tien beat

Day 17 Friday September 12, 2008 (Salvador, Brazil) Hung out with Pedro all day, had some potatoes with butter for breakfast, played guitar in the courtyard with the crosses overlooking the lower city. Met up with his friend Tiago (another one) who works at Ritmo, the music store where I met Pedro. Pedro is in a few reggae bands, won’t get to see him in concert though, bummer. Walked around a bunch, went to an internet café and set up a facebook account for him. Ran into Steven (roommate) and went to go buy a Gilberto Gil CD. According to Pedro, Gil is the minister of culture in Brazil. His CD of Bob Marley covers, awesome, been listening to it all day. Said goodbye, went back to the ship, Captain’s barbecue, watched “Walk Hard: Dewey Cox story” in my room with a bunch of people, leaving Brazil, went out on the front of the boat and replayed events of visit in my mind, watching the immense collection of city lights slide away. Very windy, felt like my hair should look like a mess...

Day 11 (Friday Sept 5, 2008) Woke up to sounds of crew banging on doors and yelling. It’s Neptune Day. Which means: King Neptune has decided we must be initiated in order to cease our land loving ways and become true shellbacks. Which means: We go up to the pool deck, where the crew, dressed up in togas and aluminum foil helmets, spills mysterious rancid-smelling fish juice over our heads, one by one. For the willing, a head-shaving ritual, in which I participated. Brazil in two days. Day 12 (Saturday Sept 6, 2008) We will be arriving in Salvador tomorrow morning. I think I will be exploring with my roommate and his friends. I fear I have been a little antisocial the past few days, evidenced by lack of any established “crew”, but I guess I’ve been trying to avoid societal overload. Classes are going well. Really excited about the churrascurias (brazilian all you can eat barbecue)! Always a hit in the states, can’t wait to have the real thing. Had our pre-port meetings, lots of warnings...

Day 4 (Friday, August 29) 700 students swarmed the ship today. Previous sense of tranquility is gone. Stood in a hallway all morning directing students to the registration room. Got away to find some postcards, found out they were made in the U.S.A. Appropriate to the stifling commercial nature of Nassau. Went to generic Senor Frog’s bar last night, like a Semester at Sea party, lots of SAS kids. Met some nice people today doing hallway duty. Roommate is Steven Newman, cool guy, comes from a musical family in Malibu, plays guitar, we get along great. Bought a couple of side trips today, a homestay in India, a service project and a bicycle ride in Brazil, something cool in Namibia too but I forget. Stuff I couldn’t do on my own mostly, except for the bicycle ride, doing that for fun and to meet people. We should be leaving Nassau soon. … 21:46 25º 23.4N 076º 5.13W Rumor is that Hurricane Gustav has rerouted us towards Puerto Rico. Does seem stormy outside. All students crammed ...