happy friday the thirteenth!

its just [ast dinner time on the east coast and the mv explorer is settling down for the night. its been a long day (and week, for that matter) and everyone is ready to be in namibia! though we've now been at sea for a whole week, it flew by. i think the break for neptune day had something to do with it. i'll bring y ou all up to speed on the past day or so and then i'll be on hiatus until after my weekend in namibia. :)

last night (thursday) was our mandatory cultural pre-port. a few professors, and the IT guy, discussed namibia. i'm so excited to go and i hope that our voyage has a positive impact on the area. we heard that, unfortunately, the fall voyage was kicked out of some areas and gave semester at sea a bad name. i'm hoping that the kids on our voyage change the people's minds. namibia is a young, developing country with a focus on the land, and their resources. there are about 25,000 people inhabiting a land the size of texas. we learned that between the fall and spring voyages, we account for 10% of namibia's tourism.

following the pre-port was a long discussion on charles darwin. the theme of our voyage is migrations with a sub-theme of the migration of people out of africa &the human gene. all the professors are overly-interested in science but very knowledgeable on the topic. they were all so tickled to talk on and on about darwin, it was amusing. darwin was a brilliant man and had 10 children who he loved very much. he married well and did not have to work for a living so he spent all of his time studying the world around and creating theories. it was informative and amusing, as listening to people who are passionate about a topic and who have a sense of humor makes a rather mundane topic worthwhile.

today was our last day of classes until the 23rd, after south africa. global studies focused on the languages of south africa and it's political status. my professor of linguistics george thomas discussed the languages of the land: afrikaans &english, as well as the indigenous languages. all in all, south africa has 11 official languages! following professor thomas was professor terry crawford-browne, an irishman who has lived in south africa and been involved in their politics for years. his wife was the personal assistant for archbishop desmond tutu for many years. we heard about the struggle against apartheid and all the implications it still has. hard to believe such atrocities occured, like the soweto riots that left 1,000 schoolchildren dead.

i then took a really long nap, through lunch. i was just tired and the boat was very rocky, which didn't help the situation. i spent a short time outside before nutrition and learned all about lipids. it was a funny class because our professor, executive dean reg garret had models of all the atoms and kept breaking them by accident.

a quick dinner outside with a bunch of deck 2 kids was followed by wall-e. i love the movie and it was fun to listen to the little kids watch it. there are a few under 5 who are just too cute and kept running up to the stage to try and touch the screen.

i began my anti-malaria medications today on recommendation from the medical team. i have to take malarone a day before, the entire time in port and then for a week afterwards. apparently a side effect is vivid dreams.. we'll see.

we had logistical pre-port tonight and covered all the basics: where to go, what to do, what not to do, where to get money, if the water is safe, etc. they advised strongly against extreme sports (i.e. bungee jumping, shark diving, etc) and gave tips on desert travel. our medical staff gave a great presentation with animated animals and a forecast with 105% chance of fun on saturday followed by a 95% chance sunday (..hangover) and 100% on sunday. it was great comic relief after a list of do's &don'ts. we were also praised for all our good behavior and our success with on-ship time. apparently its the best record in a long time. les mccabe said its a great voyage when our biggest concern is when taco night will be. to this he promised we'll have tacos on our day inbetween namibia and south africa.

after a snack &quick shower we watched the office in the union!! it was fun! i'm normally not a huge fan but it was great to watch "televison."

unfortunately for deck 2, no laundry yet. we don't know if it will be back in time for namibia. i will make it without my laundry but many people put all their clothes in and have been wearing the same clothes. i'm lucky to still have clothes even if i do complain about lacking choices. i did my best to pack with what i have and hopefully i wake up to laundry outside my door. it'll be like christmas.

i am happy to report that i got a valentine today, from my extended family. the ship is covered in cut-out hearts and reminders to drop off valentines for friends. i can't say that i've ever been a big fan of valentine's day but i do want to send my love to all my friends and family reading this. i'm so glad you are all following along and i cannot express how much all the comments mean to me. i love reading them, along with the clever sentences about your security words. thank you thank you thank you!

i'm very glad to have a trip planned for namibia. i have not minded just "winging it"in the past ports but it is nice to have something all planned out and to have little worrying. 126 sas kids and i will be picked up at the port as soon as we disembark tomorrow morning. we are not sure what time that will be but we are hoping sooner rather than later. we will then take to our buses-- there are 9 or so, 14 person vans-- and head north about 4-5 hours. i'm excited for the scenery and talking time. i also borrowed a book from mckendree so i may read that too. we then will be in etosha national park &going on game drives. we will be camping, cooking around a campfire and possibly going on a night drive. i'm SO excited, i packed extra memory cards for my digital &video cameras. we will then be brought back to the ship on monday and head off! luckily namibia accepts the south african rand, which i have from grand central station, so i do not need to worry about finding an atm.

