Only one more day at sea after today and then I will be in India! Which also means that we are now back above the equator. I am so excited for this country. This stretch of the voyage has not been bad at all. It has actually been fun! And the water, other than the day of Sea Olympics, has been so calm! The water just looks like glass and it is so smooth. I love it. It makes it really easy to teach my kickboxing classes which have been going amazing. I still teach one every day at 3:45. Some days I only have like 3 or 5 people, but yesterday I had like 12 people. The area where I teach is pretty small, so not many people can fit anyways, but it was awesome. With it being so smooth, there is no wind which is very good and very bad. It is like really hot, and not at all shady, so you get VERY sweaty. But, there was a whole big thing with figuring out how to get the music to play, so one of my friends on the ship Ashley, who has been awesome enough to take my class everyday brings her Ipod speakers, and I just play the music through that. Most days it is so windy only I can hear the music, but on this whole stretch, the music has been so loud. It just makes it more fun. (another interesting thing about Ashley, she goes to Chapman University in Orange - right near me, and she said she is totally gonna start taking my classes once we get home. I'm advertising for 24 Hour Fitness while studying abroad, they should totally give me a raise when I get back.) Even though it is sometimes unbearably hot, it is amazing to be doing what I love to do - instructing classes, while looking out and seeing nothing but ocean. It is indescribable how lucky I feel. Other happenings this week.... It was "Body Awareness Week." My women's group aboard the ship - WAVES (which again stands for Women Achieving Victory Equality and Solidarity) put on kind of like a 'spirit week' and all the days had something special focusing on the body. So like Tuesday was wear your pajamas day, and everybody was encouraged to just be comfortable, skip the make-up and the cologne. Then Wednesday was "Make a Body Promise." We set up tables outside the dining halls and had people write anonymous promises to themselves about something good they will do or feel about themselves. Then that night we had the crew of the ship cover all of the public mirrors, including the ones in the bathrooms. (And oddly, this ship has a TON of mirrors everywhere, even in the dining halls.) but anyways, me and the ladies in my group re-wrote all of the promises on colored paper and then taped them up on all the covered mirrors. It was very inspiring. So Thursday, when everybody woke up, they didn't have their own reflection to see, they got to be inspired by what their shipmates wrote. I posted a picture of what one of the mirrors looked like with all of the promises, and then there are some close-ups of my favorite promises. It was a very cool thing that I was proud to be a part of. Then today was Confidence Day, and to show that we said to wear something red. It was very cool to look out and see all the people sporting red clothing. So, even though this has been a long stretch at sea, it has been a very great experience. And I know you forget this, but I do take classes on the ship, and luckily for me, I don't have anything big due this stretch. I have some reading and stuff I should do, but since nothing is due, I am kind of too excited about India to concentrate on any work. Plus, me and four other girls watch LOST every night because we found somebody who brought seasons one and two with them. Me and Ally have seen it, but the other girls haven't, so we are just going from the beginning, and that show is so addicting, and has definitely taken priority over my homework. I just have to say there are far too many distractions on this ship. Anyways, back to India, the first day there I am probably just going to do some shopping, and in the evening I am going to a welcome reception. Then the next three days and two nights I will be staying with a host family. Then the last day I am going to a working woman's forum which I am really excited about. All the staff and people who have been to India keep telling everybody that what we experience in there is going to be incredible, and there is really no way to prepare a person for what they will see. That makes me excited and nervous at the same time. Since I will be with a host family for the majority of the time, I don't know how easily I will be able to post blogs and pics, so if you don't hear from me right away, don't worry. It has also been very hard to get online here on the ship because we are experiencing problems with the satellite. But, I will do my best to let you know I at least arrived safely, and will hopefully share some pics from my first day. So, until India......