10.22.09
We arrive in India tomorrow and I am so excited! I get to see Shashank! Nothing exciting has happened except we have been having our pre-ports. Our interport students were too cute. They are so friendly and outgoing.
Last night after our cultural pre-port, they had a game show in the piano lounge called You Don’t Know Jack. It was basically the SAS version of the Newlywed Game. Mackenzie and I entered since we are basically the same person. Jeremy and Kristin also entered. The only question we got wrong was what color shirt I was wearing 2 days ago. I don’t even know that answer to that question, much less Mackenzie. We ended up losing to 2 girls who cheated, but oh well. They got their butts kicked in the final.
Afterward, we hung out in the hallway and played pish-posh. I won with a score of 17, which is pretty good I think.
Tonight was the longest logistical pre-port ever. Karen in the field office really needs to par down her powerpoints. Chetna did do a hilarious skit about taking the Global Studies exam and Slumdog Millionaire. It was great. I am surprised that Dean Nick participated with her. Afterward, there was a vicarious voyage meeting and my group bailed on me. Thanks guys. So I was scrambling to find enough stuff, but it worked out. I hit the hay early because we are in India tomorrow.

10.20.09
SEA OLYMPICS!!!!
Today was probably the best day ever at sea. The sea was unnaturally calm. Center Hill is choppier than the ocean was today. It was kind of weird, but it worked. We grabbed some breakfast and then got ready for the SEA OLYMPICS. Everyone on the ship is divided up into a Sea depending on where their cabin is. The seas and their colors are as follows:

Andaman Sea – Orange
Arabian Sea – Purple
Balearic Sea – Pink
Dead Sea – Green (I find that this was made up of the faculty/staff and life long learners)
Labrador Sea – Blue
Lacadive Sea - Black
Mediterranean Sea – Yellow
Sargasso Sea – Gray/Silver
Yellow Sea – Red (Why the yellow sea’s color isn’t yellow I will never know)

Rosario and I decked ourselves out in purple. I borrowed a shirt and shorts from Mackenzie because I own exactly 0 articles of clothing that are purple. I also borrowed her bandana and we had face paint. We headed to the union for the opening ceremonies. My sea is one of the smaller ones, and not exactly spirited. It was like pulling teeth to get people to show up and cheer. The Andaman Sea, who had the obnoxious color of orange, were WAY into it. Plus, they are also one of the bigger seas.
We had a roll call where we had to do our team cheer. Ours was to the tune of “Eye of the Tiger”:

Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Duuunn
Keep your eye on the fire
It’s the thrill of the knights
Rising up to the challenge of our rivals
And against our team there is no chance so survive
Cuz we’re conquering all as the Ahh-Rabiann Sea!

So not the best, but I like to think it was original. We had the opening ceremonies and the games began. There were many events going on at once. The first events were
-       Extreme Musical Chairs
-       Make Me laugh
-       Banner
-       Game Room (Scattegories, Pictionary, Scrabble)
-       Reverse Scavenger Hunt
-       Flip Cup
-       Pull-Ups
-       Synchronized Swimming
-       Volleyball
-       Water Pong

I started out at volleyball. We won our first match against Labrador. We had some games in between so I went and watched synchronized swimming. That was pretty much hysterical. All the teams didn’t actually do any synchronized swimming, but they were still very entertaining.
We played our next game against Mediterranean. We lost pretty bad so now I have strawberries on my knees for nothing. Although, the last game was actually competitive because we were playing all the San Diego kids so it was fine. It made me really miss volleyball though.
There was some time to kill before my next event – tug. Tug was intense, but not like WKU. But it was awesome because the whole ship got into it. We first pulled the Dead Sea and won. Our second pull was against Lacadive and we lost, but then we pulled Labrador for third and won. So I guess third is pretty good.
Afterward, we caught the end of the spelling bee in the union. We also ran into Bryan who told us that we took 4th in Make-Up Boy, which is where guys have to put make-up on a girl and whoever looked the best won. Then we all broke for lunch.
After lunch were a ton of events including:
-       Dean Byron Says
-       Popcorn eating contest
-       Dodgeball
-       Sweatshirt Medley
-       Human Knot and Lap Sit

I went and watched Dean Byron says to support Mackenzie. She didn’t do that hot. The people at the end went for so long. It was pretty funny to watch. Byron really enjoyed it. I stayed in the Union because I was also competing in SAS trivia. We totally got screwed out of like 5 questions. Needless to say, we didn’t make it out of the first round. I went up to Deck 6 and watched the end of water pong (basically beer pong, but with water). It was pretty crazy people got so into it. I can only imagine what they are like when they are actually playing beer pong. I stayed and watched until it was time for the relay race. Rosario and I were signed up to do the 3-legged race. The relay race was probably the most unorganized thing ever. It ended up starting 45 minutes late. Then we got screwed out of another part. It was just dumb. Also going on at this time was crab soccer and Hawaiian bowling.
After the relay race, I went and chilled in the union because I was competing in Don’t Forget the Lyrics. For the first round we picked our genre. Caroline picked rock and got “Livin’ on a Prayer” and got her question right. Then Kelli went and got “Glamorous” by Fergie. I got “Amazed” by Lone Star. We used 2 of our life lines, but we made it to the next round! By the end of the first round, only 2 teams had passed so we automatically got first or second! They had a play-off for the next 2 teams. In the end, it was the WOW’s (LLLs), Labrador, Sargasso and Arabian. We battled it out and Arabian Won! Caroline had our winning song with “Big Yellow Taxi” by Counting Crows.
Afterward, we all raced up to the 7th Deck for the BBQ. The food was SO good. Hamburgers, corn on the cob, and ribs! Oh man I wish we had food like that every night. The sunset we watched while we ate was unreal. It really was the perfect ending to a great day – smooth water, good competition, good food and a beautiful sunset.
I ran down and jumped in the shower before the closing ceremonies. Katie and I went up there and it was basically a big dance party. They played “I’m On A Boat” and that was awesome. Then MacGarrett announced the winners. Arabian Sea got dead last! Yep, last. Even the faculty/staff and life long learners did better than us. So we pretty much rocked the Sea Olympics haha. Andaman Sea won so they get to get off the ship first in San Diego. So I was slightly disappointed, but it was still an amazing day!

I feel like Mauritius is a country we can all learn from. Because of their sugar production and colonization they have a very diverse people. They all have different religions, but yet they all live in peace. There are not many places that are like that.
Mauritius was beautiful, but not as nice as I was expecting. I looked at everyone else’s pictures of the beach and they were awesome so clearly I was just at the wrong beach.
I had a blast in Mauritius. The adventure park with Dr. Aimee, Kara and Louise has been one of my favorite memories to date. Even though I was covered with bruises and sore as hell the next day, I feel like I really bonded with the people I was with and I talked to people I probably would have never talked to.
I also learned more about sugar than I even though I would. It is amazing to me how much they are able to get out of a sugar cane plant. There are over 40 different kinds of sugar cane plant harvested to produce 8 different kinds of sugar. They also produce rum. Then what they have left from that they burn to use as energy and make ethanol. They also use the leaves from the plant as thatch for roofs. It is really quite ridiculous.
We were also there during Divali, which is a festival of lights and like the Indian New Year. I wish we could have stayed there to see it.
Overall, I really like Mauritius and I think it would be a good place to  honeymoon. But it was a nice break from crazy merchants and poverty. I feel like it allowed us to all return to sanity – especially with India up next.

10.18.09
I got up this morning, grabbed some breakfast and went to the bus for my FDP. I went on a sugar adventure! We were taken to an old sugar mill, which has been converted into a museum. I never thought that I would learn so much about sugar and colonialism. I bought the book that tells all about it. The museum was so long that I just gave up on reading everything.
At the end they had about 8 different kinds of sugar that we could try. They ranged from dark to light and they had different granulations. They were all pretty good. They also had about 4 different kinds of rum we could try. They had a pineapple one that was really good. I really wanted to bring some home, but damn those SAS rules. It was really interesting because they gave you the straight rum to try and it was pretty disgusting. They then put a little sugar in it and let it dissolve and that made it about 10 times better.
We had some mocktails that were pretty good and then we walked out to the sugar cane field. We met some guy named Sonjay and he cut all of us some sugar cane to munch on. Since I really didn’t like it all that much the first time around, I passed this time because I figured round 2 wouldn’t be any different.
Mauritius is really resourceful when it comes to sugar. Roughly half the island is dedicated to growing sugar. They plant 40 different kinds of cane to produce 8 different kinds of sugar. They also produce rum, burn excess for power, produce ethanol, and use the leaves from the sugar cane as thatch for roofs. It has really allowed their economy to flourish. The weird thing is that despite that they are known for their sugar, they don’t actually use it domestically. They export everything to the European Union and then import sugar from South Africa for their own use.
After fulfilling our sugar rush, we boarded the bus and headed back to the ship. We got back at 12:30ish and on ship time was 1800. I really didn’t want to deal with water taxis and plus everything was closed because it is Divali, so I just decided to hang out on the ship. I grabbed some lunch and a book and camped out on deck 7. Julia joined me for a while and we just laid out and read. After a few hours I moved inside and met up with Rosario. We went back out to 6th deck and did some homework and ate dinner. Everyone somehow made it back by on ship time. Although, I wish we were leaving some in Mauritius. For some reason people think that it is a good idea to get shitfaced before coming back onboard. Why? I have no idea. There is this one girl who shall remain nameless who I really want to push overboard. Not only is she one of the people that ate the Oreos during Operation Hunger, but tonight at dinner she is completely wasted and practically falling out of her chair and hitting me while I am trying to eat. I left and went upstairs to take pictures of the sunset and when I walk back inside I am greeted with her making out with another girl…classy. Oh and she slept through 3 of our 4 game drives while we were in Kruger. Knowing my luck, she will probably be on my Cambodia trip too. But I really want to know her motive for going on SAS. I don’t care if people want to drink, but don’t do it when we are trapped on a ship with your drunk ass.
The rest of the night we played yet another game of pish-posh and watched the end of High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3. We have officially left Mauritius and we are now on our way to India!!

