Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sunday, June 13 - Monday June 14

You'll have to excuse the delay on this blog. I've been trying to write down at least something once a day, but the Internet is so slow on the ship I haven't been too successful. So this update might be just a few days late! ;)

Sunday was another long day of training. It's crazy that our graduate students, Lifelong Learners and the Teachers at Sea program will all be boarding on Monday. The last day of training was also the last night for the Forum on Global Engagement. We concluded with a very nice sit-down 3-course dinner. Everyone keeps warning us to not get used to the food that we were getting during training. I'm a little afraid to think what exactly will be in-stored for us for the rest of the voyage.

Monday, June 14th
I woke up at 6:00am this morning to see the boat come into port. I was told that I should try to do this for every port that we come into. There were quite a few people on the deck, despite the damp air and very cold temperature. I can't tell you exactly what it was because I believe it was shared in Celsius degrees.

We had a good portion of the morning to late afternoon for ourselves so we all got off the ship (not a boat) and we visited the very charming city of Halifax, Canada. It's so cute.
After we went to the Purser's desk to return our passports, we headed out towards a boardwalk-like right outside the ship. People all wanted to try a "Beaver Tail" so we found a place that sold them. They're kind of like a flattened doughnut with many yummy flavorings. I split one with a friend, which was a good thing because they were huge! We got sugar, cinnamon & lemon. So yummy!

Afterwards a group of the LLCs made a trip to the local Walmart to get some snacks and some essentials. I went to Walmart looking for a simple black skirt (I left mine at home) but they didn't have any. So weird. All I needed was a simple casual black skirt.... :(

Next we needed to grab a quick lunch, so we found a food court area, and one of the restaurants was a Kushi (Korean Sushi) place. I had yummy duk-bok-gi (spicy rice cakes). This will most likely be my last Korean meal before I get back to the states. Sadness.

Once we got back to the ship, we had to get ready for the parents orientation. Parents were allowed to come onto the ship the night before the students move-in to get a better understanding of what their son/daughters will be experiencing. There were a lot of parents that came. Each of the LLCs were asked to give tours to the parents, and I actually gave a tour to the parents of the grad student who will be helping me this summer. It was just meant to be, I guess. ;)

After the parents left, the LLCs went right back to work. We needed to prep our "Seas" with fliers, welcome letters and the like. Although it meant a crazy late night, I'm glad that we got off the ship, got into the city and just experienced it all. It would have been nice to be there longer, but it just means that I'll have to come back again soon. :)