Sailing away from Southampton

Last night just after 20:30, we set sail into the Atlantic Ocean from Southampton. The summer voyage has begun! We are heading south towards Lisbon, Portugal, as I type this post.

Leaving Southampton. See you again in 66 days!

We have only been on the ship for a few days but I can feel that the summer voyage is going to be very different than the spring voyage I just completed. One clear difference is the pace of the voyage, which is manic already. A great number of days spent in port are sprinkled with just 24 class days spent on the ship. The majority of my work has to be completed on the ship during these class days and regardless of whether we have two class days between ports or eight, the same amount of work has to get done. There are going to be some long days spent in the field office, I can tell already!

Although the voyage is going to be a lot of work, it’s also going to be great fun. I've enjoyed befriending my colleagues thus far and think we’ll have a great voyage sailing together. I look forward to getting to know my co-workers as well as the students a bit better during our 66-day voyage.

Catching up

It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since I've written on this blog and it’s been a busy few weeks. Allow me to use this post, as well as the following few posts, to get caught up. Here’s what I've been up to since my last update in April:

Graduation!

On May 2, I disembarked the M.V. Explorer in Southampton, England, and ended the spring 2014 voyage. It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month already since the voyage ended.

Following disembarkation, I spent one week in London. I studied abroad in London in 2007 and since it had been 7 years since I’d been back to London, I spent the week going to all my favorite places including museums, parks, and shopping areas.

I then trained/ferried to Dublin to meet my sister and two friends for a week-long trip around Ireland. It was so nice to see some familiar faces after being in London for a week by myself. In addition, Ireland is beautiful and we had a great time exploring the countryside.

I came home from Ireland and went right into graduation-mode. I spent a few days preparing for my capstone presentation and also unpacking and repacking my suitcase. It was then off to Vermont for a week where I successfully presented my capstone and graduated this past weekend. Yeah for being done with my Master’s degree!

See what I mean about a crazy couple of weeks?! I've been busy!

Over the next few days, I will write more about my time in London and Ireland and may even include a post about graduation. Stay tuned for more information coming soon!