Flying fish!

So, I decided that in my next life I want to be a flying fish. These are apparently the things you think about when you’ve been at sea for nine days and all you can see for miles upon miles are masses of water and ocean waves, until you finally see a hint of life – these tiny flying fish zipping by, and popping in and out of the soft blue waves. The past few days the ocean has literally looked like silk. I’ve never seen such still calm waters, more reminiscent of a lake, than what I imagined the middle of the ocean would appear. The crew said that this is the calmest they have ever seen the seas. And all I can think about is how much I want to dive off the 6th floor deck and swim with the fish. The past few days I almost felt like I was on vacation. I found a break in my schedule yesterday and took a couple hours to read out on the deck, while soaking up some sun. Today I even took a nap! Did I mention that we crossed the International Date Line and lost an entire day? I’ll never have a September 7, 2006. Isn’t that wild? And the other crazy thing is that we keep gaining time. There will be 23 days on this voyage that we actually have 25 hour days. I guess this will make up for skipping Sept. 7th? :) At first it was great, an extra hour of sleep! But eventually it started to take a downward turn. Getting up early for me is typically no problem. So, getting up even earlier seemed fine. I could work out before everyone else, or I could even take the extra hour and sleep in. That worked out just fine until I started falling asleep at around 7 or 8pm. After about the sixth or seventh day of turning our clocks back, my body had not completely adjusted and 8pm felt like it was 1 or 2am. We all got a little screwed up. Good news, though. I have been off the “chaperone” duty for the past three nights! Which has been awesome, because I got to participate in other fun events that didn’t involve a bunch of drunk people trying to hook up, or get into other forms of trouble. Friday night was Open Mic Night, where several acts performed in kind of a “coffee house” venue. Some of the students are really talented (some not so much, but bless their hearts - they tried!) And we even have a senior passenger who is about 85 years old, who plays the sax beautifully. The highlight for sure was when one of the students in my sea (Evan) gave a spontaneous interpretive dance performance while Judy, our senior adult coordinator sang her third John Denver song in a row (let’s just say that Evan’s performance lifted an otherwise subdued crowd). The following night was Karaoke. It was a bit slow to start off (Celine Dion songs should be banned from all Karaoke lists, IMHO) but when two guys sang TLC’s “No Scrubs” (that one is for you, Kat), and everyone joined in on “Friends in Low Places” and “Sweet Home Alabama”, we knew Karaoke was a hit. With all these activities going on, it’s sometimes hard to remember that this is actually a university on a ship, and you might begin to wonder how or when the students have time to study. All I can say is that is just one of the perks that comes from being staff. I do have to sit in on one class, and can choose to sit in on others if I like, but I don’t have to take any tests!!

Tomorrow we arrive in Japan. All around me, I can hear students buzzing about who’s doing what, going where, whether to meet up in Kyoto or Tokyo, who wants to go to Hiroshima, etc, etc. I think we are all really excited about getting to our first international port, and everyone wants to squeeze in as much as possible. As for me, I’m looking forward to sushi, Japanese culture, the arts, hitting up a festival, and just enjoying being an entirely new environment. For now, I’m off to swing dancing, and tonight we have an all-staff party. No chaperoning for any of us tonight! It’s our night. I just hope I can stay awake!

P. S. Shout out to the GPN. I miss you guys! Oh, and believe it or not, I won the faculty/staff poker tournament. Of course, there was no money on the line, and all I could legally win was bragging rights, but whatever. I won, hehe. Hope you're all doing well. Miss ya!