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Published: November 23rd 2005
What day is it and in what month? This clock never seemed so alive. I can’t keep up, and I can’t back down I’ve been loosing so much time - Lifehouse
Japan was cool. It was a good time. I had fun. It’s so strange that we are through with our last foreign port. Wow! Where has the time gone? I was surprised at the number of people who didn’t speak English. Not that I expected them to, but Japan being such an industrialized country I thought would have had more English speakers. In the contrary I felt that this country had the biggest language barrier out of all of the countries we have visited, which was a little shocking, but it’s cool. I love solving puzzles and figuring things out, I seriously think it’s my favorite thing to do. Japan was one big puzzle to figure out, so I had fun. It was fun trying to figure out what train to get onto, since we couldn’t read the writing or understand the speaking, but once you got the hang of it, the train system was really easy to navigate. Not being able to read or speak the language makes for some great stories.
While in Japan, I went on a trip to Hiroshima. We walked around and saw all of the sights, and monuments and then we went to the museum. It was pretty intense actually. Obviously the museum had a Japanese bias to it, duh; I was in Japan, at the epicenter of where it happened of course it’s going to have a Japanese bias to it. While walking through the museum I was trying in my head to justify our reasoning’s for bombing Hiroshima. Yes, I know Pearl Harbor, but still, why? So for the hour and a half that I was walking through the museum I thought I had it justified. Then we watched a video, with footage from that day, August 6, 1945, and the days following the bombing, and it hit me, no matter how hard I tried, I concluded that there really is no way to justify it. There is no way to ease the pain of those people or to bring back the lives that were lost. No matter what you say or do, or how much you convince yourself, it still doesn’t heal the wounds. No justification can take away the pain that they went through. I don’t know that’s just my take on it. I wasn’t alive during that time, so maybe for someone who was it might be a different story, because they lived through it and to me its just history. Yes, I learned about it, but I didn’t experience it, so maybe someone who was alive back then would see things differently, I really don’t know. It was weird to be standing there: To be in Hiroshima, a place that I had read about in a text book. To be standing there looking around trying to imagine what it was like 60 years ago. It was pretty crazy. It’s even crazier, or ironic, I guess, that next week I will be visiting Pearl Harbor.
So I think my brain is finally beginning to process everything that I have been experiencing. I can’t sleep at night anymore. I just lie in bed and think. My mind races trying to catch up on the past couple months. I seriously feel like my brain is doing laps in the Indy 500, it won’t slow down. I lay in bed and can’t sleep even though I'm exhausted; it takes me hours to wind down enough to fall asleep. I think about everything that I’ve done since August. There is no method to my thoughts, they just take off on their own and I'm dragged along for the ride, and I can’t get them to stop no matter how hard I try.
Life is good; it’s going to be a rough 2 weeks at sea though. Not only are we at sea for 14 days, with only a day stop in Hawaii, it is also finals week. YAY! NOT! I have a lot of papers, projects and exams. It’s all good, I’ve made it this far in one piece I'm confident that I can make it home in one piece as well. 😊
Whoa, dude, today is thanksgiving, weird. Happy Thanksgiving: gobble, gobble.
See you soon
Nicki
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Pops
non-member comment
Hi Nicki, It's hard for me to believe you're in the home stretch and will be home in 15 days. I'm sure it's gone even faster for you. No wonder your head's spinning, trying to process everything you've seen and done. I hope you're able to concentrate and focus on your studies as you finish up the semester. I guess I'd have to say, "join the club", when it comes to trying to figure out or justify events throughout history. Even as of today, things are taking place that will shape people's lives, for better or worse, for generations to come and all you can do is scratch your head and ask why? Just do your part, even on a smaller scale, to make it a better place. Well, today is Thanksgiving, and wouldn't you know it, it's snowing in Buffalo. Enjoy the nice weather while you can. Continue to have a safe voyage and make the best out of these last weeks. I love you and miss you and can't wait till you get home. Pops