Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

To my longest running valentines- my parents, I love you very much.

And a happy valentines day to my other (equally important) valentines- Rannie and Ryan, (happy kinda anniversary) Mark (we’ll celebrate when I get home), Juli (sorry I’m missing anti-valentines day), Mumma (I hope you don’t mind sharing that baby) , Therasa (tell fred to take you somewhere nice for me), Kristofer (I have no idea who you are dating), and that little Keagan (you gotta share mumma, I knew her first) . I miss you all very much.

Today is Neptune day. What does that mean? (you might ask) Well, first off, everyone is happy because we don’t have class, but more importantly, we celebrate Feb 2^nd when we crossed the equator (I don’t know why we didn’t do it on Feb 2^nd) at 7:30 all the crew members dressed in these silly white outfits were banging pots and blowing whistles outside of our rooms *what an awesome way to wake up.* at about 8:30, they started the ceremony. At the pool on the top deck, there are 3 sections. The center one is about 6 feet deep, and the two sections on the outside are like baby pools that spill into the big one whenever the waves are rocking. Let me tell you, today is our rockiest day on the ship. The water has been so calm so no one is used to all the waves. Anyways, so you get in the first baby pool, and crew members pour this fishgutz liquid on you (it looks like blue kool-aid. Then, you jump in the deep pool. When you get out, you kiss a dead fish, then kneel and kiss Neptune’s (aka Dean Ken’s) ring. Only bad thing is its cold outside today. And very rockey. It was ridiculous, but we loved every second. Then on the other part of the deck, people sit in chairs and shave their heads. I don’t know where this ceremony came from. To be honest, I think SAS made it up so people looked like idiots walking around with their heads shaved. Two of my good friends shaved their heads. They’re both crazy. I think it takes too long to grow that shit back, but more power to them. (o:

A couple days ago we learned about AIDS in Africa. Like me, I’m sure most of you guys thought Africa has so many cases of AIDS because they are promiscuous. In fact it turns out that their life style is just different. In America, we get married, then divorced, then married, then divorced again. This can happen lots of times, or sometimes not as often. In Africa instead of getting married and divorced over and over, they have 2-3 partners for their whole lifetime. This becomes a concurrency web which freely passes AIDS to your 3 partners, who passes it to each of their 2 other partners, then you can imagine how it passes exponentially. We also learned that in the first couple months when you are infected, you are almost guaranteed to pass it to anyone you have relations with until your body’s antibodies start fighting back. After your immune system begins to fight AIDS, you are much less likely to spread the disease. People who have had AIDS for a couple months, or a years are not very likely to pass the disease. Only one in a hundred sexual acts will pass on the disease. That works in America’s favor because you would typically have the same partner for longer than a couple months or a year. By that time, we are likely to be tested and find out. In Africa, because of this concurrency lifestyle they have, they may have relations with all 3 partners within a month. I’m sure you all get it now. If one person in a web gets HIV, in 8 moths the disease has already spread exponentially before anyone even knows. It was a very sad lecture. He said the middle generation of people that are alive right now are basically wiped out. The grand parents and children are still in tact, but most people in my generation are infected. Very sad.

On a much happier note, since there have been so many problems with the internet, they gave everyone 100 free internet minutes. You should have heard everyone cheering in the student union. It was almost embarrassing, but I was just as happy as everyone else.

The moments leading up to my safari are quickly passing away. Before I know it, I’ll be watching a lion tribe catch some sort of buffalo only to have it almost stolen by some crocodiles. Immediately after, the pack of buffalo will fight the lion pride to get their buffalo back. If you don’t know what I’m talking about… go on youtube.com and search for battle at Kruger. You won’t even believe what you see.

I know this is sad because I am traveling around the world and I should have other things to concentrate on, but almost daily, I wonder who the steelers will draft this year. I guess some things just never change. Good news (eventho you all already know) we’re keeping our grass at Heinz Field!! I was super happy to hear about that. 2 people that I’ve met on this trip told me I should be a sports analyzer. I think it’s funny because when I watch shows on ESPN, I tear those people apart. (o: One of our deans on the boat, Ken, grew up around slippery rock. Needless to say, he is a Steelers fan. I had breakfast with our other dean is from Boston, but I can forgive him because he lived in Pittsburgh for 23 years and only moved because his grandchildren were born.

The pens played last night and tonight, I wonder how they look. Thanks mark for sending me updates. Sometimes I check my email specifically for them. I love it. Will you email me what day the draft is? I’m pretty sure it’s right before I come home. Probably sometime around Hawaii.

So on this boat, we have things called extended families and little sisters and brothers. Mike Schulz is my extended father. I probably have a sibling or two, but I dunno who it is yet. I hope it’s a brother, because I’ve never had a brother. I am also a big sister to a little blonde girl named Drue. She is 6 and she likes me because I ask her questions like ‘how many slices of orange are sitting there?” Her mom is super nice. Today, I came back from class, and there were candy hearts on my door from Drue. (o: I have also started tutoring another little boy on the boat. His name is Eric, he’s 9, and in 3^rd grade. I am teaching him about science for about an hour everyday.

I love you all very much and miss you equally. Its only day 23! But I’ll be home before you know it!

I am writing this as I’m posting… the waves today are CRAZY. You should see my room. All my stuff is all over the place. Its supposed to get a little worse tonight. We’ll see how that goes. Even our drawers are opening and slamming. On the 4^th deck, when the boat tips the water looks like it’s taller than the porthole.