#92 Qualitative analysis is hard.

So here’s a little more quantitative stuff…

DISTANCE REVIEW

• Number of travel days (August 19 – December 13): 117
• Number of rail miles from Indy to San Diego: 2,559
• Number of miles traveled aboard the MV Explorer: 26,334
• Number of car miles from Florida to Indy (clearly not a direct route): 2,224
• Total number of miles traveled to get around the world: 31,117

MOVIE REVIEW

• Number of movies seen: 4
• The Devil Wears Prada with Cantonese subtitles in Hong Kong
• A Good Year with Turkish subtitles in Turkey
• Borat with Croatian subtitles in Croatia
• The Holiday with chick-flick subtitles (by me) in Florida
• Best movie-going experience: Turkey (reserved seats, lobby service, intermission)

PORT REVIEW

• Country most likely to return to visit: Japan, Croatia, Spain
• Country most likely not to return to visit: India, Egypt
• Country most likely to live in: Spain
• Most beautiful country: Croatia
• Country with our favorite mosaics: Turkey
• Country most in need of environmental protection: India, Egypt
• Best port arrival: Hong Kong harbor
• Worst port arrival: Adabiya, Egypt
• Best port greeting: band and water-spraying fire boat in Kobe, Japan
• Most welcoming country: Spain
• Least welcoming country: Croatia
• Concept the US should emulate: Japan’s train service
• Country where we expected to find gingko trees: China
• Country where we found gingko trees: Japan
• Best beach: Phan Thiet, Vietnam
• Strongest connection to home: Touring the Frank Lloyd Wright home in Japan
• Best man-made spectacle on earth: the Hong Kong harbor light show
• Best rooftop experience for Mary: The nightclub on top of the Rex Hotel in Saigon
• Best rooftop experience for Kelly: The camera obscura in Cadiz, Spain
• Most spectacular structure: Himeji Castle in Japan
• Most inspirational structure: A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan
• Best local food: Dim Sum in Hong Kong
• Best non-local food: Italian in Saigon
• Food Mary can’t believe she ate: Bird’s nest soup (made from swallow’s saliva) 
• Favorite souvenirs: Bowls from Turkey and a shoulder bag from Myanmar
• Favorite trip leadership experience: 3-day trip to Phan Thiet, Vietnam with about 20 students
• Scariest trip leadership experience: 3-day trip to Delhi, India when one of our student’s hotel rooms caught on fire
• Favorite sign: “Enjoy the present condition and do an enjoyable life.” (in China) 
• Animals spotted: flying fish, camels, monkeys, whales, sea lions, alligators

LIBRARY REVIEW

• Most inspiring library: Bibliotheca Alexandrina
• Most welcoming library: Cairo Public Library
• Librarian most likely to have her own action figure: Erika
• Most professionally rewarding on-ship experience: Completing the semester-long project to rebarcode the ENTIRE collection
• One more reason to become a librarian: See the world (as if you needed another one) 
• Plan for next time: Bring copies of Oh The Places You’ll Go for library donations in each port

SHIP LIFE REVIEW

• Number of words/phrases added to vocabulary: 2 (Top Ass - from stimulating library conversation, replaces ‘awesome’ AND Weak Sauce – from stimulating conversation with our daughters, means ‘disappointing’)
• Most exercise: Kelly’s workout with his Sea Olympics volleyball team
• Most beautiful water: Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Japan
• Least beautiful water: Approach to Myanmar on Irrawaddy River
• Roughest seas: Atlantic Ocean leaving Spain and Mediterranean Sea leaving Egypt Most personally rewarding on-ship experience: Adopting 6 fabulous daughters
• Best music: Megan’s singing
• Best dinner: Captain’s dinner with table service, superb food, unlimited wine
• Best opportunity for flirting with Captain Roman: Mary seated at the Captain’s right hand during the Captain’s dinner
• Best on-ship dessert for Kelly: flan
• Best on-ship dessert for Mary: peanut butter cookies

Yours in driving slowly home to give us plenty of review time,
Kelly and Mary