rolling

We are at sea again, and, given how windy and rainy it was during the end of our time in Yokohama, the rough seas are no surprise.  It seems to me that most of us have long anticipated this next stretch as the most challenging part of the voyage—simply because we will now have so much scarcely-interrupted time at sea.  But not many of us (the exceptions being the few folks who have previous experience with this kind of SAS itinerary) could have imagined the particular challenges of facing this long stretch after a series of successive intense times in a sequence of Asian ports.  Since we reached Singapore, on March 22, which now seems years and years ago, our time on land has been scarcely interrupted, by brief (two- or three-day) periods at sea.  It’s not just that we’ve gotten used to having lots of mostly free time in the ports; it’s that we have, most of us, rather exhausted ourselves in the ports.  Last night, as we left, it was evident that a lot of folks are weary.  I’m told that lots of folks have colds.

 

Still, everyone I saw or spoke to yesterday seemed to be in very good spirits.  I think the fact that we arrived in Japan at the height of the cherry blossoms made especially vivid to everyone our astonishing good fortune at being able to do all this, and the fact that people dispersed so much in these last few ports means that there is a lot to share and celebrate now that we’re all back together.  It’s rather easy, even automatic, to contextualize whatever challenges we’ll now confront—we’ve to conclude our semester between here in Hawaii, with each class meeting four times between now and April 23 (though that schedule’s made a bit merciful by some days when we won’t have regular classes scheduled: today’s “reflection day,” which will have no classes until our final meeting of the Global Studies discussion sections at 3 PM; then a “reading day” next Saturday so that students can get caught up in anticipation of the final class sessions on April 22 and 23; and finally a “study day” on April 24, so that everyone can be ready for final exams, which begin, with the Global Studies exam, on the day after we leave Hawaii, April 26) and final papers to write, exams to get ready for, etc.   This part of the voyage will be further elongated by a sequence of time changes that will each cost us an hour (of sleep, usually), and by our crossing of the International Date Line, which will mean we’ll have April 20 twice.  Still, the sea’s vastness—we’ve a light blue sky today and whispy white clouds above the big “wine-dark” waves—means we can’t help but be aware of a bigger picture, in relation to which what we’ll be doing for most of the remainder of the voyage seems both urgent and small.