i have two options:
a) important academic work
b) keeping you people updated on life
the things i sacrifice for you...hehe, just kidding :-P
actually soon i'm going to chose secret option c, which is to watch the faculty play doubles ping-pong for the Sea Olympics. everyone on the ship is part of a sea (Mediterranean, Caribbean, Aegean, Bering, Red, Yellow, etc.). We all compete against each other doing really weird and/or not weird things (like sock wrestling, which, it turns out, is brutal. so don't get into sock wrestling without assessing the risks) for one day in the sea olympics. i'm in the Baltic Sea. The faculty, staff and Lifelong Learners are in the Dead Sea (yes, that is supposed to be funny). the winners of the sea olympics are the first sea off the ship in miami (it takes all morning to clear the ship in port when we're NOT trying to get all the crap we own through customs...it's a big deal to be first), so the Dead Sea mostly competes just for the fun of us being able to watch them compete, because they get off first anyway. sorry parents, i love you and i can't wait to see you, but i don't really want to be first...as most of you know, i have the real bad separation anxiety. also, i'm a slow-ass packer.
my favorite event, and the only one i actually sat through all of, was the sychronized swimming competetion. mostly i promised the Dead sea team i'd cheer them on (Lara is a perfectionist (me too, i get it) and was really nervous...plus she put on some team spirit eye makeup that by that point made her look like she'd just been punched out). the whole event was pretty funny, from Jim the assistant dean flopping around in the wading pool to my team, who i think reenacted birth. There was one team that did a ridiculous aerobics dance. in the middle of it we suddenly went under this giant bridge, and eveyone got real distracted for a second and was like "hey where the hell'd that come from?"! it was cool.
why, you may ask, was there a giant bridge? because we're, oh, in the middle of the suez canal! probably the most interseting lecture that we had this section in global studies was on the canal, so we learned all about it, about how it's 150 miles long, 660 feet wide and 72 feet deep, and we are a member of the once-daily northbound convoy (there are two southbound convoys, and they both let us pass - it's a one-lane canal) (we must look pretty darn silly, a bunch of container ships and tankers with this silly blue cruise ship full of American college kids in the middle of it...i don't know how wise the sea olympics in the canal was - the army guys watching us from the sides are going to call and tell Alexandria not to let us in; we're just a ship full of crazy people). it takes 3 pilots (one of whom apparently eats a lot...Jim said he walked onto the bridge this morning and it was just this pilot and a giant plate of french fries) and 14 hours to go from Suez to Port Said, traveling at no-wake speed of 8 knots. it's pretty amazing. what's so cool about the suez is that it's green and agricultural, with cities and such, on the Egypt mainland side, and complete sandy desert with a few oases and outposts on the Sinai side - all the way from the very beginning, with only 660 feet of water between the two landscapes. pretty neat. everything else to be said about the canal with have to come in pictures, because it's just too hard to describe. it seems funny to see this much of a country before we even get off the ship.
i was originally worried that the long passage from Chennai was going to seem endless (getting to japan caused us all a bit of anxiety), but it didn't, really. partly because i've been completely overwhelmed with schoolwork, but partly because it's not so bad, being on the ship a lot. i've learned to spend more time alone, but also gotten to know old friends better - and even made new friends - on this stretch. like i finally got to spend time with Lara, and Eva and her friends, most of whom i didn't know, and i even brough Great Big Sea into the life of Kathy Soule, the librarian. and i met Julia who works in the bookstore (and introduced HER to GBS too! and she played me spanish pop) (Julia was working on making a super-awesome Capt. Jeremy costume for Jake, who's 7. and then we made him a paper boat). well...and then there are the friends from the beginning who i never see anymore...but these things happen.
plus we've seen all kinds of cool things, especially since we got into the red sea. (oh! well, there was a pirate drill for the crew (capt. morgan's something or other) and a whale in the gulf of aden that we saw breaching - SOOOOOOO cool. that was the night that it was really super-duper windy and we were all on 7 forward watching this beautiful sunset, and Eva and i were talking, and Eva said, "you know, this is kind of like a metaphor for the universe. here we are, this tiny thing floating around on the planet, and that, that out there? that's like, the netherlands of the earth." by which she didn't actually mean the Netherlands, of course. it was funny, but also deep. and then, feeling exceptionally deep and philosophical, as we sat out there in the wind, she told me about a poem in which the poet talks about being "ravaged by God" and how, in that moment, out there in the wind with no company but the sea and the sunset, it felt like we were being "ravaged by God". hmmm. another famous Eva quote was when we were talking about our weird global textbook and we decided that, based on the expression, "100 monkeys with a 100 typewriters could eventually produce the works of Shakespeare..and if not, it would be Port-to-port".) ANYWAY, we came through the Bab el-Mandeb at like 6 in the morning, passing between the funny pointy mountains of Yemen and the funny pointy mountains of Djibouti/Eritrea. we were a lot closer to the Yemen side, but you could see both - how fascinating. since we've been in the red sea we've passed all sorts of funny little islands, including a VOLCANO (roommate!) that just erupted, like, the day we left India! it was still smoking and spewing ash and lava - AMAZING! yesterday during class (which was already sufficiently interrupted by everyone complaining about the global studies test) we were all thoroughly distracted by watching giant mountains and offshore oil rigs go by (Cole said "look! transnational corporations!" our econ. professor HATES transnational competitions).
and yesterday evening was really lovely - we celebrated halloween! they did a BIG cookout with burgers on the seventh deck, so you could eat on 5, 6 OR 7 - the whole galley staff was out there, their hats somehow not blowing away, grilling (the veggie burgers were pretty much the leftovers of all the veggies we've had in the past two weeks mushed up with some rice - i thought it was brilliant! that's how i like my veggies!). anyway, they carved jack-o-lanterns and had sundaes and other delicious deserts and EVERYTHING. mmm. and...Eva and her friends were sitting with that guy that is nice but i'd never talked to! so i got to talk to him - yay! - even if it was with a big group of people. and he said i was cool. and i said we should chat or have dinner sometime. and he said, well, look at that, we both like food, sounds good. it was a beautiful thing.
and then i had lots of desserts with lots of people. and then Lara and i tried to feed the seagulls that had flocked to us like moths to a flame, but they largely ignored our contributions. further proof that seagulls are greedier in Maine than in Egypt.
the rest of the evening was not as lovely because we attempted to put on a halloween dance. all the lists got screwed up and i was the one telling people they had to re-sign up because their names got lost and trying to remember the alphabet really fast, which is, in fact, one of my worst skills as a human being. oops. it ended up being ok, people had fun, i think, and there were lots of great costumes! my roommate was a mermaid - i walked in on her half-naked sewing a seashell bra (she learned the truth of my saying that i really can't think on my feet.) the BEST (the ship thought so too - he won the best costume contest) was my friend Aaron, who dressed up as my absolutely ridiculous Canadian professor Bob Cecil. trust me, it was funny.
sorry i completely bored you about ship life. i know, i know. pyramids are more exciting. don't worry, we're getting there.
