Almost to Myanmar!

Past few days on the boat have been great! The weather has been fantastic and I have been able to spend lots of time outside. I have been fighting a cold so trying to sleep a lot! We have gotten an extra hour and a half (they split the time zone in half so only 30 mins in this side of the time zone)
Yesterday I had a lab for my astronomy class where using a sextant we determined local noon (actual time the sun is directly above you instead of what your current time zone determines as noon) we found our local noon to actually occur at 12:37. From this data we were able to calculate our latitude and longitude. Later when I checked the computer in the library with our current lat long I was only a few degrees off- which is a lot in terms of navigation but I was surprised that I was even that accurate given just using the sextant for the first time and being on a rocky ship with sometimes less than perfect observations of the sextant dials and readings.

I am very anxious to get to Burma!They only just told us yesterday that dock time of 1pm means nothing because Burmese customs are very strict and it could be anywhere from 3pm to 6pm that we actually get our passports and get off the ship- ugh. Then it is another hour from the port into the city! Mom and dad said they are coming with the tour guide to the port though!! I am so excited to see them! And we have an awesome itinerary planned!

We have learned a lot about Burma/ Myanmar in the last few days- basically it is a country in turmoil, dangerous, unstable, elections are happening soon, riots have taken place, etc etc. the two names are due to the two parties (Burma for people who want democracy, Myanmar for the current military run govt) we are supposed to use Myanmar because that is what the current govt is and what they want people to call the country. The election is in 2015 and the person who is supposed to win- if it is a fair and equal vote- is Aung San Suu Kyi, a woman who is the daughter of the man who pushed for decolonization from the British after ww2. She is obviously pro democracy. they have told us this is going to be the biggest culture shock yet so I am very curious to see just how different this country is. We were told you cannot take pictures of police, govt buildings, roads, anything to do with elections or politics and if you are seen doing so you will be detained and questioned. Additionally Internet, email, conversations in public areas including hotels and restaurants etc are all monitored and watched. Even tour guides known to be with foreigners may be questioned by authorities as to what questions were asked and what the tour guide tells the tourists. I need to make sure my mom knows this and does not ask anything too much on the edge! I feel like we should have planned for my dad to go to a more "normal" country- he is never going to want to travel again!!

It is supposed to be 90-100 in Burma! Tonight we have plans to go to the shawagoda pagoda to see the sunset and have drinks and dinner with friends if we ever get off the boat!! I will try to send pictures along the way but will wait to write until I get back to the ship ( I have a midterm the first day back so will wait to blog till after that is over!)

Fingers crossed I get off the boat soon!


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