Hollerrrrrr.

 

02/09/09 (Neither an A or a B day! And no Global Studies!)

P.S. I am retarded and was just pointed out by Allie that it’s diram not dinar in Morocco. My b. She also pointed out to me we only have tomorrow and then one more days of class before we get to Namibia, then 2 more classes before Mauritius, then two more before India, two more before Thailand, one before Viet Nam, one before China, one before Japan, and 4 before Hawaii, and then 2 classes before finals and the next day we get to Guatamala - from there to Florida neither Allie nor I have any classes at all. I love having only classes on A days!

Today on loop throughout the monitors are:

Channel 2:    Trials of Life 1: Arriving

Channel 3:    Out of Africa (PG, 161 min)

Channel 5:    The Wisdom of Faith: Islam  Play 1400-2030

                   Monty Python &the Holy Grail (PG) Start 2030

Channel 6:    Blood Diamond (R, 143 min)       

 

And we still have over 2,500 miles to go to Namibia, though we did stop yesterday in Senegal to fuel up, but no one was allowed off the ship. But aside from that I’ll be okay because I can watch t.v. and I LOVE “Out of Africa”!!! And Meryl Streep who is so incredibly brilliant and such a badass - never before did I want scars on my back from a lion attack…But on to more important matters:

Neptune day: Today we were actually woken up at eight instead of the six am I’d been told we’d have to be up by a (very) loud procession of mostly the stewards dressed in crazy red and white outfits with tridents and bells and tinfoil crowns, all banging shit and making loud ALALALALALA noises up and down the halls –Allie and I poked our heads out and looked down the hall and BAM –John the voyage photographer was there with a camera in our faces to capture our disgusting messy bed head and make-up free faces all confused and irritated. Enjoy that one, friends and family, when the next inevitable slideshow shows up on SAS’website. So we go up for breakfast and have some of the delicious cream cheese warm pastries, oatmeal with brown sugar and milk, pineapple juice, and potatoes (I swear to god, if they serve potatoes with one more meal –which they undoubtably will tonight –I will kill. Anyways so after a delightfully tasty breakfast we all go up to the rear of 7^th deck beside the pools and they’ve prepared a “concoction”of milky green stuff they said was fish guts? Whereby any pollywogs up to the challenge get the nasty green goo dumped on them, jump into the pool, climb out and kiss a giant tuna, and then kiss King Neptune’s ring and bow to the queen. Then you have the option to shave your head. Allie didn’t go through with it after all, however there were a good four or five girls that did, which was pretty cool…Cassie and Allie did do everything but the head shaving, and it was all very funny –then there was a kind of impromptu dance party to some terrible music, I got froyo with blueberries, mangos, and raspberries; so tasty on a hot day cruising alongside Western Africa. We all laid out for seriously all day, just going up on the observation deck and reading, playing music, and talking. At one point in the day Allie turned to me and goes, “So this is Monday, on a school day, on campus.”It boggles the mind sometimes that this is actually happening to me –though it was a little disgusting to peer over one deck and below see a girl tanning topless on her stomach who’d pulled her bikini bottom up her asscrack to better tan her butt. Seriously, there are kids on the boat still…Which brings us to the announcement that just came over the speaker in my room “This is just a reminder, kids, to please where clothes in the ship.”Haha –the whole ship was out tanning or taking photos or just reading beside the pool, and I must say I am slightly less day-glo looking.

So it really wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it’d be, though the dean’s memo for today mentioned that “Crossing the Line, or Neptune Day, is an initiation rite celebrated in many navies. It commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. The rite was intended originally as a test of new shipmates by seasoned sailors. The tradition dates back to the 16^th century, and in the old days, the ship heaved to (that is, it set its sails so as to remain stationary) and the pollywogs were hoisted on the mainyard and dunked into the ocean 40 feet below; afterwards, shaving and other forms of blood letting took place. We will actually cross the equator tomorrow in the late afternoon. “

Which is kind of crazy, especially since all day today I’ve been saying the day could only be better if they’d let us actually swim in the ocean. Haha.

Also to update I did get my laundry back yesterday, thank God. So today I got freshly washed jeans which have never felt so wonderful. It’s definitely the little things on the ship that constantly delight me –basalmic vinegrette salad dressing, getting new email, crossing the tropic of cancer, putting lotion on my legs after I shave and getting to slide into a freshly made bed (that I had no part in the making of.) You know.

I just got back from meeting my new extended family. There’s a thing you can sign up for on the ship where they pair up a bunch of students with an older life long learner, staff person, a faculty member, or even a family of any of those combinations. Allie’s family is a big one with a grandma and grandpa who’re life long learners and their daughter in law(dance teacher), son (some kind of computer professor), and grandson (he is a brat who has a leash. No one likes him much but Allie has to pretend to because she’s his “sister”now. They’re actually really cool and very sweet –they have Allie and her nine sibling’s photos on their door and bring back all their adopted kids gifts from ports, they’re even having a cookie party on their big porch in their 7^th deck suite. I’ve heard some horror stories too of Michelle’s family where there’s 12 kids to one old life long learner, which just sounds awful. I’ve also heard about seven kids to one poor IT guy who’s only 23, hahaha. There’ve been lots of kids who weren’t even placed, Cassie’s roommate Liz has started putting up flyers with “ARE YOU AN ORPHAN?”on them for students who’re trying to start their own little family because they’re lonely and neglected I guess. So anyways, my family isn’t so bad. My dad is Professor Levine, who Cassie has for “Sacred Sites”class since I guess he specializes in art history, his wife Nancy is a professional photographer and seems very sweet, she even offered to help us plan any trips since this is her third voyage and she has lots of internet. As for my “siblings,”I have 8, I only talked to half of them on one side of the table, but they seem alright. One girl seemed very nervous and kind of awkward, one was pretty cool, one girl talked in a baby voice the whole dinner, and one guy was really catty sounding. All over the place I guess, but my first impressions are wrong all the time. They said they wanted us to all meet in their 7^th deck suite sometime and we’d have ice cream cake and chat (how cute, huh?)

Dinner was pretty impressive today too, I guess because it’s Neptune day, but there was bbq and hot dogs, and burgers, and all kinds of good stuff, but especially ice cream, ice cream is really rare on the voyage, mostly because it melts easily I guess. It’s Summer in Africa though and it’s ridiculously hot –like face peelingly hot, so ice cream is glorious. And it’s only getting worse from here to China, haha.

That’s about it I guess…I finally finished my immigration stuff last night. It for real took like two or three hours since they’re so particular about filling things out just right and there aren’t any extra and America is retarded and for whatever reason teaches it’s children to write the date as month/date/year, unlike the rest of the world it seems. I’m pretty sure I have my passport number memorized by now too. Well, miss you friends and family but I have lots to do. Maybe I’ll go listen to the lecture given by Archbishop Desmond Tu Tu’s assistant, maybe I’ll watch a movie outside on the observation deck, maybe I’ll go play cards with some kids before my 9:30 work out slot, maybe I’ll even do some homework…. Or maybe not.