I was way too exhausted and overstimulated to post last night, and I don't have a ton of time to post right now -- I'm supposed to meet the others for brunch soon, and then I was planning to come back here (the suite) where I have wireless internet and can get some work done.

That's the real snag of this trip -- getting a free trip around the world doesn't change the fact that I'm short on cash. So I was even more underdressed than the others last night -- I mean, I was presentable, but I wasn't able to buy a new dress or anything, and I don't really have superformal clothes as part of my normal wardrobe. The financial anxieties I've been having were really played up by being surrounded by well-dressed people who obviously have more money than they know what to do with -- I feel incredibly out-of-place, but much less so among my GF companions. But I do have some web programming jobs, so I can take in some cash while I'm on the trip and hopefully buy something at one of our ports of call.

The other thing about being short on cash is that I can't pay for my apartment while I'm gone (I'm definitely going to be too busy to take in that much money!), so Jesse has to find a subletter, which he's less than thrilled about. He emailed me this morning and said he'd found someone reasonable, though -- a math grad student named Keith who's being kicked out of his current place because his roommate wants her boyfriend to move in.

So far it has been just as much fun (but pretty exhausting, for someone so introverted!) as I expected getting to know my companions, which is great. Last night we had two dinners, which couldn't have been more different from each other -- one ashore, with karaoke, and the other surrounded by the grandeur of the ship. And the boat is full of crazy amenities -- so far this is a lot like staying in the Tuscan villa last summer, just living off of someone else's excess. Each of the rooms is decorated slightly differently, in a slightly disorientingly opulent way. I guess I'll get used to it, though.

Okay, I should head to brunch now. There's so much more to say -- but I have to find the balance between experiencing events and recording them. I've made a few drawings, too, which I'll hopefully post sometime -- it's too annoying to post as much as I draw, but at least a few.