Blog title is from my theology teacher. We were discussing the symbolism behind each of the above mentioned items. I love my teachers!
Days 67 through 72
I found out that I get to go to Guadalajara for summer school!!! I get to take 6 units, then I only have to take 15 in the fall instead of the 18 I had originally planned. It is hard to believe that I am halfway around the world and I am already planning yet another trip. I still have a pretty long summer, as I get 3 weeks before summer school then 6 weeks after. I not only get to stay with one of my sorority sisters, I also get to live with a host family! That means I get legitimate Mexican food for 6 weeks straight….YUMMY! I can’t wait! Anyways…
On day 70, we had no school because it was Africa Day! Before new countries we usually have a day off of school in which there are various seminars and informational presentations about the continent we are going to be visiting. We had Asia Day, now it was Africa day. The first seminar I went to was one for Invisible Children. For those of you who do not know what Invisible Children is, it is a project that was started to help the abducted child army members in Uganda. This was the organization that I got all of those books donated for my sophomore year. The girl making the presentation has been working with the organization since 2006, so she gave us more background on the NGO and she is holding an explorer seminar between South Africa and Uganda to show us the original short film that was made about the project as well as tell us how we can get more involved. If you want you know more about it (just a little advertisement), you can go to (I think) www.invisiblechildren.org.
After the Invisible Children seminar, I stayed in the Union for Professor Abel’s shark presentation. Now those of you who know me know that I am terrified of sharks, yet I am going to jump in a cage and swim around in the water with Great Whites. Reeeeeal smart right? I figured I should know a little bit more about these animals, and I really did like his talk. Professor Abel is incredibly knowledgeable in his field and knows pretty much everything there is to know about marine life. He does shark research of the coast of South Carolina and is so happy whenever anyone asks him a question about his work or his field.
After lunch, I went to spiritual dance, African style. Spiritual dance is headed by a woman named Jenny Finn, whom everyone absolutely loves. She is fun, quirky, and is always willing to talk to anyone. Spiritual dance is a way to get yourself grounded and to get yourself in touch with your body through movement. It sounds so very hippie-ish, but it is so much fun, and you feel so relaxed afterwards. It was really fun to dance to all of the African beats, and after the half an hour, my head was clear and my body was relaxed, so I sat in the Union again for our interport lecturers talk on South Africa. He talked about his growing up in South Africa, the World Cup coming to South Africa this year, and he answered questions. All it did was make me really excited to get there already! We have been able to see the coast of South Africa for two days, and it is such a tease! Most of us just feel like jumping out and swimming the 6 miles to shore or stealing a lifeboat, but we think that may break a rule in the voyagers handbook.
Later that night, we had a “South African” dinner. I put it in quotes because I don’t really know how South African it actually is, what with us being on the ship and all and only having limited ingredients. They did have a really good beef dish of some kind, which was a nice change from the pork or chicken.
Day 71 was also a rather exciting day, or shall I say night. It was crew appreciation day, as well as the crew talent show, which my extended family says is the best night of the year. Some of my favorite waiters (Alan, Darwin, and Mezram) were going to be performing, and I was so excited. Simone and I arrived in the Union at 7, 2 hours before the show, and people already had seats saved. We still managed to get seats in the third row right in the middle, so we still had a great view of all of the activities that were going on. Majority of the talents involved music, whether it was singing or dancing. Mezram, my favorite Jamaican waiter who is always singing while he works, did 3 short songs a capella style. It was so funny to see him in regular clothes, and let me tell you, the man is hip. He had baggy pants, a tank top, a hoodie, a hat, and light up sunglasses. It was such a change to see him in regular clothes for once! Darwin did a couple of different acts; he sang, he danced, he did it all. He and his band sang a few songs the entire audience knew, such as All The Small Things by Blink-182. By far my favorite performer of the night was Alan, who also happens to be my absolute favorite waiter on the ship. Hi played guitar in one song, drums in another, he danced, and he showed off some amazing bartending skills with a wine bottle. Alan is quite a wild thing when he is not in uniform, and I am pretty sure half of the girls on the ship are in love with him.
It is so much fun to see the entire crew let go, wear normal clothing, and just have fun. You can tell all the guys really know how to have a good time when they aren’t on duty, and it would be so fun to hang out with them when they aren’t working. It kind of makes you wonder what craziness goes on in the crew quarters, where they have their own stash of alcohol and no 3 beverage limit, a bunch of musical instruments and video games. They wait on me hand and foot and always greet me with hey beautiful or hey baby in the morning, and they spoil me rotten and bring me my favorite cereals or desserts. I need to tell my boyfriend he has some competition from these foreign men who have managed to steal my heart within the past 70 days.
Day 72, and I got to see about 100 dolphins swimming next to our ship this morning at breakfast! They were jumping out of the water and swimming past us into the horizon, and it was really awesome to see them out in the open ocean instead of at Sea World. We have logistical and cultural pre-port tonight before we get to South Africa tomorrow!!!! I can’t wait to blog about my adventures, as there are going to be a lot of them within the next 5 or 6 days. Table Mountain, Robben Island, shark diving, the game reserve, a township visit, and my Animal Whispers tour should make for some great adventures. South Africa here I come!!!!!
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