DAY 7: HONOLULU, HI

A hui hou, Hawai'i!

I'll let our official departure from North America serve as the ceremonial commencement of this 100-day journey around the world.

To catch everyone up to speed-
What the hell am I doing with my life? My official title is Assistant Purser Intern, which is a fancy way of saying "we gave you this job as a favor to someone important at corporate". I am basically training at the front desk of the ship, which handles all hotel-side issues for the passengers of the MV Explorer - UVA's Semester at Sea ship. Or vessel, I think, officially.
Where am I? This is an interesting one that will literally change every second of every day (see photo at right: deck 1 (I think that's technically underwater), cabin 1327).. Lots of the professors have their students at home tracking the location by latitude and longitude, but I don't know any aspiring cartographers so, for instance, tonight I will be crossing the Pacific on my way to Japan. Draw a line on your own map, if you'd like.
Why am I doing this? Someone in Miami told me it would be a good idea to see the world before I sold myself to Corporate America, and gave me the opportunity to do it.


The last ten days have been interesting to say the least, and to be honest completely different than I expected. I guess I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it wasn't this. And while it's all very new and a little scary, I think it's going to be amazing.


I know blogging seems a little trite, but I can't think of a better way to share this experience with the proverbial "you". So if you want to check out what I'm doing and where I am, great. Plus, writing will help me exercise the English language - as one of four native speakers on the crew, my speech has taken a slightly abbreviated form.

Please email me, call when I'm in port- I'm really missing you guys!


A hui huo,
Missy/Melissa/M.Ryan