love, another very distant and excited Red Sox fan...muddy suez canal, you're my present, but muddy Charles...Boston, you're my home!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
tests, chocolate and weasel poop
yesterday i was running around like a crazy person because i had to pick some random two-hour period in which to take a test that i wasn't ready for, and it turns out that's a very stressful decision to make. (during the test, they started calling a million people down to the clinic, and i was like, dude, that's a lot of people for random drug testing, and what if i get called in the middle of my test?!?! turns our there was a lice outbreak at the meditation retreat in india. Jeff narrowly missed have to shave his big beautiful dreads.)
the test wasn't actually SO bad...after i took it, i sort of hit zombie mode, which was sad, because i was excited to be having dinner with Lara. and then a bunch of other people sat with us, all of them very nice people, but...i was just too out of it to be able to deal with more than one person at once. Lara felt so bad about leaving me like that that she ended up buying a bunch of chocolate that we split, and we talked for awhile. sitting there eating reese's and m&ms with Lara and being seranaded intermittently by our very own Jamaican pop star Chuck Norris (Chuck Norris rocks, btdubs; he said he refused to be in the talent because he "just didn't want to make everybody else look bad") was just the thing i needed i guess, because i felt a lot better about life afterward. pretty soon Lara's going to think i'm crazy and have no other friends. and she's lonesome too since Steve the opera critic left (her husband was on the ship Vietnam-Thailand).
anyway.
after that Eva came over with her weasel coffee. weasel coffee is a Vietnamese phenomenon. someone back in the day decided that maybe it would be brilliant, instead of just using PLAIN beans to make coffee, serving the beans to a weasel, waiting for it to poop them out, and then using the pooped-out, weasel-processed beans to make coffee (duh, right? why didn't we think of that?)! sadly, it's not as good as it sounds. really, it's just really strong coffee. and then there was the show of the less talented (or: differently talented, as we prefer to say) that was pretty good, in a bad way. there was this guy who was supposed to be in it but sort of ran away, and i was little sad about it. i don't know him at all, but, from sheer observation, he seems incredibly friendly and nice, and he even goes out of his way to say to me sometimes. i wish i knew him better/he had read his poem! funny thing is, he hangs out with the most unlikely girls. hmmm.
and now today we have the day off! woooooooo!!!! (turns out i can't sleep through chocoloate croissant day though - i tried,i really did...but then i ended up getting up and eating three) and i'm (not) doing my service learning portfolio, which keeps gaining more random chapters. i'm rather sad about it. today we're actually going around the horn of Africa (hi Jessica!!!!! you're only like two and a half countries away!). we're almost in the gulf of Aden and i hope that we go through the Bab before the middle of tonight, but our whopping 12 knot average isn't going to get us there very quickly. i guess we have to stall so we can fly through the red sea, where we have to fight off more pirates.
the problem with no classes is that then the housekeeping staff stands around a lot looking lost, because they have nothing to do if the beds that they're supposed to make are occupied. i don't think Dante, our steward, has much of a concept of sleeping in. it makes him sad when we're still in bed at 8.
(ahhhh!!! a BIRD just flew by! so weird! it's a really exotic bird too!!! we can't see any land, but i guess we're pretty near the horn.)
i'm sorry.
the exciting parts of this journey, at least for you to read, probably aren't really the stories about who i ate dinner with, or how evil my two-hour econ. test was, and yet that's all i actually have time to write about :-P oops. here, i'll put up another post with day one of india.
that's exotic, right?
the test wasn't actually SO bad...after i took it, i sort of hit zombie mode, which was sad, because i was excited to be having dinner with Lara. and then a bunch of other people sat with us, all of them very nice people, but...i was just too out of it to be able to deal with more than one person at once. Lara felt so bad about leaving me like that that she ended up buying a bunch of chocolate that we split, and we talked for awhile. sitting there eating reese's and m&ms with Lara and being seranaded intermittently by our very own Jamaican pop star Chuck Norris (Chuck Norris rocks, btdubs; he said he refused to be in the talent because he "just didn't want to make everybody else look bad") was just the thing i needed i guess, because i felt a lot better about life afterward. pretty soon Lara's going to think i'm crazy and have no other friends. and she's lonesome too since Steve the opera critic left (her husband was on the ship Vietnam-Thailand).
anyway.
after that Eva came over with her weasel coffee. weasel coffee is a Vietnamese phenomenon. someone back in the day decided that maybe it would be brilliant, instead of just using PLAIN beans to make coffee, serving the beans to a weasel, waiting for it to poop them out, and then using the pooped-out, weasel-processed beans to make coffee (duh, right? why didn't we think of that?)! sadly, it's not as good as it sounds. really, it's just really strong coffee. and then there was the show of the less talented (or: differently talented, as we prefer to say) that was pretty good, in a bad way. there was this guy who was supposed to be in it but sort of ran away, and i was little sad about it. i don't know him at all, but, from sheer observation, he seems incredibly friendly and nice, and he even goes out of his way to say to me sometimes. i wish i knew him better/he had read his poem! funny thing is, he hangs out with the most unlikely girls. hmmm.
and now today we have the day off! woooooooo!!!! (turns out i can't sleep through chocoloate croissant day though - i tried,i really did...but then i ended up getting up and eating three) and i'm (not) doing my service learning portfolio, which keeps gaining more random chapters. i'm rather sad about it. today we're actually going around the horn of Africa (hi Jessica!!!!! you're only like two and a half countries away!). we're almost in the gulf of Aden and i hope that we go through the Bab before the middle of tonight, but our whopping 12 knot average isn't going to get us there very quickly. i guess we have to stall so we can fly through the red sea, where we have to fight off more pirates.
the problem with no classes is that then the housekeeping staff stands around a lot looking lost, because they have nothing to do if the beds that they're supposed to make are occupied. i don't think Dante, our steward, has much of a concept of sleeping in. it makes him sad when we're still in bed at 8.
(ahhhh!!! a BIRD just flew by! so weird! it's a really exotic bird too!!! we can't see any land, but i guess we're pretty near the horn.)
i'm sorry.
the exciting parts of this journey, at least for you to read, probably aren't really the stories about who i ate dinner with, or how evil my two-hour econ. test was, and yet that's all i actually have time to write about :-P oops. here, i'll put up another post with day one of india.
that's exotic, right?
time warp to two weeks ago
I HATE MEN (more on that later).
but india’s awesome! It’s crazy that we’re finally here – India was always that distant land in the middle of everything…it was always “just wait till India this, just wait till India that...”…and so far, we’re all surviving just fine (knock on wood/steel, because we’re on a ship, so everything is steel…)
so we wake up on the first morning at PBT (Pilot boat time! I named it that) and run upstairs to gaze out upon the greatness, and there’s…NOTHING. some shipping traffic, a couple of tiny fishing boats, and fog, or smog, maybe. you could SMELL India, but you couldn’t actually SEE it. finally, a lighthouse came out of the clouds, and then some container ships, and then a harbor, and then Chennai. it’s an interesting harbor here – all the berths are sort of around a big lagoony thing that’s mostly full of ginornous jellyfish, and we have a spectacular view of an old warehouse. all day there are guys outside playing a very complicated game of “get the giant metal pipes into a nice, neat pyramid”. they are not very good at this game, and the repercussions are rather loud (I’ve been saying “rather” a lot more since I’ve been in India, by the way…ah, the aftereffects of colonisation..(hehe does anybody get it?!)).
