Happy Birthday Andrew!

Out to sea...Back to work! We set sail from Brazil on February 9th at about 9:30pm and we are definately back at work. After a nice Bon Voyage BBQ out on Deck 7 Aft, I was on Gangway Duty that night and it was a little wake-up call. All passengers, which would be faculty, staff, and students, need to be on-board at 2100 for a sailing time of 2300...that means about 850 people! I was stationed at the Gangway from about 7:00pm on. Unfortunately, alot of students wait till the last minute to board the ship and even more unfortunate is that they feel the need to consume a ridiculous amount of alcohol that last evening in Port. I spent alot of my night at the Clinic with 3 students who were severly intoxicated. 2 of them were ok to be released to their cabins under the watch of a friend...and I had to run around the ship trying to find their roommates or another friend who would assume responsibility for them while the third student actually had to spend the night in the Clinic with an IV, etc... so for that, I had to track down the people who carried her back to the ship, get the story, and then stay with her while the medical staff moved on to regular clinic hours. What a night!

Next day (yesterday) was back to class and back to work. Its a weird routine for the students to be in class for a few days, be in Port for 5 days, and then back to life on the ship. You never really settle in to any one frame of mind. They had a wake-up call realizing that homework was due and first exams are coming up soon after being in Brazil for almost a week. Although life on ship can be very relaxed and fun and most days, you'll see any number of students laying out in the sun up on the decks or up late, the professors are serious about the classes and the students are starting to come to terms with that. As for the staff, we were back to regular meetings and such as well. I had Student Life Desk Duty and am busy getting my Sea ready for the Sea Olympics and planning Sea Socials and handling other student issues. I also had to spend some time mediating with 1 of my cabins which is having some roommate issues and then inform one of my students that his grandmother had passed away. These are the less fun aspects of what we do out here. It just is that every 'normal' student issue one might come across is maginified both emotionally and practically when you're on a ship!

Other than that, things are well. We lost another hour last night so I'm 3 hours ahead of EST (BST) and we will continue to pass through time zones about every other day until arrival in South Africa where we'll be -7 hours. I'm actually sitting in Global Studies as I write and we're learning about African music. Probably not the best example but its a good time to catch up on stuff.

Lots of Love to everyone!