Well, gosh

Hmmm. What is there to do on a boat besides get seasick?

The answer is: lots. It’s actually quite annoying to be seasick. My roommate went to go to beat up the ocean, but she said that it went badly. It would be a losing battle anyway. cause the ocean’s badass, and there’s a whole lot of it out here. you stand out on deck and it’s just OCEAN, and you kind of hope that the faint grayness on the horizon is, in fact, mountains somewhere, but they’re really not; they’re really just clouds. It’s just us and ocean, baby. The America’s are such an isolated set of continents - you have to cross a whole lot of nothing to get anywhere, even if that anywhere is Hawaii, a tiny spot in the middle of the nothing. And then there’s some more nothing, and then you hit Japan, and then, let’s hope, it’s smooth, less lonesome sailing until you get back to the Atlantic.

Anyway. There’s more to life than that. Here’s how life goes:

The train ride was just magnificent; my dad and i even won a book on the Santa Fe Trail in a US National Park Service trivia quiz! i could pretty much live on a train forever, actually. Much preferable to a boat. But for now, a boat will have to do.

LA with the cousins and Papa Jake was cool - we never get to see them, and i had forgotten what a fantastic fellow my great uncle is. The biggest downfall was walking about a mile with all our stuff to pick up the rental car - Dad said i could wait at Union Station with the stuff, but what that really means is: i’ll be back sometime in the next century, so you wait with the stuff, you die with the stuff.

On Sunday we took the scenic route down the coast to San Diego, through lots of posh beachy towns and then to the beach where my dad’s navy ship practiced landing the boat on the beach - what does a drunk person driving down 5 in the middle of the night think upon rounding a bend to see a giant amphibious naval ship on a deserted beach, he wondered? On Sunday afternoon i got to hang out with ANDREW! we spent a lot of time being indecisive and then drove out to Point Loma and learned about the lighthouses of old and looked at the expanse of city below us, and then we went to Old Town. And then we found my dad, and went back to Alpine for a delicious dinner with wonderful company, and life was good.

And then - Monday came. Early departure on the first set of buses to Ensenada, which left all of us first shift people to wander and wander and wander around the boat, because we no luggage or roommates. What we did have was a whole ship to be confused by (ok for example, you have to decide which part of the seventh deck you’re going to somewhere around deck four so that you end up on the right stairs) and a giant Mexican flag to stare at.

The ship really is quite spectacular - i can’t do it justice in description so i’ll leave that up to your imagination until there are pictures. it’s a little fancy for me, as is the amount of service provided by the crew, but i suppose there’s no reason to complain about a bit of fanciness and employed people who are happy to have the jobs and who are sending the money to their appreciative families in the Phillipines. i also really have met all kinds of people, and i’ve already found friends - there’s one girl, Bobbi, who’s from NC, and she’s real bubbly and just talks to EVERYBODY, so you hang with her, or start emulating her, if you’re real brave, and you find someone eventually. It’s two to one girls to guys, and we sure have plenty of the sorority types (a new friend named Brian just pondered the amount of makeup that must be on this ship...my roommate Ariel is one of them - and she has WAY more stuff than i do, too. but she seems nice. so far, she lies around and watches Meet Joe Black. she’s done it about four times so far) but there are many others too. But i’ve found guy friends - i’ve eaten the last couple of meals with a few groups of people - Jake and Jade (male Jade - and Jake looks a little like Lauren’s Steve, and i keep wanting to call him that) and Kristin (who’s also real glad to get away from the fraternity/sorority types) and Brian and Tyler, even though i think Brian looks more like a Tyler and Tyler looks more like a Brian. And Jade’s roommate Andrew is from Memphis and really nice, and was also really excited that we took the train, so props for him! The faculty seem FANTASTIC (this morning the Resident Directors sand us the SAS alma mater that they wrote. maybe people around me thought it was dumb, but i thought it was AWESOME) and i love that they all live right here with us with their families (children! you forget about them in college sometimes); although i’d be more excited to start classes if this freakin ship would stop moving! it distracts my brain, and has threatened to make me very seasick a number of times...and i’ve never been too motion sick before! BAH!!!! It really is rocky - i mean, i guess relatively speaking it could be a lot worse, but you can definitely feel it, and it’s not gonna stop. at least not for awhile. i’m living it great faith that we’ll get used to it, and it helps that the sick part is fading, but it’s still weird, and it’s like walking around drunk till we get sealegs (at least that’s what they say - i wouldn’t know. about the drunk part, i mean). (yesterday when they were searching bags, on the dock, i was watching from the top deck, watching and watching until they FINALLY searched what i thought was my bag, and the first thing they pulled out was a hair straightener. hmm. not my bag, so much.) despite being exhausted and almost being lulled to sleep by Jade’s piano playing (then the boys got some stuff at the food counter from a friendly Jamaican who introduced himself as Chuck Norris. he no longer responds to Chuck Norris, i’ve discovered) i couldn’t sleep. it was terrible. hopefully tonight the waves will become more soothing and less distracting for my poor brain.

Other than that, lots of meetings. and a lifeboat drill. we saw a sea lion! what else? lying around, mostly, standing outside, almost getting blown off the bow, trying to get adjusted, eating saltines...that’s pretty much it for now. i think i’m going to go check outside for the beautiful, reflective moon before our next meeting. internet’s expensive and slow and we don’t get a lot of free minutes, so i don’t think i’m gonna put up pictures till i get home. but i’ll blog as much as i can.
and mostly just i miss you all terribly. terribly.

And Lauren, today someone was wearing your sweatshirt. with your beer soulmate on it. oh my.

so....what’s new on land?