10.16.09
Rosario and I got up this morning and grabbed some breakfast and headed to our Adventure Park and Beach trip. I was ambushed by Dr. Aimee and was told to get on her bus, which I did gladly. Mackenzie was right behind me so we both hopped on. We drove about an hour to the park. We got there and signed our lives away on waivers and got fitted into our harnesses. They were super atrratcive. We could have totally pulled off being “robust mountain women.” We had a brief lesson on how to use carabineers and away we went.
The first course was the easy one. We clipped in and then walked across a series of footbridges. They were pretty wobbly, but not too hard. There were spaces that were pretty far apart that you had to jump over. Mackenzie and I followed Dr. Aimee, Kara (her 12 year old daughter) and her friend Louise. They were too funny. I love them! As Dr. Aimee pointed out – “How many other professors would do this?” The last bridge we crossed had nothing to hold onto. That was kind of tricky, but I ended up doing something between walking briskly and running across it. I didn’t fall so I guess it worked. While doing all of this we were being eaten ALIVE by mosquitoes (As our guide said “The mosquitoes are like helicopters.”). Our guide had warned us, but I never expected that. Between the 2 courses Mackenzie and I ran back to the reception area and put on her 98% deet. Since Deet eats plastic and I just put 98% on my skin, I had some on my hands and it ended up eating a little but of my flip, but the mosquitoes stopped biting.
The second course was way more difficult. We had to hike up to the top of this mountain. We were all ready up most of it, but the hike up was still pretty difficult so I am counting it as my mountain in Mauritius. We got to the first obstacle and it was a net laid over the ground, but it was basically touching the ground so it was pretty easy to get across. The incline was so great that people behind me ended up just doing a make-shift zip line down. That was definitely the easy way to go rather then fight the net. Our next task was another footbridge that had nothing to hold onto. The gaps were really wide so there were ropes hanging down that we used to swing ourselves across the gaps. I kind of wanted to try and Tarzan it across, but that really didn’t work, but I did make it across.
The 3rd obstacle was a cage type thing of ropes. It went over and us and down either side, but there was no bottom. So either you had to put a foot an each side or try to shuffle down one side. I tried to monkey bar it down the middle, but that killed my hands. I wish I would have had gloves. I ended up slowly, but surely making my way down one side. Louise fell at one point and ended up swinging from the bottom of the ropes. Dr. Aimee got a little tangled up on the way down and had to have the guides help. Best line of the day:
Guide: “Wow! You’re flexible.”
Dr. Aimee: “Oh yeah, I’m really flexible.”
Probably one of the funniest exchanges because she says all this in some sort of weird pretzel position.
Both Mackenzie and I made it down, but we were both exhausted and my arms were shaking. The 4th obstacle was a set of log swings. The logs were about 6 inches wide. You had to stand on one and swing yourself forward and some how kind of jump to the next swing. I thought this one was really fun, but towards the end some where higher than others and going up and down was a bit challenging.
We then faced just a wall of rope that we had to shuffle down sideways. There was a path where you could walk down so I opted for that since I don’t think my arms had not yet fully recovered. Then we finally made it to the zip line! It was so fun! But not nearly long enough. I slammed into this pad at the end of it and it was slightly jarring, but all part of the experience. I guess now I kind of know how Tinkerbell feels every night during Wishes!
After the zip line was the final obstacle – a rope bridge. There were two ropes on either side. One for each foot and one for each hand. I went with the approach of putting both feet on one rope and tightrope walk across it. I had a flash back to Wesley Woods in 7th grade with BGA and there was a similar obstacle there and that approach worked. I made it about halfway across, but then my balance just went to hell. I completely flipped over and then it was just game over from there. I managed to get back up once, but then I just fell again. So I am hanging there from my harness and I do the only thing that makes sense. I flip my feet up over the rope so my back is parallel with the ground and go hand over hand in a sloth-like movement and pull myself across the ropes. It was a little unorthodox, but it worked. Dr. Aimee got a great picture of me hanging upside down.
We all wandered back to the reception building to get lunch and count our bug bites. One girl had about 30 on each leg. We hung out a little bit there and Bill and Maria entertained us with some awesome dancing. We finally left the park and went to Flick-en-Flak Beach. It was nice, but definitely not as nice as I was expecting it to be. The water was beautiful, but it was freezing. Our tour guide stopped on the way there and cut some sugar cane out of some random field. When we got the beach he cut it up and gave each of us some sugar cane to chew on. The texture was what I imagine to be like chewing on bark. You don’t actually eat it. You chew on it and get the juice that is inside of it. So we sat on the beach, looking at the ocean and chewing on sugar cane. One random thing about their beaches is that they are pretty wooded and the trees look line pine trees. It kind of reminded me of the boundary waters.
Mackenzie and I decided to walk and did a little shopping. After walking around for a bit, Dr. Aimee came and found us and told us to get back to the bus because we were heading back early. We all wanted to get back early so we could finish up shopping because Diwali is tomorrow and everything is going to be closed. Diwali is, how I got it explained to me, like the Indian New Year. We signed out of the trip so we could stay in the waterfront. We finished our shopping and by that time we were both starving so of course we ended up going to Pizza Hut again. The pizza hut there is like a nice sit down restaurant. We sat at an outside table that overlooked the harbor and we could see the ship. We also saw Maria and Bill again and some of crew members who were using the free wi-fi. Bill and Maria entertained us again with some dancing. Bill took a hat and set it on the ground and tried to get some tips. He ended up getting a few rupees from our crew members, which was pretty funny. It was a fantastic dinner and very relaxing.
After dinner, we ventured to find a grocery store of some kind so we could load up on snacks, but we never found one. So we grabbed a water taxi and went back to the ship. It felt amazing to shower. I felt so icky from all the deet I had put on, plus I was dirty from traipsing around in the jungle of Mauritius.
We met back up and went back into Port Louis for internet. We ran into Jennifer and Rosario there. Jennifer ended up coming back to the ship with us. We chilled in the room, played cards and watched High School Musical 2.

