A2 The Storm 08/28/12

Hello all--sorry I have not posted as much in the past few days, things
have been busy here in the MV Explorer. All of my classes are going
well so far---Astronomy and Music Cultures are my favorites. I am
excited for when we get to the southern hemisphere because we may be
able to see the southern lights (which I honestly didn't even know
existed) and there are three or four meteor showers we should be able to
see. The most magnificent of which will occur just before we enter the
Amazon River and if the skies are clear we are "in for quite a treat!"
as my professor would say in his Scottish accent that I love listening
to. Music Cultures was great yesterday--we spent the entire period
classifying and playing percussion instruments much to my delight :)
Global has been good, no more Chinese men with bats though. We are
talking about this huge Grant Project that we will be completing during
the course of this semester.

Outside of class I am very excited because we get to watch Hunger Games
in the Union tonight!!! (for those who have been on a cruise ship
before--or have looked at the map online--the union is a large room with
a small stage in the middle and is a bit like going to a theater)
Yesterday, and most nights, we had game night in the Garden Lounge
during snack and played phase 10 while munching on various desserts
and some peanut butter toast--yum! Tomorrow night is special because we
have a guest on the ship who is an astronaut, and was a friend of Niel
Armstrong. We just found out about his death the other day and she said
a bit about him and read us a statement from his family that she thought
pertained to what we are doing this semester. He will be missed and we
are all going up to the observation deck in a salute to him and his
mission to the moon tomorrow. In addition, the astronaut on board will
talk about her four different ventures into space and what it was like
to work there.

Yesterday, as we started to cross the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the bridge
started to detect two storm systems forming ahead. They continued to
grow, as did the waves, and at 1700 the storms merged right around our
position. As a result we have had up to 17 foot waves and the ship has
been rocking like crazy. The wind speed also picked up and many of us
students were out on the back deck yesterday videoing the white caps
that were getting stirred up and documenting the tilting of the ship.
Walking around yesterday and early today was interesting as well and a
few people almost fell over we tipped so much! No worries though,
nothing major is going to occur and by the end of today the storm should
be past us and we will continue our voyage to Galway peacefully.

Well, I am headed off to dinner soon so I will let you go for
now--promise I will send more later :)
~Colleen
P.S. Thanks to all who have sent me an e-mail!