Well, it’s Sunday, and we have class as usual. How sick is that. Luckily, it’s an A day for me. I love A days. I have an eight a.m. and then finish up after Global Studies at 10:35. Then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. Unfortunately, I have to head to the library and work on a five page paper for Asian Religions that’s due the day after Cape Town. Hopefully, I can buckle down and get it finished early in the day. Besides that, my professors were pretty nice about not giving any real homework due after Cape Town.

Where In The World Are We Going . . .
So, the real question that you’re all wondering is if we’ve found out where we’re going instead of Kenya yet. The answer is no. Hopefully, we’ll find out soon. The ship is abuzz with the speculation of where we will port. Some of the prevalent guesses are Madagascar, Seychelles (a small resort type area), Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. At any time of day, you can find students studying the map outside the dining hall, debating the possibilities and someone even has a pool going on their door about our possible destination. I would say that the prevailing attitude on the ship is acceptance of not going to Kenya and excitement of the possibilities of an exciting new port. The one thing that many students, including myself, have expressed is that we hope we don’t just go to a beach resort (i.e. Seychelles). I never thought I’d say that, but I feel like I’ve been hanging on the beach and partying since June, and I’m ready for a little more culture.

Shipboard News . . .
We get to Cape Town tomorrow morning, so I thought I’d give a little update of what we’ve been doing for the last few days.

Desmond Tutu
We received several opportunities to hear from Archbishop Tutu in the last few days. On Friday and Saturday, there were one and a half hour question/answer sessions held. I attended Friday’s session. Students took turns going up to the microphone and asking Archbishop and Mrs. Tutu questions ranging from political policy to more personal questions such as their favorite foods. When Archbishop Tutu was asked what the most important advice that he could give young people would be, he answered, “dream.”

The other opportunity that we received to hear from Archbishop Tutu was yesterday at global studies. He gave a brief, inspirational speech on forgiveness and acceptance and then participated in a round table question/answer session. He is a beautiful, inspirational speaker. I am going to try to transcribe his speech and post it here if possible. In addition to these formal sessions with Archbishop Tutu, some students have been randomly selected to have meals with him and there have been receptions for the faculty and staff.

Just a little personality profile on Archbishop Tutu as seen from the background: He is an adorable, friendly, kind gentleman. He might remind you of your favorite, silly old grandfather. He does a happy dance and giggles like a little child. He just exudes peacefulness, happiness, and hope. We have truly been honored to have him radiate upon our shipboard community.

Activities

80’s Themed Pub Night
We have only had two pub nights for this crossing. We were originally told that we would have a pub night almost every single night. However, apparently, the administration is concerned about “some people’s relationship with alcohol,” so the pub nights have been few and far between. Now, he’s a riddle for you . . .

What do you get when you put seven hundred extraverted college students on a boat for several days with no liquor and not much else to do in the evening, then suddenly introduce liquor and an 80’s themed dance?
ANSWER: Complete Chaos

Really though, it was such a fun night. Everyone got really creative and came up with really fun 80’s outfits. My laundry had actually been out for three days at this point, so my outfit was really a special challenge, but it worked out. It just added to the fun to have everyone all decked out. I’ve never seen so much bright eye shadow, hairspray, and neon in one place in my life.

However here’s where the ciaos began, they have pub night in the back of the ship and there was an 80’s dance in the Union at the front of the ship, so there was a lot of loud, obnoxious running back and forth across the ship. On top of all this activity, it was also my Sea’s (Halls are divided by Seas) turn to have our dance up in the faculty/staff lounge. So, I ran around between all three. It was a great time. Things definitely got a little out of hand though as far as general craziness and loudness. The RD’s were kind of freaking out. They were starting to demand that everyone go to their rooms around 1:30 a.m., which they never do. One quote that I heard someone say that I’d like to repeat because it was funny and summed up the atmosphere of the night was, “I saw a lot of bad decisions made last night.” Anyways, it was a crazy night, but it all ended well. I didn’t hear of any major drama occurring.

The Rest of the Activities
80’s pub night definitely took the cake for the best activity this crossing, however, there have also been the regular things: community colleges, movies, and meetings. I haven’t been to any community colleges in a while as they’ve conflicted with meetings or haven’t interested me. However, I have had productive meetings for the Halloween and Ambassador’s Ball committees. Every night, the cafeteria also becomes board game heaven. I played Monopoly “unsuccessfully” the other night. We also had a reunion dinner for our Orinoco Delta trip the other night. It was a ton of fun, and I am helping to plan another one to be held in a few weeks. It was so nice having everyone in one place again. It kind of felt like “being home.” That’s about all that I can highlight under activities for the last few days. As usual, I either feel overwhelmed by all there is to do or bored to tears.

The Waves
The waves have been a little rougher, up to ten feet. They weren’t really bothering me too much for the first couple of days. However, they seem to be pretty active today. I was feeling a little green, so I took some sea sick meds a little while ago. A funny quote out of yesterday’s Dean’s memo regarding the waves – “We expect to experience bigger swells as we approach Cape Town. Anything not secured will move. Please remove any items on table tops, desk tops, dressers, bathroom counters, etc. If you don’t, the waves will!”

Well, that’s all the news I can think of right now. People are settling in more and more on the ship. I am personally loving life at sea. I am pretty excited about getting to Cape Town tomorrow. I don’t have any major trips planned. Everyone is pretty much sticking around the port and doing day trips. Some things that I have planned: a Geology field practicia, an overnight trip to the winelands, sky diving, and something that I’m really excited about, a trip to the opera. I also plan to do a trip to Cape Point and to see a township. I’ll be sure to let you know when I find out where we’re headed after Cape Town.

Best wishes and thanks to those who continue to e-mail and post messages on my message board!

Position Reports

September 23, 2005Latitude 29 degrees - 21 minutes South
Longitude 003 degrees - 24 minutes West

September 24, 2005Latitude 30 degrees - 55 minutes South
Longitude 002 degrees - 11 minutes West

September 25, 2005
Latitude 32 degrees North
Longitude 11 degrees West

367 Nautical Miles till Cape Town!!!