First time on land in a month

Keeghan Ryan, C Watch & Eckerd College

We have made it to Papeete, Tahiti!

This has been an exciting time for everyone, as we are just now touching land beneath our feet for the first time in over a month! After porting in the capital of French Polynesia, the whole ship's company was filled with excitement for what lies beyond the realm of the ship: land, people, cars - civilization! It was a strange feeling to actually see other humans who were not the 38 other people I have only been seeing for over a month.

Once we left the ship, we were able to venture off and explore the small city of Papeete. It was a little hard to communicate with the locals as they all speak French (a language I am not very familiar with), but we got around with the help of the students who were a bit more familiar! We walked around most of the day, checking out markets, parks, getting smoothies, and ending the night with their famous food trucks! Kevo convinced many to try their famous steak frites (which I was told were quite delicious), but as a vegetarian I stuck to some fried rice - which was also amazing.

After the day was done, back to the ship we went, as the next day we would be leaving the dock to head to our next island destination - Raiatea. After Raiatea, we will be heading to Bora Bora, then Morea, and finally back to Papeete where we will end this amazing adventure and say goodbye to the new family that we have created aboard the Robert C. Seamans.

Some highlights from the past week have been snorkeling at Rangiroa, where we saw some black tipped reef sharks!!! We also saw lots of fish, rays, and coral! Another highlight would be having Halloween on the ship as we sat outside Papeete, before going into dock the next morning! We all dressed up and went trick or treating around the different staff cabins and the whole ship was decorated spooky! This same day, we also finished up our research reports - what a relief! They all turned out great and everyone did an amazing job!

Cheers,

Keeghan Ryan

Notes to the people I love:

To ALL my family: hey guys! Love and miss you! Hope everything's going well and you're all happy! Excited to see you all during Christmas when we can all we together again! Miss my sisters A LOT! Love you mom!

To Benders and my Eckerd family: Hope you're having the best start to senior year and enjoying it to the MAXX! oh and also hope everyone's making it to class (AKA JADE). Can't wait to hear all about it and move in with all you girls!

To Tynon and Cali: Missing Cali little extra these past few days! Hope you guys are doing well and Cali is getting lots of cuddles!

[Keeghan Ryan, C Watch & Eckerd College]