The last two days everything has gotten into a good rhythm.  I’ve been meeting more and more people and going to class.  I met two guys that have their pilots license and fly all over.  They explained a lot of how it works and it was pretty cool hearing them.  I also met two of the most California surfer kids you can imagine.  One of them was named Cade, and the other Van.  They showed me all the coolest surfing pictures and videos they had, and were  really nice guys.  Another girl I met is fluent in six languages and is working on a seventh, polish.  Its hard to keep track of everyone but I am slowly getting better with names.  We are getting closer and closer to Honolulu, so the weather is getting warm.  I’m very excited to get there and spend some time on the beach.

Today I woke up to the sounds of the ocean, and the sunrise peaking through my port hole.  The closest solid earth is 11,000 thousand feet below me, which is fun to think about.  It was the first day of classes, and I really like both my teachers.  The work doesn’t seem to bad, and I have now met a lot of the folks who will be my classmates for the voyage.   Its awesome how diverse and different everyone is.  All of my classes are today, so tomorrow I have the whole day, which will be nice.  Meeting and talking to new people is how I spent most of today.  I think I have adapted pretty well to the lack of internet, and am instead focusing on the current moment.  It is still hard to believe that I’m on the ocean, almost as far away from land as possible, but the gentle rocking of the boat is a reassuring reminder of how crazy of an experience this is.

Today was also crazy.  It started with a lot of orientation stuff.  I got to know my roommate, Will, a lot better.  He’s a film major and has done semester at sea before, so he knows a lot of stuff and has been a ton of help.  At dinner, we decided to try and meet some new people so we asked to sit at a random table.  It turns out that everyone we sat with was latino, and they were all fluent in Spanish and English.  Each of them was from a different country and it was crazy hearing them switch back in forth between accents and languages.  I counted it up and I met people from twelve different countries today, ranging from Ecuador to the Philippines.  Everyone is pretty excited about going to Japan and Honolulu, and everyone is interested in meeting everyone and making plans.  I decided to try and join the astronomy club at the club fair, because its awesome sitting up on the top deck and looking at the stars with almost no light pollution.   Seasickness is a real issue that is really messing with the other kids, but I am having no problems.  From my room, I can look out and see the ocean at all times, and it puts me right to sleep.