The Calm Before the Storm

This morning I finally went to the doctor again. He gave me some antibiotics, so hopefully I should be feeling better soon. I have been so miserable.

 

We resumed classes today after having almost two weeks off in Spain and Italy. I found out that I got a 94 on my Adolescence exam! That made me really happy. It was a little rough transitioning back to classes all day since I'm not feeling well, but luckily it was a pretty laid back day for the most part.

 

Tonight I had dinner with my extended family. I love having dinner with them. Dottie and Ed (Dottie's brother) are so great, and there's three other students in our family as well. It's a really nice group. We got to share what all we have done in the ports so far. It's really neat to get to talk to people about their experiences because everybody's overall experience is so different since we have so much freedom regarding where we go and what we do. I was really happy to have family dinner tonight.

 

Today the water has been extremely calm. The only ripple is the one from the ship. It looks like glass. It's beautiful. I got a pretty cool picture out my window. This is all very ironic because tonight we are passing through the Strait of Messina, where the the water is wild. There are strong currents and whirlpools. The Strait of Messina is between Sicily and Calabria, and, in fact, it is the location of the story of Scylla and Charybdis from The Odyssey in Greek mythology. The strait is so narrow and the water is so turbulent that a local pilot actually has come and navigate us through. Isn't that insane? We have quite the night ahead of us! We will also be passing by Mt. Etna, and rumor has it we might be able to see some smoke and lava! How cool! We passed by Mt. Stromboli this afternoon, which is another volcano, and that was pretty neat to see (no lava though). I'll let you know how it goes!

 

I'm feeling very overwhelmed at the moment. It is very hard to juggle all of this traveling, school work, activities, work-study, etc. (especially when I'm sick). I have a lot to do in a very short amount of time. It's absolutely crazy to think that the voyage is a third of the way over. Time is passing way too quickly!!!

 

But for now, I am going to enjoy every minute I have. I am going to go out on the deck and take pictures of the beautiful sunset! Good night everyone!