10.15.09
Happy ½ Birthday to me! Yay! In addition to it being my half-birthday, we also docked in Mauritius this morning. About 0700 I went up to Deck 7 and watched the pilot boat. It was the first time I actually got to see the guy jump from the pilot boat onto to the ship. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I ate breakfast with Julia and Sam. Mauritius is a lot more mountainous then I was expecting, but it was formed by volcanoes so I guess I should have been expecting that.
Mackenzie was supposed to meet me at 0700, but I have just given up on our early morning rendezvous. I found her in her room about 0830, which was the time the ship was cleared. I waited for her and Kristin to get ready and then Katie joined us and we all set out into Mauritius.
We were looking for the market and ended up getting lost in Port Louis. We bought bananas off a street vendor and then the next thing I know we are at the market. It was awesome. There were so many vendors. I really didn’t buy anything because it is all made in India and I want to wait. Mackenzie, we have decided, needs a leash. She got roped into so many shops and tried so many outfits on. The whole thing started when a man told us that he had magic pants. Magic pants? Really? Needless to say that got our attention. Mackenzie volunteers to try these magic pants. It turns out that magic pants are basically a piece of cloth that you tie and they become pants. She bought the pants and then he put a saree on her. We basically had to drag her out of the store. When we finally got her out of the store, I turn around and another guy has draped a pashmina around her. We got her out of that and I turn around again and she is modeling hats. It was slightly ridiculous, but very fun. Besides just clothes, they also had fruits and vegetables. There were so many varieties that I had never seen or heard of before. I wish we could bring fresh food on the ship because I really want to try some of it.
We headed back to the waterfront to have lunch. We looked at a place called Shooters, but it did not look so good so we settled on Pizza Hut. Yes, as Dad pointed out to me, I am half-way around the world and I eat at Pizza Hut. It was so good. And I just need to point out on the ship we pay $5 for a pizza that is not nearly as good and at this pizza hut we got a pizza, garlic bread and drinks for $3.50. And I don’t eat pizza hut at home so it is kind of something new…..yeah I didn’t really convince myself either.
After lunch, we explored the waterfront area. We found a mall and then a smaller craft market. It was much better the people didn’t hassle you as much. We shopped around a little bit and I bought some small gifts. Everything in Mauritius has the Dodo bird on it. The dodo bird is/was the only indigenous animal to Mauritius, but then the Dutch came in and ate them all so now they are extinct. Way to go Dutch people.
We stayed in the waterfront until 1430, but then we got a water taxi back to the ship because Katie, Kristin, and Mackenzie all had a children’s village visit so I just headed back with them. I ended up grabbing my laptop and jumping back on a water taxi and going back to the waterfront to find an internet café. Just a note on water taxis: They are these boats that has a motor that is barely strong enough to propel themselves across the water – much less when they are filled with 30 students. They also sit really low to the water and it is slightly nerve-wracking when traveling with expensive electronic equipment. But my laptop and I made it safely to the waterfront. I walked around a bit by myself and it was nice to get away from everybody for a while. It was a very freeing experience because we are in such tight quarters on the ship and then we get into this foreign country, but we still run into a ton of people we know. But anyway, I found an internet café and stayed there for a while. I planned out my semester next year at WKU and chatted with a few people on skype.
I headed back to the ship around 1830 to meet up with everyone and the head out to their villa. It took me forever and a day to get back. Mackenzie and I had planned to go to the villa and then get up the next morning and get a cab back so we could go to the adventure park. I really, at this point, didn’t want to go and luckily neither did Mackenzie. It was going to be way too much of a hassle. So we said goodbye to everyone and grabbed dinner on the ship. We met up with Jennifer and Rosario and then we all went back to the internet café. I skyped everyone I could think of. I talked to Mom, Dad, Pam, Alana, Memi, Nate and Brian. I was so happy! It was fantastic to get to talk to everybody! I tried to call Ebonee and Sarah, but neither of then picked up.
We all headed back to the ship around 2230. We all came back to my room and played pish-posh and watched High School Musical, which Mackenzie and Rosario had never seen, but Jennifer and I are pretty much obsessed. Mackenzie had always made fun of HSM, but now that she has actually watched it she loves it – go figure.

We had probably one of the most entertaining pre-port. Dean Byron, our Dean of Students, addressed the issue of alcohol use on the ship. Most of the staff are especially concerned about Mauritius because many students use it as an opportunity to rent villas, lay on the beach and party. Apparently people who sleep on the ship while in port were complaining about the loudness of drunk students coming back on the ship late at night. So Dean Byron said that 95% of us usually do alright with this, but there is about 5% of the ship who are just dumb. So Dean Byron reminded all of us to not be stupid because when you are stupid it is not cute (ie having to have a crew member carry you up the gangway). Then go to the aft because that is where you can be loud. Therefore, “Don’t be stupid – Be cute and do it in the aft.”

The reason I am looking forward to Mauritius is because it involves a beach and relaxation. I am looking forward to a port where I can take it easy. I am going to the Adventure Park with Mackenzie and Dr. Aimee and I am so pumped. I am a little nervous about the zip lines though. My goal is just to let go and be in the moment and enjoy myself. I a scoping out an internet café because I need to talk to Mom. I am ready for sun and sand and relaxation. Too bad we aren’t there longer.

10.14.09
Today was the global studies mid-term. It was the most ridiculous test I have ever taken. Every question had about 3 correct answers. Everyone was freaking out. I just kind of gave up. The only thing I can figure is that there is going to be one hell of a curve. As Dr. Aimee said, “He can’t fail everyone.”
The rest of the day we played pish-posh. I think I can successfully say that I have all my friends addicted to it. It is awesome. Now the game is spreading to New York, Oregon, Colorado, and California.
We also had our service learning mid-term check in. That went alright. I then started to work on the slideshow that I am using during the Disney info session I am giving at some point after India. While doing this Mackenzie and I were camped out on the back deck.
After dinner, we had our logistical pre-port for Mauritius. Mackenzie and I saw that Dr. Aimee is our group leader for our Adventure Park and Beach trip. It is going to be awesome. She is going to see Mackenzie and I in rare form that day.
Mackenzie and I went back to the room and watched Troop Beverly Hills. I realized the similarities that Mackenzie has to Shelley Long’s character Phyllis. Here we go down the zip line – “Phyllis!!” haha 


Lauren Gray
Career Development Program Assistant

10.13.09
Things have been pretty normal as life on a ship can be. Last night I went and listened to a woman talk about living your life to the extreme. The woman who spoke was named Lynn Felder. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She gave speeches on the disease and has tried to get laws passed. This was her first speaking since the disease took her voice. It was amazing to hear how quiet the union was and see how aptly everyone was listening. Everyone was hanging on her every word. She was speaking about how life can suck, but it is all about your attitude. You can look at life negatively or positively and that makes all the difference. When she was finished speaking, everyone in the room was immediately on their feet. Here is woman, an SAS alum F81, who is confined to a wheel chair. It was sad, but she had such a great attitude.
Tonight we also had the first meeting of Your Voyage of Discovery, which is a group I joined with Kristin and Becky. It is fun getting to know a new group of people on the ship.
I have realized that this voyage is starting to have an effect, or at least one that I am beginning to notice. I look at everything differently. I realize that I have entirely way too much stuff. I expect to downsize greatly when I get home. I have seen such self-less people and even though they have “nothing” I strive to be just like them. They are happy and see the small joys in life. This voyage has emphasized the fact that I never want to be still. I want to make everyone I know get out and experience new things. I thought I had, but have barely scratched the surface. The amazing thing is that this voyage is almost half way over and I can’t imagine what more I am going to see.
The atmosphere on the ship has been a little tense. The global studies mid-term is tomorrow and people are freaking out. I am just kind of over it. The class is so ridiculous. My work load really hasn’t been that bad. I freaking love Dr. Aimee. One reason is that she really cares about us and wants us to learn. But she is very flexible in her schedule and wants everything to be fair. And she is so much fun. For example, today in my international management class (there are only 13 of us including her) there were 3 people missing. Well we decided to have class on Deck 5 aft, but we walked through the pool area on Deck 7 to see who we could find. Well wouldn’t you know we found 2 of the 3. One was reading at a table and the other was playing ping-pong. The looks on their faces were priceless. She told us that at her home university in Denver she calls students who don’t come to class. I love the fact that we can just have class on the back deck. I can’t believe the voyage is half way over! I don’t want to go home!

10.9.09

It was hard to get back into the swing of class again. Global studies was slightly interesting, but not really. I met up Leigh-Anne and got her pictures from South Africa. I love them!
In Service Learning we talked about India’s culture and I have to do research on Hinduism and give a presentation with the group. I am really interested in it so it should be fun. Nothing else exciting really happened except the Lion King was on and it is amazing how much that can improve your day. It is funny because a ship full of 500 college students who just left a foreign country and all they can talk about is how much they love the Lion King and how they have watched it all day. I think I watched it 3 times.
I also went to the post port reflection. It was really cool to hear everyone else’s stories. Everyone had really different experiences, which is cool. Katie, Kristin, and Mackenzie came back to the room and we just chatted and hung out before going to bed.

South Africa blew my mind. My safari was amazing. It was a dream come true. John was great and it was everything I could have hoped for. I really just can’t believe that it finally happened.
What really got me about SA was that it was such a land of contrast. You climb Table Mountain and see the beauty, but then you see the shantytowns. We saw the wealth of the waterfront and then barely 2 miles away are the townships where people live in poverty like I have never seen. Plus you have this contrast of wild and tame. You can drive through a charming little town, but then see a baboon sitting on a car or an ostrich crossing the street. It was crazy and I absolutely loved it.
I think that I had 2 really bug moments while in SA and they both happened because of Operation Hunger. The first was the little girl named Kimmy. This little girl attached herself to Mackenzie and I. She never asked for anything, but I wanted to give her anything I could. I wanted to bring her home with me. The reason I think that this little girl had such an impact on me was because she really made me think twice about adoption. It was something that I never really considered before. But now I feel like I should help every child I can and if that means adoption then so be it.
The second encounter was the little boy and old man at the township where we helped with the soup kitchen. These people made me entirely more grateful for everything I have. The little boy, who is having one of his 2 hot meals a week, offers me his bread. It amazed me because it was such a self-less act and it was from the one person I totally be ok with being selfish. It made me realize that I have a lot more than most and I need to be more generous. The old man just struck me as so sincere. He knew he would never set foot in the US, but he still wanted to make a good impression. The look in his eyes said everything. The sorrow of his statement, but the faith that everything was going to be ok, I wish I could have captured that in the photo I took of him, but I don’t think that could ever be possible.
There was another incident that I observed rather then it happening to me. The kids who left their trash everywhere after lunch during Operation Hunger because they were too hungover to care. I really wanted to say something, but I didn’t. It was just so disgraceful. I have a feeling that before this voyage is over I will blow up on someone and I feel sorry for whoever it is.
Overall, South Africa has by far been my favorite port. From going on a safari, single ladies dancing, British Military, karaoke, dressing up like pirates, penguins, lighthouses or the poverty of the townships, this is a place I know I will come back to.

