Spring 2015 - Day 16
Today my computer failed on me and so I couldn't put my photojournalism assignment on the public drive in time for class but luckily when I got to class and told my professor my issued she let me use her computer to just grab my pictures off my SD card and put them into the assignment folder. Only 4 more days until I get a new computer and I can not wait.
In between my two classes I caught up on all of my blogging. I have been really behind and have not found a good rhythm for it yet. Last time I consistently blogged every night before I went to bed and if I didn't I never got behind more than one day. This time I have spent whole morning catching up on two days and then still not blogging about the current day before bed. I think I feel more pressure this time to get it done. All I heard before I left was, "are you going to blog again?"
"Will you write another book?"
"I can't wait to read volume two!"
I think it put some pressure on me to blog just as much and instead of doing it for myself I am doing it for others so it feels more forced. But I like blogging and writing about my day and it isn't like I don't wish I was doing it, so I am not really sure what is going on. But I am not stressing myself out about it. The beginning of this voyage has been wacky by itself, so the fact that blogging has been off is not a surprise to me at all.
I am really nervous about getting all of my blogs done for Japan, China, and Vietnam because we only have two days between the end of those ports and the beginning of the next one. I don't blog while I am in country, I just take a lot of notes. When I get back on the ship it could take me two or three days to get all of the blogging done. And this time I only have two days! Also, last time, when it would take me two days, I would only be blogging about a port that was two to four days long. If I am remembering correctly, the ports that were longer took me forever to write about. So I am really nervous and am just going to spend all of my time blogging those two days. No meals, no sleeping. Only class and blogging.
I'm kidding, but I am sure it is basically going to feel like that.
So one thing that continues to freak me out is the time difference, the fact that I feel like I am living in the future. Yesterday I emailed my dad and asked him to send me a map. Right when I was going to sleep, around 9, I got an email back from him. He was just waking up to go to work. On the 22nd. And I was about to go to sleep, also on the 22nd. He was getting up to live the day that I just finished and I was going to sleep into the 23rd.
I emailed him back exactly that and he replied with, "woah, that's weird."
It's really weird. I've only ever been behind the east coast when I am traveling and never enough that there is an entire waking period between us. So surreal.
World Mythologies was more tolerable today. We talked about the myths behind different holidays like valentines day and santa. Many students offered up holidays in their own culture and what the myths are for those. I actually knew all of the different ways cultures celebrate christmas and the different santa figures. I think I already knew the stories because of the American Girl Doll books I had as a kid. I had every set of stories and there were girls from many different cultures so I learned how they each celebrated Christmas.
After lunch Jessi and I went to the Medical Brown Bag Lunch talk. It is held every once and a while starting at 12:05. You are supposed to get food and then come and eat while you hear the doctor or the nurse practitioner talk about medicine. Jessi wanted to go to this one because it was about practicing medicine in Antarctica. Our nurse practitioner did two season there and Jessi went on a month long research trip there in high school. Unfortunately our class got out right at 12:05 so we were not able to get food before it and snuck in right as it was starting. I was starving so it was really hard for me to concentrate on what she was saying.
She talked about how you get to Antarctica and all of the medical tests you have to get before you go. They basically get everything checked out. Heart, lungs, gallbladder, liver, blood, etc. You need every test possible, especially when you go for a winter because there is no medical evacuation during the winter. She said that the most common things they see at the south pole are frost bite/frost nip, bronchitis, altitude sickness. and chest colds. They have the facilities to do surgeries and such but they rarely have to use them.They have removed an appendix and done one hernia repair.
It was really interesting but Jessi and I snuck out early so that we wouldn't miss lunch. Lunch was alright but I didn't walk away from it satisfied. I think I have decided that the reason I get so tired of the food is because, while it really isn't that bad, I walk away from it unsatisfied. When I am unsatisfied multiple times in a row it just makes it so much less appetizing.
In Mixed Media we are working on color theory, like I described before. In class we took all of the colors we mixed and painted out Japanese painting using only that color palette. One of the pinks I chose didn't really seem to go with the other pinks but I like the way it turned out. I accented with green and I think it looked quite pretty.
