Day 91 – Logistical Pre-port

Nov 26th

I woke up late and sprinted to global studies to hand in my final assignment or ‘Power Journal’ that I have been working on for the last few days. It is essentially a journal about the various types of “power” (military, resource, trade, financial, cultural, etc) we have seen in all the ports. Professor Schoppa must be really good at speed-reading because he collected a journal (min 8 pages) from all the 350 students in that class. Then I napped till gym time with Sara. Since most students were outside in the gorgeous sunshine, we had the gym to ourselves! After feeling like I successfully tighten my gluts into a nice ball of steel, we switched into bathing suits to sunbath by the pool. There we met up with Britney Brit to do some work outside in the wonderfully salty breeze. After that, I pretty much spent the rest of the day working, reading and writing postcards to (hopefully) be mailed in Hawaii tomorrow.

Logistical Pre-port
We had logistical pre-port to find out about getting off the ship tomorrow. Breakfast is earlier than usual, since we will be suffering through a MUCH longer immigration line than even Japan. (Yikes!) They decided to make on-ship time 9PM instead of the usual 6PM to give us some more time in Hawaii. Regardless, they are feeding us incentives to get back on the ship sooner to avoid long lines or consequently ‘dock time.’ We get an hour of FREE internet if we get back before 6PM! In addition, there is some sort of Hawaiian themed dinner with ice cream that they are serving onboard that night. (A Thanksgiving feast will be held the 29th instead.) The medical staff also reiterated that traffic will be on the right side of the road again and that we should get rest so we don’t look “ship faced” from the time changes and loss of sleep.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was being done with my Power Journal. My “low” was hearing them tell us to wash our shoes with old toothbrushes to make sure we weren’t carrying foreign pests into the United States.