Operation Hunger 10.8.09
Mackenzie and I woke up to get to the bus for Operation hunger. Rosario was in the room and we for the details about her finger. It turns out that there was a piece of glass stuck to the bottom her shoe. She thought it was a pebble or something so she went to brush it off and it cut her. She went to get stitches, but it would have taken forever and Dr. Dave told her that it was her call about whether or not to get stitches and she opted for glue rather than stitches.
Anyway, Mackenzie, Jennifer and I all went. We started out in a township about 30 minutes outside of Cape Town at a local day care. We were helping Operation Hunger collect data to help decide if they were going to set up a program within that community. Our jobs were to weigh the children and measure their arm and their height. There was a little confusion as to who was supposed to be doing what at the beginning. Mackenzie, Jennifer, and I took over taking the children’s heights. We had to come up with a way to mark the kids who had already gotten the heights taken, so I brought stickers with me so I would put a sticker on their hand with a smiley face. Mackenzie was our line wrangler because the kids got really excited about the stickers. After everything was done, we just played with the kids. One guy was getting mauled. They almost broke his glasses. They were just so excited. Their teacher got them together and they did a singing performance for us. This one little boy was so passionate. He was too cute. Everytime a song ended he would start another one. We then sang them “Wheels on the Bus.” We also tried to teach them “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” At first, we thought that they didn’t understand it, but it turns out that they just knew it in a different language… go figure.
After singing, we played some more. A little girl named Kimmy attached herself to Mackenzie and I. She was adorable. She braided our hair and was like “You’re looking good!” She wore my sunglasses and we taught her to make the kissey face to the camera. Mackenzie also found another little girl, who she ended up giving her earrings. It really amazes me how happy these kids are. They are living in the worst poverty that I have ever seen, but yet they are laughing. It was not the little kids with the swollen bellies of the infomercials, but smiling kids. Yes they had dirty clothes and lived in shacks, but they had smiles. Ntutu (the woman who ran the day care center) was so thankful and appreciative of us being there. She said the interaction was good because it is hard for her to teach without desks or basic supplies without pencils. Just seeing the kids made me wanted to give everything I had. I left all my stickers and Mack left some bouncy balls and stencils. I just wish I could do more.
We had a break for lunch next.  SAS had packed us boxed lunches. They asked us not to eat the Oreos because they give those to the kids on their birthdays as a treat. So we collected all the Oreo packages and the rest of the uneaten food, which was a lot of hard-boiled eggs, apples, brownies, and pieces of chicken. We were all getting our trash together when this jerks at the table next to us just left all of their trash on the table. It’s people like that who piss me off. One person even left their half eaten sandwich out on the table. Really? You are college students – pick up after yourself. They are so inconsiderate and from what I understand all of them were hung-over from the night before. Go have another beer and drink yourselves into a coma. They also ate the Oreos.
We got to hear from the operator of Operation Hunger. It was hard to ask him questions because I feel like even he didn’t know the answer to them. Operation Hunger does not seem like it is the best run non-profit.
After lunch, we went to another township to help with a soup kitchen. It was literally out of this woman’s house. All the kids lined up and peacefully waited their turn. It’s amazing because in the US the kids would be pushing and shoving and yelling. They were so well behaved and appreciative. They were so excited to have the different things besides bread and soup they normally get like the apples that came from our boxed lunches. There were way too many of us and we all felt a little helpless. I just walked around and tried to find a place to help. I gave up and sat next to a little girl and boy while they were eating. I just watched them for a little bit. We couldn’t really talk, but he looked at me and then he offered me his bread. I said no, but that small gesture just blew me away. Here is this little boy who has nothing and this is his one hot meal a week and he is offering me food. It just amazes me. Then I was walking around and a group of teenage girls wanted me to take their picture. I did and the woman next to them had the cutest baby ever and I asked if I could take her picture. She said no because she was still young. I thought that that was an interesting response, but I didn’t push it. Then one of the girls told me that she was afraid I was going to sell pictures of her baby back in the states. I was shocked because clearly she has had heard some story of that happening because surely someone doesn’t just think that? The other big experience that I had was when I was walking to get back on the bus to go back to the ship. I was walking and an older man called out to me. He asked if I was from the US and I said yes. He then starts talking about the beautiful homes and the beautiful people there. He wants me to send his best regards to the beautiful people in the US. He said that he knows that he will never be able to set foot there, but he wanted me to make sure that the US knew he sent his best regards. He was so sincere. I wanted to give him a hug and I told him I would.
Operation Hunger is something I am so glad that I experienced. It was a little awkward at first because we roll up in this huge tour bus and basically tour these people’s homes, but it really put my life into perspective. How they live is real life – my life is like a fairy tale. They are so appreciative and happy. They barely have food and roof over their heads and they don’t ask for anything. They want you to play with them or take their picture. I wish everyone could see that. We could all learn something from this community. It made me realize that there is a lot in this world that I can do to help that doesn’t cost a ton of money. I also learned that I need to be more appreciative of what I have and realize that I don’t really need all the things that I think I need. I will never be able to put into words what I experienced in the townships. Nor will I be able to forget the faces of the people I interacted with. It was incredible and really made me take a step back and really look at my own life.
Mackenzie and I didn’t really speak the entire was back to the ship. Each of us were just kind of lost in our own thoughts about what we had just seen and experienced. It seemed like neither of us could stop crying. It seemed rather ironic that on the way back to the ship we passed an Aston Martin dealership. It just goes to show that South Africa is a country that has a strict divide between rich and poor.
Once we got back to the waterfront. Jennifer Mackenzie and I ran and did some quick last minute shopping. We ended up getting back around 1530 rather than 1800. We also grabbed a slice of pizza and some last minute gelato. It was delicious.
We got back on the ship and I tried to find Rosario because she had my receipts for VAT. (VAT is value added tax and since we are foreign tourists, we get to get that money back. VAT is 14% on every purchase. We can redeem the money for everything we purchase that has a receipt and is not a food item.) The pursers desk told me she was on the ship, but she really wasn’t. After running around we eventually found each other. We filled out the VAT paperwork and then went back to the cabin and hung out. We cleaned and got our laundry ready and passed out early.
We left South Africa that night and I don’t want to leave. This has been my favorite port by far. The water was super rough and drawers kept opening and slamming closed so I eventually had to tape them shut.

Here are the links to the pictures that I have posted so far on facebook!!! You do not need a facebook in order to view these - just copy and paste the address and you should be taken right to them!

Halifax
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2215204&id=41106498&l=27d973a758

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2217172&id=41106498&l=7587db2089

Spain
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2217177&id=41106498&l=082af1098d

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222018&id=41106498&l=283f4ca4c2

Morocco
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224576&id=41106498&l=6e43f022d0

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224579&id=41106498&l=3dfde051c7

Ghana
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224580&id=41106498&l=90a2cb0b9e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224606&id=41106498&l=16c742f21c

Neptune Day
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224758&id=41106498&l=c10aaf7bb6

South Africa
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224772&id=41106498&l=d37e265743

