Sleepless Somewhere in the Ocean and Other News . . .

Well, today is November 29th . . . again. We had it yesterday too. We are trying to catch up with U.S. time before we get home. We’ve lost an hour for five of the last six nights. Everyone seems to be going through some sort of twisted jet leg. As you all know, I was up and bouncing about at 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning after a couple of hours sleep after the Ambassador’s Ball. Well, I actually passed out on the couch in the piano lounge during Global Studies. It’s the first time I’ve actually done that. It was a really interesting lecture on global poverty too. Then, I skipped my classes and had some broken sleep from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. So, you’d have thought I’d be nice and tired to get to bed early last night. Nope. My roommate, Courtney, and I were bouncing off the walls until 5:30 a.m. Then I got to wake up for my 8:00 a.m. class two hours later. YES!!! I thought of something funny in my class and I almost couldn’t get my giggles under control. I’m getting a bit slap happy. I don’t know that I’ve ever before made it for breakfast twice in a row on this ship. I have definitely heard a lot of other people complaining about not being able to sleep. From what I've heard, people were running around the ship all night long playing games, writing papers, and watching CNN(?). Alot of people haven't slept at all for the past couple nights. Someone in the breakfast line said that he was going to the clinic to get sleeping pills and if they wouldn’t give him any, he was going across the hall to the mental health office because he was going to lose his mind.

I had a nice afternoon/evening last night. I ran out to the pool deck in my bikini thinking that it was going to be nice enough to lay out, but while it was nice out, it wasn’t quite there yet. Maybe today. So, I hung out and eventually ordered a pizza right before dinner. At 5:30, I had my last Orinoco Delta reunion dinner. So sad . . . Then at 8, there was a community college on the Peace Corps. I had been waiting for this one. It’s something that I’ve always been interested in. It was really interesting and enlightening. Then at 10:30, there was a late night comedy show put on by some students. It was hilarious and very scandalous. It consisted of group improve, a stand up, and a sexy performance by the salsa team at intermission. It was so much fun, but, it didn’t end until 2 a.m. with the change in time.

Well, today is a very special day. First and foremost, it is the day that the students who won the day of meal planning at the auction get to pick the menu. So for breakfast, we had chocolate pancakes, bacon, hash browns, cheese omelets, yogurt, fruits, sticky buns, pastries, and cereal. I usually just grab a box of cereal and yogurt and eat in my class on A days. But, I made sure to make it to breakfast today. It’s actually a little sad, but it looks like they took frozen pancakes and smashed chocolate sprinkles into the bottom. It wasn’t that fabulous, but it was different, which is good after three months. The rumor is that lunch is grill food and dinner is tacos. Other big news today is that I just attended my very last A day class. All that’s left is the final after Hawaii. And right now, I’m sitting through my last Global Studies class. So so so so so sad. Tomorrow is our last Global Studies course and my last B day courses, besides finals. All my papers have been turned in for a few days, so it’s just a matter of studying for finals now.

We’ll be docking in just a week now. It’s all ending . . . I’m so sad and excited at the same time. Well, I’m going to see what I can do about staying awake and studying for Global Studies today . . .


P.S. If I implied that the Ambassador’s Ball was an elegant, tame event, that wouldn’t be at all accurate. For me personally, it was tame compared to other nights I’ve had this semester. But, I still had a great time. The dance, however, in general, was complete debauchery. There were engaged couples everywhere. At least 75% of the people there were drunk, including staff members. Funny that everyone got so drunk off the two glasses of wine and glass of champagne we were allowed at dinner (haha *wink, wink). All the RDs were turning a blind eye to everything. This stuff would not have flown at the beginning of the voyage, but what are you going to do at this point. And, there was some big scandal with a particular free thinking teacher. The rumors have been flying and became a big part of the comedy show last night. Being on the Ambassador’s Ball Committee and all, I wouldn’t have planned it any other way!!! (*wink*)