Nothing important, just some shipboard gossip...

February 12, 2007
0835

Exciting news: Today I received a packet of letters from a third grade class in Pittsburgh (this is a good time to reflect: have you sent me mail???). As part of the Vicarious Voyage program I am going to correspond with them over the course of the semester, sending them a packet of information about each of our ports. Puerto Rico’s packet will be sent out in two days, including a miniature Puerto Rican flag, a map of the island, the front page from a newspaper, a post card, some information about me (and SAS), and one interesting fact about Puerto Rico for each of the students to share with their classmates. One letter reads: “It is my dream to go to Australia and China”, another: “My grandparents live in Chennai.” Most mention that it was snowing when they wrote their letters and the majority ask “what is it like to live on a boat, what is it like to go around the world?” I don’t think I’ve quite figured that out myself, but the enthusiasm is welcome…so is the fresh and simple perspective these kids radiate, apparent by just reading their charming letters! Nothing like a group of twenty-some eight and nine year olds to keep me humbled.

In other news: I am a few hundred miles off the coast of Brazil, traveling southward in the Atlantic Ocean, towards Salvador, Bahia. Our current speed is 17.8 knots and the seas are choppy. It is dark now, but earlier the skies were overcast and it was raining sporadically. I would also like to add, as a fact, that the ship rocks more during my Climates and Vegetation of the World class, thus making it hard to stay awake for such interesting discussions of cumulonimbus clouds, the very clouds which I later found to hamper my tanning time. For any of you concerned about my academic performance, I happen to have quite the advantage after taking PoliSci 245 last semester (and any class at Allegheny, for that matter), and don’t worry, I read while I’m laying in the sun! As is quite obvious, I’m rambling on, and I want to catch “Boyz in the Hood” (being shown later tonight on our closed-circuit television system) so I would be well advised to go do some work.

Love you all, miss most of you.