So second day of classes is almost over. Everyone has been complaining about global studies but I kind of like it. Today we talked about maps and how they influence us a lot of times without us thinking about them, but how most of them are tailored to serve the creators specific wishes. I was interested the whole time but I noticed lots of yawns going on around me. So that was at 9:20 this morning and I’ve had all afternoon since then to lay out. I laid by the pool (where it is almost like a war zone trying to get a chair) and read a book for my English class that I have this afternoon at 4:30. I hate the book that we’re reading, not because it’s poorly written or because it’s not interesting, but it’s really making me uncomfortable. It was written by a man from Brazil and is set in Manaus, the place we’re visiting there, about 1,000 miles down the Amazon river from the coast. Anyway it makes me uncomfortable because the family is kind of incestuous and the author makes that very clear without explicitly saying that anything of that sort is going on. It’s just one of those stories that irks me and I hate it. Anyway, tomorrow we get to Dominica where Molly and I have no plans. It’s a pretty tropical locale, so I think we’re just going to play it by ear. Right now we’re thinking we’re going to hike one of the dormant volcanoes on the island and then the next day do a catamaran cruise/snorkeling, something like that. Who knows though, we might get there and find out that’s way too expensive or something, and in that case we’ll just wing it. The rest of my ports are pretty planned out so it’s going to be nice to just explore on our own. As I’m writing this on my free SAS email account I’m sitting on a deck at the back of the ship, watching the wake we’re creating behind us, with nothing in sight but open ocean. It’s pretty amazing that this is my life, and that this is school. I can tell my classes are going to be pretty eye opening and I’m going to learn a lot, so boo on those who say that this is not real school. A lot of people are uncomfortable with being this far from land, out in the ocean, tossing in the waves. But (and this sounds cheesy) I keep having dreams at night. They’re of my mother telling me that I have always been a water baby- I move better in the water than I ever will on land (har har to those who know what my sports skills are like). I think that translates into why I always love being on boats, why I love it here- I could stare at the water, whether its a lake or a river or an ocean, for hours. I think I belong here.
