It's the Final Countdownnnn

So my bus leaves from San Diego to go to Ensenada, Mexico where the ship is docked on Wednesday, January 7^th at 9am. That’s in 2 days. But I leave for San Diego tomorrow to just hang out and meet up with people at a bonfire we planned. You could say I’m kind of freaking out. I’m way more excited than nervous, but I just want to get settled on the ship already and see who my roommates are! I've been slowly gathering everything I need and have packed my 2 duffle bags completely full (probably brought more clothes than was recommended-oops) and just have to get the final bits into my backpack. 

Yes, my room is pretty messy and chaotic but that will go away today. So in honor of waiting literally a solid year to go on this, I'm going to go through the 5 phases people (or just I) went through when waiting to go on SAS:

1. The happy phase: this is right when you get that amazing email that you have been accepted. You tell everyone you know that you've been accepted to this amazing program, start memorizing your ports, researching them, and stalking previous voyager's blogs, but your embarkation day is still far away. 

2. The anticipation phase: you feel like you've watched every video possible and read every blog out there, anything having to do with SAS. You just can't wait to get on board but reality hits and it's still like 10 months away. This is by far the longest phase. 

3. The chaotic phase: SAS decides to throw everything at you about 3 months before your voyage. If you look at my previous blog posts, you'll see how much happened in such a short period of time. You have to apply for and obtain your visas, register for classes, sign up for field programs, find out if you got any scholarships, actually pay, and it's just chaotic. Trying to do well in school becomes VERY difficult.

4. The preparation phase: around Thanksgiving break, you realize you leave in a little over a month and grab random stuff you think you need on black friday. This is when I got my GoPro and realized that it was actually finally time to make a packing list and start buying stuff. This lasted up until....yesterday.

5. The anxious freaking out OMG this is actually happening phase: this begins during the preparation phase and intensifies each day.You just can't believe that you're actually about to go on Semester at Sea. It's felt like a dream and still doesn't seem real. As of today, I'm at the peak of this phase and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sleep tonight.

That's all for now, folks. Next time I post I will have set sail and will be somewhere in the middle of the ocean...or Hawaii! :D

P.S. I forgot to write earlier, if you would like to contact me, my ship email that I can use as often as I want is: hannah.olds.sp15@semesteratsea.org
I would love to keep in contact with people so feel free to email me anytime! I'd lastly like to thank everyone, especially my parents, for financially supporting me and making this voyage possible. Thank you so much!