Spring Break ’06!

So we are currently just east of Madagascar, heading toward the beautiful island of Mauritius. I am finally done with classes and homework for the next three days! We had a global studies exam today which (along with most of the ship) I stayed up really late studying for. This procrastination of mine, in combination with having to set my clock forward once again, has put me in a very tired and zombie like trance all day. Fortunately it all paid off because I did really well on the exam. Now I can put schoolwork on the back burner for the next few days and really enjoy the next port of call- Port Louis, Mauritius (aka SAS Spring Break 2006)! Shhh don’t tell my teachers. A lot of us students have been joking about how we are missing out on spring break this year (because our lives are just so tough and we never get to have any fun) and so we feel like we deserve a little mindless sun and surf. Mauritius is a pretty small island, and while many of the residents have supposedly been warned that we are coming, I don’t know if they will be fully prepared for our full force invasion. In all seriousness though, I have heard that Mauritius has a great deal of rich and complex history and culture for us to check out…not to mention some gorgeous beaches. I have been hearing that it is supposed to rain the entire time we are there. Hopefully this is just the infamous rumor mill at work formulating evil lies, but you never know on this ship. I’m crossing my fingers that this won’t be the case but I’ll be sure to have a good time regardless. I am soo ready to get off this ship! I made a point to not sign up for any SAS trips so I can have the freedom to go wherever the island takes me. A bunch of us have rented a beach house for a couple nights in a place called Flic en Flac. I honestly don’t know much about it but how could a place with a name as fun as Flic en Flac not be amazing. We have a pool and a barbeque and all that jazz so it should be fun. I’ll keep you posted as the madness ensues…

Pirate Alert…
Since piracy on the eastern coast of Africa was a major contributing factor to the cancellation of Kenya as one of our stops, we have been learning a lot about it. We are actually going to be sailing through some of the most pirated and dangerous waters in the world. At first I thought that the idea of pirates invading the Explorer sounded really exciting, but unfortunately I have since been informed that modern day pirates look nothing like Johnny Depp. Surprisingly, most people don’t realize the enormous amount of actual maritime piracy that takes place every year in many parts of the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and Straits of Malacca. It is a $16 billion dollar a year industry! Fortunately we are not the ideal target for these pirates, not to mention the fact that we are one of the fastest ships in the world and would be hard to catch. Still, if you don’t hear from me in a few weeks you’ll know that we’ve either been attacked by pirates…or I have just run out of internet minutes.

Sea Update…
The days at sea since South Africa have been pretty ordinary. Class…Eat…Nap…Nap some more…Board Games…Class again. I have probably learned more card games in the past few days than in my entire life. We had a belated Valentine’s Day dance last night to raise money for our Students of Service Charity fund. The theme was red light, green light (wear red if you are in a relationship, green if you’re single, yellow if you aren’t sure) and we made a lot of money, which was encouraging. For Students of Service we are also working on getting the official Mr. SAS Pageant organized and nominations are in the process! It should be a really entertaining event coming up in the near future post-India.

Quote of the Day: “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” -Aldous Huxley