Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka dot bikini

Number of guys wearing a speedo on the pool deck: 1 (of about 15)
Number of girls wearing a one-piece swimsuit on pool deck: 1 (of about 25)

I was one of those ones, and let me tell you, I wasn’t in the speedo! Haha. What was even funnier was that the guy in the speedo was less than two feet away from me while we were sunbathing. I was excited even though I was in my one-piece swimsuit, because today, aside from Neptune Day (which doesn’t really count because that was for like 30 seconds), was the first time I went in the swimming pool on the ship. I wasn’t going to let the fact that I can’t parade around in a bikini stop me from having fun –and it was fun! I was actually really surprised when I jumped in because the water’s really salty –they must fill it with ocean water. Someone told me that it was from the ocean, but I must have forgotten how salty ocean water really was, I guess. It was a really nice afternoon. First, I sat outside with my feet in the water and read an article for one of my classes, then I put my swimsuit on and went back outside, read some for another class and then jumped in the pool for a little bit. Hmm, seems I heard that there’s snow on the East Coast right now? It was in the mid-80s here! Man, do I feel sad that I’m missing winter…I don’t think so!

The group of girls I’m traveling with finally figured out our plane and train plans to get from Chennai, where the ship is docking, to Agra to see the Taj Mahal! We’re taking the middle three of the five days we’re in India –flying from Chennai to Dehli, next day train from Dehli to Agra, then vice versa after our sightseeing. And, we’re trying to make plans to see a Bollywood movie, (they’re three hours long)!

Tonight we had the usual cultural pre-port meeting where guest lecturers speak about the culture of each port. There are two interport students on the ship as well as an interport lecturer that just got on the ship between Mauritius and Chennai. One is an undergrad studying business, Sneha, and the other is a grad student studying retail management, Anusha. They touched on a lot of things and then ended their presentation with how to tie a sari and a demonstration of how to make a rangoli –a good luck symbol in flour that is put outside homes and acts as food for bugs so they stay out of the house. After the lecture, somehow it worked out that a group of six of us hung around to ask questions (I think about our train tickets, actually) and then we ended up talking to the girls for almost three hours! It was great –Sneha had some little gifts that she gave us and then I remembered that I had bought little things from Pittsburgh at the airport, just for such occasions. So, Sneha chose a magnet of Pennsylvania and Anousha took a little deck of cards with Pittsburgh on the front. Another girl, Alicia, gave them postcards from Utah. It was also really cool because we were sitting with another girl, named Shafiqa, who’s family is Afghani. We were all having a great cultural exchange with one another. We talked about everything from what to do and eat in India to clothing, comparing how college life is, family life, weddings, weather, Bollywood, etc. I asked Sneha if she could tell me some good Indian music, and she said, “Oh, I can just give you some.”Yay! So, I’m meeting her in her cabin tomorrow at noon to talk about Indian music and she’s burning me some CDs. She took down our contact info too and we’re gonna be Facebook friends.

Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day!