Skip the first couple of paragraphs of this entry. It's embarrassing.

Wow.

Yeah so… how bout all that dancing I’ve been doing, ah? I’m fairly certain I was possessed by the spirit of something that was not myself my last late night in Mauritius. Never have I danced so much in my life. Seriously… what the hell was that all about?

Apparently, I made a few fans, as well. When our group of ten or twelve came back from the club, the taxi drivers, who were also in the bar with us, told me I was their favourite. Not sure how I felt about that. The next morning, too, when they were out at the dock waiting for people who needed rides, I’d walk off the ship and hear “Mariaaaaa….” and look over to see these cheesy, embarrassing grins. Whatever, at least they were young-ish.

Let me talk about that for a moment—WHY DO I ONLY ATTRACT MIDDLE-AGED MEN?!

I thought, maybe, this was a New Jersey thing, but no—no! It’s becoming clear to me that, globally, 45- to 59-year-old men are my biggest fans. The only thing this trip has taught me about that is that I’m not strictly “old white guy candy” as Bill had previously dubbed me.

Aww… Bill. He called me last night about an hour or so before we left the port. I was so excited when I saw his name that I jumped up from the meeting I was in for a class project and yelled “Sorry! I’m out! Gotta take this” but when I picked up, he wasn’t there.

Balls!

I don’t know what happened; if he hung up, or if my phone decided not to actually pick up but reject the call, but I was indeed quite sad. My mother called a few times. It was good to hear her voice. She said she called Cingular and had them give me the power to call the States from abroad, but that turned out to not be the case. Perhaps by the time I reach Chennai, I’ll be able to dial out.

Aaaand, today, I received a parcel from my beloved mother. It included three much needed items: my check card (woohoo!!!), two hundred dollars, and a hand-written letter from my mom (awww). I have the letter up on my wall because it makes me a happy person. The card also made me happy since the magnetic strip on my original one got desensitized in Brazil and I’ve been relying on credit for the past few ports.

Mom totally takes care of me.

Some awesome people including Bill and Lee offered me funding in the event that I needed any, but I was so stubborn and unwilling to take money from people that I didn’t even consider it.

Anyway.

Today was the day of the Sea Olympics. See, the ship is sectioned off into a number of seas. People living on the third deck port side aft are in my sea, the Baltic.

And that’s about the extent of this Sea business with which I’m familiar.

People from different seas signed up for different events for the Olympics and they’ve been going on all day.

All day.

We’ve been hearing the announcement bell ring about every 15 minutes with new notice about relay races and limbo competition time changes. Basically, anyone who decided to try to sleep in, wake up at noon, and then do school work for the rest of the day wasn’t afforded an environment conducive to peaceful study.

Well kids, I’m sure you can narrow down the many possible routes to awesomeness I may have taken today, keeping in mind that there hasn’t been a day in my life in which I’ve exhibited any amount of school spirit.