anyway. despite our lovely location there was quite a crowd gathered round, some of them even playing music. then the immigration guys pulled up and piled out of the trunk of this jeep, one by one, like clowns in a volkwagen. they were nice immigration guys, though, because they let us off the ship in relatively good time. after a running around in circles kind of morning, I ended up on the Chennai city orientation, which was just fine. we visited a relatively substantial number of churches, though, considering the situation, including the one where St. Thomas is supposedly buried. what ended up being the most interesting part (besides our really exciting bus curtains – Indians really decorate their mass transit, who here has seen the Air India livery?) was a detour we had to take. we drove along the beach and through these fishing villages that are framed by government slab apartments – apparently these houses were built for the fisherpeople, but they didn’t want to live in them, so they sold them and then built thatched-roof huts, many of which were affected by the tsunami. there are all kinds of people and animals running around, and it’s really very fascinating to watch. we went to a nice silk store, which was a little overwhelming, and watched the Frankels attempt to buy nice things for their older children. on the way home i helped Sarah play "I Spy" with her dad. she asked for help with an "e" word (they'd already done Emily; don't get too excited), but apparently "ethnomusicology professor" didn’t cut it. needless to say, i wasn't very helpful. we went to a temple, too, which was happenin’ cause there’s a festival going on. the detail on the buildings is incredibly elaborate, there were all kinds of different decoratings of goddesses, etc. going on, the music was beautiful, and there was even a sacred cow! and it’s really rather liberating to walk around barefoot for awhile, Kristen and i decided.
then we came home for dinner.
i must explain dinner. when we're in port, there are few enough people eating that they make the real delicious food, which includes HOT, freshly tossed pasta dishes that are SOOO good - with olives and sauce and greens and things. so, feeling a bit down on myself because it happens sometimes, i sat down alone to eat in peace. a nice girl who i'd never met before (and, oh dear, whose name i have already forgotten) came and joined me, and then a friend of hers, and that was fine. and THEN Ellie comes over with "pick me up!" written all over her face, so i put her in my lap. she points to my pasta, so i feed her a nice penne. and then she says "more!" so i eat some penne. and then i giver her some penne. and then i eat some. and then i feed her, and then me. etc. and pretty soon my measly plate of penne is gone, and she says "more!" so i get more. and the cycle continues. then THAT plate of pasta is gone, and one of the grinning stewards hands over ANOTHER plate of pasta. eventually she takes the fork, stabs a penne, and sticks it in MY mouth. and then she eats a bite. and then me. and then her. and so on. literally, five plates of pasta (actually 4 plates and one bowl) and about an hour later, there were little sauce marks all over my pants, and she was finally done.
it was probably the most entertaining meal i've experienced on the ship.
anyway, boring story, but funny at the time.
yeah. that was day one. stay tuned to actually find out why I hate men (no, not all of them :-P).
but india’s awesome! It’s crazy that we’re finally here – India was always that distant land in the middle of everything…it was always “just wait till India this, just wait till India that...”…and so far, we’re all surviving just fine (knock on wood/steel, because we’re on a ship, so everything is steel…)
so we wake up on the first morning at PBT (Pilot boat time! I named it that) and run upstairs to gaze out upon the greatness, and there’s…NOTHING. some shipping traffic, a couple of tiny fishing boats, and fog, or smog, maybe. you could SMELL India, but you couldn’t actually SEE it. finally, a lighthouse came out of the clouds, and then some container ships, and then a harbor, and then Chennai. it’s an interesting harbor here – all the berths are sort of around a big lagoony thing that’s mostly full of ginornous jellyfish, and we have a spectacular view of an old warehouse. all day there are guys outside playing a very complicated game of “get the giant metal pipes into a nice, neat pyramid”. they are not very good at this game, and the repercussions are rather loud (I’ve been saying “rather” a lot more since I’ve been in India, by the way…ah, the aftereffects of colonisation..(hehe does anybody get it?!)).
anyway. despite our lovely location there was quite a crowd gathered round, some of them even playing music. then the immigration guys pulled up and piled out of the trunk of this jeep, one by one, like clowns in a volkwagen. they were nice immigration guys, though, because they let us off the ship in relatively good time. after a running around in circles kind of morning, I ended up on the Chennai city orientation, which was just fine. we visited a relatively substantial number of churches, though, considering the situation, including the one where St. Thomas is supposedly buried. what ended up being the most interesting part (besides our really exciting bus curtains – Indians really decorate their mass transit, who here has seen the Air India livery?) was a detour we had to take. we drove along the beach and through these fishing villages that are framed by government slab apartments – apparently these houses were built for the fisherpeople, but they didn’t want to live in them, so they sold them and then built thatched-roof huts, many of which were affected by the tsunami. there are all kinds of people and animals running around, and it’s really very fascinating to watch. we went to a nice silk store, which was a little overwhelming, and watched the Frankels attempt to buy nice things for their older children. on the way home i helped Sarah play "I Spy" with her dad. she asked for help with an "e" word (they'd already done Emily; don't get too excited), but apparently "ethnomusicology professor" didn’t cut it. needless to say, i wasn't very helpful. we went to a temple, too, which was happenin’ cause there’s a festival going on. the detail on the buildings is incredibly elaborate, there were all kinds of different decoratings of goddesses, etc. going on, the music was beautiful, and there was even a sacred cow! and it’s really rather liberating to walk around barefoot for awhile, Kristen and i decided.
then we came home for dinner.
i must explain dinner. when we're in port, there are few enough people eating that they make the real delicious food, which includes HOT, freshly tossed pasta dishes that are SOOO good - with olives and sauce and greens and things. so, feeling a bit down on myself because it happens sometimes, i sat down alone to eat in peace. a nice girl who i'd never met before (and, oh dear, whose name i have already forgotten) came and joined me, and then a friend of hers, and that was fine. and THEN Ellie comes over with "pick me up!" written all over her face, so i put her in my lap. she points to my pasta, so i feed her a nice penne. and then she says "more!" so i eat some penne. and then i giver her some penne. and then i eat some. and then i feed her, and then me. etc. and pretty soon my measly plate of penne is gone, and she says "more!" so i get more. and the cycle continues. then THAT plate of pasta is gone, and one of the grinning stewards hands over ANOTHER plate of pasta. eventually she takes the fork, stabs a penne, and sticks it in MY mouth. and then she eats a bite. and then me. and then her. and so on. literally, five plates of pasta (actually 4 plates and one bowl) and about an hour later, there were little sauce marks all over my pants, and she was finally done.
it was probably the most entertaining meal i've experienced on the ship.
anyway, boring story, but funny at the time.
yeah. that was day one. stay tuned to actually find out why I hate men (no, not all of them :-P).
