update on life in general, i suppose.

I think I should also update on my life aside from country recaps, which are rushed.  Despite heavy detail, those don’t really show my experience.  Even though I try my best to convey what I’m thinking, I really leave a lot of that out in favor of raw events and experiences.

So, let’s start at the beginning, I suppose.  I’ve been writing more lately than I usually do.  Yesterday I wrote three poems, and I have been taking copious notes both in country and on the ship.  My friends from home will vouch that I usually take notes of funny things that happen, typing them into my cell phone, and it is no different here.  If I enjoy a conversation immensely, or come across something gorgeous and eye-opening while I’m reading, I write it into my little notebook.  I’ve already filled one (entitled “ASIA”) and am halfway through with my second.  I can’t wait to have a bookshelf dedicated to my journals.  I haven’t written any short stories or sketches though, which really bothers me.  No time.

My friends here are, in a word, amazing.  I’ve never gotten close to people so quickly.  You learn so much from traveling with people and living through things you never thought you would.  For example, Aleeza and I have decided to periodically send texts when we’re home that say things like “REMEMBER WHEN WE RODE THAT TRAIN FOR 18 HOURS AND THAT KID KEPT KICKING THE WALL?”  I’m going to miss everyone immensely.  I’ve made some lifelong friends, that’s for sure.

In terms of what I spend my time doing, I’m usually hanging out with the aforementioned friends, lying out on the top deck next to the pool (hard life), doing schoolwork (seriously!  I swear!), watching “Seinfeld” (I bought the whole series for $10 in Viet Nam), and last but not least, doing shipboard activities.  I know!  I have school spirit?  I go to the nightly things like the talent show (the crew one last night was great), coffee house (a very talented shipboard community let me tell you), and watch various movies with buddies whenever they play them in the union. 

I started an improv club, which I believe I’ve mentioned before, and it’s my pride and joy.  The kids I’m working with are fantastic – so open and willing to learn and make fools of themselves.  There’s a group of 8 or so that show up to almost every meeting, and we performed our first Harold (long form) at the last one.  Hopefully we’ll be able to do a “night of comedy” thing at the end.  Everyone needs to see how funny these kids are.  Well, actually, they already do.  We’ve performed two short sketches (written through improvisation but not recorded, so things always change) at the pre-ports before Japan and India.  Pre-ports are mandatory meetings that EVERYONE must attend – they let you know important information about the ports.  Basically, our job was to perform “what not to do,” and it got a great response.  At the very least, it releases frustration.  It was also nice to learn that performing in front of 600 people wasn’t nerve-wracking for me – that it actually made me better.

Aside from improv, I just recently started to go to this thing called Spiritual Dance, which is essentially a group of 100 kids or so dancing as wildly and passionately as they can to music picked by the fantastic Jenny Finn.  I’m going to keep doing it at home – it’s the most refreshing exercise ever, and it really helps you get in tune with yourself and build a community.  People cry at every dance…super intense.

I’m also filming a bit called “Real World: Semester at Sea,” where I get to be the giant bitch in the cast.  This is an easy role to play for me (big surprise), and I was really honored to have been asked to participate.

This summer I’m hoping to move back to Chicago in June, get an internship with Second City and/or iO, and work a full time job until the fall.  I would like to pay off my SAS debts as quickly as possible, so I can start saving up for my graduation next spring.  Crazy life!  I’m also planning on taking advanced fiction writing, poetry writing, microeconomics (what’s up dad?!), contemporary critical theory, and aesthetics for my last two CORE classes.  I want to take an acting class, or Japanese, but I don’t think I’ll have time to do 18 credit hours – especially with all the writing I’ll be doing in my other courses.  Plus I promised my father I’d take some form of a business class – econ seems simple enough.

I miss my friends and family so much, but I’m so happy on this ship I can’t stand it.  Every time I get upset, I just look at the ocean.  There’s nothing more calming than that.