Counting down the days

Only 17 days left before i head to Nasseau, Bahamas! I am excited to finally go be on vacation and really actually go on semester at sea! I am nervous about meeting everyone and being able to do something that is completely life changing for my life. I can't wait to board the plane with my stuff. Oh shoot i need to actually pack here soon! I will wait until after New Years and appointments so i can determine what i need to include first. Did i say i was excited? I am!

(This pic is not mine. I don't claim it)

Christmas was wonderful at my home and actually relatively quiet even with my Aunt Marie in town :) I love you Aunt Marie! I got a lot of spending money, and gifts for Semester at Sea including the following : SAS Decal Sticker, SAS Red sweatshirt, Video Camera, SAS License Plate cover, SAS blue T-shirt and a portable 1TB drive among some other items :) I really didnt want all that. (I would be happy with the money for the price of everything but the 1TB Drive for my laptop :) I did get a watch but my mom is taking that back for other issues. I feel spoiled but i don't understand how my room feels like it is 40 degrees and out side it is about 70 degrees especially in winter time!! Welcome to San Diego Everyone! We are spoiled in terms of the weather. My grandmother however was moved from the nursing home to the hospital and now i worry for her health. I hope she recovers. My uncle is supposed to be in town this weekend. I am working a lot recently to hopefully get spending money for SAS. I think i will have plenty for the trip and I have so much to do before i go. I will have to prep everything for my parents to take care of while i am gone. Too crazy!!!!!!!

Anyways, for everyone out there!

(I don't claim this one either)





Middle of Finals

OMG!! Ha ha I haven't gotten much sleep during finals and finished a paper but i am also dreaming about SAS. I got an awesome scarf from my parents that has SAS on it already! (Thanks mom!) I hope i will have everything to be able to handle SAS next semester. I am counting down the days till i leave to the bahamas for some resting and exploring and I finished two more stories and thinking about starting a new one after finals just for fun and so i feel like i actually have a life other than work dominating my schedule all the way up to the bahamas. I feel rather sad that i will end my job at Zimmer Xcel in Sorrento Valley. Those people are some of the best individuals that i ever met at the place and i learned a lot from them but SAS is making me far too jittery and anxious. FALL SEMESTER JUST END SO I CAN LEAVE ALREADY! :)

Finals

Everyone has to be either going through finals or at least studying for them as i am this weekend. Please comment below to tell me how your finals are going  and even provide a few destressor tips for the rest that view our page. I am an accounting major and studying for finals is going to be a crazy adventure. I am literally studying like crazy to do well on my two accounting finals, my history final and my logic final. I need to do well on them. Anyways Comment! Tell me how your finals are going and also, who is having more frequent dreams about being on a boat? I have for like 4 weeks already. I must be over this semester lol.

(I don't claim this one)

Thought that this might humor you a bit.

Alright!!! Field Programs!

Hello to all!
The Field Programs are mostly up except for India at the moment. I am going to hopefully have a list of them for each country in a matter of days (Well okay by Thursday if I am that good.) I will update when I have a completed set of things that i am going to do. I am still open to side ideas that can fit around these.
Laters!

(I don't claim this one either)

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/spring-2012/spring-2012-field-program.php

IPE FORUM AND VACCINES FOR SAS

Okay!
So I vaccines done last wednesday ( I was pretty busy) and i got the pneumonia, thyphoid, mennigitis, yellow fever and polio vaccine! Can i state for the record that it hurt!!!! I have a nice bruise from the Yellow Fever vaccine to prove it. (Maybe i will add a picture of it on later) Anyway....I just wanted to update that registration for the trips got changed to next tuesday 11/29/2011 so i will let you know what trips i will possibly be going on that i will register for in advance. PLEASE CHECK OUT MY OTHER PAGE FOR POEMS AND STORIES I HAVE WRITTEN! :) http://mdennywriting.blogspot.com/

Also what was going on this month was the IPE (International Political Economy) Forum at the University of Notre Dame between Friday 11/04/11 - Sunday 11/06/11

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PICTURES!!

 We got there really late but everything went well! I will post some pictures from the events. I had a good time but to be frankly honest, some of the school population can be rather stuck up and there really isn't much to do in the surrounding areas because let's face it. Other than Benedictine College being in the middle of nowhere (45 Minutes outside of Kanas City). South Bend is in the middle of nowhere! The teams competing in the Forum were Notre Dame, Benedictine and USD (Side rant: USD, SDSU & UCSD are two different schools!!!! UCSD = University of California San Diego  SDSU = San Diego State University and USD = University of San Diego! The people who get these mixed up need to really get that straight because i am tired of correcting people for the same thing over and over. Ok i am done ranting about that) Friday was a formal presentation by all the teams. Oh i almost forgot to tell you what the topic was! It was Gold Standard! The question was:
IS GOLD A VIABLE RESERVE CURRENCY? WHAT IS THE REAL VALUE OF GOLD?

PICTURE OF ALL THE TEAMS TOGETHER :)

THE USD TEAM

THE BENEDICTINE TEAM

THE NOTRE DAME TEAM

After all these teams presented then we all were divided up into four teams one person from each school was on a team and we had to give a presentation on a similar topic but different question about how gold affects the coporations financially and what coporations should do to help themselves

THE WINNING TEAM :)

I WAS ON THE WINNING TEAM WITH TWO OTHER FRESHMAN (Erin (Middle) and Sarah (Left))

Our Awesome title for the presentation? GOLD GOLD GOLD!! (Catchy isn't it? Well the judges liked it anyways and so did everyone else.)

IPE Presentation

OTHER TEAMS

The trip to Notre Dame was great and i had a good time overall but there is just nothing there. (No wonder they have a big night club on campus!) There really isnt anything special within proximity to the school and it's rather sad. The actual host of SIBC from Notre Dame was really not very personable. Minus that guy, the experience was fun but I am never doing a presentation on gold again. I wear platinum and silver! :)

Excursions and Classes

Hi Everyone!!
I wanted to provide a new update in regards to my classes and also in regards to excursions.
My Classes that i am taking :)

SEMS   2500-505: Global Studies
ARTH   3559 : East Meets West
SEMS   3500-502: Operations Management
RELG   1559-503: Religion and Human Experience in Global Perspective
A fifth class is tenative at this time and I will let you know once i get on board and am able to register for another class. (Hehe...thats not happening)

Thought it was entertaining but i was told by a few SAS friends on facebook that Macau is the Chinese version of Las Vegas, Nevada. Apparently it is because there are so many casinos there. I might go visit that place with a bunch of the SAS just out of pure curiousity to see what it is like. The excursions for SAS will not be put up until around the 23rd since registration is on the 29th of this month.
Bye for now!

UPDATE ON ITINERARY

Hi All!
 I wanted to update you on the Itinerary. Cuba has been cancelled and we won't be going there according to the email i received from SAS regarding the travel license to Cuba. I will let you know if there is anything additional that is needed. Thank you!
Link to Itnerary
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/spring-2012/spring-2012-itinerary.php