find time to put things into words. SO for this 1st post I guess I’ll tell about the day.
        Getting to the ship itself is a pretty big adventure.  The bus I was on got stuck at the border because a girl had to pay for something, which was all rather odd.  But we got to see the dogs the border control has and a guy came on and played guitar for us, and then asked for tips which we should have known was coming. Funnily enough when we were stopped 50 miles from the border the same guy showed up on the side of the road. I’m really not sure how he got there but it did make to trip so much better.
        Once you get through registration and the lifeboat drill there is suppose to be an hour before departure from Mexico.  So everyone ends up gathered around the back of the ship ready to say goodbye to land. Then there’s an announcement   that the departure has been delayed due to immigration issues, leaving everyone to stay around the front to make sure they won’t miss the ship leaving when it happens.  So I somehow end up playing dodge ball with a group of college kids and two eight year olds. The eight year olds dominated most of the games that were played. Totally the highlight of this trip so far.  And that’s how day one went as a whole.  Everyone’s still figuring out how to get around the ship and trying to deal with seasickness (rough seas haven’t helped).
        On a side note anyone travel on the future with semester at sea should be aware of the picture in the cabins. If you can manage to pry it off the wall past voyagers leave messages and tips from when they were on, which is a cool find on the first day.