Island in the Sun

Yesterday was probably one of the most relaxing days I've had on the ship as of current. After dinner (not an awkward one, I might add), I walked with a few people, Grace, Eric, Nate, and Michelle to the front of the ship (stern?) and reveled in the pure, honest beauty of my surroundings. The water was so blue, a kind of cerulean blue, and the sky was partially cloudy, partially clear. We were traveling 15.6 knots, which is roughly 20mph, I believe, and the wind was whipping my hair like crazy. We pretty much had the deck to ourselves because the wind was so bad, but I loved every minute of it.

I had brought my laptop up there to play some music, but with the wind you could barely hear it. I did play "Come Sail Away" (Styx), and "Island in the Sun" (Weezer), because you can't not play those songs when on a ship! And of course, someone else broke out "My Heart Will Go On" (Celine Dion), from Titanic and I stepped onto the railing and threw my arms out and pretended to be Kate Winslet for a minute. That was one glorious minute.

The captain announced in his cute little Croatian accent that we were coming upon two islands, called the Azores. The big deal? People were actually inhabiting them! I took out my camera and used the zoom feature to see if we could check out any indigenous peoples with paint on their faces trying to make fire. We were quickly informed (by our Global Studies professor, nonetheless) that these two islands are actually of Portuguese decent, and the people living on them have been there for hundreds of years! They are famous for their sugarcane trading, which I find fascinating. My zoom finally reached the point of exhaustion when I noticed villages.actual white-painted, roofed and lit up with electricity villages! We all yelped and screamed, excited to see signs of life other than on the ship. Amazing how land-sick one can get. It's only been about a week, and here I am, going crazy at the sight of human life on land. Ha. I can't imagine what we will all act like when we step on to Spain territory. We will be heathens.

On another note, laundry day is today. We are not allowed to do our own laundry on board. We have to pay $6 and write our initials on every single tag on each piece of clothing, and also fill out a form describing in detail what each piece of clothing looks like. This is in case the launders (?) mix up clothing, or lose it or something. I can't afford to lose any underwear. That would be very, very bad.Ps. We are currently 6 hours ahead of US time. This will be our European staple until we reach Bulgaria or something. Sweeet.

2 days until my birthday. I cannot wait.

Love to you all,
A.