This an old one from two days ago. I will post a new one from the new ship tomorrow.!

Last night I got to visit the engine deck, which is down in the belly of the ship down under water. Angelo who I think I told you about in a previous post is an machinist/mechanic who is considered a sailor. Being a sailor and not just a guy working on a ship is a very big deal here in Finland. Apparently if you are working on a ship under the Finnish flag you get the most money in the world for your job. Something to do with the seamen’s union be notorious for walking off ships for minor but important things like no “shit paper” as Angelo says. He himself if actually Dutch; which means that he still pays 10% of his earnings to his mother land, ahhh socialism at it’s finest. Although some of the more interesting points about the socialism are things like health care but that’s money that has to come from somewhere, I am very undecided about the comparison of systems. Meaning people ask, when it comes up in conversation, why doesn’t the US adopt a socialist system? My answer has been that because our system is based on effort those in favor of socialism are usually those who haven’t worked hard for what they have and that those who are against it have worked for what they have and they don’t want to give away “free lunch”. How does that sound to you guys back home? I really would like to know what you think as I am your “ambassador” to the outside world at the moment and I would like to have some input as to what America thinks. So America what do you think? So now that I am an ambassador to the world can I get those parking tickets torn up? Maybe not, in other words back to my story. The ship runs on four engines, they are huge 12 cylinder crude oil engines that are paired up to drive the 2 “screws”. For the boat illiterate that means propellers. (Listen to me 2 weeks on a cruise ship and I am “boat literate” hah ha). There are also back-up engines in case one of the mains fails to operate. Below deck is separated by partitions that I believe they call “bulkheads’, so that when you walk from say the back of the ship to the front, every 20 or 30 feet there is a sliding door that is water-tight. They open with hydraulics and a really loud bell rings when you close it that stops once the door is all the way closed. Oh that reminds me because of the noise of all the machines you have to wear really heavy-duty ear protection, which I did. Next room was the auxiliary engine room these engines produce the electricity of which I think there were 8 all of them the size of a Dodge Caravan towing a motor cycle trailer (the trailer being the generator part). I will revisit this topic later I am forgetting some things that will appear in my mind at some point soon.
Last week I finished one of the best books I have read to date, it was Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. What a descriptive writer she is, I was amazed at the way she would begin talk about a situation through the eyes of a character that was meaningless to the plot in everyway except as a tool to view that scene. The main character’s mind was not revealed until the last pages of the book and it is quite a long book at that. Secondary players even had great character depth to the point of being as deep as primary players in most other books I’ve read. The philosophy of it was very apropos of my travels here in an ex communist region of the world. I was having a conversation (alright it was an argument) with a nice woman named Johanna. Communist parents raised her and her mother was also an artist, I will have to find out her mother’s name, as it would be interesting to see what kinds of ideas she expressed. Anyway I tried to have her explain why communism was better than what we have in the west as she said she was much more a fan of communism and socialism. I didn’t get very far because she kept accusing me of being close minded and all I was really doing was standing on the philosophy of person freedom which is an affront to her mentality of “the person doesn’t matter, the state does”. In contrast when speaking with someone like Mark who’s mother is Finnish and his father is Jamaican-Canadian and who has been raised in Canada but living here in Finland fro the last 12 years. His view is drastically different than Johanna’s but closer to my world-view. Like myself he is very interested in the fringe knowledge that has been circling the world for all of time. He is reading a book called “The Koran, The Bible and Science” very intriguing stuff. Did you know that part of the “divine” revelation of the Koran talks about the embryonic development of a human being in the uterus. As well star constellations, water in the ocean and some other neat things. He told some story about Armstrong hearing chanting on the moon and when landed back on earth became a Muslim because the chant that he heard was from Islam. Another one about Jaques Custou (sp?), also searching for the source of all the water in the ocean that is spoken about in the book as well.
Tonight is my last night aboard the m/s Amorella, hoping for a good time. It is the birthday of “jack” the guitarist from the Bulgarian band. The funny thing about them is that they all have nicknames that sound American because no one can pronounce their Bulgarian names. I will tell you all about it when next I write. Ohh and only two days before I get some pictures up, so get ready to see what life and sights have been passing by my eyes.


Much love to you all. the new ship is great. what a party. good crowd and good tips.