February 7 - 9, 2008

Brazil, Brazil… it was an interesting and fun time to be there.

During the rest of the week, it was pretty low key for me.On Thursday night, I had port duty on the ship and worked, so I could not plan anything too big to be back on time for duty.The evening duty was GREAT.There were only about 20 students on the ship that night and duty was nice and quiet.I got a lot done that night, uploading my pictures, blogs, job searching and internet searching.It is always fun to have FAST internet when no one is logged into the internet and using our server.

I slept in nice and late on Friday, which was much needed, as I finished duty up.On Friday, I wanted some down time for ME.I just hung out by the pool on Deck 7 and had the entire place to myself, which was great.I had a chance to swim and lay on the deck for the first time since the beginning of the voyage, and it was FUN.I finished reading Tuesday's with Morie and then started a second book.

Friday night I went to a Brazilian theatre performance and dinner with the students, which was fun.The theatre performance consisted of sacred dances of Candomble, puxada de rede, a song by fishermen in honor of Yemanja, the goddess of the sea, maculele, an acrobatic stick and sword dance with its origins in the cane fields, capoeira, a martial art/dance of Angolan origin and the samba de roda, a spinning, swirling version of this exuberant national dance.

After the performance, we had a very authentic Brazilian Dinner…. Very authentic.I had no idea what was on the buffet line or what I was about to eat.I did try everything, and liked some of the food and others I did not really enjoy.It was a good experience to try it and be exposed to more of the immediate culture.

Saturday afternoon, a few of us hopped in a taxi and headed to a Brazilian steakhouse for lunch.You might have seen a few of these in the USA, but actually going to one in Brazil is a whole new experience.At the steakhouse, when you first sit down, you get a nice little card.. one side being RED and one side being GREEN.Basically, when you want MEET on your plate from the servers, you turn your card to GREEN, and when you don't want any meet, you turn your card to the RED side.You see, the servers walk around the entire restaurant with huge chunks of 15 different styles of meet and chicken and when you are ready to eat, they walk over to you and carve as much as you like.All of the meat that I ate that afternoon was so tender and so good and so filling.Even with eating all of the meat, there was a HUGE buffet as well with salads, cheese, rolls, sushi, seafood and so on and so forth.It was an Amazing meal and I would recommend going to a Brazilian steakhouse if you find one at home.They are pretty costly, but well worth it.We paid 85 REIS, which was $50 American dollars, but so well worth it.

During the rest of the afternoon, a few of us just did our last minute walking around to get our gifts at the market before on ship time.The staff needs to be on ship by 6 pm on the last day and the students have to be on ship by 9 pm.I worked gangway duty this past time and it was an experience.The students were getting a bit testy this time waiting down to the wire on getting on the ship on time and also coming back a bit way too intoxicated.Even though the students are legal to drink in the countries, but once they step on the gangway, they need to remember that they are held to standards and rules and policies of the ship.Lets just say it was a busy gangway duty with lots of things to take care of.The good news, all of the students were back on ship on time and we were able to pull out of port 90 minutes early, which is always a good sign.

Well, Brazil came and went!!It was HOT, it was nice to see the country and experience this new cultural.The immediate area might have been a bit poor and third world, but Brazil does have some very nice places to visit and I would recommend you visiting Brazil if you get a chance.The people in Brazil are really nice and dynamic.They all look so different, but are all the same and identify as Brazilians.From the different colors of hair, to eyes to the darkness of their skin, they really look so wonderful and all are different and the same!!

We are off to South Africa and will be at sea for 9 DAYS!!During the course of the 9 days, we will have to advance our clocks 5 times!!So we will be loosing tons of sleep during this leg of the trip.By the time we reach South Africa, I will be 7 hours ahead of NY Time (and 8 hours ahead of you guys in Central Time).

Also, look forward to seeing pictures and reading about Neptune Day!!Neptune Day is our official celebration of crossing the equator, which includes the shaving of our heads, kissing fish, and other great tributes to King Neptune.On land campus, this would be hazing.. but here at sea… we are having some fun with King Neptune!!!

Talk to you soon.Keep in touch… send some emails, mail soon.

Hope all is going well at home with everyone.