DAY 47 - SAILING TO INDIA

So I get to start my malaria pills today, which is going to be awesome because your dreams are supposed to get really terrible and vivid and ridiculous.

Last night we had a 70s party and I was the most creative ex-sorority girl ever and wound up with a pretty impressive costume even without forever 21 three highway exits away. RE: SU – have an amazing time at homecoming, I miss you all SO much and wish I could be there with you. I imagine after hours in The Club and going to Lucy’s because even though I pretend to hate it there I secretly love it. I also imagine 2am beers with Guy and Bruce Springsteen (and G.Love and Elvis Costello’s “Allison”). And some daytime activities like strolling through the quad and STELLLLLLLLLLA’S. I can’t wait to hear all the amazing and awkward stories.

Things have been great, Singapore was beautiful from a distance and we just sailed through the Malacca Straits which started some amazing pirate rumors.. Supposedly the area is riddled with pirates, which is why we put off sailing from Singapore at night and traveled during the day. There are two schools of thought on this – either we are a terrible target because we’re a passenger ship with (pax + crew) 450 strong, young males to defend the ship, or we’re a really fantastic symbolic target because we’re a ship of American college students who love democracy and freedom and peace and beer. Either way, we’re safely on our way to India now.

Everything else remains status quo – it’s still weird to like protect and serve a bunch of 21 year olds, and sometimes drunk girls make me sad when they pity my inability to go to their 4 drink maximum pub nights.

But then I remember how lucky I am to be waking up in India in two days, and to live on a ship where I am re-learning Spanish from all the Panamanians, sunbathing in the middle of ocean with absolutely nothing else in sight, practicing Croatian pleasantries before Dubrovnik and finding out everything you ever wanted to know about the Caste System but were too afraid to ask – insanely lucky to be paid to see the world.

I have also gotten very good at transferring calls, taking keycards on and off key chains, troubleshooting plumbing problems, and accounting. I’m fairly certain most or all of this will come in handy at some point in life.

<3 MR