E-mail Kathryn sent Sunday, September 9, 2001, from S.S. Universe Explorer

Hey Guys!!

The weirdest thing just happened, I went to sleep on Friday and woke up on Sunday!!!!!!! You may be sitting there thinking, GOSH, that Kat is quite a sleeper, but oh nono, we just passed the International Date Line, so we lost a whole twenty four hours! September 8th never happened for me!!!! The other strange thing is having school on a Sunday! Isn't Sunday God's day?? Well, the Semester at Sea executives don't seem to mind! We have class every day while we're at sea. I'm in my 4th rotation of block days. We have A days and B days here on the boat. Every day we have a Core class in the morning, which is a class designed to prepare us all for the countries we are heading to. Japan sort of gets an unfair advantage to all the other countries, cause it gets almost 2 weeks of preparation on our part before we get there. It's great though to be able to know the history, cultural traditions, economic problems and a tid bit of the language before I get to a country, so I'm not a COMPLETELY pig headed American!

On A class days I only have one other class in the Afternoon. It is called Comparative Witch Hunts! NO, it's not Wicca for beginners, like some have thought, it's a study of comparing the Witch Hunts of the 16th century, American McCarthyism and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I like it a lot! The professor is a little unanimated, which is definitely a rarity on this boat. But, the subject matter is very interesting. Right now we are concentrating on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. We just watched a movie called TO LIVE! It was EXCELLENT, but I challenge you all to go rent it, and then watch it in a little boat on a lake or pond somewhere close by and have the waves moving directly behind the television as you try to pay attention to the subtitles so you understand what's going on!!!! The classroom we're in has a huge full wall window, which makes us feel like we are having class in a little raft on the Pacific! IT'S WILD!!!! I think Prin should try becoming a floating campus! The Mississippi may be a little murky, but we could work out a little re-creation of the feeling I'm having on the S.S. Universe Explorer! (that's the name of my ship!) My other two classes on B day are Myth and Folktale, which is an incredible class that studies the Myths and stories behind so many of the countries we are visiting. And the other class is Poetry Writing! Where better to write poetry than when you are traveling around the world? So, classes are going quite well!

In case any of you are a bit confused that I haven't written at all about Japan yet, it's because I haven't gotten there yet! I'm somewhere Southwest of the Aleutian Islands. We have Internet on the boat, but it's 50 cents a minute, so I have waited till now to write. Luckily I can type this on my computer and then just cut and paste it real quick into hotmail!

2 days ago we were within eyesight of the Aleutian Islands, I was SO excited!! I've now seen Alaska! It's been nice and chilly the past week! Since we've been up so far North, we've all been bundled in our fleeces and sleeping bags! The greatest thing is to be able to sit out on the deck, watch the ocean and huddle in my sleeping bag on a lawn chair.

The first day after we had left Vancouver, we woke up to the Pacific Calm. Now, I don't know who thought up that name, but the Pacific was DEFINETLY NOT CALM! We were going up and down all day! It wasn't the best conditions for all of us to gain our sea legs gradually, so there was a little more than a touch of seasick kids around the boat. My medicine was just doing my sleeping bag gig on the deck with some friends, and I just parked myself out there all day with fresh air and I was good to go!

OH! Before I go any further! I need to say CONGRATULATIONS to Katrina!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking about you ALL day on the 2nd! I can't believe I have a childhood friend MARRIED! I don't think you're allowed to do that! But, despite my growing up jitters, I'm so happy for you, so ALL THE BEST!!!

We didn't have a clear night at sea until the 4th night out, but once we could see the stars and the moon, it was AMAZING, there is absolutely nothing in sight to obstruct the view, so there are just stars for miles and miles. I hardly noticed that it was 40 degrees outside and I was in flip flops! I need to teleport each of you out here so that I can show you what I am talking about, it is absolutely indescribable!

We've had to take a slight detour in our route, we started heading a little more south because of 2 colliding storms which could have put us right in the middle of a typhoon, which, my friend Leah and I thought would have been TONS of fun, but Captain Ryan didn't seem to share our view. So, it's gotten warmer in the last day and a half, which I guess isn't THAT terrible, and we have been able to lounge on the deck and do all our homework while keeping an eye out for WHALES! ALL I want to see while at sea is a whale, but we're pretty much out of the whale watching area. Someday I'll see one! Some kids did get the chance to see them spouting water off the side of the boat, but for some reason I had those strange class things that I was in while they were there!

BUT, we did see a ship yesterday. Now, I don't know how well you can all imagine the size of the Pacific, but we are not exactly in reach of ANYTHING for days and days in our position. So, we've gone an entire week of seeing nothing but waves and seaweed, (and somehow I haven't gotten the least bit stir crazy!) And then, yesterday, we saw a BARGE go by! I mean, I thought that we should at least sidle up to each other and have a quick cup of tea or something, maybe chat about the weather, but no, we just silently slipped by each other while I watched them slip back on the other end of the horizon! Sea faring ships should really start a new level of Pacific Etiquette that includes proper greeting procedures while at sea! Anywho, it was fun to see another boat!

Don't worry, I'm almost done, I just have to mention one more thing! There are 227 schools represented on this boat, and there are somewhere around 650 students on board, but the majority presence by far is from CU Boulder!! And, I don't have Bart's email address, but if anyone is talking to him, you'll have to let him know that, to a selection of those Boulder kids, there's a clan of them from Evergreen, and I was known for a few days as łThe Girl Who knows Bart!˛ A lot of them are now some of my best friends on the boat, but it was so strange figuring out that we knew someone similar, and then having that spread to the point that I had people meeting me and saying OH, You're the Kat that knows BART! So, Sam and Russ, if you guys know anybody that went on this trip, chances are I know them. I definitely don't know everyone yet, but trust me, I'm working on it! I'm sorry this was so lengthy and completely disorganized, but I just had to get off a quick email to let you all know where I was and how the first days went! I also REALLY wanted to send an email from the middle of the Ocean! I get to Japan on Thursday morning, which is Wednesday for you guys! BUT, I'll be thinking of you guys all the time! Lots of love, and to those of you that are about to start back up at Prin, have an amazing time and tell everyone I say Hi!!!!!!!!