when you get into a tight place and everything goes against you..

‘til it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer,
never give up then, for that is just the place and the time that the tide will turn.
-harriet beecher stowe

----------

(friday) 13 march 2009

in global studies we were told that we successfully made our way through another 'pirate alley,' the strait of malacca. we also learned a little bit about singapore-- it is one of the wealthiest countries in southeast asia. it is a city-island-country of 4 million people and is a large exporter of computer and electronics,

there will also be a MICE concert today, along with the university of singapore. MICE is a mobile interactive computer ensemble, a class on the ship. apparently there will be lots of laptops beeping and making music between our ship. the students in singapore will be beeping away with us, via the radio.

in class we also learned about sars and bird flu, from our visiting medical students. we found out that when the sars outbreak was going on in spring 2003, the sas voyage had to simply float around for two weeks; unsure of where their next port would be. they eventually docked in nagasaki, japan. everyone in class chattered crazily at the thought of two aimelss weeks aboard the ship.

we were also told today that we are halfway through our voyage, which just about made everyone in the room burst into tears. and then, to make everyone feel better, they said that in the next 26 days we will only have 6 days of class; to which everyone burst into applause. from bangkok to ho chi minh city to hong kong/shanghai and then to kobe/yokohama. it's exhausting just thinking about it!

after classes, i was simply exhausted. i spent some time chatting with mckendree in the room and read more of 'eat, pray, love.'  i think i'm fighting a little bug of some kind and plan to just rest up as much as possible before bangkok on sunday.

being that we were close to land, i was able to get cell service. being that it is cheaper to use the phone here than in thailand, i decided i'd call home. i called at 1745 (545p) and it was 0645 at home. luckily, andrew and rebecca were up, getting ready for school and so i was able to say a quick hello. its nice to hear familiar voices :)

dinner was outside, where we watched another beautiful sunset. i brought my camera and someone commented that i have a million pictures of the sunsets. i cant help it, i love how different the sunset looks each night!

we had our cultural pre-port for thailand tonight and we learned some great facts about getting around, etc. some tips included females not touching monks, don't point our feet at buddhas, follow a local when crossing the street, and cover up if planning to visit a temple.

i think i'll be watching 'get smart' and heading to bed early tonight and plan to get my india blog finished tomorrow!