--
Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Shanghai, China
~ Happy Chinese New Year !!!! ~
Wow, what an AMAZING place at midnight. We were at a Shanghai nightclub called Cloud 9 @ the Grand Hyatt. We were on the 87th floor in the apex of the Jin Mao Tower, enjoying an incredible 360-degree view of Shanghai from one of the highest points in the city. The "Sky Lounge" is one of the highest bars in the world and has been named one of "The World's Great Gathering Places" by Newsweek. When we looked out the windows we could literally see the fireworks shooting off all over the city. And they were lighting off some from the parking lot of the hotel to boot.
Well it is 00:50 and I'm going to bed. I have to get up at 5am to fly to Beijing. Happy New Year, and Goodnight!
Interesting links:
Jin_Mao_Tower - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Mao_Tower
Hyatt Cloud Nine Bar - http://www.dopplr.com/place/cn/shanghai/eat/cloud-9
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage: - http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/
Check out my blog as well - http://www.nick-sas-spring2010.blogspot.com
Please Email me at - Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Hiroshima Today - Kobe Beef tonight!
Finally a relaxing morning. When we woke up, we wandered over to a nice little café near the JR Train Station in downtown Kyoto. Today we are catching the train to Hiroshima. By this point our Tokyo "group of eight" has dwindled down to just Sara, Jenny and I.
Now the girls have a Japan Rail Pass and I do not, so they were limited to only certain trains to get to Hiroshima. They ended up having to take two connecting trains, whereas I bought a ticket for the Super Express. Since I was traveling alone I made a corporate decision to purchase a “Green Car” Ticket, which is the Bullet Train's Business class. Big leather chairs, free WiFi, and other amenities for only $20 more (thanks again Mom). The ladies and I arrived in Hiroshima around the same time, but they left about 30 minutes before.
The train trip gave me some time to suck my photos into my computer and edit them a little bit (very little if you've seen them). Once in Hiroshima we took the bus directly to the Atomic Bomb Memorial Site and spent the entire day there. Unbelievably, we actually ran into the guys who left us in Kyoto. They left at 6am and had a five hour bus ride to Hiroshima (sucks for them), while we took the ninety minute Bullet Train while sitting in First Class.
It sure was interesting being there. Seeing first hand the scene of this horrific event that ultimately ended WWII, this being just a week after we experienced the place where it all began ~ Pearl Harbor. The destruction of both sites was mind numbing, almost too much to fathom. We talked for 20 minutes to a survivor who was very very interesting, it was so sad to hear what had to say. War is hell... but I'm glad I ended up going with the girls, to this place and to Pearl. Just to see for myself the destruction that going to war and the A-Bomb have.
Night – Kobe
Well I took the JR Bullet train to Kobe… Green car again of course… and got in at about 7:45pm. Once at the boat, I was going to hang out and upload some pics until 10:30 ish. This is when Eli was suppose to get back to the ship and we were going to head out on the town.
Well ... I dropped my stuff off and went to the computer lab to check my SAS email (a virus has infected us - getting a ton of spam). On my way down to my room I ran into my Bow and Greg. They said they were going out for some KOBE BEEF ... and asked if I wanted to join them. “Do you even have to ask”?!
A group of nine ended up going to this very nice Kobe Beef Restaurant (like there could there be a bad one). They had four different “dinner sets”. Ranging from a regular Tenderloin Steak dinner that was 4480 Yen a Kobe Beef dinner that was 5480 Yen and the Mac Daddy of them all the Special Kobe Beef Tender-loin Dinner that was 7480 Yen. Now Y'all are probably wondering which one I got! Right? Yea that’s right baby, the big one (haha) and it didn't disappoint me! Their presentation and timely culinary efficiency was beyond my expectations. Cooked Hibachi Style right in front of you, they first brought out some Hors D’Oeuvres, then a soup and salad with a traditional Japanese Vinaigrette dressing. Then because Bow and I got the special entree, they grilled a live shrimp right in front of us. My god it was just horrible watching it waggle and die right there. With it's little eyes still staring at me I waited the requisite three minutes to let it cool and then consumed it. I gotta admit, it certainly was a tasty delight. Now it was time for the main show, the Pièce de résistance, The Kobe Beef. It literally melted in my mouth and I just didn’t want to it to stop. When it was gone (and there wasn’t much of it to begin with), a tear came to my eye. It was definitely the BEST STEAK I EVER CONSUMED! The Cattlemen pamper these animals with massages, they feed them beer, grain and ages old herbs and medicines to fatten them up. Unlike the regular joe cows who consume only corn. I absolutely loved the meal!
