Hawaiiiiii!!!!! ... last port :-(

Well sailed in to Honolulu and when we got there we didn’t really know what to do. So we ventured around and just relaxed for the day. We went and searched for a California pizza kitchen and enjoyed the heat and the down. We stopped by park/beach thing for a little bit and enjoyed that for a while until we had worn ourselves out and headed to the ship because we needed a nap. That night we babysat for Kate and Shawn because we were so tired we couldn’t go back out.  The second morning we woke up quite early to go see the Pearl Harbor sight.   Oh man was that a sight to see. It was heartbreaking at points but it was something I am so glad I saw.  The place was beautiful and they were setting up for the December 7th memorial because it was just a few days away. We took the ferry over to the USS Arizona monument to check it out.  That is when my heart just ached that this many people had lost their lives I couldn’t believe it but the names and the ship were right there to prove it.  The oil was still leaking out of the sunken ship which baffled me.  After we walked around the monument for about an hour we walked down to go check out the flea market that was supposed to be down the street. After walking a ways we saw a sign that said No flea market. It was pretty devastating but it’s alright. We took a bus back to port and was going to go to the beach but decide to just chill by the boat and go to Hooters for lunch. Nothing like some football and some wings, on a Saturday. After enjoying some Hooters which wasn’t the same without my loves from home.  We walked around and shopped a little before heading back to the ship for on ship time.  We got back on the ship and decided to lie out in the sun for a few hours instead of going to the beach it’s the same sun on deck seven just no sand.  That evening we sailed out of Honolulu and headed for Hilo.

                The next morning we arrived in Hilo on “The Big Island” they had told us that there are not tons to do and there aren’t many beaches but we found one. I went to my first black sand beach which was pretty cool. We laid in the beautiful weather all day and walked around and saw Sea Turtles. They were so close we could swim with them if we wanted to.   After lying on the beach all day we headed back to get ready for our Lu ‘Ou that someone had given us tickets to. We headed to the University of Hawaii Hilo campus and were greeted with such welcoming people. We tried some new foods and had a lot of fun for the evening.  Once that was over we headed back to the ship for the night.  The next morning we got up and rented a car for the day with all of our friends. We drove to see some beautiful waterfalls and do start this hike that was the CRAZIEST thing I have ever done. Picture just walking so straight down that you have to lean back. And when you’re walking up you have to lean forward or else you would just tumble down.  It was the craziest thing. We got halfway down and decided it wasn’t worth it , and went back up. It was crazy it took us way longer to get half way back up.  We went to the next falls called Akaka Falls which was beautiful.  After going to Akaka falls we went and got frozen yogurt. Returned the car and headed back to the ship for the evening so we wouldn’t have to wait in any lines. They had a BBQ on the ship for us that evening which was pretty sweet.  As we pulled off the port one last time we got quite sad and realized this amazing journey is almost over and it is so bittersweet. As much as I want to go and see my family, this is my home now and my shipmates are my family and I am going to be lost without them.

So there’s no next port. Next port is home.. San Diago here we come.

10 day strech from Japan to Hawaii ( The important days)

Ten day stretch  ( I KNOW IM A LITTLE LATE SORRYY! )

Day 1  11/24/10
So today was A18.
We had our first day back to classes today  which pretty much stunk because we haven’t really had classes since before Singapore ( ya  a long time ago) we had 2 classes here and 2 classes there and now we have 10 days of classes!   Tonight we  had our Special Occasion Dining which is a night you get to dress up nice and get served a 5 course meal with a glass of Champagne for 25 dollars ( not bad)  and it’s a nice change of pace from not so good ship food ( one of the only downfall of this trip).  Getting ready I wasn’t sure what I wanted to wear but I decided lets go all out. So I wore a really cute dress with  a pair of heals, earrings and makeup ( yup girls  I was a girl for a night you would all be proud )  How sad is it that my steward noticed I had makeup on and said “WOW Amy you have makeup on what is going on! “ I said “ oh just a special occasion dinner Don” he said “ Well I am going to wait and not pack up so I can see what you look like all dressed up! “  He was blown away because he always sees me in my Pjs and basketball shorts and a sweatshirt ( exactly what I am wearing right now)  Walking around the ship I got complements how I am rocking my hair and looking beautiful which I hated but I said thank you and took the compliment. A few people were joking about  why you dressing up all the time because they know I always dress down haha.  Dinner was very good  I had tomato and mozerella for an appetizer, Broccoli cheddar soup, ceaser salad, and for a main entrée I had stuffed chicken that was stuffed with spinach and cheese. It was great  oh and the champagne was from south Africa and it was just wonderful!  It was all around a good first day at sea but you can never forget that you still have 9 days left! Tommrow is Thanksgiving!!!

