feeling like my body has slept 10 hours or more. We are now 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. We're living in your future.
I'm friends with the ship photographer, Josh. Last night, he took an invitation to tour the first and second floors of the ship; the truly behind-the-curtain gear central where the freezers, kitchens, trash storage and morgues are. He let a group of us look over his shoulder at the images. One and a half entire floors of this ship are devoted to food. It makes sense, my friend Mike said. A thousand people need to eat three times daily and waste three times daily. Plus, I said, we're Americans. People eat entirely too much, waste entirely too much, and need entirely too much, in general. This is clear to anyone who has traveled further inward in their hometown. How do the poorest of your city live? What do they eat? What do they waste?
We're coming up on our first foreign port, Yokohama, Japan. According to Professor Ballantine, the Japanese waste nothing (since I'm re-reading this after Japan, I can say now it's true. Absolutely no space is wasted, no food is wasted ... nothing.) As far as land goes, rice paddies pop up between high-rises in big cities. It's arable -- why pave it? With all of their miraculous prosperity, there is no neglectfully accumulating excess. Or so I'm told. In two days, I'll see for myself.
My travel plans go like this:
Arrive Yokohama, stay the afternoon.
Travel by train to Tokyo, spend the night at the "Oak Hotel" hostel with Lindsay, Mike, Anne, Chris, Drew, and Steve.
Spend the day in Tokyo.
Travel to Kyoto by night. (Here's the glitch -- where do we sleep tonight? On the train? In a temple? Find a hostel? Splurge on a hotel? Gah. Stress.)
Kyoto for the day, travel to Kobe that night.
Meet up with my group at 9:15 for travel to Konan Women's University where I'll meet local students with whom I'll spend the day.
Homestay the last night in Kobe. Re-board the ship for two days worth of cramming and studying (which we're all doing presently ... I have three tests tomorrow) before docking in Qingdao, China.
Shall we go ahead and mention travel plans for China? Eek. They're rough.
Arrive Qingdao, spend the day and night there. Next morning Home-Visit in Qingdao. Evening fly to Beijing. Where to stay? Dunno yet.
Next morning join a tour of Beijing, and the overnight on the wall thing. Sleep on the wall.
Next morning hike the wall.
That night fly to Hong Kong. Find the boat. Sleep on the boat.
Next day Hong Kong playtime. Re-board the boat.
Yikes. Twice. Stress is picking up. Some people want to go get drunk in every port, and some people want to sleep in temples (like me) but can't seem to plan things because there's a billion pages of Art History Dr. Crozier gave you to read, study and be able to regurgitate to him tomorrow and you can't seem to concentrate because you're sitting in the caf and the coffee smells good and Perry, the waiter, keeps coming over to chat in super-broken-English because he's from the Phillipines and can you believe the workers here sleep six to a room and only get paid at the end and if they're fired before that get nothing?!?!
PLUS if we sink they only get the inflatable rafts, while we're all piled into the rescue boats which are enormous and clearly secure. Ugh. Lindsay drew diagrams.
Enough. I need to study. And also, I think they should replace the "spa" with a larger exercise arena. There are seven machines for 700 cabin-fevered students and 300 staff members. It no worka.
Love
C
I don't want to leave on a negative note. Yesterday, Benjamin and I studied on the deck. He leaned over and said, "I don't think I've ever been as thankful for anything in my entire life." That about sums it up.
(Other photos posted: Emily's birthday bash with a 27-person ice cream cake, stormy skies and Mike's broken but now superglued sunglasses, friends at dinner, including Zach, the wolverine Philadelphian. Our group gravitated together immediately. They are some of the most thoughtful, smart, fun, goofy, adventurous and accepting people I've ever known. I'm entirely grateful.)
