Another day at Sea…

It’s a spooky, rainy, foggy day out on the Pacific Ocean. We are now East of the Prime Meridian in the North Eastern Hemisphere heading west. That’s a lot to comprehend! We crossed the International Date Line earlier in the week and completely skipped February 3rd as a day in our lives. It’s getting colder and more wintery as we get closer to Japan so I’m glad we had time to enjoy the sundeck the past 2 weeks. Yesterday we didn’t have class so the girls and I did a bit of remodeling in my room and made it into a movie theatre. We watched movies all day long then went to a showing of Jaws in the main room late night. I’d never seen it before, but it was cool to watch it while we are at sea. Last night I also met my shipboard family. Each of the professors and Lifelong Learners (older people on the voyage) adopt about 8 students and we have special dinners together and do fun activities. My dad is the physician onboard the ship and his wife is sailing too. They are the cutest couple in their 60s…Ketsey and Mort. We had fresh cookies in their room last night and plan to have dinner together tonight. The other kids in the family seem pretty cool too- one girl is from Puerto Rico and teaches the Cardio Aerobics class I go to. Anyways, we are just about done planning for Japan and China and I couldn’t be more excited to start our East Asia whirlwind over the next month. In Japan we port in Yokohama and plan on heading straight for the bullet train to go to Tokyo. It is Margaret’s 21st that first day so we plan on being the stars of the Karaoke bar that night! We’re already making lists of what songs each person should perform. Haha. We’ll tour Tokyo for 2 days and 2 nights then go to Hiroshima for a day, Kyoto for a day and 2 nights then Kobe for the last day. We’ve done lots of reading to prep so we can hit all the spots we want to. I am way more excited to get there than I thought I would be. In Global Studies today we learned all about Japanese business and culture. It was fascinating!! The more I learn, the more I can’t wait to experience it in real life! It’s weird how our class lectures and reading will literally come alive in a matter of days. Until I have real Japan stories and pics, here is another pic from Hawaii… -Hillary