March 24, 2007

Nothing much happened this week, but it went by fast and I am very grateful for that. This is what happened on the MV Explorer this past week:

1. James cut his hair. Or he let Caitlin and I trim it and then decided he didn’t like it, so he went up to the salon and got it shaved. He said that the only time it had ever been that short was when he was born. So that was exciting.
2. Dolphins swam and jumped around outside my bedroom window.
3. Nick had a birthday, so we got some ice-cream cake and it was very good.
4. There was an ‘anything but clothes’ party, which is great for SAS to sponsor since they want us all behaving like intelligent, young adults with excellent behavior and good intentions. Some people wore laundry bags. Others stuck notebooks to their bodies. I think masking tape was a hot asset for the night.

I had one midterm this week in my Food and Society class (today, on Saturday, unheard of!). It went well I think, and I really like my teacher so even if he doesn’t give me an A, I can’t get mad at him. He’s got a cute face and a cute accent. He’s also heard of the New Zealand folk-singing band ‘Flight of the Conchords,’ who I absolutely love, so that gives him more points too. To quote him, “It’s the funniest shit you’ll ever hear.” Agreed, Simon. And yes, he let’s us call him Simon, because Professor Nicholson is a mouthful.

I also had lunch with James Bond’s wife and their very cute baby, Ryder. This couple is very good looking and the baby has all his father’s genes, and I found out today that Rocky is actually 53…but looks like he just turned 40. Apparently if you remove red meat from your diet and only eat fish and chicken, you’ll be a stud forever. Mrs. Rocky shared her wisdom with us and told me and my friend that we should wait to have kids until we’re 35. She herself is 39 and her son is only 9 months old. Most people tell me that these days, but she stressed the idea more strongly than others. Then she went on to tell me how she and her husband were big into white-water rafting and traveling everywhere and I basically wanted to be her for a day. Rocky also plays the harmonica and gave us a performance tonight at pre-port. It was very impressive. Simon joined him on the flute and Bob, as always, strummed away on the guitar. Bob always plays music for us before we get to port, but tonight it was a collaboration of all our gifted gentlemen on board. And unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera.

So tomorrow we arrive in Chennai. I think this is going to be a huge culture shock for a lot of people on this boat. I’ve heard that a lot of kids are nervous about getting off and would rather just skip the Indian cities and sunbathe on the beaches (probably the Spring Break kids). We’ve been told to try and conserve water all week because we can’t refill while we’re in Chennai. Some kids have had their water cut off on them during showers or had toilets that didn’t flush (ew). This is supposed to be our dirtiest port so we have to make sure to wear clothes and shoes that we don’t care about, because its also going to be the smelliest place we visit on the trip. I’m still very excited. I think we’re going to be shocked by the amount of people that are in the city—and they know we’re coming so we have to be ready for their constant attention and the lack of personal space we’re going to receive. One of our dollars equals 44 of their Rupees, so we’ve been told all week that bargaining is a must because they will try to rip us off and take advantage of our ignorance. I leave for my 3-night trip to Delhi, Agra and the Taj Mahal at 3:00 so I don’t have much time to explore the port before we leave, but I’m very excited and can’t wait to see the Taj Mahal. Yay Asia!

March 24, 2007

The India sun during sunrise is the brightest, most vibrant thing I have ever seen.