"Not a hint of a breeze this morning, so the ocean was glassy calm. You could see anything moving on the surface from miles away. And that was mostly turtles. I saw 7 or 8 in the space of 15 minutes, and the morning watch on the bridge (8 to 12) reported counting over 70. Fewer this afternoon, although I did see one with a bird riding on it. And I didn't see any at all late this afternoon when I was out for about 10 minutes. The turtles are all just slowly paddling along on the surface with the top of their shell out of the water. (That's where the bird was.) I'd judge most to be about a foot in diameter. Right alongside the ship I did see one turtle underwater heading straight down. Apparently we got too close to him, and he signaled 'Dive! Dive! Dive!' But ones 50 yards away were oblivious to our passing.
"This afternoon was the 'Mesoamerican Ballgame.' Stacy's Cultural Anthropology class did a re-enactment of a mesoamerican ballgame, complete with priests, royalty, two virgins who were sacrificed, and two teams of 4 who played the game in two 7-minute halves. It was warriors against slaves, and - in keeping with tradition - the captain of the losing team was killed. It was a close-fought contest, tied 2-2 late in the game, but the warriors pulled out a last minute score to win 3-2. I'm sorry to say I had bet our house and three children on the slaves. We'll have to live on the streets for awhile, and the children will be sold into slavery. But, on the bright side, we won't have to feed them anymore.
"The virgin sacrifice was nicely done. The two virgins were led out and laid on cots. A priestess bent over each one to cut out her heart. As each priestess bent over, she reached under the cot and pulled out a ketchup-soaked apple to hold up in the air!
"The games concluded - for the living - with traditional refreshments of lemonade and ice cream.
"Otherwise, just another Monday. Trying to wrap up classes and homework. I've got essays due in one class on Wednesday, have to write a final activity for another class, and exams start on Saturday. "
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