Spring Break!

One day till Spring Break 2006!!!

Location Update as of 2/26/06 noon local time (9 hours ahead of EST):
Latitude: 23 degrees, 6.4 minutes D
Longitude: 52 degrees, 58.5 minutes E
Average Speed: 15.48 knots
Distance to Mauritius: 309 NM
Sea Depth: 4628 m, 15, 179.84 ft
Sea Temp: 27 C, 80.6 F
Air Temp: 28 C, 82.4 F
Easterly winds blowing at 15 knots. Partly Cloudy.
Moderate Seas, wave height: 1.5 m, 4-6 ft.

Well, here we are, one day away from Spring Break ’06. I wonder how many people spring break in Mauritius? I’m just kidding. We are only there for three short days, but it should be a good time. For such a tiny island (1/2 the size of Rhode Island!), it is packed with 1.2 million people! The Dutch first inhabited the island in the 1400s as a port stop in route to the East Indies. The Dutch gave it up and the French took it over for the same reason… about 100 years after that, the British took it over for yet again, the same reason. Mauritius came out of British rule in the early 20th century. The island is mostly made up of Indo-Mauritiuans because when the French and Brits inhabited it, slavery was on the decline, however, indentured servants (a paid laborer who signs a lengthy contract; has the option to resign once expired) from India were on the rise. At one point there were 220,000 indentured servants and only 60,000 official citizens. The island is filled with floral and fauna, but of course, there were several indigenous creatures that were destroyed when the island was colonized; most notably, the Dodo Bird. Rats, deer, pigs, and monkeys were brought onto the island and have to this day severely disrupted the delicate island ecosystem. Since the colonization, more than 70% of the island natural inhabitants (plants and animals) have gone extinct.

Enough with the depressing historical shit. On with the fun. I forgot to officially introduce you all to the Indian Ocean – I’d like to do so. Indian Ocean, please meet the blog readers…thank you. It is the smallest and warmest of all the oceans. It is also the most enclosed ocean with the most free flowing currents. Unlike the Atlantic and Pacific whose currents are regular and predictable, the India Ocean’s currents adjust with the Monsoon season. So, it all depends on the weather…and of course we know that is far from predictable. The color is also different. The Atlantic was a beautiful aquamarine blue, and when churned up it lightened to a brighter cobalt. As for the Indian, it is much greener. I had expected it to be clearer as well, but it is just as dark in the depths out here. What’s interesting is the definite color difference between the two abutting oceans. Even the smell of the air is slightly different.

Sunsets of course, are just as beautiful and the reflection is just as strong as the sun falls below the line of the sea. Last night at dinner the sunset was so beautiful, I gave it a standing ovation and asked it to come back for an encore…to my great disappointment, it didn’t. I got lots of nasty looks from people who were trying to serenely enjoy the setting of the sun. It’s not like we don’t have about 40 other days to do the same thing! However, I was sure glad to see it this morning as it warmed the humid air and brought blue into the gray morning sky. Anywho.

You know something, we’ve been at sea since the 21st when we left Cape Town, and it really doesn’t feel like we’ve been sailing that long at all! Time goes by without even realizing it on this ship. Of course since we are constantly losing hours and hours of our life because we are traveling east…perhaps that’s part of the reason the times goes so quickly.

Rehearsals for the show are in full swing. We are doing so each day and the show seems to be coming along. I have to be off-book by March 5th…so we’ll see how that goes. My Global Studies exam this morning was much better than expected. Everyone was thrilled when it was over this morning; the general mood amongst the students of the ship went from nervous, annoyed, and tired to jovial and carefree once we were all done.

We dock tomorrow morning at 0800ish…hopefully there is not a fog repeat of South Africa. As for plans on the pea of an island, I’m going scuba diving on the first day (hopefully. Dad, it’s supposed to be some of the best in the world because the entire island is surrounded by a massive coral reef!), beach, island exploration, beach, and an SAS trip called Volcanic Island (did I mention the beach?). It is a tour of the entire island and it goes through the national forest and really touches on a lot of stuff I wanted to do. Amazingly, Mauritius is made from a volcano and it has a neighboring island that is still erupting to this day. Don’t worry though; she is done erupting, so I’ll be fine. A lot of students rented huge villas and condos and ocean houses, I opted out of doing so because I wanted to be able to “house-hop!” I figure that’s much better than being tied down to one house for the three days.

Well, I’ve got a structured afternoon, I already did my sunning, classes were finished at 11, so I’ve got Yoga, reading, rehearsal, and a Logistical and Cultural Pre-Port. Till next time!