War and Peace

    I have come to the conclusion that I have been cursed.  My friends' theory is that it is the work of the Silence or Stone Angels (doctor who references) making me disappear starting with my paper trail.  The unfortunate side effect of this curse/alien intervention is that my University has kicked me out.  I know I already mentioned this, but the situation has gotten significantly worse in the last few days.  My awesome mom called the school about the situation and found out that I was officially kicked out and would need to reapply to graduate from my home university.  Not an e-mail that is fun to wake up to!  To give a bit of background, I started planning for studying abroad my freshman year of school.  I read all of the instructions and forms several times.  I even gave presentations on behalf of the international department, so I knew my stuff.  Last year, I saw my academic advisor twice to make sure I had done everything necessary forms to study abroad and graduate on time.  She had told me that I didn't need to fill out ANY forms since I wouldn't be gone more than a year.  I insisted on filling out a medical release form (for Summer and  Fall quarters while I was recovering from surgery) AND a study abroad notification form.  I handed them in personally to the appropriate offices.  Then I get an e-mail in the Bahamas that my account is being deleted because I am no longer a student.  I spent some long distance phone minutes calling about that and after being sent to two different offices, I had someone tell me that it was only my websites I created for a computer class and that I was still a student and not to worry.  So I didn't.

   Then I kept getting e-mails about my account closing and I started to investigate.  I contacted several people and they all assured me it was ok and all I had to do to graduate was to send in my study abroad transcripts once I got home in May.  (This included the assurance that they had already received my transcripts from classes I took at community college.)  

   My mom called for me to follow up since I still was feeling uneasy about it, and it is a good thing she did!  I am not a student anymore!  And worse, the people I am working with, including the person who I handed the form into, were blaming me and saying I should have known better than to study abroad without filling out forms.  So frustrating! I've been e-mailing back and forth with a peer advisor and she is trying to help me out, but I keep getting different answers of what I have to do, and if it is even possible for me to graduate in June.  I was told to send in a few forms from the ship, which I did in addition to the forms I know I need but they didn't ask for.  Everything is so disorganized!  The tone of all the correspondences is still that it is all somehow my fault which REALLY irritates me.  

   In addition to this mess, the peer advisor was completely surprised that I had taken any classes at community college as my transcript never arrived.  (The implication, of course, was that I never sent it.)  I wrote a very angry e-mail, deleted it, and instead sent a hopefully more level-headed one explaining that I did send in the transcripts.  In fact, I have an e-mail confirmation that they were received by the school AND I called the office and double checked before I left for SAS.  I think it is funny because my academic advisor thought I was being paranoid by filling out all these forms and double checking, and now I'm still completely (pardon the language) screwed.    I can't even imagine if I had done the minimum, as I was advised to do.  As of now, I have re-turned in all the forms (plus some) that they asked for and I'm waiting to hear back from the school on Monday.

   Sorry for the vent.  IT's been a rough few days in this area compounded by a bum rib.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't handle pain well.  It makes me irritable and grumpy.  haha  Thanks to torodol and a borrowed hot water bottle, it is getting more and more tolerable though.  Yay!  :0)

  Luckily, the rest of my life has been going wonderfully!  The day all this started I was in quite a bad mood until I went to lunch and, yippy, it was TACO DAU!  I don't even usually like tacos, but I was super excited that it wasn't chicken or pork!  There was much rejoicing.

Two nights ago I went to a reflection on Mauritius.  Instead of it being the usual telling funny or exciting stories, this reflection was geared toward addressing the problem of disrespectful durnkedness.  I guess TONS of people managed to get completely smashed in the four hours we were in Mauritius.  There was much trashing of beaches, puking in cabs, and having to be carried onto the boat.  Personally, I found this a bit embarrassing, but also not necessarily my business.  I can't drink, my friends don't drink (much), and I don't contribute to a culture where getting wasted is coo so it doesn't really concern me.  My indifference was not shared by many.  Attending that meeting was like an anthropological study in hatred.  The microphone was passed around and people were absolutely ripping into the people who drank.  Like saying they were all despicable people, how could they live with themselves, and there was almost a blood lust for punishment.  Some of the things said, should never be said to a fellow human being unless they like murdered someone or something like that.  On the other side, I had a lot of people who were "drunk tanked" sitting near me and they were equally as vicious.  After one girl spoke about how disappointed she was in the drunk people, the person sitting near me snorted and said, "well it's revenge of the nerds now isn't it?"  There was just as much hatred in that statement.  I think the person felt attacked and like people looked down on her, but honestly my opinion of her didn't change based on her exploits in Mauritius.  My opinion of her did change when she said that.  I felt like the girl in Mean Girls who stands up and says, "why can't we just all get along!?!"  (Possibly not the exact quote.) haha The goal of the session was to bring our community together, but I feel like it just splintered us more.  Towards the end, there were more even-toned comments from both sides, but I don't think anyone felt good coming out of the reflection.  (Well except me who found it academically fascinating haha.)  It is interesting/scary how much rage people have over topics I hardly care about.  But perhaps people would think I am crazy for things I care deeply about.  It was definitely an interesting experience that represented a huge division at most college campuses.  