Monday, October 22, 2007
bye bye Asia (maybe)
today we went around the southern tip of Sri Lanka, and you could see the mountains and little boats off in the distance. it occured to me that, not only was that the last time we were going to see land for awhile, but it was also the last time we were going to see Asia.
then later it occured to me that we were going to Turkey (yes we ARE going to Turkey, despite rumors to the contrary, including but not not limited to: we're diverting to Greece/we're diverting to Italy/Cape Town/Australia (Australia?! have you LOOKED at a map recently?!) (though other rumor has it that the Resident Directors strated that one)), so (depending on who you ask), i guess we'll be back in Asia after all. well, phew.
also, apparently the little boats were hunting whales, and this time i believe it, cause...this morning during breakfast, while feeding Ellie her chocolate croissant (they were trying to potty train her yesterday, but they seem to have temporarily aborted the mission after she peed all over a chair at dinner) i saw whales spouting! it was so cool. i haven't seen more than flying fish, frigate birds or giant dragonflies (yes, Leslie Bishop, ODONATA) (oh and giant disgusting-looking jellyfish in the port of Chennai) since those dolphins way back on our bridge tour. i didn't actually SEE the whales, per se, but they're out there.
and tonight, something amazing happened (besides when Nikki said that for awhile she thought Bob Cecil and Ellen Fitzpatrick seemed to be getting MIGHTY close, only to realize that they were both with spouses on the ship and 25 years different in age...i know that's not funny to you but it is to me and will still be when i go back and read this later; sorry guys). anyway, we had another talent show. there was singing and incredible dancing and stand-up comedy that no one had to kick off the stage and the performers had actually rehearsed. the very good reason for all of this was that it was, in fact, the CREW talent show, and it was brilliant. for one, it's always fun to see people having a great time and it's definitely always fun to see the see the crew out of context (including Perry in his civvies, a very enthusiastic drunk, running around 7/11 in Hong Kong at 11 o'clock at night with his Cup Noodles). and let me tell you, they are some FANTABULOUS dancers - we had a true rendition of Thriller, In the Navy performed by the cabin stewards in full Navy getup, and two big group dances of various housekeeping, deck and galley folks that were pretty unbelievable (though put it this way - we won't be telling their wives). Solomon, earlier referred to in my blog as "the indian guy who looks like Gandhi" (and, oops, is actually from St. Vincent and the Grenadines - i should correct that) told jokes, and then, in the post-show raffle (drawn by the Captain), was the lucky first to win a free haircut. we'll see that he gets a good head shine. the whole thing concluded with a rousing rendition of "We Are the World", performed by the entire housekeeping and laundry crew waving whatever country's flags they could scrounge up.
things like this actually make me proud to be a part of this community - there are times when i, and like-minded friends of mine, are disappointed in our fellow SASers, but not tonight. tonight people went all out, crowding out the Union, making signs for their stewards and favorite dining-hall guys and contributing to the crew fund that helps to give them Christmas gifts, keep their public quarters clean, and bus them around in port if there isn't anything to do within walking distance. i don't think there's anyone on the ship who doesn't personally know and, i dare say, truly appreciate the work of at least two (of 197) crewmembers - and most of us know more. i only wish there were a way that we could personally recognize all of those folks who we don't know, who work in the galley or the engine room or swab decks and things (though they do all come out of hiding when we come into port - there's always a whole throng of people on 4 aft in all white wearing big chef hats whenever there's something exciting going on outside - coming into port, man overboard drills, etc.) - on any given day, we only see about 60 crewmembers. anyway, that's what i have to say about that. it was fantastic.
today i felt rather lonesome because i've been studying like crazy for a test, and then i have another one next B day, and then i have to work on some papers. so pretty much all i do is sit around alone and make my back sore from leaning over books and computers. there are a few people that i haven't seen in awhile that i really want to just sit down and talk to, but i don't have time, and i can never find them when i do (i still don't understand this concept - we do all live on the same ship, right? how do people just...disappear sometimes?!) but tonight lots of people ate peanut butter and honey toast with me, including a friend i had thought was mad at me for quite some time (she's just moody, it turns out) and my new friend Jamie. it warmed my heart. and my tummy.
sorry, i really am working on that post on india. turns out it's a long-term process.
then later it occured to me that we were going to Turkey (yes we ARE going to Turkey, despite rumors to the contrary, including but not not limited to: we're diverting to Greece/we're diverting to Italy/Cape Town/Australia (Australia?! have you LOOKED at a map recently?!) (though other rumor has it that the Resident Directors strated that one)), so (depending on who you ask), i guess we'll be back in Asia after all. well, phew.
also, apparently the little boats were hunting whales, and this time i believe it, cause...this morning during breakfast, while feeding Ellie her chocolate croissant (they were trying to potty train her yesterday, but they seem to have temporarily aborted the mission after she peed all over a chair at dinner) i saw whales spouting! it was so cool. i haven't seen more than flying fish, frigate birds or giant dragonflies (yes, Leslie Bishop, ODONATA) (oh and giant disgusting-looking jellyfish in the port of Chennai) since those dolphins way back on our bridge tour. i didn't actually SEE the whales, per se, but they're out there.
and tonight, something amazing happened (besides when Nikki said that for awhile she thought Bob Cecil and Ellen Fitzpatrick seemed to be getting MIGHTY close, only to realize that they were both with spouses on the ship and 25 years different in age...i know that's not funny to you but it is to me and will still be when i go back and read this later; sorry guys). anyway, we had another talent show. there was singing and incredible dancing and stand-up comedy that no one had to kick off the stage and the performers had actually rehearsed. the very good reason for all of this was that it was, in fact, the CREW talent show, and it was brilliant. for one, it's always fun to see people having a great time and it's definitely always fun to see the see the crew out of context (including Perry in his civvies, a very enthusiastic drunk, running around 7/11 in Hong Kong at 11 o'clock at night with his Cup Noodles). and let me tell you, they are some FANTABULOUS dancers - we had a true rendition of Thriller, In the Navy performed by the cabin stewards in full Navy getup, and two big group dances of various housekeeping, deck and galley folks that were pretty unbelievable (though put it this way - we won't be telling their wives). Solomon, earlier referred to in my blog as "the indian guy who looks like Gandhi" (and, oops, is actually from St. Vincent and the Grenadines - i should correct that) told jokes, and then, in the post-show raffle (drawn by the Captain), was the lucky first to win a free haircut. we'll see that he gets a good head shine. the whole thing concluded with a rousing rendition of "We Are the World", performed by the entire housekeeping and laundry crew waving whatever country's flags they could scrounge up.
things like this actually make me proud to be a part of this community - there are times when i, and like-minded friends of mine, are disappointed in our fellow SASers, but not tonight. tonight people went all out, crowding out the Union, making signs for their stewards and favorite dining-hall guys and contributing to the crew fund that helps to give them Christmas gifts, keep their public quarters clean, and bus them around in port if there isn't anything to do within walking distance. i don't think there's anyone on the ship who doesn't personally know and, i dare say, truly appreciate the work of at least two (of 197) crewmembers - and most of us know more. i only wish there were a way that we could personally recognize all of those folks who we don't know, who work in the galley or the engine room or swab decks and things (though they do all come out of hiding when we come into port - there's always a whole throng of people on 4 aft in all white wearing big chef hats whenever there's something exciting going on outside - coming into port, man overboard drills, etc.) - on any given day, we only see about 60 crewmembers. anyway, that's what i have to say about that. it was fantastic.