it is now veryy veryy late on the ship and i must head to bed. i hope all is well in the states-- i did see there was a plane crash in buffalo, ny. i was so very sad to hear of that and my prayers go out to all those affected. what a horrible accident. have a lovely valentine's day &happy february break to the pomperaug kids! xo xo laura

happy birthday dear darwin & lincoln............

tonight we are having a 200th birthday party for charles darwin &abraham lincoln. we are going to have birthday cake at dinner! funny how excited the professors are, they are obsessed with science and everything seems to relate back to darwin, the mapping of the human genome and various scientific themes.

prior to the birthday party, the students for the prevention of environmental waste (spew) will be showing wall-e. i'm very excited and plan on taking my wall-e blanket up there with me to watch.

there is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving? yourself. ?aldous huxley

i feel as though my blog titles have become repetitive and/or boring. so, i'm going to try to use the semester at sea "quotes of the day."this one is from a few weeks ago but you'd never know the difference if i hadn't told you!

----

last night's dinner was a great time with fun people and equally fun discussions. we eventually headed out to watch the sunset, which was neat. i'm finding it sooo hard to capture the sunset in photos but i've taken a lot.

yesterday there was an optional day of silence to commemorate the middle passage. the middle passage was the transportation of slaves from the west coast of africa to the caribbean and americas. the sas students of color put on a program to discuss their feelings and thoughts on the slave trade and it's implications today. i hesitantly attended the program and i'm very glad i did. the students shared what they had been thinking all day, what they believed and what they wanted. it was very powerful. rounding off the program was the hymn, amazing grace, which as many know was written by a slave trader. a boy named chandler sung and he reminded me of a friend at home who is sick. afterwards i was thoroughly exhausted-- maybe from all the sunshine &a little burn.. -- and headed back down to the cabin. i did some organizing, journaling and watched a movie until bed.

classes this morning went quickly and i was able to stay awake! it always seems to be a challenge in my class right before lunch. i broke down and bought a travel mug from the school store so i can have coffee or tea all day long. i should have brought one on the ship with me but i didn't know. today was our last 'a' day of classes until after south africa. its hard to believe we are almost in namibia!

tonight is the cultural pre-port for namibia and i'm excited to hear about it. we have recieved some more information about our safari and i'm thinking of adding a evening game drive. we have a 4-5 hour bus drive on the first day so i'm going to be checking out a library book and bringing my ipod.

the mv explorer is moving quickly these days, a steady 25 knots. its been rather smooth so there is not much seasickness. people are, however, beginning to catch some colds and the hand sanitizer is everywhere. i'm hoping to keep the germs at bay, i don't want to be sick!

i am working on my plans for south africa, though nothing is set yet. a climb of table mountain is on the plate as well as a wine tour, possibly robben island and my faculty-directed-practica for my languages class: a trip to the afrikaans language museum.

our laundry has not been returned yet and we are all crossing our fingers that it will be back in time. the rumor ranger told us that laundry is on schedule and that it most definitely will be returned-- i need my jeans back before safari!

i will be giving homework a try today, though i cannot promise anything. i want to be all settled up before our 10 day break. its easy to forget we are supposed to study! especially with tests looming.

good morning to all of you!
xo laura


ps. i have now most certainly seen flying fish! they are hard to spot -- very small -- but once you see them, they seem to be everywhere. they are so strange looking!

keep a lookout for flying fish!

apparently flying fish have been taking to the air to avoid the big predator, the mv explorer. i have yet to see any of these fish but many have. i'm keeping an eye out!

-------

february 10 2009

another nice day on the mv explorer. global studies was very interesting-- a professor (dee bird from providence college) gave a talk on zimbabwe and the current inflation crisis. she was born and raised in rhodesia and has since become an american citizen. she considers herself an "african american"even though she's white. she discussed the problems with mugabe's rule and the extrordinary inflation going on. the country has been rolling out currency in massive quantities and recently printed a trillion dollar note. the country is falling apart at the seams. a recent cholera outbreak is also making a big mess. it was definitely one of the most interesting presentation we've had thus far.

