Today has been a crazy day. I tried studying for all my finals tomorrow but things have been too hectic. I'm stressed since I have one at 8am, one at 10:45, and one at 1pm, but I can't seem to make myself go over it too thoroughly. Instead I played spoons and talked to friends. Angie flew out today and today marks exactly 10 days left in the whole voyage.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Important Udates In My Life.
- Aiden arrived two days ago via emergency C-section! His picture is printed out and above my bed - I can't wait to meet him. Love you Vi.
- I have way too many finals all at the same time and am beginning to loose track of them all. I have twice in one day messed up the times for when things were due despite having done them on time and am terrified of the consequences.
- I never sleep at normal times anymore; I went to bed at 4am yesterday and woke up at 8:30, went to class and had breakfast and then slept from 10am to 3pm.
- I have never been more frustrated with this stupid ship and miss home greatly.
- Today I heard 40 tourists are murdered a day in the capital of Guatemala City a week - ISE has also notified us that the State department has issued a curfew for all American tourists in both rural and urban Guatemala of 11:30pm.
- I dream of nothing but home now.
Hawaii.
Aloha everyone. As I write we are in the throes of finals and I am not managing my time well. I am not, as I ought to be, studying for any of the four finals I’ll be taking day after tomorrow, I’m not in mandatory global studies, and I’m definitely not writing my eight page paper for biomedical ethics on the Bouvia case and the right to die. Instead, I am in my room listening to Mickey Avalon and Amy’s Famous Beer Pong mix on my ipod and writing this blog entry.
So I know it’s to be expected around finals week, but I am definitely ready to come home now. It’s not that I couldn’t travel to another 12 countries – I definitely could – but the ties bringing me back home are strained as is and communication between the ship and back home is getting harder and harder. Violet’s C-section’s been moved up weeks early so I’m going to miss it after all, despite getting an early flight back home the day we disembark in Florida. It’s not that big a deal I guess but I thought I’d worked it out so that I wasn’t going to miss everything; since she’s moving away just weeks before my birthday in June, it feels like she’s slipping away from me even faster now. It’s been really hard this semester to be so far from family that I’m normally really close to…
Also I can’t get internet in my room anymore and it feels like every email I’m writing no one is reading it all the way through or is missing the point of my email completely. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if it weren’t my only form of communication. So when I’m trying to work shit out back home like internships and I can’t manage things myself and am left at the mercy of everyone else – complete with time differences, incompatibility between different versions of word and pdfs, and sas’ super shitty email server – I could scream it’s so frustrating. For the love of God, and my own sanity, if I send you an email please read all of it and respond appropriately.
Now that I sound sufficiently anal and neurotic, onto
I figured that was a pretty good sign. We finally debarked the ship and got outside the port terminal by 9:15, where we waited around for around an hour for the shuttles to pick us up and take us to the skydiving place. A bunch of kids had tried to get in on the earlier 10am time so we were a huge group and when the first little van came we shoved 21 people (plus the big thug-looking driver) inside. It was a long ride out of the city to the sky-diving place but it was fun since everyone was so pumped to go skydiving and we listened to the radio for the first time in three months and heard new American music. We finally get there and things start going really quickly. We all sign the papers that promise not to hold Skydive
There were unusually strong winds from the West, which was weird at this time of year, but they wanted to be really careful because we were on the coast so when they jumped if they were blown just a little bit off course they would end up in the ocean. A bunch of the instructors were willing to jump but it was all up to the discretion of the “tandem master” who decided when and if everyone jumped, and after one instructor wiped out on her way down, they weren’t about to let all of us go up until the winds had died down. This instructor wasn’t able to slow down on her incoming and slammed into the ground on her butt/lower back – they thought she might have a problem with her spine and called an ambulance for her, and when the EMT’s asked her where it hurt she pointed to her bellybutton and said “all the way through, into my spine.” It was a creepy, auspicious start to the day.
While we all sat around I called my dad and some friends while I got steadily more nervous. I walked over to the other company next to the one I’d booked with and saw Sarah, Grant, Mike and Lee – as I walked over there Brian and Allison were getting off their plane – they’d gone up and the door was open, they were all ready to jump, but at the last minute they’d been called back down because of wind. Haha.
