Ben's Rainbow

Tomorrow i’ll write more about the weird adventure that was my day in Honolulu, and all about how much i miss land already, even from the few fleeting moments we spent on it. But right now, before i fall asleep, i just want to preserve (for posterity) a lovely evening. One exciting thing that happened today was that i met our two Japanese students that we’re taking back to Japan, Aki and Megumi. they’re real nice. Aki loves all kinds of British and American pop music - we had to check out the ipod. also, her last name is Morioka, so she thought it was pretty funny that i was going to Morioka, even though she lives in Kobe. and Megumi and i stood outside staring at the wake and trying to understand each other for awhile. it was pretty exciting.

And then later Mike and Ben and Lindsay and i played this long game of hearts that ended up being hysterically funny, and Mike just lost and lost and lost some more, but it was still entertaining. and then someone got to talking about japanese encephalitis, which, according to Mike, can be abbreviated “japalitis”. he and Ben are really funny together, and, even though he and Lindsay are that practically-married kind of boyfriend and girlfriend, it’s really easy to be around them. the other haha moment of the day goes to Ben, who, just finally today in reading the dean’s memo, realized how they cleverly call alcohol night (four drink max), which takes place on the the back of the 7th deck, AFTer hours. he thought it was hysterical. we thought it was way old news. (for any midwesterners and/or non-boat-savvy readers out there, the front part of a boat is the “fore” part and the back part is “aft”, as in the “ass” of the boat. scuse me. SHIP.)(well, i thought it was clever). Ben also got very attached to a giant cloud, and we didn’t really understand why, and then we finally looked back and there was a rainbow in it! (i didn’t take a picture of it. but i did have a picture of Ben.)

Anyway, some rather uneventful things happened as i sat freezing in the Garden lounge (one of our eating areas) reading and reading and reading (well, Drew came running in. were both using iweb, and we both have been having problems with it, and it’s pretty much all he ever talks about. and then today, totally independently of each other, we both figured out the problem. hmm.), and then some big old boys came along and were talking about Boston, and they were like, “hey man, is Boston bigger than New York? is it bigger than LA? oh yeah, it’s about the same as chicago? they can’t have beaches in chicago! they don’t have beaches on lakes!” and here i was doing my geography of the cities of the world homework and it was nearly killing me, so i went up to them with my lovely statistical diagram of US cities, and they got distracted by all the pictures on the front of the book and tried to name them all. their knowledge of “beachless” (whatever, dudes) Chicago did not seem to extend to recognition of the Hancock Tower. Needless to say, i’m pretty sure more than one of them tried to sneak alcohol on the ship last night, which automatically makes me respect them less than i respect normal big old boys (or BOBs).

But after that, and after dinner, i ended up out the 6th deck with Kristin and Brian and Leila (who’s pretty much my hero right now, but more on that later) and Nikki and Jade, who was playing guitar. it was really really pleasant. and then this guy name Tal came along to say hi and Kristin introduced him and he said “oh nice to meet you i’ve heard so much about you!” and that was awkward but also endearing, and i’m pretty sure he’s the kid that, only a few days ago, Kristin and Brian thought was named Towel. i think Tal is a much more preferable name for a human being, don’t you? and our port lights were on, the big string of lights that goes from bow to stern that they only turn on when we’re kinda near land (which we’re not, really). anyway, sitting there i realized how it weird it is that our home has become this giant blue and white moving thing in the middle of the ocean - it’s just always moving, and we’re sitting there taking it all for granted that it does, and that somewhere on the other side of that deep black abyss is Japan.

somewhere.

ps - tonight we retard our clocks again! yay! another hour of my birthday! (since every time we retard (yes, we retard them. apparently it’s not politically incorrect for timepieces) our clocks, we’re making up for the “lost day”, i figure every one of those hours is my birthday in little pieces.)

pps - Katie D., today in Global Studies we learned about the Philippines, and there were no mail order brides in sight!