Gooooood Morning Vietnam!

Yes it is a cliche and overused phrase but I couldn't help it. I actually had Tom play it over the loudspeaker the day we arrived in Saigon. It's hot and sticky here which is great if your cooking cinammon buns but sucks a bit when your out walking around. I've never sweated so much. Things are pretty cheap here though. It's like the world largest dollar store. Oh and there are scooters everywhere and they ride you around for $1 but they drive insanely. It's actually crazier then india! The other night we were coming back from Apocolyse Now (a local bar) and we took scooters home. Each of us had our own scooter to ride on the back of and you have to hold on for dear life and pray you don't get killed. It's awesome.

Yesterday I went to the Chu Chi tunnels and saw how the Vietcong ambushed the GIs. It is amazing. They are totally dark and tight and I crawled down to the second level. It's so hard to imagine how 18 year old kids who didn't want to be here fought that war. The traps that they encountered were horrific. I'm trying to experience Vietnam and think of it as a country and not a war though. It has been very good so far and Thursday I have a service visit to a school for the deaf and an orphanage that should be interesting.
Okay that's all I have time to type now. There are lizards on the walls at this Internet cafe. Weird. Here is a blog I wrote the other night on the ship though. Enjoy peeps.

First let me say that our ship, and it is a ship not a boat, is incredible. The crew is even more amazing. From the waiter staff to the cabin stewards they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Most of the crew is either from the Philippines or the Caribbean islands. My cabin steward’s name is Joel and he is incredible. Every day Joel makes up my bed (two twins that he put together for me), vacuums and cleans my cabin. If it was up to me I would do it myself. Every few days I tell him to let my room go but I have to let him do it most of the time. If I don’t I guess he wouldn’t have a job. Really the crew takes care of us all so great that I’m sure some of us will come home a bit spoiled.
Anyway here are some random things about shipboard life that I decided to throw together in a blog:
The smoke deck:
Diane had told me that I was definitely going to start smoking again once I got on the ship and I didn’t believe her. Well she was so right and I was very wrong. Here is why it happened, in Puerto Rico I was out running on the first morning in port and I fell and hurt my foot. Basically it was a reinjury of a bone bruise on top of my foot from blocking a shot in hockey a year ago. Since I was unable to run I had a lot of free time and the smoking deck is a community in itself on the ship. Plus cigarettes are about two dollars a pack in most of these countries so why not? I’ll quit again when I get back. I’m glad I started again really because some of the best times on the ship come from hanging out with the smoking crew. One of the students, Wes, brought back playing the “circle” game. It’s a childish, grade school game where you make a circle with your thumb and index finger, put it below your waste and if you get someone to look at the circle you get to punch them in the arm. It’s stupid but fun.
Question the day:
Every day the Assistant Dean, Tom (also known as the Voice), does daily announcement at noon and 1700. Tom likes to make the announcements as entertaining as possible. One of the things he started a while back was doing the “Question of the day” which is just basically some dumb question that someone asked. Some of the better ones: When were in China and we want Chinese food do we just ask for food? When we are in Myanmar are we allowed to travel to Burma? So if we’re 12 hours ahead of home what time is it back home?
Unfortunately a simple slip of the tongue landed me the dubious honor of being a question of the day when I asked, “Is the rough seas we’re having because there’s a Cyclops heading for Mauritius?”
Television:
Each of our cabins has a small television inside that is hooked up to a close-circuit network. We get six channels consisting of one devoted to our coordinates, two for documentary, one for the dean’s memo, one that never has anything on it and one for random movies each day. The only problem with the random movies is that sometimes they are messed up and there is no sound. It’s a good thing I know all the words to Office Space or I wouldn’t have had a clue as to what was going on.
Staffulty Lounge;
Aboard the front of the ship on the seventh deck is a special little place called the faculty/staff lounge. It’s the only place on the ship where we can escape the students and even better is the fact that we can drink every night from 9-11. Occasionally we have a karaoke night or late night party with the fun staffers where we sample adult beverages from the different ports. It’s good fun.
Pub Nights:
Since the Sea Olympics are over the main responsibility I have, besides working my office hour and Student life meeting, is working at the student pub nights. Basically I just sit around and watch the students drink and make sure none of them take alcohol off the pool deck or fall into the pool. We limit each student to four drinks so they can’t exactly get blitzed. Some nights are easier than others, last night we had 13 people drinking and the four of is RDs on duty basically just sat around and chatted and then we spooned. Long story.
Sea Socials:
Each RD has a specific number of rooms which are designated as their sea. Mine is the Arabian and I have the most students, 105. One of big events of the voyage is that each sea gets one night where the students are allowed into the staffulty lounge to drink and socialize with the staff and faculty. I scheduled my social for this past Thursday, it was the last of the eight sea socials and I think the best. It was complete with cookies and cheese and crackers. I had to order cookies for my students because I had promised them cookies if they came to the Sea Olympics meeting and learned our chant. Many of them came to our meeting and ever since the Olympics (March 4th) I have been getting threatening messages on my message board outside my door demanding cookies. I was beginning to worry that if I didn’t get them cookies I may have had a mutiny on my sea.Okay that’s about all I have for now. Tonight we have our logistical pre-port for Vietnam and it is followed by our Gay and Straight Alliance’s Drag Ball. It should be a fun evening.

Sidenote: Yes I did dress up for the drag show and all my residents took pictures with me to show their parents who their RD is. Isn't that great. And yes I did look hot even with my hairy scared legs.