10.7.09
I was supposed to go shark diving with Becky today, but the weather was really bad so it got cancelled. That was kind of disappointing, but we still had a great day. We got up and had breakfast and met up with Katie to see about going to Cape Point. We had made plans to just grab the train to Simons Town and then a cab to Cape Point. But we stopped at the hospitality desk and the woman there ended up booking us a tour. It was only a half-day, which worked out really well because then we had the morning free to shop.
We walked down to the circle in the waterfront to catch a cab to go to Green Square Market. Our driver told us that he was going to drop us off a couple blocks away from the market. We were a little confused, but said ok. He dropped us off at this building with a little hole in the wall store. He told us that this is where the wholesalers where – they sold to the people in the market. He led us into the building and introduced us to one of the sellers. Apparently, they were friends. The place was amazing! We our taxi driver big time. He saved us so much money. The woman our taxi driver introduced us to was super nice and gave us great deals. We really didn’t realize how good the deals were until we actually went into the market. When we were in the market, we found this little shop that was the London Pastry shop or something. Katie and split a chicken and mushroom pastry and Becky and Rosario split a hamburger one. They were both delicious. I wish they had those in the States.
After we all ended up spending way too much money at the market, we grabbed a cab and headed back to the ship to drop off our new purchases. On the way in, we met a couple from Australia, who were curious about the ship. When I told them I was from Tennessee, they told me that they had one of the little land plots at the Jack Daniels distillery. They have been to Lynchburg many times. Again, small world.
After dropping our stuff, we were picked up at the port by our tour guide Jerry. In addition to the 5 (Me, Becky, Katie, Rosario and Sam randomly joined us that morning) of us, there were 2 couples from Spain and 1 couple from Montreal. Jerry kind of reminds me of Rafiki. He always talked in riddles and then he had this little giggle. He was hilarious. We started the tour by getting the history of Cape Town as we drove through it. We also stopped at some really pretty sights to take pictures. The Spanish couples really didn’t seem to care about what was going on. Granted, they really didn’t speak that good of English, but Rosario stepped in to translate.
Our first main stop was in Simons Town at Boulder Beach to see penguins! Yep, there are penguins in South Africa. They are too cute! We got really lucky because the weather sucked and when we got out at the beach, it was little cold, but the rain had stopped. And we even got to see a rainbow! We took so many pictures with the penguins, but eventually we had to leave.
Our next stop was at the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape is the most southeastern point of Africa. It was pretty cool. We took this little tram/lift thing up to the top of this mountain and then walked up to a lighthouse. The view from up there was remarkable. It was a little breezy so in all of pictures our hair looks awesome. We met a family from Detroit so it was fun chatting with him.
After leaving the lighthouse, we went down to Cape Point, which is the actual point. Jerry told us that the lighthouse was hard to see so there were a lot of shipwrecks. Therefore, since we are traveling by ship, we need to pay tribute to the God of the Sea by throwing a silver coin into the water and wishing for luck and a safe journey. After taking pictures with the Cape of Good Hope Sign, we climbed out to the rock and threw in our coins. It was gorgeous there. I didn’t want to leave, but we had to. Cape Point is located within a nature preserve and we saw baboons, ostriches, bontebok, and antelope. I was hoping for zebra since we didn’t see any on the safari, but I struck out again. The baboons there are crazy. They have signs everywhere saying don’t feed them because aggressive. We saw one just chilling on the hood of a car because the stupid people inside gave it a candy bar. We had to make sure the doors were locked because they also know how to open car doors as well.
On the way back to the ship, Jerry pulled over on the side of the road because he saw whales in one of the bays. The Spanish people were hilarious because they all just sat in the car and said that it was too cold. Once back inside the van, we asked Jerry if he could help us make reservations at Mama Africa, which is a restaurant off of Long Street. He tried, but there was a convention in town so they were completely booked up.
We got back to the ship and said goodbye to Jerry. We had plans to go to Mama Africa and then go salsa dancing, but by the time we got back we were exhausted. We decided to scrap our plans and stay in the waterfront. I took about a 3 second shower and Mackenzie, Katie and I literally ran to the grocery store so we could stock up before it closed and because we weren’t going to have time tomorrow because of Operation Hunger.
We went to the grocery store and grabbed cookies and canned apple juice. Yeah I am stuck on a ship and I buy cookies and apple juice.
After getting back to the ship and dropping off our groceries, we were faced with the dilemma of where to eat. We walked around the waterfront and everywhere we went seemed to be overrun with SASers or way too expensive. We eventually settled on Quay 4, which Kristin and Jeremy said they were going to. Turns out that they were still there watching the Phillies game with John. We sat down with them, but then I spotted Leigh-Anne, who was using the free internet. She called me over because she had found John’s (the tour guide, not SAS student watching the Phillies game) bird watching site in Kruger.
I ordered a steak sandwich and it was delicious. We sat around and chatted and just had a good time. The place had live music, but when they took a break they played normal music. Well wouldn’t you know they played Single Ladies. We tried to get Mackenzie up to dance, but she just said she couldn’t start in the middle of the song. Jeremy, taking things into his own hands, goes and asks the guy to restart the song so Mackenzie and can do the dance. And he does! The whole restaurant stops to watch Mackenzie and she did the dance perfectly. At the end everyone clapped and yelled. It totally made my night.
Later when the band started playing again, they started playing Achy Breaky Heart, so of course we had to throw in some Electric Slide. After our stunning performance, we decided to call it a night. We did make a pit stop at the pirate ship to see Pedro again. Mackenzie got involved in a swordfight where the girl was legit swinging the sword at her. It was all she could do to block it. We were all a little scared for our lives, but we all made it out alive.
Back on the ship, Mackenzie and I watched a movie and fell asleep. Rosario and Jennifer had gone out salsa dancing. I hear this banging on the door at 2am. I open the door to find Jennifer out of breath saying that she needs the green sheet (the green sheet is a green sheet of paper that SAS gives us that has all the emergency contact numbers, addresses of the ship and the US embassy and other logistical information) and Rosario’s cell phone because Rosario is in the hospital. If I was a little bit more coherent I probably should have asked what was wrong with Rosario, but I was just like WTF? Well it turns out that Rosario cut herself on some glass and had to get stitches. After that bit of excitement, I was able to get back to sleep.

10.6.09
We woke up early again this morning for out last game drive with John. We added 2 more passengers, Jim, who I am going shark diving with tomorrow, and Tony, who always has so much product in his hair that I just want to mess it up. It was a bit chilly this morning so Leigh-Anne and I put on the sweet ponchos that John brought for us. They were pretty hot.
The game drive this morning was not that exciting. We didn’t really see all that much. We saw more impala, kudu, elephants, giraffes, wildebeest and a rhino. I didn’t take any pictures of the wildebeest because I am still mad at them for killing Mufasa. The rhino was pretty cool because we got to see him flop in a mud puddle. He basically made it about 3x the size it originally was. Leigh-Anne and I had a goal of asking John a question that he didn’t know the answer to, but neither of us were very talkative so that didn’t go very well. Wee never saw a zebra or a leopard, but I guess that gives me a reason to come back.
When we got back to the lodge, we went back to the room and grabbed our bags and waited for the bus to the airport. I got split up from Leigh and Becky and rode in the van with Alex and Dr. Duran and his wife, who celebrated their anniversary while we were on safari. We got to talking and of course Disney came up. Dr. Duran apparently just got back from a conference with ABC and Disney and personally knows the head of their Internship and Marketing. We definitely need to do lunch. That is pretty exciting.
We got to the airport and got a burger at Whimpy’s while we watched rugby on TV. We tried to figure out the rules, but eventually we all just gave up. We just hung out there until it was time to board. We went through security as we were boarding. This woman behind me zipped up part of my backpack for me. Well that action caused us to start talking and she asked us what we were doing. It turns out she did SAS on the same voyage as Leigh-Anne’s mom in the spring of 1978! I can’t remember her first name, but her last name was Handy, but it is so crazy. She and her husband were on vacation in South Africa. Again, just goes to show how small the world is.
We boarded our baby plane and headed back to Cape Town. The flight wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t really comfortable either. I was very grateful when we landed. We got delayed a little bit going back to the ship because Becky left her purse on the plane. Luckily, she was able to get it back. Then we also had some issues trying to find the bus.
We made it back to the ship and grabbed some dinner and showered. I was gratefully reunited with my camera. Once we were ready, we went out to Mitchell’s in the waterfront. They were having karaoke night. We staked out a place and Mackenzie went and put her name in for karaoke. While she waited for her turn, Becky got drinks. We met some guys in the British military. They are also sailing and are headed for Australia next. They were highly intoxicated, but very fun. One was called ski because he had a Polish last name that ended in –ski and there was another one that acted as my dance partner, but I was never quite able to grab his name.
Soon it was Mackenzie’s turn and she belted our Proud Mary and it was fabulous. I freaking love her. She has absolutely no stage fright. Of course we were all screaming and yelling for her. Afterward, we went to the middle of the dance floor, which really wasn’t a dance floor, it was just the largest space between tables. We were joined by our British friends and at one point Becky and Katie found themselves being picked up by one of them. That was really awkward, but really funny at the same time.
We eventually left Mitchell’s and wound up meeting a pirate named Pedro. He allowed us on his pirate ship. Pedro was even kind enough to lend us some pirate costumes and we played dress-up haha. Mackenzie was able to fulfill her life-long dream of becoming a pirate. She took everything so seriously. We learned a little sword fighting and Mackenzie and Becky took Katie and I prisoner and locked me in the stocks. I guess they took pity on me and eventually let me out. After we had all the swashbuckling we could stand, we headed back to the ship and crashed.