the majority of my day was spent doing homework, reading, and attempting to get my computer fixed. my external hard drive was not connecting to my computer and it has all of my music on it. this is a problem for me, but i'm lucky to have my ipod with music on it as well. the computer guy did his best to make it work but it's no good. so all that music, thousands of songs worth, is locked inside the little external. i'm lucky there are no papers or pictures on there and hopefully it can be fixed in may.

we tried to eat lunch outside but it began pouring! the air is SO HUMID by the equator, its crazy. i guess it should be expected but to think that we were freezing in morocco and suddenly are sweating is silly. the sun soon came out and everyone scrambled for more sun chairs. we passed the equator around 1600 and the captain made an announcement to give us a heads up. he joked that because of the clouds, the line may not be visible. and that we would experience a little bump and had to wait a few minutes for the water to all switch directions. he has a great dry sense of humor, it's refreshing.

after moping, for just a little while, about my hard drive, i made my way up to hang out with the girls. i'm liking my core group a lot and enjoy just hanging out with them. we had fun writing in our journals and emailing. after dinner i ran to catch the sunset and missed it. such a bummer. i have loved how incredibly different each sunset has been and look forward to a few pictures each night. i just have so many computer backgrounds to choose from!

after more homework-- it was a productive day-- i watched a documentary called 'cocaine cowboys.' it was about the cocaine wars in miami in the late 70's and early 80's. it was very graphic, lots of pictures of dead bodies, and strange to watch. two of the 'characters' were simply transporters who created an elaborate network to bring drugs into the united states from colombia. they had all sorts of decoys, millions of dollars of real estate and property and lots of cars. the third man was a hitman for the "madrina"(godmother) who killed over a hundred people. he is in jail to this day - he made a plea deal and is in for 3 or 4 concurrent life sentences. anyways, long story short, the sas kid who was playing the film has contacted the hitman and is planning to write his biography. i personally think thats, um, crazy!, but he's excited about it.

i made a short appearance at pub night with its decades theme and then quickly exited to my room. we had to turn our clocks ahead an hour and are now +6 hours ahead of east coast time. breakfast hours were extended to 0900 and so 0815 breakfast was moved to 0845. so nice to have an extra 1/2 hour of sleep.

february 11 2009

today began with an hour less of sleep but with extended breakfast. i am really a big fan of the breakfast on the ship, it is most definitely my favorite meal. there is always a ton of fresh fruit and yogurt, which makes me very happy. i'm a big fan of the french toast &pancakes (not as good as yours, bec).

global studies was a mix of good and bad today. we sat in the union, to keep awake, and had 2 different lecturers. the woman was pessimistic to say the least and the man was so sweet. both talked about demographics and the effect of growing populations on the world.

i then had a nice early lunch and sat outside for a couple of hours. its so hard to do work with all the sunshine! i just showered quickly and have to head off to class soon. funny how time flies when you don't do anything..

not sure what the plans are for tonight, hopefully no time change. i think i'm going to hammer out my plans for namibia and south africa, we'll be there before we know it! we arrive in namibia on saturday and then it's capetown on the following monday.

hope everyone is having a great morning! i love all the comments, especially the sentences you silly people make out of the funny words. love it :)

a short p.s. for my last post --

we don't actually cross the equator until this afternoon, feb 10th!

pollywogs to shellbacks

we received an email last night about neptune day saying:

       SUBPOENA to all POLLYWOGS,

       You are hereby requested to appear before the ROYAL COURT OF THE REALM OF NEPTUNE, in the DISTRICT OF EQUATORIUS, because it has       been brought to the attention of HIS HIGHNESS, NEPTUNE REX through his trusty SHELLBACKS, that the good ship M/V EXPLORER is about to  cross the equator and enter those waters accompanied by passengers who have not acknowledged the sovereignty of the RULER OF THE DEEP.

       THEREFORE be it known to all Slimy Pollywogs that The Royal, King NEPTUNE REX, Supreme Ruler of all citizens of the deep, will, with his       Secretary and Royal Court, meet in full session on board the offending ship M.V. EXPLORER on the 9th day of February, A.D. 2009 at 0900 on     Deck 7 aft, to hear your defense.

