August 31 2010 ? MV Explorer

There was a time change last night, but I didn’t feel particular miserable, so I got breakfast with a couple of girls in my Women in High Courts class, one of them being Martha, the girl I met at the Argyle.  French toast, om nom nom.  In class we mostly just went over our reading about Mayans and their court system, and it was really interesting hearing about how sexuality/menstruation/menopause tied in so much with the roles of the women in that time period and place.  I’m glad to be taking this class, even if it is at 0800!
Global Studies was far more interesting than last time, as there was no boring guest lecturer.  Instead we talked about prosperity and statistics on who is prosperous, who is not, and what goals the world has in order to let all people have the same two minimum basic human rights, which are the right to food and the right to shelter.  It was pretty neat learning about the millennium goals of the UN as well, even if it was kind of depressing to learn that the United Nations didn’t really have any way to fund these changes, as it’s not like they have taxes.
I then ran out to the field office, where a huge mob had formed.  It turned out that I indeed had gotten kicked outta the Gibraltar trip, which was a huge bummer but I guess that’s to be expected with such a popular trip.  I set about trying to find a replacement trip, and I finally found one that hikes through Spain’s most ancient forest (Grameleza national park) that sounds really awesome AND is half the price it originally was.  Score!  I just hope that the guy doesn’t sell it to someone else—I asked first!
After all that nonsense, I did some hardcore reading in my Global Studies book because I had been a little behind (not anymore!), sitting with Julie and her friend Jared.  Somewhere in there I ate lunch, too.
Actually, today was just a really big reading day overall, as I read a chapter in the Tourism book, in Hot Flat and Crowded, and in Social Problems.  It took me forever, especially when all of a sudden I realized that I couldn’t read the words on the page.  Everything close up looked blurry and unrecognizable, and sentences were totally incomprehensible.  When I still couldn’t see properly three hours later, I panicked and went to the medical area.  The doc thinks I probably touched the seasickness patch (and indeed I had taken it off this morning) and rubbed my eye, but it should be better in the morning. 
OH!  When I got back, I went to look outside and saw an entire fleet of dolphins in our porthole!  There were tons—I think they wanted to check out the ship, but as far out as I could see I could see dorsal fins and the occasional sleek gray body.  I even saw a little BABBY dolphin, that couldn’t have been longer than four or five feet.  It was definitely great. 
Anyway, I did the best I could with reading, even with my impaired sight.  It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the international politics that I’m learning right now in Global Studies and Contemporary Social Issues, so I’m trying really hard.  I really don’t want to drop any of my five classes, though I keep getting warnings about how hard it will be to manage.  I went to dinner later with Katie Porter (of Chapman) and some girls named Cora and Sarah.  Sarah invited me to go on a Spain adventure with her, so I may take her up on that if my hike falls through.
I read a little more before going to Dean David’s talk on eating in Spain, which was WAY more fascinating than yesterday’s lecture and it made me hungry!  Lots of delicious things to try.  We can even print a list of Spanish food words from his presentation—polpo means octopus! (Or was it pulpo?)
Immediately afterwards, I got a hot chocolate at the bar area and promptly dumped the entire thing directly onto my hand.  It went numb immediately, it was so hot.  I’m pretty sure I can see blisters forming on my hand already—I didn’t have an ice pack, so I just had to run it under a rather lukewarm tap.  I’m almost certain that it’s the worst burn I’ve ever had in my life—my entire hand is bright, violent red.  Ow.
I then hung out with Julie under the stairs to deck 2 as she did her global studies homework.  Some girls passed us looking like jungle cats for some kind of themed party up on dock 7.  So Julie and I wandered over to the party—I didn’t really want to go, because my hand hurt and I was tired, but I also felt that if I did that, then it would be really unsocial and I’m still trying to make friends and everything.  Especially since my Spain trip fell through, I’ve been worried about the opportunities to make friends… I’m just a little over anxious about it, I guess.  I’ve met some wonderful people, but I feel like the first port is what’ll make real friendships.  But anyway, the party: everyone was just sitting around and talking, and I didn’t want to buy any alcohol, so I just kind of went “meh” and left.  I left my jungle cat outfit at home anyway, I didn’t fit in.  (In reality I think there were 3 people dressed in a jungle theme. I don’t know where they got that idea.)  I discovered the fitness center at last and will probably sign up for something tomorrow—all of Ellie’s zumba classes are during my classes.  :(  So I need to get some work out in!
Julie wanted to go on the observation deck, which is the highest part of the ship you  can go—I didn’t even realize that students could go up there.  But we looked at the stars and sang Lady Gaga and tried to find the moon, which was huge and orange and rose in the ocean’s horizon while we looked on.  Her friend Jared came up too after a while.  He flirts with Julie a little too indelicately, so I don’t know if I trust him.  But we had a fun time out there until 0030.  :O
I never knew/realized how big the Atlantic Ocean REALLY was until now.  I think it’s kind of impossible to comprehend until you’re on a ship this way.  Also, we lose an hour tomorrow—ugh!
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