" you don't travel like this to have a holiday...

...you travel like this to have a confrontation with yourself."
-bert van hemingen

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03 march 2009

up early, showered, breakfast.
class from 0800-1200, then had a quick lunch outside with mckendree, chandler and caitlin. it was so hot!

my afternoon was spent typing out my field reports for south africa and my proposal for my nutrition class. i would like my home stay to count as a field trip for nutrition and so i had to write up a page about what i plan to take away from my home stay in terms of the nutrition in indian society.

i had a midterm in my 'languages of the world' class today and i'm pleased to say that i thought it was easy. in all fairness, however, i've taken a linguistics class before and if i don't know the material by now then there is a problem. some of the other students thought it was difficult, so i suspect we'll see when we get the grades back.

since i know that many of you were concerned, i'll update you on a very important matter..

....the peanut butter.
as far as the peanut butter situation goes: no change yet. still the gritty kind, its no good on toast! i'd hope we'd get the good stuff back when we're in india but its unlikely. i'll hold out and hope for some good, old fashioned skippy peanut butter in hawaii? thats a long way from now but i'm just not a fan of this paste-like peanut butter we've been having these past few weeks. if possible, i may see about purchasing some in india.

i'm sad to hear that no one has recieved my mail! i sent a couple of postcards home from morocco and a bunch from namibia. maybe they'll get there soon?! my plans for writing postcards in mauritius were sideline by the call of the ocean! (and the price to send mail-- 1usd per postcard!.. i'll hold out until india! )

our dean's memo contained a wealth of information today. aside from the in-depth information provided in our last two memos about traveler's diarrhea, today's memo contained more information about what medicines to take for malaria and what to take if we get sick. they have been especially good about providing this information, since southeast asia is a high risk zone for most voyages in terms of food related sicknesses.

our lovely dean's memo also informed us of the impending day light savings time change in the states. so, as of march 8th we will go from +10.5 ahead of the east coast to +9.5. should make things complicated for a little while there!

we should be seeing the coastline of sri lanka at some point late today or tomorrow. sri lanka has had a rough time politically as of late and cnn.com has mentioned that there was an attack on their cricket team last night. good thing we are not stopping there!

we will be welcoming more guests onto the ship in chennai, a group of medial students from the uva medical school. they will stay with us through japan and will be studying various topics that affect asia, like hiv/aids and sars.

i got my student id card re-printed today. all the cards they printed at the beginning of the voyage were fading, to the point that my name could not be read anymore. the security in chennai is supposedly tough and they are reprinting everyone's faded id cards so as to minimize trouble getting in and out of the dock.

we ate dinner outside and picked the perfect night to do so, it was just windy enough to keep us cool. life on the equator is hot and humid! the sunset was INCREDIBLE. i'm not kidding. the water was so very calm because we are in the doldrums (the latitude where the wind is not very strong) and the sky looked like cotton candy. and, there were DOLPHINS and WHALES. i missed them!! everyone ran to the side of the boat and i couldn't see. and of course, i didn't have my camera. i should make it a habit to carry it around. i am so sad i missed the dolphins -- i've never seen one! apparently they were swimming right along with the ship and jumped out of the water.

this evening was the cultural pre-port for india. two of our guest students gave the lecture and included great tips on where to go, etc. dr hamsapriya also spoke and told everyone to buy the 'complete idiot's guide to hinduism,' if they were truly interested in learning about the religion. she also showed us how to put on a saree and made a design on the floor out of rice flour, in the shape of the lotus. it was beautiful and it made me so excited for india.

today is my friend teresa's 21st birthday. we got her a gift certificate for a facial and went up to pub night with her after pre-port. it was so so so very hot up there, it was very uncomfortable. it was good to be out and to see people a little more relaxed. funny though, how everyone gets dressed up for pub night but in the morning we'll see them in their pj's. 

i am now going to cool off with a quick shower and head to bed. my game plan for tomorrow is to enjoy the sunshine! i know all of you east coasters are probably cursing my name for mentioning the sun, but you should know that i miss the snow! (even if just a tiny bit!) i would have loved a snow day! love to all! <

ps. glad teresa is feeling better! missed you :D xo