i find myself on the other side of the world

"I only know that I have enough"
Japanese religious mentality

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY NICK!!! It's early on Tuesday the 9th where I am. Honestly I don't know what time it is in Italy. But you're 21 here! Hope you're having so much fun!! I miss you greatly. Celebrate and eat TONS of pasta in my absence.

So we've made it to Yokohama!!! Finally. Although the days of class at sea went quickly. Unfortunately I stopped noting each day as they became repetitive and such. I'll update you all quickly on the occurences at sea. My birthday did not get skipped! We crossed the dateline a day later than intended. We got a GIANT chocolate cake on the 1st from my family. (Thank you Chaston clan) We celebrated the 1st for fear the 2nd was lost. That night there was a "mismatched" dance in the union. It was really just a spandex-neon-tie-dye-rave-fest. Aka all of my favorite things in one. Of course I had plenty of things to combine and wear. And was constantly asked the question: "why would you think to pack that?" If you have to ask that clearly you don't know me very well. I'd already worn each article of ridiculous coloration at least once already. Enough said. At midnight I hit 21. FINALLY. Goodbye fake ids. In Japan the legal drinking age is 20. Random. I just assumed it was 18 or younger anywhere else.

The day of my birthday (the 2nd), we had off from classes. I claim that it was because of my birthday. But it was more just because it was in the middle of classes. Speaking of which, I've only got 4 more days of class in the month of February. Be supremely jealous. I'm almost jealous of myself.

The day off consisted of getting up early to take a school (UMiami) picture. They did everyone by school. There's 8 of us here. I think 7 showed up. All girls. The guy didn't show up. Oh, also, the girl living next to me, Chelsea, used to go to Miami and just transferred her junior year somewhere in Louisianna (home). So funny. She looked so familiar and I thought she went to Miami. Obviously we played the who do you know game. And found we really don't know each others friends. I think I'm the only UM girl not in a sorority on this boat. Actually, there's one other girl. The rest are all in different sororities. But they all seem nice.

We spent the day doing absolutely nothing productive. Although I did work out and get a glorious swedish massage (thank you family). So relaxing. Good birthday all around. Unfortunately there was no pub night for my birthday. One of the other nights my friends shared some of their beers for my birthday so I could get a little buzz for the 21. (We're limited to 3 beers at night.) But never fear we're celebrating in each country. Japan=sake bombing. Joy.

Hmmm what else happened at sea? Coffee house the other night. Everyone=mucho talented. Pub nights and way too many card games on the 7th deck. It got cold as we headed north. Aka winteryness. Japan's in winter right now. Although it's sunny and nice today, about 50. Not too bad.

OH! Becca and I were adopted. We signed up for a "family" at the beginning of the voyage and so did all our friends. Everyone was adopted week one. We felt neglected. One of the LLC's (read: really cool RA's...and we all know my hatred of RA's. More on this subject in a minute) adopted us. Well, adopted Becca. But she brought me along. I became the adopted adopted child. His name is Midhun, he goes to UC Berklee. He's awesome. Our family is the best. He gave us all flowers at our first dinner. All of our friends have been talking about how much their families suck and how weird their "siblings" are. Clearly the last to be adopted are the funnest one. Duh.

So on the subject of RA's: 3 people on this ship that I have met, 2 I consider good friends, are RA's. Yes, I have become friends with RA's. They've heard my stories of being written up and being obnoxious, and we're still friends.

Apparently if you fall off the ship (assuming they know you fell off) and they turn around and come back to get you, it's a $50,000 fine. It takes them 2+ hours to turn the ship around and find you. If it's night, you're really just screwed in my opinion. 5 people have fallen off, they've only found 1. Creepy. This could be a good CSI episode.

I should probably update you on the weather at sea. It got crazy for a few days. Right after Hawai'i it was nice and calm and sunny and we all enjoyed tanning on the deck. A few days later it got a little chilly. Then we started hitting rougher seas. The waves geared up and were hitting us from the front instead of the side like in the first leg of the journey from Mexico. It got worse each day. Things were sliding around. Food was falling off tables in the dining halls. We'd hit a wave, rise up, then crash down. Everything was creaking and the ship sounded like it was going to break in half. It was awesome. The swells were about 20 feet. So no more than we'd already seen, but it must have been because they hit us from the bow. We'd be woken up at 0400 because we'd crash down into the sea. The night we had our Global Studies exam (Sunday for us), we were all in the dining hall, 5th deck. It looked like we were gonna capsize, the aft kept slamming down and being hit with water. That was probably the worst night. The test went ok..... But the waves made us divert our planned route. We went 190 NM out of the way to avoid a massive storm and slowed from 18 knots to 8. Making us get to Yokohama 3 hours later than planned. Hence why I have all this time to update my blog. Originally they thought we'd be close to a day late. Good thing we're not that late. We just got into Port/"The Terminal" at 0900. We all had breakfast with the boys early and watched us pull in. We were greeted by Japanese women on drums on the roof of the terminal. It was wicked cool.

Monday was the Superbowl. We were able to watch it in the union via the internet. So it was constantly buffering and really blurry. It was just so great to see tv again. And t
he Colts lost!!! The only thing that compares with the Pats winning. Joy.

Also, we're a day ahead because of the international dateline. So today is Tuesday February 9th, but at home it's the evening of Monday the 8th. We're in the future! It's crazyness.

Dramafest 2010 continues on the ship. Only reminding me of why guy friends are so great. They're limited on the ship and welcomed at every chance. With the 2 to 1 girl to guy ratio it's somewhat killing everyone. Thank god we'll be off the ship in an hour or so. It does make me miss all my friends a little. But you are all off in crazy directions or off doing obscure things.

That's long enough for now. I should be able to update my blog a bunch from Japan. We're here til the 13th, which is Saturday I believe. BBM me or email me. Email me at s.chaston@gmail.com while I'm in Japan. It'll go right to my phone. Or facebook me. My phone was ridic limited at sea. It was roaming....so those charges will be interesting. And for the record we're now 10 hours behind east coast time. Just for frame of reference.

All for now.
Miss and love.
S