  I've also been doing lots of Doctor Who watching and chatting with friends.  They started a project (and I joined in) of folding paper cranes which we will string together in groups of 1000 and place on the Hiroshima monument in Japan.  In Japanese culture, these strands of 1000 paper cranes bring luck and peace to the maker and/or the recipient.  They are often given to honor important events such as births and weddings.  I think a symbol of peace is a really nice tribute to honor those who were lost or affected by the bombing.  

I got included in a really well developed system.  My friend Courtney got all of the exams from global studies which she cut up into squares as our paper source.  Hannah and Courtney taught me how to fold one (patient people!) and I'm getting pretty good at it.  We take breaks from folding to string already folded ones in chains of 1000.  We are already on our second string!  Go us!

My first one!

As long as I don't think too much about my rib or my home university debacle, I am having SO much fun!  I totally understand how past voyagers say the shipboard community is worth the trip in itself!

India tomorrow!  

Helloooooo Mauritius!

    I wanted to kiss the ground when we got into Mauritius!  I we only had four hours there, but I felt more lucky for that precious time than disappointed that we didn't have the whole day. After all, we almost didn't get to go there!

    

    

   MAuritius had several striking features I noticed right off the boat.  Just like a typical island paradise, the mountains were extremely green and the water perfectly blue. 

 There was also one particular mountain that stood out for it's resemblance to a thumb.  

   The smell was also quite striking.  The port smelled like the usual industrial nastiness, but once in town, it smelled like spices and the ocean.  The buildings were a mix of styles. I particularly liked the ones made of dark stone.  Many of the museums, banks, and other important buildings were made out of this stone.  

I spend most of the time walking around the downtown market area.  The market was small but there was lots to see.  There was SO many fresh fruit, vegetables, and spices.  You could get a whole pineapple peeled and ready to eat on a stick for about a dollar.  

This was the entrance to the indoor portion of the market.

There were also live animals (for pets, not food) and crafts in the upstairs and outdoor portions of the market.  

And some powdered dye for Holi.  A bunch of students got some and had quite a party up on the 7th deck on Holi (that's a Hindu holiday).  I was so bummed that I missed that until the next day's announcement asked those students to report to the dean's office.  :0o

BEfore we headed back to the ship, we ventured to the Waterfront Area.  This had nice stores (too expensive for me!), restaurants, and a huge craft market.  I was able to get lots of goodies for people back home there and everything was 100% hand made, usually by the vendor.  

A FRIENDS restaurant!  Cool!

This next picture I like because you an see the water drop statue in the middle.  The statue commemorates a demonstration where hundreds to thousands of people turned out to show their commitment to peace and ridding the world of inhumane conditions such as slavery and poverty.  

To get back to the ship, we took a water taxi which was really fun.  Getting myself on and off the water taxi was quite a challenge!  My legs are not strong enough to be jumping onto boats and whatnot.  I had lots of help though!  One of the professors even lifted me up like a toddler to get over a big gap between the boat and the dock.  It was quite embarrassing, but beat falling into the water.  haha

There were some great fews of the shore and the ship from the taxi as well.

Anyone know what those globes are on the boat?

Good News and Good Times

   Before I can write about anything else, I must say WE GET TO GO TO MAURITIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The assistant dean made the announcement this morning that some spectacular efforts from the captain, crew, and immigration officers will give us four hours on land!  I am so excited!  I'm a little fuzzy with the details (I don't know if port day will be tomorrow or the next day) because I was too busy jumping on my bed and clapping to hear the rest of the announcement.  Big time happiness in the SAS world right now!

   Before this was known, SAS was already being awesome and trying to make up for the fact that we were missing a port.  There have been tons of things going on starting last evening and running through this evening. 

