Sailin' Along...

Hey everyone!  It’s only been a few days since I posted, but it feels like it’s been a week.  A lot of things have happened since I said bye from the airport in Lexington.  Stephen and I made it to Nassau without any glitches, and even better, our bags did too! 

By the time we reached the Bahamas (and made it through customs) we had already met several Semester at Sea students (including Chi-Chi who introduced herself by vaguely shouting that she was Asian).  Our taxi driver told us some cool places to eat on the way to the hotel, and after some relaxing on the beach, a group of seven of us set out for downtown to see the city before we were supposed to leave the next day. 

I’ll definitely say this started my first adventure on this trip.  Our group got off a city bus in the heart of downtown, and then we walked around looking for a place to eat.  Several of us wanted to try some Bahamian food, so of course, the only restaurants open downtown were a McDonald’s, Hard Rock Café, and a Chinese restaurant.  I’m sure we looked confused while we walked down one street because a woman walking by asked us if we needed anything.  One my airport friends Jira (she’s a foreign affairs major from the University of Virginia) asked where we could eat some Bahamian food.  The woman told us about the Cricket Club, a ten minute walk along the main road through Nassau.  We set off in that direction.

Now, if this woman can really walk the distance it took us to get to the Cricket Restaurant and Pub, she’s right on target for a world record in speed walking (as a note, she didn’t exactly look athletic, but you never know with some people).  It took us thirty minutes, and a lot of confusion but we finally found the Cricket. 

Now some of you may have wondered to yourself, why would anyone ever name a restaurant after crickets?  I asked myself the same thing, and so did everyone else in the group.  Funny story…it’s because cricket is a sport.  Of course, cricket’s one of the sports I think about all the time, right up there with curling and rodeo drives…I’m not sure why it didn’t hit me sooner!  I’m also not sure why it didn’t hit Kevin sooner (he’s a cool guy). His expression changed so dramatically when he asked why everyone was watching cricket mid-way through dinner that it looked like every light bulb in the Empire State Building had just been turned on.  The culture shock factor, despite being minor, was cool since it was my first surprise.

Oh and by the way, our food was awesome.  The fish I ordered (fun times, they still had eyes when they came out), peas and rice, and some plantains were the highlight of my meal.  The best part though, was that we had found a local joint with reasonable prices!  It made the entire walk very satisfying (haha, it did not make the later walk to our hotel satisfying though. That taxi driver definitely needs to practice estimating distances…).

The next day, getting on the ship was surprisingly easy.  We had to wait an extra day to depart for the students whose visas hadn’t been finished, but we had orientation which was not all that exciting.  It was important safety wise though.  Mom you don’t need to worry, the captain said we had one of the best lifeboat drills ever, with more people.

Right now we’re sailing close to full speed to reach the island of Dominica (pronounced Dough-men-eek-uh) on time, and we’ve passed a couple of larger ships on the way.  Puerto Rico is flying by on our starboard side, it’s pretty cool.  In general, Nassau was awesome, especially finding a local restaurant.  I can’t wait to explore some more places, that’s why it’s an adventure…

P.S. I can’t send pictures right now, but I will at some point.