When I left class I went and found Jessi and together we met the girls and we all went together to dinner. Lunch had been so disappointing that we all decided to eat on deck 7 if the food didn't look good. We walked in, saw the weird beet dish that was the vegetable, and walked right back out. The burger I ate was absolutely amazing. Totally worth the 4 bucks.
While we were eating there was a group of people doing something that looked like Zumba over on the side of the deck. We watched them for a while and it looked like a mix between cardio kickboxing or some kind of martial art. Amber, my photojournalism professor and her partner were the ones leading it so when she walked near us I asked her what it was. It was a form of brazilian martial arts. It had a funky name but that I can't remember now. It looked like a lot of fun.
Jessi and I had signed up for the gym at 9 but by 8:15 we were getting sleepy. We decided to get ready and go up there because we thought we remembered the 8:30 slot being open. One of the treadmills was taken and we wanted to be together so we walked down to the activities desk to look at the field programs. We were thinking of signing up for an impact program the last day of Burma. Impact programs are service programs. Jessi had heard about this program that takes you to a Novication Ceremony. Families dress their littles boys up like princes and parade them through the streets to present them to the monks. The monks then de-robe them and shave their heads to welcome them into the monestary. You go and help hand things out to the boys who just went through the ceremony. It sounded so powerful to be able to witness something like that. We are going on an overnight program that comes back Feb 28th and the trip was on March 1st, so we could definitely go.
But when we were down at the desk flipping through the book we found that they had changed the date of it. It was now on the 28hth. So while there is room in the program we are not able to go on it, such a disappointment.
While standing at the field program desk we ran into Michael Segal and mama Shelley. They had just had dinner together and had apparently talked about us. All good things, according to Michael. We talked to them about the field programs and then said goodbye to head off to the gym.
Running has gone back to being safe, the sea swells have gone back to normal. And, the ocean no longer looks creepily smooth, it is its normal choppy self.
Tomorrow I am going on a bridge tour. Of course, I already did one last time but the day I went was right after I had been horribly sick and so I look so pale and uncomfortable in the picture of me in the captains chair. Hopefully I can get a better one this time. Also, tomorrow is two days before we get to Japan so it is time for cultural pre-port! We are getting close!
In between my two classes I caught up on all of my blogging. I have been really behind and have not found a good rhythm for it yet. Last time I consistently blogged every night before I went to bed and if I didn't I never got behind more than one day. This time I have spent whole morning catching up on two days and then still not blogging about the current day before bed. I think I feel more pressure this time to get it done. All I heard before I left was, "are you going to blog again?"
"Will you write another book?"
"I can't wait to read volume two!"
I think it put some pressure on me to blog just as much and instead of doing it for myself I am doing it for others so it feels more forced. But I like blogging and writing about my day and it isn't like I don't wish I was doing it, so I am not really sure what is going on. But I am not stressing myself out about it. The beginning of this voyage has been wacky by itself, so the fact that blogging has been off is not a surprise to me at all.
I am really nervous about getting all of my blogs done for Japan, China, and Vietnam because we only have two days between the end of those ports and the beginning of the next one. I don't blog while I am in country, I just take a lot of notes. When I get back on the ship it could take me two or three days to get all of the blogging done. And this time I only have two days! Also, last time, when it would take me two days, I would only be blogging about a port that was two to four days long. If I am remembering correctly, the ports that were longer took me forever to write about. So I am really nervous and am just going to spend all of my time blogging those two days. No meals, no sleeping. Only class and blogging.
I'm kidding, but I am sure it is basically going to feel like that.
So one thing that continues to freak me out is the time difference, the fact that I feel like I am living in the future. Yesterday I emailed my dad and asked him to send me a map. Right when I was going to sleep, around 9, I got an email back from him. He was just waking up to go to work. On the 22nd. And I was about to go to sleep, also on the 22nd. He was getting up to live the day that I just finished and I was going to sleep into the 23rd.
I emailed him back exactly that and he replied with, "woah, that's weird."
It's really weird. I've only ever been behind the east coast when I am traveling and never enough that there is an entire waking period between us. So surreal.
