almost back!

(written Friday 19 August 2005)

HI Everybody!

The fiords in Alaska offered more interesting glaciers and animals than the fiords
near Norway.  We saw ice calving from glaciers (summer or global warming?) and
otters floating around amidst small icebergs between which we carefully glided.

Oh!  and we saw whales!  For a day there were practically whale sightings every 20
minutes, though for the great majority (all but 2) we just saw a bit of spray as
the whale exhaled, then the dorsal curve arced downward until the tail flipped up
then disappeared.  That always meant "the show is over."  Everyone would be all
excited and squealing..  I was never impressed; whales breathe.  They swim.  I
agree it was *neat* to see wildlife, but not worth squealing.

Except one time, when a whale about a kilometer from the boat leaped out of the
water with a spin and dramatic splash... "OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" and people
talked about it for the rest of the day.  I wonder if anyone got it on video.

Classes are over; my quiet girls' class left with nary a peep, and my loud and
crazy class made me a big card with my favorite class photo and wrote things like
"I came to enjoy English through you."  I'm so so thankful.

Our jobs as teachers are basically done except for three big days of events that
will be held over the next few days after Alaska: graduation, prom, speeches
(teachers in Japanese then the students in English) and project presentations:
video, performance, and journal teams will be featured for a couple hour event.

There's a man named George Meegan onboard.  He walked from the southern tip of
South America to Barrow, Alaska over a long period. He has many stories to tell,
and is promoting a revolution in education where every child is rewarded for what
they're good at doing, not punished for being bad at certain subjects.  DEMOCRACY
REACHES THE KIDS is his book, though I don't see an ISBN or publisher on this copy.

His lectures are full of surprises and tangents as he brings random people onstage
as examples or has the entire auditorium go onto the top deck to experience the
world more directly.  Engaging, unique, revolution, spirit.. these words come to
mind but don't want to be wrapped in sentences.

I've heard a rumor that the weather is beautiful outside; I'm going now to
experience it.  I spent some hours last night creating art with Matt instead of
writing an email like this one.

-----

Now it's Saturday 27 August 2005

Seward, Alaska was big fun; Kattrean and I climbed most of Marathon mountain and
met two couples from another cruise ship.  They were performers - doing 4 shows
(twice each) on a week long voyage between Vancouver and Seward.  I don't know how
many voyages they do per contract.  Their ship was The Summit, one of the panamax
cruise ships run by Celebrity Cruises.

On our way back toward the ship, I spent about 20 minutes standing in a culvert
where humpback salmon vied for position going upstream.  They seemed to spend more
time hovering than moving forward, which I didn't really understand; why spend so
much energy swimming against stream, but just staying in the same place?  As I
write this, I remember they would also occasionally fight/bite each other, so I
imagine each fish had to be wary of passing other fish for fear of being wounded. 
Occasionally a fish would swim near me, and I was able to touch a few and actually
lift two out of the water!  We got pictures that will certainly be on my website
within a few days.

We have only a few days to go until we reach Yokohama.  Our schedules still brim
with activity, though now we are focused on cleaning and closing up shop.

------

Sunday morning 28 August 2005

The ship has been pitching and rolling quite heavily for the past 12 hours; we went
through a typhoon last night in the Pacific.  Kattrean and I went onto the top deck
to experience the rain and wind, which nearly pelted hard enough to be painful.  As
we headed toward the front of the ship, a crew member spotted us and asked that we
get off the top deck; it's too dangerous.  Fair enough; it would be challenging to
live while treading water in the middle of a typhoon in the middle of the ocean.

We will be in Japan in two days.

    Love to all
    - Rob!