The Spirit of Exploration (130 Days!!)

Today is the 41st anniversary of the landing of the Apollo 13 mission. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I am a huge space nerd, and specifically am a NASA fangirl. The picture on this blog is of me at the Kennedy Space Center a few summers ago. I love NASA. I love the spirit of exploration and excitement that encompasses the projects NASA has put forward in the past, and has done within my life time. Having lived in Florida for much of my young life, I know the feeling of staring up wide eyed at the sky as I watch a tiny spec of light disappear into the sky. It is a feeling that I adore, and as the NASA program comes to a close, I am truly saddened. I think that we have a lot to learn from NASA, and specifically the Apollo 13 mission. The Apollo 13 mission has been described as a "successful failure". Though the ultimate mission of landing on the surface of the moon was not reached, I feel like we, as a fellowship of humanity, learned something even more valuable. The value of trying. That attempt, to launch humans into space, and then to fail is intensely brave. The fact that we brought back those men, alive, after all of the hardships that were faced, shows the true ingenuity of the human spirit. And ever more than that, is the fact that even after failure, we went back, and tried again.

I feel very similarly about my upcoming voyage. I am filled with the spirit of exploration, the need to leave my bubble and explore, the same pull that has us going to space. I am sure that at times while I am abroad I will have problems. I will fall short of the perfection I demand of myself, and I have issues. But the important thing, the thing that I have learned from the Apollo 13 mission and NASA in general, is that when I fall down, that I must get back up and try again. Instead of crawling back into my comfort zone, I will get back up and try again.

Speaking of attempts and getting back up, I sent off an very important scholarship application a few days ago and I would really appreciate some good Karma and lucky thought waves coming my way. I'll know on May 6th if I have been awarded the scholarship, so any pleasant thoughts would be awesome. Thanks in advance :)

In other news, I am a mere 2 weeks away from the pure bliss that will be summer vacation! The next 2 weeks will be hard, I have homework stacked up to my eyeballs and I may go crazy under the incredibly heavy workload that I now find myself under. But summer is so close, I can taste it!!

The next steps of my journey are going to be the VISA applications (which I printed off and am now looking at with an expression akin to those found on shocked LOL cats faces). They want to know everything about me and the form are super long and a bit pricey. I'll keep you all posted on the continued progress of the never ending paperwork that is my journey to Semester at Sea.

So... back to the never ending parade of homework that will be my next two weeks.
Until next time!

News, news, news!! (168 Days!)

Do you ever sit back and think 'there is no way my life could get more busy or more wonderful?'

I thought that to myself shortly after writing my last blog entry. The weather has been sunnier and spring feels like it is just hiding around the corner, I was feeling excited (albeit a bit stressed) about everything in my life, and I was in a place where I was truly happy.

Jack Johnson has this line in one of his songs that says "You've got to be careful when you've got good love, because the angels will just keep on multiplying". I think the same is true for happiness. When you are happy with life and with yourself, the happiness will just keep on multiplying. And so I find myself half way over with spring break, happier and busier than ever.

Semester at Sea has added two new ports to my itinerary, and Morocco has thus far remained on the itinerary as well. The two new ports are Port Louis, Mauritius and Havana, Cuba! After the State of the Union a while back, in which President Obama included the idea of healing relations with Cuba, Semester at Sea said they were going to try to make a visit happen for our voyage and voyages in the future. It may not be 100% official yet, but it is up on the website, which is solid enough for me to begin getting excited! I believe that a dialogue between the US and Cuba will be a good thing for the future of our part of the world. It is time we begin to heal the wounds that were left by the Cold War.
As for the other port, I know nothing about this place (indeed, I had never heard the name until I saw it on the website for my itinerary). I'm looking forward to learning about the new places I am set to travel to (really, I am looking forward to learning. Period.)

I am also excited to announce that the Visa and Vaccination information went up as well! Much of my stressing has been alleviated! I will only need a total of 4 Visa's (Ghana, India, Vietnam and China) for an estimated total of $357! And only a Yellow Fever vaccination and a prescription for malaria medication! Dear readers, you cannot see my happy dance, but you better bet your bottom dollar that I am happy-dancing my way around the room.

This trip is continuing to feel real and possible and in that feeling lies the true magic of this whole thing.

Insanity and playing the waiting game (186 Days!!)

I should be studying for my Chinese Medicine mid-term that takes place this Tuesday (holy crap, mid-terms already?) but I'm taking a break. Study breaks are important. They are important because they keep your brain from working so hard that it somehow liquefies itself and begins to ooze out of your ears. Yes, this is bad, and I am a mere term or two away from brain liquefaction, so I am taking a break to allow it to re-congeal into the brain matter I need to retain the bazillion different acu-points I need to have crammed in head by Tuesday.

So there.

In the past week I have looked at airfare to Canada and sent in my last readily completable scholarship application. It's not much, but it is certainly an important step. It may not have been during the month of January (as the more discerning readers may remember was my goal) but my taxes and FAFSA took a little longer than expected.

So, now that all that is done, what must I do, you ask?
Wait.
I hate waiting, but for now, I must. I am waiting on Semester at Sea. I am waiting for them to announce what Visa's I will need to acquire and what vaccinations I will need to get before I leave, information that probably wont be posted for another month. I am also waiting on the financial aid disbursement notifications so that I know how much more money I will need to raise in order to sail in August, information I wont know until June 3rd.
So, I wait.

