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February 15, 2008
This morning started off on a bad note.Early this morning the staff was notified about the Northern Illinois College shooting that took place on February 14 in the afternoon in the USA.Since we were about 6 hours ahead of central time zone, we did not get the latest news until the next morning.Without a TV, or radio we do not have access to up to date news or events in the USA.Hearing news from everyone that emails is very important to stay in contact with information. Since our internet does not work so well and fast, many of us just log into our emails for stories from home!!
At 9:20 am, at our global studies course, which all students, faculty and staff attend, we announced the tragic news to the students.Usually during this class we give them updates about USA news so they know what is going on.Today, we had to announce the tragic news and bad news to the students.As the announcement stared to be made, the students all knew it was not going to be a good announcement.The professor began to share with the community on what just had happened and total silence hit the student union and you can just see it in their faces.
Before we made the announcement the Deans did a school check to see if we had any students from NIU and we did not.But we do have many students from IL on board with us and other students who know friends at the university.
The rest of the day was just as normal, but a bit quieter on the ship.Many of the student life staff was prepared to talk to students about the incident and to be ready to debrief anything that came our way.Thinking about situations like this makes you really wonder what is happening today on our college campuses.Can we really prevent it, what more can we do?Being on a ship and away from everything is just as weird as well.Taking care of this type of mediation with the students with the limited resources we have was a challenge, but we were able to work through it!!
Thinking about the sadness of how short of a life these students had, I am happy that I am living my life the way I am and doing what I am doing right now… traveling the world and experiencing the world.It may sound morbid, but really, anything can happen to anyone of us at any time and if we are not living life the way we always wanted to do, then what are we really living for?
This evening I had my sea meeting with my residents and I had 95% of them show up.This evening I met with them to prepare our community (sea) cheer and to get the residents signed up for the sea Olympics in March.Each sea competes against each other with different activities to see who can have the most points at the end.The sea that wins get to get off the ship first in May!!My Baltic Sea residents are doing well and had some great energy and excitement for the Olympics and came up with some great cheers.
Lets see how well we do in the actual Olympics!!
February 16, 2008
Still at sea…. And we are getting really anxious to get off the ship on Tuesday and to get to South Africa!!
This afternoon at our staff meeting we were notified that there are a few typhoons coming into the coast of South Africa, which will mean some very rough seas ahead of us.We are going to announce this update to the students tonight so they can get ready for the rockiness that we may encounter after we leave South Africa next week.If we can get enough notice about these types of weather storms, we can give our students enough time to take some sea sickness medicine and prepare their rooms and their belongings so things don't fall off the shelves, etc.
February 17, 2008
Tonight we had our first big event to get ready for our sea Olympics, the sea captains challenge.My two sea captains got their challenge at 7:30 p.m. and were informed that we needed to make a song or skit about our sea and community.After banging on the doors of the residents in our sea, we got a bunch of us together and quickly brainstormed on our skit to share with the entire community.We had 90 minutes to prepare and then only had two minutes to show off our talent.
At the sea captains challenge in the union, you would think we were at some RA training or hall association conference with all of the students wearing their sea color, chanting their sea chants and going crazy.It was great to see the UNION packed with some many residents involved for this challenge and to get ready for the sea Olympics.My sea color is black and we did a rap to some songs about our sea and life on the ship.They did a great job on their work, with the amount of time we had to get that up and running.
With the rough seas ahead of us after Cape Town, we have finally decided on the new date for our Olympics, which will be held on March 8.So that gives us some more time to prepare and get ourselves organized.This being at sea for the past 9 days, and losing an overall 5 hours a sleep, once every other night, we are exhausted.
The evening moon was very strong tonight and as the ship rocked towards the right side of the ocean, the reflection of the moon was so bright as it reflected on the ocean, it was an amazing sight to see.Can't get a picture of it to share with all of you, but you can just image how many great sites I see a day being at sea and in the countries.
February 18, 2008
Well, we are excited about today.. you know why.. WE GET OFF THE SHIP TOMORROW MORNING IN SOUTH AFRICA!!Everyone is ready to go, even though we are tired as all hell from losing so much sleep.As of today, I am 7 hours ahead of NY Time (and 8 hours ahead of you all in Central Time).It is weird for me to wake up in the morning and not see responses to emails, but I have to remember, you all are still sleeping your night off, while are day is in full swing or ending by the evening.
Today, we are for sure getting close to land again.We are beginning to see our first sign of other ships, the seagulls are back around the ship and flying back into land with us and we can see airplanes in the sky!!Sign of life does exist!!
I am not sure if you read my blogs this far through, not too much exciting happening at sea besides our daily routine of work and fun, but have you taken a chance to look at the globe or a map to see where exactly I am??It just hit me this morning as I was putting the tracking on my world map that I am HALF WAY AROUND the WORLD already.Being in the continent of Africa tomorrow is an amazing feeling!!We are heading into Cape Town, South Africa, which is supposed to be a beautiful place to visit.I cannot wait to see the area, go on my safari and river rafting this week.On my other days that I am not on trips we are planning (just have to see how details work out) to go hiking in the mountain, and visit the area for the cultural.
Stay tuned for the upcoming adventure of South Africa.I will be away from the ship and computer access beginning on Wednesday and will return on late Friday night.I am heading out to lodge for our safari ride and cave exploration.
Talk to you some time next week.Stay tuned for pictures and updates.Keep in touch.
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