After that we headed to a Kobe bar called Second Chance. They were giving out coupons to all of us SAS'ers, so of course when we finally got in there it was packed! You couldn’t even move in this place, it was shoulder to shoulder. Bow,Greg and myself left the rest of the group and went to find a more patron challenged bar. As we walked about, I saw this sign that said The Philadelphia and it pointed down a staircase. So I says to the boys "lets go down there gents".
It certainly looked like a nice gin mill and we needed a place that took credit cards because none of us had any cash. All the ATM’s we happened upon only took Citibank, Japanese banks or were for Japanese reading people only. So in we went and man, it looked like we were going into the back room of the Como Restaurant or something, but way more elegant. There were these guys playing what we though was poker but later learned was Oicho-Kabu (おいちょかぶ), which is a traditional Japanese game, sort of like Baccarat we're told.
When the three of us walked in, there were already two SAS'ers in the place (guy and a girl) and they were talking to this very Japanese fellow. We waltzed up to them and introduced ourselves. The SAS girl Amber (translation by the bartender) had been telling the Japanese fellow about their travels. So this Japanese fellow(who we found out owned the place) offered to buy us a drink in honor of Japan and the good memories that we were having there. Funny thing, after that drink the conversation started cranking up and you could just feel the good time vibes around him, he loved us! His name was Hero and he gave Bow and Greg a bottle of Whiskey (I don’t drink the hard stuff). Greg asked Hero if he wanted to have an "American" drink, so Greg went behind the bar and made our new friend Hero a “Sake Bomb” and of course he loved it! By this point we noticed that he was enamored with Amber our new SAS friend. So Bow text-ed some friends to get a bunch more of those darn American Girls down here. Well when they arrived, Hero went nuts. And because I am the Big Man (haha), he points to me and says “Nick, you work…you work bar, and all drinks are free”. Now who can turn a deal like this down! At this point there are maybe twenty of us in the bar..., not too many but certainly enough to have a decent party. So behind the bar I went, cranking out the drinks like a seasoned pro! My neighbor Rob is (according to him) a Whiskey connoisseur. He proceeds to pick out a bottle of BenRiach 40 year old Single Malt Scotch Whiskey (that reportedly sells for over $1000) along with a bottle of U.S banned - Cuban made - Havana Club. This is starting to get out of hand! The nice guy that he is, Rob bought a $200 bottle of Champagne for Hero and he was very thankful! It was just a very fun night where no one got hurt, nobody got arrested and no one broke anything in the Philadelphia, and so all is Good!
We left there at about 3:30am when our Hero had to leave, We then went to this all night bowling center and stayed there till 5:30 before calling it a night and heading back to the ship.
The Next Day
We all slept in till about lunch time (go figure). We had two goals for the day, to find an Internet café, and get some more Kobe Beef! We did both of those while we wandered aimlessly around Kobe. Around 4pm we got back to the ship for the final time in Japan… It was a sad farewell to the Land of the Rising Sun, we sure had an amazing time ~ you were quite the host!
The great thing was, I got to hang with a lot of different groups of SAS'ers. The greatest thing was the bonding. Now when I run into these dudes on the ship they are like “OMG Nick! Do you remember when we did this, and when we did that” (lol). Everyone has a plethora of interesting stories from Japan and it’s gonna be a lot of fun to hear them all.