So they all messed around and tried to learn to ride unicycle (I don’t know.) and I walked back to my company. As soon as I got back they said they were going to have to reschedule us all because the winds weren’t dying down at all. At this point it was like 2:30 and we’d wasted all of our morning and afternoon waiting around here doing nothing when we only had like a day and a half in
I was starting to get really frustrated with the whole thing by then and was about to cry when the young guy came over and told Grant he’d take us all back if we were quiet about the whole thing (there were about 50 people still waiting for that van that was going to take 3 hours at the other company) – we snuck into the van and headed back to Honolulu. The guy who agreed to drive us was probably the sweetest man ever. He was a pysch major at the
So he dropped us off on the main strip in
Sarah bought a bottle of tequila and beer while we waited outside looking sketchy… So being underage for the first time in three months really sucked. It wasn’t even as though I’m some douchey-alchoholic who needed a drink – however, to know that I didn’t even have the option – that every country except my own trusted me to make my own decisions. Whatever. Thaaaat being said, it’s not as though I don’t do what I want anyways. Speaking of which – I called the girls: Allie, Laura, Michelle, Emily, and Vanessa, and left the smokers to their own sketchy devices while I met up with the girls again at the resort quest hotel right on the beach. We all had mixed drinks of 151, pineapple juice, and
We ate a delicious dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and met Erin and Alex’s boyfriends which was very cute but made me a little jealous and bitter of their being adorable couples. It just made me miss home and all the people in my life I’ve been apart from for over three months… I know I’m so close to coming back home but for now it’s just been a little difficult missing them so much. Anyways, we walked to the international market since it stayed open until 11. What a cool place! It was filled with little stalls in the middle of a paved area between two rows of shops with all kinds of stuff being sold. Lots of jewelry, wind chimes, clothes, and normal cheesy souvenirs. I bought a few stuff for ang, and my dad and mom and a necklace with Hawaiian sand and a pearlized turtle in a block of black Lucite. It’s a little weird but cool.
We met up with the same
Ugh. So Pepsi and two random other crew members are there and we’re dancing in this shitty dead club where I am the only one who has to pay for anything it seems, no cover for 21+ and drinks are only like 2 or 3 dollars when I had to pay 4 for a bottle of water. I’m bitter and angry but enjoying myself none the less.
- OOOOOOOOOOOOKAY side note. Allie never wears real shoes (or underclothing staples like socks and underwear it seems) so as a result she has developed some particularly gruesome looking blisters on her feet. They’ve healed some but now they’re like skin shrapnel from once-deadly minefield-like boils. DISGUSTING. And, because Allie particularly delights in making me vomit all over the room, she liked the one on her big toe the other day. Then yesterday she picked a piece of it off and jumped on my bed while I was writing a paper with it. She then proceeded to “accidentally” drop it somewhere in my bed and I started dry heaving and hyperventilating so badly I had to run to the bathroom to use both the inhalers. She of course found this hilarious. Just one more peek into the fun-filled life of cabin 4151 aboard the Explorer!
So. We dance all at the club (called PlayBar for future reference) and we have fun and one of Pepsi’s friends, a crew member from
We dance to ridiculous music (the DJ was TERRIBLE) and we wander around a bit. We get the brilliant idea that what we really needed to do right then was to skinny dip in the ocean at the public beach in
We all stagger out of the ocean to see that there’s a group of probably 30 or so SAS kids on the beach in the dark watching us the whole time – later I found out my friend Caroline saw us but thankfully it was dark enough no one was identified, haha. Michelle and I try to get into a bar, which was obviously a no-go since it seems all of
So the alarm goes off and I immediately realize the foolishness of my thinking I was going to jump out of a plane that morning. I was a little hungover and it was essentially my second all-nighter in a row – I was in absolutely no condition to go skydiving, I’d begun to pysch myself out considering the ambulance and the winds of yesterday, and I didn’t really want to throw down $200 dollars to do it so I told Allie I thought I was going to pass. Laura decided to skip it as well, but because Allie is a baller who isn’t afraid of anything she went solo. I felt pretty jealous when I saw her pictures and video of her soaring through the air above the gorgeous coast.
Instead though I slept in until 9, which is unusual for any country, and packed leisurely. We all got out of the hotel around 10 and since the girls were hellbent on some “American” food we found a food court with taco bell and a subway. It was really nice to eat some familiar food but I wasn’t 1/1000 as excited as they all were. I think I’ve been relatively lucky this semester not to really miss any food since the only restaurants my mom and I ever go to are Sushi, Thai, Chinese, or Indian. It’s not as though I eat a lot of McDonalds and Italian food while I’m home, so for me lots of the food we’ve been eating has been familiar fare. That sounds kind of pretentious but whatever.
