Friday, September 12 ("Success at Sea Series"/ sailing to Namibia):Things are quiet…first day back at sea…six days until Namibia. My collateral assignment, Academic & Learning Skills, has not been well defined; this collateral assignment was recently established, so there a few expectations in place. On one hand it's great to create something from scratch, but-on the other hand- it can be challenging to create something from scratch. In past voyages, each person interpreted Academic & Learning Skills differently. I'm interested in establishing sustainable system(s) that someone could easily implement next semester, like a writing center and 2-3 programmatic efforts.

About two weeks ago I brainstormed ideas with colleagues and decided to host a series entitled, Success at Sea presents: Academic Effectiveness at Sea; Rubbing Two Nickels Together: Traveling on a Budget; Traveling as a Person of Color at Sea; and Managing Stress & Anxiety at Sea." Hopefully this mini series will interest a number of students and help them gain skills to effectively manage the rigors transitioning to ship life.

Sunday, September 14 ("Thank You"/ sailing to Namibia): I would like to give a special thank you to everyone who has taken time to send me a note! Sure, sailing around the world sounds cool (don't get me wrong, it's exciting), but I do miss my life. Usually, I could pick up the phone to hear a friendly voice…send a quick text about a random thought…share stories over coffee…enjoy a delicious meal with someone…whatever. Now I can't do any of those familiar things quite so easily, which means I'm stretched outside of my comfort zone. And, yes, I suppose I signed up to be outside of my regular day to day routine, but I do miss the familiar—my familiar. In my new environment, I'm "forced" to find new support networks and connections; I'm still figuring out what new systems look like…what I want new connections to be about for myself; hopefully I'll soon have a better sense of it for myself.

Please, I beg you, write a note on my wall or send an email to me via the offexploring website—just click on the "contacts" tab to start a message and we can have a private conversation. If you've been reading, but you haven't sent a message—SHAME ON YOU! :) I want to create the possibility of reading at least one new note from different person each day, so I need you to get on it! Ya'll need to help a sista out!

Long distance laughs, hugs, and kisses to all of you!

Monday, September 15 ("Finding Face"/ sailing to Namibia): Patti Duncan (SAS faculty) & Skye Fitzgerald released their documentary film, Finding Face, afilm exploring the topic of acid violence against women in Cambodia. Their documentary highlighted the fact that acid throwing is increasingly common in many Asia countries (and, sadly, this particular kind of violence is steadily growing worldwide). Acid throwing, essentially, is the act of women literally throwing acid on another woman for retaliation. Many acid victims were once beautiful and the acid leaves them disfigured, because it severely burns their face, hair, arms, etc. Furthermore, not only do these women become disfigured and shunned in society, they are not able to pursue judicial action (to date no acid cases have been heard in any court). Finding Face was a really powerful film and I was especially inspired by the women who have attempted to continue to live life, despite being disfigured. Both women highlighted in the documentary recently had children and have relationships. Their stories exemplify the strength of human spirit. The documentary was heavy, but I walked away thinking about beauty, justice, power, and women's rights (for myself & others).

A few hours after the movie, I slept outside with my deck, the Baltic Sea (OMG, finally! ). Okay, okay, I partially slept outside, but it still counts!! Before I go into the details of the evening, let me say that I have a top notch, Eddie Bauer sleeping bag thanks to Ranetta. One day during a conference call, Cindy Zomchek suggested that each person bring a sleeping bag on the voyage. I, in turn, asked Ranetta if I could borrow hers because I didn't want to spend any more money preparing for my voyage. On the eve of my departure, Ranetta showed up to my apartment with a big sleeping bag; she realized that she could not depart with her ten year old Semester at Sea sleeping bag, because it was sentimental. Ranetta insisted that I have my own sleeping bag, because—hopefully—my sleeping bag would also have fond memories associated with it.

Alright, so, I was very pleased that 35 of my students attended the event...this doesn't include the 10 friends they invited. We sat out on the deck, played camp games (ie: I Never, Two Word stories, & other foolishness), and attempted to create a Baltic Sea cheer; to my surprise, everyone stayed about two hours. At 03:00 (yes, AM…why do I *think* I can still stay up that late?), I decided we needed to begin the slumber part of sleeping under the stars. Umm, yeah, of course there was a mass exodus when the slumber part was announced and only ten people actually stayed to sleep under the stars.

Everyone snuggled up in sleeping bags for the night, and wouldn't you know it, rain drops started coming, so we quickly gathered our things and headed inside for the night. Maybe sleeping on deck needs to be more spontaneous…I'm not planning anymore sleep outs! As I crawled into bed (around 04:00), I was thankful that I had planned this event the night before a no class day…otherwise, we all would've been hurtin'!

Tuesday, September 16 ("Advance One Hour…Six Times"/ sailing to Namibia): Over the course of the past few days, we've advanced one hour each night. ROUGH. We're officially six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, which means communication might become more challenging (not impossible, just challenging). This means when I'm awake, everyone else is sleeping. I wish I could say this would end, but the unfortunate reality is that as we move towards India, Vietnam, etc, we'll just continue to "lose" time.

The process of advancing the clocks prompted me to consider time as such a man made construct. If you think about it, "time" only works if others by into it. Random, but I never really thought about it before this moment. Aside from the temperature decreasing and my not so deep thoughts, just sailing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…

Wednesday, September 17 ("In my skin"/ sailing to Namibia): Today I felt like my old self! Transitioning to life at sea has been challenging. Over the course of the past few weeks I've been popping pills, sticking patches behind my ear, and wearing pressure point bracelets; all of this has caused me to feel drowsy and lethargic. This morning I woke up energized—ready to take on the day without medication. I had meetings & duty from 15:00-24:00, which meant a long day for me, but I was ubber productive; luv, luv, luv crossing things off my to-do list! I'm back in my skin!!