I Still Can't Get Over This

I mean I wake up in the morning and look out the window and there is just endless blue sky and painted clouds and rolling waves. And then I have breakfast out on deck 6 in the salty sea air and watch as we pass other cruise liners in the distance. At lunch time we actually passed an island on our starboard side but sadly I have no idea which island it might have been. As I look out my window now, we are passing another island on our port side. It is very bizarre because it is covered in mountains, a landscape I am used to seeing on a daily basis, but the distance separating us is covered by an expanse of ocean. It's all so spectacular and unreal.

I go to bed at night with the constant rocking of the ship lulling me to sleep. It is incredibly peaceful. I have realized though that it is impossible to get any reading accomplished aboard this ship. The repetitive back and forth movement of your eyes across the page combined with the swaying of the boat makes it all too easy to just doze off.

Classes so far have actually been incredibly enriching. It is so cool to learn about Dominica (dome - in - ee - ka) in an academic setting before arriving there. I mean anyone can pick up a guide book and read up on what there is to do and where to stay; but we have been learning about the history, and government, and economy, and culture, and human rights, and ethnography of the native people, the Caribs, and it is all just fascinating!

Every class requires students to sign up for two FDPs over the course of the semester. These "Faculty Directed Practicum" are small day trips that are led by professors and pertain in some way to the course. I'm not really one for guided tourist trips and prefer to explore independently, so I figured I'd get them out of the way as soon as possible. That being said, for my Anthropology of Food class I am visiting an organic farm tomorrow afternoon. Not the first thing I'd choose to do in the tropics, but I guess that's the beauty of this semester, trying things I might never try otherwise and it might end up being the greatest part of my semester!