Views of the World

I can’t believe that it’s been so long since I’ve written! I got really caught up in exams, essays and presentations after Australia, and was pretty much a hermit while I finished. It seemed that everything came due and once, and assignments and due dates kept changing last minutes, which wasn’t making it easy to pace myself.

I absolutely loved Australia! - or at least Sydney! Which is such a relief. I was very worried that I would hate the country and then have to live there for half a year. Macquarie is very nice as well, not as pretty as Western though. All of the buildings look like Social Sci. But the professors that I met seemed competent and friendly, so I think that my term there will be good.

I didn’t do much in Australia. Stayed in Sydney and mostly wandered around the city and went shopping. Really, I just wanted to be outside the ship for awhile and wasn’t worried about doing the tourist thing since I’ll be living there in February.

Quite a bit went on this crossing. Twelve days from Australia to China, and everyone was stressed out with work, so there had to be some fun events! My favourite was the Masquerade. That was fantastic! Almost everyone participated, which is more than I can say for any other event on the ship. We had a formal sit-down dinner in the Coral Dining Room - I can’t say the food was fantastic, but it was definitely a step up from what we get every day! Everyone was all dressed up, with their masks, either bought or home-made. The committee that put the event together did a lot of work to decorate the Student Center, and it looked great - completely different from normal.

As far as schoolwork - which was my life for a solid four days at least - I got a lot accomplished. In those four days, I wrote over 12,000 words. Pretty impressive. One of my papers I presented at a mock academic conference that one of the professors put on for my Communication and Development class. My presentation wasn’t nearly as polished as it could have been, and the professor who acted as discussant was quite critical of everyone, but overall I think it went well. I know that my group presentation the following day for the same class went over well. The professor commented to me this morning that we seemed to be the only group to actually do the project the way it was supposed to be done. Not bad!

Anyway, now I’m exhausted after such a long couple of weeks, and we had to be awake quite early this morning to go through Chinese immigration. Shanghai is different than what I expected, I suppose, although I’m not sure how. I went with Moriah and Maria to the Yu Gardens this afternoon - where we got lost and couldn’t find our way out - and we had lunch - I actually ate successfully with chopsticks! - and walked around the nearby market. I bought a beautiful kimono that I just couldn’t resist. Mo, Maria and I will also be going to Beijing together tomorrow. I can’t wait for that! The three of us are very similar, and get along really well, especially as we all enjoy being away from the drama that tends to follow some students on the ship around!

I also organized a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland for our first day there, and will be taking nine other people. I love Disney! Should be a blast. By then, all classes and exams will be over, and we’ll be saying good-bye. I don’t know that leaving will be as sad as I expected when I first came on the ship. I’m ready to go home for Christmas - playing Christmas songs non-stop! - and I’ll be seeing most of my close friends next semester in Australia.

That’s it for now! Hopefully I’ll be able to write a few more updates before the end of my trip! Ciao.