  The night started out with celebrating my friend Josh's birthday!  We had fun goofing off and eating cake.  :0)

One person found some dodgy filament in the cake and we got into a heated debate on whether it was a fish bone or a piece of plastic.

  I finally made it to an ASL club meeting (I always go to the wrong room or am too seasick or fall asleep too early) and it was fantastic!  We watched a movie about deaf culture and it was really interesting.  I could relate to so much of it.  Like thinking of my illness as something needing fixing as opposed to being part of who I am.  That's something many people who are deaf have already figured out and learning more about the culture is providing me with some great role models.  

  

  Afterwards I fully intended on going to bed but my friends convinced me to go get dressed for the dance party on the top deck instead.  I reluctantly headed back to my room to get changed and must have gotten my second wind because I even put on makeup!  When they came by to pick me up, we decided to head to the piano in the now abandoned union to sing show tunes for a bit first.  No big deal.  It was only everything I hoped to happen during college and was finally happening.  We sang songs from Wicked and Next to Normal and I was pretty much in heaven.  :0)  

  As if staying up until 10 wasn't awesome enough, I decided to head to the dance party...just to say hi and make an appearance.  Then, against my will, I started having fun and ended up staying until the end.  It was actually one of the most fun things I've done on the ship!  I couldn't dance for very long without starting to black out, so I would alternate dancing and sitting.  I got some strange looks, but I couldn't quite care.  :0)  Towards the end, it started pouring and we all ran out from under the overhand and proceeded to dance to Waka Waka in the pouring rain.  The final song was actually after the music stopped.  One group started clapping and singing "We're not going to Mauritius.  We're not going to Mauritius.  We're not going to Mauritius anymore" to the tune of "We're not gunna take it."  Pretty soon we were all clapping, singing, and dancing our acceptance of missing a port.  It was a really good night!

POTSie break!

The next morning continued the trend of awesomeness when we woke up to finding out that we would be going to Mauritius after all!

   

Angered Gods and Midterms

"Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone."

- Jim Fiebig

    Our wonderful assistant dean captured the emotion of the entire shipboard community when he added this quote to the beginning of yesterday's Deans Memo (a daily e-mial we get with club information and news.)  Apparently Neptune is a spiteful dillhole and put a huge cyclone right in the way of our trajectory from Cape Town to Mauritius.  What a jerk.  As a result, we had to slow way down to avoid the storm and got very behind schedule.  TWo nights ago over dinner, we heard the heartbreaking news that we would have to skip going to Mauritius.  I kept waiting for them to say "Just kidding" because this seemed more like a cruel joke to throw at us in the middle of midterms.  Turns out it's even worse than that.  We will dock at Mauritius to fuel up and get a good view of what we are missing and won't be able to get off the ship.  This seriously sucks.  If I were less of a person, I would have gone back to my room and cried.  Oh wait, that is exactly what I did.  I tried really hard to be an easygoing traveler, but with all the stress of midterms, I couldn't find it in me to stoically take this disappointment.

   It's been a couple of days since that sad announcement, and I'm still really bummed.  I had planned to go to a big cat breeding center where I would get to roam around in the enclosure and pet the cheetahs, lions, and tigers with only a tooth-marked stick to fend off any angry kitties.  Big fun.  But something I will have to do another time unfortunately.  I thought I would handle the disappointment better than others since I had five years of many huge disappointments from being sick.  Nope, I am definitely the one wining the most about this.  Guess I still have a ways to go before I am self-actualized or whatever.  haha

  On the bright side, midterms are going well and are almost done!  I have been getting tests and papers back with good grades which takes a lot of the stress away.  I don't really know what I'll do myself in the seven more days on the boat once I don't have all the studying to do.  I'm thinking we will go for the record length Doctor Who marathon.  :0)  And maybe go through a few more pages in that coloring book I made.

  Despite the apparent cyclone, the weather hasn't been all that bad.  It's been too windy to get onto the front and side decks and the seas are rough, but not a lot of rain or lightning or anything.  Overall, I don't get very seasick during the morning, but the afternoons sometimes get me if I have a class at the front of the ship where it's very rocky.  I

ve had to leave my anthro class twice now due to the seasickness activating the dysautonomia in a big way.  All of the professors are really understanding about having to leave class due to seasickness though.  

Speaking of seasickness, I'm in a stuffy room at the front of the ship and therefore have no attention span to write anymore.  :0)  Later gators.