Alright, so I know I said I would post when I got home to let all of you not in Cali know I arrived safe. (I did call most of you) I just wanted to wait a while. I had pics to upload, people to catch up with, too much to unpack. There was a lot to do and a lot to process, and updating this and loading pictures just seemed like a little much. So, I decided to wait, but alas, here it is, my final blog about Semester At Sea.
What am I feeling? So much, its almost hard to explain. I miss the ship. Not the rocking, thats for sure, but sadly, I do miss my room. I miss my roomate. (Mary, I sleep alone now!) I miss having Ally and Ellie next door and Hayley calling me at some ridiculous time in the morning so we could go to breakfast. I miss K-Lee and her random calls about nothing. It was amazing how quickly we all bonded, and I have been going online and chatting and texting them like crazy. I don't have school til August, and it feels so weird to not be worrying about school work. (but, that is a VERY nice break.) I find myself saying stupid things that only people on the ship would understand, and then having to explain myself because nobody has a clue what I am saying.
I feel a lot like I did after I came home from Captive Free. It feels so good to be home, and while I do miss my room on the ship, I LOVE sleeping in my own bed once again. But at the same time, I miss everything that I had been doing. I can't look outside and see nothing but ocean. (and yes, I know I live very close to the ocean, but it is NOT the same thing.) There arent 700 + students living in close quarters with me. I don't have to line up cafeteria style to get my meals. (again, something I am so not missing.) But it is all things that I got used to, and now don't have to do anymore. And, geez, I have been in the same city for over two weeks now, what is that?! ;)
I have started working back at the salon, I am hired back at 24 Hour Fitness, but dont start teaching until after my friend's wedding next week. And I am also back working at my college. So I have all three of my jobs back, and that feels nice. Its actually not stressing me out at all, it feels good to be working again.
Things that people continually ask me since I have been back are like, what was your favorite part, and what was your favorite place? Well, without a doubt I can say India was my favorite port. (I miss you Bhandari family!!) But honestly, I dont even know where to begin to start telling of everything that I did. They also ask if it's weird to be home. The weird thing is not to be home, being home feels completely normal. It feels weird to be explaining to people what I did. Im like "oh, back in India...." then I have to pause, and I'm like woa, I was in India! And when I logged onto this site tonight to update, I saw all the little map pins of the stops we made, and I truly can't believe I was actually there.
Coming into San Diego was aweseome. I didn't sleep at all the night before because I was too excited to see my parents. They came to San Diego and got up early to see the ship come in. My Mom's class made me this huge sign, so I posted a picture of my parents holding it. And there are some last pics of me and my friends. I really miss them. We all went out to a late lunch at the Olive Garden with them and their parents. It was a lot of fun, and the Olive Garden was like heaven! How I missed it!
There is the update and my final thoughts. I hope I didn't bore you too much. I really want to thank all of you who kept track of me and read my blogs. It means the world to me, and I am so glad you got to experience the world as I did. God Bless.