Semester At Sea: Fall 2009

1 Month Ago...

2010-03-16T23:41:00.001-05:00

1.14.09 0214

It has now been one month since I disembarked from the MV Explorer. I keep expecting some epiphany to hit me about how different the US is from other areas of the world and how difficult it is to be back. Yes, it has been a hard transition, but not because I find it hard to slip back into the American culture. More because if the people I left. Now that I am back in their lives, they don’t know what to do with me and vice versa. I would like to think that they can now boast about their super amazing friend, but I find that most people just don’t care, which I find to be unfortunate.

The hardest part about being home is being far away from those I was in such close quarters with for the past 4 months. I miss not being able to walk down the hall and see all of my friends. Its like living in a dorm – except with a majority of people whom you are good friends with and you get to sail around the world. Now we are all spread throughout the country and have to try and coordinate skype dates. On the plus side, we all now have access to these hand inventions called cell phones and the ease of texting.

I feel like after having been around the world and seeing everything that I was able to, that I should have some deep, profound thing to say, but in all honesty I am just confused and still trying to process. One thing I have noticed is that people in the US seem to fall into 2 categories – those who care and those who don’t. Those who care generally seem to be people who have traveled outside the US – especially to developing countries. They really want to understand other cultures and experience what the world has to offer. If that means a sleeper train in India or a fish massage in Cambodia – they are always up for the adventure. The second category is FAR more common. Category 2 people generally have not traveled (when I say travel, I mean more than going to Cancun on Spring Break or the Bahamas, but I guess it is a start). They are perfectly content in their little American bubble. Yes, they know about world events and how there is no clean water in Africa. They take a moment out of their day and say, “That’s terrible,” and then proceed to guzzle down a designer bottle of water while loading their 2.5 kids into the back of the SUV and head back to the house that could house an entire village. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for the “American Dream” but we as a cultural go WAY overboard. I had never realized the excess in the States. I had always heard people talk about it, but it didn’t really sink in. The food portions, the size of our homes and cars, the way we spend money. The whole thing is ridiculous.

Traveling has made me have a love/hate relationship with my own culture. I love the ease of the US. Shashank was telling me how easy everything was in the US compared to India. I just said it was because we are lazy. With this he countered by saying that it is easy to be lazy in the US because almost everything can be solved with a phone call or over the internet. In India everything must be done in person, which is frustrating because transportation there is about ridiculous.

On the other hand, I really hate how it seems most people are content within our own little US bubble. When I told people about SAS, either people were really excited to hear about it or they looked at me like I had 2 heads. This can also somewhat be blamed on the media. They villainize religions (like Islam) and scare people. I mean come on, I survived an entire Islamic country and was worried more about a snake charmer or being running over by a donkey than a terrorist. We have got to be the most paranoid people ever, Mom ranking at the top of that list.

I heard an analogy about the US and how it is in its teenage years. The US thinks it knows everything and can do whatever it wants and then whines when it doesn’t get its way. Older countries, like the UK, India and China, who I guess you could say are in their Parent stage, realize that the US is just throwing temper tantrums and they gave into for a while, but now they are realizing that they don’t have to listen. I think this is a pretty accurate analogy.

One final point, once you travel you never stop. You realize what the world has to offer and you don’t want to miss anything. I realized that I have been to 22 countries in 22 years. I think a good goal in life would be to visit one country for every year that I am alive. I don’t really think this will be hard. I might not make it to a different country every year, but eventually I will get there. So now that SAS is over, I have gained perspective and life long friends and I can’t wait for my next adventure. I have my sights set on Italy with mom.

It's Really Over

2010-03-16T23:40:00.003-05:00

12.16.09

Yesterday I got off the MV Explorer and I don’t even know what I am feeling. I am so glad to be back with Mom, but I also have the realization that this experience is over. I am absolutely terrified to go home. I know that I am not going to fit in and my friends don’t really care about what I did. They will ask how was the trip and what my favorite country was, but once i launch into a story their eyes will glaze over. I know this, but I still don’t know what I am going to do. Everything is different. I could never go back to who I was. I now realize just how small the world is. Before, flying to New York or Colorado would have seemed like a daunting task and that that is really far away. Now I am thinking about going those places just for a long weekend. They seem like they are next door. I have no problem traveling alone or planning things for myself.

Today Mom and I were walking around the Gas Lamp District in San Diego and I was really uncomfortable. No one was grabbing me and trying to get me to buy their goods, I couldn’t bargain the price down and everything was neatly arranged. The only place I felt remotely comfortable was the world market where everything was thrown into together and I saw things from South Africa, Morocco, and Japan. What the hell am I going to do when I get back into Bowling Green?

Mom and I were talking the other night and I realized that I am 22 years old and I have been to 22 different countries (Austria, Bermuda, Belize, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Czech Republic, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Japan, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Vietnam, and the USA). That is a pretty amazing thing, but it also reminds me that everywhere is just a plane ride away and it is just getting the courage up to plan it. I realize that I am never going to stop moving. I am in San Diego and I feel like it is just another port and it is parents weekend. We are going to Disneyland tomorrow and then the San Diego Zoo the next day and then home. Then Bowling Green. Everywhere I travel from here on out will just be another port. I will expect to get a green sheet from Karen and try to remember to be back by Byron Time. Terrence made a great point tonight (Bridget’s parents rented out the lounge at the Sheraton and there were about 15 SASers there). China is a big country and we managed to always run into each other there. If we can run into each other in China, we can run into each other in the US. We all know how small the world is and we all can get back to each other. I don’t want to leave these people. They have become my family and they actually understand what I have been through. They understand the cultural barriers and language barriers, green sheets, Byron time, Taco Day, “Don’t be stupid – be cute. Do it in the aft”, Sparkles, Chez Ali, Thriller, Chiner and about 8 billion other things.

I don’t want to go home. I should want to go home, but I don’t. I don’t fit in there. I know it sounds like I am whining, but I don’t know what else to do. It is going to be so weird to be able to eat when I want to eat, DRIVE A CAR, have animals around, not have projects due between countries.

How do I tell my story without sounding like an ass? I don’t. Even if I try to offer input I will always sound like I bragging. I am taking international marketing and international entrepreneurship next semester. I am going to be the annoying girl who the students loathe and the teacher hates. I just realize that I can never tell people about the trip. There are no words. How do I explain the children in Ghana, the hunger in the townships in South Africa, the dirtiness of India, the claustrophobia of Japan? Simple – I can’t. All I can do is cling to the people who have had this experience with me and push people to do it in the future.

I realize how much I have changed on this trip. There are things I will simply not put up with anymore. I don’t mind standing up to people. My bargaining skills have improved drastically. I don’t mind planning things or traveling by myself. My sense of direction has improved. I know who I am. I know what I want out of life. “Make a life – don’t make a living.” I need a lot less than I thought. Give me a camera, a toothbrush, a pair of jeans, and two t-shirts and I can survive for 5 days. I have found out who my friends are and they are not the people I would have thought they would be. I realize that I don’t have to stress out about the small things and that in the end everything will come together, and even if it doesn’t it will all still be ok. I realized that I need my family. I can survive on pasta and potatoes for 4 months.

What the hell am I going to do in Lebanon?

The Last Days

2010-03-16T23:40:00.001-05:00

The last few days on the ship were filled with a mixture of sadness, fear, anxiety, happiness, excitement and pretty much every other emotion. People wanted to get home, but didn’t want to have to deal with packing or lugging everything off the ship themselves. Our last night on the ship we spent the night swapping pictures and eating the last of our snacks that we couldn’t get through customs. Kelsey, Jennifer, Mackenzie, Rosario, Katie and I all goofed off in the room and eventually had to say goodnight. Due to some roommate drama and the fact that her room is the size a cardboard box, Kelsey spent the night on our third bed. We ended up staying up until about 0330 watching videos from China and reminiscing about all of our adventures.

WE all had to be up at 6 the next morning to finish getting our stuff together and because breakfast was only being served from 6-7. After grabbing breakfast we all went up to 7^th deck to watch us come into San Diego. Talk about a surreal experience. We were all so close to our parents, but we still had to wait hours to get off the ship. Mackenzie pretty much broke down on the top. She was just blubbering as she walked around. Nobody wanted to go home. Mackenzie was able to help distract us from our own emotions. She had also won a drawing to be one of the first 14 off the ship. We went down to her room and helped bring all of her 392847 bags to the gangway. It was pretty sad. It was finally hitting us that this is over. No more countries. No more ports. No more pasta and potatoes or boxed lunches.

People started getting off the ship around 10 and people gathered on the 5^th and 7^th deck to yell and wave at people as they left. That is the part that got to me. I realized that all of these people were never going to be together again. That there are going to be people that I never see again. I really lost it when Dr. Aimee and Kara got off the ship. It was terrible watching everyone say goodbye to each other. Bryan and Jeremy were a mess. Mackenzie was hysterical. Everyone is crying and people are stalling to get off the ship.

Before I knew it, it was my turn. I grabbed my stuff and said goodbye to cabin 4167 and the best cabin steward Don. What sucked the most was that I didn’t even get to swipe my card one last time. They took it from me and swiped it for me and then I didn’t even get it back. Stupid security. Once I got off the ship and into the port I saw the madhouse that was our luggage. Luckily, I was able to find all of mine, but a lot of people were missing bags. Then there were only so many porters and clearly no one was able to carry all of their bags. Rosario and I teamed up with Katie and got a porter, who was an ass, and found our way outside to the parents. I collapsed in Mom’s arms and just started crying. She asked if they were happy tears and I responded with I don’t know what they are. I was an emotional wreck. I happy to be with Mom, sad to be leaving the ship, worried about going home, scared to be back in the US, and pretty much everything else. It was an interesting scene. Parents trying to find their kids, who hadn’t gotten their bags yet and people crying and hugging and laughing and yelling.

We moved our stuff over with Mackenzie and I finally got to meet her mom and Max! Max is her foreign exchange student from Germany. He is pretty much the cutest thing ever. I told mom we need to look into getting a foreign exchange student. We shared a cab and went to the hotel. We met Katie and her mom there and then we all had lunch together. It was neat for all the Moms to finally meet. We had a great lunch and then we spotted Dr. Aimee by the pool so we went our and chatted with her for a little while.

This is really weird. I don’t feel like SAS is over. It is just another port and it happens to be parents weekend. Especially, since we are staying in San Diego for a little while and we constantly running into other SASers. It was a really emotionally draining day and we took it easy.

Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

2010-03-16T23:39:00.004-05:00

12.12.09

I woke up this morning and tried to find Katie, but I ended up finishing a book instead. Who does that? I grabbed some lunch and then tried to pack a little bit. Katie and I also did a video of the ship. Neither of us had videoed a tour of the ship so we stated on the 7^th deck and went down to 5^th. We didn’t get a chance to finish because we had to go to the union for a reflection time. Pat and Shira did a program about how hard it is to re-enter into the US because people just don’t get it. They ask one question and then their eyes just glaze over. The whole process just kind of hit all of us. We all had our maps and were having people sign them. Terrance showed a video he made about the life long learners and it brought all of us to tears. It was beautiful.

We had a couple break out sessions, but I didn’t go to any of them. I finished my tour with Katie and did a little packing, but then went back to the union. We all had a fresh cut flowers and in a processions led by Stella and the dependent children, we all went to Deck 6 and threw them overboard. It was really sad. This process is coming to an end and no one wants it to. I am so excited to go home, but I am so sad that this is over and we are all scattering across the US and the world back to our hometowns. All of these people on the ship have found their way into my heart and I am truly going to miss them. I know I have found some life long friends and I can’t wait to see what our new adventures are going to bring.

