Every day we receive dean’s memos that have information about events, explorer seminars, important info about anything really, laundry days, etc. and they usually include a quote. So I have included a bunch of quotes that have caught my eye on some of them.
"Even after all these years,
The sun never says to the earth,
'You owe me.'
Look what happens with a love like that,
It lights up the whole sky." –Hafiz
"Men in a ship are always looking up,
and men ashore generally looking
down.” -John Masefield
“Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, concerned citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only
thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
“Vision without action is a daydream.
Action without vision is a nightmare.” -Japanese Proverb
Anyway, some of the things that I have been doing in between ports aside from just hanging out with friends:
After every port:
Post-ports: these are reflective sharing sessions where people basically just talk about their experiences and their feelings following the visits to each country. I have heard some really incredible things said by people who are able to speak very eloquently and it has definitely been helpful to hear other people say the things that I am thinking out loud.
Picture parties: get together with a bunch of friends that I spent my time with in whichever country we just visited and give each other our pictures. It’s extremely convenient.
Random events:
Middle School Dance: this was a middle school theme dance where they played strictly music from the 90’s and early 2000s. It was awesome. It brought back some lovely memories of being an awkward middle schooler. We also had a huge cha cha slide going at one point and it’s so cool that we all know this dance even though we are from all over.
Swing Dance: although they tried to make it a recurring class, it has been hard because of the few days that we have had at sea. However, there have now been two classes and I am slowly learning how to swing dance. It is a lot of fun. I have two good friends on the ship that teach it.
Sea Olympics and Spirit Week: spirit week was a failure and very few people dressed up let alone were aware that the days were themed. Sea Olympics was more exciting than that though. There were a series of different events going on throughout our day of no classes that involved competition between the seas. Reminder: each section of hallways are seas, I was Adriatic. The two events that I watched were lip synch, which was absolutely hilarious and definitely not pg rated, and synchronized swim, which I expected to be more entertaining than it was. I also saw part of the relay race at the end of the day. My sea came in second. The deal with winning the sea Olympics is that it decides when you get off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale. Most people wanted to win but I wanted to lose because I don’t foresee myself having any desire to get off the ship. The day ended with an awesome barbeque on the top deck, and it was probably the best barbeque ever for me because there were no bugs attacking! There were a few people in the pool cooling down, and then some of my friends jumped in in their clothes, came and got the rest of us, we jumped in in our clothes (I was wearing a bathing suit top but cotton pants), and that was fun. I don’t know how it happened, but all the sudden people decided to see how many people we could get in the pool (the pool is extremely tiny and with the probably 15-20 people already in there it was packed. People were slowly getting in the pool and it was getting more and more crowded. Everyone was cheering and trying to get more and more people in the pool. It was crazy. We even got a few professors and the dean of students to get in. It was hard to tell just how many people were in the pool at the time being inside it, but I saw pictures after and its absolutely insane. The best picture is of everyone when Party in the USA came on dancing to the song with very little space. Everyone’s hands up looks awesome though. Eventually we were told that we had to get out because they were closing the pool and as we all got out we drenched the entire deck and then the inside of the ship because of our sopping wet clothing. It was a very fun day.
I have also been going to a lot of speakers and seminars, especially this last trek of the voyage because they have had a lot about poverty and service visits and such in India and preparing yourself for the country, which I need to do. I also went to a grad school seminar which put me in a panic about what I am doing with the rest of my life.
In between all this I have been trying to use the lowest number of internet minutes possible to search for jobs in Madison and apply for them. It is amazing how vital it is to have internet. I just finished applying for one job and am keeping my fingers crossed about it!
Just a few hours to India now… We just had our longest pre-port yet and I am getting incredibly excited since everything that I hear about India sounds amazing… aside from the diseases all the bugs carry. Gross.
Namaste!
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