i find the great thing in this world..

...is not so much where we stand, but in what direction we are moving
we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it
but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor"
-oliver w. holmes

---------

12 march 2009

as many of you noticed and commented on, i was up late typing away last night. its been so hard to gather my thoughts on india and i am trying not to simply list off things i did with the, "and then we.." after sitting up until nearly 0100, i fell asleep quickly.

breakfast this morning was french toast; my favorite. we then trudged off to global studies, where two of our guest medical students lectured on the status of hiv/aids in india and thailand. the lectures covered how hiv/aids is spread, the characteristics of the virus, current treatments and views of the disease.

after the class, i began reading the book, "eat, pray, love" by elizabeth gilbert. i had heard of the book at home and know of many people who have read it. its about a woman who travels to italy, india and indonesia over the course of a year. mckendree says it's a perfect book for me, especially while on this journey. i've already read quite a bit but plan to slow down a little, as i tend to consume books far too quickly without giving them proper thought.

after lunch, with more carrot salad (i'm getting my beta-carotine and improving the health of my eyes :D), i tried to find a quiet place to get work done. it's very hard to not be distracted by other students, people playing games, the little kids, music, the beautiful weather & ocean, etc. i found a nice spot in the overly air conditioned fifth floor dining hall and set up shop. i made flash cards for my nutrition class and reviewed for a quiz on vitamins. its good to be productive!

as a result of my studying, i did well on my daily quiz in nutrition and found the lecture to be.. easy to follow! that is so rare in this class, which tends to go straight over my head, leaving me to have to catch up and teach myself.

i was also very excited to have received an email from my host-dad, neel, saying that he has been reading my blog. (hi neel & family!)

after class i did a little more reading of my book and then headed up to meet caitlin for dinner. we ate outside and boy was it still hot at 530! the sun was so bright! we ate early on account of yoga class at 0600. dinner itself was okay but the dessert we made out of bananas, peanut butter (still the icky kind) and chocolate sauce was amazing.

yoga is held every B day, on the 7th deck, looking out over the water. it was amazing. i've done some beginners yoga before, but this was beautiful. how can i not be at peace, looking out onto the sunset over the ocean? it was exactly what i needed to round out my day.

feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, i read outside on the deck until it was too dark to see and took some unfortunately blurry photos of the sunset and passing ships. being that we are in the straight of malacca, a common through way, there are lots of little boats and large container ships floating around us.

to top off a wonderful day was karaoke night! another performance from little christopher (dressed in his captain's outfit, he sang "well i had a little drink about an hour ago.." & i thought of limabean and mom :D) as well as countless performances by students. some were choreographed and complete with costumes and others were more spur of the moment. i took a great assortment of video clips to remember the night. my most favorite was mckendree and kelsey's spur of the moment rendition of christina aguilera's genie in a bottle. i haven't laughed that hard in a while.

and now, after all the fun and games, i am exhausted. i may read for a little while -- when i get into a book i tend to consume it as quickly as possible! -- and i'll definitely be sleeping soon. so i hope all of you on the east coast are enjoying your lunch! love & miss!