4/30 I wanted to wake up early to study for Biology of Sharks, but didn’t end up getting up until almost 0900. After showering I studied for awhile, but quickly lost interest as I always do right before tests. I was really wishing Tania had gotten me Rice Crispies this morning like she said she would after eating my last box last night. Sick. You’re such a great roommate.
My Biology of Sharks final was at 1100. Abel was laid back about the whole thing and told us we could take the test anywhere on the ship as long as we handed it back in at 1215. I just stayed in the classroom, most people left, including Abel. It wasn’t too bad. I’m pretty sure I only had to get a 60% on the final in order to get an A- overall. When I handed it in he handed me back my FDP papers, the practical, and homework assignment. I got a 100% on everything. So I’m thinking I did ok in that class.
I went back down to my cabin to study for my Anthropology test at 1400. I had my box of Unfrosted Mini Wheats and attempted to figure out what could possibly be on this test. After studying for a half hour I got bored and found myself checking my email and messing around and hanging out with Becca. I went up to class early and studied a little more with people. No one seemed to know what the test was on so I really didn’t stress. The test ended up being a little difficult since she gave us no direction with what to study. I’m hoping I did ok. After I handed in my test I got my final paper back. She marked me down a fair amount because I talked about the development of tourism rather than the development of people. Isn’t this class called Globalization, Tourism, and Development? Talking to her is impossible. She’s a stubborn old woman. I just accepted defeat knowing that I am a happier person.
I was so happy to be done with almost everything. I stopped by Becca’s room to tell her the good news. Then it was on to packing up my room. I had to start the process since there’s so much stuff that I need to fit in my bags and bring home. I had to make a list of the things I bought for people to see what I have and I have to make a list to give to customs when I come back home to Ft. Lauderdale. I wonder how strict they are? If you have more than $800 worth of stuff you have to pay some sort of tax. Considering the fact that I have ZERO cash on me I’m going to have to fudge some numbers. How will they know? I could have bargained all my stuff down in any of these countries. That is the joy of it. Most of the stuff is tshirts and souvenirs like that and art. The US is not getting more money out of me for purchasing little things in other countries. They can kiss my ass. After traveling in these other countries and dealing with immigration and security, I have come to DESPISE the United States’ way of existing. We make everything into a production. I struggle getting through security at the airport back home, that is no secret. I had zero issues with security in any other country. I’m beginning to think the United States is really not the place for me to live. But more on that later.
I put together an excel spreadsheet. I feel so organized. I packed up an entire suitcase of stuff I’ve bought in obscure places and a bunch of clothes I don’t need and won’t be bringing with me to Miami. I’m glad I bought another duffel bag in Vietnam to pack up the rest of my stuff. Although it’s a really cheap bag and the shoulder strap already broke, so I’m not too optimistic for this bag. I’m thinking I’ll just have to ship it home for convenience purposes. The room ended up being a nightmare, but that it’s so small, that was bound to happen. The only difference with me and Tania, was that I made sure to put all my bags back under my bed when I was done for the day. Random shit of hers is still on my side. Whatever, only 5 more nights of this.
When I finished packing I was on my computer. Tania had been in the room for most of this. Whilst I’m inputting information in my excel sheet she decides this is the time to ask for my computer to take some of my music. I just look at her confused, and hand it over when I’m finished. For someone who’s not a fan of my music, she took a lot of my techno and house music. Stuff I distinctly remember her criticizing. Whatevs. I went up to sell back some of my books. I got $8.75 back for 3 books. One of them being the Global Studies book. The other two are little Anthropology books that I didn’t even think they’d take. The buy back prices are horrific, because they know we can’t afford to take them home. We don’t have the space. I just wanted to get rid of them. I would have felt bad throwing them away, because there’s no way I’d have space in my bags for some textbooks I don’t want. I’m going to keep my Marine Bio and Sharks books. They’re sweet books. Oh, and for the Global Studies book, they’re only taking back 175 of them. I returned mine as soon as possible to get my $5. In exchange for the books we got US dollars back! Money I haven’t seen in forever. That actually was exciting. On the whiteboard in the library someone always rights the conversation rate between US dollars and whatever currency we’re about to use. Today it read 1 USD = 1 USD plus tax. Tax. Something I haven’t experienced in awhile, unless I ate at a legitimate restaurant, which wasn’t often.
As I’m going through stuff on my computer she gets up and walks out the door and says, “Ok, I’m going up to dinner.” Then she turns around and says, “Oh, uh, did you wanna come?” I just give her a death look and say, “Um, yeah.” Sweet, be a bitch. So she goes off to round up people. Nic comes to the door. She didn’t even go get Nic, she only went to find the boys. I’m seeing a pattern here. Bea called me asking me to go up to the 7th deck for dinner. I told her I’d meet her up there at 1800, I wanted soup on the 5th first.
We all went up to dinner. I’m still avoiding the pasta since the Amazonian food poisoning deal. I had some potato soup and rolls though. It was pretty good. I excused myself when I could take no more comments from the boys about disgusting things. Usual dinner topics.
I went up to the 7th deck and got M&Ms and looked around for Bea and Victor. No sign of them. I sat by the pool for a little bit. Then figured they must have already eaten. I went down to Victor’s room. He was watching Dexter. He called up Bea and we watched the episode. I have a new show that I want to start getting into. I really liked it. Then we got chicken sandwiches up on the 7th. They were good perusual. I ran into Amy, she told me Elena was coming to her room at 1900 and I should come so we could finally divide up the elephant pictures. I met up with them and we hung out for awhile. Eventually we got around to the calendar. I got some really sweet pictures. I don’t know how I’m going to get them home, but I want to crop them and frame them. They’re absolutely gorgeous. I’ve now collected some sick art from around the world. I’m pumped to decorate an apartment or room or something.