Once we had all thrown our flowers into the ocean, we all gathered up on 7^th deck and pretty much everyone was crying a hugging. We all just have to remember that it is not goodbye, but a see you later. I stayed up on 7^th getting people to sign my map and I split a pizza with Kelsey. I also had to turn in my customs form so I went and got that done and then finished packing…well not quite finished, but pretty close. Then I had to get ready for the Alumni Ball. I got dressed and then headed down to Mackenzie’s. We finished getting ready and picked up Katie and then we all went and took pictures with Captain Jeremy. I kind of felt bad for him because there is no telling how many pictures he took that night. It was SO fun to see everyone dressed up. Most of the time we are slumming in sweatpants and t-shirts or roughing it some country. Tonight really made me realize how much I like guys in suits! They all looked so handsome!

We took some pictures and then headed to dinner. We got steak and a 5 course meal. It was delicious. I sat with Mackenzie, Kristin, Becky, Ashley and Katie. It was a lot of fun. After dinner we went to union for the dance. There was hardly anyone there, but we had fun out on the dance floor. It turns out that everyone was waiting in line to get dessert at the fabulous dessert buffet that had been set up. Shows were our priorities are haha.

Once everyone had had dessert, the dance floor was packed. Paulo’s hip hop class did a performance that included step. It was great! They ended with “I Got a Feeling” and then pulled the whole crowd into it. Everyone was jumping around and someone stepped on my toe, but it was so worth it. It was an absolute blast, but it was a great way to end it.

When we were all tired out we back to the room and played a game of pish posh. I finally started enforcing the 3 gronk limit. It makes the game go a little bit faster. Rosario won.

I can’t believe that this is our second to last night on the ship. This is all ending too fast. I am going to be a complete wreck when I get off this ship. I don’t even know the emotions I will be feeling. I don’t even want to think about it yet.

B Day Finals

2010-03-16T23:39:00.003-05:00

12.11.09

I woke up this morning and studied for my Dr. Aimee finals. I made note cards and before I knew it, it was time to take the test. I went to the union and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I grabbed lunch with Mackenzie afterward and then I had to go study for my other final. When I finished my note cards, I went and studied them on Deck 6. After going through them, I started reading this book called Obedience by William Lavendar. It is the craziest book ever. I got completely sucked into it.

I took my second test and when I was done, Dr. Aimee showed me that I got a 92 on my first final! Woo Hoo! That is pretty exciting. They also posted the Global Studies Final and I got a C, which is all that I was aiming for, so I guess that is a bonus. I am DONE with school! That is a pretty crazy feeling. It all went by so quickly!

I spent the rest of the day finishing up packing and then I got dinner with Katie. Mackenzie, Katie and I started a game of Monopoly before the logistical pre-port. During the pre-port, they went over the information for the disembarkation process. Turns out that the Arabian Sea is 5^th off rather than the last one as I was expecting. Karen kind of made fun of the US culture during preport. Just the language we use and the way we get around. Then Dean Nick got up and showed the SAS promotional video, a video that I watched a ton before I left. And now the thing moved me to tears. Mackenzie, Katie and I were crying by the end of it. Especially when they got to the part about the students coming home and seeing their parents at the dock. It just kind of hit all of us that we are going to be going through the same thing in about 3 days. Everyone in the union was pretty quiet afterward. Dean Nick closed it out and everyone kind of hung out in the Union and Bryan, Jeremy, Ken and Eben were running around tackling people in a hug. Tonight I think it was hitting everyone that this is coming to an end.

We came back and finished our Monopoly game. I didn’t do so hot again. I was all settled in after the game to go to bed, but then Rosario and Erica, Jennifer and Robyn came in and we played a game of pish posh.

B Day Finals Study Day

2010-03-16T23:39:00.001-05:00

12.10.09

Today was B day finals study day. I really didn’t do all that much studying. I spent most of the day laying out and reading and trying to catch up on stuff. I also started packing. I just got in the zone, I got a good deal done. I have laundry soon so I can’t really finish packing until then.

Tonight Rosario, Mackenzie, Kristin, Becky, Ashley, Jennifer, Katie and I all had special occasion dinning and it was fun to get all dressed up. Erica and Robyn were also there. We took a big group picture. We all reflected about the voyage and we were all sad about it coming to an end. I can’t believe that we are almost done.

After dinner, Jennifer, Katie and I played Monopoly again. I did much better than the previous night. I actually won. That was pretty exciting.

A Day Finals

2010-03-16T23:38:00.004-05:00

12.09.09

We are still docked in the Honolulu. The rumor is that we will be leaving around 4. I spent the whole morning completing my portfolio, which finally happened this afternoon. I had to track down Mackenzie so she could peer review it. I had to meet with Dr. Strenecky and Dr. B to turn in my portfolio. When I went in, it was kind of like an interview. It was slightly intimidating. They asked me a lot about Service Learning. They also asked me about Disney. They asked me if I ever thought if Disney would be onboard with the $100 Solution. I said that the only way that they would ever be onboard with it would be if it was really segmented within the Cast Members. Like MK Fantasyland BBB would have and MK Adventureland ODF would have one. I saw Dr. Strenecky later and he said I did well so I guess that is a plus.

We chilled out a little bit that night and played some Monopoly. I epically failed and the game was over in about an hour.

Aloha Hawaii

2010-03-16T23:38:00.003-05:00

12.08.09

Today we pulled back into Honolulu. I was debating what I was going to do because I really needed to get my portfolio done for service learning. I ended up taking the bus with Katie and Ashley to Waikiki. They headed for the beach and I went walking around. My goal was to find some internet. I really wanted to chill out. I went walking around and ended up finding and strip mall type thing. There were all these shops in an outdoor area. Wouldn’t you know that I found a Boarders Express. It didn’t have wi-fi, but it did have books of course. I ended up sitting down and reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, which is the sequel to The Hunger Games. I got a good way through it, but then decided to go walk around. I went to a couple places and tried to find internet, but I was unsuccessful. While I was wondering around, Katie and Ashley called and I met them at Cheesecake Factory.

The food was delicious. The portions are SO big, but it was SO good! It is so nice to have good fresh food again. We were stuffed after lunch and Katie and Ashley headed back to the beach and I went back to walking around. I ended up going back to Boarders and my goal was to finish the book before I had to meet up with Ashley and Katie. I got really close. I was only about 70 pages away and it was terrible because I got about 70 pages away.

I met back up with them at 4 at the International Market. I had walked through there earlier and it was huge. I also felt a lot more comfortable there because people spoke all different languages and you could bargain. I am really going to have a hard time when we get back and I am not going to be able to bargain. We got lost within the place. After we had exhausted the market and pointed out where we had seen everything in other countries, we thought it best to head back to the ship.

We made it back to the ship and changed and what not. Katie and I decided to meet up at 7 (on ship time was 9) to find some last minute food. We really wanted to go to Subway and there are about 4 within the port area. By the time we made it off the ship it was about 1915 and EVERY Subway we came upon was closed. We went to our last ditch effort of McDonalds and that was even close. What fast food restaurants close at 7? We had to admit defeat and ended up buying dinner up on 7^th deck. It was a slightly disappointing end to Hawaii.

The rest of the night I worked on my portfolio. I met up with the group and we finished a couple of chapter, but we got a little distracted by You Tube on Becky’s phone. It is weird to have internet readily available. I really have no idea what to do with it. Around 2 I thought it best to go to bed.

"How's The View From the Back?"

2010-03-16T23:38:00.001-05:00

12.07.09

I woke up a little past 9 and meet Katie and Jennifer in Tymetz Square so we could go to Wal-Mart. Katie needed to pick up some bags for a collection drive and Jennifer needed to print some stuff off for her Diversity Scholars project and I was just tagging along. While they went into to Wal-Mart, I walked over to Boarders and used their free wi-fi. The wi-fi was really slow so I ended up just grabbing a book and reading. I got about 130 pages into Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, which had come out while we have been gone.

Katie met me after she had gotten her bags and we waited for Jennifer. After about an hour and half had gone by, she still wasn’t back yet. Her cell phone was broken so we couldn’t call her. As we were leaving Boarders to go back to Wal-Mart to look for her, she walked right through the door. We left and walked to Burger King and had lunch. We went back to wal-mart after lunch and Katie and I ended up buying Monopoly because we have been dying to play all voyage and SAS only has Monopoly Jr., which is an epic fail. We caught the shuttle back to the ship and hung out for a couple hours.

At 3, we all met outside the ship for the 5K that had been put together to benefit the $100 Solution. I didn’t run it, but I walked with Erica, Robyn, and Jennifer. A lot of people dressed up because it was a fun run. One kid even did the whole thing on crutches. That is pretty awesome. It was actually pretty fun. We took pictures and chatted. Once back at the ship, everyone was on their cell phone making those last minute calls before we lose service for a week. I made some calls, but then I got a nice surprise when I found out that we had a BBQ for dinner. We got good food! There was Hawaiian BBQ and burgers. It was great.

The next exciting thing happened when we were all told to gather in the union at 2000 because of some itinerary changes. I didn’t really think that they would actually change the itinerary and that they all wanted us there because we had some sort of speaker. I was wrong and they really did change the itinerary. We are going back to Honolulu because there is a HUGE storm coming and they wanted to avoid the swells. So we get an extra day in Hawaii. The bad news is that we now don’t get a study day before our A Day finals. Which sucks because that was the day I was planning on doing my portfolio, but I will get done eventually. So now I have another day in Hawaii to look forward to. It really sucks though that the one day I would have really liked to be in Honolulu was today because it is Pearl Harbor day and that would have been too amazing. Oh well, just have to come back.

Does Anybody Even Live Here?

2010-03-16T23:37:00.002-05:00

12.6.09

We ported in Hilo this morning on the Big Island. We had our 100^th voyage picture off the aft of the ship on Decks 7, 6, and 5. We were able to disembark right after we were done with the picture. Katie, Jennifer and I decided to explore Hilo a little bit. We soon found out that there is nothing in Hilo. We walked about 30 minutes and came upon a civic center of some sort. They were having a Christmas crafts fair, but everything was kind of pricey. It was neat to see some Hawaiian crafts, though. We left and walked probably another 45 minutes until we were in “downtown” Hilo. Downtown Hilo consists of about 5 blocks of the most random and sketchy assortment of stores ever. To make everything worse, everything was closed because it was Sunday. Great. We did find a small sports bar and walked in just in time to see the Titans lose. Great.

We managed to entertain ourselves for a little while and then decided to grab lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. It wasn’t very good Mexican, but when we haven’t had it in 4 months just about anything will work. Afterward, we called a cab and went to Wal-Mart. Yeah, I know – Wal-Mart in Hawaii, but there was nothing else to do. I bought an external hard drive. Wal-Mart was in a little shopping center with Ross Dress for Less, TJMaxx and a Borders! I was so excited for a Borders. I was in dire need of a good bookstore. Katie and Jennifer wanted to go to the beach, but it looked like it was about to rain. I stayed at Boarders and they went ahead. It was absolutely fabulous to be able to sit and read. There are so many books out that I have never even heard of. It is crazy to think about the things we missed. Who knew that Britney Spears got married? I haven’t even heard of half the movies in the theaters.

After about and hour or so they came back and picked me up and headed back to the ship for the day. We really didn’t get that much accomplished, but there was NOTHING to do. I feel like this port is a complete waste. Can’t we leave early and just head to San Diego already? That would be ok with me. The rest of the night consisted of food, cards and the movie Matilda.

“Oh Like on Real World! I Didn’t Know People Actually Did That.”