today i felt rather lonesome because i've been studying like crazy for a test, and then i have another one next B day, and then i have to work on some papers. so pretty much all i do is sit around alone and make my back sore from leaning over books and computers. there are a few people that i haven't seen in awhile that i really want to just sit down and talk to, but i don't have time, and i can never find them when i do (i still don't understand this concept - we do all live on the same ship, right? how do people just...disappear sometimes?!) but tonight lots of people ate peanut butter and honey toast with me, including a friend i had thought was mad at me for quite some time (she's just moody, it turns out) and my new friend Jamie. it warmed my heart. and my tummy.
sorry, i really am working on that post on india. turns out it's a long-term process.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
weird things are entertaining
guess what?! my adopted mom on the ship (we have this extended family program), Peggy, is a Maniac! she's from Forest City, up by the New Brunswick border.
i learned this as we were leaving Chennai. i ALSO learned how they pick up the fifth-deck gangway, which is long and steep, hoist it up, flip it over and stick it on top of the ship. it's pretty cool! i waited FOREVER to watch them take it in because the Indian immigration guys were simply NEVER going to leave; they give them the delicious food on the fancy ship, so there really is no incentive to go down the long and steep gangway and through the throng of head-waggling (more on head-waggling later for those of you who have never been to india) men with AK47s and back into the warehouse that was our berth except that the ship will never give them their passports back.
Nancy and i also had a long and interesting conversation about service visits/how she thinks that i don't have to fail at life and made me realize how creative being an only child made me. and also, if i'm real tired tomorrow, it's because they kept making announcements all night to PLEASE CONSERVE WATER. WE GET IT, THANK YOU, DEAN GLATFELTER. really, my shower from today will last me LOOOONG after we make it around Sri Lanka and back to the world of ocean that isn't so dirty that our filters can't process it, he doesn't even know. preaching to the choir, my friend.
sometime in the near future will come the entry on our rickshaw-intensive adventure today. not for the weak of stomach. but yeah, there's already the beginning of an entry on what i actually did in india; i'll publish it soooon.
oh ps one more funny story! tonight we had "shabbat", which mostly meant that we ate challah. and Perry (he's Filipino (crew)) came up to me and was like "what's that?" and i said "Challah - the food of the Jews!" and he said "the juice?!" again, funny at the time.
i learned this as we were leaving Chennai. i ALSO learned how they pick up the fifth-deck gangway, which is long and steep, hoist it up, flip it over and stick it on top of the ship. it's pretty cool! i waited FOREVER to watch them take it in because the Indian immigration guys were simply NEVER going to leave; they give them the delicious food on the fancy ship, so there really is no incentive to go down the long and steep gangway and through the throng of head-waggling (more on head-waggling later for those of you who have never been to india) men with AK47s and back into the warehouse that was our berth except that the ship will never give them their passports back.
Nancy and i also had a long and interesting conversation about service visits/how she thinks that i don't have to fail at life and made me realize how creative being an only child made me. and also, if i'm real tired tomorrow, it's because they kept making announcements all night to PLEASE CONSERVE WATER. WE GET IT, THANK YOU, DEAN GLATFELTER. really, my shower from today will last me LOOOONG after we make it around Sri Lanka and back to the world of ocean that isn't so dirty that our filters can't process it, he doesn't even know. preaching to the choir, my friend.
sometime in the near future will come the entry on our rickshaw-intensive adventure today. not for the weak of stomach. but yeah, there's already the beginning of an entry on what i actually did in india; i'll publish it soooon.
oh ps one more funny story! tonight we had "shabbat", which mostly meant that we ate challah. and Perry (he's Filipino (crew)) came up to me and was like "what's that?" and i said "Challah - the food of the Jews!" and he said "the juice?!" again, funny at the time.
Friday, October 12, 2007
India (not Indiana) or Bust!
About an hour ago, one of our professors (she says she probably likes me so much because i'm not one of her students), totally out of the blue, said, “well, if i’d gotten pregnant at the junior prom, i could’ve had you.” we then concluded that this wasn’t actually true - it would’ve been her Sophomore Ring Dance. ah, the life of the professor.
so we’re pretty much going about a billion miles an hour right now, by which i mean, about 25 knots, which could, as far as i know, be a billion miles an hour, but i’m pretty sure it’s more like 40. still this is very speedy. this is to ward off pirates. we’re not realllly at high risk for piracy - our people-to-booty ratio is too small; we wouldn’t be worth the pain of dealing with 650 college students and 200 crew with high-pressure hoses. so, phew.
Also, today my faith in humanity was restored. yesterday i died a little inside because my pin from China (i’ve been collecting pins from every country; i actually had two pins from China but they’re different and i really liked both of them!) fell off of my backpack. and i looked EVERYWHERE, and kept running back and forth between the Purser’s Desk and Student Life, but it never turned up. and then TODAY someone turned it in to Student Life! they didn’t steal it, they said, hey, someone might really be missing this. and that’s the story of how my pin came home.
other than Mike and Lindsay and Benjamin and Paige and Carrie, who are dancing like crazy awesome dancing fools on the back 5th deck, everybody’s pretty much just stressed out by a million tests and papers coming up. (mmm i just ate a rice cracker from Japan that tastes like a combination of delicious rice cracker and feet. not half bad! well, maybe about half bad...) we have a Global Studies test in two days, which is basically the equivalent of all 650 of us getting our periods at the same time, except with academic competition. how exciting.
let’s see...i’ve also gotten a chance to hang out with our Indian interport students, Dee and Vani, which is cool! they’re really sweet, and yesterday was Vani’s birthday so i got free ice cream cake - and a lot of free ice cream cake frosting. i also hang out with Ellie, our resident 2-year-old, because she likes to wave at me and ask me to take her for walks and steal my bracelet and put it on her tiny tiny arm.
today i tried to eat dinner and it was so windy that i kept eating my hair. i like when i eat with Jeff and we share peanut butter and honey toast. he’s the only one who eats peanut butter and honey toast with me. (i don't like when he tries to dread my hair.) yesterday i had lunch with the captain and he made fun of me about my peanut butter and honey toast. the captain is RATHER entertaining. he talks about pirates and his wife the 24-year-old Filipina ex-fashion model who just, oh, had a stroke, and his late wife, and his other wife, in much the same manner that one usually talks about weather. he’s just funny though (as is Laura, the girl who makes awkward first impressions, except the funny, wild kind of first impressions. the three of us made a great conversational team. we almost kept the captain from driving the ship). the real blandness award, thhough, goes to the crewmember who announced the man overboard drill the other day. she was like “man overboard. for exercise, for exercise” totally monotone-ly, and all of a sudden the whole ship heels and Doc Nancy comes running thorough the computer lab going “we’re turning all the way around! hold on!” and we really did a giant 180 on a dime, put down a tender boat, and saved the poor dummy (as i said to Lauren, a fake person, not a stupid one, but i wouldn’t put it past Captain Jeremy). i was impressed. some people fell over. at least the seas were calm.
