Being Productive! (221 Days!)

Time for me seems to be moving at the pace of a lame turtle while simultaneously moving as quickly as a lightening strike. In the past few days I have done so much, and yet August 26th seems like a lifetime away. How in the world is this possible? How can I have too much time while seemingly having too little time!? Am I about to rip a hole in the fabric of time (or does it just seems that way?)

So, I have decided to measure time in small pieces for now. I filed my passport paperwork yesterday, and the man said that I should have it in around a month or tow. So, My first real tiny chunk of time has been sent by the passport office (and I imagine travel Visa's will follow that). getting my passport application filed really makes me feel as though this is real (a feeling that gets more real every day and with every new task I do). I am the first member of my family to get a passport or leave the country. It's kind of a big deal :)

In a somewhat related story, here is a letter I drafted to the snow storm that blew through town Wednesday. Enjoy!

Dear Snow Storm,
Thank you for picking this particular time to slow down the clock. I know I usually complain about your presence in my life, and I know I usually use some pretty colorful language when I do so, but this past Wednesday you got it right! So thank you! Because of you I kicked myself into scholarship mode, because of you I am half way through the ISE scholarship applications and it is because of you that I have mailed most of them. Because of your timing I sat down at my desk, printed form after form, wrote essays, printed resumes and got to work.

Thank you for making me get to work. It is really helping me fell like this crazy journey, that SAS, is really going to happen for me. That I can get myself there.

Thank you so much, and I will try to be more understanding about you trapping my car in the future (but really, don't hold your breath).

Best wishes, Mal

I also got my cabin class assignment in the last few days, which was exciting and frightening all in one. It was exciting having something concrete to pin my excitement to, and frightening because of these:


Yes, these are the photos of possible rooms in my cabin category sent to me By SAS. I am in the lowest possible class for cabins. Your cabin determines your overall price, so I have opted for the cheapest category of cabins; Economy class. These pictures came in an email for SAS, informing me exactly what my category/ class is, with the warning "Flexibility is extremely important when selecting this category." Naturally I accepted right away, since I would sleep in a trash can of it would shave a few thousand off the tuition price, but anyone who knows me at all can see why I am a wee bit nervous about rooms of this nature.

1) I am a painfully introverted introvert. I need time alone to reflect and recharge or I become depressed/upset/moody/generally unhappy. Clearly with a room like that, finding alone time in the cabin will more than likely not be an option.

2) I am a neat freak. If I get paired with a messy person in that close of quarters, I may explode. I need order in my life, and that order is reflected in the tidiness of my room.

3) I have a new anxiety about where I will put my luggage once all my stuff is on the ship.

All that being said, my excitement level continues to grow.

Deposit down!! (225 Days)

It is official! What a nice word that is in this context (it's not so nice when its an official traffic ticket or official bill from my university). I am now $500 worth committed to my Semester at Sea voyage for Fall 2011! The word excited doesn't begin to cover how I feel now that it is that much more certain that I will be on the voyage of a lifetime.

In my excitement I went through the website and printed off every scholarship/ work study application I am eligible for and will have every one I can done by the end of this month (while my classes are relatively slow). In addition to this, I will be taking my passport application down to the office this weekend (Monday at the latest). For now, I have the time to do so, so lets get it all done.

In other news, today was my first real day of classes, and wow. Firstly, Ratemyprofessor.com is amazing. I love it. All my professors this semester are great, which is the only way I could survive a semester of 19 credits. If it wasn't for the ability to ensure great professors, college would be like an even high stakes gamble, like Vegas. But instead of money, you wager your sanity and well being. Secondly, I am not sure, between schoolwork and getting all my SAS stuff in order and work, when I will ever sleep. I'm just saying, this semester is going to be amazing and exhausting.

Hey, guess what?
I AM OFFICIALLY GOING ON FALL 2011 SEMESTER AT SEA!!!
Its pretty amazing, isnt it?

I will be getting my official cabin assignment in a few days, and hopefully my pre-departure paperwork shortly after. Pinch me! Is this really happening?

Let the madness begin!!

Lets start at the very begining (229 Days)

Yesterday, upon returning to my room after sliding my way down a snowy hill in my car, half frozen, very shaken and tired, I sat down to check my email. Let it be noted, that I have been compulsively checking my email for several days, since my Semester at Sea application was completed. But in that moment, as I vented to my mom about the perils of driving while its snowing, I saw it- the email I had been waiting for. There it was, wedged between modified food service hours due to snow and the annoying email telling me my password was about to expire, as if hiding itself among these mundane notices (though the food one is, actually, important) would somehow lesson the excitement it would herald into my life.

I just started to scream- I don't even remember what the words were (if there had really been any words, not just inarticulate vowel sounds of excitement).

"Dear Mallory,

Congratulations on your academic admission to Semester at Sea. Please see the attached document for more information concerning your admission and how to reserve your space on the MV Explorer for your voyage."

After reading the email several times in quick succession I joined the facebook group for my voyage, reorganized my Semester At Sea binder (in which, I have been keeping my admission materials for my home University as well as for SAS) in preparation for the new materials I will be receiving in the next few weeks, and hung the calendar of places the voyage will take me that my mom made me for Christmas (which, it should be noted, took the place of my Josh Groban calendar, which was moved to a different, though less prominent location. This is a big deal, though you may not know it).

Now I just have to wait the few days/weeks to put down my deposit. The full weight of this voyage is starting to settle in, though for now I feel less stress and more excitement. In a few months time, in the midst of visa applications and gathering all of the money for the voyage while taking 19 credit hours for my last semester before the voyage, I am sure the feeling will switch, but for now I am full of promise for the future. SAS is the beginning to how I, in some small way, will start to change the world, and how the world will start to change me.

Also- just on a kind of house keeping note, next to every title, I plan on keeping a countdown until the voyage in days. This countdown has been active on my computer since last July, when I decided I wanted to do the Fall 2011 voyage, but here it will keep all my family and friends updated on the progress of time and my own progress as we inch toward the next massive step I will take in my life.

Until next time,
Best Wishes!

ps- I would also like to express my most sincere regret for what has happened in Arizona to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 17 other people, as reports continue to roll in on the evolving status of the victims. She was merely a woman who was wanting to change the world. As John Green said on twitter "It is very sad to me that some people are so intent on leaving their mark on the world that they don't care if that mark is a scar". All of our hearts and good wishes go out to the Congresswoman, the other victims, and their families.