A Week of Sun, Sea, Sand, and Ben.

All good things have to come to an end, including a week on a massive ship with thousands of other people, but over the course of this one week, I've come to realize a lot of things about myself and about how we as people and especially teenagers act. I've met a lot of people during this past week on the Freedom of the Seas, people from near where I live in DC and also people from across the pond in England, but the one thing that I've realized most clearly is that no matter where you are from, we are very clique-y. It was apparent the first night, there was the group of Brits in one corner, the West-Coasters on one other corner and the New Yorkers in their own little group, and even by the end, not much had changed but people intermingled and we had quite a good time together. Even I, not exactly the most extroverted individual made quite a good amount of new friends which I will talk more about in a minute. But yeah, the cruise was fun, it involved a lot of food, entertainment and some fun times at the various ports. One thing I will definitely remember though will be jet skiing for the first time in Labadee, Haiti. if you have never driven or ridden on a wave runner before, try it out the next time you can since that was probably one of the most intense things I have ever done in my life (130 HP in something that weighs as much as a postage stamp is hella fun). But mostly I'll miss the amazing people I got to spend one week at sea with. This was a pretty super vague account of my vacation so i might go into greater detail later but I'm exhausted right now and full of southern comfort food as I overnight here in South Carolina with is really taking a toll on my focus.

While all the activities and fun stuff I was involved in will be remembered, if there is one thing I will remember the most, it would be of a guy I met on the first day named Ben. Ben was a quirky person, as cute as he was smart, he lives in New Jersey and went on the cruise with 15 other people from his family. We met on the first night when we departed from Port Canaveral when me, him and a girl named Sarah went off on a walk to explore and familiarize ourselves with the ship but it would not be until the second day that we would get to talking more and getting to know each other a bit better, needless to say, it was by day two that I really started to like him. He runs cross country and does track and plays field hockey because all of his friends do and once "accidentally scored a goal". He took French for three years and this next year said he would be taking 5 AP courses which is impressive by any standard. He's trying to get into UPenn much like me yet he has two generations of legacy there so he has a very good chance of getting in. How did I learn all of this? well, Ice skating of course. There's an ice skating rink on board the ship and it was during a special teens-only skating session where we went around and around talking about school and whatever. For the rest of the cruise we would end up seeing each other and hang out from time to time. The last day I got to see him was at a party on day six, we talked for quite a while that evening, neither of us were ones to really dance. In the end the last time I would see him would be when he went to go get a drink, he didn't show up at the email/facebook exchange the next day or at the final party at the Fuel nightclub. Unless someone did get his contact info then, he will will forever only live on in my mind, shame really, he was one of the nicest people I met all cruise. Was he gay? I don't know, he did dress surprisingly well and sported a v-neck or two and his voice and laugh made a blip on my gaydar, but judging on this would be all based on stereotype which i personally dislike, I guess this too will always be a mystery. I hate mysteries. -.-

Anyways, there only remains two weeks of summer left before I have to go back to school for my senior year and I still have some English, history and all of of French summer work to finish. Needless to say, I hate busywork, it's pointless and does not do any of the reinforcing teachers claim it does in the end and in the end just provides some drudgery and torture during the supposedly relaxing summer months.

-I'll probably post some pictures when I get back home so hang tight for those. And also, in case you have read my earlier posts from a week ago, I never did go do the flowrider thing :/, o well, there's always Hershey Park a few hours away if I ever feel the urge.

-Also, I really miss my bed. Long vacations always do this to me, for the past 10 days I've slept on either a sofa bed or on a tri-fold bunk bed that retracts into the ceiling (cool to look at, a pain to get in to), so when I finally get to curl up in my own bed and the familiar covers and surroundings, I will finally be able to rest well again.