One day to launch

For most people, January 1 is going to be a holiday. They're going to celebrate the onset of a new year. For me, it's the onset of my new life.

I'm one of 1,000 high school graduates who had the test scores to be accepted to Techno Ocean Academy (from which Techno Ocean personnel are drawn), and on January 1 I'll be boarding the Eternal Typhoon oceanographic research ship, which will be cruising around the world in the next 365 days.

We start at Key West, Florida, then head North up the east coast of the United States, up past Canada, Greenland and Iceland. We'll then head south again, past England, Ireland, France and Spain, following the coast of Africa all the way down to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.

Then North again, up the eastern African coast...except on the other side of Madagascar, and far away from the coast of Somalia.

Up then, cruising along the coasts of Oman, India and Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and so on, and finally around Australia, before heading North again and the eastern coast of the Phillipines and finally Japan.

From there, the eastern coast of Russia, over to Alaska, up to the Arctic Circle for a while, then down the western coast of the United States, then the western coasts of Mexico, then Central and South America. Before rounding the tip of Chile, we'll visit Antarctica, then back up past Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, then curving west to take in Venezuela the Bahamas, Cuba, and fnally back to Florida.

It's going to be some trip! We'll learn how to scuba dive, how to operate submersibles, how to operate all the various oceanographic research equipment the Eternal Typhoon has, and so on. We might even get to perform resues on lost ships, find sunken treasure, and fight off pirates!

I arrived in Florida today, in Tampa to be exact, which is located on the west coast or Gulf of Mexico side of the Florida peninsula. I'm staying at the TechnoOcean Academy campus for the next two days. My parents and friends gave me a great send-off, including this laptop computer so I'll be able to stay in touch with them on the journey, not to mention keeping this blog.