TV News and Cats

Within four days we’ve lost four hours. During the day I’m miserably tired and at night I can’t sleep. It’s awful. Other than that though, things are going great.

I’m turning in my semester-long journal on my Japan readings and my consumer-oriented piece for Traveler’s Journals today. Yesterday I finished my global studies readings and a couple days ago I turned in my sixth and final paper on geohazards. Three exams to go and I’ll be home free. The sweet thing about exams on the ship is that the teachers only have one to two days to grade the tests and report the grades back to us, so I’m hoping that, in turn, we have shorter, less complicated exams in order to make grading easier.

Last night was the Ambassador’s Ball. The girls wore dresses, the boys wore suits (many of which were made in Vietnam), and after eating a fancy five-course meal with pre-arranged seating and Champaign, we danced the night away. One of the teachers on the ship also danced the night away, only while grinding on the students while wearing jeans and her bikini top...pretty sure she was drunk. Needless to say, it was extremely entertaining. Then at 10:00 they put out this amazing dessert bar with a million kinds of cakes and seriously, just so much it was ridiculous. Oh yeah, and before the dinner we watched a preview of the voyages DVD and a 45-minute slideshow of pictures. As many joked, “It was only the most important night of our lives.”

Today is the 29th for us. So is tomorrow. It’s all very confusing to hear people refer to a date by “the first 29th.”

We’ll get to Hawaii Thursday night and have all day Friday to do as we please. Still debating Pearl Harbor or not.

Less than ten days on the ship. One girl in the voyage DVD preview said that, “I’m ready to go home and see my friends and family, but after a week I’ll want to come right back here.” That’s how I’m feeling right now too.