join the navy, see the world

…or sometimes it's "join the navy, run in place for what feels like days on end and get nowhere". Or sometimes it's "join the navy, try new things".

The past few days have been filled with the former, and I am hoping that the next few are filled with the latter! What am I speaking of, you ask? Well, the past few days (ok, let's be honest, the past few WEEKS and month!) have been more of the same every day. It's officially been 31 days since I've seen the sun and I'm looking forward to changing that TOMORROWWWW! I've also been attacking the treadmill like there's no tomorrow (there is in fact a tomorrow, and it's usually the same as the day before though). In what appears to be an officially overcoming of my fear of treadmills after humpty dumpty took a big fall on a treadmill back in 2004, yesterday I ran a full 4.5 miles on the treadmill (without stopping, or more importantly, falling off!) at speeds ranging from 6.7 to 7.5. An epic day, indeed. Now my whole body hates me (it was only 4.5 miles, I know I know!) but there's something about running on a treadmill that gives you very limited range of motion, which has caused every muscle in my body to hurt. Weak sauce, I know.

But regardless, it was exciting and I'm glad to have run that much. I'm hoping to keep it up and top 10 miles before we come home (no mom, I haven't started studying for the GRE yet though…)

Today, I tried something new. One of the benefits as we pass through 7th Fleet, is that we are exposed to different kinds of foods. While I normally am happy with the fresh pineapple and kiwis (I have this new found love of kiwis. One day I ate 6 in a day. Would that be considered excessive? Hmmm…). Anyways, yesterday's underway replenishment brought us some interesting choices of fruits, including starfish and 3 other things that we could neither pronounce, nor figure out how to open and eat. Luckily for us, there is a guy on staff who is philipino and grew up in this area of the world so he knows all about these kinds of fruit. I've never seen anyone eat a mango so quickly in my life! I actually had no idea even HOW to eat a mango til I met Pete. A few days ago, Pete taught me how to cut and "dice" mango and now my love of fruit has spread to encompass the mango family. It is sure to be a new favorite topping of my tart and fat-free yogurtland delight when I return home. But moving on.

Today we saw these intriguing looking characters in the wardroom on the fruit line. Luckily for us, Pete was nearby and said "oh, that's a dragonfruit!" a dragon fruit, you ask? For those of you who have never seen dragonfruit, they are hot pink (which means I immediately thought it was cool just from its outside) and sort of prickly like a pineapple, but with bigger and fewer "pricklies". However, like a book or a person, one should not judge a fruit by its outer skin. You cut into the dragon fruit and inside is a white sorbet looking substance, with black little seeds (just like the seeds in my beloved kiwis!). Here is the wikipedia description of the "dragonfruit", plus a few pictures I found thanks to the help of my trusty friend "Google":

The pitaya, also known as dragonfruit or dragon pearl is the fruit of a pitaya cactus. Native to Central and South America, the vine-like cactus is also cultivated in Southeastern Asian countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The fruit comes in three types all with leathery, slightly leafy skin. [This makes sense, as we are currently passing through the southeastern asian countries and in fact are even stopping in Malaysia soon!]

• Hylocereus undatus (red pitaya) has red-skinned fruit with white flesh. This is the most commonly-seen "dragon fruit". [this is what I had]


• Hylocereus costaricensis (Costa Rica pitaya, often called H. polyrhizus) has red-skinned fruit with red flesh


• Hylocereus megalanthus (yellow pitaya, formerly in Selenicereus) has yellow-skinned fruit with white flesh.

Early imports from Colombia to Australia were designated Hylocereus ocampensis (supposedly red fruit) and Cereus triangularis (supposedly yellow fruit)[8]. It is not quite certain to which species these taxa refer to, though the latter is probably the red pitaya.

The fruit can weigh from 150 to 600 grams; some may reach one kilogram[9]. To prepare a pitaya for consumption, the fruit is cut open to expose the flesh.[9] The fruit's texture is sometimes likened to that of the kiwifruit due to the presence of black crunchy seeds.[citation needed] The flesh, which is eaten raw, is mildly sweet and low in calories. Few people find its taste offensive; some may consider it bland. It is generally recommended that dragon fruit be eaten chilled, for improved flavor[citation needed]; dragon fruit should not be used to accompany strong-tasting food – except to "clean the palate" between dishes.[citation needed] The seeds are eaten together with the flesh, have a nutty taste and are rich in lipids[10], but they are indigestible unless chewed. The fruit is also converted into juice or wine, or used to flavor other beverages. The flowers can be eaten or steeped as tea. The skin is not eaten, and in farm-grown fruit it may be polluted with pesticides.

Ingestion of significant amounts of red-fleshed dragon fruit (such as Costa Rica Pitaya) may result in pseudohematuria, a harmless reddish discoloration of the urine and faeces.[11]

Don't worry, I have not been plagued with the latter problems that are attributed to the red-fleshed costa rican pitaya.

So after cutting it in half and sharing half with Nicole, I was like "hmmm whats this?" and Chaplain goes- "eat it, it's oreo ice cream!" well, I never thought a Chaps would lie intentionally, but it was not in fact oreo ice cream. Or anything close to as good. In fact, wikipedia's description was spot on- it was low in flavor or taste and was quite fleshy like a kiwi. It was almost like the consistency of sorbet, if sorbet wasn't cold. It was very watery. Personally, I was not a fan. I could see how it could be a palate cleaner, but I'm not sure how I feel about "dragronfruit wine". Even for this Sailor who's been out to sea for 31 days and never met a wine she didn't really like, I'm not sure Dragon-fruit wine would really be my cup of tea. Or cup of wine. Whatever.

Overall, I was incredibly disappointed by the bland flavor and mushy consistency of this seemingly exotic and exciting fruit. What would be better is to cut open the dragon fruit, scoop out all of it's fruity dragon-ness and fill it with tropical sorbet. That would be yummy AND look cool.

Well, that's about all for now. It's quite late and I'm getting up early for our DESRON 23 Command Picture on the flight deck (my first glimpse of the sun in 31 days- yippee!) before we head into THAILAND!!! Three glorious days of sun, shopping, little paper umbrellas in our (hopefully dragonfruit-less) frozen drinks and copious amount of pad thai awake me in just about 12 hours! I am SOOO excited for this port visit.

Tomorrow, our plans include: pad thai, fresh spring rolls, and going to a tailor to get fitted for some clothes. Unfortunately, I have duty the second day so I will be back onboard, which will give me a change to blog about my first impressions of Thailand before heading back out to our beach-side hotel for 2 days of sun and relaxation.

Miss everyone very much and while I'll be MIA for a few days, I promise to have good Thai stories and pictures soon!