Sat. January 23, 2010

 It is 330 and so far everything has been pretty blah.  I feel like I’m not allowed to have “blah” days because I’m studying abroad, but nonetheless today I am feeling inexplicably unmotivated and unenthused by people and prospects.  Usually I guess I get this feeling if I have a series of exchanges with new people, and then enough time goes by where I acknowledge that none of them have amounted to anything substantial or deep.  I have a big love to meet people and to be absorbed in new conversation, but I much prefer depth in understanding to surface joy.  I don’t want to get too comfortable in a clique that I don’t want to meet new people, but I don’t want to meet so many people that I have no time to “know” any of them either.  I suppose it is only the first week, and yes, this same thing happened to me freshman year of college and is probably a trend with all new social settings, so I will just have to suck it up.  I wish I had access to a telephone.  How dumb.

 

·      Guitar solo *

 

It is now 11:11 in the evening and I hardly remember writing any of the above.  Since that rant, I had a successful first Foodies meeting, where we concluded the basic common interest was to taste food from other cultures, and bring information on foods to eat, foods not to eat, places to eat, etc. in the ports we are to visit, as gathered from library sources or other students, and to arrange a “foodies” outing or dinner to a specific and promising restaurant in each port.  If there are substantial enough findings, we may create a folder on the intraweb so the rest of the community may similarly be informed for their culinary benefit.  Then I had dinner at the Chinese Language Table, which is essentially a group of five Chinese students on scholarship who are travelling with us and who you can practice your Chinese with.  Except that I don’t know any Chinese, and neither does Natali (my last semester roommate, who was there as well) so we just sat there hopefully and thought in English.  My SHIPboard roommate, however, Kalyn Williams (I haven’t mentioned her name before, have I?) has class with them and does speak some Chinese, so she conversed and it was swell and all of that.  I need to learn more languages.  Anyway, Natali and I left to go to the Spiritual Dance meeting in the Union. 

So far, BEST thing that’s happened so far on the ship. Definitely. About 25 students and the LLC of religious and spiritual life danced around to some music, in different parts of our body, expanding till we were using more and more of it.  It was really freeing and intense.  And then at the end we spent one song in stillness.  This too was beautiful, and made me regret that I keep letting myself sleep in instead of going to Morning Meditation and Sacred Poetry. One day.  But getting up is hard. It is. It takes guts.

p.s. …and this will most thrill Kelsey and Joey and Chelsea and Jessie and everyone of those sorts, but Jenny, the Spiritual LLC, is just about the coolest ***#$*#$*^ ever.  In short, she is in the middle of acquiring her PHD in Mysticism. From the University of Wisdom. IN san Francisco.

How.

Hot.

Right?

Afterwards there was an impromptu and delightful massage circle of love, but that had to be broken up eventually so that the pre-port cultural meeting could get underway.   Following the communitywide meeting, there was a coffee house open mic.  I was there for bits and pieces, but my favorite was definitely when Emerson (I think?), one of the Chinese students I had just met at the language table, went up and sang “My Heart Will Go On” to accompaniment.

All in all, I am feeling very resfreshed and excited to be in port the day after tomorrow. Holyyy Molyyyyyy.

I miss my friends, and may call them upon touching U.S. ground. Also, I may have to find the nearest Walmart and stock up on Reeses and cheap delicious snack foods.  I’m getting kind of tired of the late evening snacks, and the stuff they sell at the Piano Bar or even outside costs money I don’t want to spend.