Once again every single person made Ship Time and there were no major incidences in Japan (to speak of). So naturally the Staff was pleasantly surprised and very pleased!
We passed out early (maybe 5pm or so) and woke up briefly at 10:30pm for a late night snack before sacking out for the night. First time we had to wake up for classes in awhile. Except for class and meals pretty much the entire shipboard population slept the whole day(including professors)! Eli and myself got our post port Massage, it really hit the spot and I sorely needed it after a rough tumble through Japan.
Monday Night - we arrive in Shanghai, China tomorrow!
That's China tomorrow, China tomorrow…that’s been our mantra all day.
Night – Kobe
Well I took the JR Bullet train to Kobe… Green car again of course… and got in at about 7:45pm. Once at the boat, I was going to hang out and upload some pics until 10:30 ish. This is when Eli was suppose to get back to the ship and we were going to head out on the town.
Well ... I dropped my stuff off and went to the computer lab to check my SAS email (a virus has infected us - getting a ton of spam). On my way down to my room I ran into my Bow and Greg. They said they were going out for some KOBE BEEF ... and asked if I wanted to join them. “Do you even have to ask”?!
A group of nine ended up going to this very nice Kobe Beef Restaurant (like there could there be a bad one). They had four different “dinner sets”. Ranging from a regular Tenderloin Steak dinner that was 4480 Yen a Kobe Beef dinner that was 5480 Yen and the Mac Daddy of them all the Special Kobe Beef Tender-loin Dinner that was 7480 Yen. Now Y'all are probably wondering which one I got! Right? Yea that’s right baby, the big one (haha) and it didn't disappoint me! Their presentation and timely culinary efficiency was beyond my expectations. Cooked Hibachi Style right in front of you, they first brought out some Hors D’Oeuvres, then a soup and salad with a traditional Japanese Vinaigrette dressing. Then because Bow and I got the special entree, they grilled a live shrimp right in front of us. My god it was just horrible watching it waggle and die right there. With it's little eyes still staring at me I waited the requisite three minutes to let it cool and then consumed it. I gotta admit, it certainly was a tasty delight. Now it was time for the main show, the Pièce de résistance, The Kobe Beef. It literally melted in my mouth and I just didn’t want to it to stop. When it was gone (and there wasn’t much of it to begin with), a tear came to my eye. It was definitely the BEST STEAK I EVER CONSUMED! The Cattlemen pamper these animals with massages, they feed them beer, grain and ages old herbs and medicines to fatten them up. Unlike the regular joe cows who consume only corn. I absolutely loved the meal!
After that we headed to a Kobe bar called Second Chance. They were giving out coupons to all of us SAS'ers, so of course when we finally got in there it was packed! You couldn’t even move in this place, it was shoulder to shoulder. Bow,Greg and myself left the rest of the group and went to find a more patron challenged bar. As we walked about, I saw this sign that said The Philadelphia and it pointed down a staircase. So I says to the boys "lets go down there gents".
It certainly looked like a nice gin mill and we needed a place that took credit cards because none of us had any cash. All the ATM’s we happened upon only took Citibank, Japanese banks or were for Japanese reading people only. So in we went and man, it looked like we were going into the back room of the Como Restaurant or something, but way more elegant. There were these guys playing what we though was poker but later learned was Oicho-Kabu (おいちょかぶ), which is a traditional Japanese game, sort of like Baccarat we're told.