i have discovered something. life is more pleasant if i get done the work i can, and then give up and go to fun evening programs, like Doc Nancy’s Grand Canyon lecture or Judy Lunn’s (she's the middle-aged lesbian on the ship with her partner, who works in the field office (testiness levels equivalent to your average registrar’s office...our registrar, Alexis, in contrast, who hasn’t had to do any actual registering since the second week of the voyage, is quite friendly and accommodating) and goes by the name of Sparkle after her sparkly shirts - they're quite a pair.) tribute to John Denver. Because really, i’ve learned more at those that i have trying to remember what Bob Cecil was talking about when class started half an hour ago, because it’s definitely not what he’s talking about now.
today the Resident Directors, who are an incredibly entertaining bunch (Paul knits! did i ever write about Paul? he’s awesome, and he went to school in Indiana. knitting once turned into a long conversation about life, and then i pulled out my computer and he was like, you knit AND you’re a mac person?! could you BE any more perfect?!?! and i was like, Paul, could YOU be any more perfect?! i’m pretty much jealous of his boyfriend, even though i’ve never met him. last night at our national coming out day open mic night, he told the great story about how he had to let go of his girlfriend when he came out, but she popped up later - as his sister-in-law! isn’t that crazy?! he said that sometimes it’s a little awkward around his nieces and nephews...) had the difficult job of counting for our coin wars charity collection. if you've ever counted coins for a long period of time, you know how much fun it is...now try that with six different currencies! they argued and got frustrated and we laughed and laughed, because it was really funny to watch.
it’s 12:30 (0030) and my roommate’s not home yet. hopefully she’s having sex with her boyfriend. she’ll be so happy.
PS tomorrow’s chocolate croissant day! my favorite kind of day, and it only happens every other day! and oatmeal, which is delicious with brown sugar and peanut butter and is probably the healthiest thing that i eat.
also, there’s really cool lightening outside.
so we’re pretty much going about a billion miles an hour right now, by which i mean, about 25 knots, which could, as far as i know, be a billion miles an hour, but i’m pretty sure it’s more like 40. still this is very speedy. this is to ward off pirates. we’re not realllly at high risk for piracy - our people-to-booty ratio is too small; we wouldn’t be worth the pain of dealing with 650 college students and 200 crew with high-pressure hoses. so, phew.
Also, today my faith in humanity was restored. yesterday i died a little inside because my pin from China (i’ve been collecting pins from every country; i actually had two pins from China but they’re different and i really liked both of them!) fell off of my backpack. and i looked EVERYWHERE, and kept running back and forth between the Purser’s Desk and Student Life, but it never turned up. and then TODAY someone turned it in to Student Life! they didn’t steal it, they said, hey, someone might really be missing this. and that’s the story of how my pin came home.
other than Mike and Lindsay and Benjamin and Paige and Carrie, who are dancing like crazy awesome dancing fools on the back 5th deck, everybody’s pretty much just stressed out by a million tests and papers coming up. (mmm i just ate a rice cracker from Japan that tastes like a combination of delicious rice cracker and feet. not half bad! well, maybe about half bad...) we have a Global Studies test in two days, which is basically the equivalent of all 650 of us getting our periods at the same time, except with academic competition. how exciting.
let’s see...i’ve also gotten a chance to hang out with our Indian interport students, Dee and Vani, which is cool! they’re really sweet, and yesterday was Vani’s birthday so i got free ice cream cake - and a lot of free ice cream cake frosting. i also hang out with Ellie, our resident 2-year-old, because she likes to wave at me and ask me to take her for walks and steal my bracelet and put it on her tiny tiny arm.
today i tried to eat dinner and it was so windy that i kept eating my hair. i like when i eat with Jeff and we share peanut butter and honey toast. he’s the only one who eats peanut butter and honey toast with me. (i don't like when he tries to dread my hair.) yesterday i had lunch with the captain and he made fun of me about my peanut butter and honey toast. the captain is RATHER entertaining. he talks about pirates and his wife the 24-year-old Filipina ex-fashion model who just, oh, had a stroke, and his late wife, and his other wife, in much the same manner that one usually talks about weather. he’s just funny though (as is Laura, the girl who makes awkward first impressions, except the funny, wild kind of first impressions. the three of us made a great conversational team. we almost kept the captain from driving the ship). the real blandness award, thhough, goes to the crewmember who announced the man overboard drill the other day. she was like “man overboard. for exercise, for exercise” totally monotone-ly, and all of a sudden the whole ship heels and Doc Nancy comes running thorough the computer lab going “we’re turning all the way around! hold on!” and we really did a giant 180 on a dime, put down a tender boat, and saved the poor dummy (as i said to Lauren, a fake person, not a stupid one, but i wouldn’t put it past Captain Jeremy). i was impressed. some people fell over. at least the seas were calm.
i have discovered something. life is more pleasant if i get done the work i can, and then give up and go to fun evening programs, like Doc Nancy’s Grand Canyon lecture or Judy Lunn’s (she's the middle-aged lesbian on the ship with her partner, who works in the field office (testiness levels equivalent to your average registrar’s office...our registrar, Alexis, in contrast, who hasn’t had to do any actual registering since the second week of the voyage, is quite friendly and accommodating) and goes by the name of Sparkle after her sparkly shirts - they're quite a pair.) tribute to John Denver. Because really, i’ve learned more at those that i have trying to remember what Bob Cecil was talking about when class started half an hour ago, because it’s definitely not what he’s talking about now.
today the Resident Directors, who are an incredibly entertaining bunch (Paul knits! did i ever write about Paul? he’s awesome, and he went to school in Indiana. knitting once turned into a long conversation about life, and then i pulled out my computer and he was like, you knit AND you’re a mac person?! could you BE any more perfect?!?! and i was like, Paul, could YOU be any more perfect?! i’m pretty much jealous of his boyfriend, even though i’ve never met him. last night at our national coming out day open mic night, he told the great story about how he had to let go of his girlfriend when he came out, but she popped up later - as his sister-in-law! isn’t that crazy?! he said that sometimes it’s a little awkward around his nieces and nephews...) had the difficult job of counting for our coin wars charity collection. if you've ever counted coins for a long period of time, you know how much fun it is...now try that with six different currencies! they argued and got frustrated and we laughed and laughed, because it was really funny to watch.
it’s 12:30 (0030) and my roommate’s not home yet. hopefully she’s having sex with her boyfriend. she’ll be so happy.
PS tomorrow’s chocolate croissant day! my favorite kind of day, and it only happens every other day! and oatmeal, which is delicious with brown sugar and peanut butter and is probably the healthiest thing that i eat.
also, there’s really cool lightening outside.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Oh dear, i give up...also, good morning, Vietnam!
So i’m pretty much the most behind person that ever existed.
Except for everybody else on this ship. but i think i’m even more behind than a lot of them.
For one thing, i haven’t even finished my journal entry on China, let alone uploaded the pictures, or even thought about writing about Hong Kong or Vietnam. at least they weren’t as interesting as Japan. but not that uninteresting.
my executive decision has been to just start over, right here and now, and backtrack later. one of the advantages of this plan is that nothing is, in fact, going on right now, so i don’t really have anything to write about. except that my tummy really really really hurts sometimes, and i don’t know why. i won’t talk about it any more, because i know that you all don’t necessarily feel the same way about poop that i do. feel free to ask later. a fun thing that is happening is that (and you didn’t hear this from me) Katie, one of the shipboard counselors, who was an SAS student a few years ago, showed me this awesome activity - when we’re in port and no one’s at the computers, you can sometimes find really entertaining emails that people have just saved on the desktops and not deleted. sometimes they’re pretty juicy!! yesterday i found a particularly sweet/scandalous set from a boyfriend that were all like “i can’t get a job! i did this yesterday. i love you so much. i can’t even believe how much i miss you, or that i could miss someone so much. also, i owe my ex-girlfriend $400”). RATHER entertaining.
