two important things i forgot to mention in my blog....

 

Stargazing!

Last night they ship turned off the lights on the top deck so we could look at the stars.  A lot of us lied down on the deck staring up at the sky while Dr. Riedinger, a physicist professor on the ship (and also my on ship mother), talked about the constellations and planets with her super powerful (and illegal in the US) laser pointer.  The stars looked so big and bright and the sky went on forever and ever.  Mars looked especially red and bright, and I saw Orion’s Belt just like you asked mother.   But soon we will not be able to see these constellations as we sail into the southern hemisphere.  I love looking at stars, just as much as I love sunsets.

 

“Toothbrush Friend”

            Yesterday in our global studies class after the people gave their stories about the people who have impacted their life’s, our teacher passed around a blank piece of paper for all of us to write about someone who has impacted our life in one of the places we’ve visited.  It was nice because that assignment counted as a “pop quiz”. Easiest pop quiz ever.  So we wrote a letter about this special person and how we met them.  Then we folded the paper up and wrote our addressed on the outside and turned them in to our teacher.  He is going to read them and then in a year mail all of them back to us.  Dr. Gogniat considers these people as our “toothbrush friends” because every time we brush our teach we are supposed to remember them.  I have had a lot of people who have influenced my life in the past 2 months, yet I chose Thyonne, the generous lady who I got a ride from and hung out with her and her pets for a few hours the first day in Hilo.  She had such a kind spirit that I’ll never forget.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to receive this letter a year from now.  It will come at the perfect time during the stress and chaos of finishing the last few weeks of my college career for me to stop and reflect on my beautiful life.