Alas, there is hardly sufficient time for blogging. But I will give some snipits as to the happenings so far. Maybe I'll start with today and move back in time. I woke up crispy-eyed at 5:45 and spent some time on a project for my class that the professor never even got to. Then I read some. I dined in the company of spinach onion omelettes (back for seconds) and hash browns. I also popped my first fig. I don't think one "eats" a fig, one "pops" a fig. The classes, they are intense! I read today, I read yesterday, I read 250 pages in one and a half days for one of my classes and then read some more for another class. After that, I read. I ate some lunch out on the deck while reading. And after eating and reading, I read. Enough of that! We sail. And sail. Yesterday we saw dolphins. I really like the breakfast here, though there's almost a rotten taste to the coffee that leads me to make scowls at a professor's French press. Is make scowls even a correct phrase? All these days at sea and I don't even know anymore. But I do indeed make scowls. Tonight we told riddles at dinner. I keep buying kit-kats. There is a dance going on right now, a dance! To rock the boat! But I am reading. Well not right now. But I will be. There are strategically placed barf bags all over the ship. The seas are a bit rough and it has been a little cloudy and cold as of lately. We are traveling at a comfortable 17 knots. I think we have 997 nautical miles until Spain! We have been advancing our clocks by one hour each night so I have been indulging in a pleasant nap every afternoon. I am taking a bridge tour on the 23rd! Tomorrow is my birthday! I have mad acquaintances with some very neat people and we are in the process of planning our trips and escapades in Spain. I've explored the ship, played cards, drank a lot of tea, watched parts of some late night movies which they have a pretty decent selection - sans the Harry Potter. The confined environment seems quite liberating actually when I realize that, in a usual day, I don't go very many places anyway. The only thing I would complain about is that there are no quite places to study! We just stole some brownies and double chocolate chip cookies from the dance and I put on my hazelnut coffee infused balm and am content on and at sea. Alas, I have found my sea legs! Now, as a wise lad once said, we must cultivate our garden.

Signing off, for now, in the presence of whitecaps,
Ginger snipe
(ginger snipe consumes much ginger because ginger is good for ruffians like me at sea, hence the new nickname. It makes me feel like kind of a wimpy sailor but a spicy one at that.)

p.s. They did recover my bags!