Ah, Mystic. At Last

Wow. This semester is going to be so hardcore and so awesome.  I can't wait for it to really get going.  I've been in Mystic for about 2 days now and the amount of stuff we've crammed into the last two days is really incredible.  There are 19 other students here from 13 different schools (Williams, Trinity, Lafayette, Wellesley, Colgate, Dartmouth, Wheaton, SUNY Stonybrook, UVM, Sarah Lawrence, Moravian, Smith and Colby).  So far it seems like an amazing group of people.

I live in a house right across from the entrance to the Seaport called Albion House.  It's wicked sweet.  It has a porch and a backyard.  My roommate and I have a view overlooking the road and the Seaport.  I'm hoping to get pictures uploaded soon.  I have two other girls in the house with me and both are wicked cool :) 

So far we've had half of our classes meet for an hour each.  Literature this morning for an hour and then Marine Ecology for an hour this afternoon.  I have History and Policy tomorrow morning, so we'll see how those go, but the professors seem really chill.  We also did a tour of the Seaport today incorporating the history of the program as well as the Seaport itself.  We finished up at the Charles W. Morgan, the last existing wooden whaling ship in the world that is right here at Mystic Seaport (and is being restored). I love that I can use this museum as part of my classroom.  I also have free access to the Mystic Aquarium which I am WICKED stoked for :) Can't wait to explore that.  

Everything here so far is totally awesome and I can't wait to get more into the semester.  We leave for our first field seminar on the 31st and will be offshore for 10 days on the Corwith Cramer starting in Woods Hole, MA and sailing to Rockland, ME.  We'll get to steer the ship, help rig it, split up into watches to make sure the ship is being sailed at all times, fun stuff like that.  We also get to practice things like navigation and I might get a chance to learn the lunar distance method of navigation that Nathaniel Bowditch came up with as a way to figure out your longitude without needing to rely on a chronometer.  One of my favorite books, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, has a whole section talking about his new way to work lunars and I might get to learn it too!! :)  There are so many opportunities here I just can't wait to explore them all!!!

Anyway, that's all for now.  I should really go read some of Dana's Two Years Before the Mast before I sleep tonight. Peace!