Where did the time go?

With the voyage coming to an end, I thought it prudent for one last blog. I don’t have aspirations of regaling you with some “the wonders of the things I’ve seen” blog. Frankly I don’t think everything has fully set in and it is going to take some decompression time to really encompass all that this trip has influenced and taught me.
I realize I never really even wrote anything about Japan and China but I am just worn out right now. We arrive in San Diego on Friday and I’m a little stressed about the fact that I’m still not sure where I am staying. I really wish they would just let me stay on the ship and sail with it wherever it is off to next. There is a part that is looking forward to getting home though. It’s amazing the little things I have been missing, such as driving my car, sitting on the coach and watching TV, knowing what is going on in the world, getting to use the internet without worrying about how many minutes I have left, being able to eat whatever I want not the selection of pasta, fish, rice and chicken we have been eating lately (tonight is a BBQ though so the food should be good), being able to talk on my cell phone and being able to just go for a walk or ride my bike. Of course I miss all of my family and friends too but that is a given. The biggest stress about coming home is that I have to figure out where I go from here. I thought that this voyage would give me some great epiphany on what career I wanted but it really has not. I have learned that I love to travel and there is a great big world out there that I want to explore but now I have to figure out how to go about that.
Life on the ship has been relatively quiet lately. Have been losing an hour of sleep most nights to try and we actually had two April 20ths because we crossed the International Dateline. I don’t really know what happened. All I know is when I went to sleep we were 17 hours ahead of EST and when I woke up we were 7 hours behind. I tried to figure it out but I just ended up passing out from using my brain too much. We are currently 6 hours behind with means we lose an hour of sleep in 3 of the next 4 nights. Wahoo. We stopped in Hawaii the on Saturday night to refuel and it was the biggest tease ever. We actually had to come into port and dock but were not allowed off the ship. At least I can say I spit on Hawaii though since I will probably never make it back. Not being able to get off didn’t bother me that much though because I was pretty sick. I actually got strep throat and had been really sick since Friday. Today is the first day I can actually eat anything besides soup. I think I’m almost better. In the coming days I still have to pack, and somehow figure out how I’m going to get everything home, work the final two pub nights, which should be crazy, and say my goodbyes to all the people I’ve become really close with over the past 100 days. Semester at Sea is weird because you end up forming these intense relationships with all these people and odds are I won’t see half of them ever again in my life. That’s depressing. Then again I’m sure there are some I will be friends with for a long time and that’s wonderful. I think I’ll end there on a happy note.
Talk to you all soon.