truth is: you'll never need more than this

01 march 2009

a slow morning for most of the ship -- everyone was positively exhausted from our long day yesterday. i suppose that being hungover from mauritius ( i was not, but many were), combined with a full day of running around in the equator sun made waking up for class a challenge.

as i mentioned earlier, i was up for my 0800 class as many of you were heading out for your saturday night or heading to bed. classes were interesting today, as they usually are, but that does not mean it is any easier to stay awake. the rocking of the ship makes it hard to keep my eyes open, even with 2 mugs of hot tea.

global studies was a lecture about the history of india from an inter-port lecturer from india, dr hamsapriya srinivasan. dressed in her traditional sari, she gave a whirlwind history of colonization, the caste system, hinduism and the spread of english. it was so very hard to keep up with her lecture and to decipher her accent but i think my notes are relatively thorough despite her pace.

lunch today was very exciting -- grilled cheese and tomato soup. i was thrilled! funny what qualifies as an awesome meal. les mccabe has said that each voyage can be judged based upon what types of questions he gets and what everyone is most concerned about. he's quick to say that when our main concerns revolve around, "when is the next taco day,"or "what is going on with the peanut butter,"that he couldn't be happier. he claims this is the best voyage he's been on, though i would bet he says that to every voyage! we have, however, been drama-free and have had any major issues, so maybe we are the best..

to bring you all up to speed on the peanut butter situation, its been a challenge. we began our journey with the smooth peanut butter, like jiff or skippy, that we have at home. nice and creamy, perfect for pb&j sandwiches and what we were used to at home. perfect with toast, bananas, apples, pears, with brownies, or even by itself. (can you tell i like peanut butter?) after spain, however, the peanut butter has changed. its now gritty and hard to spread. and its just not the same as the good stuff we had at the beginning. though, now that les spent a good five minutes complaining about the peanut butter at our mauritian pre-port, maybe something will be done about it! here's hoping...

i took a nap from 100-300p today which i do not like doing but i could hardly keep my eyes open. after i woke up i took a super-quick shower to get moving (and to conserve water..) and got down to business on my looming homework &studying. turns out i have a quiz tomorrow and a midterm the next day. my midterm does not sound overly challenging; its only 15 multiple choice questions -- to me that's a pop quiz!

i received an email from our field office regarding my home stay in india, asking for a list of interests. i always find coming up with a short list to be complicated-- i don't think a list of five or so nouns and verbs can adequately describe a person! the typical "music, reading, photography..."is limiting and often makes me sound boring! i don't think i could accurately describe any person with just a short list of interests! i did my best and hopefully my list is enough to place me with an interesting family; though i'm sure all the families will be interesting!

the movie iron man was playing today on the loop, which again begs the question: if they have all these great movies, why do they play them when we are in class and why do they play the documentaries at night? i’d love to have a little more variety than the 4 movies i brought with me to watch at night!

since today is sunday there is a church service, which mckendree is going to speak at. i'm not sure if i will attend, but i think i'd like to hear her speak. she's such a grounded person and i'm lucky to have someone so level headed as my roommate here on the ship.

update: i did attend the church service and i'm glad i did. there are so many spiritual people on this ship and it's nice to see just how many people have their priorities straight. i enjoyed listening to other people's stories of how they have grown spiritually and it was inspiring. i'm not always sure how i feel about the church and organized religion but i would absolutely say that i believe in god. it sounds cliche but this trip has opened my eyes to how truly blessed i am. i think i have said it before, that i don't often use the word blessed and i feel that it can be used out of context, but it is the only word to describe my life right now. i am absolutely blessed. i won't go on any longer, i need to organize those thoughts first.

thinking about my state of being at this moment reminded me of a song that came on my ipod the other day when i was trying to fall asleep and could not quiet my thoughts. a random song from a random cd that i had forgotten i had and don't think i ever listened to. the cd is a collection of songs called 'songs for tibet - the art of peace,' it is a compilation of songs by various artists. i listened to vanessa carlton's song, more than this. the lines i took away from it are as follows:

if you think you'll be happy
if granted one more wish
but the truth is
you'll never need more than this

i am trying so very hard to keep perspective and to not let the little things bug me -- i'm on a ship going around the world! who does that??!!

okay, enough rambling and procrastinating for today. i miss you all very much and enjoy all the comments and emails SO much! i'm trying to get myself all caught up on posts, but before i know it i'll be in india!

love &hugs from a million miles away,
laura


ps. if anyone has any burning questions about life on the ship, my life, the ports thus far, what's up next, etc. please let me know. i'm working on another question &answer post! just leave them in the comments section!