Day 2 11/25/10
So today was B18 and THANKSGIVING!!!
It defiantly didn’t feel like thanksgiving today since the day was the same as any other here. We all had to go to school and tutoring today like it was a normal day. Holidays are no big deal here!  I enjoyed my day of no classes and just tutoring getting some stuff done but it was one of my busiest days at sea. I woke up at 7 am for breakfast and then took a shower before I had tutoring with Lyla at 9:30. After tutoring I went straight to a meeting with my Spanish teacher to go over some of the stuff we had learned the day before in class. After my meeting with my Spanish teacher I went and had some lunch before I had to get dressed for dinner that night because I had a meeting and stuff. I got dressed nice again but not quite as nice as the night before. I wore jeans and a nice shirt with flats and my cute headband that everyone on this ship loves. At 1:30 I had a meeting with Janna Gies one of the Deans Wife’s. Don’t worry I was far from in trouble. I was meeting with her because I bought the materials to learn how to knit! Yup she taught me how to knit!  It is something great to learn!  So we hung out and talked for an hour while she taught me the starts and middles and ends of knitting and I got the hang of it right away.  After my meeting with her I went and tutored my other child at 230 and at 3 we had Alumni ball seating signups for the Staff Faculty and Lifelong Learners. This was absolute Chaos. You would think this was for them or something. After sign ups I went straight to family thanksgiving dinner with my extended family! Since I don’t eat thanksgiving dinner usually ship thanksgiving wasn’t much better than any other day of food on this ship and the pumpkin pie was awful which was very upsetting. After dinner Ashleigh came and joined us and we played a game of Oh Hell! (AWESOME card game that I will teach all of you when I get home!! I can’t wait) After that game  I hung around the ship for the night and got some homework done. 
Day 3 11/26/10
Today was A19!
Well A days are my busy days so it is not too much fun. I woke up for breakfast around 7:15 and met my friends for breakfast which is the only meal I enjoy eating on this ship. After breakfast I went to Espñnol Class with my favorites Maggie and Marissa! What is funny is I have developed a nickname on this boat that is pretty funny. It’s Amelia!  I Love it and respond to it. It all started one day in Spanish class when Sarah ( my professor) was asking questions and called on Amelia and no one responded and she said again… Amelia  and look straight at me but I still didn’t understand and Maggie said that’s you. I was said oh sorry and everyone started laughing. It stuck from that day on!  After Spanish class is Global Studies which is the definition of boring, then Global music, and then Lunch time which is dreadful since oh did I tell you the food is not good.  After lunch I went back to my cabin and started working on some art stuff for about an hour before Art Class. Around 1:30 I went to art class and after went straight to another day of Signups for everyone but students.  Except for the whole 3 hours no one showed up. So I was knitting and playing Uno with Gail, Tom, Lauren, and Leo which I haven’t played in such a long time. After finishing working the sign up table and no one showing up. I headed up to grab dinner real quick before heading to my normal A day Alumni ball meeting then a night of Cards with the family! After cards I went back to work on my school work before going to watch the screening of a movie that a girl on the ship is in. It’s a documentary on Skiing around the world. My friend Lexi appears in it. She goes to the north pole to ski some pretty crazy slops. It was really cool to watch because the movie doesn’t come out to the public for another year and we have seen it!
Day 4 11/27/10 (1)
Today was B19!
Today was a normal day at sea Not much happened other than school work tutoring and a couple card games and the realization that at midnight we will be living 11/27 alllllll over again!