When the three of us walked in, there were already two SAS'ers in the place (guy and a girl) and they were talking to this very Japanese fellow. We waltzed up to them and introduced ourselves. The SAS girl Amber (translation by the bartender) had been telling the Japanese fellow about their travels. So this Japanese fellow(who we found out owned the place) offered to buy us a drink in honor of Japan and the good memories that we were having there. Funny thing, after that drink the conversation started cranking up and you could just feel the good time vibes around him, he loved us! His name was Hero and he gave Bow and Greg a bottle of Whiskey (I don’t drink the hard stuff). Greg asked Hero if he wanted to have an "American" drink, so Greg went behind the bar and made our new friend Hero a “Sake Bomb” and of course he loved it! By this point we noticed that he was enamored with Amber our new SAS friend. So Bow text-ed some friends to get a bunch more of those darn American Girls down here. Well when they arrived, Hero went nuts. And because I am the Big Man (haha), he points to me and says “Nick, you work…you work bar, and all drinks are free”. Now who can turn a deal like this down! At this point there are maybe twenty of us in the bar..., not too many but certainly enough to have a decent party. So behind the bar I went, cranking out the drinks like a seasoned pro! My neighbor Rob is (according to him) a Whiskey connoisseur. He proceeds to pick out a bottle of BenRiach 40 year old Single Malt Scotch Whiskey (that reportedly sells for over $1000) along with a bottle of U.S banned - Cuban made - Havana Club. This is starting to get out of hand! The nice guy that he is, Rob bought a $200 bottle of Champagne for Hero and he was very thankful! It was just a very fun night where no one got hurt, nobody got arrested and no one broke anything in the Philadelphia, and so all is Good!
The Next Day
We all slept in till about lunch time (go figure). We had two goals for the day, to find an Internet café, and get some more Kobe Beef! We did both of those while we wandered aimlessly around Kobe. Around 4pm we got back to the ship for the final time in Japan… It was a sad farewell to the Land of the Rising Sun, we sure had an amazing time ~ you were quite the host!
The great thing was, I got to hang with a lot of different groups of SAS'ers. The greatest thing was the bonding. Now when I run into these dudes on the ship they are like “OMG Nick! Do you remember when we did this, and when we did that” (lol). Everyone has a plethora of interesting stories from Japan and it’s gonna be a lot of fun to hear them all.
Once again every single person made Ship Time and there were no major incidences in Japan (to speak of). So naturally the Staff was pleasantly surprised and very pleased!
We passed out early (maybe 5pm or so) and woke up briefly at 10:30pm for a late night snack before sacking out for the night. First time we had to wake up for classes in awhile. Except for class and meals pretty much the entire shipboard population slept the whole day(including professors)! Eli and myself got our post port Massage, it really hit the spot and I sorely needed it after a rough tumble through Japan.
Monday Night - we arrive in Shanghai, China tomorrow!
That's China tomorrow, China tomorrow…that’s been our mantra all day.
Japan Yen
Interesting Links:
Hiroshima - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima
Chamber of Commerce - http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/e/index-E.html
Atomic Bomb - http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm
Kobe - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2159.html
Traveling in Japan info - http://wikitravel.org/en/Japan
Kobe - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2159.html
Traveling in Japan info - http://wikitravel.org/en/Japan
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage - http://www.semesteratsea.org/
Check out my blog as well! - nick-sas-spring2010.blogspot.
Check out my blog as well! - nick-sas-spring2010.blogspot.
Email me at - Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
Japan – Act Two
Well you all heard about the first 24 hours of my Japan experience... Now for the rest of the story.
Tokyo and the remainder of day 2.
The second night in Tokyo was truly an adventure. After an hour or so of walking in the rain we ended up at this really cool restaurant which was on the 3rd floor of a building, This was common because in Japan everything is higher instead of wider. We had intended to meet up with some other SAS'ers for dinner, but we got lost while wandering around the city. We all knelt around a table and instead of a waiter, there was a touch screen tablet that would place your order whenever you felt like it. There was only one problem with this system..., none of us currently read any Japanese! Well being the adventure'ers type that we are (inside SAS joke), I took charge and started ordering stuff…, big-big-big mistake for the rest of the table. But it was really quite an hilarious dinner. Of course we ordered a ton of food, and some of it was actually pretty tasty. We got Sushi and a whole bunch of different types of noodles, squid, rice, bread with dipping sauce, vegetable tempura, feta tempura, endameba, and multiple types of chicken. I actually ordered (quite accidentally) this Beer and Ginger combination for my friend Kyle. Kyle didn’t really like the taste of it at all. I did however like how "Sustainable" (the theme of our voyage) this restaurant was and the touch screen tablet was a perfect application for that technology. After dinner (which by then was well after 00:00) we decided to call it an early night. We were all tired and wet and had to wake up at 6am to go to our next city.