10.5.09
We woke up at 0500 to get ready for our game drive. We went to the lobby and grabbed our packed breakfasts and headed out to John’s car. We all stayed in our same cars from the day before. Our car, in addition to Leigh-Anne and I, we also had Charlie and Carol Morris and 2 other girls. I LOVE Charlie and Carol. They are so fun! We ended up leaving late because stupid people don’t know how to wake up on time.
We went into the park and saw so many animals – steenbok, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, hornbills, hippos, buffalo, kudu, and more impala. Poor John related everything back to the Lion King. The whole day whenever we saw a hornbill flying he would be like “There’s Zazu!” Everytime we saw a warthog all I could think of us Pumba and then think of lice. Thank you Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
The best part of the day was in the morning. We were making conversation with John and asked him what his favorite animal was. He said Honey Badger. What the heck is a honey badger? Well it is a badger that eats honey…go figure. He likes it because it is the worst tempered animal and no other animal will mess with it. They have even been known to attack truck tires. So here we are just driving along looking out the sides in hopes of seeing animals. We zoomed passed this animal that I thought was an anteater and I got really excited so John stopped and went back to see what it was. And it was none other than a honey badger! John got so excited. He couldn’t believe that we were seeing one. Apparently he hadn’t seen one since January. Yay me!
My spotting skills came in handy one more time. I just happened to be looking right along the road while we were driving and saw this long lizard looking thing. It was moving along in the grass. I asked John to head back because I thought I saw something. Of course when we got back there, you couldn’t see anything. Luckily, we could hear it moving around in the grass. We waited a few minutes and then this 3 foot long iguana type thing appears out of the grass. It is called a rock monitor. I totally made myself look like an idiot. When I was trying to say where I saw the rock monitor I could not think of ‘grass’ for the life of me. So I just said ‘whatever you call it.’ He looked at me like I was a total idiot…oh well.
During the rest of the game drive we saw lots of lions, which was really cool. We saw some that had a kill and were eating. The kill was kind of under this log, so we couldn’t see what animal it was. While we were watching the lions, John was telling us how Disney came up with the names Simba and Nala in The Lion King. Turns out that Simba is Swahili for lion and Nala comes from another African languages word for lion. The word is actually Ngala (n-ga-la), but I guess Disney decided that Nala sounded better.
We stopped at the same camp to eat both breakfast and lunch. It was called Skukuzu, which the camp in which John grew up. He was telling us how his mom was a botanist and ran the nursery. His Dad also did something within Kruger. John also talked about his passion for birds. He is a professional bird watcher – he just reached his 700th bird. So after talking about birds, he moved onto honey badgers and bees. Charlie then proceeds to ask him if he learned about the birds and the bees. It was pretty awkward and John was just like “It’s going to be an interesting game drive today.” Pretty funny. At the camp they pavilions, under which were tables where you could eat. The interesting part was that the ceiling had a conical shape and where the roof came to a point there were a tone of bats just hanging out. It was slightly creepy, but neat.
After lunch, we went back out and Leigh-Anne and I tried to think of questions to ask John. Leigh-Anne asks “what is that tree in the distance?” John replied with “That tree in the distance…really?” Keep in mind that we were SURROUNDED by trees. Blonde moment #2 for us.
We saw some more animals including hippos, crocs, cranes, herons and vultures (which were around the lion and their kill). All in all I thought it was a successful game drive. We had much better boxed lunches and we saw 4 of the Big 5. We almost saw a leopard, but we barely missed it. ☹ We also didn’t see any zebra, but I guess a honey badger and a rock monitor make up for it. Throughout the day, Leigh-Anne was making eyes with John in the review mirror. It was pretty funny. Whenever you asked him a question he would look at you in the mirror. At one point Leigh-Anne and I switched places to take a picture. So when we headed back to the lodge, she cuddled up with me so she could still make eyes at John – hysterical. When we got to the lodge, she showed him pictures of Birmingham and some birds that just happened to be on her camera. He said that the southeast was not at all what he pictured.
We had a few hours to kill before dinner. Leigh-Anne took a nap and I went and got on the internet to figure out my schedule for the Spring at WKU. That took a good hour. Afterward, I went back to the room and relaxed with Leigh-Anne. We eventually made it out to dinner. We ate with Becky and another kid I have never met named Brett. He is on SAS with his brother Kevin, also on our safari, and they are from Denver. We ended up outing tables together and about 8 of us sat around and talked. The conversation was awesome. I learned some interesting things. Brett and I ended up getting into a conversation about hockey. He was totally hating on Shea Shea! He is an Avs fan being from Denver and all.
After we excused ourselves, Leigh-Anne and I went back to the room and found Poltergeist was on. Leigh-Anne had never seen it before so we watched and we eventually fell asleep.

10.4.09
I got up bright and early at 5 and got ready and was eating breakfast by 0530. SAS doesn’t want us to take food out of the dinning halls – so this morning they were opening the cereal boxes for us. That is slightly ridiculous.
Anyway, the safari was split into 2 groups because they couldn’t get us all onto one flight. My group is the early one and we had to be at the bus at 6am. We take a flight from Cape Town to Joburg to Kruger. The other group leaves at 8am and flies direct to Kruger from Cape Town. Well it turns out that the tour company gave our field office the wrong names of who was in what group. I was in the right group, but about 6 people got kicked off our bus and had to wait until 8 and then a few other people got phone calls at 0615 saying they had to be on the bus in 5 minutes. That really sucks because they thought that they had 2 more hours.
Our bus ended up leaving at 0645 due to the mix up with the names. We made it to the airport about 0715 and we got checked in and through security and we were at the gate by 0740. It was close, but we all made it. I kind of felt like the family in Home Alone running through the airport. It made things exciting – that’s for sure.
We got to Joburg without any incident. We had to get our bags and then had about 20 minutes before we had to go through security again. Leigh-Anne, Becky and I walked around a bought some snacks. We even tried some ostrich jerky. It tasted like normal jerky, but just a lot chewier. We made it through the security quickly – it amazes me at how lax they are.
We were delayed getting on our plane so we sat on a bus for about 20 minutes. This is when I realize my one flaw in packing. While I have all the clothes, extra batteries, bug spray and sun screen I could want – I realized that I did not have my camera. I had my video camera, my small SD400, my Flip, and my zoom lens, but NO 20D. Yep, I went on a safari without my camera. Guess that is just another reason to come back. But we finally drove out onto the tarmac and boarded our puddle jumper. It was probably the worst 50-minute flight ever. The plane was tiny and we flew through clouds and it was super bumpy. I was glad to be back on the ground. The airport we landed in was pretty much amazing. It was designed to look all lodgey – kind of like the Animal Kingdom lodge at WDW. It was awesome. I think that every airport should be themed.
We found our bus and drove to our resort. Becky and I entertained ourselves with the South African version of Cosmo. It was very different then the one from home. I actually liked it better. Maybe it will get a subscription to that Cosmo.
We made it to the resort and it is SO NICE. Leigh-Anne and I are roommates so that was nice. We dropped our bags in our room before heading back to the main area for some lunch. Our rooms = amazing. We each have a nice soft QUEEN size bed complete with lots of fluffy pillows… heaven.
Lunch was served buffet style by the resort cooks. It was delicious. They had carrots, chicken, beef, spinach, rice and venison stew and so much more. Coming from ship food to that was a nice surprise. I even packed granola bars in case the food was bad. Needless to say, those will remain uneaten.
After we had all eaten, we headed out to our safari vehicles. All the guides were just hanging out next to them. Leigh-Anne and I jumped in one, claiming our window seats, and hoped we got one of the cute guides and not the one with the peg leg. Although, that could have been intense because I am sure that he lost it some crazy way like a hippo ate it or he got charged by a rhino. This is Africa after all. When ended up with John as our guide, which was fine by Leigh-Anne and I. He grew up in Kruger. His mom is an Afrikaner and his Dad is from Kenya. He was a great guide. Right off the bat we saw Elephants!! What a great way to start.
We ended up staying out for about 3 hours. On the drive we saw 3 of the big 5. The Big 5 came about during the days of big game hunting. The Big 5 consist of leopard, lion, buffalo, elephant and rhino. They were considered to be the hardest animal to hunt. One the first drive of the big 5, we saw elephants, rhino and LIONS! We also saw impala, baboons (but not the kind that rafiki is…yeah I asked) and antelope. It was so fun! I can’t freaking believe that I am in South Africa on a freaking safari! It is so beautiful!
We made it back to the lodge just after sun down. Leigh-Anne and I walked around a bit. The resort is huge! I think my favorite part is the golf course sign that reads “Watch Out for Golf Balls, Hippos and Crocodiles.” Best sign ever. We eventually found some swings that you stood in rather then sit, and we played on those for a little bit.
We ate dinner down in a little hut/bar thing by the golf course. It was just a delicious as lunch was. I ate with Becky, Alex, and Leigh-Anne. We had some rousing conversation about being a vegetarian, gays at WKU and this trip in general. I really want to Alex again he has some very interesting points of view.
Leigh-Anne, Becky and I decided to walk around a bit after dinner, while Alex went to bed. We weren’t walking very far when we met another South African here on holiday. We started chatting and he asked us if we wanted to see a baby owl. Turns out he and his Dad saw this baby owl fall out of its nest. The Dad had picked up the baby so now the mom will reject it. So they are taking it home with them. The baby was so cute!!! I have never seen an owl that up close in the wild. We got to talking and he is from Joburg and his dad is currently living in Dubai. They have been coming to this resort for 20 years. They were super nice. He asked us where in the States we were from. When I said Tennessee he was like “Whiskey!” Then Leigh-Anne said Alabama and he started singing “Sweet Home Alabama.” That was pretty entertaining.
We eventually headed back to the room and fell asleep watching Disney channel.

