At sea, and crossing the line

So long time no write on the blog- I've been busy, and sick. I got a really nasty cold our last day in Cambodia and ever since then have had a lovely hacking cough thanks to my reactive airway. It's been great- my bunk mates are all nurses and analyze every morning if I'm sounding more or less phlegmy. So in the time since we've left Singapore I've been doing a lot of napping and trying to get feeling better.

Last weekend was spent in Singapore which was a lot of fun (accept for the being sick part). It truly is an amazing city and really beautiful. Almost creepy how beautiful- no trash, no garbage, no homeless, perfectly manicured and you could eat off of the floor of the subway- but if you did you'd get fined because eating on the subway isn't allowed. Neither is chewing gum, spitting and more then a few other things. Adds up to a safe and clean city but feels a bit like a theme park after awhile. The food there was amazing as well- there are several different ethnic neighborhoods that all have authentic food and a "food court" with "fast food" is a whole different concept then what you see in North America. I have to say that I like Singapore's fresh made non-greasy version better.

This week has been spent at sea getting to Indonesia. We were in Jakarta for a couple of hours on Tuesday to pick up supplies and more personal and now we are back at sea. It's been weird to be at sea and sailing east- the sun is in the wrong spot every time I go outside. We've been headed west up until now and so to go outside and the sun be in the wrong place is a bit disorienting. I'm also excited to head out at night now that we're in the Southern Hemisphere and see the stars.

This is truly starting to feel like an international project, right now on board we have personnel from the Army, Navy, Air force, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and even Chili. In the past we also had Japanese on board. It's nice have other "non-Americans" to share the experience with.

Now on to crossing the line, I'm really not allowed to say too much about it but suffice to say this "Canuck Wog" has now become a shellback through a process involving lots of jello, sea water, crawling, calisthenics, and I may never think of "row, row, row your boat" the same way again. I'm off to steel beach 2.0 to celebrate and then back to bed. Ciao.

Amy J.