Day 3 - Kyoto
My Blackberry alarm went off at 6am. In order to catch the 7:30 Bullet Train to Kyoto we had to get cleaned up and out the door by 6:45 ish. We really loved the Bullet Train. This particular line is called Tokaido Shinkansen, it was the first high speed train in the world (1964). Like most things in Japan, it was very fast and quite efficient. On the train I ate a pork sandwich with some tasty Japanese sauce on it that I would absolutely recommend..., if I knew what it was. It had a nice zesty aftertaste which lasted for most of the hour and a half ride to Kyoto.
We disembarked around 9am and immediately set off on another adventure to locate the Youth Hostel that Jenny had found in her guidebook. Well, it turned into a repeat of our escapades from the previous night. We wandered around the city in the pouring rain (which don’t get me wrong was pretty fun) until we finally found our destination. But not before this wonderful man from a noodle shop we had just stopped at, walked us about half mile down the street to show us the way to the hostel. There are a lot of very nice people in Japan. Many of whom just seem to be following us around to help us out. LOL
We went into the hostel and asked about the rooms, the lady at the front desk told us that they only have rooms for five people. This was perfect because Kyle, Eli, and Oliver had to meet up with the ship in Kobe that night and wouldn’t be staying. So it was Sara, Jenny, Casey, Lindsey, and I..., in the first room. We booked a second room for some friends who were going to meet up with us later that evening. That would be Andrew, Bow and three more girls. The proprietor lady then showed us an example of what our room would be like... and wow... believe me the room was sick! We are talking a traditional Japanese style room complete with a tea table, five mats to sleep on and enough authentic robes for all of us.
The poor guys who had to leave were very jealous. But they had an SAS trip to Hiroshima in the morning and had no other choice. We then walked around Kyoto for quite a while and saw some sweet Temples and Statuary. Lunch was at this cute little family owned shop called the Kitchen Bar. It was by far The Best lunch I have had on this trip. A nice sized salad with a great dressing (I have no idea what it was). Fried chicken with lice and hamburger meat. A Perfect lunch! Afterward we walked around some more and by this time it was pouring rain and kind of cold. So half our group decided to go to a Café and warm up while Oliver, Casey and myself went to see one more alleged hot spot. This turned out to be an amazingly massive cemetery on a hill with a great big Buddha statue! While we were there, a real life Japanese comedian asked us to have our picture taken with him for his show. We did it, even though he was surely going to make us the butt of some rude joke.
When we met back up with the rest of the group they said, “HEY... we're all freezing our butts off, lets go to a Japanese Bath House”. So we did and lets just say that after that day in Kobe, we were pretty well“cultured” in the ways of the Japanese. We had been to their temples, eaten their food, stayed in a their hotels... AND... bathed in a traditional bath house. It was quite the experience.
(I did not accually take this Picture...hahaha)
Buddhist Sayings
- Do not speak- unless it improves on silence. - You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere.
Interesting Links:
Tokyo Menu - http://www.krishna.jp/govindas/e_govinda/Menu.html
Bullet train - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2018.html
Touch screen menus - http://www.whynot.net/ideas/2439
Kabuki - http://www.blogger.com/goog_1266365916925 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/
Email me at Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Pics from Japan
Train to Kyoto
Menu Fun in Tokyo
Buddah
Group in Kyoto
Hahaha the Robes the Hotel gave us
Green Car
A Bomb Memorial
Massive Hillside Cemetary in Kyoto
KOBE BEEF
cooking Beef
Us with our Buddy Hero
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Japan - Land of the Rising Sun
Hey everyone... need less to say Japan has been AMAZING so far!
