Happy Halloween!

This has been one of our longest stretches at sea yet, and it has gone by so quickly. This week has almost reminded me of my life back in LA – busy. It also made me miss LA a little bit, but I’ll get to that later. The first day back on ship, I received an invitation to the Captain’s Dinner, which is exactly what I needed after gorging for five days on Indian food (this trip really is not for dieters!) But the Captain’s Dinner was amazing – fabulous food, unlimited glasses of wine, crème brulee… and I got to sit right next to the captain! I must admit I was a little intimidated at first, but I quickly turned on my own charm, and had a wonderful time chatting up the Master of the Ship. In between asking him if we could throw a wakeboard behind the ship (seriously), turn up the speed to 30 knots, or filling him in on the latest rumors about us not going to Turkey, I learned that he has a wife and two daughters back in Croatia, that he’s a big fan of James Bond movies, and that while all his brothers and uncles dreamed of becoming doctors when they grew up, he always knew he wanted to be the Captain of a ship. I cannot imagine a life in which you are separated from your family for nearly six months at a time in some cases; I just found out that my cabin steward, Allan from the Philippines has a seven month old baby at home, and when he last saw her she was only three months! It reminds me a little of military families and I feel for the wives and children at home as well as for the fathers who miss their families. But, perhaps this works out well for them… I’m not sure.

The next day brought a huge event for the shipboard community, an entire day free of classes, devoted to the Sea Olympics. From 10am until almost midnight, our “seas” competed in everything from egg toss, tug of war and volleyball, to hot dog eating, hairstyling and pure unadulterated talent (or in many cases lack thereof). :) I was really impressed with some of the talents. There was a freestyle rapping contest, where two girls went up against a rather intimidating lineup of guys – and held their own – and in the end a white suburban kid from Massachusetts blew everyone away with his lightening fast rhyming skills and unique rapping style. It was a little like “8 mile”, and I won’t lie, I’d , buy tickets to this guy’s show. My sea started off a little sluggish (I don’t think the judges appreciated our hip/hop theme or even knew the origin of our song – the students thought it was great), but we came back with wins in several team events and a great talent show, and climbed our way into the top three. I was proud of the Med Sea, and it was a fun, but very exhausting day.

Speaking of talent, we were entertained yet again this week by the Crew Talent Show, followed by Crew Appreciation Day. The crew on this ship is a great group of men and women from around the world (mostly the Philippines, but also the Caribbean, India, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and even Canada). The crew talent show was an opportunity for us to see their individual talents shine, and to see them as people with lives beyond the ship, with great fun and outgoing personalities. I think a lot of the girls also saw many of them as hot young hip-hop dancers… but thank goodness for the no-fraternization-with-crew policy, or things might get a little dicey on the ship. J All-in-all, the crew talent show was a fundraiser for the crew, in which we raised nearly $8,000 to go towards their facilities, crew tours in the ports, and the social welfare of our crew. The next day we peppered the halls with thank you signs and banners, cleaned our own rooms, bussed our own tables and generally tried to do our part to thank them for the amazing work they do on this ship. They really do spoil us, here, and in many ways, we probably don’t deserve it.

The rest of this week for me has involved a lot of meetings and organizational planning for the Ambassadors Ball, another charity fundraiser that my committee is planning at the end of the voyage. And somehow when I haven’t been frantically throwing together these meetings, trying to figure out what I’m going to do in Egypt, spending a couple of hours each night chaperoning the “AFTer hours parties, and meeting individually with homesick students, or motivated student group leaders planning additional shipboard activities, I managed to organize a fun UCLA dinner, bringing together the other eight bruins here, and am hosting a Chico State dinner tonight, with the two professors and other two students here representing Chico and the Wildcats. Oh, and last night was our Halloween Dance Party (I went as Pocahontas), our Cultural Pre-port for Egypt, and tonight we have the Logistics Pre-port. Whew! I am sure I have left out a lot. It has been a busy but mostly fun week. I definitely thought of LA quite a bit during the UCLA dinner and missed my friends back in LA. Tonight, I am sure I will be reminiscing a lot about Chico, which makes me miss my family and friends back there. But, every now and then, I try to take a few moments away from the busy schedule and just try to catch the beautiful sunset on the ocean, or the breeze from the bow of the ship, and remind myself how lucky I am to be traveling around the world, and have the opportunity to meet people of unique cultures, see amazing sights, and live in a community where so much growth is possible. Tonight, we arrive in Egypt! I am so excited. It was one the ports I was the most looking forward to reaching. Egypt?!? I still can’t believe I am almost there…. Like all other ports, we only have a few days in this country. I cannot wait to see what this new journey will bring.