WE HAVE SOME CATCHING UP TO DO!!!

Today is Monday, March 21st, and as Dean reminded us our last post was March 3rd!! It's been a combination of really slow internet on the ship and being so busy and having sooo much fun there's no time to write. Tom still owes a story about our African safari. I have a couple of stories about our time in India, as well as the itinerary of our 4-day in-country trip which included a visit to the Taj Mahal. We are now in Saigon, which is another amazing and emotional experience.

Shipboard life continues to be a joy. We have made so many new friends among the students, faculty/staff and other life-long learners. At sea we enjoy meals together, wine tastings and talk about our last and next ports. The life long learners meet for an hour every afternoon at sea, sometimes we have speakers about upcoming ports, and we are learning Tai Chi. Afterward there is a social/cocktail hour in our adult lounge, and from there we amble down to dinner. We eat almost all of our meals on deck, the weather has been BEAUTIFUL about 95% of the time. We go to the gym every day while at sea, and I attend Zumba classes every other day. There is a constant fashion parade on board with all of the clothes and jewelry from Africa, India, and now Viet Nam.

We have an "adopted" family of about 14 students. We have treated several to a "special dinner" and have had a pizza party for a larger group of kids. We're looking forward to a Mexican fiesta in the next few days at sea. Sometimes we have a quiet pizza or burgers on the pool deck with one or two. They are all very respectful to us, and are always looking out for us on excursions while in port. When we were leaving Singapore the port was so crowded that we almost missed on-ship time (we slid our card with 4 minutes spare). We would never have made it if our "son" Daniel had not run back and grabbed Tom's back pack (risking being late himself) so that Tom could run the last 100 yards. Being late is serious, and results in "dock time" at the next port.

My other constant on board is Spanish classes, I'm taking grammar and conversational. I'm even taking all of the tests and writing all of the required papers. I think I have a good strong B.