Update from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…

I have decided that I was born to be a sailor. I love living at sea…granted I guess I am living on a luxury cruise liner, but we’re still sailing none-the-less. The crossing of the Atlantic will be our longest time at sea until we cross the Pacific on our way back to the States. We’re sailing for 9 days straight, and so far it has been pretty smooth. A lot of people have been complaining about the long stretch of nothing but sea, but I find it relaxing. Of course I would rather be in Brazil or India or Africa, but I love the laid back days aboard the Explorer. We lose almost an hour a day on the way to Africa, and a lot of us are really starting to feel it. Setting our clocks forward every night is brutal. I have to try and make a conscious decision to go to bed early, which is hard to do because there is always something going on. A couple of days ago we were sailing at exactly 15 degrees latitude. This means that we were directly below the sun and had no shadows. Random, I know, but I thought it was pretty interesting. I have been told that there are a lot of whales on this stretch, but I have yet to see any. I’m keeping my eyes peeled and my fingers crossed. We get one day off from classes soon, which will be a nice break. I am still having a hard time focusing on school work, but can you really blame me? There are scientists from the NOAA on board this crossing to launch off research equipment. They have been letting students help them with the launchings, which I think is pretty cool (but then again I am a science nerd). We had a mandatory meeting the other night where we had to fill out the remainder of our immigrations paperwork for future ports. It was a lot of paperwork…I didn’t really realize how many places we really are going! It was funny trying to get 684 students to fill out completely and accurately every single foreign paper. It was a long process to say the least. I think the crew is a little worried about the competency of our generation and perhaps even the future of America :) Our little group that went to Lencois, Brazil had dinner and a picture sharing party together the other night. It was a lot of fun to see all our pictures, and it made me glad that I got to make all these new friends. Tonight I had dinner with my adopted grandparents. My friend and I randomly got assigned to the same family and we are having a lot of fun with it. I’m glad for the chance to get to know some of the seniors on board. Earlier today I went out to the bow area of the ship and was completely blown away by how blue the water looks. As far as the eye can see is nothing but the only view in the world that remains unchanged by humans and constant in beauty. It is truly surreal. I am hoping to sleep outside on the deck one of these nights and take advantage of the incredible star gazing. Let’s see, what else is going on aboard the floating Hilton... The food is starting to get fairly repetitive, which means I have been living off peanut butter and jelly. It is by no means bad food, just repetitive. The food always consists of some form of pasta, potatoes, and rice...and rolls, you can’t forget the rolls. Atkins would not have survived a day here. Pasta with red sauce, pasta in cream sauce, spiral pasta, round pasta, green pasta, you name it... we’ve had it. Unfortunately, I hear that the peanut butter gets kind of weird when we get to Asia. For someone whose staple food is peanut butter, this kind of worries me. I’ll keep you posted. So you can probably tell by reading this that I have seen nothing but water for five days because I have been rambling about peanut butter and pasta and what not for the last five minutes.

Thank you for all the supportive emails and comments. I am working on some of your requests. It is such an encouragement to hear from you all and I love to hear who is reading!

Status Report:
25 degrees Latitude
14 degrees Longitude

Today’s Quote: “Travel makes one modest; you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” Gustave Flaubert

Dumbest Question of the Day: “When we get to China, and we want to order Chinese food, do we just ask for food?”