Day 108 – Packing

Dec 13th

Morning
I woke up at 5Am to check for the sunrise before falling asleep till 6AM for breakfasts Christina, Tierney and I had our very last breakfast on the ship while watching the sunrise come over the sea. I hung out with Spencer, Dan and Brian while the sun was coming up and chatted about going home! We swapped some pictures and videos from the trip. In the afternoon I finally decided to start packing my clothes, which ended up taking up a whole another duffel. After they called our sea, we ragged our stuff down to the bottom floor for the crew to collect. Julie and I wrote on the back of our picture to give helpful hints on what the next 4115 students should and should not do. I also taped my converter to the bottom to the desk as a welcome gift so they wouldn’t have to worry about their laptops running out of batteries around the ship.

Convocation Union
We gathered in the Union for graduation. A good deal of students were recognized for completing college upon the end of this semester, including Becca Valencia, Danny and Tori. Schoppa got up and read a speech about change: yourself, the economy and the world. He said, that “if you can deal with the auto rickshaws of Chennai, than you can handle the diminishing economy at home.” Essentially, he challenged students to integrate the new experiences they have had with home life. He reminded us that North Dakota is the only state not suffering from the economic collapse, so perhaps many of us would like to move up there to find a job. Then Tien sang “My Companion,” which he wrote on the trip about friendship and traveling. Schoppa called each graduation seniors name and they stood to take a bow, scream in enthusiasm or jump around. When they called one kid’s name, a bunch of friends threw condom balloons into the air in celebration. This kinda threw Schoppa off a little. Jack Van der Water got up to congradulate us on a great voyage. He started with “I’m proud of most of you” and then encouraged us to “think globally, act locally.” His final words were his slogan: Be safe, be smart and have fun. Professor Laxmi got up to sing a traditional Indian song dedicated to everyone on the voyage. Then we heard speeches from a student representative, a faculty representative and a staff representative about what a changing and moving experience it has been with everyone on the trip. Finally, Michelle sang a beautiful jazzy song before Schoppa announced the students with 4.0s who could get off the ship with Faculty in the second group and the awards from the World Food Summit.

USA Pre-port
Following Convocation, we stayed for US pre-port, which is essentially a big joke about the US and what we have to expect from American culture. Accordingly, the cultural norms include no public urination, no public nudity, stand at arms length form people and driving laws are not suggestions. Street lines and signs actually do mean something here. They encouraged us to remember that 100mph is not the same as 100kmph, even if it could be just as fun. Most Americans are only fluent in English, but some words to help you out include “please,” “goodbye,” and “Facebook.” Foreign currencies are not accepted. Americans use the dollar, which is pegged to the dollar at a rate of 1-1. Then they presented us with the 10 ten music hits at the moment and the top 10 movies out in theatres. We didn’t recognize any of them. More updates, included Bragalina not adopting another child, Tara Reed went to rehab, Huge Jackson was named sexiest man alive and Miley Cyrus got a hand me down porche to show she is not spoiled. Afterward, the LLC’s showed a video titled “A Day in the Life of Your LLC,” which included showing them sleeping till the afternoon and in training sessions. Their sessions included a naughty and nice list, alcohol distribution after confiscation, a student hook up chart and staff development otherwise known as creeping tactics. It was thoroughly amusing. Then Brad and Brian got up to re-enact Bob “The Voice” and Jack’s conversations in front of the students during pre-ports. Brad did the most amazing impression of Jack’s voice that it was almost creepy. Then Brian got up to run through the process of disembarkment when we arrive in Miami.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was staying up most of the night watching Weeds and hanging out with friends. My “low” was realizing it was the very last night we would all be together on the boat.