Gaining hours but losing a day. It’s a weird phenomenon that you get to experience when you live on a ship that is traveling around the world. Since we left Greece we have had 11 days on the ship that were 25 hours long. Yup, every couple nights during each crossing we turn our clocks back by one hour so that by the time we reach our destination we are on local time.
25 hour days are fabulous! What do I do with my extra hour? Sometimes I stay up later and socialize in the staff lounge or hang out with students - chatting or having a Gilmore Girls marathon with them (yes on the ship it’s become my guilty pleasure and escape from reality). Most times I use my extra hour to get up earlier and exercise – if I had 25 hour days all the time I’d be in great shape!
Well the Universe doesn’t just give away hours for free – so how do we pay back all those hours we are gaining? We lose an entire day of our lives of course! We went to bed on Sunday, November 4 and when we woke up it was Tuesday, November 6. Monday, November 5 didn’t exist for us at all on the ship. How’s that for a mind bender? I have a hard time wrapping my brain around exactly where that day went or why it doesn’t exist. I do better than many folks on the ship in understanding how it works because I’ve done it before but it still leaves me scratching my head at times.
The best way I can make sense of it is to think in terms of a Bank. Since we left Greece we have been gaining hours and racking up 11 hours of “debt”. Now that we have crossed the Int’l Dateline and “deposited” 24 hours we now have 13 hours of “credit” left (24 minus the 11 of debt). We will keep gaining hours as we continue but not “owe” the universe any hours because we’ll be using our credit. So every hour we gain is one hour from our lost day (November 5). I don’t know if that is really an accurate description of how it works but it makes sense in my head so I’m sticking with it.
More than anything else I am thankful that we are going the direction we are around the world. If we were going in the other direction that would mean giving hours back as we go and then getting to live one day twice. Living the same day twice would be cool but those 23 hour days would be killer!
Hope you enjoy reading my afternoon musing. Let me know if I missed out on anything good on November 5!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I spent November fifth sad that it was Monday and cramming for back-to-back exams the next morning. You didn't miss a thing!!
And Christy...you're going to NEW ZEALAND??!?!?!! Oh my gosh!!! Where are you going?? I can't wait to hear all about it!!! I lived there from February to July this year!!! I can hardly contain my excitement for you (and have never wanted to be on that ship with you more than I do right now)! LIVE IT UP, and tell us everything!
Nikki
This is SO funny. I remember 25 hour days from my voyage and I was JUST telling Jeremy about them and how great they were. It's true! You don't realize how much you can enjoy an extra hour.
It's so great to hear about your journey!
Post a Comment