"Think Outside the Bun"

So today was kinda legit. I’ve been extremely tired all day (just ask my Poverty and Politics of Development notes that look like they were written in the middle of an earthquake and/or with my left hand) and despite the cappuccino I just decided to drink I’m trying to get to bed soon so here’s the cliffsnotes version:

- The kitchen must have restocked in Greece because we had bananas at lunch and dinner! Bananas and peanut butter is a ship staple (well, anything with peanut butter really) so everyone was pretty excited.

- My cabin steward, John, is the best and brought me magnets to hang up the pictures the kids drew for me at the orphanage.

- I became new best friends with a 70-something year old man named Dennis who is a life-long learner here on the ship and traveling with his wife. Life-long learners are basically adult students here on board and range in age from their late 20’s to Gladys, an 86-year-old woman who always seems to be playing cards in the dining room. Dennis and I met this morning and I definitely saw him like 8 times throughout the day including him coming to my table twice at dinner and finding me on the deck tonight.

- I got an A on my Water Supply and Sanitation midterm.

- We sailed through the Bosphorus Straight and are now officially in the Black Sea.  From about 21:00-22:00 tonight we passed between the European and Asian sides of Istanbul and were greeted by Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace (among a whole bunch of other stuff I couldn’t really identify- probably shouldn’t have fallen asleep in Global Studies today?) There were also two sets of fireworks, which according to conflicting reports, may or may not have been for us.

It was pretty neat to be out on deck with so many other people, seeing all the sights of Istanbul from the water.  I think it made us all really excited for Turkey next week too. After it was over Alex, Megan, Katie and I went to talk to two life-long learners we spotted across the deck. Karen and Jeff are this awesome couple who have presented at some pre-port briefings and held other seminars throughout the voyage. She used to be in the travel business while he’s a retired advertising executive, and they live the majority of the year in their 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment on The World (a grownup equivalent to Semester at Sea… only minus the classes and with better food) They’ve been all over the world from Greenland to Saudi Arabia, Bangkok to Peru and pretty much anywhere you can think of. Their stories are incredible- she has no filter when she talks and is constantly saying the most ridiculous things, plus they’re basically living any wannabe traveler’s dream. The best story of the night was about Jeff's band playing on a glacier in Antarctica while Karen and the other men's wives danced in penguin costumes...? Jeff also gave a talk on advertising tonight in which he offhandedly mentioned the fact that he came up with Taco Bell’s infamous “think outside the bun” slogan on the spur of the moment at a stalling staff meeting. No joke. Karen has a talk tomorrow night about travel photography that should be interesting, and they invited us to have dinner with them sometime and keep picking their brains about travel, life, and turning a degree in elementary education into a career of traveling around the world designing action packed adventure trips for tourists and travel companies.  Pretty cool, right?

For once I’m glad caffeine has no effect on me- my bed awaits!