out in the ocean

The craziest thing I have every done in a storm is be in the middle of a lake, tying up a sailboat, as thunder and lightening crash overhead.

The second craziest thing is eat tacos calmly, holding down napkins with my elbows and protecting my textbooks with my legs.

It was the fabled taco dinner tonight, which has been whispered about since day one. I adopted the quantity over style approach I perfected at camp and made a heaping pile of taco salad and mexican rice. Just as myself and a couple students sat down to enjoy under the safety of an underhang of the upper deck, the wind and rain began to pick up. It had been considerably gusty to begin with, but this was a new level. When it does this, the deck chairs tend to go flying across the deck, and the crew members are responsible for stacking them.

We saw as one beloved crew member, who is always smiling and singing unrecognizable gospel songs, began to stack as the storm escalated. There were a considerable amount of chairs. Someone said, "We should help him" and without another word, everyone stood up and began stacking chairs. Salt water saturated our laughing lips.

The laughter and thanks of the crew member, as well as the warmth of our taco dinners, was a rich reward.

- - -

We're 7 days into the Ocean Crossing. This is the longest stretch of ship travel we have in our voyage. Four more days left. Once we reach Japan we will have completed one third of our classes. Needless to say, the days have become a bit of a routine.

I wrote a post a while back and then accidentally deleted it and then haven't had the desire to write again.

I hope everyone had a wonderful January 21st- this day didn't happen for me. We've been setting our clocks back an hour every other day or so (which is lovely for sleep- I've never been so well rested), and eventually we crossed the International Date Line, forcing us to skip January 21st. We were supposed to skip January 20th, which apparently is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US, and this was a big no-no, so somehow they managed to change that. Too bad for the two girls who suddenly didn't have their birthday.

I have become attached to a group traveling in Japan- a friend of mine I met through my prayer group invited me to travel with her, and two other girls joined shortly after. One girl has experience traveling, so we've already booked hostels in Tokyo and Kyoto, just to ensure we have places to stay. I feel blessed they have already worked out those details - I had absolutely no idea where to start with Japan. I'll be equally grateful when I get to China and everything is taken care of. So I'm currently occupying my free time familiarizing myself with the subway system and must-see places of Tokyo to ensure I can be helpful in some way.

It's been surprisingly still warm and muggy as we head north for Japan. I'm unsure if it is my imagination or the sun, but I think I see my summer-blonde hair returning (too bad it'll all be gone shortly after India). Unfortunately, we hit colder weather in Japan and China before returning to the bikini-weather. I'm kind of looking forward to the familiar sting of winter in Beijing- that'll feel like home.

The storm has been shaking the boat- the normal rocking of the boat typically feels like driving quickly and reversing over a steep hill, that stomach dropping out feeling, but now it's coupled with intense airplane turbulence.

That's everything for now… I suppose the next time I write it might be post-Japan.