Day 69 – Logistical Pre-port

Nov 5th

After lunch, Molly and I headed back to my room to watch Obama’s acceptance speech, which was streamed via MSNBC online to the Union and our cabins. We were totally moved to chills and loved that he mentioned “puppies” at least once. Students on the ship had mixed reviews, but generally everyone was pretty enthusiastic about the “change” Obama was talking about.

Logistical Pre-Port
Bob “The Voice” played a video from 1965 about Semester at Sea. It was absolutely hilarious. Not too many things have changed, except that tuition was $200 back then. They explained the process of disembarkation (luckily customs would be pretty easy AND we would get our passports stamped) and re-boarding the ship whether in Hong Kong to sail to Shanghai OR to simply meet the ship in Shanghai and spend two extra days in China. About 600 of the 700 students decided to stay in the country obviously. The medical staff also shared some advice on what the most prevalent form of deaths are in Beijing: car accidents and drowning. We also should not touch puppies (bc of rabies) or dead birds (bc of bird flu). And, just to be sure, they warned us that it is a rumor that snake blood is an aphrodisiac.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was seeing interviews from the 1965 SAS voyage. My “low” was finding out we can’t pet dead birds.