One More Day

September 11, 2005
At Sea

Excerpt from Heather’s Journal:

The sea has been rough all day with long swells and a height of approximately six to seven feet. It seems as if everything has slowed down, and I hesitate to say it, but established a routine. Though I know that will be out the porthole in two days when we arrive in Brazil.

Today is laundry day and we have sent two bags off to be cleaned. Hopefully all goes well and everything will return clean and pressed. I am tired of studying and cannot wait for this exam to be over.

We had the cultural pre-port tonight and Brazil looks incredible. I don’t know what I expected but if we make it to the places they suggested than we should see some really beautiful parts of the city. We were told that wearing shorts and tank tops is perfectly acceptable, and white is the best color to wear to a Candomble House, which we will be going to on the thirteenth day of September. Apparently Itaparica, an island off of Salvador has an incredible beach, so I am also looking forward to spending some time there as well with the Traditional Ceramics FDP. Pelourinho has some awesome shopping and the pictures they showed us remind me of a mixture of Curacao and Bermuda with the pastel painted colonial architecture and narrow roads. There is also a craft market at the terminal, and I cannot wait to exchange money to shop!

Tomorrow is the exam and hopefully it will not be that difficult. We were assigned a specific room for the exam, and Megan and I will be taking the test in the Garden Lounge on Deck Six.

We had three minutes of silence tonight at the pre-port for the victims of 9-11, the tsunamis in Asia and Katrina disaster in the United States, and stood listening to the sounds of the ship. I have to admit that I half expected someone to fall over, but I had a firm grasp on the chair in front of me.

September 12, 2005
At Sea

Excerpt from Megan’s Journal:

The last couple days have been filled with constant studying for my first exam. I found the test to be straightforward, specifically with statistics on the countries and class lectures. However, some of the questions referring to articles read outside class were a little more difficult. To better prepare for this section of the exam in the future I will focus a little more note taking and review on the minor details and concepts within these articles.

Heather writes, “One more day to go! We had the Global Studies exam this morning and it went pretty well. I found many of the questions to be quite easy, especially the statistical ones concerning Brazil and Venezuela. However, some of the more in-depth, below the surface questions definitely required a full understanding of the people, so hopefully I did enough studying and passed with flying colors. It’s normal that I always worry, and still I do fine.”

One bag of laundry was returned, including pajamas, socks, and a multitude of t-shirts, all freshly washed and perfectly ironed. I am trying to remain calm and patient for the return of the second bag. However, it is easy to agonize over the clothes that would be lost which included all of my shorts, minus one pair, my blue-jeans, Terp towel, and several tank-tops. It seems as if all of the laundry has been returned and I cannot explain why this one is missing. If I see our room steward I will inquire as to its absence. Until then, I glance out the door every couple of minutes hoping to see my garments.

Heather writes, “Our steward brought us our laundry, nice, clean, and pressed, but we are still waiting on one bag. I hope nothing has happened to it because it contained blue jeans, shorts, and beach towels. Needless to say that if it is gone then we are down to one pair of blue jeans each and one pair of shorts. There were a couple of tops in the bag as well, but those are mostly dispensable.”

The ocean is still pitching from side to side, relentless in its routine. Soon we will be docked in Salvador and it will be so wonderful for a break on land. I love the ship and my cabin, but a change of scenery will be a welcome reprieve. Never have I spent this long away from land, but I love every minute of “being between the blue” as Heather calls it.

Excerpt from Heather’s Journal:

We checked our weblog this morning and our email and had several responses to our last couple of days on the ship. Yes, I am eating my peas, mom, we opened it on the first day, and we have also opened the cards for Venezuela that have a stack of about five chocolate chip cookies on the front. Tomorrow we get to open another. It seems as if each semester there is a cookie card, and I am glad you did not let this semester slip by without one. Ms. Nan, about the cookies, I wish we had some!

Megan writes, “Yes, I have eaten my peas…but no, seriously, the book Eat Your Peas is adorable. There is, of course, a story that goes along with that. As instructed we opened the small gift the day after we departed Nassau. Since then, we have opened the card for Venezuela in which chocolate chip cookies tempt the wandering eyes. Cute card. My eyesight at the point of receiving the little book was extremely fuzzy due to the seasickness patch so Heather had to read it to me. I tried to enjoy the colors and cute text, but to no avail. Since then, and now that I see perfectly, I glance at it every night on my nightstand and every morning.”

We have traveled two thousand four hundred thirty one miles since La Guaira and have started the countdown – three hundred sixty seven nautical miles to go. In actuality I believe we will arrive in Salvador tonight. The skies are cloudy and the ship is rocking. I replaced my patch this morning and feel great.

Megan writes, “It is almost time for dinner and I have finished my novel of five hundred and five pages. We have received a portion of our laundry from bag two, only the Terp blankets, and are anxiously awaiting the others return.”

So we are still missing laundry, but did receive our Terp beach towels. What does this mean? When do I get worried? Should I be concerned? If it is not here by tomorrow I will have to start asking questions. I think that perhaps because we requested the clean and press service that it is taking longer. We shall see.

We had dinner tonight with Betty and Bob, two of the adult passengers and had a great time talking. It was quite noisy in the Garden Lounge, and now I have a serious migraine. They might be doing the same field program tomorrow, which would be really exciting. They are from New Hampshire and Bob is a music teacher. I think what I like most about them is that they remind me of Nana and PopPop. I don’t know why, but they do. We are also going to become a part of their adopted family onboard and I am really looking forward to getting to know them better. It feels so great to find someone that I can really talk to and have an intellectual conversation.

Megan writes, “At dinner we sat with Betty and Bob, adult passengers onboard and extremely nice. We found out that we had missed the sign-up, somehow, for the adopt-a-family and it seems that we will most likely join their group. What fun. They are from New Hampshire (Mom and Dad, you might remember seeing them from before we boarded the ship).”

Excerpt from Megan’s Journal:

Tonight is a pre-port logistics meeting from eight to nine and after that I will mostly likely do a little journaling and go to sleep. I am looking forward to visiting the Mercado Modelo, a folk art market with all kinds of Bahian handicrafts, as well as Pelourinho. Day two in Brazil will take us to Itaparica Island with our Field Directed Practicum on Traditional Ceramics. Of course, the beaches are famous for their clear waters and backdrop of verdant foliage. I sound like such a tourist.

Good night cosmic void…
(How poetic)