Sooooo then all the girls wanted to lay out on the beach and since I don’t possess the patience to do that and get frustrated doing nothing besides roasting all morning I took the public bus number 19 back to Aloha Tower in Honolulu where the ship was socked. It was a long ride but it was cool to talk to some locals. I met a guy who tinted car windows who was cool but looked like he’d just been released from prison. Oh! And the bus drivers all wear little uniforms of Hawaiian shirts with “the bus” printed all over them with palm trees and surfers and stuff. So cool.
I called Allie and met her around the outdoor mall outside the port – I was killing time so I walked into a private art gallery where I had a long talk with the owner who showed me a lot of local artist’s work. There was a woman who came on vacation from Detroit and never left and now made her living painting Hawaii’s native flowers with dew drops so 3d I would’ve thought I could see my own reflection in them. There was the “Hawaiian Mona Lisa” with a young Hawaiian girl with thick wavy hair and a hibiscus behind one ear, whose eyes followed me all around the room. There was a series of paintings by a Japanese-Hawaiian man who crushed seashells and mixed them with his paint to create designs of cranes soaring through mountains and Japanese style waves along what was obviously the Hawaiian coast. The gallery owner said his family were kimono designers and it showed all over the traditional Japanese cranes in flight and the long twisted trees the artist used, but the landscape was obviously all taking place in
I bought a crazy printed Indian-style wrap-around skirt like the black one I got at fabindia! From a crazy hippie beside the gallery. This one is red and blue and yellow and green and the whole thing is reversible. It’s incredibly cool. I got starbucks and sat in the pavilion and used the internet for an hour-ish uploading
Oh! And I also bought a pair of new dunks since I decided to leave the old ones at the hotel before we left. They had been through an awful lot (dune 4x4ing in Namibia and entrails in Thailand’s meat markets just to name a couple places) and between all that and the two inches of seawater and sand still residing in them I figured it was time to let them go. I bought them in
We walked back towards the ship but we only had an hour and a half before on-ship time so we stopped in for a last meal in
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The Art of Zen: Japan pt. 2
We wandered around Osaka castle for a bit but we didn’t have the time to go inside so we just admired the cherry blossoms and took lots of pictures and ate the Japanese version of a sno-cone. We hopped back into the van and headed closer to
We headed back to the ship and said our goodbyes and then I grabbed my backpack and changed and met back up with Kierstin to take the port metro to the regular
After an hour and a half ride and three stops later I made it to the station exit with like an hour extra time. I started walking towards the exits when I saw a sign for the Marriott Associa – so convenient. So I went to the 5th floor taxi entrance and looked around but there weren’t any chairs or reception so I figured I’d find where the check in desk and lobby was to find the smoker kids. I went to the 15th fl. Where the lobby was and saw all of them – all 6 of them passed out all over the couches/seats and arms of settees. Once there they were tired of
Once in
One place was particularly obnoxious about it, the lady at the desk had a nametag that said “Bridgette” and in perfect, unaccented English told me I couldn’t stay with the hotel unless I spoke Japanese but that she was awfully sorry for the inconvenience. Most of these places even had little robotic light-up boards where you pushed the room you wanted and then just handed money to a little old lady behind a counter. Little human interaction required so as to expedient your hooker time I guess. Steph and Sarah found a banging hotel with a karaoke machine, huge flat screen and all kinds of other awesome shenanigans for $40 each for two people. Naturally we all tried to sneak up there.
Once we got to their floor though we saw cameras so we ducked behind a wall – we were found out though and thus proceeded a shitfit of epic proportions. The lady who was working went NUTS. There was like a 30 minute battle between her and Sarah, and when we tried to get more rooms she just kept telling us to leave. As Steph so wittily noted later though – it was as though they wanted us to all stay together; who does karaoke between just two people? Oh, and the reason we were so easily found out was because in Tokyo it seemed like every hotel demanded we turn our keys in after we left so that when we came back in we couldn’t just walk up to the room and wait for the person with the key to meet us up there. I feel like that would never fly in America – this trip has made me realize just how much Americans value individuality and freedom way more than any other we’ve visited.