NOTE: South African Accents > Australian accents > British Accents. Not only do South Africans have the best accent ever, but everyone here is also really passionate about animals. All they can talk about is how serene South Africa is and they are so right. Being out in Kruger and hearing nothing but the animals was incredible. It was kind of like the boundary waters. I can’t wait for tomorrow! I love
South Africa!!

10.3.09
We all woke up early this morning and watched us pull into Cape Town. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! I knew it was going to be pretty, but this just blew my mind. Watching the sunrise over Table Mountain was just incredible. Of course we got pictures and then we headed down to breakfast. We ate while we looked out into Cape Town. During breakfast, we had some unexpected visitors. Two seals were playing in the water next to the ship. They were too cute. I couldn’t believe they came up that close to the ship.
After breakfast, I went back to the cabin and got ready to hike Table Mountain. You can take a cable car up and down, but we decided to hike instead. At 8, I went up to classroom 8 so I could exchange money. They said they would be onboard as soon as we docked, but that wasn’t the case. They didn’t get there until about 9:15ish. By this time a huge line has had formed, but luckily I was the 2nd person in line.
Finally I got some money exchanged and I met up with Rosario, Mackenzie, Becky, Kate and Megan. We got off the ship and ventured out into the waterfront. It was so cute! It actually reminded me a lot of Halifax. But it was just such a change to be in a place with real stores and fixed prices and speak English. We found a cab that would take us to Table Mountain. It was kind of crazy because they drive on the left side of the road. Our taxi driver, Charlie, was hilarious. He ended up giving us his card to call him if we needed another ride. We should probably call him because I think Mackenzie left my Nalgene in the back of the cab. It somehow disappeared between getting off the ship and the taxi. Its kind of a bummer, but really it’s a water bottle.
We started the hike and Charlie told us that it should take between 2-3 hours. It was pretty tough. Rosario brought her iPod so she out in her headphones and pretty much ran up the mountain. Mackenzie and I lagged back a bit. Mackenzie turned back at the mountain in Ghana so I stayed back and coached her the way up. I didn’t want her to turn back, which I know at some points she wanted to. I would set small check marks and we would stop and rest there. The worst part of the hike was the sun. It really didn’t help with the fact that we started the hike at 11am. So we had the hot midday sun on us and there was no shade.
We eventually added a 3rd person to our group – Micah. He is from Hawaii. We just took it slow and steady. The best part about that is 1. We actually got to enjoy the view on the way up and 2. By the time we got to the last leg, which was the hardest part of the whole climb, there was shade on one side of the trail. The trail ended by basically going straight up with some very small switchbacks. We had to climb up and over. The difficult part was that the stones were so worn and they were so steep they were slippery. There were also a lot of loose rocks. One thing that I thought was weird was that they more of less caged up rocks and used them as a path. That was a little sketch.
When we were close to the top, we met some girls from the US, but were studying abroad at the University of Cape Town. We chatted with them while we climbed. We finally made it to the top when we climbed out of this gorge thing. The view was breathtaking. There was blue sky and beautiful blue water all around us. The view was much better than I could have ever imagined. We made it to the top in about 2½ hours. We took pictures and it was awesome. There was such a since of accomplishment. I am really glad that Mackenzie pushed herself to finish. It was a very challenging hike and we both made it!! When we were taking pictures, we climbed out onto this rock where there was nothing but sky and ocean behind us and in my gracefulness I rolled my ankle while I was climbing down. Brilliant I know. Micah was so nice and helped me hobble the rest of the way. At least I was already at the top.
There was a restaurant at the top so we grabbed cheeseburgers and sat overlooking Cape Town while we ate. The cheeseburger was one of the best cheeseburgers I have ever had. I don’t know if it was a combination of just being used to gross ship food and the fact that I had just climbed a mountain! But it was good. After we ate, we walked around the top a little more. We did a little shopping and we had to buy our ticket so we could ride the cable car down to the bottom. The cable car is pretty much terrifying. I don’t like them. I have this irrational fear that the cable is going to break. I think secretly Micah and Mackenzie were glad I rolled my ankle. Because now we all had a completely legit reason for taking the cable car down rather than climb down like really hardcore people.
I tried to stall as long as could at the top to avoid the cable car, but eventually we had to leave. I was pretty much freaking out and Mackenzie has it all on video. I pretty much just huddled in the middle and tried not to look outside. It was awful. Not only was there no glass in the windows so there was a breeze. As I was getting used that, the next thing I know the damn floor starts rotating. I stood there looking at my feet until one of the workers let me sit down where the floor didn’t rotate. We made it down in the longest 5 minutes ever. I was glad that it was over pretty quickly, but at the same time we just spent 2½ hours climbing up this mountain and it just sucked at how easy it was to get down. 
The 3 of us caught a cab back to the waterfront. We walked around the little shops, which are super overpriced because the V and A Waterfront is the ritzy part of town. But it is so pretty. Micah headed back to the ship, but Mackenzie and I stayed out. Mackenzie got an ice cream and I guess we are so used to communicating through hand signals, she just pointed to the guy’s in front of her cone. This sparked up a conversation with the guy. It turned out that he has an organization that goes into the shanty towns and videotapes people there that are really good singers. He then puts these videos on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. This gives them the exposure that they would normally not get. We ended up being interviewed and chatted with them about SAS and South Africa for a while. We finally went our separate ways and we continued to explore. The waterfront is really cool. There is a mall and a big stage and street performers. It was neat, but the stage performer was dressed up like a cowboy and was portraying “typical America.” It was so dumb, but the people loved it. And we wonder why everyone thinks we are cowboys. They also had this thing that I am going to call Water Ball. It was so cool! You basically climbed into this giant plastic ball and then rolled around on top of the water. We tried to do it, but turns out you had to be under 100 pounds…yeah so I definitely don’t qualify. We also tried to find an internet café, but we were unsuccessful so we headed back to the ship for dinner.
We ate and showered and I felt like a brand new person. I had a headache from hell because I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before. We met up with Jennifer and Mackenzie and I went to use the wireless internet at the hotel across from the ship. It was so nice to talk to everyone! Unfortunately, I guess the hotel was mad because they kicked us all out.
After we got kicked out, we walked around to try and find more wi-fi. We never did find any and we ended up just sitting a little bit farther away from the hotel and still using their internet, but the signal wasn’t all that great.
People are really curious about the ship. We had numerous people stop and ask if we were from the shop and then they would ask all sorts of questions about it. They all loved the program and then wanted to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves in Cape Town. Everyone has been really friendly so far.
We got back on the ship and I packed for the safari and then crashed. I have to be up at 5 for the safari!! I am so excited!!!

I am so pumped for South Africa! This has been a dream of mine since I saw the Lion King and it is finally happening. I get to go on SAFARI in SOUTH AFRICA!!! I am going to climb Table Mountain, go shark cage diving, and visit a township. I feel like I might have too high of expectations for South Africa and I am setting myself up for disappointment. I am expecting to see a beautiful waterfront with Table Mountain in the background.
Kruger should be amazing. The resort we are staying at is supposed to be super nice. I really just want to see and some animals and I will be fine. I am so used to Disney’s safari that hopefully I will not be disappointed.
I am a little but worried about crime. They are number 1 in the world for murder, 2nd in assault. A woman gets raped every 40 seconds and women in South Africa have a better chance of getting raped then learning to read. And as if that is not bad enough, the HIV/AIDS prevalence is 1 in 5. They say that this is an amazing port, but it is also the most dangerous one. I will not be in Cape Town for a lot of time. I just hope everyone else is smart.
I am going shark diving while I am there and I don’t think I am as scared as I should be. People are freaking out about it, but I really don’t see the big deal. There is a cage. Maybe I am just more comfortable in the water – hey I survived New Smyrna for 22 years. Or maybe I am just blissfully unaware of how dangerous it is.
It is amazing to me that Apartheid ended such a short time ago. I never realized how little of the population in South Africa is actually white. My stereotypes of South Africa came from the Disney movie The Color of Friendship so I am excited to learn a little more about the history. I wish I was going to have time to go to Robben Island. That would be cool. That will just be on my next trip to South Africa. I already know I will want to come back here. I look forward to the good shopping, good food, good wine and good times.

