Keep all Combustibles Three Feet Away

My first weekend is only half over and I’ve managed to do a lot of fun stuff and explore a fair amount.  I went downtown again, spending most of my time in Battery Park and then a little in Brooklyn as well.  To think, I spent an entire day down there and still missed stuff.

From NBC News World Headquarters in New York....

This is gonna be tough to not leave anything out…a TON has happened this week.  I guess the most surprising thing is that it’s already been a WEEK!  It feels like I just moved into my housing at NYU this morning…

Fetch my below decks frolicking helmet!

I’ve been home for 32 or so hours from one of the most incredible experiences of my life.  The stress of the experience in the moment – climbing up routinely 50 or so feet above the deck in heavy winds to furl or un furl sail – sometimes prevented me from displaying just how incredible I felt, but sitting at home has given me time to realize how much I’m starting to miss it.

The Niagara is the "Porsche" of tall ships

My study abroad program on the USS Niagara starts on the Avery Point campus of The University of Connecticut. I checked in successfully this afternoon and was assigned a room with 2 other pretty cool dudes. There are only 5 guys total, so im glad I'm getting to get to know at least 2 others haha. I'm writing this initial post from my phone...so I'm not sure how to post pictures...so I'll post them once I get home. I tried to attach a picture of one of the buildings on the Avery Point campus, pretty much sums up the rest of the place...

We all car pooled over to one of the professors house for a fantastic Italian dinner where this professors husband told a great story about The Amistad. This guy is a Coast Guard-certified sea captain, and one of the ships he captained was The Amistad, the recreation of the slave ship seized by its cargo- the slaves. He wanted to sail it into Havana Harbor in Cuba, where the story of the Amistad mutiny began. It was an incredible diplomatic tap dance between the captain, the US State Department and the Cuban Consulate in Washington. Eventually they got approval for the trip and made the 3 month journey happen. This is the kind of stuff you don't hear about in the news too often so - as per my love for history and politics - it made sense for me to soak this up.

As a gift, the assembled professors and administrators of the Exploring The Blue program gave us all headlamps with our names on them and clipboards. We have to keep a daily log, so a clipboard is a great place to write on. Sorry if this post leaves things to be desired in terms of details... But I am putting this together from my phone, and I'm very excited and stuff.

So until next time, I'll leave you with this:
"If fear is cultivated it will become stronger, if faith is cultivated it will achieve mastery"
~John Paul Jones

I'm putting faith in the professors and the ship captain to help me master the skills necessary to be an effective mariner...obviously quotes are up for interpretation, but this is what I got out of it. I also picked it because John Paul Jones was a successful naval captain for the US during The Revolution.

Stay Tuned....

The Journey Continues

It's been almost a year, poor updating on my part I know...I'm sorry!  I've got a lot to update here for this summer so I'll hit the ground running.