Waiting sucks. It makes me feel like there is something I should be doing. Which, short of booking flights and hotels, there isn't.


I guess waiting is good though, since I need extra time to remain sane and do the work that I have to do for my classes this semester *cough* Chinese medicine and french *cough*

Until next time, I remain insanely yours.

The Infamous Purse Library (197 days!!)

Anyone who has ever hung out with me for any extended period of time knows exactly what my title to this entry means. I am required to carry around a very large purse. Not because I carry around makeup (I don't) or hair products (the hair tie on my wrist is about it), but because I have a problem. I have a book problem. More than once my mother has picked up my purse to hand to me and remarked "what do you have in there? A dead body?"

I have a book problem. When I move into my dorm every year I spend several afternoons staring at my bookshelves in my room, trying to pick the books that will travel with me to my new dorm. This process takes days, maybe even weeks (it should be noted that my mother now only lives a mere 30 minutes away, but the decision still takes forever). I spend more money on new books than I do on food or clothes and I treat my books the way some people treat their children. They are to be loved, protected and regularly used (I am a big fan of rereading a book, just because I loved it the first hundred times I read it). At any one time I am usually reading 3-5 books (a number which will easily double during the school semesters due to the massive amounts of readings my professors assign to me). And at any given moment it is impossible to predict which one of those 3-5 books I am in the process of reading will strike my fancy. My answer to this problem has been simple; just carry them all around.

So, one night while I was talking to my mom about my upcoming voyage with Semester at Sea she asked me "how will you handle being away from your books?"

I don't think she intended to send me spiraling into a frenzied combination of anxiety and depression, but that is what happened. I'm sure that I would miss my books more than I would miss any of my other of my worldly possessions. They are almost an extension of myself. How could I see the world without the books that have been my gateway into that world?

My room mate, Rebecca, and I have a mutual love for books (though she is, perhaps, less obsessive than I) and when she came back after Christmas vacation with a brand new Kindle in hand, I immediately mocked her electronic book impersonator. I have steadfastly denounce ereaders since they have become mainstream. Nothing, I repeat, nothing feels like holding a book between your hands, feeling the crisp paper under you fingertips. Ereaders don't have the smell that books have (glossy paged books and old library books have different smells than a new paperback. They are all different and all wonderful).

But the more I saw her with her Kindle, the more I began to wane in my dislike. The more I got to know her Kindle and what books were available to it, I started to fall for her Kindle.


So, dear readers, I now own a Kindle, so I can take all my favorite books around the world with me. This really was the only reason I broke down and bought it. I love it. I love that I can instantly buy books from my Kindle, I love the instant whisper delivery of the New York Times every morning, I love the fact that it weighs next to nothing. But mostly, I love that I can now carry 30 or 40 books in my purse without getting an arm workout.

Don't get me wrong, I will still buy books by the truck load, but for something like Semester at Sea, my new Kindle will really be a comfort and a friend in a world that will be changing around me daily. In this one way it will be nice to have a piece of home with me all around the world; my bookshelves.

(Pictured: Dot Bear, Chicki, and Sock Monkey settled in for a nice night of Kindle Reading on my bed)

The world is changing (200 Days!!)

Guess what came in the mail!?


If you guessed my passport, then you would be correct! Yes! My passport got here today! The first small increment of time I set for myself has finally come to end. I feel like I should celebrate in some way. In all honesty, I have been more than a little impatient for it to arrive. I have compulsively been logging in to my blog, desperately wanting something, anything, to write about, but I only end up looking at the pictures of the Economy rooms and finding my own misspellings and typos. But today, I got my passport! It is the first step on a long road to getting ready for SAS. I really look forward to filling up the pages of the passport with the future adventures I will have.

With my passport the helpful folks at the passport place sent me a little leaflet that says 'With your U.S. passport the world is yours!' and, as corny as that little phrase is, I am really beginning feel that way, both about my education and, naturally, my new passport. I'm really beginning to feel like I am standing on the edge of becoming the person that I want to be and that Semester at Sea is going to be the event that pushes me into who I want to be for the rest of my life.

Wow. This got to be a mushy, public service announce-y entry. Oh well.

In other news, I have been watching the events in Egypt unfold with rapt attention. I am in awe of the courage of the Egyptian people. I have always loved Egypt. I was taken at a very young age to the Denver Museum of Natural History to see a King Tut exhibit, and as I gazed at the mummies and golden tombs I was hooked by the terror and mystery. I have always been fascinated by the histories of ancient Egypt, and the sheer volume of their history. And now, as they throw off the shackles of an oppressive regime, I get to watch and read along. The fact that something of this magnitude is happening in a country that I have adored since my childhood in my lifetime, I feel as though this is another defining moment in my young adult life (if not for the entire world).

It has become clear to me, now more than ever, we need to be citizens not just of our home countries, but of the world. Watching what is happening in Egypt on television and reading about it in the news has really re enforced my view that global education is going to make a difference in the world.

The world is changing, and I intend to help be the cause for that change. In my own small way, I am standing for the people of Egypt. I'm rooting for you, Egyptians. Thank you for being an inspiration in a world that needs your voice.

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!!