Day 96. Inside 2 weeks.

I remember, sitting in the comfort of my apartment in College Park, MD, reading the blogs of students on the Semester at Sea Fall 2008 voyage.

There were a few that I kept up with, and read with anticipation and excitement day after day, in preparation for my own voyage.

One entry jumped out at me, and I've never forgotten it. The student wrote "I can't believe in 2 weeks this whole thing will be over."


I sat, pondered, tried to imagine what this girl was going through- how she could be on the end of something so massive that I hadn't even begun. And now, it's my turn... 13 wonderful days left aboard this voyage of a lifetime. Still, as sappy and melodramatic as it sounds, I've already come to one conclusion about SAS. That girl, the one who wrote the blog, her voyage on the ship was ending, but the massive voyage that is life after this experience hadn't even begun. So, instead of living each of the next 13 days in mourning of what's over, I'm attempting to stay in the moment: I've been going outside much more often, catching sunrises and sunsets with increasing frequency, and spending as much time as possible simply watching the water go by- because I can.

In the mean time, I'm crankin out papers like I'm getting paid to do it. I knocked out 2 more FDPs today, and finished 1/2 of my final Biomedical Ethics paper tonight. I'll finish that bad boy up tomorrow by the afternoon, and then crawl in a hole and study for my global exam on Saturday morning. It's so hard to do work on this ship!

In other news, Jodi and Holly Tompson (Jodi's a business professor and Holly's his wife) took me and 5 other people out to "fancy dinner" downstairs in the special dining room tonight. I have been tutoring their 8th grade son, Ben, in algebra, throughout the voyage... and this was their thank you. They also have 2 other younger kids who are so much fun to mess around with. I'll miss them all a lot. We enjoyed 5 courses, champagne and 2 bottles of wine amongst the 7 of us, and it was really lovely. Global studies also ended this morning, with a review session to follow tomorrow.

Off to bed so I can attempt to right my haywire sleeping habits. Losing an hour every other night has certainly taken its toll on me.

Good night everyone,

Greg