Brilliant

Today we discovered the real reason to travel on the fall, westbound voyage as opposed to the spring, eastbound one. There are no less than 23 times this voyage that the ship’s clock gets retarded an hour, meaning we get an extra hour of sleep - it’s already happened twice.

Also, Earlham College, as it turns out, is not the only place that shows weird Japanese films. Interesting.

Ok, let’s start for a sec with last night - they do indeed serve alcohol - in very limited quantities, but alcohol nonetheless - up on the seventh deck at the pool bar. and let me tell you, it draws quite the crowd, attempting to recreate the party scenes on their campuses. i don’t get it. stumble up the stairs when you’re tired a couple times - i imagine that’s much like what it would be like to be drunk. but i suppose i am glad that no one is singing loud annoying songs at the top of their lungs while climbing the stairs, so, as long as it’s confined to the seventh deck, we’ll be ok - it’s actually kinda nice, cause it helps sort people out, helps you find the kind of people with whom you like to socialize.

Yesterday i also had a really lovely dinner with the Assistant Dean and his wife, who also works in the clinic and has decided to become my mom, i think...although i did sign up for the real extended family program - where you become part of a “family” with participating faculty and staff members and their families or Lifelong Learners (the “old people” who sort of just come for shits and giggles, as far as i can tell). the families here are all so fun; i spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon protecting the bank from insistent robbery in Monopoly Jr., and, better yet, i got Sarah and Jake to call Drew (remember him?) Carrot Top. it sounds mean, but he way deserved it.

Other than that, my classes all started today! i’m feeling a little guilty about wanting to drop the one with the 85 year old German prof., Doris, but a few other things are pretty tempting. Like a service learning class, ideas from which i could maybe even bring back to Earlham. and my geography professor that i “lit up” in class. siiiigh.

We had a nice LGBTQAILMNOP (sorry i think it stops at I, but i’m not sure - they’ve added so many letters since my heyday in high school GSA) dinner and talked about pretty much everything but LGBT etc. issues, and it was still really nice, except that when the ship goes a certain speed the whole aft (think of it this way: aft = ass) part vibrates (sometimes, as right now, my cabin does too) and it bothers me, for some reason. also, sometimes it’s a little too exhilarating to watch the whole sea fill up the view out a side window, and then the ship drops away and sky fills the window, and back and forth. the rest of the night i hung out with all of those people who are like “man, thank god we have each other to hang out and not drink with”, and it was really nice. and it’s especially nice that it’s guys and girls, even if the guys are a little crazy, even Jade, who’s one of those people that you feel like every word out of his mouth should be “duuuuuuude”. tonight there was a scavenger hunt, almost as crazy as a shipboard version of trichadecathalomania (sp?!), which we more normal folk felt made for a very amusing spectator sport, and we spent a lot of time making fun of them. i also met another nice girl from Boston, East Boston actually, named Kelly, and hung out with her a bit. And sometimes i walk around and am sure i see Miriam or Katie or any one of you from the back, and then i remember that you’re not on this ship with me, and i’m here missing you.

Anyway, we’re all getting ready to start thinking about field work! we get to Honolulu on Sunday, and now we’re all about planning for Japan.

But...there’s still a whole lot of ocean to cross first.

love and bedtime, em

PS - yes, i seem to have mostly gotten over the queasiness, no, i never threw up (though it could still happen, you never know), and NO, i don’t usually get motion sick! it’s a little depressing that the thing i spend 100 days living on has to be the one that makes me sick :-( i’ve decided that the motion just isn’t constant enough. i guess that’s why i like trains so much.

oh yeah, and that’s a picture of people trying to stand on one foot. It is NOT EASY. go take a lot of some substance that alters your motor skills and hop on the T and/or the nearest moving vehicle and try it - that’s about what it feels like.