2010-03-16T23:37:00.001-05:00

12.5.09

Katie and I got up this morning with the intention to go to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. We left the ship, found the bus stop and boarded bus #19, which is the one the security guard at the ship told us to take. There were two other SAS kids on there as well. We kept driving and driving and an hour later, we were barely half way there. Then the next thing we knew we were at Hickam Air Force Base. As we were going in, a police officer came on board and asked us for our military ID. Clearly, we didn’t have a military ID. Katie, the other 2 SAS guys and I were kicked off the public bus and told to wait at the bus stop for it to come back out of the base. 45 minutes later, the bus still had not come back. By this time, we are all frustrated because it has taken almost 2 hours to get somewhere that should have taken 30 minutes. I finally just called a cab. Of course, right after we called the cab, the bus came out. Turns out that bus 19 didn’t even go to where we wanted to go, rather we had to transfer buses and it was going to take another 20ish minutes. The bus driver tried to convince us to take the bus, but we were all over it and decided to wait for the cab. It was probably the most frustrating thing ever.

When the cab finally got there, we told them where we wanted to go. Our cab driver then informed us that the Swap Meet was closed because Hawaii plays Wisconson today. So we had just gone though all of that for nothing. So we got out of the cab with the guys at Pearl Harbor. We decided to just grab yet ANOTHER bus to go back to Waikiki. That was another hour on a bus. We eventually got to the beach and it was great to just lay out and listen to the waves. Katie and I laid out for about an hour and then went to get some lunch.

We went to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was hard to find a table because there were a ton of people were there watching the Florida v. Alabama game. Who would have thought that there would be so many Florida fans in Hawaii. We ate and watched the game. It was fantastic to be able to watch football again. We both celebrated when Alabama won. When they showed Tebow crying on the TV the whole place erupted into a mixture of cheers and laughter. It was pretty much awesome. The thing about Tebow is that I really want to hate him, but he is a good football player and he is an even better person off the field, but I am still happy to see him lose.

After lunch, Katie and I went back to the beach and laid out for a little while longer. When we couldn’t take anymore of the sun, we wondered around the town. We went into a couple little shops and such. We called Mackenzie to see if she wanted to share a cab back to the ship, but she was getting a psychic reading so we just grabbed a cab and headed back to the ship. We still had an hour before on ship time and there were some shops around the port. We killed some time and finally got onboard.

I had completely forgotten that the CSI program’s Etiquette Dinner was that night. I ran and got ready and met everyone up on Deck 5. Barb was our host and gave a short presentation before the meal to get the basics down for the dinner. It was a very informative dinner. There were a lot of small things that I never knew. I sat with Mackenzie, Kareem and 3 other people. We ended up reminiscing about Morocco and the dangers of being on Bus 3 (my bus). It was a great dinner.

After dinner, I went directly to classroom 2 to help Mario set up for CSI graduation. 17 people completed the program, which is guess it is good, since Mario and I kind of created it at the beginning of the voyage. We had lights and pizza and cookies. Like we needed anymore food after the special occasion dinning. Dean Nick and Dean Byron gave a short speech and then Mario presented us with our certificates. We all each got a little SAS pin as well. We all sat and chatted for a bit and then I headed off to the cabin. I played a quick game of pish posh and then hit the hay.

“Do You Have to go to the Bathroom Off the Side of the Boat?”

2010-03-16T23:36:00.002-05:00

12.4.09

Imagine laying cozy in bed, minus the minor earthquake going on in the cabin, and then being woken up at 0545 by some Hawaiian music playing over the ship intercom. I understand that they were trying to wake us gently, but still not the best wake up call ever. Rita then came over the intercom and said “Welcome to Hawaii” and that we needed to be ready to go through immigration at any time because the immigration officers were coming onboard at 0600.

I crawled to the end of the bed and grabbed my phone off the charger and low and behold I had normal cell service!! Woo hoo!! I laid in bed and called Mom, Dad, Sarah, Ebonee, Brian, Jenny and pretty much everyone else. It was pretty fantastic to be able to lay in bed and talk on a cell phone.

Once I emerged from my cabin with breakfast in mind, it was funny to see EVERYONE on their cell phone. I grabbed breakfast with Dr. Aimme and then headed up to immigration. It was weird being able to talk to them and my customs officer asked me if I wanted a stamp and I said yes and I was sent on my way. I met up with Kelsey and waved to her parents who were waiting at the bottom of the gangway. Once the ship was cleared, Katie and I met up with Kelsey and her parents. WE exchanged hugs and then were on our way to Pearl Harbor.

We walked around Honolulu for a while and got a little confused as to where we actually catch the bus to get to Pearl Harbor. We did stumble upon a little produce stand and they bought bananas and some other fresh produce. After asking directions a couple of times, we made it to the bus stop. We got our tickets and chatted on the way.

It is pretty weird being here. People speak English and they drive on the correct side of the road and we have spotted every chain restaurant you can imagine. The extremely weird part was getting US currency back as change. Pennies and dimes all look really foreign.

When we got to Pearl Harbor, we checked our bags because they have a strict no bag policy for security reasons. It was really interesting to see. There is also the USS Missouri and the Bowfin Memorial. It is beautiful there and it is hard to believe that such a terrible attack happened in such a pristine place. We got our tickets, which had the time when we were allowed to go in. We had about 30 minutes to kill so we looked around. We saw the types of torpedoes they used and the anti-aircraft guns. Once our time came about, we went and got in line. We were ushered into a theater and watched a 20 minute movie about what led up to the attack, what happened during the attack and afterward. It was really informative and really well done. I didn’t realize that they had so much footage from the attack.

After the film, we boarded a ferryboat and were taken out the Arizona Memorial. The memorial is really simple and really beautiful. The memorial is over the hull of the USS Arizona. There are parts of the ship that are still out of the water. The USS Arizona was struck by an armor piercing bomb and it penetrated into the heart of the ship. When it exploded, it also exploded the ship’s ammo locker. The ship really exploded from the inside out. It sunk in 9 minutes, entombing 900 men within her. This is a memorial to them. The ship is also still leaking oil and you can see the sheen of the oil on top of the water. I really don’t know how to explain it. It was also really interesting to be there especially because we have just sailed from Japan. There were a lot of Japanese tourists there and I really just wonder if they feel the same way when they visit Pearl Harbor as Americans do when they visit Hiroshima. I didn’t make it to Hiroshima, and after today I really wish I had.

When we got back from the memorial, we went to the museum and I got to meet two Pearl Harbor survivors. They were probably the cutest old men ever. My favorite was Al. He was hysterical. He had made up a fact sheet about himself with a picture and everything. When I asked if I could have one, he said yes, but he wanted to make sure that he had signed it. Then he proceeded to explain how he presigns all of them because he knows how popular he is. So cute.

We took the bus to go to Waikiki and meet Drew and Paulo. Drew’s Dad got him a hotel room at the Sheraton. It took forever to catch the bus and then even longer to get into Waikiki. Once we got off the bus, we just kind of wondered around since we had no idea where the Sheraton was. Turns out that there are 2 or 3 on Oahu. During our wondering, we found a little market and we were able to use our bargaining skills again. Who would have thought? We were starving and we found a restaurant called Da Big Kahuna. It was exactly what we were looking for. I had probably one of the best cheeseburgers and we got to catch up on our sports. Our waitress was also really nice, although she was a little odd. When we told her we were from Semester At Sea, she asked us if we had to go to the bathroom off the side of the boat. I feel like if that were true the program would not nearly be as popular, but it is just a thought.

After lunch, we found a Sheraton, but it was the wrong one and got directions to the right one. We called Drew when we got there. We put our stuff in his room and then changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach. As we were walking around the beach, we ran into Dr. Aimee so that was a nice surprise. Katie and I decided to try out Paddle Boarding. Well actually Katie really wanted to try it and convinced me to do it.

We got our boards and after a VERY brief how to from the guy who ran the rental place, we went out into the water. It was a little weird because rather than the beach having a sandy bottom, it was full of rocks. We kneeled on our boards and paddled out a ways. Katie was brave and stood first. It took me a little while longer get the hang of it. I have no balance. This point was proven when I wasn’t even standing up and I somehow flipped over. Yes, I know that takes talent. I did eventually stand up, even if I did just fall over a couple seconds later. I eventually did get the hang of it. It was a little bit weird when you look down and you see rocks under the water. That really makes you not want to fall. I eventually just sat on the board and paddled around. It was very calming and relaxing. I must say that the best part was Katie paddled up to me while standing and was telling me about what awesome balance she has and then she flipped off the board. Best moment ever.

When our hour was up, we met back up with Drew and Paulo and we headed out to dinner. We were a little sidetracked because we kept running into SAS people on the beach. We also ran into Becky and Ashley on the beach and they joined us for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much food, but it was so good! After dinner, we just hung out in the hotel room and watched MTV and ESPN. It is crazy watching the trailers for new movies. I have never heard of half of them and I realize that I have no idea about what is going on in the world, except that Tiger Woods had some sort of affair with his wife and that the US will play England in the first round of the World Cup.

Becky, Ashley, Katie and I ended up getting a taxi back to the ship and crashing for the night.

It is weird to think that we are just guests even though we are in the US. This is just weird being back where they speak English. It’s funny because we are all approaching people like they don’t speak English. Becky cracked me up when we were getting a cab because she kept using hand signals like the guy had no idea what we were talking about when we said the word “cab.” This whole experience is crazy. I also find that the other reason adjusting is strange is because it is hard to justify spending money on certain things. Katie and I saw a mask in a shop that was $15 and we could get it for $3 in Ghana.

Pre Hawaii

2010-03-16T23:36:00.001-05:00

I am really excited, but I’m not for Hawaii. It is going to be weird not having to communicate in hand signals and not have to mentally try to figure out exchange rates. Hawaii has its own unique culture that is very different than the mainland US. I haven’t fully comprehended that I am going to be in the US tomorrow. I will have my cell phone back. I can drink the water and have a salad without worrying about some weird parasite or getting sick. I don’t have to have the additional 2 inches on my waist that my lovely passport pouch/money belt adds when I wear it. I don’t have to worry about offending someone because of the way I dress. I will actually have to start carrying my driver’s license around again. I will get IDed when I buy an alcoholic beverage. The whole thing is just going to be weird.

The unique thing is that even though the majority of us are US citizens, the MV EXPLORER is not registered in the US, we are not officially going through customs and we are simply guests of the US. Even people who live in Hawaii can’t even take their bags off so they don’t have to fly with everything back to Hawaii. We have to go through security that is equal if not more tight than airport security. We can’t bring water or food off the ship. They basically told us that if we try to sneak anything on or off the ship we will go to jail. WELCOME HOME! Geez.

So plans in Hawaii include Pearl Harbor and the beach. I might throw in a Volcano or two, but that is all up in the air. We basically only have a day and a half and I really just want to relax and spend time with people. After this voyage, I probably won’t be able to see all these people for a while so I want to spend time with them. Mackenzie is going skydiving tomorrow. Kelsey and I are going to Pearl Harbor with her parents and then I am meeting Katie, Drew, and Paulo in Waikiki. Then in Hilo, I am doing a 5K for the $100 Solution. 300 people on the ship are participating, which is over half. That is awesome! So Hawaii here we come.

NO MORE GLOBAL!!

