One week to go...
Hello from Tokyo! As predicted, the seemingly endless days before my trip have suddenly begun to collapse under the weight of deadlines and general chaos trying to pack my room. What started as a careful examination of each item, deciding its fate, and cataloguing those I planned to send to my friends and family in the US, became a frantic garbage bag filling panic, tossing all that seemed inessential. We are only allowed 1 (one) carry-on bag when boarding the ship. The rest of our luggage must be sent by courier to the ship. By tomorrow I am supposed to have packed the bulk of my stuff, so I can bring it to P B office from which the courier will pick it up. During the day today I re-read the information pack and learned that I can call the courier company myself and arrange for pickup; that way I can call them on Saturday or Sunday. And by "I can call them," I mean "I will have one of my Japanese friends call them for me." About a week ago I rode TJ Bike to Kellie's house. She made a lovely Mexican dinner of tacos (using corn chips for hard-to-obtain taco shells) and fajitas while I archived TJ Bike on her back porch, locking him to a pole, to himself, and wired a blue tarp over him. I archived his saddle bags in an adjacent storage box, using its weight to hold the tarp down over it. Super special thanks to Kellie for her balcony, and to Sumidasan and Brandt, each for their offer of storing TJ Bike. My room, without TJ Bike, and without the maps and posters that succumbed to the garbage bag frenzy (the maps were folded and offered to my building mates), looks pretty empty. Almost as if I can finish packing in time to go. Pictures may be taken soon. Today is my ByeBye party for my apartment building, good ol' Millennium House. Festivities have been arranged by Ikumi and Hitomi; I'm thankful to them for their efforts. - - - - Hitomi surprised me recently by saying that she too will be on the same P B voyage with me! I was a bit freaked; I had been expecting an opportunity to completely re-create myself.. to just start over with all new people. With several hundred people on board I should be able to do that 99.9% new people, but there is certainly an opportunity for me to continue with old habits. (( During the interview in mid-March, I was asked how I would handle a 'bad roommate.' I basically said I trust my angels to provide me with what I need. If I need to have a 'bad roommate' then that's fine. If I will already know 0.01% of the people, then that's fine. )) - - - - I'm writing this update before attending the first real meeting of all the teachers who will be on board. I do not really know what we'll be doing each day on the ship (teaching 4.5 classes and...19 hours remain each day.) I don't really know what we'll do at each port. I don't really know the answer to What Does P B Do? Peace education around the world? How does that work? How will I help? How will I be affected? I expect that after this weekend I will feel a bit more relaxed, up until *next* weekend, when we actually leave! I even have a bit of free time available next week. - - - - In other news, I am in the middle of being certified to scuba dive! A friend of mine is a trainer, and we went for my first dives this past Monday. I had some trouble equalizing my ears, but once I got past that, I was pretty successful at the skills required for certification. Mask Clearing, Sharing Air, etc. All things basically geared toward staying alive under water. We surfaced for lunch then went back to diving. This time was a bit different for me; I seemed to feel even more anxiety, like a feeling of "oh no, not this sensation again!" even though the previous time hadn't seemed so bad. The second time I seemed completely unable to equalize my ears. The pain was unbearable (or was it the fear?) and I was only able to float around 1.5 meters below sea level, trying every method I knew to send some compressed air carefully through my Eustachian tubes. Chris waited patiently, watching me from various vantage points between above and below where I finally gave up. He was quite more positive about the whole thing than I was. I had to watch myself to keep from directly apologizing (for wasting his time?), but I did say "I must say I'm disappointed." I had wanted to be the best diver ever. I've been practicing clearing my ears this week. - - - - Now, three things with addresses: 1) I have the list of addresses for the different ports we will visit! If you'd like to send me something (small or edible), feel free. Please leave ample time; things won't likely be forwarded if they arrive after the ship leaves. The URL is http://robnugen.com/travel/pb/49/port_address_info.shtml 2) Please send me your snail address if you'd like a card from me while I'm sailing! I have some addresses, but not everyone's. In the next couple of days, if I remember and have time, I will send an email to those people whose addresses I have. 3) This email is being sent via my new email sender. It ensures I won't email everyone in the TO field again like last time. Also, if you wish not to receive these, just click the link at the top or bottom of the email. If you wish to change your address, click the link and email me with your new address. - - - - It's 2:18am on Saturday night. I'm supposed to be in Takadanobaba (an hour away by train) at 9:45am. I've basically packed the one big bag I'll have sent via courier to the ship, except my socks are still wet. In the morning I'll stuff them into the small spaces, lay my suit and dress shirts on top of that, cram the case closed and go. With Love to All - R O B !