Alright- Its been 20 days since I boarded the MV explorer and I am getting about used to everything now! Hawaii was a BLAST, I did so much and took a ton of pictures, I even went to a surfing competition on North Shore. The 4 days I was there went by way to fast. Hilo was fun, but Honolulu was way better. A lot of hanging out at the beach. I have been studying for the past few hours (I have my first two tests today, one in global studies and the other in Astronomy, its weird going to class on Sat. and Sun.) and thought I would take a break to update this blog. I am in the Pacific ocean about 700 miles away from Japan cruising at 18 knots. There was a volcanic eruption at the bottom of the ocean and we had to take a 800 mile detour, good thing this is the fastest cruise ship in the ocean! We usually are going 10-12 knots so they sped up the boat to make up for the detour. Days go by slow, everyone is really anxious to get off and wander around Japan! My room mate is named Jack, he is from North Carolina and a really good guy, we get along great. My classes are all interesting, there is a lot of reading to do but since there is not much to do on the ship I find a lot of down time and read then. They do however have a ping pong table and play that quite a bit. There is a basketball court, but all the basketballs have gone overboard so no more hoop's. I have met a lot of really nice and interesting people from all over! The people who I hang out with most are from Maryland, Reno, Philadelphia, North Carolina, and Florida. Most kids came on the ship not knowing anyone just like I did so everyone is eager to make friends. My room is pretty small, but its not a big deal because I am rarely in it. Right now I am on the 7th deck outside, this is where I usually come to study. The food has been hit or miss, some times its really good, and other times we get the same stuff for a few days in a row. I am excited for Japan, the ship docks in Yokohama, and I am headed straight for Tokyo. I booked a Capsule Hotel with about 10 other kids for the first night. Its a common room with 28 capsule style (Cubbies built into the wall) beds so excite to see how that goes. All I really have planned is to go see the original Sapporo Brewery in Tokyo the next day. I have a rail pass so I am going to be riding trains around as much as possible.

Sorry I can't upload any pictures!!! The internet is ridiculously expensive. I will try to get a few up when I am in Japan.

Feel free to send me an email (I can only access this account for free) tcnichols@semesteratsea.net

I will try and update this more from now on!