And we're off!

We're on our way to Halifax! We (LaVahn, MF and I) left New York early this evening at around 5:30. Getting all of our stuff from Charlottesville to the hotel and from the hotel to the ship was quite an ordeal. (I won't bore you with details other than to say it was mildly traumatic. Who knew it was the day of the Puerto Rican Day Parade!) But somehow everything made it and we're here! This picture is only two of the three FULL carts we had. I need to learn to travel lighter.

The ship (not boat) is quite beautiful and pretty empty right now. Things will change dramatically when the students arrive next week. We had a nice dinner as we sailed out of New York watching a big storm behind us. We ate dinner (Mexican food) on the patio as we sailed by Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and then UNDER the Verrazano Bridge (that was pretty cool). We're now about four hours into the voyage with no land in sight and complete darkness. Very strange sensation. The ship is gently rocking back and forth but so far no seasickness. Sometimes you feel it more than other times. We're all completely free tomorrow with no work obligations which should be nice. This is not the most exciting part of the trip (in terms of tourism) but I need some blogging practice. The internet is quite accessible now but it will get pretty slow when there are an addition 600 people on board. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings with a full day on the ship. Below are a few pictures of us leaving New York.