Anyways, at this point pretty much everyone was unraveling pretty quickly. So we wandered some more and found Hotel Dan Dan down the street. For $53 each we all fit the rest of us in two rooms, and though they weren’t as nice as Steph and Sarah’s place, it was still pretty good. Nice t.v., vinyl red couch, ambient music, crazy black “wrinkle chapeau” brand condoms, and even vibrating bed. Juice and I stayed in one room together and slept pretty well – we even got a 3pm checkout time. We were still wired despite it being like 2am once we were all settled. Allie, Juice, Amy, and I went out again and searched for a cheap bar or club – we would ride the elevator to the top of some sketchy office-building looking place and just wander down the empty halls opening each individual tiny bar’s door looking for something fun. We ended up at an empty thai bar where for a $20 pitcher of shitty draught beer (
The next morning (by 10) we woke up and got McDonalds for breakfast. I don’t feel even a little bit guilty as it really was the first time I’d eaten any American food in three months and I was due for some familiarity. We wandered around looking for an internet café that might be open, and once again NO ONE spoke English. However we did accidentally walk into the arcade that “Lost in Translation” was filmed in, which was pretty cool. Those arcades could give me a seizure – they’re ridiculous loud and always busy with a billion Japanese people all playing slots or video games and all kinds of weird annoying stuff that is full of lights and is highly addictive. We got out of there though and after like an hour or two we finally found ourselves at Café B@gus, otherwise known as nerd heaven. Everything was sleek and black and comforting. For 3 dollars you got an hour of internet in leather chairs with unlimited free drinks and ice cream and other sorts of little snacks. It was heaven. Oh! And that reminds me; the vending machines in
We went back to the hotel and modeled our Dan Dan robes and the light-up whirlpool bubbly bathtub and packed our stuff to change locations. While we were at B@gus we decided we booked two rooms at a hotel in Roppangi (sp) a district famous for it’s accessibility to clubs and stuff made easy for foreigners. So we each took an exorborantly expensive taxi ride to the hotel and checked in. At first they wanted us to turn in our keys when we left but I started freaking out and saying I was worried they wouldn’t recognize Allie and I’s faces and I’d feel better if I just held on to it and they just let us go with them. We went out again to see the biggest intersection in the world in Shabuya and walked around for forever. Held puppies, wandered into a terrifying sex shop, ate Italian food, stopped in a tattoo parlor to get an estimate for Amy’s lotus and Japanese waves, and scoped out a condom emporium. We wandered for hours and then took the metro to an art exhibition opening party at a private gallery. It was called “Nude” or “naked” or something – I have to check the flyers I snagged, but they were all of blown-up giant portraits/photographs of naked women from the ‘60’s to the present, all from the same photographer. It was actually really, really, interesting. We had some deep discussions on the nature of art versus pornography and what is obscene. But then, like true college students we grabbed some liquor and headed back to the hotel to drink on our own since it was 1/100th of the price. One back at the hotel everyone snuck up there and we drank in the room until we were all ready to go out.
We dubbed that night the “tu tu night” since Stephanie and Sarah bought tu tu’s to wear out to the club; this isn’t as weird as it might sound, in
This meant though that we ended up at so, so, many clubs and after a while it all seemed like a blur. I remember Brian was wearing a green shirt and I had that green shirt/dress from
We got to
It was lots of fun but we’d been there since 4 and it was 9 so a bunch of the smoker kids and I left to look around
We wandered around
The night continues from there but only with more antics not fit for the blog until I’m back home and this stops showing up on updates.
One more part to go on Japan, and we'll be in Hawaii day after tomorrow!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sleepshnizzle Kicking in To Kanye.
Tonight at "Explorer's Got Talent" show Jonathan Katz gave a funny comedic bit about how when he got home things were going to be really different - he'd throw down his bags saying "Dad, look, you can search if you really want to but you should know by now there's no alcohol! I swear!" and that at noon he'd hear "the voice" of his dad: "Ding din, Good afternoon, these are your noon-day announcements... Distance made good from the kitchen is 10 ft. with another 20 before you reach the couch." This may not seem that funny to those back home but this was HILARIOUS to us. I certainly hope my mom becomes the voice.. you know without the beard, or baby, or wife. Actually not at all.