When we finished I went looking for Nic, thinking she’d appreciate them. She wasn’t in her room. I found her with Becca watching the Wire. I had no interest in watching it so I went back to my room to clear off my bed and hang out. My packing for the night was done. I have to wait to get my laundry back before I can continue. Laundry day tomorrow! The last one. I have so much stuff, too. Everything from the Amazon, and everything I vomited on. Lovely.
Brandon came over and Tania and him decided to watch some movie loudly on her computer. Sweet. Luckily I was saved by a knock on the door and Bea. She was bored. We decided to go and play a game and look for people. We went up to Tymitz Square, but the Activities desk was closed. Jay ran by wearing a jacket with no pants? Things like this on the ship really aren’t questioned. They’re pretty standard at this point. We spotted Midhun looking at the map. He went back and got us Scrabble. They were having a Sea Social tonight at 2200 in classroom 9 with ice cream. I asked him if I could come with Bea and he agreed fairly easily. We’re having one last family dinner on the 3rd and he’s ordering us dumplings and spring rolls and Holly, our new mother (YES! We found one!), is getting us an ice cream cake. I’m so stoked. I’m also incredibly sad that this will be the last family dinner. L
We wandered around looking for Vanessa or Victor. No one was in their rooms. There was barely anyone around the ship either, which was weird. We looked everywhere. We eventually found everyone in the 5th deck dining hall for their respective final Sea Socials. Vanessa and Patrick said they’d play with us when ours was over. We went in and got some vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. Kaylin was there, I hadn’t seen her in awhile since I’d missed family game night to work on my Global project a few nights earlier.
The next random adventure of the night consisted of Aaron bringing his suitcase to the Sea Social. He zipped Alicia up in it and started toting her around the ship. A bunch of us followed them to see what was going to happen with thus. Bea filmed it. He took her up to the 7th deck and rolled her to the White’s door and left a note saying open me and knocked and ran away. Mark White and his wife opened the door to see this and opened the suitcase. They freaked out and laughed so hard when Alicia popped out. They loved it. I wasn’t sure how they’d react, but their awesome. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. They egged us on and we knocked on the Crabtrees door. They hid behind the wall with us. But no one opened. We tried Don’s door. Again, nothing. Then we heard music coming from the Glazer Lounge. They realized that the string band was performing in there. Aaron asked if he could have permission to wheel the suitcase into there and leave it. Mark White said sure and laughed. That was good enough.
Aaron wheeled her in and left her in the middle of the floor. We watched from the outside windows. They opened it and all nearly had a heart attack. Everyone thought it was hilarious. It didn’t even phase most of the people in there. This was a standard idea on the ship. Aaron took her and continued the journey down through the Piano Lounge. He had a few people open it along the way. People’s reactions were priceless. One girl almost had a heart attack. Aaron picked up the suitcase and put it on the Piano Bar counter for Theresita to open up. She asked who was in it and he told her no one. She unzipped it and Alicia stuck a hand out. Theresita screamed. It was so funny. It started to die off after a while, but they gathered quite a following in those 20 minutes.
Bea and I stopped in for 2200 snack. Nothing special. Then we set up to play Scrabble. Bea called Vanessa, and she and Patrick came up to play. Isaac joined us, too. As we were setting up, some random girl, Margalit(?) asked if she could play. She never introduced herself or asked our names. We all looked at her skeptically. We already had 5 playing and no one knew her. In fact, I’d never seen her before in my life, but we agreed. We started playing. Vanessa had some funny rules and thoughts on how you play. This girl, Margalit, took the game really seriously. Anytime anyone did anything that wasn’t totally within the rules she called them out on it. Patrick asked if he could get away with some word and I was saying yes, when she was like absolutely not. Ok, Hitler. She made the game unfun. When it was my turn one of the times I put blonds down. She told me blonds needed to have an e in it if it was plural. I was like no, it doesn’t. She nearly threw a fit. So I made a big production of being like well, if you’re gonna make a big deal I’ll do just blond. This made her really agitated and she tried to take it back as to not look like a bitch. Too late. As I sit here typing this on Word, I’ve typed in blonds, and, oh, hey, it’s a word! The rest of us were having so much fun and goofing off and she really wanted this to be serious. We were playing it incorrectly at times, but whatever. We’re all friends. I think we could have gone without keeping score and we would have been just as happy. Vanessa and I were sharing tiles anyways. It wasn’t a legitimate game. Plus, games are about having fun. So lighten up! We got bored and started messing around with the board and she eventually disappeared, frustrated with us all.
Saahil came by and joined us. We spent awhile hanging out up there and fooling around. I had a fantastic night with everyone. I’m going to miss all of them greatly. I’m glad Bea’s going to be up in Boston for the month of May! Yay!
Eventually I did have to come back down to my cabin to put my laundry out for tomorrow and get ready for bed and sleep. 5 days until we’re in Ft. Lauderdale! AND WE GO BACK THE FINAL HOUR TONIGHT. AKA WE’RE IN EAST COAST TIME FO REALLLLLL. And the clock on my computer finally tells the right time and it’s normal.
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