Day 5 11/27/10  (2)
Today was A20!
So this is our second November 27 and we get to do it all over again!  Which  is crazy to me! Today was another normal day except it's the same date as yesterday which is hard to believe! haha we are reliving a day. I get to live 366 daysss this year!!  Normal day at sea though study study study anddd relax on deck 7 :)

Day 6 11/28/10
Today was B20
Today was again another normal day at sea nothing exciting happened on this wonderful day at sea other than i looked outside and ocean was all around just like a like it!

Day 7 11/29/10
Today was A21!
This morning I woke up slightly late  for my 8 A.M first time all semester. I woke up at 8:11 , good thing my class is about 50 steps from my room! Oh the things I love about the boat.   I went to Spanish class and then headed to the dreaded Global studies. But todays lecture was actually really interesting , the guest lecturer was Rocky one of the professors. It was about what to take and do after this voyage. He basically stated that 50 percent of us will go right back to our old selves and forget about the incredible things we have done and not do anything about it and the other have will be a part of change and do something about it. The things we have seen are just unreal and indescribable. The things that are called schools that are so far from schools the homeless we have seen. The kids that have grabbed us crying asing us for money. It all images that just stick in your head you can never forget.  The lecture really made me think about what I am going to do after this trip. I am thinking of a few things. Like saving up 20 bucks a week and making PB&J’s can going to the common once a week and feeding the homeless. If I can travel around countries and help them out why not help out the people right outside our front door.  After Global studies I headed to work on some stuff for my classes until lunch time.  After lunch we had art class which is a class that has defiantly grown on me.  After art  I came back to my room before our monthly lifeboat drill and our last one! Wahoo!  Our life boat is the biggest so it always takes the longest for them to take roll. Once all were accounted for the captain came on  “Attentions ship company, Attention Ships Company. . I would like to announce that this was our fastest lifeboat drill ever! “ We were quite proud of ourselves and headed back inside.  We have two voices on this ship that come over the loud speaker  that is Cathy ( aka God) and the Captain.  Cathy speaks to us 2 times a day once at noon and once at 5:30. She starts with the same thing ever day and some people don’t like it unless its her that wakes them up.  That’s something I will miss every day. Every day at noon you hear “Good Afternoon Voyagers these are your mid day announcements for .. and the date”. And the captain comes on every time he talks with Attention ships company and usually that is at 9 A.M in ports and no one ever likes to be woken up to him because usually that means the alarm will sound for a drill and it is quite loud and annoying.  After the lifeboat drill ended I headed in to work the ball signups for an hour and then headed to dinner. The food just keeps getting worse on this boat so I have just been eating less and less but weirdly we only have 14 days left of this food.  After dinner I had  an Alumni ball meeting like usually and then we had our nightly game of cards with the family.  Bob usually brings a prize everyday for the winner and if he wins the prize is deferred to the next night. I lost to him tonight by 3 points but he gave me the prize anyways.  It’s a possibility I could be lost without this game when I get home so I may be teaching you all when I get home ( and by maybe I mean defiantly) . After cards we had our 8 p.m drawing party tha we are now known for. We sit in the knock outside my room and draw for about 4 hours sounds like fun huh! Tonight I just about finished my portfolio and I have on sketch left in my sketch book.  Now I am laying in bed and its about 1:30 A.M because  we lost another hour tonight so now we are 6 hours away from home and we are on Hawaii time which means were getting close!!!
Day 8 11/30/10
Today was B21!
This morning I woke up early to head to what I didn’t know was going to be my favorite breakfast on the trip. Oh man they had fried eggs and bacon and English muffins !! oh man soooooooooooooooooooo good ( this is compared to the normal food we have on this ship)  After breakfast I headed down and wrote my paper until it was time to go to tutor Lyla for an hour. At 9:30 I headed up to tutor her on multiplication and the solar system fun stuffff. The ship was rocking but that never bothers me  which is a good thing after hanging out/tutoring Lyla for an hour I headed to my room to finish my homework and study for my Espanol oral exam.  Then I decided to head up on to the back 7th deck to hang out grab some lunch and work on finishing my papers.  I hung around there for a while finishing up both  of them so I had nothing left to do but study.  I roamed around the ship for a bit which I tend to do because  you don’t want to do work 100 percent of the day I need some break. Later on I had Alumni ball signups again and following that I went to daily meditation which was very enjoyable. We meditated for a half hour and then I headed up to dinner. I ate dinner super fast and then we had our nightly game of cards and guess who won!! MEEEE  the prize of the night was candy.  After our game of cards we hung out in the cabin for a bit before it was time for some fun. We had the open talent night. Oh man was that a fun night. There was everything from play readiing, poetry reading, singing, dancing, and even a class act from Slim, Marcus, and Mike and Lauren.  The poetry reading was out of this world it defiantly a huge talent what poets can do.  One group of boys sang a song that was nice minus they obviously talked about drinking and getting laid in it, but the chorus was nice.   The final act were the boys and oh man did they have me rolling.  Now let me explain these three boys to you real quick. Slim is a 6 foot 8 tall Black boy from Rochester, he got his nickname because when he was growing up he was fat. Marcus is a 6’4” ish Black boy also from Rochester who makes people laugh when he just says hello. And Mike well hes my best firend but other than that he is about 6’4”ish  also and black and he is just hilarious. Now Lauren is one of the independent children on this ship. She is 11 years old and she has three older brothers forever but I explained to her, her older brothers are scared of dirt. These boys are scared of dogs, sea turtles, hights, and 900 other things.  So you can picture these boys now, they all got in dresses and danced to single ladies at the talent show along with many other songs and lauren kept right up with them. The whole room was crying because they were laughing so hard.  The boys in there dresses was priceless (don’t worry I have it on tape so I can show you) .  After the talent show we headed to study for our oral exam for Spanish until 2 Am then headed to bed. Only twooo days left till Hawaiiiii!!!

