Hello from Canada

Written:  August 27, 2009, 10:04 PM

I have arrived safely in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after having to switch planes for the second flight from Newark, NJ to Canada.  That was interesting.  After getting off the very tiny plane, on which I took a nice nap, we proceeded to wait in line to go through customs.  The line was extremely long, but it actually did not take that long to do.  The massive weight of my carryon bag pressing down on my poor shoulder must have made it seem much longer.

Fast forward through some time spent waiting for a bus and riding for at least 30 minutes to get to our hotel.  Once we made it to the Westin Nova Scotian, we piled our bags onto a luggage cart and decided to wait some more for a bell hop.  After a rather long period of no cute bell boys offering their service, we decided to push it ourselves, trying not to run into any walls or take out little children.  We did make it successfully to our room, only to drop our bags, quickly get ready for dinner, and meet some new acquaintances down in the lobby.  Our group of girls, most of whom I had never met, proceeded to walk to the Henry House.  I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but I did not think to at the time.

While eating dinner, which included many long waits again, I learned that many of the students I have met so far like to drink.  A few girls casually spoke about wanting to have a drink or getting a beer with dinner.  Honestly, this is all very new to me, and I feel uncomfortable with my first impression of Semester at Sea students.  I really hope that I find a group of nice, sober people, and I pray that there are some Christians aboard!

I really miss everyone so much, and I wish that the internet would work at this hotel.  I am having trouble accessing it, although every laptop I see is logged onto Facebook or some other social network.  I have to check in on the ship at 9 a.m. tomorrow, so I better get off and get some things done.  I hope to write again soon!