Papers, Papers, Papers! (July 15)

Well, today we lived like the cavemen did! Not really, but the internet and email were down. One reason this wreaked havoc on the ship was because a lot of papers were due today and tomorrow, and we needed to use specific “free” websites to write them. Now, I don’t know about you…but I have a hard time writing about something I can’t read. Maybe we’re all supposed to be psychic? Thankfully, the internet and email JUST started working again, YAY! Now I can continue emailing all of you back. :)

When I woke up, I decided to skip breakfast and instead eat some of my dry cereal from the Croatian grocery store. It’s a wannabe Special K. Instead of breakfast, I ran up to the computers and printed out the paper I had to turn in. When I got to Natural Disasters, I turned it right in- DONE with my papers for that class, woohoo! Class was pretty fun today! It felt like we were in elementary school doing demonstrations, but none of us minded. We love doing exercises that reinforce learning rather than listening to a boring lecture! All of the professors out there should take after my Natural Disasters professor- students would learn so much more! Anyway, we are learning about earthquakes, and today we studied seismic waves. In order to do a demonstration of how these work, we all got in a big circle around the classroom barely touching shoulders. To demonstrate P-waves, one person leaned to one side. Immediately, a domino effect rippled around the room. We did this a couple times because it was so fun! Then to demonstrate s-waves, we all did the wave! Definitely better than the lectures I sit through back at school. . . hint, hint, professors!

At lunch, we made the realization that they ran out of food and are giving us any desperate scraps and leftovers they can find. So…it was a PB&J day. Then was Global Studies. Oh wait, I forgot to mention the paper I cranked out between 12:30 and 1. DONE- Cha-ching! I even had to get sources from the library and got help from the very nice librarian! 7 sources later, my paper was done! I was quite proud. I printed it out and turned it in just as class was starting. As class went on, though, I started feeling very nauseous and seasick. I think it was because I had been on land so long, and also because all the curtains in the Union are always closed so I can’t look out and see the waves. If I see what’s moving me, I’m fine. If I’m stuck in a freezing cold room that is rocking back and forth without being able to see anything…not good. So I left a little early to go take a nap. I was hoping I’d feel better, and be able to wake up and start my next paper. AND I was hoping the internet would be working by then! Well, my 20 minute nap definitely turned into a 3 hour and 15 minute nap. At least I woke up just in time for dinner! Dinner reinforced our lunchtime theory. In fact, I asked Darwin if they ran out of food and if that was why we were getting all of this, and he said yes. The food in Croatia was too expensive. PLEASE can we get new food in Greece?! Pleaseeeee. Needless to say, dinner was a PB&J meal too.

Before dinner, I had packed my bag with my laptop, camera, sunglasses, and headphones- I knew I wanted to sit out on the deck at sunset and work on my paper, like I always want to do, but I knew I’d be too lazy to go back down to my room and get my stuff, then go back up. Talk about paying off! Everyone else dispersed and went to their rooms, meetings, etc, so Katie and I went out to the deck. She had to leave after awhile, so I pulled a lounge chair over to the corner of the ship. It was just me, the ocean, the gorgeous sunset, a warm breeze, and some calming music. For some of the time, I sat and enjoyed the beautiful moment. Then I started (and finished) my next paper!

If you haven’t followed…I cranked out 3 papers in 24 hours. I’d say that’s pretty impressive for a Bioengineer! I have one more that I have to do after Greece, then another after Turkey. I just want to get them done!

When they took all the chairs off the deck after sunset, I moved into a classroom to finish citing some sources for my paper. After working for awhile, a bunch of people came in and started having a meeting! It ended up being a Global Ambassadors meeting (for SAS). It sounds really great! Maybe I’ll end up applying! When I was leaving the meeting, I ran into the girls. Some of us went to one of our rooms and did a belly dancing workout video! After attempting to belly dance, laughing very hard, and realizing it wasn’t much of a workout, we switched and threw in a Zumba video. This was almost equally entertaining, considering there were 5 of us packed into a tiny cabin! Then I came home and started working on some blogging (since I’ve been so far behind!).

We lose ANOTHER hour tonight, but it’s our last one! Even though it’s just a time change, it’s bittersweet. I don’t like losing time, but it means we’re still moving away on our journey! When we start gaining time back, it will be nice to have longer days but it’s going to be so sad! This trip has been AMAZING so far and I don’t want it to end so soon! :( I want this to last so much longer, and bring all of you on it with me!