I'll have the scenic route, please...

So the east coast...

Hello again! I am now writing from a computer situated in the basement of the Woods Hole campus. This is actually the first opportunity I have actually gotten to sit down at a computer and put fingers to keyboard and thoughts to...screen...since I left several mornings ago. How did this all start? Let me tell you...

I told myself that I would pack a week before I left so as to have everything ready and not have to worry about it. Well, as fate (or I) would have it, a week turned to several days, several days turned to the night before, and I was up packing until eleven the night before my six am flight the next day. I have to say, in spite of that, I had WAY too much energy to be tired the next day...which turned out to be very beneficial.

You see, (and I didn't realize this or really even think about it until the day before) I ended up having to take a flight from Milwaukee to Atlanta, and then catch a flight from Atlanta to Boston. Seriously. This sounded simple enough to me at first. I had a forty minute layover, so it would be close, but I thought I could make it. As it turned out, my first flight was late leaving because of frost on the flaps (and we don't want that). I got into Atlanta at what I thought was an hour and several minutes before my next flight, and I asked an airport representative if the terminal had changed. She informed me that it hadn't, but that I had only three minutes to get there. Confused, I headed over, to find that there was no one there yet, the door was shut, and the screen still showed "Flight to Boston-9:50," so I hunkered down and waited. About forty-five minutes later, the flight information had changed to "Orlando-10:40"...and then I got the inkling that I might have crossed a time zone.

It turns out, I had; and I had missed my flight. Luckily, I had the excuse of my other flight coming in late and was able to get another ticket for 12:45; though I was so nervous that I don't think the first flight attendant I asked had any clue what I was talking about. Part of me wanted to let all of it get to me, but I realized that I had to do this, to get on another flight and get there, no matter what. So I called the SEA people and told them not to expect me until later that day. I then got some lunch at Popeye's and dug into "Twilight."

It was actually rather fortuitous that I ended up on the next flight because I ended up sitting next to a couple who were just ending a vacation in Atlanta and were heading home to Boston. I ended up striking a conversation with them about my semester and what I was going to be doing and (I was lucky, I had a window seat:) they were able to point out some landmarks from the air along the way. They wished me luck when we got to the airport, and I was overall very glad to have met them and had a bit of cheer in my day. Once there, I had to locate my duffel, which had gotten to Boston several hours before me, and was luckily at customer service. I was so happy to see my bag that I think I surprised the people at the service desk. They then helped direct me to the Bus line pickup area, and I was able to catch the 4:30 to Woods Hole. Finally, upon arriving in Woods Hole, I caught a cab to the SEA campus (we got lost because apparently there are several in the area) but it was ok because I ended up having a really interesting conversation with the cabbie, who was originally from the area and a real fan of the East. He was even amicable enough to reset the dial when we ended up in the wrong place the first time, and I only had to pay the second fare.

I was actually the only one to arrive a day early (but I suppose it is thankful I did; otherwise I would have been really late) and I spent my night alone in the creaky house...it really wasn't so bad. I ended up making some spaghetti, doing more reading, and tucking in early.

The next day was relatively slow. My roommate showed up with her dad and offered to take me with to check out the beach with them. I was more than happy to get out and interact with people that I was practically in my shoes by the time the question was out. The weather here is amazing, and -apparently- unseasonally warm. Most days it seems to be high thirties, low forties and there is relatively no snow, so it feels for the most part like fall in Wisconsin (which happens to be my favorite holiday, so I have absolutely no complaints). For some odd reason, I ended up getting a migraine near orientation time, so I ended up not socializing as much as I normally would, but I also found out that I think I am going to be at sea with some amazing people. They were all really friendly and understanding and asked my if I needed anything and how I was doing. I ended up climbing into my loft (which is great because I LOVE sleeping up high) to close my eyes and calm my stomach and fell asleep accidentally around 7...then woke up at 3am wide awake and ready to face the day...only to find out it was 3 am. I was able to close my eyes for a few more hours and then got up at 6 to shower and do the homework that I didn't do the night before (that's right...homework before classes even started...)

I'm actually running out of time now, because dinner is ready, but classes seem very interesting. I have a feeling that things are going to be VERY intense...we have homework in everything due tomorrow, along with designing a project, researching it, and then household nicities, like cooking and cleaning. It should be awesome. I promise to write more later, though I have no precise idea when that will be. Until then, fair winds!

-Meagan