After leaving Japan, we had a long trip ahead of us. We first sailed for 9 days to Honolulu, Hawaii, where we stopped for the day only. Before and after Hawaii classes picked up since we had more uninterrupted time on the ship than nearly any other point on the journey (Cape Town to Chennai was 13 days straight). Along our way to Honolulu we passed over the International Date Line and gained 24 hours, repeating a full day. We didn't have any classes, although it hardly made up for the 24 times that we lost an hour of sleep during our trip (as we changed time zones).
Hawaii was a relief to be sure, although a short one. We were grateful to get off the ship after sailing for 9 days and knowing that 9 more awaited us before we would reach land again. It was also nice to be back in the US, although an odd feeling considering our trip was not yet over. Like many others, I had never been to Hawaii, so our stopover was another new port to explore. It happened to be Thanksgiving on the day we arrived, and we decided it would be fitting to celebrate – although not exactly like we were used to back home. A large group of us went to a grocery store and loaded up with beer and a cooler. Next it was off to Waikiki Beach to enjoy the sun and strangely enough, the ocean (even though that is all we had seen for over a week).
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| Waikiki Beach, Honolulu |
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| the Aloha Tower at Honolulu Harbor |
One of the student’s parents owned a condo on the island, and she invited us to have a Thanksgiving dinner with her family. It was great to have a real Thanksgiving meal, both because of the holiday and because we had been eating the same ship food since we left Japan. After thanking her parents and saying goodbye, we reluctantly made it back to the ship and left Honolulu, preparing for 9 more days at sea.
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| Hawaii is pretty damn far from anything else! |
The time we had during our second leg across the Pacific was more eventful than one might have expected. We actually took our finals before docking in Costa Rica, so the work that I had put off earlier in the trip now had to be completed. The classes were not too intense – many of the professors were also on the voyage to have a good time and did not want to waste chances to see the sights in port in favor of grading papers. There was still work to be done, and unlike most of the kids who were getting pass/fail transfer credits, Ohio State gave graded credit for the classes. I spent a large chunk of my time those days at sea trying to finish assignments and study for finals. I got the work done and managed A’s and A-’s in my classes, even if it meant having to print off a final paper in the library as the period started and running to the classroom!
After we finished with schoolwork the only things left were three days in Costa Rica and then our trip through the Panama Canal and to Miami. It was strange to think it would be coming to an end so soon.
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