Semester at Sea – Spring 2007 (Alex Song) On a ship, traveling around the world, at 20 miles an hour

Note: This is a combination of various blog entries I just copied + pasted into one document, because the onboard ship internet is just not happening. As always, my thoughts jump all over the place.

Mauritius – it was a definite ‘Weezer – Island In The Sun’ type of place. I hit up two beaches (Tamarind Bay and ?), experienced the local Chinese and Indian cuisines, ate at two pizza places (one being our taxi driver’s and Katie H’s favorite pizza place – Pizza Hut), shopped, participated in taking over an entire club with other SASers, explored a sugar factory, and just chilled with some new friends.

Not really sure what else to say. We’re all growing increasingly frustrated at the internet connection as it as started to seriously suck after our departure from Mauritius. Most of us have pictures to upload, and a lot of us are still trying to plan independent trips in India, China, and Japan. And then, for reasons still beyond my level of comprehension, others are deciding to waste hours of internet time on March Madness.

The Sea Olympics were today – for those not in the know, it’s a day off from classes devoted to various competitive activities (lip syncing, poker, basketball, etc). The ship itself is divided into various groups called “seas”, mine being the Aegean Sea. The ranking of the seas determines the order in which we disembark when we return to San Diego – my sea ranked 1st and I get to be one of the first ones off the boat….whoop. I represented the sea in the Texas Hold Em tournament and was doing all right…but lost it all in a gutsy (stupid, in retrospect) play. It’s all good.

It’s quite difficult to keep clothes clean on this voyage. I’ve already dirtied some shorts I purchased in Mauritius just by sitting in the water taxis, and the ship’s laundry service was ineffective at cleaning them. Also, miscellaneous buttons are coming off my pants when I do submit them to the laundry service…gah. India should be really fun.

Also, guys, I need suggestions for stuff to do in Japan. I’ve decided to take it on independently (for non-SASers, that means I’ve elected to explore the country without the use of the overpriced and rushed SAS-planned excursions) and don’t know where to begin. I’ve got a preliminary list of ideas:

baseball game
sumo wrestling
Cirque du Soleil
sushi bars
karaoke bars
castles/temples/shrines
anything related to Toyota/Scion/tuner vehicles
hot spring spas
arcades/Pachinko

Any thoughts of any of the above, or know if anything else I should do in the 5 days I’m in the land of the rising sun?

We’ve already hit the halfway point of the voyage, yikes.

Also, it’s Mustache March onboard the ship, and I’m happy to announce my whiskers have just gotten long enough to touch the inside of my lip. I started this voyage with the intention of not shaving or cutting my hair, as I work full-time back home and wouldn’t be able to get away with doing so. I also had the intention of coloring my hair yet again (I was electric blue/green for a few months in high school), but I’ve been unable to locate bleach/dye kits.

Fun facts – out of all of the people on the ship:
1 went to my high school
1 is a student at my current school
1 went to my elementary school (4th and 5th grades)
Quite a few live within 10 minutes from me. Small world.

I’m sitting at the talent show right now, and The Voice is the funniest/creepiest guy. I’ll let my fellow shipmate bloggers tell you why.

Alright, let’s see if this’ll post.