When life is happening, who has the time to write about it?

     I always loved the idea of keeping a journal. I had these romantic ideas of what it would be like for my grandchildren or great-grandchildren to find them someday, perhaps in a weathered old trunk tucked between souvenirs and mementos from my many travels. They would read about my adventures, from my first tentative steps on my own to my expert navigation of the potentially disastrous.

     There is only one problem with my overly-romanticized fantasy; I'm terrible at writing on a regular basis.

     How do people keep diaries? It seems to me that you never have time to write when there is something exciting to write about. And generally, when you have time to write, it's because nothing is actually happening.

     The rhythm of ship life on Semester at Sea is a unique thing.  At the beginning of the semester, we would find ourselves in a new and exciting place every three days or so, followed by a couple of days at sea. This gave us both the time and the fuel for writing. During that time, I think managed to keep up with this blog rather well.

     But there's one thing I can say about life on the MV Explorer that I think every SASer will agree with: it is nearly impossible to follow any kind of routine.

    Shortly after we left Ireland, we had ten days without class. In that time, I explored Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. I barely had time to empty my camera chip, let alone update a blog. I barely managed to send my parents an occasional email, the contents of which generally included little more than "Still alive and having a great time. Love you!"

     It was around this time that I stopped beating myself up for not writing and decided to focus on making the memories that I would share with you lovely people when I got home. Basically, this post is my long-winded way of telling you that I'm sorry I haven't kept up my blog, but you can expect to read about my adventures soon.

     I'm looking forward to sharing them with you, and I'm hoping that I can do them more justice this way.