Learning Why We Skipped Egypt (August 5)

You’d think that with an extra hour of sleep tonight, and lots of protein at 2 meals (lunch actually had good meat!), I’d be energized today- but there is something about being on a constantly rocking ship that makes you drowsy! We’re all still getting back into the funk of school each day. My roommate and I decided we should get a weekend. :) Too bad that’s not happening!

I have a test tomorrow in Psychology of Learning and Memory, so I’ve been studying for that during most of my free time today. 

In Global Studies, we had a guest speaker from Africa lecture on the Arab Spring of 2011. I knew what had been happening in Northern Africa before I left from what I heard on the news, but ever since we’ve been sailing we’ve been completely cut off from world news. Side-note! That’s actually very surprising to me. I would think that on such a global, cultural, greater world-view-inducing voyage, we would be kept up-to-date on the major events happening on the world. But nope! We get no internet and no updates on world (or even American) news. Yes, we do have access to newspapers we could buy while in countries…but they’re all in different languages! While in Italy we found some newspapers in a café- we couldn’t understand any of the words, and we saw a huge picture covering the front page of a huge violent riot, and could make out that in was in Greece (from the Italian title), Athens specifically. Okay…so all we knew was that these riots were getting more intense in a place that we were about to go, but we couldn’t read about it. A little scary! Okay, I’m done with my sidenote. :) Back to the guest speaker. Anyway, this speaker talked about how the whole revolution started, and told us the story of Bouazazi. Bouazazi was a 26 year old college graduate who was selling vegetables on the streets without a license to get money for his family (and got harassed by police daily). One day, a policewoman approached him and he was ready to pay the $7 fine. She didn’t let him, and instead spit on him and cursed at him using his father’s name, also knocking away his vegetable stand. When he tried to file a complaint, the police wouldn’t let him. Bouazazi covered himself in gasoline, lit himself on fire, and in our speaker’s words, “there he went.” She told us that this is the single event that sparked the revolution- many things had led up to it, and many people had made previous demands, but this is what got people going. And it went from there. She spoke to us about Arab stereotypes, and how they are detrimental to the Arab people. Not all Arabs are the same, and she broke down these stereotypes for us. She showed us the different things the dictators had in common. She also told us the new steps both a new leader and the citizens of Northern Africa are needing to take. We also heard that the last leader is currently on trial, either yesterday or today. It was very interesting hearing about everything from a citizen who experienced it first hand, and studied the politics of it. It definitely paid off paying attention in Global Studies today!

After Global Studies Michelle and I went to the gym again (yay!) and did our elliptical, stairmaster, and P90X abs. After dinner was the anticipated TALENT SHOW! We got there early to get seats and I brought my camera along, knowing I’d be leaning into the aisles to get any kind of a good view. It was so much fun! Before it started, it was like a dance party in the Union. Everyone had so much energy. It’s crazy how we’ve become such a family on this ship so quickly and we still don’t all know each other. Kids, college students, adults, lifelong learners…we all have SUCH diverse backgrounds but we all have something in common—we’re all on this crazy, unique, voyage halfway across the world from where we normally are! Anyway, the first half of the talent show was by the dependent children of families on the ship. They were SO cute! One little boy did a Justin Beiber performance…I was thinking about stealing him on the spot. Then for the second half, SAS students performed. I was so impressed with the talent on our ship! Piano, guitar, ukulele, singing, reciting poetry, dancing…the list goes on. We have some very talented people on this ship! There were a couple goofy acts too, which are always fun. The whole night was a lot of fun and I’m really glad I went!

ALSO, on another positive note, I checked my global studies grade and I think a miracle happened! Yay!

The rest of the night was a bit of a daze- I had a ton of studying to do for my psych exam in the morning, but my eyelids were just so darn heavy. We gained an hour, so I made sure to change all my clocks, but even with the extra hour I was exhausted. I read through a chapter until my eyes could hardly stay open, then powered through part of another. THEN my eyes were serious about not staying open…so I took a 15 minute nap. Yes, at 1 in the morning. Then I woke up, struggled through the rest of the chapter, then passed out for the night. I could cram the rest in the morning!