2010-03-16T23:35:00.005-05:00

12.3.09

Since the auction, there hasn’t been too much excitement on the ship. We land in Honolulu tomorrow so that is pretty exciting. We had a play on the ship. They performed Dog Sees God. It is about the cast of Peanuts and they are all grown up and in high school. The cast did a fabulous job. Monica was hilarious as Charlie Brown’s sister (I want to go from a caterpillar to a platypus.) Benno was in it as Schroder or aka Beethoven. His character his gay, which Benno is. I was shocked because the guy playing Charlie Brown made out with Benno. That is so awesome. The play has terrible language and full of drugs and sex and controversy, but a great message. It was a bold choice and it turned out really well. Also, Benno found out that he was cast as Angel in the San Francisco’s production of Rent. He is going to be fabulous. Although, I never heard Beeno sing, but I imagine that he is pretty good.

That night I had my first special occasion dinning experience with my family. It was great. The Orris’ had a “Keep the Orris’ Hip List.” I am going to make them some CDs. I went directly from dinner to the play.

We had our last official day of class, besides our final. We gave a presentation in service learning to Dr. Burn, the new VP of ISE, explaining why we think service learning should be on every voyage of SAS. I think we convinced her pretty well. She said she was skeptical until about ½ way through. After she left, Dr. Strenecky and Dr. B gave these speeches about how much this class has meant to them and how great we have been. By the end of it, pretty much everyone was in tears. Well, at least everyone around me (Mackenzie)

Today was also our Global Studies final! It wasn’t as confusing as the mid-term. I say that, but I will probably do worse. That is usually how it goes. I am just glad that I am done with global FOREVER!

We had our logistical and cultural preports. They had such potential to be fun, but they were just really boring. The just droned on and on. I am still excited to see land tomorrow. And I will have my cellphone back. That will be weird. We had a huge game of pish-posh up on 7^th deck to celebrate being done with global and for being in Hawaii tomorrow.

Groundhog's Day and Auction

2010-03-16T23:35:00.004-05:00

11.28.09 The 2nd One

Yesterday was 11.28.09 and today is 11.28.09 as well. We crossed the international dateline. It is pretty cool to live the same day twice. On the 1^st 11/28 it was a normal day of class. That night there was pub trivia in the piano lounge. I ended up on a team with Claire, Ed, and Byron with help from Jay and Kelsey. I stole Uncle Chip’s name from the Olympics a couple years ago and we were team Fairly Awesome. The first categories were movie sequels, wacky laws, video games and movie quotes. Wacky laws were stupid. You couldn’t even guess what state. Apparently, its illegal to bring a live skunk into the state of Tennessee. Who knew? Considering I was on a team with all adults, I thought we faired pretty well in the video game category. Next we had to identify men from their pictures. We got 8 out of the 10. Then I was thankful to be on the team with adults because I wouldn’t have known any of them. The last category was list 10. We had to list the Midwest states, the school of the UC system and the largest beer drinking countries per capita. In the end team Fairly Awesome was fairly awesome by placing 4^th out of 29.

Today (11/28 part 2) was a reading day as well as auction day. Katie and I got up and worked out and then I met up for a group project. We took a sneak peak at the things in the silent auction. There is some really good stuff: The flags flown on the ship from all the countries, a signed map by Captain Jeremy, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Czech Republic and Mozabique homestays, a bunch of houses in Colorado, Hershey park tickets, massages, a Louisville Sluger bat engraved with “Semester at Sea 100^th Voyage” (donated by the Strenecky’s), artwork, sporting event tickets and about a million other things. After doing some homework and eating dinner. I went to an explorer sminar and then to the live auction. I had thought about bidding on a couple of things, but I knew I was in trouble when the first item went for $1000. The list is as follows:

- Steer the Ship (!0 Minutes) $1,000

- Colorado Week Stay at Summit Mtn. $630

- Breakfast in bed from the Deans $125

- 4 Anaheim Angels Tickets $200

- Beach House in NC for 1 Week $1700

o This item was auctioned off twice

- Blast the Ships Horn in San Diego $700

- Christmas in Manhattan Apartment

Above Central Park $1200

- Character in Prof. Farkas’ Novel $550

- Blue Ridge Mountain Stay 1 week $325

- 2 Stagecoach Festival Tickets $485

- Minnesota Fishing Trip $350

- 5-Course dinner with the Orris family $750

- 6 Days in Paris Homestay $1900

- Chance to be the Captain $50

- Extended weekend in Bailey, CO $275

- Derby Tickets and stay with the Streneckys $725

- Condo in Northstar, CO – 10 People $2150

- Duke Basketball Package $900

- Week stay at rustic CO cabin $2200

- Private Balcony dinning with Dean Eddie

And violin by Prof. Skokan $425

- Extended weekend homestay in Puerto Rico $475

- Two Backstage passes to SNL $2600

GRAND TOTAL FOR LIVE AUCTION $21,590

And all of that was just from the live auction. In the end, we raised over $33,000. All of that from the ship community! We raised the most money of any voyage to date, which is pretty cool. I couldn’t believe some of the money that was being thrown around, but a lot of these are really good deals. The only thing I ended up with was our Arabian Sea banner from the Sea Olympics for $10. Katie bought Batter Blasters, which is apparently pancake batter in a can. I had never heard of it before, but she was really excited about it. Mackenzie got the Lacadive Sea banner and a personalized children’s song for $110. It was by the award winning Kalidescope group and they usually charge $3200 for that. The auction was really exciting. It makes me want to go to more auctions. After the excitement of the auction, we ended the night with pish-posh.

Star Chains

2010-03-16T23:35:00.002-05:00

11.27.09

I got up early this morning and worked out and then went to work with Mario. We are working on MEGA Career Week. I got to talk to Mom and Dad and everyone. That was nice. I called home because it was Thanksgiving there.

I went to class and afterward I chilled out on deck 6 with Mackenzie for a bit. We ended up eating on the 7^th deck because dinner was so gross. I went to the global studies review and then a motivation explorer seminar. It was weird. We had to cut stars out that were in a chain. It was kind of frustrating. My team was definitely not the best, but we had the best quality and we improved with every round. So I guess that is a plus.

It was a pretty boring day out at sea.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-03-16T23:34:00.002-05:00

11.26.09

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today was one of the most unorthodox Thanksgivings ever, but it was the least stressful! I didn’t have to worry about bouncing from house to house.

I had class and it really didn’t feel much like Thanksgiving. We reflected in class about what we were thankful for. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner on the ship. I ate with my ship family so that was a little bit comforting. It was nice to have dinner with an actual family. The chef did a great job. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing and all sorts of other yummy stuff, but it still wasn’t as good as home. When we went around the table asking what we all missed the most about home, I thought it was funny that everyone said football.

After dinner, I went to an explorer seminar with Mario and then everyone piled in the room to watch The Holiday. We ended up more or less reminiscing and laughing rather than watching the movie.

Inappropriate Mustering

2010-03-16T23:34:00.001-05:00

11.25.09

The first day back on the ship was a normal class day. We did have a lifeboat (muster station) drill. It was definitely the most fun drill ever. Bryan and James had some inappropriate mustering going on. They were late on the drill and everyone was getting antsy because we were all getting hungry. It was also pretty entertaining to see all the hats people had. There were panda hats, communist hats, rice hats, and hats on top of hats. It was great.

It was a little stressful because we had to hurry and get to your Voyage of Discovery. The meeting went well and afterward I headed up to workout with Katie. My elliptical got high jacked so I just ran outside and borrowed Kristin’s jump rope. That was about all I did.

POST JAPAN

2010-03-16T23:33:00.004-05:00

Japan is the only country that we have visited that I would actually consider living in (okay maybe South Africa too). Kyoto in a weird way felt like Nashville. The whole country had this whole just laid-back, but still fast paced feel about it. That makes no sense, but I really have no way to describe it. There are tons of people, but you hardly see anyone. Everyone is also really quiet. I think that would be the only part that would really bother me. That would be the American coming out in me. We, as a people, really dislike silence and we think we need to fill it. It is just down right eerie how quiet they are on the trains. The other downside of Japan would be how expensive it is, but assuming that hopefully I would have at least a somewhat decent paying job.

I really would like to come back to Japan. I really want to come back to see Hiroshima, Tokyo Disneyland, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and some sumo would be nice too. Japan overall I really enjoyed and I think that it was a really nice last port. It was relaxing and nice not to do any really big SAS trips. Katie and I had a blast just handing out in Kyoto and Kobe.

No Sake For You!

2010-03-16T23:33:00.003-05:00

11.24.09

I got up this morning and Katie and I headed out into Kobe. We stopped at the hospitality desk and picked up some maps and we were on our way. We first headed to find the shopping streets. We got a little lost and asked a man where it was. The man said something to us in Japanese and then walked away with our map. His wife then took my arm and escorted me to follow her husband. The husband then turned around and in broken English said we go together. So we followed this man and his wife. They were so cute. They tried to make conversation with us. When we got to the shopping area everything was closed. Through hand gestures we learned everything opened at 10. It was 0915. So we had an hour to kill. We found a café and bought some internet. We sat outside and killed time.

At 10, we headed back that way. Stuff still wasn’t open. It was weird because we found all sorts of stores for real shopping. There were no stores for souvenir type stuff. It was pretty ridiculous because all we could find were show stores.

At some point we ended up in China and India, but not Japan. Weird. We got some awesome chicken on a stick, but didn’t find much else there. So we got on the subway and headed to Nara. Nara is another section of Kobe, where there are sake breweries.

We arrived in the sleepy little town of Nara and there was NOONE anywhere. We did see one woman who was walking her schnauzer and I got so excited and I ended up running over and petting the dog. The little woman thought it was hilarious and she couldn’t stop giggling. I thought I had terrified her. She was adorable. We continued walking and ended up walking right past the brewery we wanted to go to. After stopping at a gas station for directions, we made it to the brewery only to find out that it is closed on Tuesdays. Of course it is. Apparently, the Japanese are not fans of sake on Tuesdays. The security guard there did give us a name of a brewery that was open. We found it after a quick walk and I think we somehow managed to get in the back way into the museum. Everything was in Japanese so we really didn’t understand much, but it was cool to see it. We got to try some sake and it wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought it was going to be. One of the main reasons we went to the brewery was to buy sake sets. The first place didn’t have much so we went on to another place called Skauken. We found some with breweries name on it. They were pretty cool. After walking around some more, we admitted defeat we headed back to Kobe.

Once back in Kobe, it was almost on ship time so we headed back to the ship. We stopped at the little souvenir shop because it was one of the only places that you could find the touristy stuff. We spent some yen and the exchanged the rest and boarded the ship.

Once on the ship, we just hung out and relaxed. I was dead tired so the night consisted mainly of watching House. It is kind of sad to be leaving out last port. We watched the farewell band from our cabin and waved goodbye. And so we left our last foreign port.

"Lauren! I'm Scared!"

2010-03-16T23:33:00.001-05:00

11.23.09

We pulled into Kobe around 0715. Katie and I met up for breakfast at 7. A little before 8 the ship was cleared. We disembarked and went to the train station bound for Kyoto. We got on the right train line, but on the local – not the express. We changed trains and things went much quicker.

We go into Kyoto around 0915. When we got there, we left to head to the Nijo Castle. ON the way we ran into a huge temple or shrine, where there was some sort of service going on. The service took a backseat to the fattest pigeons I have ever seen. A man was selling feed so Katie and I bought some. Little did we know that as soon as we bought the stuff these huge pigeons came flying at our face. At one point I had 4 on my arm and another just chilling on my purse. It was rather terrifying and we didn’t realize that we were probably catching some weird bird diseases. But Japan had thought about it and there was hand sanitizer stations. These pigeons were not normal. They would fly right at your face! And there were a ton of them! They were everywhere and would just come at you. After escaping from them, we went and observed the service. It was really beautiful and then everyone started chanting. Katie and I felt a little envasive so we went on our way to the castle.

