The Queen Mary II

I think most everyone knew this before I left, but my family opted to return to Canada in style aboard the ocean-liner Queen Mary II. First things first- that is one hell of a giant ship (the largest passenger ship, I think.) It was super-luxurious with a friendly and too-courteous crew, excellent facilities, and awesome food. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The crossing takes nine days in total, during which the only internet access I had would have cost me $25 and a kidney per hour. Even emails were $1.50 to send AND receive. So I was cut off for the whole time. The ship was quite stable and quiet, so it was easy to think you were in some fancy hotel with a strange view and rolling motion. Our cabin was large enough to sleep in and had a balcony (and a TV with repeating episodes of Scrubs and Friends which we tried not to watch too much.) There was a gym, which I used three times, a theatre which I never used, a planetarium where I saw a mis-titled lecture on post-WWII Britain called "Rock and Roll Babies", various restaurants, swimming pools, hot tubs, a night club (which I did frequent), casino (did not), pub (did), and ball room (briefly.)

The food was, as I said, excellent. There were appetizers, salads, dessert, and a choice of pasta, fish, poultry, red meat and vegetarian for the main course. I ate a lot. What I meant when I said the staff was too courteous was that I felt weird because they'd do stuff like push my chair in for me, unfold my serviette and place it on my lap, or say sorry as they made space for me to pass in the halls. Even having priority over them while walking down the hall is weird, since I don't have the superiority complex other people evidently do, where they want crew to wait on them hand and foot and stay out of their way.

One other nice thing about being on board is that I managed to meet people my age. The average age on that ship was above retirement, it seemed, since it consisted mostly of "the newly-wed and the nearly-dead," with more of the latter, but there was some social event for people from 18-30 where I met some mostly German people and hung out with them for the rest of the crossing. I learned a bit of ballroom dancing, which was funny but also fun (and it let me dance with cute girls), played board games and ping-pong, and went to the nightclub where they had a 40-year old DJ who was odd but nice enough, and some frat boys who were busy getting smashed. I tried to avoid them but Nik didn't seem to mind them so we were in the same circle of people. There were also weird as hell German barony-types where the guy was in a German frat and was quite full of himself and his sister who was 16 and looked closer to 26, I kid you not. Her face looked quite lifted and artificial.

But I was with nice people, not weird people. There were four German girls, a German guy and a Welsh guy. There was a girl I liked who lives near Berlin, so I'll probably meet up with her there. Overall, the crossing was fantabulous. We got into New York (harbour) at 4:30 so I got up at 5 to see us come in and watch the sunrise. It rose over Wall street, which was beautiful. I spent two days in New York, about which I'll write later.

Why I'm Planning to Become a Vegetarian

At my barbecue party pretty much everyone was wondering why I want to become vegetarian (when I get to Canada.) This post is in response to your wonderment. Before I get properly into this, let me say that I'm not a compassionate vegetarian. I don't really care about cows, pigs, or chicken, and I don't mind their being bred to be eaten. That last clause is why everyone (cough, Daniel) who claims that they're not responsible for animals dying is lying to themselves- their whole purpose in life is to die and be eaten. This fact also causes me some trouble because I would be unable to kill a cow, for instance, except perhaps in dire circumstances where I would have no choice. Not being in those circumstances, I feel hypocritical when I eat meat because I wouldn't have killed it myself.

That, however, is a minor dilemma that hasn't stopped me from eating meat for the past 16 or so years. The real reasons I plan to be vegetarian relate to health, current farming practices, and the environment. Vegetarians are healthier. It's a fact. And no, it's not because they're more health-conscious or active people than the norm, because they live longer than their equally health-conscious and active meat-eating counterparts. This has several causes, some of which are the fact that vegetarians eat less saturated fat, less protein, more fibre and more vitamins and minerals. The negative health effects of saturated fat (and the bad chlosterol found in meat) are fairly well-known. However research has shown that people do not need as much protein as was thought and that an excess of protein is harmful because the amino acids it is broken down into acidify the blood, causing calcium loss. Far from meat protein being necessary, it's harmful. So vegetarians win again. The benefits of fibre, vitamins, and minerals are also well known, and these are all present in larger quantities in a vegetarian diet. Essentially vegetarians are at less risk of heart disease, various cancers, and other problems.

So it's more healthy. But I'm not particularly concerned about my health (although I do eat fairly healthily.) More important to me is the environment. A pound of beef costs several pounds of grain to produce and requires several more gallons of water than a pound of grain. Growing this extra grain leads to problems like soil erosion, which will become a problem in the United States in future (if it already isn't- something I need to research) and is already a problem in many other countries. And the harm of more water being used is not really something that requires much explanation. This extra production also requires more oil to produce the pesticides and fertilizers as well as to transport the grain.

Finally, I don't want to eat meat that is grown the way it is today. The regulations in Austria (Europe in general) are stricter and conditions are better, so I don't have much trouble eating meat here or in Germany (I'll only be vegetarian for the months where I'm not with my parents because firstly I wouldn't want to force them to be vegetarian because I am and secondly because they live in Europe.) In North America, however, animals live in horrible conditions in industrial factory farms where they're stuffed full of hormones and antibiotics. Slaughterhouses are similarly brutal and nasty. That's not the sort of thing I want to support, so I won't.

Well, there you have it. I'll probably add statistics to my claims when I get home, and also rebutt some of your foolish arguments.

Woo, first real post in this blog!