World Mythologies was more tolerable today. We talked about the myths behind different holidays like valentines day and santa. Many students offered up holidays in their own culture and what the myths are for those. I actually knew all of the different ways cultures celebrate christmas and the different santa figures. I think I already knew the stories because of the American Girl Doll books I had as a kid. I had every set of stories and there were girls from many different cultures so I learned how they each celebrated Christmas.
After lunch Jessi and I went to the Medical Brown Bag Lunch talk. It is held every once and a while starting at 12:05. You are supposed to get food and then come and eat while you hear the doctor or the nurse practitioner talk about medicine. Jessi wanted to go to this one because it was about practicing medicine in Antarctica. Our nurse practitioner did two season there and Jessi went on a month long research trip there in high school. Unfortunately our class got out right at 12:05 so we were not able to get food before it and snuck in right as it was starting. I was starving so it was really hard for me to concentrate on what she was saying.
She talked about how you get to Antarctica and all of the medical tests you have to get before you go. They basically get everything checked out. Heart, lungs, gallbladder, liver, blood, etc. You need every test possible, especially when you go for a winter because there is no medical evacuation during the winter. She said that the most common things they see at the south pole are frost bite/frost nip, bronchitis, altitude sickness. and chest colds. They have the facilities to do surgeries and such but they rarely have to use them.They have removed an appendix and done one hernia repair.
It was really interesting but Jessi and I snuck out early so that we wouldn't miss lunch. Lunch was alright but I didn't walk away from it satisfied. I think I have decided that the reason I get so tired of the food is because, while it really isn't that bad, I walk away from it unsatisfied. When I am unsatisfied multiple times in a row it just makes it so much less appetizing.
In Mixed Media we are working on color theory, like I described before. In class we took all of the colors we mixed and painted out Japanese painting using only that color palette. One of the pinks I chose didn't really seem to go with the other pinks but I like the way it turned out. I accented with green and I think it looked quite pretty.
When I left class I went and found Jessi and together we met the girls and we all went together to dinner. Lunch had been so disappointing that we all decided to eat on deck 7 if the food didn't look good. We walked in, saw the weird beet dish that was the vegetable, and walked right back out. The burger I ate was absolutely amazing. Totally worth the 4 bucks.
While we were eating there was a group of people doing something that looked like Zumba over on the side of the deck. We watched them for a while and it looked like a mix between cardio kickboxing or some kind of martial art. Amber, my photojournalism professor and her partner were the ones leading it so when she walked near us I asked her what it was. It was a form of brazilian martial arts. It had a funky name but that I can't remember now. It looked like a lot of fun.
Jessi and I had signed up for the gym at 9 but by 8:15 we were getting sleepy. We decided to get ready and go up there because we thought we remembered the 8:30 slot being open. One of the treadmills was taken and we wanted to be together so we walked down to the activities desk to look at the field programs. We were thinking of signing up for an impact program the last day of Burma. Impact programs are service programs. Jessi had heard about this program that takes you to a Novication Ceremony. Families dress their littles boys up like princes and parade them through the streets to present them to the monks. The monks then de-robe them and shave their heads to welcome them into the monestary. You go and help hand things out to the boys who just went through the ceremony. It sounded so powerful to be able to witness something like that. We are going on an overnight program that comes back Feb 28th and the trip was on March 1st, so we could definitely go.
But when we were down at the desk flipping through the book we found that they had changed the date of it. It was now on the 28hth. So while there is room in the program we are not able to go on it, such a disappointment.
While standing at the field program desk we ran into Michael Segal and mama Shelley. They had just had dinner together and had apparently talked about us. All good things, according to Michael. We talked to them about the field programs and then said goodbye to head off to the gym.
Running has gone back to being safe, the sea swells have gone back to normal. And, the ocean no longer looks creepily smooth, it is its normal choppy self.
Tomorrow I am going on a bridge tour. Of course, I already did one last time but the day I went was right after I had been horribly sick and so I look so pale and uncomfortable in the picture of me in the captains chair. Hopefully I can get a better one this time. Also, tomorrow is two days before we get to Japan so it is time for cultural pre-port! We are getting close!