Our first day was jam packed with touring Tokyo. We arrived in Yokahama, a little later than planned. So after clearing Customs, Eli and I went on a SAS sponsored trip that toured modern Tokyo. This was a lot of fun! Although after being on that rocking boat for a week anything would have sufficed.
After getting ourselves setup at the hotel we then went sightseeing. First we checked out the Tokyo Tower, an Eiffel Tower look alike(more info at end of blog) and had dinner at a local Japanese restaurant the name of which I cannot pronounce. After dinner we went to a bar/club called Muse, where we met up with a lot of other SAS'ers and damn near closed the place( 3:30am). Now.... before we went out, we decided that we had check out the Famous Tokyo Fish Market. This would be the largest fish market in the world. They are only open from 5am-7:30am. So now we need to pull an all nighter cause we got some time to kill. Fortunately Japan's second most popular "fast food" chain...Denny's, greets us for a little early morning snack. By snack I really mean a feast! This is nothing like an American Denny's... but it didn't have a Grand Slam. We finally made it to the fish market...and it was worth it. Check out the link: http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm We got back to the hotel as the sun was coming up and slept till noon. I was up for a little over 24 straight hours!
Today we are hitting the city again! We are about to go to dinner right now. I just wanted to give you all a little glimpse of Japan.
More to come later.......
More Information on sites mentioned:
Tokyo Tower - www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Tower
Fish Market -www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukiji_fish_market
Sakura Hotel - www.sakura-hotel.co.jp/
Denny's in Japan - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABTNFp9GY3w
Fresh Tuna steak from the fish market
At a noodle restaurant
Toyota's show room in front of Mother's new car
Friday, February 5, 2010
No emails today / bad weather ahead
DEANS MEMO
Friday, February 5, 2010
Weather:
Although the Captain is diverting the ship 190 nautical miles to avoid a weather depression, tonight the ship will begin to experience some rolling due to the effect of winds and sea swells. This is anticipated to continue for approximately 24 hours.
Please secure belongings, place heavy objects on the floor or in cabinets (not drawers), and take medications for sea sickness as needed.
E-mail:
The email server has been experiencing some technical difficulties. You may or may not currently be able to send or receive emails from the ship. This server is contracted out and not owned by ISE, so we have contacted that company and they are looking into the matter. Hopefully it will be up before morning.
Daily Water Consumption
2/4: 351 liters / 92 gallons per person
2/2: 469 liters / 124 gallons per person
2/1: 503 liters / 133 gallons per person
Sky Watch:
Sunset today: 1823
Sunrise tomorrow: 0731
Laundry Service:
Tomorrow (2/6): Deck 4 Port - Red Sea (my deck)
Day After (2/7): Deck 3 Stbd - Blue Sea
Today's Movies:
. Channel 2: "Planet Earth 4" (60 min.)
. Channel 3: "Families of Japan"
. Channel 5: "We Were Soldiers" (violent)
. Channel 6: "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" (PG-13; 90 min)
"The future of the world does not lie in the hands of children. It lies in the hands who hold the hands of children."
- Marvel Harrison
Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/
Email me at Nicholas.a.tomkins@gmail.com
Check out my blog as well! nick-sas-spring2010.blogspot.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
All Skill - No Luck, or was that all luck....
I just want to let y'all know that I didn't have any h-w or a single meeting last night. So guess what us SAS men did to kill the evening. Yep that's right, we had a Poker Tournament and yours truly Mr. Nicholas "lucky pants" Tomkins won! A 14 person tourney makes for a decent pot.
