Day 8 at Sea (The Last Day Pre-India)

I got up for Global Studies at 0930 and I’m so glad I did.  It was all about India.  One of the teachers who is Indian talked about all of the poverty and statistics of India.  It was very interesting.  After her talk there was a panel of 3 young Indian-Americans: Saahil, Nela, and Midhun (aka Dad).  They all talked about their families and their parents.  They discussed arranged marriages and how some of their parents had them and others went against them.  It was fascinating.  I’d never heard any of this before from people I knew.  It had always seemed so distant to me.  This was by far the most Global Studies we have had this far.1100 Biology of Sharks.  I emailed Professor Abel both of my midterms the night before.  I wasn’t sure when he wanted them by so I sent it early and got it over with sooner rather than later.  So glad those are done with.  Class was relatively uneventful; I was getting excited for India so I was very distracted.I went down to lunch on the 5th deck to meet up with Tania and Nolan.  I was early so I chilled.  I saw a pod of dolphins off the back of the ship.  Two spottings of dolphins in one week!  Crazyness.  Nolan was stoked when we told him we were able to get a big cake for Mason’s “birthday.”  He thought we were only getting him a cupcake.I did some Anthropology reading.  We’ve got a ton for our little 5 point add on to our midterm that we had last A day.  Since no one had the reader she took one of the questions off and is giving it to us after India to be fair.  1400 came around and I started to drag myself off to class.  Tania was napping and that was all I wanted to do.  I was so tempted to skip out on class and prepare for India by resting up.  I ran into Nic and Becca in the hallway and debated going yet again.  But they were going off to Global so I figured I might as well go to class.I’m glad I did.  I showed up a few minutes late, but she hadn’t even started class yet.  She was handing back out midterms from the other day.  Everything always seems to be in slow motion in my life, at least recently.  So I was shocked she’d already read and graded our essay tests.  I got 20/20.  So happy.  I was a little nervous because Tania has her and said she grades hard.  That added to my overall happiness factor that was already pretty high.I went to the gym immediately after class and hopped on the stairmaster for awhile.  I felt pretty good after my workout.  I stretched out on the 7th deck port side like always.  It was so hot out.I showered and got ready for dinner.  Our surprise birthday cake to Mason was tonight so I dressed up nicely and put on make up and earrings for our family dinner.  I went to Pat and Mason’s room to get my flashdrive back from Pat.  He showed me his movie for his class with Nolan.  It was so sick.  I had heard and seen bits and pieces of it up until this point and hadn’t been all that impressed.  It was way better than I was prepared for.We attempted to gather everyone up for family dinner but could only locate Pat, Becca, Nik, Tania, and me.  Nolan and Brandon were MIA.  I saw Mason heading upstairs alone and yelled to him about dinner.  He had to meet up with some people for his Global Studies project quickly.  I told him to meet up with us on the 5th deck after.We headed up and got a big table for the  fam plus Pat and Sam.  Dinner was some pasta with curry sauce and other obscure “Indian” foods.  They attempt to make cultural food before every port.  This wasn’t bad.  No one else seemed to like it though.  I enjoyed that it had flavor and didn’t need any ketchup on it.  Two meals in one day that didn’t require ketchup.  What a day!  Lunch had been some pasta with a garlic cream sauce.  Delish.Pat’s traveling with me to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur.  He has agreed to look out for me and make sure nothing happens to me.  I have faith in him.  Almost as much faith as I have in Mason, Nolan, and Brandon.  And that, is a lot.Eventually Nolan and Brandon turned up.  We now had to wait for Mason.  The waiters kept asking us if they could bring out the cake.  But no Mason anywhere.  Brandon and Tania decided to go and look for him.  15 minutes later they came back saying they ran into Chris, who’s in his Global Studies group, and that he’d be up in 15 minutes for their meeting.  So we waited.When we saw Mason we made him come over and sit with us.  It took a few minutes of him questioning why he had to sit there while we talked about random things.  Howard brought the cake out and we all sang Happy Birthday to him.  We couldn’t stop laughing.  You should have seen the look on his face, it was so cute.  He was so touched that we bought him a cake for his “birthday” that’s tomorrow.  There was a candle and everything and it read “YOU OLD MAN. LOVE THE FAM.”It was so funny.  The cake was huge and was meant to serve 14 people, it can definitely serve more than that.  We got a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cake.  We ate so much.  After dinner we got a family picture around the table and Mason hugged us all for his celebration.  What are families for?We all chilled after dinner and digested the ample amounts of cake in our stomachs.  Becca French braided my hair and we waited around for Logistical and Cultural Pre-Port to start at 2000.We went up early to get good seats because we knew Saahil had choreographed some dance in it.  We sat right up front on the floor.  This was the best Pre-Port we’ve had so far.  The interport student, Vikram talked about the geography and it was more like a comedic act.  He loved the attention and then thanked everyone for such a great stay on the ship between Vietnam and India.  A bunch of other people talked about the normal safety stuff and details of the next few days with immigration and customs.  Midhun talked about the do’s and don’t’s of India, or as he refers to it as, “The Motherland.”  Some of these he’d already told us at our family dinner a few nights earlier.  They were all really interesting though.An hour later Saahil and a bunch of other people came out and did some traditional Indian dancing with some great music.  They did two different songs, one of which was the Indian version of Pretty Woman.  They were awesome.  I was thoroughly impressed.  They were all dressed in somewhat Indian attire.Then Saahil and Neha and Sneha told us about religion in India.  Saahil told us some great stories to help us better understand the Hindu religion, which is what 80% of Indians are.The issue of clothing was addressed.  As girls we must cover up our knees and shoulders.  Now I normally would accept this, but it is going to be in the 100’s in India over these next few days with ridiculous amounts of humidity.  I was told if I thought Vietnam was bad, just wait for India.  Glorious.  So not pleased.  I tried on a few long skirts in Vietnam to buy for India, but they were super hot, too.  And they were ugly.  I guess I’ll be rocking some capri spandex for the next few days.  I was also told it’s hard to be the one smelling badly in India as much of India smells, well, let’s just say, differently.Pre-Port took forever.  As good as it was I was so ready for it to be over.  It took over 2 hours.  Blahhh.  We went to 2200 snack after, and chilled.  Nothing good up there, especially after that delicious cake we had for dinner.As we keep saying: every day keeps getting better and better.  It’s pretty awesome to be us right now.  We’ll be in India in a matter of hours.  I can’t believe it.  But for now I must sleep.  We have to get up early to get breakfast and go through customs and immigration and then a Diplomatic Briefing at 0800.