       Regards,
       King Neptune and His Royal Court

the day began early, around 0700 to the sound of drums, whistles and banging on the doors. i jumped to the door and saw a parade of crew members walking by. all dressed in white with tin-foil helmets, tritons, drums, and shell necklaces. deciding not to go back to sleep, mckendree and i got ready for a day in the sun. head to toe in my spf 50, we packed our pool bags and headed upstairs with our neighbors, kelsey and ren.

once on the 7th deck we scoped out lounge chairs, left our belongings there and had a nice quiet breakfast. apparently everyone wasn't too pleased with the mornings parade and took their time waking up. the top deck filled up quickly as everyone tried to claim a spot. we saw the crew preparing fish guts, saw some whole fishes (for kissing..) and awaited the arrival of king neptune. unfortunately, however, the deck had to be cleared. this meant we lost our prime spots and would have to put all of our stuff on the ground -- good thing my bag was waterproof.

at 0900 the court arrived. this included the crew, some faculty, life long learners, the young kids and any person who'd crossed the equator before. there is a 4 year old girl, abi, and her dress was so cute! the court had long dresses, face paint and "seaweed"all over them. following close behind was king neptune and his queen, who were painted entirely in green. some would say that the king looked strikingly similar to the captain but if that were true, who was driving? maybe otto from airplane. :P

after some silly words from our dean, luke, the rituals began and chaos ensued. one stood in the shallows of the pool, had fish guts (oatmeal &food coloring.. no one is sure; it was green.) poured on their heads, had to jump into the deep end, get out, kiss king neptune's big ring and kiss a fish. afterwards you were "knighted"and headed off to shave your head. this part was deemed optional, though many participated. we then became shellbacks!

neptune day is a longstanding tradition, though it was modified to fit the times. the crossing of the equator used to mean a day when the shipped stopped and pollywogs were dunked in the water and participated in blood-letting. clearly the new ritual is safer...

so many people shaved their heads! no word on an official count but it makes identifying people harder! there were a few girls who went completely bald-- down to the scalp and others left an inch or two. my favorite would have to be one of the lifelong learners, a woman around 65 years old, who just decided on a whim. she was too cute, and everyone is in love with her. i'm sure it would have been fun to shave my head, for about a day. and then i think the novelty would have worn off and i'd have missed my hair. i'm glad i still have it! many of the girls look simply gorgeous-- like natalie portmans. others, not so much. anyways, it was great fun. oh, and lots of boys shaved their heads too but its no big deal. except for the telling them apart aspect.

the rest of the day was spent laying around in the wonderful sunshine. it was like the first day of summer. music was playing, the pool was refreshing (and salt water!) and all i wanted was a big margarita. everyone was in high spirits, running around and just having a grand old time.

for dinner we had a special treat: a barbeque. it was amazing. i normally don't care too much for "picnic food"but i was so excited to see hamburgers and hotdogs! there was evern corn on the cob-- though not nearly as good as poppa's &they put cinnamon (?) on it. strange. -- ice cream sundaes rounded out the meal and everyone was beyond content. the perfect way to end the day. its hard to believe its february!

everyone is so tired now, they're laying low. being up so early and outside all day has left us all tuckered out. and many are burned. i'm a little pink but i re-applied my spf often so i think i'll be okay. i hung around the dining area for a while but came back to the room to catch up on emails and had a nice time with mckendree. we were listening to music and looking through old pictures. and now i'm nearly sleeping and typing at the same time so i should go.

classes begin again tomorrow, boo, and i'll be up bright and early. around, oh, 0200 east coast time. lovely.



hope my tales of warm weather don't bug anyone too much, i know its been chilly on the east coast. i wish you all could be here too! for now, know that i miss and love everyone!! stay warm!

here comes the sun -- senegal

we are currently bunkered in dakar, senegal refueling and its the most beautiful day! we are further south now than we were when we left the bahamas and the bathing suits are back out. it seems everyone's days revolve around when they can make it out to the pool/deck. i was just up there but had to come back to my room to review for my quiz at 1455! i am loving the sunshine! its like summer! i won't drag on about it for too long, i know most of you are still enduring snow and cold temperatures. tomorrow is most definitely neptune day and everyone is apprehensive-- we don't know what to expect! i'm excited to see who shaves their heads but i am most definitely not going to be one of them. this morning, after global studies, we had to fill out immigration forms for our next points. boy were they a pain! there was a special slide show on the tv's detailing exactly what to write. some countries are very strict! the strangest form was for india-- they wanted to know what type of electronics we would be taking off the ship for sight-seeing. so we had to write down the model number, approximate price &a description. very strange, but we did it anyways. i think i'm all set, they will let us know if we somehow messed them up. tonight, at snack time, a bunch of kids from my floor are planning on playing scrabble-- i'm excited! i wish i had the scrabble dictionary with me! haha.

alright, enough procrastinating. heading upstairs to read.
enjoy your sunday morning!


ps. the music on the tv has now been changed to some very odd techno. i would almost say that i want the backstreet boys back!