Namibia approaches

Feeling tremendous, listening to Dr. Dog, just ate some Namibian black-eyed peas and plump green grapes. The sun is out after two days of moping behind the chubby gray clouds, and with the ridiculous quantity of datelines we have crossed, the sun is setting really late (or at least feels like it is). We lost 5 hours this week, and that is no good with an 8 o’clock class on A days (classes are on an A-day/B-day schedule). So my internal clock is wonky, I go to sleep at like 4 in the morning on A-day nights because I don’t have class on B days until 3:45, and then stay up till one before A days and wake up for my 8 o’clock linguistics class, catatonic beyond comprehension. Nothing very exciting has happened on the ship since Brazil. I realized how small the ship is last night when I ran across the entire “campus” in 3 minutes flat. So I am READY TO GET OFF!! I have been hanging out with two kids, Drew and Vin a lot. Drew and I like climbing on things and being wacky in public, crawling through the hallways and pretending like we’re marionettes. Vin and I….sort of do the same thing now that I think about it. I always end up sprawled out somewhere at the bottom of a stairwell laughing or acting like I’m a dog. Boredom can do crazy things to you. By the end of the trip I will have come up with thousands of ways to entertain myself. I have already found a way to get to observe the hall patroller man’s gigantic, fascinating mole by having him get me in trouble for leaving my door open—a fire code violation for which I was reported. That took up a good 5 minutes of my day yesterday. So does signing up for the gym and then feeling sick and walking all the way back to the 7th floor and crossing my name out. I’ve done that three days in a row…such a small space leaves one perpetually on the verge of a full-blown cold. We arrive in Namibia tomorrow and I am quite excited. Things are purportedly dirt-cheap everywhere, which will be a welcome alternative to the 4 dollar beer they sell on this ship, which I never bought anyway but was still incensed by. I am missing everyone back home dearly, and hope they are reading this so they know! I think I am going to go out on the 7th deck to look for whales, sharks or some other kind of sea life, unless I am apprehended in the hallway by someone and whisked away to another activity! I will update this either in Namibia or upon my return to the MV Explorer! Lots of love to everyone!