February Third - The Day That Didn't Exist

*NOTE* I wrote this blog post a few days ago, but for some reason I was not able to post it the way I normally do. I blame the Date Line.



Today we crossed the International Date Line. This morning, we were 179 degrees west of the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude, located in England) and now we are 179 degrees east of it. Today is February 2nd, but tomorrow it is February 4th. It boggles my mind.



Don Gogniat, our Global Studies teacher, held a competition to see who could best describe the International Date Line phenomena. We gathered in the Union at 2000 (8 PM) to try to understand, and there were some very creative explanations. One girl wrote Haikus to be in the spirit of our next port in Japan, a couple others rapped/sang to the tune of Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Lady Gaga, and another, whose birthday is actually on February 3rd, used an economic explanation of debits and credits to try and clarify it. Ultimately, the guy who won compared losing a day to a reptile who lost his tail all at once but then gradually grew it in 1/24 increments. After all of that, I think I have a vague comprehension of it now. All this voyage, we have been gaining hours every couple of days, setting our clocks back before we go to sleep, and now we have to pay for it by losing February 3rd. So I hope that everyone lives February 3rd, 2010 to the fullest, because I won’t be living it at all.