At Sea!

Ok so as I write this, I am having trouble remembering what I have already written in previous posts so please forgive me if I repeat myself. As I ended last time, we were leaving San Juan. It is now Thursday night (we left San Juan on Monday night) and until this morning, the seas were remarkably calm. This morning though, the waves picked up as we are approaching and passing a storm this evening and through the night. Tonight we will lose another hour (since we are going East around the globe) and we will cross the equator sometime tomorrow morning (there will be a picture on facebook, don’t worry).
We are now in full swing of classes, having survived a horrendous add and drop period. On Tuesday, we completed our first B day, and I had only one class. I spend the remainder of the day sorting out field trips up until India and choosing the courses that I would add and drop the next day.
On Wednesday morning, I awoke at 5am to line up at the registrars office for add and drop. Because there are limited spaces in each course and most of the ship wants to change their classes, the line was long. People began lining up at 9pm the night before complete with pillow, blankets, movies and snacks. As you know, nothing can pry me from my mattress, so I figured by 5am I would still be within the first few diehards. Wow was I wrong! Despite my extremely early rising, I was given number 37. Beginning at 7am, each person went into the registrars office and made the necessary changes. Because there was no guarantee time, I had to keep checking back through the morning. If you missed your number, you had to go to the back of the line (which was number 260 by 11am). I ended up having to miss a class and my number was finally called at 11.50pm. I dropped cultural tourism (far too much reading and homework) and picked up human effects on costal systems and globalization and social change. After that I went to the bookstore to exchange my text books. Both courses seem very interesting, and I now have 2 courses on A days and 2 on B days, unlike the 3 and 1 that I had before. It seems like I made a good choice because I have now been to both of the courses that I added and they are interesting and not too difficult. I am happy that I am finally settled into classes and can finally get down to some work (yeah right).
On Wednesday evening, I decided to go to a seminar to learn a little Portuguese (because they speak that in Brazil). Although I was exhausted, I managed to learn a few phrases and was given a sheet with useful vocabulary. I will now be able to ask for a bottle of sparkling water brought to the table with the top on. Apparently this is necessary. I was more interested in learning how to ask for directions and where the bathroom is, which I also learnt. I figure this will be useful in Bermuda at some point too!
After this, I went to my room and passed out at 10pm.
This morning I woke up early to go to my 8am class. Surprisingly, I stayed awake for the whole thing! In my next class, at 9:20, I didn’t stay awake. I found my head dropping about every 3 minutes and almost fell off the chair at least once. Although I have plenty of sleep, the gentle rocking motion of the ship is the equivalent of a sleeping pill. Combined with the padded arm chairs that decorate most of the classrooms, they form the perfect sleeping circumstances.
By noon I was finished classes and had lunch with some friends. After this I went to the pursers desk to complete the entry forms for the various countries we will visit (about 10 of them, and requiring a college degree to complete properly)! After doing that I was once again pooped and returned to my cabin for a rest. Turns out I picked up my book (my sister’s keeper, thanks to auntie Sue) and read for a while. Since being on the ship, I have never read so much. I finished the book this evening (400pgs). I don’t think I’ve ever actually read that many pages in my life before (on the school reading logs, I was one of the kids that wrote the same books down year after year and read maybe 1 a summer out of the required 8). If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it.
The last exciting occurrence of the day was receiving the statement of confirmed trips. Surprisingly, I received all but 2 of the trips I had signed up for. I am especially excited about the Beijing/Xi’an trip I will take in China. More about that later. My roommate and I are now going to watch a movie “empire records”. She is from upstate New York and listens to slow, harmonic music. She hates my riddim star and ‘gangster’ music as she calls it, but says that at least we will both be more cultured by the end of the trip. We are still getting along pretty well!