Stuff I did while crossing the Pacific Ocean (or half of it so far)

April 15th

        Greetings from the Pacific Ocean!  We have been at sea for 10 days now, which has gone by surprisingly fast.  I thought I would take some time to update you guys about the past week or so and all the exciting things (slightly sarcastic) that have been happening on the ship.  Living on a ship is obviously a lot different than living on land, and “living” on a ship is also a lot different than “cruising” on a ship.  Fortunately I’ve found some ways to keep myself occupied.  For example, I have read several books, something unlikely to occur back on land.  I also watched the complete first season of The Wire in about 3 days, while not doing much else, an impressive feat.  I’ve been playing a lot of ping-pong, card games, and jamming with some friends on the guitars.  A soccer tournament and late night basketball games have also kept me busy.  The other night we had the final ship wide talent show, which you actually had to try out for.  I thought it might be funny if I shared my enthusiasm for ribbon dancing (just like Will Ferrell in Old School) with the ship.  I tried out without practicing at all (I also didn’t have any ribbons, but I guess the panelists still thought I was funny) and the judges decided I should be the opening act.  I managed to make some ribbons with an old set of bed sheets my cabin steward gave me, practiced for about 45mins, and threw together a “gymnast” outfit consisting of sweatpants and a blue lacrosse jersey.  The actual performance went pretty well I guess.  I think since it was all a joke (but my face was dead serious the whole time) it really didn’t matter how graceful of agile I was, in fact being bad at ribbon dancing probably made it even more funny.  I got a lot of compliments about it and everyone seemed to be laughing when I ended so I suppose I did a good enough job.
        Classes officially ended yesterday and now all I have are three final exams and one final paper, but I don’t expect any of them to be too much work.  All of my professors have been pretty fair and reasonable (and really easy) so I don’t think I’m gonna worry about taking naps outside on the decks instead of studying during our last week.  We had our last fellowship at sea service a few days back, which was pretty well attended and really encouraging to me.  I have noticed a lot of spiritual growth in myself as well as many other students who have been attending our meetings, which has been an absolute blessing.  My religion professor asked me to share a little about my faith in class, which was cool and another student wrote a poem that essentially explained the Gospel, which she shared in front of everyone at the talent show.  A voyage like SAS really challenges and brings to light everyone’s beliefs and faiths, religious or not, which makes an atmosphere with a lot of opportunity for dialogue and mutual sharing.  It’s around 80 degrees and sunny outside right now, so I think there is a lounge chair calling my name somewhere up on the 7th deck.  It’s a tough life, but it’s not like I’m going to be in Hawaii in a couple days to chill at the beach (actually I am going to be in Hawaii in a few days to chill at the beach). 

You’re my boy Blue.

-Ben