Ship Time: 1825
Time at Home: 2:25pm
Current Location: Far From Land
This voyage is nothing if not the most exhausting semester of my life, and this is why I broke a promise I made to Alex and my parents, who I told I'd update this a two days ago.
If I should experience something more tiring than this semester, I hope I die right before it transpires. Sleeping so little has finally caught up with me (and indeed many students) as a virus or disease of some sort has many of us feeling ill. I don't get sick often, so I can't remember the last time I felt like death, as I do now. I very nearly threw up several times, including during lunch with the Captain. Lunch with the Captain, you say? Why yes!
Between Salvador and Cape Town Captain Jeremy is dining with students at the eternally reserved Captain's Table in one of the dining rooms every day for lunch. This is like being invited into the Forbidden City during the reign of a Chinese emperor. I missed it the first day, but today several of us were all very excited about it, but I felt so ill that I thought I'd sleep instead, until about five minutes before lunch I got out of bed and said, out loud, "I can't. I can't miss lunch with Captain Jeremy." And I didn't miss lunch with Captain Jeremy, but my misery made it so that I almost wished I'd waited to eat with him another day. It was extremely exciting though. We all got very nervous before he arrived, and I was freaking out about table manners because I'd noticed yesterday that Captain Jeremy is very proper; he eats holding his fork upside down and everything. The headwaiter laughed at me, and then helped me out by placing my silverware around my plate in a proper way and putting my napkin on my lap.
I learned much from the Captain. Like, this ship has a yearly operating budget of around $19 million, and if I've done the math correctly, we spend a little over $30,000 a day on a little over 90 tons of fuel, which makes the tuition I'm paying seem quite reasonable. Also, he's never been attacked by pirates, he's on his third wife (who's joining us in South Africa), and he has this job because the Institute for Shipboard Education "made [him] an offer [he] couldn't refuse." I wanted to know just what that offer was (and whether he knew he was quoting The Godfather or not), but it seemed improper to ask an upstanding Englishman how much he makes. Enough to have three wives, four kids, and homes in the southwest of France and the Philippines at least, and that's nothing to scoff at.
I have no intention of leaving out Brazil from this blog, but I still feel like shit, you see, so you'll just have to understand that lunch with the Captain is the more pressing issue right now, because that just happened. Brazil will come later, ideally tomorrow, but since I haven't done homework in two days and tomorrow is Neptune Day (an explanation of that later, as well), you may have to wait again.
Friday, February 23, 2007
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5 comments:
Matt, I know I speak for alot of people who have been waiting for your blog update---thank you!! I am sorry you and others don't feel good,but it is still good to hear from you.
We are supposedly going to get 6 inches of snow starting Saturday night.
I assume you are getting lots of exciting photos. I can't wait to see some. I ran into Caroline today and she asked if we heard from you because of the lack of blog updates.
I hope you feel better soon.
Dad
Hi Matt! I hope you feel better. That really stinks, but personally, I'd rather be sick while at sea than when you are in port.
Anyway, the snow has come. It's actually only Saturday afternoon and I think we already have six inches! We are supposed to get a lot more tonight. It's a blizzard warning. The problem seems to be the bad wind. So, be thankful that you can at least be miserable with nice weather!
I hope you feel better soon and I can't wait to hear about Brazil.
Trisha
Now that there is 8 days at sea, you whould be able to catch up on some sleep. We had over a foot of snow in the last 36 hours and there is more to come. I have been reading some of the other blogs and wonder if you still have all of your hair? For those who shaved their head on Neptune Day, I hope they have a hat to wear on deck. A sunburned head would not be fun! MOM
You received a letter of admissions from UW-Madison. They will be emailing you course enrollment info in the coming weeks.
Hello Matthew! It is so good to see a message from you that I don't have to go immediately to the dooce link! I hate to admit I have become addicted, just after giving up Days of Our Lives for Lent (Ha!) I have now spent hours reading about Heather Armstrong... this is all your fault you know. I will not go there! (tonight anyway) well since everyone else is talking about it, we got snow here in MD too :) probably about 5 inches. I too can't wait to see a lot more photos from your trip so even if it's after you get back, I hope those get a website too! Have fun and hope you feel better. Also, your parents might not appreciate this but my opinion is that a semester at sea desereves c grades, that's average and I'm sure there are a lot of other above average opportunites that need your attention because I certainly would prefer to read about those than the need to study!
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