We still epically failed at Japanese food and stopped at McDonald’s for a snack. We eventually made it to the castle and it was beautiful. But on the way there we found some wifi in the middle of the street. As long as we stood still and held our jaw just right we were able to use skype on Katie’s iPhone. I called Mom and Dad and Katie called Steve. Back to the castle. The structure was absolutely gorgeous. It was a series of wooden houses. It boasts to be the largest wooden structure in the world. It had these floors called Nightengale floors, which is were the floors are designed to squeak so no one could sneak in at night. Pretty clever if you as me.

As we were walking through the garden we got caught up in a school group. This is where I made an interesting observation. All the men in Japan carry a man purse (“It’s called a satchel. Indian Jones carries one”). They also have these adorable cell phone charms. I could see tweens carrying them in the states, but here everyone has them even businessmen. I find it pretty hilarious.

We walked through the gardens, which had some beautiful trees. They were changing colors because the fall was just getting there. The leaves were deep red and bright yellow. There was also a huge coy pond filled with some of the largest fish I have ever seen. We exited the gardens into a little section of shop tents and food. Katie and I finally got some Japanese food. We had a bowl of noodles and rice balls in a sweet soy sauce. The rice balls had the texture of marshmallows so I didn’t much care for those, but the noodles were good. Trying to eat a bowl of noodles with chopsticks is an experience. After looking around at the locals, turns out it is perfectly fine to slurp the noodles and basically drink out of the bowl. After I figured that out, things went much more smoothly.

We then continued our walking tour of Kyoto. We walked along a canal and found our way into this hip little ally. It was pretty cool to see. Our main end goal was the Philosopher’s Walk. We stopped in this store that had floor to ceiling of stuff. The owner spoke really good English so we chatted with him and he told us how to get there. He warned us that it was a really long walk. We still went and wound up walking through Kyoto University’s campus. It was really cool because there was some sort of festival going on. We saw a group of people that looked like a dance class. We wanted to chat, but we never got the chance.

We eventually made it to the walk and it was beautiful. It was sprinkled with shrines, shops, restaurants and temples. It was along a canal and since it was fall, the trees were all changing colors. It was gorgeous, but my feet were killing me.

When the trail ended, we made our way to the train station to head back to Kobe. We got in about an hour later. As we were walking back to the ship we ran into Minh, Rachel, and Andy who were going bowling. We decided to turn back around and go out with them.

We grabbed food at McDonald’s, which was on the ground floor of a 10 story bowling alley. Katie got the shaka shaka chicken. It is basically a fried chicken patty in a bag and you pour the spices in a shake. So kind of like shake and bake Japanese McDonald’s style. We got our shoes out a shoe type vending machine where we pushed a button with our size and out popped our shoes.

We got our lane assignment and we ended up being on the same floor as some sort of sports team. They had some of the most bizarre bowling behavior. They would run and throw the ball half way down the land and then proceed to run half way down the land after the ball. Then they would turn around and scream. It was really entertaining to watch. We ended up making a bet for beer in Hawaii. Andy and Minh barely won the first game. I had a score of 115. We went double or nothing on the second game and still lost. The bowling alley gave us some vouchers for a free play on a crane game and 20 tokens for the games. None of us won anything, but it kept us entertained for a while. We also played a game of Mario Kart. When you chose a character they take a picture of you and put it in the characters face. It was pretty awesome. I ended up getting 3^rd place, but it was a close race.

Afterward, Katie, Rachel and I walked back to the ship while Andy and Minh headed to a party. When we got to the gangway there was a girl there who had cut her foot and there was blood everywhere. It was pretty gross. I crashed as soon as I was in my room. I was exhausted from all the walking that day.

“Dick Nean….Dean Nick, please report to the Purser’s Desk.”

2010-03-16T23:32:00.002-05:00

11.22.09

Today I thought I was getting up early and I ended up waking up at 11. Whoops. I wanted to actually be productive, but I ended up sitting in bed and watching House. Yeah, totally productive. The highlights of the day both came from the intercom. One was when Rita came over the intercom and said “Dick Nean” instead of Dean Nick. And then Stella sang Happy Birthday to Rita. It was probably the cutest thing ever. Katie and I also went through all of the things we had bought and decided who we were giving them to. That was really the only productive thing we did since we are sailing from Yokohama to Kobe.

"LEAVES!"

2010-03-16T23:32:00.001-05:00

11.21.09

We woke up SUPER early this morning (at 615) to go to breakfast before heading to Mount Fuji. We got on the bus and we were greeted by our adorable tour guide, Oka. We had 2 hours before we reached Mt. Fuji, so she gave us the history of the mountain. It really wasn’t all that exciting until she busted out some visual aids. She kept pulling things out of her bag like she as Mary Poppins. She had cutouts of the mountain and a poster of the elevation and even huge color photos of the emperor and the imperial family. She was just so cute! There was a car accident on the interstate. Go figure the only country that actually obeys traffic laws and it was the only country that we ever got held up because of an accident. Katie and I ended up passing out.

When we woke up, we arrived at the Mt. Fuji’s Visitor Center. It was basically an info center and gift shop. While we were outside taking pictures in front of Mt. Fuji, a group of Japanese ladies asked us to take their pictures. They were so cute. After we left, we headed up to the 5^th station on Mt. Fuji, which is the highest point we can get to because it is winter and about half way up the mountain. There were a bunch of shops and restaurants so we peeked into a few of them. We ran into our Japanese friends, who also high fived Mackenzie in the bathroom. They tried to teach me the Japanese word for opossum, but I don’t remember what it was. They were still just as adorable. We walked along the shops and also found a shrine with a overlook. I am really glad that there was snow even though it made it a little bit hard to walk. The snow was breath taking.

We got back on the bus, where we tore into our last box lunches. Oh how I am not going to miss those boxed lunches. They haven’t improved any since the beginning of the voyage. Our next stop was Hakone. This is where we had the lovely pleasure of riding in a cable bar to the top of Mt. Hakone. I was not too excited about that. MacGarret and I just hung out in the middle of the cable car. It wasn’t as bad as the one on Table Mountain, but it wasn’t great either.

Before we got on the cable bar. We saw these large mechanical animals, like pandas or dogs. They were pretty much the funniest thing ever. We made it to the top of the mountain in 8 minutes. I know it was 8 minutes because Oka told us about 20 times. We happened to get to the top of the mountain right when a cloud got there as well. Our view was about as good as it was when we were on Radhost in the Czech Republic. It was basically the inside of a cloud and you couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of you. We were able to entertain ourselves with a photo booth and hot chocolate. The ride down wasn’t as bad.

When we got down we had 20 minutes of free time so we went into the little shops then met up at the lake. I thought we were going to be really lucky and take a swan boat to the other side of the lake, but it wasn’t so. While we were waiting to get on the ferry, Mackenzie decided to pick up some “LEAves.” It was a pretty interesting conversation about the plural pronunciation of “leaf.” Mackenzie also wound up with a stick that she was carrying around and called her sling shot. She was just cracking me up because she was so distracted by the botanical life in Hakone. Who knew it would be that interesting.

Once on the boat, we had a great view of Fuji and Hakone. Of course as soon as we got down from the cable car, the cloud moved and the view would have been incredible. We took the ferry to the other side of the lake. We back on the bus and headed back to the ship. We ran into more traffic on the way back, which was bad because on ship time was 9 and it was already 715 and we wanted to grab dinner off the ship. When we got into the port, we ran off the ship in search of Japanese food. We epically failed and ended up at a place called Jonathan’s. We had 3 plates of egg rolls and 2 plates of calamari. Yep, epically fail at Japanese food.

We made it back on the ship with about 45 minutes to spare. We dropped our stuff and ended up meeting up on the 7^th deck for ice cream. We played some pish posh and headed to bed.

Harajuku and Karaoke

2009-12-10T17:54:00.000-06:00

11.20.09
When we pulled into Yokohama this morning, I went up to Deck 7 and watched the drum performance going on to welcome us. It was pretty cool. I grabbed breakfast with Katie, Dr. Aimee, her husband Mark, Dr. Skokan and the interport lecturer. It was a pretty entertaining breakfast.
Once we got completely docked we all met up in Tymetz square and headed out. Clearing the ship was different this time. We all went through customs individually and we had to get into the port and stand in a single file line, with no talking, which seems to be a huge challenge for some people. We each met with an individual immigration agent. We handed over our passport, had our photo and fingerprints taken. Then we moved onto customs. We handed in paperwork and had our bags x-rayed. We regrouped, went to the info desk, grabbed a map and headed to Tokyo. The railway system is ridiculous. There are about 5 different lines and then there are buses, and subways and about 8 other forms of transportation. We made it to Tokyo after 2 transfers only to realize that we were not in the part of Tokyo we wanted to be in. Our goal ending place was the Harajuku district that has been made famous by Gwen Stefani. After another train or subway ride, I am still not sure which one we were on, we made it.
Once we got there, we really had no plans so we just wondered. We had a guidebook and they mentioned something about an Oriental Bazaar that looked interesting so we headed in that direction. We were all starving and we wanted to find some food, but it turns out that the hibachi style food is not popular in Japan – go figure. We were lured into a restaurant that was advertising pizza and beer. It was kind of like a Japanese Cici’s pizza. It was 1000 yen or about $10 for a drink, and unlimited pizza, pasta, fried potatoes (but not French fries), and for some reason curry with rice. There were not really any set types of pizza. It seemed like the cook was just throwing together whatever he could find in the kitchen. We tried a little of everything. There was a corn and mayonnaise, weird but good. Shrimp and mayo, beef and onion, which was good, and there was another one that was supposed to some sort of beef, but it tasted like seafood. Gross. That was really the only really bad one that I tried. Kelsey and Mackenzie tried this one kind with green powder and a marshmellow. I definitely stayed away from that one. Kelsey tried it and said it was disgusting. I’m not surprised.
Once we had our fill of pizza, we wondered out We thought we were going the wrong direction, but we ended up stumbling upon the Oriental Bazaar. It was a really cool shop. They have pretty much everything you could want from Japan. We shopped around a little bit. After we had our purchases, we got directions from some woman in the bazaar and headed to Harajuku. Turns out that it is basically a street, not really a district, but it was still really cool. As we wondered along the ally, we looked into the little shops. We kept seeing all these thrift stores so eventually decided to go in one. Inside, it was basically a nice goodwill. It was full of all the clothes that you wish you could find at Goodwill at home. Then we were hit with a shock. Instead of paying about $1 for a t-shirt you paid $60! Who knew that our thrown out clothing would be so popular in Japan. Katie bought a vintage Batman shirt for her brother. At another store, we found a ton of cheap t-shirts. I somehow managed to find a sweatshirt that said “Grand Ole Opry. Nashville, Tenn.” On it. That was weird.
We wondered down another alley in search of the 100 yen store, which is basically the dollar store. As we were walking, we were mesmerized by the neon lights and the outfits of the local teens. They all have these adorable thigh-high boots that if anyone in the US wore they would look like a prostitue, but somehow they can get away with it. Actually, I don’t know how they wear some of the clothing they wear and not look like skanks. Even their school uniform skirts, which are WAY cuter than any uniform in the US, are short. They also never have a hair out of place and perfect curls. I was started to get really jealous, but then I realized that most of them were wearing wigs. They also had some weird accessories, like an eye patch or small hats that look like they belong to an American Girl doll.
Anyway, Katie, Kelsey and Mackenzie got crepes and that was right by the 100 yen store. It wasn’t as exciting as everyone made it out to be. After exploring the 4 floors of the store, we went around to the random alleyways and stores. Katie and I ended up with some adorable heels for $30. After some more venturing, we some how came upon the Togo Shrine. It was named for a famous Japanese general who won a huge naval battle. It was interesting, but I felt a little awkward because I didn’t know what the protocol for behavior was. There were people bowing and clapping. After poking around some more, we went back to the main drag. It was getting dark and we decided to head back to Yokohama. When we looked at the map, we saw that we just needed to get to Shibuya and then we could take a train direct to Yokohama. It took a while to figure out how to get to Shibuya, but we got there eventually. Once in Shibuya, it was even more difficult to find the train we needed because there was NOTHING in English. And it’s not like you can try to sound out Japanese. Turns out that train that we needed had two different names, which made things even more confusing and who would have thought that the Tokyo line would go to Yokohama. The whole process took about 90 minutes.
When we got back to Yokohama we headed for the ship. We ran into a big group of people and made plans to meet up at 2000 and go out. We grabbed dinner on the ship and then got ready.
We met up with the group of about 25 and headed to Chinatown. Yes, I realize that we just came from China, but Chinatown has the karaoke bar that was recommended to us. It took a while to find the place, but it turned out to be more expensive than anyone wanted. So one part of the group left for Yokohama station and the rest went to look for a local bar. We went with the group to find the local bar and found another karaoke bar that was a little cheaper. Paulo, Katie, Kelsey, Drew, Cav and I decided to stay there. It was a lot of fun, but Paulo can actually sing so that sucked for the rest of us. He sounds just like John Legend. We sang a lot of cliché songs, but it was still a lot of fun. There were a ton a businessmen there. Apparently, it is the thing to do after work. We stayed for an hour and then headed back to the ship. Katie and I had to get up early the next morning for a trip.

