Jus checkin in! and feeling better : )

I thought I would connect with you all since this Morocco entry is taking much longer than it should. Thank you to all of you who emailed me giving me your strength and love. It means a lot to me! I have to say these past couple of days I have been doing much better. I have sort of let go of a lot of things and have really started to focus on what I want to get out of this trip. I feel a lot more like myself. Not 100% there but almost.

I guess I should tell you about Neptune day. Neptune day is a tradition here on the MV Explorer that happens the day (or in our case the day before) you cross the equator. I have to tell you, I was expecting a bit more than what the day ended up to be. We were woken up at around 7am by people running through the halls blowing whistles, banging on pots and pans, and screaming their heads off. At around 9, we were summoned by “the voice”(our announcer) telling all us “pollywogs”that we had to report to the top deck. On the top deck we found the captain and others dressed up in green face paint and silly bed sheets. The right of passage to be taken by all pollywogs was to have “fish guts”poured on you and then you had to kiss the rings of the kings and a dead fish. I did not partake in these festivities and my excuse was that I had already crossed the equator on a ship (which is true). Then those who chose to do so, shaved their heads, including my dear Sara Wineberg. For those of you who don’t know her, she has been planning this for quite some time now. She is a chameleon, always changing shapes. It began last spring when she cut her long hair short. Then at the beginning of the fall semester, she bleached her hair and then shortly after she died her hair bright purple. I can safely say that I have never seen a girl with a buzz cut that looks as good as hers. Not even Natalie Portman.

Anyways, the rest of the day was left to our leisure and it was absolutely wonderful. It has been warm and a bit humid but just right for sitting outside in the shade. We are definitely moving into summer here, which is nice! I am a bit nervous about Namibia being VERY warm, but I am also really excited to experience such a unique place.

I have also been keeping myself busy by planning some independent travel things. It’s actually a lot easier than I thought it would be! I am organizing a biking in the winelads tour and a township tour in South Africa all by myself! I’m finding that I am actually pretty good at it!

Also my roommate and I have been really getting along. I think we make a great pair. We are both equally goofy and silly and stupid and girly and just fun! Some nights we just hang out in the room together and watch sex and the city. Outside of the room we don’t really hang out so it makes it even more fun when we report our days to each other before we go to sleep every night.

Speaking of sleep I have been having incredibly vivid, strange dreams lately! Like ones where I think I’m awake or where I think I’m hearing things going on outside of our room. Last night I had a strangely real Disney dream in which most of the characters looked like real people. It’s probably from always eating pasta and veggies…or something.

Another interesting thing is going on. I learned yesterday that we are taking a route that ships don’t normally take. In order to take readings of water temp and current, we’ve been dropping 100 pound buoys of the side of the ship! Cool huh?

Well anyways tonight is our preport for Namibia and I can’t wait to step off onto African soil again!