Anyways, these are some of my more favorite recent Dean's Memos; thought you might like to see our school newspaper:
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee - - Marian Wright Edelman
Next class day is A19
Laundry
Today: Deck 3 port
Tomorrow: Deck 2
Happy Birthday!
Gabrielle Flick
Molly Roof
Dean’s Memo
Spring 2009
Tuesday - April 14th
Today
1400-2000: Lost and Found: There will be a table in Timid Square. Please collect your missing items.
1730: Faculty/Staff, Life-long Learners Fiesta Social: In the faculty/staff lounge.
1730: Movie: Planet Earth will be shown in the Union, presented by SPEW.
2000: Career Night: Meet in the Union for an introduction. Faculty and staff facilitators will then lead breakaway workshops in different specialties to give advice on classes that may be helpful, potential internship opportunities, what to do after finishing your undergraduate degree and how to get your foot in the door of your dream job.
Tomorrow
2000: Explorers Seminar
“The Dark Side of Matter”: Inspired by the imminent release of the history/science fiction movie “Angels and Demons”, partially staged at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, the talk will discuss the real aspects of subatomic physics research, and especially the details of the new machine, the Large Hadrons Collier, due to start operation at CERN this year. Sergio Confetti will present the topic in the Union.
2000: Explorers Seminar
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Giving Hope to the World
The South African TRC has been emulated by many other countries, including communities in the US. Lavinia
Crawford-Browne will speak on how the commission functioned, what it achieved and its impact elsewhere.
Classroom 4.
2100: The Persians by Aeschylus: Attention Ship's Company! A play of war, death, despair, and woe presented by the Poseidon Players in the Union. Come see your shipmates face the fall of a great empire and the loss of their sons and husbands. A second performance will take place on Friday, April 17th.
Announcements
“Beyond the Horizon…”
The Spring 2009 Shipboard Drive has begun!
All Donation Forms should be put in the drop box at the Student Life Desk by April 18th at 5:00pm. There will be incentives for 100% ship participation and the Sea with the most participation. Shipboard Drive Donations help to support: new equipment and technology; student financial assistance; service visits, reunions, events, parent and alumni involvement; SAS Visibility and Outreach to Diverse Students, Staff & Faculty; and much more! We hope you will consider a generous donation to the Shipboard Drive now and in the years to come. We thank you for your continued support and hope you will remember that future voyagers are counting on you to help give them that once in a lifetime experience that we have enjoyed and will never forget!!
Volunteers for the “Open Ship” in Hawaii: We need some help in Hawaii. On April 19th (our first day in Hawaii) we will be hosting about 40 visitors as part of an "open ship". We would appreciate your help from 3pm-4pm welcoming guests and giving tours. This is a great way to meet other students, share your experiences, and help us promote Semester At Sea. Please email Luke Jones at assistantdean@semesteratsea.net if you are interested in helping.
From the Crow’s Nest -
Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. Coleridge’s poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, is the source of these lines. This couplet describes the thirst of the crew after the ship has become becalmed in the tropical Pacific, a misfortune attributed to bad luck brought on by the killing of an albatross. Only 3% of the water on Earth is fresh, the rest is in the seas and oceans. Of this 3%, most is in the form of ice. Antarctica holds 90% of this ice. At the South Pole, the ice sheet is nearly 2 miles thick. (At the North Pole, the ice sheet thickness is a mere 15 feet.) If all of the ice in Antarctica melted, sea level would rise 200 feet. Only 0.036% of all the water on our planet occurs as surface fresh water, such as lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and rivers. Groundwater accounts for 0.36% of the total water on Earth. A very small amount, 0.001%, is found as water vapor in the atmosphere, some of it forming clouds. Obviously, fresh water is a limited and precious resource, despite the 320 cubic miles of water on this “third rock from the Sun”. And where did all this water come from? Most recent speculation suggests that, during the formation of the Earth, hot water vapor aggregated with tiny grains of rock. These grains coalesced on a gigantic scale to form the planet, a wet Earth. As the Earth’s crust solidified, huge quantities of water were expelled in volcanic eruptions and fell back to the ground as rain, forming the oceans.
