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.