26,000 Words Later...

Well, folks, this is it. My last night on the MV Explorer! Last post…so, here goes. (sorry in advance if it gets a little mushy)

I’m full of mixed emotions right now.  I honestly can’t believe how quickly this summer has flown by!  After 68 days, 9 countries, and countless memories, I’m going back a changed person. Cheesy, but true.  I can’t wait to go home and share all my stories/pictures with everyone, though! Carmella and I made this cute video of this summer that I’ll definitely be showing to anyone willing to sit down long enough.

For those of you who’ve stuck around reading my blog all summer, thank you!  It took me awhile to decide if I even wanted to write one of these things, but I’m so glad I did.  Even now, I’ve gone back to read some of my earlier posts and realized how much I’d forgotten about.  If there’s any story you want to know more about, just ask.  For every story I wrote about, there’s probably about a million details I left out.  And for every port, there’s probably at least another few stories…including the ‘not appropriate for my blog’ stories, which I would be happy to tell ;]

Most importantly, I want to thank my parents for the experience of a lifetime.  For the past year and a half, the two of you have dealt with me talking about Semester at Sea non-stop.  For the past two months, you guys have gotten more ‘I need more money’ phone calls than I’m sure you ever wanted.  And for the next two weeks, before I head back to school, you will be subjected to looking at an obscene number of pictures, listening to a ridiculous amount of stories, and pretending to like an outrageous number of gifts.  I appreciate everything more than you know.

Tomorrow, we dock in Norfolk, VA.  From there, I grab my bags (or struggle awkwardly with them until I find some guy who’s only taking one bag home to help me), head through customs (where I’m sure my not-so-subtle last name will get me a lucky “random” check), and say my goodbyes (where I’ll surely ruin my super tough reputation and cry like a baby).

Wow. I can’t believe it’s over. Back to reality…