February 15, 2007
Today is my 21st birthday! My literature teacher, a very nice, cute older man named Gene, wished me Happy Birthday this morning, which he read in the Dean’s Memo. I thought that was very cute. We’ve had classes for the last 6 days and I think we’re all going a little stir crazy and have cabin fever. I’m sure many internet minutes have been used up this past week. Our longest treks are Puerto Rico à Brazil à South Africa, Mauritius à India. Those 3 separate weeks contain about a week of classes. After we leave India we’ll be hopping around Asia and won’t have a week on the boat until we leave Japan and its finals time. Vietnam is gonna be here before I know it.
We’ve got our first Global Studies exam tomorrow which we’ll all be studying for tonight. 702 students taking the same test at the same time. I’m hoping it won’t be that difficult because its only a 101 class, but they could still surprise us. I’m having a little birthday dinner tonight with my friends, and Caitlin was nice enough to pre-order a cake for me (I heard its an ice cream cake). It was supposed to be a surprise but she kind of ruined that. I’m far from home and all my friends and family, but it’s nice to have a celebration with new friends. And I’ll be going to Brazil on Saturday so that’s a pretty nice way to celebrate.
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and I was lucky enough to get in a Skype date with Will. There are some couples on the boat who were able to celebrate together, but otherwise it wasn’t a very eventful day. The ship held a ‘stoplight party,’ in which students wore Red if they were taken, Yellow if they had a ‘kind-of’ and Green if they were single and ready to mingle. They also played “City of God” on the tube to show us what gang life is like in Brazil. And I think they did it to scare us a little so we wouldn’t wonder aimlessly around the country. We’ve been spending a lot of time focusing on Brazil’s different ethnic groups and the difference in social classes. They’ve basically been scaring us so we don’t do anything stupid because apparently, we will get mugged. And we will lose money. But as long as we don’t put up a fight, we should be fine. I’ll be traveling to Boipeba Island and learning about the community there from Saturday to Tuesday and will be out of the city, which I am excited about. I’ll be seeing beaches and living the slow life. No cars, only mules. I’m hoping this will be a great way to see a Beautiful Brazil and not have to worry about dangers in the city.
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