The Sea Finally Calms?

Night before last was by far the rockiest time we’ve had yet on the ship.  Huge swells hit our boat all day and night causing us to slide farther in our chairs than before; sending our belongings flying across the room; and causing our drawers to slam open and shut.  Imagine trying to sleep with this chaos!  Tammy and I are lucky in that our room is centrally located on the ship so we have the least rocking compared to rooms at either end.  However, we still woke up at 3am to huge waves slapping our window on the 3rd deck!  Yesterday the swells were still bad but we got notice that we had been skirting the huge storm coming towards San Diego and we were almost out of it.  Today, luckily, I can tell that we are past the worst of the swells because it has been the calmest day yet!  Classes are going well.  Yesterday my business classes improved. We played a game in my Global Citizenship class breaking us up into groups reflecting the populations on each continent.  I was the ambassador for North America and the only one at my table while China had 13 people crammed at one table.  The teacher then passed out cups using jellybeans to denote GDP and sugar packets to show energy consumption.  We then went around comparing world data statistics ranging from life expectancy to secondary school enrollment rates.  The final stage of the game was interactive in which ambassadors from different ‘countries’ could come negotiate deals or ask for aid.  I had a ball with this part because I decided to allow different types of visas and bring my friends back to ‘North America’.  I also made deals with Latin America and Africa lending them jellybeans and sugar packets to boost their agriculture and tourism industries.  Anyways, my Gamelan music class was just as hysterical as the first day. Tammy and Margaret signed up, so we all just giggled as we hit our gongs trying to stay on beat. I nominated Margaret to be our dancer in the performance (a position that doesn’t currently exist!)  She loved the idea. Ha. Last night I also went to a seminar on shipboard sustainability and learned about the efforts being made to be even more environmentally friendly.  It was interesting hearing about all the WASTE that is created.  Today has been fantastic.  Started my day with a leisurely breakfast on the deck then a mini workout in the outdoor weights gym looking out to the ocean.  In Global Studies we had three different professors brief us on Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean.  Then, for the next four hours I laid in the sun on the deck!! In my Sociological Rumors of the Sea class we continued talking about Titanic and even had a special guest presentation by one of the professors who sang a folk tale song.  For the second half of class we went out on the deck and our teacher told us a spooky disaster story of seal hunters in Canada.   We are solidifying our plans for Japan and China right now so we can book everything in Hawaii, it’s looking pretty darn exciting!! Can’t wait to get to Hawaii on Monday!! - Hillary