Pre Japan

2009-12-10T17:53:00.002-06:00

I am really looking forward to Japan. It will be interesting to see how many people can squeeze into such a small space. I am a little bummed that I can’t get to Disney, but from what research I have done I think I am going to need a month in Japan to really get to see everything. Even though I am staying on the ship for one day, I will still be able to see a lot.
I am really looking forward to the food. I hope it is somewhat like home. Everyone on the ship is excited for sushi, but that is not really what I want. I really want to try Kobe beef, but it is SUPER expensive.
I am also really excited to see Tokyo and Harajuku and the crazy fashions that go along with it. I am pretty sure that Japan is a place I will be coming back to so this is just like a taste.

Post China

2009-12-10T17:53:00.001-06:00

China was a country that really surprised me. I really didn’t think I would want to come back, but I actually really enjoyed it – Despite the fact that I froze my butt off. I saw the influence of the communist government, but not as much as I thought I would. It was all really subtle. Like how you can’t get on facebook or how the tour guides can’t talk about the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The food was also different than Chinese food in the States. It was less fried, but more greasy. I must say that I mastered my chopstick skills. People are so happy in China, especially the elderly we saw at the Temple of Heaven. In the US, everyone has such a negative connotation with the word communism and assume that people are unhappy. But I found that most everyone was happy with their life and their government.
One thing that I really loved about China is how they pronounce words that end in the letter a. Like China or Panda. These words are pronounced “Chiner” and “Pander.” I think I would go back to China just so I could say that and people wouldn’t think I was crazy. All the people in China are just so nice.
I really would like to go back and spend more time in Hong Kong and Shanghai. One interesting thing is that the taxi drivers seemed to want nothing to do with us, which is a drastic change from the other ports we have been to. I don’t know if it was because we didn’t speak the language or what. In other ports, taxis, rickshaws, cyclos, tuk tuks or whatever are all hassling us.
Overall, I really enjoyed China and I really hope that I stay in contact with the university students that I met like Alice and Yolanda. I really liked how we were able to wonder around by ourselves, but yet still had some structure.

Movie Day

2009-12-10T17:53:00.000-06:00

11.17.09
I slept in this morning and took it easy. I really didn’t want to get off the ship. One because it really wasn’t that much time to actually do anything. Two it was raining and three I am coming down with something so I thought it better to rest. So I just stayed in and edited pictures. Katie came by and we grabbed lunch and came back to the cabin and had a movie-fest. Mackenzie joined us as well and we watched The Proposal – now I finally understand what everyone was talking about when they said that the quilt that Granny made me looks like the baby making quilt from that movie, and we also watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was a pretty lazy day.
We set sail that night for Yokohama.

Car Wrecks and Pearls

2009-12-10T17:52:00.001-06:00

11.16.09
We woke up this morning and were greeted with a rainy day in Shanghai. Yuck. I met up with Kelsey, Christina, Rosario and Kate and we headed to find internet. We tried to find a cab and we asked a doorman and he said to just to take the bus. Christina all the sudden busts out into Mandarin – who knew? Turns out that her dad is from Hong Kong and she speaks Mandarin with her grandmother and she took Cantonese in high school. She made it a lot in easier in getting around. We could never really find the bus station, so Kelsey and Christina went into a little store and we stayed outside. We were just hanging out outside. We are watching this white car try to pull a u-turn in the middle of the street…who does that? Not only does a huge truck almost t-bone him, but then as he finishes his turn, this guy on a motorbike comes from the other side of the truck and then the white car hits the guy on the motorbike literally right in front of us. Kate screamed and we just couldn’t believe what had happened. It’s not like we could really do anything.
We had to flag a cab and that was a task and a half. When we finally flagged one down, this other guy tried to take it from us. They have no line etiquette or concept of personal space. All 5 of us piled into the cab and eventually made it to the You Gardens, which is normally a beautiful garden, but on a rainy day it really isn’t that exciting. We ran around trying to find the Starbucks. WE found it, but it didn’t have wireless. They said to try KFC. Well that didn’t work either. Kelsey and I broke off from the other group and explored every restaurant possible and asked everyone we could find and no one knew what we were talking about. We ran into 2 flight attendants and they tried to help, but they didn’t know where internet was either. They did help us figure out where we were, which was a plus because we had just been wondering aimlessly through what I only know how to describe as China Town in NYC.
We eventually gave up and went to McDonalds. I was craving a cheeseburger so bad. It was delicious. We then decided it was time to give up on internet and it was time to shop. We just wondered around and somehow ended up in a 5 story whole sale warehouse. It was really neat, but I wish we could have found someone that spoke English so they could explain to us what was going on.
We wondered some more and eventually found a lovely woman with a pearl shop. Kelsey and I ended up spending the next hour in her shop. After bargaining, we walked away with 6 strands of pearls and 4 silver and pearl necklaces for 520 yuan (~$76). So I think that is pretty good considering it is real silver and pearls (she lit them on fire to prove it). The woman gave us her business cards to give to our friends so she could get more business.
We said goodbye with much lighter wallets and in search of a duffle bag. I found a place and a very colorful bag, but it was WAY more expensive than I wanted. He originally said 320 and I offered 60. He laughed at me so we left. Next thing I know they are running down the street saying 60 was good. So I got a LeSport Sac bag for under $10. With all of our goals accomplished, we decided to head back to the ship even though we had some time to spare.
We ended up stopping in for some food at Pizza Hut. I loved it. All the waitresses had Christmas hats on and the place was playing Christmas music. That was a nice change of pace. Kelsey and I split and cheese pizza and it was glorious. Some more SASers came in and they told us that Dunkin Donuts had internet. Go figure.
We finished our pizza and headed to Dunkin Donuts. We caught a cab and eventually found it through lots of hand gestures, pointing and a map. When we got there and even though it was almost one in the morning at home I called Dad. It was really exciting because Grammy was in town and I got to talk to her on skype. The best part was that I was sitting next to window in the restaurant and while talking, I had a crowd of Chinese people watching my conversation video. It was rather entertaining. I also got to talk to mom.
We left Dunkin Donuts and headed back to the ship. We tried to walk, but got lost and got directions from a local student. The sheet with the ship address written in Chinese was wrong, so he wrote it correctly for us. He was super nice.
Cab drivers wanted nothing to do with us, but we somehow ended up in front of the Westin. So we had the valet there get us a cab. We got back to the ship and had to wait in line with a bunch of people in the rain. People in line, especially a particular life long learner, were getting pretty feisty. When we were finally able to get back on the ship we found out that because of bad weather we were staying Shanghai another night and on ship time was extended until noon tomorrow. Great.
I went back to my cabin and began organizing all of my stuff, which took a lot longer than I expected it to. We grabbed some dinner on the ship and hit the hay early.

Dancing Elderly Are Adorable

2009-12-10T17:52:00.000-06:00

11.15.09
I got really lucky that I brought an alarm clock because the hotel forgot to give us our wake up call this morning. We were all scrambling. We were all checked out and ready to go only 20 minutes behind schedule. So I think that is pretty good. Yolanda was PISSED at the hotel, but we made it fine.
The first stop was the Temple of Heaven. This was my favorite place that we visited. I could have stayed there all day. The temple was cool, but the awesome part was toward the end. We passed this group that was singing all sorts songs. They seemed to be church hymns of some kind. Kelsey and I stopped and listened. It was awesome. We approached them afterward to show how much we enjoyed the show. I think they got the point because they broke out in smiles.
We next encountered what Yolanda told us is where the elderly come to exercise on the weekends. We stopped and watched some elderly dance what we think was Russian, but they were too cute! They were all so happy. We also played this game where a tennis ball had ribbons coming off of it and then you caught it in this tennis racket looking thing. It was pretty fun, but then the guy tried to get us to buy one. We passed and kept walking. We saw them singing karaoke, playing dominos, Mulan checkers (we didn’t know what this game is called, but it is the game in the movie Mulan when she helps the old guys), playing their version of hackey sack, which is this weird thing with feathers coming out of the end, and just dancing. It was awesome walking through there. They were all just so welcoming toward us to join them. Kelsey grabbed Yao Fung and started dancing with her. They were in the middle of the courtyard where they had an amplification system set up and someone was singing. There were people everywhere just dancing. It was fabulous. Laila even found herself a dancing partner in this little adorable old Chinese man. The whole thing was so neat. I could have watched the people there all day. There were people dancing from all sorts of different cultures and different types of dancing. There was a couple waltzing, belly dancing, just swaying or just being silly. It was great and I am so glad that I got to see that side of China and the Chinese.
We then got dropped off for some shopping at the Pearl Market. That place is crazy and has everything you could ever imagine. It had 5 floors jammed packed with everything from clothes to kites to luggage to the newest electronics. Kelsey and I ran around and did some serious power shopping. We went on a mad dash to find an ATM. We eventually found one. Kelsey and I got some money out and it was game on.
Kelsey got a webcam for 50 yuan. We then tried to find CD cases. We eventually found some and we told the woman that we wanted 2 like the one she had out, which was black and had an antique map of China on it. After we bargained down the price to 75 for 2 we rounded up to 100 so Kelsey could get some headphones too. When she brought out the CD cases, they, of course, had Mickey Mouse on them…how fitting. We were just kind of hanging out at that woman’s stand and Kelsey happened to spot a flash drive with 240 gigs on it. After proving to us that they actually worked, we got into a bargaining war. She started out at 240 for one. I walked to stall next door and they had the same thing. So we got them trying to out bid each other. We ended up getting 2 of them for 90 yuan! (about $7 each). That is such a steal. We ended up just killing time and just seeing how cheap we could get people to go. I am quite proud at how my bargaining skills have improved.
We got back on the bus and headed to the airport for Shanghai. It was really sad to say goodbye to Yao Fung and Yolanda. Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes, but other than that it really wasn’t all that exciting.
It was raining when we got into Shanghai so that was a bummer, but the city seems really cool and it will be fun to explore tomorrow. We got back on the ship and crashed. We just hung out and everyone caught up on their trips. We all made plans to shop the next day and said goodnight.

