1-22-08 – in the calm waters of the Gulf of Thailand

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Today is Tuesday, January 22, 2008, the day before we enter Thailand. We have sailed from Shanghai south through the South China Sea, and all the way around Vietnam, into the Gulf of Thailand, heading northwest now. It is hot. We will arrive tonight at Laem Chabang, which is about an hour and a half away from Bangkok. Apparently the water is too shallow or something for our ship to get any closer to Bangkok, or it’s a lot cheaper to be in Laem Chabang instead. Time is still moving at the same pace. I feel like I’ve been here so long, but I realize it’s only been 3 weeks. And at the same time, things move so fast I can’t keep up. I haven’t written anything since before China. I kept thinking I would be able to create some kind of website, but the lack of internet has prevented that from happening. It looks like I might need to create 2 websites, one for a journal, and one for pictures. And hopefully, I’ll be creating that in Thailand. I’m not doing anything school-related there, which means I’ll have the whole week free. I’m going to try to spend half the week at the beach and half the week in the jungle, with a day in Bangkok somewhere in there. Sounds like a plan, right? It’s really not a great plan, but I don’t think I’ll need one. Thailand should be a great place to relax, and I think that’s what everyone is planning to do.

Classes are going fine. I’m behind in reading, but that doesn’t feel like as big of a deal as it should for some reason. It’s nice sitting in class on the ship, except that I get easily distracted looking out the windows. I’m sure everyone has adjusted to the rocking of the boat by now, but I don’t think it has been as bad as it was when we first got on the boat. It’s obviously still noticeable, but no one thinks much of it anymore. It was cold in China, and now that we’re sailing south, the weather is getting hot. I would guess it’s 90 degrees or so right now. (32 Celsius for you non-Americans reading this. And yes, I’ve had to learn to speak in Celsius and kilometers. I’m not necessarily conforming, it’s more out of a necessity to be understood. People on the ship look at me weird when I say it’s 90 degrees outside, or if a boat in the distance looks about 15 miles away) We are 9 degrees above the equator at the moment. People stay outside now! I try to put my time in out there, but it’s just not my thing. I miss the cold already. And by the time we get to India, well, I don’t want to think about that yet!

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