Movies start at 1400
Channel 2: King of Texas (95 min)
Channel 3: Spice World (PG, 93 min)
Channel 5: Commanding Heights Pt 1
Channel 6: Trials of Life 9: Friends & Rivals
Play 1400-2100
Holo Mai Pele: The Epic Hula Myth
Start at 2030
Bridge Noon Report
At noon today the Explorer’s position was…
Latitude: 31° 40 mins N
Longitude: 171° 53 mins E
Distance made good: 1658 nautical miles
Distance to go to next port: 1752 nautical miles
Average speed: 14.5 knots
Sea temp: 18°C (64.4° F)
Air temp: 19° (66.2° F)
Wind: South East/14 knots
Sunset today: 1853
Sunrise tomorrow: 0544
The one before it was pretty good too. Notice though the lack of diversity on the T.v. loop. I love my Spice World but I need something new every other day, please.Today’s Quote:
We go… we have a long way…no hurry...… just one step after the next. Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV, it’s a shame more people don’t switch over to it. They probably think what they hear is unimportant but it never is.
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Tomorrow – no classes
Next class day is A19
Laundry
Today: Deck 3 starboard
Tomorrow: Deck 3 port
Happy Birthday!
Nicholas Constant
Rebekah Ehrich
Dean’s Memo
Spring 2009
Monday - April 13th
Today
2000: Students of Service Charity Auction: Live auction in the Union. Come, see the action and bid on some very special items. The Charity Auction kicks off the Spring 09 Shipboard Drive to raise funds for toys and donations made to the projects SAS students visit, student scholarships, games and other equipment used by students on board, Fairy Godmother fund, etc. This is your opportunity to give back, be generous!
2100: “The Office”: One hour screening immediately after the auction in the Union.
Tomorrow
0800: Ship Photo: This is for everyone. Deck 7 aft. Bring your smile and be ready to cheer!
0800 and onwards: Photo Day: For all colleges and universities represented on board. Wear your school colors or clothing with your school name to show your spirit and meet on Deck 6. Check the time for your school on the schedule posted in Tymitz Square.
1400-2000: Lost and Found: There will be a table in Tymitz Square. Please collect your missing items.
1730: Faculty/Staff, Life-long Learners Fiesta Social: In the faculty/staff lounge.
1730: Movie: An episode of Planet Earth will be shown in the Union.
2000: Career Night: Meet in the Union for an introduction. Faculty and staff facilitators will then lead breakaway workshops in different specialties to give advice on classes that may be helpful, potential internship opportunities, what to do after finishing your undergraduate degree and how to get your foot in the door of your dream job.
Announcements
Post-Port Reflections: Drop written reflections on your experiences in the Public Folder under “Post–Port Reflections”. Please share your special moments.
Thailand in the news: Given our recent visit to Thailand we encourage you to read up on the latest violence there which has impacted both Bangkok and Pattaya and resulted in a state of emergency. Recent clashes between yellow shirts and red shirts have killed two people and injured more than 113. These violent demonstrations are a continuation of the tension between supporters of the current prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, and former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. You can read more on the free news sites provided by Semester At Sea.
Note: There will be no alcohol service on Deck 7 tonight.
From the Crow’s Nest -
We are crossing a vast stretch of the Pacific Ocean. It’s about 3,861 miles from Yokohama to Honolulu along a great circle route (compare that to 2,475 miles from New York to Los Angeles). Despite this great distance, we will traverse a rather small span of the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean extends in a north-south direction some 9,600 miles, and at its widest point, along the 5º N latitude line, it stretches 12,300 miles. The Pacific is by far the world’s largest ocean. It covers more than half the surface area of the Earth, clearly making it larger than all the land masses combined. It contains 51.6 % of all sea water, compared to 23.6 % in the Atlantic Ocean and 21.2 % in the Indian Ocean. Its average depth is almost 4,000 meters (about 2.4 miles), making it some 300 meters deeper than the other great oceans. At its deepest point, the Mariana Trench, off to the south of our course, its depth exceeds 11,000 meters (almost 7 miles). Human migrations across the Pacific began about 3,000 years ago. People from Taiwan and the Malay Archipelago traveled east to populate the Polynesian islands, such as Tahiti, and went gradually on to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. Easter Island is only 2,200 miles from Chile, placing it far closer to South America than to Asia.
