3 more days until Brazil

I know I don’t have the right to complain about anything, but I have to write a blog about this: the Add/Drop system on Semester at Sea is ridiculously disorganized.
The Registrar, a 28 year-old SAS alumna named Laura, made an announcement on the first day of classes that students typically camped out in front of her office the night before Add/Drop, which opens at 7 a.m. because it’s first-come-first-serve.
I showed up at 10:30 p.m. the night before with a pillow and blanket and there were already three students in front of me who had been there since 9:30. Within the hour, the line of students was into the hall and down the stairs. We sat around, dozing or playing cards, until about 2 a.m., at which time security came and tried to kick us out because we were a fire hazard, or something.

We protested, knowing that if we were to leave we’d lose our spots, and most of us had been waiting for hours. We made an official list and the dean actually woke up and signed off on it. We went back to our cabins. The next morning, I showed up at 6:30 a.m. and there was already a flood of students outside the Registrar’s office. Fortunately, the list held and I retained my spot in line, but 100 other students who had been outside the door since 4 a.m. were not too happy that they had missed out on the list and were now at the end of the line.

Fortunately, I got the classes I wanted – Fiction Writing and Sociology of Religion. By 9 p.m. that night the Registrar had only served 75 students, with over 200 students waiting to add or drop a class.
Most of the students who were #20 or beyond didn’t get the classes they wanted, and weren’t able to add a fifth class. A few students will have to graduate late because they weren’t able to get the classes they wanted on board.
It was messy.

Anyway, I really like my new classes, especially Sociology of Religion. Today we talked about the origins of shamanism, what healing rituals consist of, and different individuals’ propensity toward hypnotism. At the end of class, the professor hypnotized two students and asked them to go to heaven while they were in their trance. When they woke up, they each described different visions of heaven. One student said heaven was a cosmic island surrounded by stars, and the other said he had been at the gates but was not permitted to enter them. It was kind of unnerving, but very interesting. I don’t think I’m very susceptible to hypnotism because I tend to overanalyze everything, but I kind of wish I were, just to see what it’s like.
I like my Hinduism class a lot too. We’re learning about different gods and legends, and how images and symbolism are very important parts of the religion. We read an abbreviated version of “Ramayana,” which is a story about a demon who tries to overpower the world.
I had my first Fiction Writing class yesterday, and our assignment was to make a list of words or phrases that describe a place we’ve seen so far on the trip. I wrote about an alley in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, using phrases like “broken pavement,” “glowing beer signs,” and “stumbling locals.”

Tomorrow is Neptune Day – meaning we cross the equator! We actually cross the equator four times throughout the course of the trip, but this is the first time, so I guess it is the most relevant. Traditionally, everyone gets “baptized” with “fish guts” (I’ve heard it’s just jello) and women are supposed to shave their heads. I know a few girls who are really thinking about shaving their heads, and kudos to them, but there is absolutely no way I’m participating!

The water was really bumpy yesterday and a lot of people were getting thrown around as they walked through the hallways. Today it seems to be a little calmer, but it looks like it is going to storm tonight, so I have a feeling the calm won’t last. Scopolamine has been making me really drowsy – I slept all afternoon yesterday – so I decided to rough it without the patches. We’ll see how long I last.

I signed up for a few small trips for our next ports. Most excitingly, I’m going to a Capoeria school in Brazil. The students will put on a short presentation for us and maybe even teach us some moves. If you don’t know what Capoeria is, you should look it up on YouTube and find some examples. It’s a really amazing martial art form from which breakdancing was derived.
I also got a trip to Beijing, and I plan to go to the Great Wall. I know a group of students is planning to sleep on the Great Wall one night, and I’d really like to do that. How many opportunities will I have in my life to say that I slept on an ancient national landmark?
I also signed up for a trip called “Managing Schizophrenia” in India. I’m not sure what it entails but I have a feeling it’s going to be very sad. Part of me is nervous about being exposed to the horrors of extreme poverty in India, but I feel like I need to gain that exposure and gain some understanding of what life is like outside of the safety blanket that is the United States.

This has ended up being a pretty long entry. I’ll update more when I have time.
-E