Day 83. Passover at Sea

Enough good things cannot be said about the crew of the MV Explorer.

With the Jewish holiday of passover among us, a core group of 50 or so of us have planned on keeping Passover for the full 7 days. The crew, hearing about this, were happy to oblige to our non-leavened requests, and have done the most amazing things to accommodate us. They put on a great seder, and cook 3 separate meals for all of us each day for a week. They bought us matza and cream cheese in port, and set up a whole different buffet line for us to eat in. The ship's crew work so hard just for us, and we are all so appreciative.

With Japan now behind us, we all shared in Post-Port reflections in the union tonight at 8pm. I shared two stories, 1 about my japanese bath at my homestay, and another about my good friend Hannah and her lost passport. I also got up and shared my feelings about visiting Hiroshima, the sight of the first atomic bomb used against humans. All of these stories are being worked in my blog and you'll be happy read them in their entirety in a few days.


Back on the ship, life has resumed... but it's much different. Our community- and it is such a tight community- has been scattered amongst SE Asia for 5 weeks, and we are now back for a long ocean crossing. There is certainly a feeling of accomplishment, and also of shared experience. SAS is moving quickly, and we all feel it. The change that we knew would come to us has manifested, and we all feel it. I, personally, am terrified when the day comes that I cannot find my friends, my fellow voyagers who are going through it with me. That is our saving grace, and when it's hard, it will be a major difficulty.

Meanwhile, academics are in full swing. We have our 2nd global studies exam in 2 days, and I have a paper and an evolution test following it.

Tomorrow is Sunday, April 12th, 2009. The following day, it will be Sunday, April 12th 2009. Why? Because we will be crossing the international dateline. The Int'l Dateline was set up in the late 1800s by a series of international decisions to distinguish when the date on the calendar should change. It is on the 180th latitude, opposite of the prime meridian, which we crossed on our way to South Africa 2 months ago. It is a bit confusing, because we are heading East over the dateline, towards the "western" part of the globe. In this sense, we will gain 24 hours all at once, moving our date back exactly one day. So, finally, we will be hours behind the US instead of ahead.


... Just another cool fact about sailing around the world.

Also... I saw a whale tonight at dinner. My friend spotted the plume fly up in the air from the blowhole, and then we watched as the whale's HUGE back fin popped above the water. Incredible sight. He was only about 20 yards off the port side of the ship.


Alright, that'll do it for tonight. I will be sleeping and studying all day tomorrow... talk to you soon.



Greg