Day 7 at Sea

I woke up at 0945 to go to the gym.  I'd signed up for 1000 on the bike and 1030 on the stairmaster so I'd have some reason to wake up and not sleep the entire day.  I got so much sleep is was great.  And I was so not stressed since I'd nearly completed by midterms.The gym was uneventful and glorious.  After the gym I showered and wandered up to the 5th deck to find some of the girls at lunch.  Lunch was alright, pasta and red sauce.  At least it didn't require ketchup.  It's a good meal if it doesn't need ketchup.After lunch I chilled in the dining hall with Tania as she studied for her Oceanography midterm and I put the finishing touches on my two midterms.Once I finished I found Nic and Tania after her test and we went up to the 7th deck to tan.  It was prime sunlight.  I loaded up on the sunblock, something I rarely do so as not to get burnt.It was so hot out.  I had brought my computer and notebook along to hopefully work on some other stuff, but it was too hot to function.  I was sweating all over my notebook.  I was sweating out of my eyes.  Or at least it felt that way.  I'm trying to get you to understand this heat.  We got some delicious smoothies from the bar.  This made us feel so much better and much more refreshed.  We needed it.  Becca saw us through the gym window and came out and joined us when she was finished.Two of the boys were out there break dancing.  Well one of the boys was teaching Zach how to break dance.  It was so entertaining to watch.After 2 hours of sweating out our body weight we headed back to the cabins.  I figured I'd get some work done in the 2 hours before dinner.  Tania decided to nap.  I promptly fell asleep.  I didn't even know I was tired.  I passed out and didn't wake up or move once in the hour and a half that I napped.We were awoken by a pound on our door for dinner at 1730 by Becca.  We rounded up the crew and went up to the 5th deck.  Dinner wasn't bad, pasta with chili flakes.After dinner we all hung out on the smoking deck while the boys and Nic had a cigarette.  We decided that we'd watch a movie in Nolan and Brandon's room.Becca, Tania, me, and the boys ended up watching Sorority Row.  I bought it in Vietnam.  It took us forever to get through the movie because people kept calling the room for cigarettes or to play poker or to film stuff for one of Nolan's classes.  The 5 of us snuggled up in the dark.  When Nolan left at one point we paused the movie to wait for him.  We pushed the 2 beds together so we could really all snuggle up.  I sincerely hope that the boys leave them pushed together for their cabin steward to see in the morning and question.The movie was alright, it was very much I Know What You Did Last Summer.  I enjoyed it.By the time it ended it was time for 2200 snack.  There wasn't much up there so we ended up at the snack bar and chilled for a little while.In the Dean's Memo (we get this emailed to us every day we're at sea, it has all the announcements about events and laundry, etc. on it, as well as birthdays) it said it was Mason's birthday on the 11th.  For some reason it mixed up 11/3 as 3/11.  So we decided to order him a surprise birthday cake for dinner the next day for his "25th" birthday.  Unfortunately when we went to the Purser's Desk to do this the lady told us we were too late and it needed to be 24 hours in advance.Nolan and Becca refused to take no for an answer and we hunted down the head waiter and explained how important it was that we get a cake for our friends birthday.  The waiter seemed to find this cute and took pity on us and talked to his boss to get it approved.  We filled out the paper work and hopefully tomorrow night at dinner a big ice cream cake will be waiting for us.  We wrote on it “You old man. Love, the fam.”  I can’t wait to see this face upon getting this random cake.Everyone seemed to part ways after this to finish up assignments and go to bed.  I checked my phone which seemed to get an influx of bbms, emails, and facebook notifications.  I had a few from home.SCOTT GOT ACCEPTED TO THE U!!!! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!  I hope you decide to go there, you'd really enjoy yourself.  You know how much I love the U.I called home for a half hour to talk to Mom and Dad.  We're 11 hours ahead of the east coast now.  We're beyond the half way point, which is so strange.  We're now really on our way back.  That's so weird.  It really made me realize that tonight when I talked to Mom and Dad and they were talking about how they just made arrangements to meet me in Ft. Lauderdale on May 5th.  It's less than 2 months until we get home.  What is this nonsense, we literally just got here.  The MV Explorer is my 4th home.  Right after Needham, Miami, and Eleuthera.Anyways, it's getting late and I've got class tomorrow at 0930 that I should go to.  I'm going to head off to bed.  We only turn the clocks back a half an hour tonight.  That is kind of strange.  We turn the clocks back another half hour when we leave India.I can't believe we'll be in India in less than 36 hours.  How did that happen so fast?!I love and miss you all more than you can imagine.  And I know I'll be back before I know it.  I apologize to everyone about slacking on the emails, I've been so busy.  But don't fret, I am still alive.  I know many thought I would not survive Vietnam.  The next hurdle is India.  Wish me luck!