Another Perfect Day at Sea . . . Ahhh . . .

Today was the most amazing day. I had Global Studies and then Asian Religions and Environmental Geology. My Asian Religion class was awesome. The teacher is amazing. We spent nearly the entire class learning how to use our fingers to control certain emotions and feelings. And, they really worked. We put all our fingers together in a certain pattern to create a high level of relaxation and energy. When you moved your hands higher and lower you created different energy levels. It was super interesting and insightful. The point in this was to introduce the concept that all Asian religions have their base in believing in being in tune with the body and conquering themselves. I am extremely excited about that class now. What can I say about Geology??? I am not a fan of science, however, I think that it will be a fairly interesting class. The professor of course is extremely over-qualified, interesting, and nice. But reading a straight text on Environmental Geology just isn’t going to get me excited right now. It’s so hard to concentrate on anything like that right now. Hopefully we’ll get into more of a routine after Venezuela as far as being able to concentrate on course work goes.

So, anyways, my classes ended at 2 p.m. and I had the rest of the day in front of me until we had our pre-port logistical meeting at 8 p.m. So, I headed up to the pool with my reading. I grabbed a smoothie and a deck chair and did a little reading, but a lot more socializing while basking in the sun with a beautiful view of the ocean. By the way, I have never been so tan in my life. I am going to stop officially tanning but I’m sure that I’m going to get tons of sun in port and out on deck anyways. I am going to be so dark when I get back to Chicago in December. So after the smoothie and the sun, I headed up for my first pedicure at the spa. It was awesome! And, everything is so reasonably priced. Massages and Facials are about half what they would be in Chicago and almost everything else is less too.

After my pedicure, I headed to the dining room and had dinner with a few nice girls that I had met a couple times previously. Then, I went on the back deck (just out the dining room door) to watch the sunset. It was the first that I’ve gotten to see since I’ve been here. The sun and surrounding sky was illuminated in all shades of yellows and oranges as it slowly dipped below the surface of the vast ocean behind the ship. Then the clouds in all the sky turned a pretty pink color until they all dissipated and dusk fell. It was really beautiful and I’m so glad that I got to see it. After that we headed to logistical pre-port where the dean, the academic dean, the assistant dean, the medical staff, the field office, and the inter-port lecturer and student gave presentations and tips such as: don’t wear any jewelry as Venezuelan thieves have been known to do cruel things to get a ring from a tourist; if you are robbed, give them what they want – it’s better to give up your camera than your life; and my favorite, females shouldn’t make eye contact with Venezuelan men – a smile in Bahia has a different meaning than a smile in Omaha. Anyways, they did their job in preparing us for the reality of the situation. After the presentation which despite all the warnings was really upbeat and got everyone excited for our first port, the floor was opened up and Latin music was played for people to dance salsa or other Latin dances. A surprising number of people got up and danced and they did a really great job. It was a lot of fun and got us all excited about tomorrow.

So here’s the plan: I am taking a trip to the Orinoco Delta (Venezuelan rain forest) from Sunday through Tuesday. So, my only free day is tomorrow. My friend Kristen and I are going to go participate in an English class for Venezuelan college students in Caracas at 11 a.m. This is something that the inter-port lecturer set up and just announced today. There were 20 spaces available, and we got two of them. We’re hoping to get some tips from students on where to go from there. I think that the idea for the day is just to walk around and do some shopping and have some traditional food and generally just get a feel for the city. Then, I’ll be returning to the ship for the night and waking up early for my trip to the Orinoco Delta, which I am very excited about.

So, as you can see, I’m having an amazing time . . . Definitely the time of my life. It just keeps getting better and better. I cannot wait to get to Venezuela in about seven and a half hours!!!