The Giving Tree

The Institute for Shipboard Education, the non-profit that runs Semester at Sea, is based out of Charlottesville, Virginia, for those who are not familiar. It is not an understatement to confess that they are possibly the greatest thing since the invention of the cowbell. I mean it. They work 24 hours a day, even when the ship is operating on 23. I say possibly only because I have developed a recent obsession with these sparkling grape sodas (called Grapeteiser) I picked up in S. Africa.

Though they are possibly the only 501 (c)(3) to claim with honesty and fervor that they can "give you the world," there are requests beyond the parameters of possibility. I'm sure they would love to provide surf board storage, but it's just not possible. Needing to watch the Superbowl in the middle of the Atlantic? Sorry. However, when you ask for a porthole to be added to your indoor cabin??? Voila!



We receive a shipment from Virginia in each port. My friend Melissa sent me a porthole and a view, and for that, I am eternally grateful! If she were here, I'd buy her a Harvey Wallbanger. Which reminds me, I have a problem to come out about ...

It involves ordering. I used to have this weird condition of always selecting the food or drink item on a menu with the most ridiculous title, not paying a lick of attention to the description. I think part of me just wanted to say it, for who can sit at Denny's on a Sunday morning and -not- order the "Moon Over My Hammy?" Pork products aside, after a sordid history of ordering things that led to serious aversion, my sensibility had changed over the years. For the most part, I've learned to order what would taste good, or what is healthy. Sometimes. So when I had a recent string of drink orders gone awry, I started to worry. I hate the taste of licorice, almost as much as I hate waking up to bug bites. I managed to order three drinks in one day that all had a hint of Good & Plenty, concluding with a Harvey Wallbanger. I should've known not to order a drink that sounds like a portly man with thick rims and a comb-over. So to learn my lesson once and for all, Brian the bartender provided me with this list of ingredients to watch out for:

1. Pernod
2. Ouzo
3. Sambucca
4. Arak
5. Anisette/Anise
6. Galliano

Yuck!