A calm day

Friday 23rd January.

The sea has been calm and mostly blue today. We have opened the door to our cabin balcony and breathe warm healthy air instead of air conditioning.....aaah! We have sat in the sun on the 6th level deck surrounded this afternoon by what seemed like hundreds of students....all now with pens, pads and books in their hands and one hears a different level of discussion...serious and muted.

I am immersing myself in lectures about theatre; history of, introduction to, Shakespeare international, Our Prof. (Ted Eaton) is very relaxed but passionate about his subject, funny and fun. The level of discussion is at times a bit basic but he is patience personnified and listens to all with great respect...even me! The women I find regard this old lady with some suspicion but the young men are interesting and interested and chat blithely away with me...strange! I would have thought it might be the other way round...I of course don't have to do exams and tests so I can sit back and enjoy the answers to today's question What is Theatre? This brought forth more questions of course: What about reality TV? What about Film and Cinema? What about situation comedies recorded live? What about the Inauguration? Does true theatre require an audience? What's the difference between a theatrical production and a church service? Why do film actors return to the stage when they can make more money in the movies?(!) I was able to quote Christoppher Plummer having just read In Spite of myself.....a great read by the way.

Tonight we do NOT have to put the clock forward an hour thank goodness. Some of us dozed off in our Global Studies lecture today....yes I did! Everyone has been wondering why they feel so sleepy all the time. When we got up this morning at 6 am so that G. could shower, have breakfast and get to his 8 am lecture we realised that only 2 days previously it was 4 am!!

The food is good and nicely presented although of course there has to be tons of it; everyone has a huge appetite with all the sea air.

The crew had an emergency boat drill today during George's lecture. There were loud blasts of whistles and the sound of running feet interspersed with urgent messages from the Captain. George said it was rather difficult to talk liguistics with all the interruptions and we noticed other profs and students leaving their classrooms looking bemused and unsettled!

Note to the Book Club: Tonight we are in our cabin and G in bed now and asleep. I shall follow him soon to read my latest book First Darling of the Morning by Thrity Umrigar (selected memories of an Indian childhood), I'm loving it. Last one was In the Hope of Rising Again by Helen Scully...a superb first novel. I shall move on to a biography of John Mortimer and anothe of Billy Connolly...Billy. I have been good and read The Secret Life of Bees and thoroughly enjoyed it. Let me in on your discussion!

Coordinates for Liam and Katie:
Speed 15.1 knots (I thought we had slowed down!)
Long. 040 degrees 38.0 W
Lat. 31 degrees 25.3 N
Course: 80 degrees

Hey I think we're more than half way across the Atlantic to Spain!

Good night! Sleep well.....