Phyllis Journal

Phyllis’s Journal from SAS

Monday, January 10, 2011
Left MN this morning. Weather was fine in MN. Went to airport with sister, Carol and her son,
Joe O’Neill. When we got to airport, we were told we could not go to Carolina as airport was closed because of snow storm. We were rerouted to Chicago, then to Miami and then caught a plane there for Nassau around 7:00 PM. Then took a bus to our hotel, The Nassau Palms – ordered pizza in and went to bed early as we were tired.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Arrived at ship and got into our rooms at approximately 2:00 PM. It was nice to unpack and get somewhat settled. Everyone arrived today so we were all reunited from various parts of the country. Interesting to people watch. We have a Carnival ship parked next to us. Had dinner together tonight and met with other people on ship for a tour of ship. Took bus to store tonight, shopped for goodies and took cab back. Tomorrow we leave for journey.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Went to lots of orientation classes today. After classes we went shopping. I bought a Bahama bag with a zipper across. It is quite large and can carry a lot of items. We had to be back on ship by 2:30 PM. Then at 4:00 PM we had to do a lifeboat drill and wear our life jackets. It took quite a while as everyone has to participate. They have roll call and they cannot leave port until we are all there. After that we had dinner – then at 8:00 PM we sailed from port. Everyone stood outside and waved and cheered as we left. It was about 8:00 PM. It was later than we expected because of the weather conditions across the country for people trying to get here. We are now on our way – my first voyage. After leaving port we went to bed at 9:30 PM. I was really tired. Slept good with rocking of ship.

Thursday, January 13, 2011
Missed breakfast today as I was too late for it. Took shower and cleaned up. At 11:00 AM went on bike for 30 minutes. Then we had lunch. Read my books and visited with different people on our voyage. Lost my cell phone and don’t know where it could be. Had meetings again tonight. They keep us busy. Everyone here is friendly. It’s easy to talk with people including the students.

Friday, January 14, 2011
Another busy day. Had breakfast this morning and then a meeting on globalization. It was very interesting. Glad I’m not a student that has to take tests on it. Went on the bike at 1:00 PM today. Then spent afternoon reading “3 cups of Tea”. Interesting book. It is about Greg Mortenson who built schools in Afghanistan and area. He is a former mountain climber, male nurse and many other hats. Also a humanitarian. Another meeting and greeting at 4:30 PM today. Dinner. Right now we are stopped in Puerto Rico to get fuel. But we cannot leave the ship. It is fun to watch though. Anyway a busy day.

Saturday, January 15, 2011
Another busy day. Had breakfast this morning. Then I rode the bike for 30 minutes. Still reading “Three Cups of Tea”. It’s an interesting book. Sat in the sun this afternoon – very nice. Had a 4:30 PM meeting to learn more about the ship. Dinner tonight and then another meeting about leaving the ship tomorrow and going into Dominica and a day trip to the Carib Indians. But we had a lot of instructions for it. Enough for today.

Sunday, January 16, 2011
Yesterday was quite a day. I needed to go to the bathroom and didn’t take time to go. Boy, was that a mistake. About half way through our adventure in Dominica I had a BM when I was not near a bathroom. I took care of it ok but don’t want it to happen anytime soon again. We did have an interesting trip seeing the waterfall on Roseau, Dominica. Also saw houses and then people in village prepared a lunch for us. We all sat at picnic tables and ate. It was a nice day. See Carol’s blog for more information on the Carib Indians.

Monday, January 17, 2011
Today we rented a taxi and toured some of the island. It was so interesting. It was Joe, Jean, Carol and I. Our driver was a nice young man whose village is Scotts Head. He drove us there and we saw the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea at the same time. He knew a place to get a beer so we stopped in for one. Also met his Dad and nieces and nephews. He fishes with his dad when not driving a taxi. It was a fun afternoon. He also has a brother that drives a taxi. We are leaving here tonight at 8:00 PM.