Entries this day: Breakfast Dream Dry Hello_from_Rio! Rei carl_and_chris

Breakfast

8:40am HAST Thursday 09 March 2006 (day 13133)

Sat down with Kellie who was working on her schedule (planning for hula lessons around our next surprise port) and then we were joined by CC Erika, and I chatted with her a bit, then noticed she'll be 9500 soon, and started to calculate her 10,000th day (but didn't tell her I was doing so, plus I don't think she was interested anyway, because she said something like, "I know..." that sounded like I'm not looking forward to it) and while I was doing that, she got up and joined Saki, who had just come in for her breakfast.

Saki smiled at me across the back deck, and I was too proud/silly/at-peace-with-myself that I didn't go over there and join them, though part of me really wanted to.

Felt the jealousy in my body; interesting stuff, that.

Dream

7:22am BRST Thursday 09 February 2006

At Emerson church, there was a big plaque put up by the 49th voyage, as part of some fundraising event. Something like

  In commemoration of the funds raised
   during the charity auction of the 
      49th Global Voyage for Peace
   which symbolizes the hard work of
  all the passengers and support team

blah blah blah and Matt seemed to be overlooking / downplaying its usefulness as an English teaching tool so I was like, "well, you can just learn what it means in Japanese and then look at it every day and slowly learn new vocabulary words.."

Dry

7:27am BRST Thursday 09 February 2006

My throat seems really dry and therefore a bit coughy today. I'm sure water will correct it quite easily.

Hello from Rio!

Hello from Rio!

Hello from Rio de Janiero!

Life is speeding by like bullets in the Matrix.  Hard to tell if it's fast or slow;
time gets so distorted here.  Only 8 days ago was Rei's 10500th day party in
Namibia, but it seems like a month has passed.

Most of my free time has been spent studying Japanese, and to some extent my
teaching has suffered as a result.  My Fantastic Rabbits class are super chatty and
creative and making their own schedules and plans and even made a game board and
played it.  Fighting Goats, however, have been far quieter, and I'm not really sure
how to help them speak up.  They seem able to talk individually, but not as a
group.

 peaking of people who wouldn't speak: my Intermediate and Advanced Open lesson was
a huge flop, although I thought I had a solid idea. Matt suggested that I needed to
give it some more context, and give more examples to the students.  My Super
Beginner and Beginner Opens have been great, with lots of audience participation
and fun.  Perhaps I can adapt those ideas to the higher level class.  The
Intermediate and Advanced lessons in general have not catered to those people who
came at first.  We started with about 100 students, and today had about 18.  The SB
and B classes have gone from 100 to about 70.

This voyage I have taken a lot more time to sleep and take care of myself.  In the
past few days I've been tired, but we're about to have several days off: a day in
Rio de Janeiro, then three holidays onboard, then two days in Buenos Aires.

We're going to be in Rio de Janeiro tomorrow and will see a band called AfroReggae.
Their story (in the movie Favela Rising) of drug-violence and warlords transforming
to music for positive growth is amazing.  I love the music, and found it beyond
amazing that they were playing all this amazing stuff on containers we would throw
away.  Metal cans for the ratatat and plastic bottles for the boom boom boom.

----------------

We are in Rio NOW, and I have just spent a super fun day with Kellie, taking a taxi
with Petra and Isabel up the hill to see the statue of Christ, and then to Ipanema
beach, where the waves were rather larger than any I've experienced as an adult.

The statue was smaller up close than it looks from a distance, or from promotional
photos, but still is pretty big.

I got thrashed around in the waves a couple of times, but was only afraid of
drowning one time.  A particularly big wave tossed me around and I lost my strength
and breath trying to fight it.  Don't fight water.  It will win.  Just go with the
flow.....

We're going to the concert soon, and I'm sure I won't have time to write after
that, so I'll send this now.

I hope everyone is well!

ps: no new pictures now; I can't actually get *my* computer online, but am using
the ones in this cafe.

   Love Love Love
    - Rob! 

Rei

10:57pm BRST Thursday 09 February 2006

Last night, in a state of super-tiredness, I recognized that I should not hang out with Rei because I would probably try to kiss her or something foolish like that. So I told her I should go to bed instead of hang out as we had planned.

We talked today after I wrote her an apology note last night (not for not hanging out, but for not leaving right after I recognized the need), and she was like no biggie. I had asked one question at the end of my note: basically if she wanted to know what craziness goes on inside my brain. She was like, "yeah," and that basically confirmed that I can be Just Friends with her.

I don't necessarily want to be Just Friends, but I think it's 100% better overall.

But, when I started to talk about my sex addiction recovery stuff, I realized oh my god how much I miss my I-group and that source of stability in my life.

carl and chris

11:03pm BRST Thursday 09 February 2006

My roommate Carl's brother, Chris, is onboard as a guest speaker for a few days. He knows a lot about USAID, especially as it relates to Iraq. Today is his first full day onboard, his first lecture, and his birthday (Dan and I shared his big piece of cake in Topaz Dining as he had to leave for the lecture). I fell asleep during the lecture, but people asked some good (but long) questions at the end.