Life at Sea

Thurs. Jan. 30 @ 7:30

strong>Hello after several days of not writing in my blog. Our trip from Puerto Rico has been very smooth sailing until today when we hit rougher water and we're rolling quite a bit. Still no sea sickness, so it seems I'll be o.k. during mild rolling. We've been told our trip from Brazil to Cape Town will be rougher.

Before beginning this trip, I thought this experience was going to be a time when I could simplify my life. In fact, I do live and work (from 8:00 - 5:00, with time off for the global studies class and lunch)in the same place. My work day is much busier than I expected and even with two work study students to assist me, I never get everything done. I live on the 3rd deck and work on the 5th deck, 3 meals of very good food of many varieties are prepared for me and the dishes are washed, my clothes are washed for me and my room is cleaned twice a day -- so I do live the good life. After 5:00pm every day the choices abound -- and I find I want to do them all! The 12 Life-Long Learners meet every day from 5:00 to 6:00 for speakers and conversation, then dinner at 6:00. At 7:00, there is currently an opportunity to learn Portuguese before we reach Brazil (I'm passing on that and writing in my blog today). From 8:00 to 9:00pm, there is "Community College" which offers speakers, seminars and documentaries of many kinds and at 9:00 there are usually two choices of films that we can view in our cabins on closed circuit t.v. The films are usually chosen for topics that pertain to the countries that we are visiting. Tonight the choices are Wide Sargasso(set in Jamaica)and Favela Rising which is set in Rio. One of tomorrow's choices is Bye, Bye Brazil.

Everyone continues to get along well, and I hear the professors speaking about how bright the students are. I am indeed grateful for this privilege of being in this community of interesting people; now, if I could just put a few more hours in the day, I could take advantage of more things!