Movies start at 1400
Channel 2: King of Texas (95 min)
Channel 3: Spice World (PG, 93 min)
Channel 5: Pride & Prejudice (PG, 127 min)
Channel 6: Trials of Life 9: Friends & Rivals
Bridge Noon Report
At noon today the Explorer’s position was…
Latitude: 32° 46 mins N
Longitude: 165° 10 mins E
Distance made good: 1308 nautical miles
Distance to go to next port: 2100 nautical miles
Average speed: 13.6 knots
Sea temp: 16°C (60.8° F)
Air temp: 18° (64.4° F)
Wind: South East/27 knots
Sunset today: 1921
Sunrise tomorrow: 0611
The 17th - Floating in the Nowhere of the Pacific.
Despite it being a B day and I don't have any classes I think today has been one of the most frustrating days of my whole time on the ship. Thankfully the global studies exam is over and I escaped with another solid C (I don't care even a little bit at this point.) But there's miscommunication between so many people back home and I and I'm gearing up for finals, which always makes me a huge mess. I'm behind on all my internship applications and missed the deadlines for a couple of them because I've been trying to focus on my work on the ship. The worst though is that I've lost the new USB my mom just got me. The USB with all my internship information. The USB with all my pictures of China. I was waiting until a B day when I didn't have too much to do to upload them onto my hardrive and now I have no idea where it is - the other thing is that if it's not in my room somewhere (and I turned my whole room apart and tidied up trying to find it...)it might be gone forever. There're a lot of problems with people stealing USBs since everyone has so many pictures to keep.This wouldn't be such a big deal if I hadn't had lost ALL my Namibia pictures.
It's not that big a deal I guess but on top of everything it just really upset me.
Also, I have another Classical Islam quiz tomorrow for Professor Jawed a.k.a. THE WORST PROFESSOR EVER. I don't know why he bugs me as much as he does but I stress myself out so bad over the work he assigns our class. I got a perfect grade on quiz 1/3 and an F on quiz 2/3 - considering tomorrow is quiz 3/3 and the only other grade we get is our final which is worth 50% of our whole grade. That's not allowed in any other school I've ever heard of. He doesn't understand how email works and refuses to do anykind of review session or study guide. He so graciously gave us all a "guide" for the final that consisted of 18 essay topics ranging from "What is the difference between Sunni and Shi'a? Elaborate." to "Compare and contrast different Hadiths and how different Muslims approach them." Okay, for one, if it weren't for my other Islam classes, I wouldn't know what a hadith even was - we've never talked about them. At all! Plus, he expects us to spend at least an hour on each of these 18 essays, of which he'll pick one at random to add to our multiple choice final. What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. On top of that, when a friend of mine asked if the final was cumulative or not he just said, "It is both cumulative and not. It would be prudent of you to review all past material but that doesn't mean it will be on the test."
I could scream.
Also, all these bitches have decided they have to start going to the gym to get back into shape for their homecoming - which means the precious few times I've been able to get a time slot on the elliptical is no longer. I can work out in the room or I can continue to eat nothing but the only menu available of potatoes and pasta and begin an early career of jabba the hotness. AGHHHHHH.
If we don't get to Hawaii soon I may just loose what's left of my sanity, though I probably ought to use my tropical fun-time as a study session for finals since they're all on the same day. Baller planning SAS!
Expect hysterical calls at inappropriate hours soon since I'm loosing my mind and I've heard rumors that we'll get phone service a day off the coast!
The Art of Zen: Japan pt. 1
The first day in
A night or two before we docked in
So back to the homestay – we all sat in the port terminal waiting for our families for a good hour or so until everybody arrived and then we found our families according to the signs they were holding with our names on them. My fam. consisted of Mom, mystery dad who works all the time, Rie (pronounced Ree-ah), Yukki, and Haruna (under occupation mom had written “baby” which I found absolutely hilarious.) The sign they had made for me was really adorable, with a little anime character of what they thought I might look like, mushrooms, and cats. My other SAS homestay partner was Kiersten. Kiersten looked like what they must have thought all Americans looked like – gorgeous, blonde, and blue-eyed. She’s so, so, so, funny and we got along really well. We all did a bunch of weird ice breakers with the rest of the hippo family club homestay people – one of the games was essentially rock paper scissors, but if you lost you had to hold on to the person who won; then you’d play another person and if they one the both of you would attach to the back of the new winner. So we made these crazy snake chains all over the port terminal – half in English/frantic hand motions, and half in Japanese.
