The Equator and Prime Meridian

I woke up to wild waves throwing our ship around. It was not so bad at first, so I was able to get through Comedy class in the Union. I really do not like the Union, since it's at the front of the ship and rocks the most of any classroom. In class, we started doing some improv scenarios in which I felt like I did a decent job (I played a bird who got hit by a car). After that I had a short 15 minute break, just enough time to do nothing, before my history class. I always have to rush to lunch on B-days, since I never have enough time in between classes to get lunch, and my last class ends at the time lunch ends. Wonderful. I was not looking forward to history class that day, and little did I know that I was in for a treat. After beeing in class for 10 minutes, one of the captain's assistance announced that we would be crossing the Equator and Prime Meridian at exactly the same time in 5 minutes. Since this was such a momentous event, professor Ringrose decided to just cancel class, and we all made our way for the 7th deck. This was an exciting event because something like this will never happen again in my life. As one of the crew told us, almost nobody ever crosses both the equator and prime meridian at the same time, since there are not shipping lanes or flight paths that lead through it. In fact, our captain actually veered us off course so that we could have this experience. At 12:30pm on September 26, 2010, the horn of the ship blasted, the signal that we passed through the point. For a fraction of a moment in my life, I was in the northern, southern, western, and eastern hemispheres all at once! Simply amazing! I heard a little kid ask her mother, "where is the line mommy? I only see water." After that, our ship stayed on the meridian for a while, so I walked in the center of the ship, knowing that I was walking in the western and eastern hemispheres simultaneously! Again, so cool! I was able to get more than one serving of lunch on a B-day, since I actually had to time to do so today. However after eating, I hit the books since I got an upcoming test and essay due. The rolling ship was not helping, and towards the end of the day I became quite seasick and was forced to call it a night early. I don't understand how I always feel seasick the day after we leave a port. Hopefully this trend does not continue. Also Chris told me that the African waters are probably the roughest that we will experience, so that's a good thing. But for now, these waves are killing me.
-Nimish
September 26, 2010