Day 9  12/1/10
Today was A22!! THE LAST DAY OF CLASSESSSSS FORR MEE!!!

Well I woke up around 650 to head to breakfast and study for an hour before my Spanish oral exam. Spanish started and I figured why not wait and make myself nervous just go. So we went fourth. Oh was it funny.  We had to argue in Spanish,  person A ( Me) Was graduating and had to try to convince  her roommate that they should have a party tonight. Person B ( my partner) had an exam in the morning so it was important that she got to sleep.   So we argued for three mintues and it was just so funny because we only know so much.  My professor said we did a great job. After Spanish I printed out my papers and went to Global Studies for the last time and then to my last Global music class.  Hung out and ate lunch and then went to my last class of the semester which was Art. Passed in my sketch books that we have been working so hard on for the whole semester, and was so relieved that all I had left to do was study.  As happy I was that classes were over, I was so not happy at the same time because that means this Is almost over. I can’t believe that time has gone by so fast.. It seems like just yesterday I was packing my stuff up and saying goodbye.   After art class I didn’t know what to do with myself and I was exhausted so I did my daily round of hellos to the staff and then headed to my room for a nap. I guess I was really tired because it took Kayla 20 minutes to wake me up from my nap. She called my name about 10 times and I was out like a light.  She woke me up and I went up with her so she could eat before our meeting. We had our daily A day alumni ball meeting and then I headed to my other extended family(not bobs I have 2) dinner. It was wonderful. Don is just wonderful as well as his wife.  After dinner I chatted with Mary, Jim, and Chelsea Davidson for about an hour, they are by the  coolest people ever ( Jim was President Nixon’s  head secret service guy  how cool is that) , and Mary works for the Secret Service also. We chatted about life and they said “Amy we were talking earlier about how much you brighten the day everyday and how cheery you are”  I like having that effect on people. There’s no time to waste life being miserable or sad, being happy is the way to be.  After chatting with them for a bit I headed up to watch the Chorus Concert in the Glazer Lounge.  My friend Marissa had a solo and she did AMAZING! After that I decided to take a shower because I was wrestles and slightly board.  While I was in the shower I decided I wanted to work out, so I got out of the shower and went and worked out. Now I am back in my cabin laying low for the night, and enjoying myself. 1 day till Hawaiiiiii !! I can’t wait!

Day 10
12/22/10
TODAY WAS B22!!

Today I had no classes because my semester was over ( minus finals that I still have to study for) but I took my one day on this long strech to just lay relax and not stress about anything. Tomorrow is HAWAIIIIIII!!



Ecological Handprints.org