Yesterday was a good day. My class was pretty nice and easy, mostly just listening to discussion. After class I had lunch and then my Nancy, my ship mom, let me go out and sit on her balcony to study. That was very nice and helpful since I have a whole load of reading to do for each of my classes, and it is very difficult to find someplace on the ship that has no distractions. It is so amazing how blue the water is! It is such a bold blue, I could probably go to my box of 64 crayons and pick out its exact color. It doesn’t look real….but I guess it is huh? Haha. 

But right now I am supposed to be focusing on classes….right. I am taking five classes. Global studies (all the students are required to take this class), Global Art and History, Global Music, Chorale Ensemble, and Globalization.

 Our global studies class is pretty interesting; it’s all about current issues in the world and focuses on each country or region that we are going to. Right now we are learning about prosperity in the world, so yesterday we heard a lot about the amount of poor people there are in the world. Did you know that half of the world (3.5 billion people) live on less than $2 a day. You would think that with multinational organizations becoming so big, and developing countries beginning to develop stable economic systems the wealth would be beginning to spread. In fact, between 1981 and 2004 the number of people living in poverty has risen.  Another fact I found shocking is that the combined income of 50 million of the richest people in the world is equivalent to the combined income of 2.7 BILLION poor people. OMGSH! We really need to do something about this. Some pretty cool websites that our professor introduced us to are : www.worldmapper.org and www.stwr.org. Today we talked about Spain and Morocco, just simple stuff like the capital, populations, and government. Our Dean of Students, kind of our vice principle, Dean David, has spent a lot of time in Spain so he was our guest speaker, he just gave us a brief history of the 20^th century politics, like the Franco Dictatorship and what happened after that. He also showed us a video clip (that he probably shouldn’t have recorded) of a lunch he was invited to in the royal palace with the King of Spain. That was pretty cool. I think that they Dean David was actually knighted by the kind of Spain. Seriously some of the people on this ship are like legends. I didn’t tell you before but we actually have an agent of the national secret services on the ship. She is helping out on the trip…..crazy….she even has this aura around her that is…..well….i dunno….but it’s different.  

Back to classes…..Global Art and History is pretty interesting too. In that class we are focusing on each country we are going to. Learning about the history of Spain is interesting. Its lots of layers, and layers of different ethnic groups, coming in a planting their cultural traditions within the rest. There is roman art, Visigoth art, Muslim art, neoclassical art, just a ton. Today we talked about the different places in Spain which we will most likely see, and some of the historical site we should check out.  

Global Music is awesome!!!!! Right now we are focusing on Spain and particularly Flamenco. When you normally think of flamenco you think of the dancers, with the red dress, big shoes, tight bun and the guitar right? Well actually Flamenco came from the Gypsys who travelled to spain, from the middle east and at first it was all sung. Eventually guitar and finally dance was added. We watched some videos yesterday of the singers, they are intense! The amount of passion they sing with is insane and I haven’t heard or seen anything like it ever! One of my trips in Spain is a flamenco experience. I am very excited to experience that. If I can find a link for a video I will try to get that to you guys. My teacher Professor Ferguson is really cool too….He looks like someone who played guitar is a rock band….he probably owns a leather jacket….he kinda reminds me of Bob Rupp…..yeah, but he is really nice and gets really excited about what he teaches.

The Choral Ensemble is….interesting. It will definitely be an easy class. A lot of the people have either had lots of experience or no experience with choral music. What is cool about it though is that we are singing the classics, we just finished working on a short JS Bach chorale and we are now starting on one of Vivaldi’s Gloria’s. I always value the opportunity to sing work from any of these greats, but I think it is really wonderful that people who have never sung before get the chance to sing them too.

Globalization…..one class that I tend to dread the night before but always find really interesting. It is a lot about politics and economy which I know pretty close to nothing about, so it’s a good learning experience for me, especially since I have personally witnessed what globalization does in place like the copper canyons with the Taraumara people and in Cusmapa. This class is mostly a read a discuss type of deal. The professor gives us article and books to read out of and then in class he asks a question about them and leaves it open for discussion. I don’t participate other than active listening since I usually have a hard enough time trying to understand what everyone is talking about.

One thing that makes me a little different from everyone else on the ship is my major. I have yet to meet another Education major, mostly it’s polysci, international communications, and some other government/social justice type of majors with a few English majors mixed in. I get a lot of surprised looks when I say I am an education major.

One of the highlights of yesterday was the time I spent with Rhydder. Rhydder is 4 years old and his mom asked me to watch him for an hour every other day. He really is a lot like Isaac. He is very smart and likes to try and boss people around, but mostly he just likes having fun. When I met him it didn’t take him long at all to start talking to me and asking me to play. We went up to the snack bar by the pool and got some popcorn, and then went back to his room (which by the way is bigger than mine and he gets it all to himself) and listened to a book on his ipod. While we were at the bar he got a hold of a straw and started blowing on it. He would blow it at me and I would act like he was blowing me away, he thought that was the funniest thing ever. I think he liked me because when his mom came to get him for dinner he was hoping I would join them. I had to decline because they had a very special dinner to go to with Father Tutu, or the Arch like he calls him, and I didn’t want to intrude uninvited.

That is something I haven’t told you guys very much about yet. While on the ship I have seen Archbishop Desmund Tutu only three times. Our first day on the ship, while we were exploring, a girl that was with us said that she had  found Tutu’s cabin, we all wanted to see so we went up and I took picture of it…haha. Then as we were walking away from his room back towards the steps I heard a voice, one with a very distinct African accent, and  I thought maybe…..As we walked down the stairs and cute little old man climbed up and walked passed us. As he passed he said “Hello lovely ladies” in a very sweet voice. All five of us stopped and looked, mouths open, as Desmond Tutu walked away from us. Then we turned from each other and in disbelief asked if we had just seen who we thought we had just seen. On the second day Father Tutu surprised us all and gave a small speech. He talked about how people asked him why he had decided to come on the trip since he is about to retire from public life. He said he came because “you the young people give me a high” he smiled a giant smile and pointed to all of us.

 He continued talking about how extraordinary it is that we decided to come on this trip. He hoped that we would ignore the older people who are skeptical about the world and the possibilities it has, and to just believe in ourselves, that we can change the world, that world peace is possible and WE are the instruments that will make it happen.

WOW. I still can’t help but tear up when I remember him saying this. I was one of the first standing as he entered and as he left, but the whole room was just in awe of him.

The third time I saw him was a little funny. The poor man, with his wife Leah, were passing the library on their way to dinner and this other old lady was practically in his face trying to ask him a question. It was quite a sight. I have heard rumors of kids that have gotten to sit and have dinner with him. I haven’t had a chance yet but I still have another 3 months to get my chance. Also I think Rhydder is a good open window since he is good friends with the Arch, actually yesterday his mom had suggested that we go visit Father Tutu, but we didn’t get around to it.

Well I think that it is all for now and I might not get a chance to write again until I am in Spain (which is the day after tomorrow!!!! YAY!!!) but hopefully I can post some videos and links to the flamenco stuff. Now I have to get ready for the last class of the day and then confirm my plans for Spain. Hopefully everything will work out ok.

Also I did watch the sunset yesterday and it was beautiful!!!

Jya ne!