We also played such classics like
Just to interject here –
We then stopped by a water thing where an old Chinese man rubbed his calloused hands against the two bars coming out of the basin and it made the whole thing vibrate and splash water upwards with a weird rhythm. It was cool but none of us – except mom – could do it right. We stopped by a shop for $4 gelato (
On the way from
We worked it out though, since once we all arrived home mom showed us around the house some. As soon as we stepped inside they gave us each “inside shoes” to wear around the house as we were to leave our regular shoes beside the door (they were incredibly strict about this one; later I heard Phil went two feet inside the house to grab his forgotten cell phone and his mom started screaming at him.) They even have bathroom shoes, big plastic blue galoshes that one wears whenever walking around in a bathroom. So then we got to move all the traditional sliding doors and mats and extremely low foldable dinner tables that were extremely uncomfortable for me to sit in for more than 30 minutes at. They laid us out bedrolls and set up a bunch of heaters – including a Burberry footwarmer, hahaha. Another funny thing about that house were the toilets. Toilets are really interesting all over
Mom told us she was throwing us a big hippo family club party and that lots of people were coming so we helped out a bit. I helped Rie chop up octopus tentacle with a huge cleaver for the takoyaki (sp) or fried octopus balls. They diced up spring onion and added fish crackers, pancake batter, octopus, and dried whole shrimps. It was really good, and even more so when dipped in a crazy sweet soy-sauce like stuff that came next to it. The best part was that they were fried in a griddle-type thing with curves cut out so that to cook one side and then rotate it to the other all the kids would take long toothpicks and as quick as lightning would flip them over and over so none were burnt.
So we’re all there and the boys have made it their mission to get wasted. Which is awkward and embarrassing. They went into the grocery store and bought a huge bottle of wine and a bunch of tall beers, and when their home stay mom saw it she laughed and said “Oooh, American size!” which was kind of hilarious, I must admit. They never got more than tipsy, thankfully, but they were definitely trying. Even so much so that they were talking about shotgunning beers outside. That’s awful. We’re invited into a family home for a family party with kids running around everywhere, and you want to get falling-down drunk? The thing that kills me is I would say they were just stupid kids, but they weren’t. Phil spoke fluent Mandarin and is an international business major who makes straight A’s, and
Speaking of Phil’s fluency with Chinese, it was so cool – for every language we might know between all of us they knew it, English, Japanese, and often a language or two more. My homestay mom spoke Chinese with Phil, while Naru, another woman from the hippo family club, spoke French with me (even though she’s an English teacher in a Japanese high school) and other guy spoke Spanish. On the way back to the ship later I noticed they were playing HFC language immersion c.d.s the whole time.
So dinner that night was great – and included sushi from the local grocery store (which was really, really, surprisingly good!) Takoyaki, steamed rice triangles covered in seaweed, spareribs, and a stew our mom made with chicken, eggs, veggies, and strange alien looking triangles of mystery grey matter. When I asked our mom later what it was she said it was some root/vegetable they pound into mush and then shape into triangles with black specks inside. She said it tasted like potatoes but it was gelatinous looking and I was way to freaked out to try it. There was lots of beer – and Japanese women were drinking along with us, which was fairly unusual for most our travels – mostly Asahi beer which tastes like butt. Though later in the trip I did try Asahi clear which tasted like moderately more washed butt, and a beer called “straight” which tasted, as Allie W. so tastefully noted, “like cat piss.”
We never saw much of our homestay dad – he’s a gas pipe architect/designer who left at 7am and came home at 9:30. We saw him that night right before we went to bed, they wanted to stay up but we were way too tired and both Kierstin and I crashed (though we couldn’t for the lives of us figure out those heaters and felt like we were in the lowest circle of hell midway through the night.)
We woke up the next morning to a breakfast of strawberries that they ate with a squeeze tube of sweetened condensed milk mixed with sugar - I bought a tube before getting back on the boat later I liked it so much on fruit. There was also miso soup and lots of steamed rice with a rotten looking “sour and salty old plum” (surprisingly good) and miso paste that was delicious. There was also sticky soy threads that were really unappetizing and banana bread that I think was made with us in mind. Oh, and leftovers of that stew from the night before that was good cold with rice.
We didn’t have a lot of time since I had to be back on the boat by 4 to get my shit together before the bullet train to
So the last morning with our homestay family we all have breakfast and then it’s a fun-filled hour or so of trying on our homestay mom’s kimono. Let me preface this story with I am inherently ill-suited to wear a kimono. And my mom had zero qualms with telling me so multiple times. In
Then we went to
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