**Random Fact: There is a waiter onboard whose name is Paul. Every time he comes around gets my plate or refills my drink I always say “Thanks Paul” and every time without fail it makes me think of Preds games when the announcer is like “There is one minute remaining in the period” and the crowd responds with “Thanks Paul”**

The days on the ship since Ghana have been pretty routine, with the exception of Neptune Day. Normally I would be ok with this kind of routine on the ship, but not when it is cloudy and cold outside. Yep, we just crossed the equator and it is cloudy and cold. Not to mention the fact that the waves have been terrible. Plus, it seems like everyone is sick or is getting over a sickness. There was a rumor about e. coli but I don’t know if I believe that one. So between seasickness and actual sickness class attendance has been pretty low. The swells right now are about 8-9 feet high and before we reach South Africa they are supposed to hit 20! There is a rumor going around the we get “Wave Days” where the waves are so bad that we don’t go to class. That would be pretty sweet, but I will believe that when it happens. The union was so rocky that we moved my International Management class outside to the back of deck 6. That was pretty cool. It was really relaxed and considering there are only 13 of us including Dr. Aimee it was more like having a conversation then a lecture.
My extended family and I had a movie night a couple of nights ago. Christie rented out a room and got us popcorn and we all watched Blood Diamond. Everyone was so jealous of our family.
The MTM had the second game and of course we dominated as usual. So now we are in the semi-finals of the tournament. Yay us.
It is really ridiculous how cold it is outside. I was sitting outside in jeans and hoodie and I was still cold. What happened to it being hot around the equator? The cold is not helping the attitude on the ship. Most everyone is excited for South Africa.

This morning the 3 (yep, three. Mackenzie fell asleep in our room) of us got woken up by the crew banging pots and pans and blowing whistles through the hallway. They were all dressed up because it is NEPTUNE DAY!!!! We grabbed some quick breakfast and headed to deck 7. Dani, the royal torturer, got us all lined up behind the pool and we waited for the ceremony to begin. King Neptune (Captain Jeremy, who had painted himself green for the occasion) and Queen Minerva (Rita) entered and after a few words the ceremony began. The LLLs Bill and Carolyn started off the whole shebang. But somehow, I didn’t see how it happened, Bill feel and hit his head in the pool. I mean he hit it hard – so hard that it was bleeding. He jumped right up though and Dr. Dave took care of him. It wasn’t the best way to start, but we carried on. I was the first student to have “fish guts” poured on them. It really wasn’t that bad. Plus, I was about 2 steps away from the pool, so I went directly into the pool. I climbed out and was greeted by King Neptune and was told to kiss a fish, which I did and I also kissed his ring. After all the kissing, I went to Dean Bob who dubbed me a shellback. So it’s official. I get a certificate and everything. The ceremony concluded with head shaving. A lot of guys shaved their heads and a surprising about of girls did as well. A couple of people rather then completely shave their heads, got Mohawks and Shannon was brave enough to shave half of her head. But I am happy to report that I still have all of my hair.
The rest of the day was used as a break from class. Everybody just pretty much laid around and didn’t do much of anything. We all hung out and swapped pictures and tried to catch up on our blogs. Volleyball intramurals started and my team had our first game tonight. We are the Middle Tennessee Mafia (shout out to Dad for the team name!) and my team consists of me, Charis and Becky. Becky is from New York, but was actually born in Nashville, so I think she still qualifies. We won our first game! Yay!

Rosario and I got up and went to breakfast before jumping on the 9am shuttle to Accra. Jennifer was supposed to go on trip to an orphanage, but there were so many time changes that she got mixed up and missed her bus, so she joined us in Accra. It took about 30-45 minutes to get to Accra. Once there we headed back to Global Mamas to grab a last few items. Kelsey was on the bus with us, but she got really sick on the way into Accra so she gave me her last cedi and grabbed her a few things at Global Mamas.
We went back to the gas station and met back up with Margaret. It was so good to see someone from home. I met her boyfriend Jacob and we walked around Accra. We were on mission for stickers, a soccer jersey, a thimble, and chocolate. Before we could start our mission, it started down pouring so we ducked into a building. We were inside a South African cell phone store and while we were there we found out about a place to eat. We found this little restaurant and had foufou and bankou for lunch. I am really glad that I don’t have to live off of Ghanaian food. I had bankou and it is like a corn meal type ball that you tear off pieces and dip it in this soup. It was really good, but I would get tired of it REALLY quickly. Jacob got us these vanilla yogurt ice cream things. They were so good! One thing I love about Ghana is that everything comes in these pouches. Water, ice cream, OJ, alcohol. You just rip off the corner with your teeth and enjoy. It is actually really helpful and a lot less messy. They should really start doing that in the US.
After lunch we continued our quest for stickers, and a thimble, but we were unsuccessful. We did, however, find a soccer jersey and chocolate. Jacob really likes to bargain so we just let him handle everything. I wish I could just like put him in my back pocket and let him do all my bargaining from here on out. I am such a terrible bargainer and then I feel bad so basically India is just going to be one big epic fail for me.
Eventually, we had to say goodbye. I got on the bus, but I really didn’t want to leave. I just wanted to stay in Ghana with Margaret for another week or so. Because of traffic we didn’t end up getting back to Tema for another 2 hours. I sat next to a kid from USD. I am sure he got everyone’s nerves because he was playing the drum he bought really loud, but I thought it was funny. He and his friend provided entertainment all the way back.
Once back on the ship we had dinner and got our laundry ready. I am really proud of myself about how much laundry I was able to fit in my laundry bag. I ended up with 3 dresses, 1 sweatshirt, 12 t-shirts, 6 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of pants. Mackenzie came over and we moved the mattress from our extra bed and put it in between our beds. We had a slumber party and fell asleep watching Two Weeks Notice.

Brittany and I were awoken about 0615 by the lovely goat that had taken up residence outside of our door. We got our stuff packed and then walked around the village a little but more. I watched a woman make the pottery that this village is known for. It was pretty amazing how they shape them without the use of a potter’s wheel or anything. They use a leaf to help smooth out the outer edges. During my walk, I realized that I love goats. They are probably the cutest things. Granted, all the goats in the village are eventually killed and eaten, the little ones are just so darn cute.
We met everyone at the church, which was basically a cinderblock building with no glass in the windows or doors. We had tea, bananas and some amazing bread for breakfast. So basically my breakfast was bread and another granola bar. Thank god for those granola bars. I am hopefully going to replenish my stock in South Africa. During breakfast something surprising happened. Maggie came up and put a kente cloth around my neck that said ‘Greetings From Ghana.’ I was shocked considering Maggie and I were not really on the best of terms. It was a really nice gesture. I also got her mailing address so I can send some pictures back.
The drama from yesterday was resolved my getting a second bus that would head straight back to the ship without making any stops and another one that would finish out the itinerary as planned. Mackenzie and I jumped on the bus that was finishing out the original itinerary. Our 1½ hour bus ride turned into a 3½ bus ride. The roads in Ghana are ridiculous. We were basically off-roading in a tour bus. Props to our driver because I am really shocked that we didn’t lose a wheel and that our bus was even still running at the end of everything. The ride was actually really fun because we couldn’t believe the condition of the roads. Plus, we were entertained by all the children in the villages that we passed because they would run to the road and wave to us. Also on the bus ride, Mackenzie and I really began to realize how dirty we were from the night before haha.
We got to the base of Afadjato Mountain and started the 45-minute hike to the top. The hike started out easy enough, but then after about 5 minutes we were basically going straight up the mountain. I felt like I was on the Stairmaster from hell. It was probably one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. Grazelema was a cakewalk compared to this. Although I was sweaty and out of breathe, it felt amazing to reach the top. The view was amazing. From the summit, we were able to see Togo, which is pretty cool. We all took jumping pictures on the top and we even tried to spell out SAS 09 with our bodies, but it really didn’t come out all that well. The hike down was harder then the hike up because it was so steep. Not to mention there were HUGE millipedes, which I remember from Gibby’s class are poisonous.  We waited around at the bottom of the mountain for everyone to get back. The people that worked at the visitor’s center had drinks and small things of food that we could buy. The best thing was that they had Obama biscuits. Yep – Obama biscuits. Ghana is crazy for Obama. They have Obama flags, Obama dresses, Obama billboards and basically anything else you could imagine.
After everyone made it back down, we all jumped back on the bus and headed to the monkey sanctuary. It was really neat. Our guide gave us bananas. We had to hold the bananas really tightly or the monkeys would take them right out of your hand. So we held the bananas up to the trees and the monkeys would climb down and when they realized that I wasn’t going to give him the banana, he actually peeled the banana. It was so cool! They weren’t really afraid of humans. I guess they associate humans with food. We weren’t at the sanctuary very long, but it was still fun.
Afterward, we headed back to the ship. We were supposed to get back to the ship at 3, but we didn’t get back until 9. Luckily, the crews held dinner for us so we could all get something to eat. Unfortunately, because we got back so late I wasn’t able to meet up with Margaret. I was supposed to meet her at 5:30-6:00, but I had no way to call her and tell her I wasn’t going to make. She ended up finding Kate and Kate told her what had happened with the trip. When we got back on the ship, Mackenzie let me know use her phone to call her. We made plans to meet up the next day. The rest of the night we just hung out on the ship and cleaned up.