Muhalo

Yesterday morning we were up at 5 AM to watch the ship come into Honolulu. It was beautiful to watch the sun come up and see the city. Then the entire ship had to then go through immigration (about 800 people since some crew members were disembarking). The US immigration officials come on board and then people are called up in groups to show their passports. Unfortunately, many of the foreign students were delayed in immigration and nobody is allowed to exit the ship until the whole ship has been cleared. Luckily we disembarked only one hour later than we thought we would into the beautiful, warm Hawaii day. Many of us headed to Pearl Harbor to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was a really beautiful, powerful memorial. We watched a movie about WWII at the museum and then we took a boat to the actual memorial. Everyone was just really quiet and you could still see oil rising to the top of the water from the depths below. The memorial placards listed the names of Pearl Harbor’s dead as on “eternal watch.”

After we got back to the ship from the memorial, we headed to Waikiki Beach—so beautiful. The beach was so warm. Justin, Megan (a Resident Director), and I hit the water. I was chastised repeatedly for talking on the phone, but I was trying to get in touch with as many of you as I could. I was so grateful to talk with those of you I did reach and I am so sorry for the ones I missed or who were “busy checking their messages” (you know who you are)—unfortunately I hadn’t charged my phone so my phone died a tragic death not long into the phone calling process. As Derick Dean Diver once said, “Overuse will kill anything.”

Honolulu was only a brief port stop for us and we were scheduled to depart at 11 PM. Everyone always has to be back on the ship two hours before, which is tricky since you don’t want to have to come back very early, but you don’t want to risk getting caught in a long security line going back onto the ship. If you aren’t back onto the ship by the designated time you get “dock time” in your next port, meaning you have to stay on the ship while others leave. Last night the line was sooooo long because some many students were caught sneaking alcohol on the ship. The two students in front of me had a case of Perrier. Ship security opened the case only to find that the water been dumped from the individual bottles and replaced water with vodka. Other students put alcohol in their shampoo bottles, in Febreeze bottles, in laundry detergent bottles. Several students had taped alcohol to themselves. One student was ordered to remove the alcohol he had duct taped to his groin—how security spotted this, I’ll never know. Unfortunately, when he pulled the tape back he received an added bonus of a duct tape waxing treatment. Ewwww, grooosss—right, Sarah, Abby, and Jen?

We are at the beginning of the nine day leg of our trip to get to I gain another hour of sleep tonight (we had three days in a row last week where we gained one hour each night). It’s a great system. We should try this more often in Charlottesville.

Lots of love to all of you and thank you to Pauletta and Sarah Campbell—who sent mail. I was so grateful to come to my cabin today and see some special notes from you. You made my day (hint, hint; nudge, nudge). Special snaps to Ish and E Bass who ran your respective races this weekend with panache—way to go ladies. I miss you all. Thinking of you!