We boarded the ship in Norfolk on Monday and were glad to escape the incredible humidity; 100% humidity and 100 degrees equal 1 gazillion degrees of discomfort. The MV Explorer, our seafaring campus, initially looked BIG to us but after arriving at Halifax we felt dwarfed by the two monster cruise ships berthed next to us--we carry a full complement of 1,200 and the mama ships moored next to us seemed like floating cities with 4-5,000 passengers and crew--these ships looked and felt like floating Las Vegas islands.
The first four days on the ship were jammed with orientation sessions, ranging from emergency escape drills where we hunkered next to our designated lifeboats to discussions on life-long learning, global studies, how to deal with phony "good" water drawn from polluted sources, dealing with rich/spoiled students who don't attend classes, and a host of other important topics that we have already pushed to the back of our expanded and ready to explode frontal lobes.
We landed at Halifax this morning and given the case that we finally had a reasonable night's sleep we missed the bagpiper duet that welcomed our ship at 8; apparently the big ships had a much bigger reception with gobs of pipers but those are the breaks. After our morning session on how to deal with emergency medical situations ("don't go native with food in Ghana or suffer the consequences, etc.") we had a lovely breakfast with two of our new buds, Bernie and Elaine who head up the Service Learning and Life-Long Learners programs, and then took a bus ride to the Wal-Mart located at the opposite end of the city. We made the pilgrimage to buy firm pillows, chocolate, tea, and other items that we neglected to pack.
Halifax is pretty cool and reminds us of a compressed Victoria with the city perched on some puffy lips around the harbor. After the Wal-Mart stop we headed to the Five Fishermen restaurant where we bumped into about twenty of our new Explorer buds. Alicia had a fabulous lobster dinner but the real hit of the evening was the endless supply of local mussels that were very yummy and fresh (hauled out of the ocean this morning) and the best part is that we could eat all the mussels we wanted at "no" additional cost as they were part of the salad bar. I stopped at about 100 or so as I didn't want to spoil my appetite.
We probably walked five or six miles today and made it back to the ship in time for the reception for the parents of the students, none of the students were at the reception as they come on board tomorrow. It was a very well done reception with some great food (none of which we had seen or eaten to date but were glad to acknowledge as coming from the ship's kitchens) and about 300 plus excited and worried parents. Alicia and I mingled and met with several parents and committed to being surrogate parents to about a half dozen students, including a couple of students from Newport Beach and a Latina from Denver whose father almost genuflected to us when we agreed to meet and befriend her.
Tomorrow we sail for Cadiz and we will test out our new pillows tonight--thankful for small blessings like firm pillows and great ones like the adventure we have started and can only get better.
The first four days on the ship were jammed with orientation sessions, ranging from emergency escape drills where we hunkered next to our designated lifeboats to discussions on life-long learning, global studies, how to deal with phony "good" water drawn from polluted sources, dealing with rich/spoiled students who don't attend classes, and a host of other important topics that we have already pushed to the back of our expanded and ready to explode frontal lobes.
We landed at Halifax this morning and given the case that we finally had a reasonable night's sleep we missed the bagpiper duet that welcomed our ship at 8; apparently the big ships had a much bigger reception with gobs of pipers but those are the breaks. After our morning session on how to deal with emergency medical situations ("don't go native with food in Ghana or suffer the consequences, etc.") we had a lovely breakfast with two of our new buds, Bernie and Elaine who head up the Service Learning and Life-Long Learners programs, and then took a bus ride to the Wal-Mart located at the opposite end of the city. We made the pilgrimage to buy firm pillows, chocolate, tea, and other items that we neglected to pack.
Halifax is pretty cool and reminds us of a compressed Victoria with the city perched on some puffy lips around the harbor. After the Wal-Mart stop we headed to the Five Fishermen restaurant where we bumped into about twenty of our new Explorer buds. Alicia had a fabulous lobster dinner but the real hit of the evening was the endless supply of local mussels that were very yummy and fresh (hauled out of the ocean this morning) and the best part is that we could eat all the mussels we wanted at "no" additional cost as they were part of the salad bar. I stopped at about 100 or so as I didn't want to spoil my appetite.
We probably walked five or six miles today and made it back to the ship in time for the reception for the parents of the students, none of the students were at the reception as they come on board tomorrow. It was a very well done reception with some great food (none of which we had seen or eaten to date but were glad to acknowledge as coming from the ship's kitchens) and about 300 plus excited and worried parents. Alicia and I mingled and met with several parents and committed to being surrogate parents to about a half dozen students, including a couple of students from Newport Beach and a Latina from Denver whose father almost genuflected to us when we agreed to meet and befriend her.
Tomorrow we sail for Cadiz and we will test out our new pillows tonight--thankful for small blessings like firm pillows and great ones like the adventure we have started and can only get better.
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