August 29 2010 ? MV Explorer

Today I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep—the waves have gotten dramatically larger, and something keeps making our porthole squeak, but I guess I’ll get used to it.  I just lay in bed from 0500 on until I had to get up around 0700 to grab breakfast before class.  I have a feeling that because I’m not eating as many carbs, I have been getting a lot hungrier, so I made my typical eggs/potato/ketchup mash before going into classroom 1, which is conveniently right next to the caf. 
Poor Katie Porter (of Chapman) is still seasick, and I don’t blame her as the swells are pretty massive today.  Women in High Courts looks very interesting, though I forgot to get one of the books and bought the unabridged version of The Tale of Genji instead of a shorter copy I was supposed to get.  Still, Professor Ringrose seems nice—we only have to write one 6-8 page paper and keep a travel port journal that’s one paragraph per port, so I don’t feel too overwhelmed.  I also discussed with her that I wasn’t going to be at her FDP in Kyoto, as I’m going to travel independently through Japan, but when I mentioned that I  was going to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, she was happy to accept that as a substitute.  Definitely think I’ll do my paper on the Queen Mothers in Ghana, as there’s sure to be lots of info… plus it’s interesting to do a paper on a court system that still exists and  that you’ve interacted with!
After that class I went to my first Global Studies class.  The waves were really rough—in the Union you can feel it the most—and tons of people were bolting for the bathroom door after all the particularly bad rollings of the ship.  We had a good introduction after the differences between power and principle outlooks in governments when it comes to foreign policy, which was really interesting, and then my women’s studies professor’s husband gave us an entire summery of the history of globalization.  Now, being as that’s easily over seven hundred years, I did the best I could taking notes, but I sure hope the test questions aren’t based on dates—there was a LOT of information packed into that tiny thirty minute block, and it was especially hard to focus when the crashing of waves rattled everything (very loudly) in the Union. 
Whenever I go back to my cabin in the middle of the day, I feel wayyyy too isolated, so I grabbed my wallet and went to the newly opened bookstore, because I heard that it gets crazy and you have to grab a sweatshirt very early.  And even though it was the first day, it still took me forever to find something in my size, which is an awesome blue zip-up hoodie.  I like it a lot and it fits perfectly, so I hope it doesn’t shrink much.  :)
I ate a quick lunch (which included curried bananas today, which was really good though I was initially skeptical) and then went back to my cabin with the intention of starting my reading.  Instead, I accidentally fell asleep again!!  I don’t know how I’ll ever adjust if I keep being so narcoleptic.  I just know that if I keep taking naps I’ll never have a restful night of sleep.  When I woke up I read the intros for Global Studies and Women In High Courts, and then went to the piano lounge bar to check my emails.  I also went outside.  There were tons of gray clouds, and lots of dark swells.  We’re taking a passage between two hurricanes, which is why it’s so rough, though I haven’t gotten sick yet at all.  I then went to the computer lab to set up the two network drives from SAS on my computer.  Now I can see the travel photo dropbox, so that’s pretty neat.  Afterwards I went back t omy room to read a little more about Mayan courts, then Ellie and I worked on our roommate agreements form before going to dinner.  I met a girl who is also going to do the Cabaret like me, ad seems just as snarky.  She even has the same elitist behavior towards pastries—her name is Mariah.
It looks like I lost the lottery for my trip to Gibralter—I didn’t get a verification for it, so I’ll go to the field office tomorrow to see if they just forgot.  I’m kind of bummed because I was really looking forward to that.  They also cancelled the orphanage visit in Casablanca I was going to do, so now I’ll have to find another one to give my beanies out at—it looks like Singapore and Mauritius have some places, so I’ll have to sign up then.  :D
Around 1700 they had been announcing an all-denominational Christian worship service, so I went as I was free all night.  It went okay—I got kind of upset when people were talking about how the best thing they could do for impoverished people was to give them prayers and companionship, and didn’t seem to understand that you can’t just give someone a hug and have it change their life and make them all happy.  That takes actually economic help and support.  I’m not saying companionship is bad or anything, but I don’t know, I just wish that it had more of an emphasis on what PEOPLE could do. 
How is everyone liking my blog so far?  Any requests as to things I can do differently?  I know I have some spelling errors here and there, but I transcribe it from my physical journal late at night, so it’s kind of hard to multitask.  I receive your comments in my email and it always makes me happy to see people are reading!  :)