ALSO, i’m awkward. we should just mention that. especially around previously mentioned boys. with one of them, it was rather pleasant when we were just friends, and now i spend most of my life running away from him for no particular reason. 25,000 tons sounds like a big ship, but it really isn’t. the avoiding is actually going ok - except that in two days were going to Thai English camp together, along with all of his friends who intimidate me. (once he told me that, sadly, he just wasn’t good with kids. and then he told me he was doing the camp, and i was like - well, that doesn’t make sense. and he was like, gotta start somewhere! he’s a really good guy. and relatively stable and not destructive compared to similar past situations. that doesn’t really help though.) sometimes i pretty much hate my life.
what’s interesting is that this whole trip, both in country and on the ship, is starting to really make me realize what a loner i am - i like people, i don’t like being alone all the time, but i also don’t like being noticed or picked on or standing out; i’m scared of how people perceive me and it’s just must less stressful to try to deal with just myself. i get much shorter with people than i mean to when i’m bumping into them all the time. one of the reasons that i’m so excited about Thailand is that i’m getting out of the city.
another exciting thing that happened today was that a tugboat pulled our ass 180 degrees around on the Saigon River, which is just about as wide as the Explorer is long.
so then maybe i should just write about YESTERDAY, that wasn’t that long ago. yesterday was our last day in NAM and i took a day trip to the Mekong Delta. We went to all these touristy hut-things, which was kind of weird. but it was GREAT to get out of the city! and be on the water. and our tour guide was awesome. she sang. and she made us sing. there was also some dancing.
and on that trip i met a girl i’d never met before, named Becky, and we talked for a really super long time - just, like, girl talk, you know, but it was nice; it’s been forever since i've had a long time to talk to ANYONE, and she tried to convince me to come her to her techno dance party. it didn’t work, but she’s still fun to talk to.
before the delta trip, i went up north to Hanoi and Halong Bay. Halong Bay is SO cool and full of rock formations that would make my roommate just DIE of excitement (almost as much excitement as Camden would’ve had about the acrobat show in China). it was also rather pleasant to spend 3 hours in my own little world on the bus - you can’t do that on the ship, really. on the first night some of us went to the touristy little night market, and then my friend Eva and i walked out onto the pier where some people tried to talk to us, and we weren’t sure if we should say hi or be terrified that there were going to push us in. erring on the side of caution, we went back to a little store, marveled at Vietnamese snacks, and then went to bed.
then we got to spend the WHOLE next morning cruising around Halong Bay on a big junk - we went to a cave, and past a floating fishing village and between all of these super-cool rock islands. our group was a hoot - we had all the crazy profs and Lifelong Learners, including Patricia, who’s usually rather unknowingly falling out of her blouse, and Stuart, who i think might be Santa Clause’s older brother but is infinitely more cynical and entertaining. they ended up giving us a chance to go swimming off the side - i didn’t bring a bathing suit, but i finally ended up jumping in anyway. it took me way longer than the moms (we had parents on our trip) on the other boat. after that we drove back to Hanoi and checked into our hotel. we had some time before we met for dinner, and Eva and i were going to go out, but we were really tired and turned on the TV, and there was this totally weird movie with Vietnamese subtitles in which Mel Gibson’s character had started out in 1939 and gone through some sort of time warp in which he ended up in whatever year Elijah Wood was 10. it was crazy. it ended, and then we watched the end of a really weird Al Pacino movie. Vietnamese subtitles are funny. they’re very liberal with their punctuation, especially exclamation points.
our pre-dinner entertainment was a water puppet show - a traditional old kind of Vietnamese puppetry in which the puppets are on a water surface, and with lots of traditional music. kind of hard to describe, and a bit difficult to follow - there isn’t really a plot so much as little vignettes in which children chase frogs, or birds mate.
then we had a really delicious tofu-filled dinner - at least other vegetarian Margot and i did. after dinner Amanda, Jeff (an LLLer (lifelong learner), Eva, weird Patricia, Megan, and a couple of others went out for ice cream and what Eva has discovered to be VERY strong Vietnamese coffee. then we went for a walk around the big central lake/make-out-on-your-motorbike spot (we did no such thing) and then went home. for bed.
on the last day we visited poor Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to be cremated but instead got waxed and frozen and stuck into a giant mausoleum. the most entertaining part of that trip was the game we played to pass the time that i can’t for the life of me explain. then we saw Ho Chi Minh’s house, and the one-pillar pagoda, and a big temple, and then they dropped us off for lunch back at the lake. Amanda, Margot, Nicole and i went to a European-y cafe and got pizza, because it was the only thing that we knew was vegetarian. it was rather pleasant. we strolled a retail street for awhile, but i just hate being accosted by people, and it makes me really uncomfortable. the absolute worst was this women who came up and put her hat on my head and banana thing on my shoulders and then started pulling bananas that she tried to make me buy, along with a “picture fee”. i wonder how much they make for gimmicks like that.
then it was off to the airport. i spent the airport being entertained by the people freaking out about the rat/mouse/creature running around. as for the flight - WELL. so it was an A330 (and A330?! Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City? REALLY?!) and i was in the middle of the middle, totally freaking out, yammering totally out-of-controllably to poor Coulter, who had been stuck next to me on the LAST flight, poor kid (trust me, he’s not the kind of guy that you look at and are like “hey, he’d listen to my problems!” he’s actually an English major and very friendly, but i was a lot to put up with.) i was going to distract myself by making a birthday card for Benjamin, and i was like “heyhelpi’mreallynervousaboutthisflighti’mtryingtomakeabirthdaycardformyfriendwhatshouldido?shouldiwriteasuperherostoryhowboutasonnethowdoyouwriteasonnnetagain?huh?huh?hangoni’mgoingtotakemyhard-coreanti-anxietydrugsnow!” i’m amazed that he still says hi to me in passing. i think we have a special bond. and then...we’re back to the Delta trip! yay. i made it through Vietnam! i should probably also mention that Vietnam is full of this addictively beautiful embroidery. sometimes they took us to these random huge areas that were rest stops but really embroidery and clothes-manufacturing workshops for disabled children, and you would stand and watch them and feel awkward, and not knowing if buying it was supporting a good or bad thing (something for disabled kids to do/gain a marketable skill? or evil child labor?) and then you’d buy some peanut butter and chocolate oreos in which to drown your confusion.
Except for everybody else on this ship. but i think i’m even more behind than a lot of them.