"Would You Care For A Duck In A Bag?"

2009-12-10T17:51:00.000-06:00

11.14.09
We woke up and had the usual breakfast of sweet potatoes and noodles. When we left the hotel, we went to Tiananmen Square. We walked through the square and had some free time for a couple of hours. Yolanda had mentioned something about an H&M and we eventually wanted to find that.
Kelsey, Robyn and I first went into the Great Hall of the People. It was very underwhelming, plus there was NO information anywhere so we really had no idea what we were looking at. We adventured around and saw a big theater and some pretty rooms. When we left we wondered what we had just toured. Once we got out of the hall and reclaimed our bags that we had checked, Robyn got out her iPhone and goggled it. Turns out that it is the Chinese equivalent to a parliament building. So it is like going to the capital.
We wondered in the general direction of the H&M, but we never really made it there. We just ended up going into little hole in the wall stores. They were a lot of dollar store type places. The best part was that we managed to find a grocery store. There were some really interesting things there like duck in a bag or beef jerky candy. We skipped the duck in a bag and went with oreos, sprites and some interesting flavored chips – French Chicken and Texas BBQ.
We got back to Tiananmen Square a little before the meeting time. As we were heading back to the meeting location, we saw a group of American teenage girls all lined up in front of the memorial. Next thing I know, they are busting out the Ho Down Throw Down from the Hannah Montana Movie. Oh yeah – they were that cool. It was slightly ridiculous, but very funny to watch the Chinese react. They had no idea what to do. One woman was brave and managed to side step in front of some of the girls while her friend took a picture.
We found the group and went into the Forbidden City for lunch. Lunch was the usual Chinese. I really just want a cheeseburger. After we ate, we went on a tour of the Forbidden City. We were given audio guides, which also had a map on them. The Forbidden City is HUGE! Thank god for those maps or we would have never made it out. We kept trying to find the Temple of abstinence, but somehow we always ended up in the temple of heavenly something or other. Turns out that we couldn’t get into the temple we wanted to go in. The best part of the audio guide maps was that they had a sensor in them and a light would light up and tell you where you were and where you had been. Kelsey and I just kept ducking into little stores so we could defrost for a little bit.
We eventually made it to the temple gardens, which is where we were meeting the group. They were absolutely gorgeous. There were all these beautiful flowers and pagodas and rocks. But before we were really able to enjoy the gardens, we had a group of Chinese come up and ask to take our picture with us. Kelsey is like a tourist attraction with her blonde hair and all and add in the fact that we had Panda hats on our heads we get a lot of weird looks. As soon as we left that group, there were 2 more girls waiting. We were able to break free of the meet and great line and ducked into a little café. Kelsey grabbed some popcorn and we sat and ate and learned about our Chinese horoscopes.
As we were walking to meet up with the group, we saw a group of art students who had an art exhibit. They showed us their work and it was beautiful, but way too expensive. They got so excited when we complimented their work. We made it back to the group and walked to Jingshan Park, which is behind the Forbidden City. Kelsey and I found sweet potatoes so we bought some just to stay warm. The park turned out to be an overlook over the Forbidden City and Beijing. It was gorgeous and we got there right at sunset so the lighting was perfect. We could see for miles around Beijing. It was awesome.
When we walked down from the overlook, we boarded the bus since the first time that morning and it was almost 5. It was great to be able to get fully warm. Our next stop was dinner. None of us were really hungry, but we still got a ton of food. At dinner we sat with MacGarret, Leslie, and Ana. It was great conversation. I love talking to all the staff. They all have such diverse backgrounds and they are all hysterical.
After dinner, we went to an acrobatic show. The other SAS university group was there. We also met a guy from Boulder, who was on his honeymoon and his younger brother had done SAS last year. That was cool. The show was insane. They stated out with this see-saw thing and they were flipping people into the air and they were landing on stilts or a seat balance on a pole or some guys shoulders or some crazy contraption. Then these 3 girls came out and one did the crazy contortionist thing. Their set ended with them balancing on their chins while holding these weird candle holder looking things with both hands and feet, while their bodies were flipped upside down.
Next was a guy on a balance board who used the board to flip bowls up into his hat. Then these two guys came out on this wheel thing that spun around while the wheels they were on also spun. It really made me nervous because this guy was jumping rope and running around blindfolded and he almost fell a couple of times and there is no safety net or harness or anything. Then these other three guys came out and did these poses that required such strength. It was crazy.
I realize that there is no way to really describe the show accurately, but it was so unbelievable. It was kind of like Cirque de Solie. The things these people did with their bodies was crazy! I got lots of video even though I wasn’t supposed to.
After the show, we went back to the hotel and took a bath. Right after that I got hit with a wave of nausea. I ended up getting sick a couple of times, but then I felt a lot better and was able to pass out.

"Freedom for the Basque Country!"

2009-12-10T17:50:00.000-06:00

11.13.09
Today we woke up in our still cold room and put on every article of clothing we owned in preparation for the day. I ended up with jeans, 2 pairs of socks, tennis shoes, my mickey scarf, 2 long-sleeve shirts, a t-shirt, a sweater and both layers of my NorthFace jacket. I also carried my SAS sweatshirt, just in case. And I had Ping, my Panda Hat.
We went down to breakfast, which consisted of, for me, sweet potatoes, fried chicken paste (that was weird), and some sort of lo mein noodles. It was a pretty good breakfast.
Our first stop of the day was to the Cloisonné factory. That is the traditional Chinese pottery. They take copper pots, dishes, ashtrays, vases and basically everything else and put a pattern on it in raised copper. Then it is taken to another section where color is applied using eye droppers. Then it is sent off the kiln to be fired. The final step is polishing. It was a cool process to watch. We had an awesome tour guide named Babbit (not Rabbit). He was too cute and would walk around and say “Follow Babbit.” The funny thing is that he actually picked Babbit to be his English name.
When we had seen all of the process, he showed us the “happy house” aka the bathroom, and the gift shop of the factory. The shop was ridiculously expensive, but I did manage to find a thimble for 40 yuan (~$5.50). A little pricey, but it has been the only thimble that I have seen. They have the goofiest system for buying things. They take what you want and give you a receipt. You take that receipt to the cashier and pay. Then they give you a stamped receipt back and you go back to where you found what you wanted. You give the stamped receipt to the lady and collect what you bought. It seemed like a huge waste of energy, but whatever.
Caroline and I got into a snowball fight, which somehow spread once we were on the bus. A group from Denmark, which had some super hot guys, decided it would be fun to throw snowballs at our bus…and the snowballs began.
Our second stop was the Ming Tombs, which is where all the emperor’s of the Ming Dynasty are buried. The grounds are really pretty, but Bertha froze in the cold weather so I didn’t really get that many pictures. We walked until we found the entrance, went through a security check and went down an endless flight of stairs into the tombs.
It was kind of weird, people just threw money onto the tombs and I am not really sure why. Perhaps respect for the dead? We emerged from the tombs, which were not really as exciting as they should have been, in to the Soul Temple. We had to be sure to exit with our right foot (left for guys) so that the tombs would not keep our souls. I figure my soul would be a good thing to keep.
We met up with Dani, Cody, Caroline, and Robyn. We still had a long time until we had to be back on the bus, so we hit up a food stand and got more oreos and delicious sweet potatoes. Dani was adventurous and tried the corn on the cob. It tasted like corn, but it was a little tough.
We slowly made our way back to the entrance. Kelsey and I visited the gift shop and found some deals. I bought a Great Wall model thing for 3 yuan ($.50) and Kelsey got some bags. We got a little lost going back to the bus, but we eventually made it back.
We are lunch at a super touristy place. You had to walk through this HUGE showroom to even get to the restaurant Lunch was delicious though. I had some of the best sweet and sour pork ever. And we finally got some rice.
We walked around the showroom, which was also really expensive. This place was interesting because it was really expensive, but the ceiling was leaking. There were buckets and water all over the floor. I did buy some stamps.
After lunch, we made it to the GREAT WALL!! It was covered in snow. The section Yolanda took us to made a big semi circle, so we went up one way and went down the other. Chinese legend says that you are not a real man unless you climb to the top of the Great Wall. So today we became real men. We started the hike and all I have to say is “Holy Table Mountain Batman!” It really didn’t help that the stairs were slick with ice and snow and slush and they were uneven and super steep. Thank God for the handrails or it would have been bad news bears. We stopped on the way to take pictures and such. We met some people who were from Alaska and Chicago. We even got a picture with one of them, but that was kind of by accident. We asked them to take a picture of Kelsey and I and then one of them just jumped in with us. It was kind of awkward. We climbed on, but at one point we were ambushed. Lead by Iker, we were bombarded with snowballs from the nearest tower. It really didn’t help that we were trying to keep our balance on the stairs. In trying to hit us, they actually hit some non-SASers so that was actually kind of funny. They had entirely way too much fun with that. So we were able to sneak by and get up into the next tower and load up on ammo before they were able to get there. Somewhere along the way, we picked up two Chinese allies. So here we are on the top of the Great Wall of China preparing for an epic snowball fight. We had to wait for a bit for them to come by, but when they did we unloaded. It turned into the world war of snowball fights. There was the US, the Chinese, Iker, who is from the Basque country in Spain, and somehow some French guys got involved. It lasted a good 30-45 minutes. It was a blast. I can’t believe I had a snowball fight on the Great Wall of China – who does that?
We pressed on and eventually made it to the top. So I guess I am officially a man. Kelsey and I took our man pictures and celebrated our victory. We had to take pictures quickly because the cameras were freezing in the cold weather. So we are all going to have to share pictures. After relishing in the moment for a bit, we started back down again. It was super steep and even more snow/ice covered than the stairs on the way up. The handrail was a lifeline. It was so snow packed and steep that we invented a new sport – sneaker skiing. You basically held onto the handrail and slide down the stairs. It was pretty fun and there were no injuries to report.
Toward the bottom it went super steep and even more slippery. I switched to the repelling method. I went down the stairs backwards using the handrail as my rope. It worked really well. The whole thing was slightly ridiculous and really nerve wracking because if you slip you are going to need to go to the hospital and we left the first aid kit on the bus. When we got close to the bottom, I happened to look up and spot a camel. Yep a camel – in China. That was bizarre.
We finally made it to the bottom and had to get directions from a couple from Illinois to get headed the right way to the bus. Everything was closed or closing down so we ran to the vendor stand to get our man certificates. We were met by a camel wearing Aladdin pants halfway there. It was just like WTF?
We searched the stands and finally found one that had certificates. After some bargaining we got it down to 35. We wrote down our names and she “engraved” them with our name and date. I use the word engrave loosely. It basically meant that she scratched it with a pen. We boarded the bus now that we had documentation that we had become men. Leslie, Ana and MacGarret had not yet boarded the bus and we were late, since we had taken longer to get down form the wall because of all the snow and ice. They were technically late so when they got on we all yelled “Dock Time!” That was pretty funny.
We went directly from the Great Wall to a restaurant on the Peking University campus to eat with some students. At our table we had Joanna, Yao Fung, and another girl named Rose, who had to leave early. We got to try the famous Peking Duck. I am not really a big fan of the duck, but it wasn’t exactly bad. The weird part was the skin. In the markets, there is someone whose sole job is to separate the skin from the meat. They do this by slitting the throat and then blowing into that slit so that the air separates the skin from the meat, but yet the meat still stays really juicy. Yeah, that is pretty gross. The serve the duck in these really thin tortilla type things with strips of cantaloupe and onion and with a sweet soy sauce. I skipped out on the veggies, but it was still good.
After dinner, we went to a gathering hall on campus for a party with some more students. There weren’t that many students there, but it was still really fun. We started with a game to get to know everyone – the American classic of Never Have I Ever. I don’t think I have ever played that game with such appropriate questions. They then busted out a jump rope and we tried some double dutch, but the ceiling was too low, so we turned it into a game of limbo. What I learned from that game is that Iker and Olivia are a lot more flexible than I am.
Our next activity was an eating contest. Bananas, pistachios and something else. The person sitting at the table couldn’t use their hands, but there was a person standing behind them and they actually had to feed them. That was pretty funny. Cody and Madison won because Cody just ate the pistachios without peeling them first. Then we went to a pigtail contest. That was interesting. Matt and Olivia went with the quality over quantity strategy as he braided the hair. They barely had 2 minutes to do all this. There really wasn’t a winner.
Olivia and Laila also got up and did the Thriller dance and then taught all of use a part of it. That was really fun. I think the PKU students enjoyed it as well. While we were all up we ended the night with Ships and Sailors, which is kind of a take off of Simon Says, but way more fun. I can’t remember who won, but it was a great way to end the night. Before we went back to the hotel, we traded contact info with Alice, Yolanda and Yao Fung.
Alice walked Kelsey and I back to the hotel. We then gave her a little something. I gave her one of my Disney rings and Kelsey gave her some pencils and such. We said our goodbyes and Kelsey and I headed upstairs and crashed.

