Sept. 3, 2010

September 3, 2010 from Suzanne


This trip gets more exciting with each day. I highly recommend you all look into this opportunity. The trip will be offered one more time, Spring 2011 which leaves in January for two-for one. A tremendous savings! Last night we listened to another talk about Spain from a most entertaining Spanish professor who has extensive first-hand Spanish knowledge. One of the other profs has run with the bulls 11 times!! We're not going to do that! But we are going to eat and see the culture, economy and churches, mosques and all that! And taste the sherry!

Paul really did do what he described. And I had no camera to record that bit of history. You can learn about this ship on the Semester at Sea website, but you won’t learn that it was a small cruise ship at one time. The library is in the former casino. Part of the salon was converted to a room of elipticals, exercise bikes and treadmills. The free weights and weight machines are by the pool. The snack bar where you can get breakfast until 10:00 and hamburgers and sandwiches until 22:00 is also by the pool. Volleyball and basketball are played on that deck with tall nets all around. Those of us who walk and exercise can be seen on the other side of that deck, Deck 7, but this morning it was too windy to do yoga there. Also on that deck is the Glazer Lounge, named recently for a donor who is on board with his wife. That is were staff and LLL’s have meetings, study, play cards and socialize. Naturally, it has a bar. Wine is $3.50, beer and hard alcohol are $4.00. Not bad!

The Union, which is the largest gathering space, is the former theater. Lecturers that everyone must attend before port are piped from the Union to other classrooms and our staterooms. The former Promenade to the Garden Dining room was converted to a coffee bar with a piano and two nice size classrooms on the side. Two other classrooms adjoin the garden dining room (less formal.) We often eat outside on the deck when in this dining room. The more formal dining room and the special dining rooms which are used by LLL’s and staff for birthdays and special events are off that large room. But one does not have to dress up at any time except for the Captain’s dinner invitation which all staff and LLL eventually get and the Captain’s ball!

Deck 5 is staterooms, formal dining, and lifeboats at one end and the Union at the other with the Bursar’s and Administrator’s desks in the middle. One small spot on this deck is designated for smoking. Our stateroom is on Deck 4 which is all staterooms. Haven’t been lower than this. I know there are more staterooms and the clinic. We will get a ship’s tour after we are more settled in.

Time for Asian Art. We’re studying Moorish art right now which we will see in Spain and in Casablanca. So more later!