I haven’t finished writing about China or Japan but I can’t miss the opportunity to tell you that on the ship we are now on our second April 15th, all the more confusing because I don’t think we’ve really crossed the International Date Line yet: we’re not close enough to Hawaii. But it is not for me to question these matters. Today is Tuesday April 15, just like it was yesterday. We are now 11 hours behind the East Coast and will lose another 6 hours before arriving in Hawaii. This continued loss of sleep does not please the shipboard community and only adds to my natural state of befuddlement.
Now that we have left Japan it feels like we are heading home. Across the Pacific we travel, the waves swelling and pitching us to and fro. Students are thinking of upcoming final exams but many of us are trying to put the voyage into perspective: What have we learned? How have we changed? What next?
At noon today we had a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. The ship’s bell tolled 32 times. What have we learned?
