Crazy Waves and Fun Activities...

Some of you might have heard about a big earthquake south of Japan recently.  Well, imagine what it did to the ocean waters and then think about where my ship is en route….. yep, we’re a rockin and a rollin!!  Huge waves coming from all directions have been slamming our ship and throwing us back down at the ocean.  We go into valleys of waves and the peaks will almost reach my deck 3 window.  It’s still pretty fun for me because I haven’t felt seasick ever, but some kids are having a rough time.  The captain has diverted us 200 miles out of our original path to avoid the epicenter of the resulting storm and slowed our pace to a crawl, but that has only done so much.  This now means that we are getting to Japan late, however!  We’ve been on the ship for 12 days since Hawaii and hearing that our time will be shortened in Japan is not exactly crowd-pleasing.  Regardless, we have our plans set for when we get there and are ready to take advantage of every minute!  Since I blogged last lots of fun things have been happening.  We had a ‘mismatched’ themed dance party on the ship (strobe lights, black lights, DJ music and all!).  I thought my outfit was so good that I entered myself in the finalist dance-off competition.  I couldn’t win because I wasn’t formally chosen to be a finalist. Instead, I sort of jumped in the fun, but I definitely got in the top three for applause!  We also had a coffee house style talent show.  Some of the kids on the ship are outrageously talented- especially this one kid from San Diego who is going to be the next John Mayer.  We had our first global studies midterm- easy peezy.  I’ve been attending every class and taking notes, so studying wasn’t too hard but I’m glad the test is behind me.   On another note, you might remember how I have an assignment to record myself on video saying “I’m happy to be here” in each country’s native language.  Well, here it is
In Japanese:
私はここに満足している
(watashi wa koko ni manzoku shi te iru).  I’m excited to say this while I’m at Hiroshima or maybe in Tokyo’s busiest intersection.  I’ll be sure to report on all of my adventures when I return to the ship next week.  Until then, here’s yet another pic from our favorite park in Hilo, Hawaii.

-Hillary