1-3-08 - sailing in circles off the coast of Hong Kong

---

Well it is 1:00am in the morning, and I’m finally settling in for the evening. I’ve been back in my room since 10:00pm, but I’ve spent the last 3 hours finally unpacking everything and talking more with my roommate. He was struck by the seasick bug today. He’s feeling better tonight, but the same can’t be said for many other people. There are lots of people sick right now, and thankfully, I’m still not one of them. Today was spent entirely doing orientations. We discussed insurance for on and off the ship, the school’s policies, the ship’s policies, maritime law, we met our professors, we discussed staying healthy, etc. Lots of talking basically. We finished around 5:00pm, and I came back to the room and took a nap for a few hours. I probably slept too much and might have trouble sleeping tonight because of that, but we’ll see how it goes. Sleeping while the ship rocks last night wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I woke up a few times during the night because of it. Obviously I’m still not adjusted to being at sea anyway, so maybe sleeping is something else that will improve with time.

I had a nice 2-hour conversation tonight about Geography with a Canadian girl and a Mexican guy, and that was thoroughly entertaining. I feel at home talking about such things with like-minded people. And I got into my first discussion about American politics with my roommate tonight. I said a lot more than he did, so I’m not sure what he thinks about me now. ☺ It’s interesting to me that so many people from other countries have come up to me wanting to discuss American politics. They are far more educated than the average American, and I am impressed by that. It’s just weird being around a majority of people who care about the world and what’s going on in it, imagine that! I think I’ll have about 20 people in each class, mostly the same people in everyone of them, and we were all surprised to see mostly girls in them. Traditionally, International Relations classes have consisted of mostly men I am told. But I guess times are changing! Surprisingly, there aren’t many Americans in my classes either, especially considering the percentage of overall Americans on the ship. I’m excited to have a wider variety in the classroom though. A student from Bosnia is in my class, and the professor mentioned being excited about what this girl will bring to our discussions. I like my 2 professors a lot based on first impressions. One of them technically isn’t a professor, this lady has a law degree from Harvard! I’m ready for orientation to end and for classes to start. Tomorrow is the last day of orientation thankfully, and honestly I’m not sure what’s left to discuss! I guess I will find out tomorrow. My goal for tomorrow in between the orientations is to get some exercise. I’m eating and sleeping properly, but I could probably use some good exercise as well.

I’m also ready for the boat to actually go somewhere, because so far we’re just going in circles. It won’t take very long to get to Shanghai, but we don’t want to be there so soon, so we’re literally just wandering around the same area here in the South China Sea, just southwest of Taiwan. Most people aren’t aware of the situation and don’t seem to mind, but my internal compass is spinning and it’s driving me insane. And the seas are rougher here than average, so I don’t understand why we’re not wandering around like this somewhere that’s a little more calm, especially in the first few days of the trip while so many new sailors are trying to adjust to this lifestyle. But I’m no captain, (although the thought has crossed my mind that maybe I’m in the wrong business and I should look into becoming a captain. ☺) I would very much like to meet the captain though, and see where he works and what he does, etc., but I don’t know if that’s possible. I haven’t even seen the guy yet! But I hear he’s Greek. Anyway, goodnight yall!

---