We had a great dinner, of course it started with our typical salad, Thousand Island dressing is not my fav though, I am a Ranch man. The main course consisted of a very garlicy pasta with some sort of crab cake/fish thing over rice and the requisite veggies. Well now on to the dessert. They had these beautiful eclairs that were covered with a chocolate dipping sauce! Delicious
So as you can see, I had an amazing night out here in the beautiful if not slightly rocky Pacific Ocean. And as we all know since the boat crossed the IDL I am living in the future. I hope your future Thursday night (Feb 4th) bodes as well as mine did!
Currently it's 1:33am Friday morning....we just set our clocks back an hour again tonight. I have no idea what time it is back home but you are probably somewhere around 9:33am, Thursday morning. I think we are plus 16 hours right now.
Well I am off to bed...lots to do tomorrow
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead -
Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage: http://www.semesteratsea.org/
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Lost Day
Date: Thursday 4th Feb 2010
Lat: 25° 20.4 N
Lon: 170° 36.8 E
Speed: 19 knots
Course: 278°
When I go to bed tonight it will be Tuesday February 2, 2010, and when I wake up the calender will read Thursday February 4th. Now in the past that might not have been an unusual occurrence that was undoubtedly caused by a bed that was just too darn comfortable. But,... this anomaly will be caused by our crossing of the International Date Line (IDL). Of course I needed some explanation of this. For example, if you cross the date line at precisely midnight, going westward, you skip an entire day - while going eastward, you repeat the entire day. The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth opposite the Prime Meridian where the date changes as one travels east or west across it. Roughly along 180° longitude, with diversions to pass around some territories and island groups. the rule mostly corresponds to the time zone boundary separating −12 and +12 hours Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) (Greenwich Mean Time – GMT). Crossing the IDL traveling east results in a day (24 hrs) being subtracted, so the traveler repeats the date. Crossing west results in a day being added. The exact number of hours depends on the time zones. Since we are circumnavigating the globe going westward, every 15° or roughly 1000 miles that we travel, we gain an hour. So if we kept changing time zones and gaining hours when we got to Ft. Lauderdale we would not be the same time as them. I was still a little confused on the subject so I looked it up on Wikipedia. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
On a lighter note, I saw the moon rise out of the pitch black horizon at about 10pm tonight. It was quite a sight! A fellow student was playing her bagpipes on deck while this was all happening, so that experience was pretty cool. We have no classes today, not sure why. The staff took this as an opportunity to get a group photo of everyone on board. We did this on the aft-deck .
Everyone pretty much is just laying around and enjoying one of our last days of sun and warm tropical weather. I hope to catch up on my school work and reading, and then a bit of relaxing. Starting tomorrow it's going to be a rigorous four days of school. Because of our Asia Adventures (Japan, China, Vietnam, India), we only have 7 days of class in the month of February!
The Sea Olympics event is going to be held March 7th
Another activity I am involved with is the SAS Auction Committee. We are soliciting donated items to be auctioned for the purpose of raising money to pay for future scholarships, to help fund current voyagers who wish to donate their time to charity activities such as Habitat for Humanity projects and to help with the overall maintenance of the ship. We will gladly accept and appreciate any type of gift you would be willing to donate for the auction. As you may or may not know my Mother and Father will be joining me in Vietnam starting the third last week in February. So you can contact them and they will help coordinate the delivery of any donations. We will gladly accept anything you can donate.
Everyone on the ship is quite anxious to get to Japan. Ship life is pretty laid back and there is a lot of down time. So everyone is anxious to get off the boat and explore. It is going to be one crazy month! I will update everyone probably once more before I get to Japan. Hope all is well back home and keep the emails coming…
Interesting facts:
It is about 69 miles in between each degree on a map
I now have an "extended" family - a whole bunch of sisters, compliments of SAS. I will introduce you to them in my next blog.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
- Malcolm X -
Nicholas Alan Tomkins
Semester at Sea Spring 2010
1/17/2010 - 5/5/2010
Check out our current position or other info about my voyage:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
