Posted by Amanda

Today is the end of our voyage. We arrived in the harbor at Miami around 7:30am. Noah and I went up to the deck to watch. As our terminal got closer, we could see parents with signs waving. Students were on their cell phones trying to find their parents in the crowd. They played "They're Coming to America" on the ship speakers, which most of the students didn't know. I got a bit teary-eyed at that. It was exciting but also quite sad to come home. I'm ready to just stay onboard and go around again.

Disembarkation took a long time. Much longer than ISE thought as they had a reception planned on the ship at 4pm. Everyone was supposed to leave with their sea. The Silver Sea (the faculty, staff, and lifelong learners) went first, then the Baltic who won the Olympics, and so on and so forth. Noah and I got off around 4:30 and said goobye to our gang to head to our hostel. RDs were supposed to be the last off, but finally Al said if our sea was gone, we could leave. Of course so many of my sea had gone with other groups to get off the ship earlier that when Aegean was actually called, only three people were left. As we said goodbye, I was surprised Noah was more sentimental in saying goodbyes than I was. I think perhaps I don't really want to say goodbyes because that means it is really over.

A resident of mine was heading in the same area so we shared a cab. Another group of Aegean Sea students pulled up right behind us to the same hostel. It seems our hostel is SAS free.

I'll miss the MV Explorer and shiplife. I think I had a pretty good understanding of myself that I didn't have any earth-shattering revelations during this trip. Perhaps those will take longer to sink in. I'm sure I have more to say in a reflection, but that stuff is probably better said in person than written on a blog for everyone to see.

Three days of beach life in Miami before we head back to Los Angeles, back to Eagle Rock, back to Oxy, back to our family and friends, and back to our sweet kitties and puppy. Thanks for reading about our adventures.