For one thing, i haven’t even finished my journal entry on China, let alone uploaded the pictures, or even thought about writing about Hong Kong or Vietnam. at least they weren’t as interesting as Japan. but not that uninteresting.
my executive decision has been to just start over, right here and now, and backtrack later. one of the advantages of this plan is that nothing is, in fact, going on right now, so i don’t really have anything to write about. except that my tummy really really really hurts sometimes, and i don’t know why. i won’t talk about it any more, because i know that you all don’t necessarily feel the same way about poop that i do. feel free to ask later. a fun thing that is happening is that (and you didn’t hear this from me) Katie, one of the shipboard counselors, who was an SAS student a few years ago, showed me this awesome activity - when we’re in port and no one’s at the computers, you can sometimes find really entertaining emails that people have just saved on the desktops and not deleted. sometimes they’re pretty juicy!! yesterday i found a particularly sweet/scandalous set from a boyfriend that were all like “i can’t get a job! i did this yesterday. i love you so much. i can’t even believe how much i miss you, or that i could miss someone so much. also, i owe my ex-girlfriend $400”). RATHER entertaining.
ALSO, i’m awkward. we should just mention that. especially around previously mentioned boys. with one of them, it was rather pleasant when we were just friends, and now i spend most of my life running away from him for no particular reason. 25,000 tons sounds like a big ship, but it really isn’t. the avoiding is actually going ok - except that in two days were going to Thai English camp together, along with all of his friends who intimidate me. (once he told me that, sadly, he just wasn’t good with kids. and then he told me he was doing the camp, and i was like - well, that doesn’t make sense. and he was like, gotta start somewhere! he’s a really good guy. and relatively stable and not destructive compared to similar past situations. that doesn’t really help though.) sometimes i pretty much hate my life.
what’s interesting is that this whole trip, both in country and on the ship, is starting to really make me realize what a loner i am - i like people, i don’t like being alone all the time, but i also don’t like being noticed or picked on or standing out; i’m scared of how people perceive me and it’s just must less stressful to try to deal with just myself. i get much shorter with people than i mean to when i’m bumping into them all the time. one of the reasons that i’m so excited about Thailand is that i’m getting out of the city.
another exciting thing that happened today was that a tugboat pulled our ass 180 degrees around on the Saigon River, which is just about as wide as the Explorer is long.
so then maybe i should just write about YESTERDAY, that wasn’t that long ago. yesterday was our last day in NAM and i took a day trip to the Mekong Delta. We went to all these touristy hut-things, which was kind of weird. but it was GREAT to get out of the city! and be on the water. and our tour guide was awesome. she sang. and she made us sing. there was also some dancing.
and on that trip i met a girl i’d never met before, named Becky, and we talked for a really super long time - just, like, girl talk, you know, but it was nice; it’s been forever since i've had a long time to talk to ANYONE, and she tried to convince me to come her to her techno dance party. it didn’t work, but she’s still fun to talk to.
before the delta trip, i went up north to Hanoi and Halong Bay. Halong Bay is SO cool and full of rock formations that would make my roommate just DIE of excitement (almost as much excitement as Camden would’ve had about the acrobat show in China). it was also rather pleasant to spend 3 hours in my own little world on the bus - you can’t do that on the ship, really. on the first night some of us went to the touristy little night market, and then my friend Eva and i walked out onto the pier where some people tried to talk to us, and we weren’t sure if we should say hi or be terrified that there were going to push us in. erring on the side of caution, we went back to a little store, marveled at Vietnamese snacks, and then went to bed.
then we got to spend the WHOLE next morning cruising around Halong Bay on a big junk - we went to a cave, and past a floating fishing village and between all of these super-cool rock islands. our group was a hoot - we had all the crazy profs and Lifelong Learners, including Patricia, who’s usually rather unknowingly falling out of her blouse, and Stuart, who i think might be Santa Clause’s older brother but is infinitely more cynical and entertaining. they ended up giving us a chance to go swimming off the side - i didn’t bring a bathing suit, but i finally ended up jumping in anyway. it took me way longer than the moms (we had parents on our trip) on the other boat. after that we drove back to Hanoi and checked into our hotel. we had some time before we met for dinner, and Eva and i were going to go out, but we were really tired and turned on the TV, and there was this totally weird movie with Vietnamese subtitles in which Mel Gibson’s character had started out in 1939 and gone through some sort of time warp in which he ended up in whatever year Elijah Wood was 10. it was crazy. it ended, and then we watched the end of a really weird Al Pacino movie. Vietnamese subtitles are funny. they’re very liberal with their punctuation, especially exclamation points.
our pre-dinner entertainment was a water puppet show - a traditional old kind of Vietnamese puppetry in which the puppets are on a water surface, and with lots of traditional music. kind of hard to describe, and a bit difficult to follow - there isn’t really a plot so much as little vignettes in which children chase frogs, or birds mate.
then we had a really delicious tofu-filled dinner - at least other vegetarian Margot and i did. after dinner Amanda, Jeff (an LLLer (lifelong learner), Eva, weird Patricia, Megan, and a couple of others went out for ice cream and what Eva has discovered to be VERY strong Vietnamese coffee. then we went for a walk around the big central lake/make-out-on-your-motorbike spot (we did no such thing) and then went home. for bed.
on the last day we visited poor Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to be cremated but instead got waxed and frozen and stuck into a giant mausoleum. the most entertaining part of that trip was the game we played to pass the time that i can’t for the life of me explain. then we saw Ho Chi Minh’s house, and the one-pillar pagoda, and a big temple, and then they dropped us off for lunch back at the lake. Amanda, Margot, Nicole and i went to a European-y cafe and got pizza, because it was the only thing that we knew was vegetarian. it was rather pleasant. we strolled a retail street for awhile, but i just hate being accosted by people, and it makes me really uncomfortable. the absolute worst was this women who came up and put her hat on my head and banana thing on my shoulders and then started pulling bananas that she tried to make me buy, along with a “picture fee”. i wonder how much they make for gimmicks like that.
then it was off to the airport. i spent the airport being entertained by the people freaking out about the rat/mouse/creature running around. as for the flight - WELL. so it was an A330 (and A330?! Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City? REALLY?!) and i was in the middle of the middle, totally freaking out, yammering totally out-of-controllably to poor Coulter, who had been stuck next to me on the LAST flight, poor kid (trust me, he’s not the kind of guy that you look at and are like “hey, he’d listen to my problems!” he’s actually an English major and very friendly, but i was a lot to put up with.) i was going to distract myself by making a birthday card for Benjamin, and i was like “heyhelpi’mreallynervousaboutthisflighti’mtryingtomakeabirthdaycardformyfriendwhatshouldido?shouldiwriteasuperherostoryhowboutasonnethowdoyouwriteasonnnetagain?huh?huh?hangoni’mgoingtotakemyhard-coreanti-anxietydrugsnow!” i’m amazed that he still says hi to me in passing. i think we have a special bond. and then...we’re back to the Delta trip! yay. i made it through Vietnam! i should probably also mention that Vietnam is full of this addictively beautiful embroidery. sometimes they took us to these random huge areas that were rest stops but really embroidery and clothes-manufacturing workshops for disabled children, and you would stand and watch them and feel awkward, and not knowing if buying it was supporting a good or bad thing (something for disabled kids to do/gain a marketable skill? or evil child labor?) and then you’d buy some peanut butter and chocolate oreos in which to drown your confusion.
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