1-20 At Sea

1-20 Day 15 At sea

I'm writing this a bit earlier in the day because I'm so excited about all the days' events, and probably after dinner I'll have run out of steam.

Went to my first real bridge lecture (the game, not the part of the ship!) and met a lady who wants to play party bridge too. And, I actually learned something new about No Trump!

The ship's executive chef and the Pinnacle Grill chef demonstrated how to make two South American foods. One was an empanada (stuffed with ground beef (very typical of this area) and the other was a cold duck dish served over cold, cooked sweet potatoes. Since it is best when the duck is served very rare, I may not get a lot of friends requesting this dish! We were able to sample the empanada and it wa quite good!

We had lunch in the main dining room today (our first for lunch) with the cruise critic group – that was a total waste of time. For whatever reason, we just don't really go for this group much. So, it was probably our first and last time!

Because of it we were late to a very unique meeting – have never seen this on a ship before – a meeting for secular humanists. We wanted to see what it was all about – some interesting people attended – we'll probably try it again to see what kinds of things they are going to discuss.

Immediately following that was a continuation of the Exploration Speaker series with John Palmisano, the expert marine biologist. We had heard one or two of his previous lectures and found him quite engaging. And today was no exception. We learned a lot about the marine life around S. America. Found out the origin of the word “shit” as well. It means “store high in transit.” This is from the days when they shipped guano (which is bird poop, not just bat poop like I wrote yesterday), which is used for fertilizer, in cargo ships. If the guano gets wet, it has an explosive nature and so if water leaked into the crates with guano, they exploded. Thus, the new regulation for storing it high above the potentially wet floor area! In that same lecture, I learned another interesting fact. There are these tiny little fish known as vampire catfish in the Amazon River. They are the size of a toothpick. They are called this because they feed on the blood in the gills of fish. When the chemical reaction takes place in the gills – changing the O2 to CO2, there is a gas that attracts these little fish. So, they plant themselves inside part of the gill to feed upon the blood. A similar gas reaction takes place in urine in the water. So, they have found that people who swim naked in the river and pee in it could have these little fish swim up into their uretha (sp) and attach themselves. It is a very difficult operation to have them taken out because when they attach, they put out these little arm-like extensions that hold them solidly in place. I'm not sure I have the actual chemical reactions described correctly above, but the rest is just like he told it! It seems I learned a lot about pee and poop today! Actually, I learned a lot about other fish and marine life, but these two little stories were the most interesting.

Right after that lecture, I went to my creative writing class. By now my head was swimming with all the new things I learned today in so many different areas. And this class only added to all of that. We talked about how to critique writing today and then started learning about how to develop a character. In order to write about a character, you have to “know” that person as well as you'd know a member of your family. She went through an exercise to learn how to “get to know” our character. It was really fun. So, my homework is to develop one over the next few days. I can't wait to let the creative juices start flowing on that one. In addition, one of the participants in the class is a published author – and of children's books no less. I was so excited because that is what I'd like to write. So, I'm going to get together with her soon and talk about how to do this! It was one of the major highlights of the day!

We are getting ready to meet another couple for dinner that we met a couple of days ago on an excursion. They taught in Germany for over 20 years. We are probably going to venture out with them tomorrow on our own tour of the area. Don't know if we'll go to the show tonight – it's a musical. My brain is almost on overload, so I may just come back and read. Aside: I'm not going to participate in the book club for this book selection. Couldn't get into it so will enjoy some of the books I brought from home. When we are close to India they are going to read an Indian mystery. May try that. For China, they are reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (which I've read)