Panda Hats and Sweet Potatoes from a Rusty Trashcan

2009-12-03T03:55:00.000-06:00

11.12.09
I woke up about 4 hours after I went to sleep so I could make my trip to Beijing. I gathered my stuff and went to the garden lounge for breakfast. There was some drama about my bag because the frame was a little bit large. So I changed bags to be safe (I would have been fine, but whatever).
We got on the bus and headed to the airport. All of us were looking really rough – especially those who went out the night before. Caroline hadn’t even gone to bed yet.
At the airport, we got checked in and boarded. Once we were all situated in our seats, they made an announcement that we were going to be delayed for an hour – great. So Kelsey and I talked and such until we were finally able to take off. The flight took about 3 hours and was really bumpy. I have never seen so many people go to the bathroom on a flight before and completely ignore the seatbelt sign. The flight attendants were all buckled in and people were just walking around. And they were gathering in front of the doors and the cockpit. In the States, a person would be side tackled and probably injured in some way. The whole Chinese way of flying was a little bit ridiculous. Also, Kelsey had a kid behind her. She got kicked in the back, her hair pulled and elbowed. It doesn’t help that she is blonde so people stare at her normally.
We landed in Beijing and were greeted with 3 inches of snow! Boo cold weather! It was -1 degrees Celsius or roughly 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Going from Hong Kong where it was hot and humid, it was total shock to our systems. This is the first time we have really encountered cold, cold, weather. It sucks
We met our guide and they are so cute. They showed us to our nice warm bus and we began our trek in Beijing. I missed the 1st half of the bus ride because I took a 30 minute power nap. I was exhausted. We drove past the Bird’s Nest. It is HUGE! It is way bigger than I thought it was going to be. We also saw the Water Cube, which is a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be.
We eventually arrived at the summer palace – our destination. I had jeans, tennis shoes, t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, a hoodie, and a scarf and I was still freezing. The palace was really cool though. Kelsey and I wondered around a bit. I found some Oreos, which was great because I was starving and it was Oreos. We wondered some more and ate some more. There were these awesome Panda hats. Of course I wanted one. I asked our guides what the normal price is and they said 10-20 yuan ($1.50-$3.50). I eventually bargained this woman down from 40 to 20 so I bought one and I had no small bills, so I gave her a 100. I got my change and I was happy with my new panda hat, which I affectionately named Ping (which means “safe” in Cantonese, but I didn’t know that when I named him. I was channeling more Mulan when she is pretending to be a man). We wondered a little bit more and saw a lake with a pretty pagoda type buildings. It was even prettier with all the snow. We were looking for the marble boat because that is where we were meeting the bus. We ran into Leslie, MacGarrett, and Ana, which is good because we were totally lost. We just walked together and looked around.
We eventually found the marble boat, which is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch more people had bought panda hats so we took a big group picture. Next thing I know a big group of Chinese jump in the picture with us. It was pretty awesome.
We walked back to the bus and passed a woman riding a bike with a rusty steel drum/trashcan on the back. She was roasting sweet potatoes on top of the trashcan. It was probably one of the best sweet potatoes I have ever had. She put about 5 potatoes in a bag and we divided them out. Then we feasted on their newly found food. Because of this I have realized that sweet potatoes roasted on a rusty trashcan on the back of the bike would be one of the best ways to get warm on a cold day. I really want to bring rusty trashcan sweet potatoes back to the US.
We got back on the bus and went to the hotel to check in. On the way there, we all started looking at our money and it turns out all of us got back Russian Rubbles instead of Chinese Yuan. I ended up with a fake 50 (~$8). Damn the panda hat lady. Its actually pretty funny when you think about it. Chalk it all up to experience. And if I ever go to Russia at least I have 50 rubbles.
We got to our hotel, which is on the Peking University campus. Peking University students are our hosts. Olivia and I are roommates. We went to the room and dumped our stuff. Our room was freezing. We tried to figure out the heater, but it was not very powerful. We turned it all the way up in hopes that it would warm up while we were gone.
We went back to the lobby and went to dinner with our hosts. We went to a restaurant on campus. On the way to the restaurant, Kelsey thought it would be a great idea to hit me square in the face with a snowball. Yep, she is so nice haha. The Chinese table is very interesting in that they serve you about 20 different dishes and they are all on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and you just spin until whatever you want is in front of you. I am really not sure what we ate, but most of it was good. There was one vegetable that looked like tree. I stayed away from that, but Kelsey said it was good.
After dinner, we went to another building on campus and met some more Peking University students. I sat with an adorable girl named Alice, who spoke amazing English. We chatted about life. She is a law student and a senior. I felt that some of the questions we asked were somewhat inappropriate and she had no idea what we were talking about – especially the one child policy. But she has a boyfriend and is super sweet.
Alice walked us back to the hotel because we had no idea where it was. Once we got to the hotel, we said goodbye and I went and showered. Our room was still freezing. I bundled up and jumped in the bed. It was still chilly so I called the front desk. After some explaining, a girl came up to the room to try and help me. She didn’t really speak any English so after some hand gestures and her climbing up on a chair to try and fix the heater, I eventually told her to forget the heater and just bring us more blankets. The beds didn’t have any sheets. Just a fitted sheet and then a feather comforter. I ended up with two comforters and I was nice and cozy. I turned on the TV to find Taylor Swift. As I sat there watching the “You Belong with Me” video, I realized that those uniforms in the football scene looked really familiar. Then I put it at JPII. At a close up shot I was able to see the JPII logo on the uniforms. I would realize that in China.

The Happiest Place in Hong Kong

2009-12-02T17:09:00.000-06:00

11.11.09
I woke up about 7 to see us pull into Hong Kong. This place is incredible. The buildings are so tall and beautiful. It is just such a stark contrast coming from a place like Vietnam. I grabbed breakfast with Katie and Mackenzie and then we went to get ready.
We all met back up in Tymetz Square so we could get our game plan. Mackenzie and I went to go find Kelli because she was taking pictures up on the 7th deck. We didn’t find her, but we did find Dr. Aimee and Louise. It is kind of sad because Louise is leaving, but they are both glad to be back in Hong Kong. Now I see why Dr. Aimee loves it so much. It is beautiful.
After taking some pictures, we went back to Tymetz Square and found Kelli. We tried to map out a route of how to get to Disneyland. We came up with the brilliant plan of just going to the Peninsula Hotel, which Dr. Aimee suggested we walk through because it is a 5-star hotel and really pretty, and asking the concierge for directions. With that plan in mind we just had to wait for the ship to be cleared.
Around 0945 the ship was cleared. We were some of the first people off. The
dock is interesting in Hong Kong. We got directly off into a mall. We have to walk through the mall to get to the buses. This is the nicest mall I have ever been to and it has some of the most ridiculous stores ever i.e. Dolce and Gabbana Junior. Really?
After escaping the mall, we made our way through the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The place is huge – Think New York City with more people, more trees, and mountains. It is a pretty neat place.
We walked through until we found the Peninsula and Dr. Aimee did not disappoint. The place was gorgeous. It was also connected to its own mall of designer stores. We found the concierge and played the lost tourist card. I was expecting a detailed subway route, but instead he just looked at us and said to take a taxi. Well who would have thought? It is more expensive than the MTR, but still under $10 a person and also faster than the MTR. We still had him tell us the subway route. It involved 3 different train changes. We went with the cab.
We said thank you and went to catch a taxi. The nice valet out front of the hotel hailed us a cab and away we went. Our cab driver had a figure of Zazu on the dash. How fitting.
Hong Kong Disney is located on Lantau Island. All the signs that have Lantau Island on them also have the Mickey Ears. I love it. We all got so excited when we saw the Disneyland sign. We couldn’t believe we were actually at HK Disney. It took us at least 30-45 minutes to get into the park because we were taking pictures. We were all just so excited. We took pictures with the sign, with the fountain, of the random plants. Pretty much everything.
We made it to the ticket booth, bought our tickets, exchanged money at guest relations and headed in. We didn’t make it very far before we stopped again to take pictures. We got stopped by the HK version of PhotoPass. The first difference that I noticed was that they use Canon cameras instead of Nikon. That’s a change I can get behind. The second difference is that they don’t have any scanners of cards. Rather, they give you a slip of paper of paper for every picture they take. So at the end of the day you end up with a HUGE stack of cards at the end of the day. You have to take the slips of papers to Exhibition Hall and go through all the pictures. It is really inefficient and you can’t order online. But more on that later.
We had a mini photo shoot at the beginning of the park. Apparently, in addition to the peace sign, there is another pose that is all the rage in China when taking pictures at Disney. They put their hands in fists and then on their head like Mickey ears. I think it is great!
Our next stop was at City Hall. Here is where I met a fabulous person named Dorothy, or at least that was her English name. Turns out that she had done the International College Program and had worked at Pecos Bill’s in MK and lived at Vista. She was great. She ended up giving us all sorts of stickers and magnets. She was the most friendly cast member I saw all day. The whole rest of the day all the CMs acted like they hated their life. That was definitely a change of pace from WDW.
Once we eventually made it in to the actual park, the first thing I saw was a giant Christmas tree. It is weird thinking that it is almost Christmas. We got past the ginormous tree and then I got my first glance of Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was slightly underwhelming. It is maybe 1/3 the size of Cinderella Castle in MK, but it was still cool. We took pictures all up and down main street and in front of the castle. We kept exploring Fantasyland and found a section called Snow White’s Grotto. It has a cave and figurines of the dwarfs and a wishing well the plays Snow White singing. This is where you meet the princesses.
We found a way into the heart of Fantasyland and decided to ride the Many Adventures of Whinnie the Pooh. It is exactly the same as it is at MK, but we still had a blast because we were so excited. Next we went to PhilarMagic, which is exactly the same down to the hidden Mickey in the French horn. The only difference is that the cue is much better because it is themed like a cottage. Kelli and Mackenzie had never seen it so that was fun.
As we exited, we saw a garden where we spotted some characters. We ran over and ended up meeting Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, Pluto and Pooh. There was nobody in the park so there were no lines, which was awesome.
Our next stop was a show called The Golden Mickey’s. It is kind of a take off the Oscars. It was great! They need to bring it to the State ASAP! It was a little hard to understand because it was in Mandarin, but all the songs are in English. They went through different categories and there were heroes, and love and friendship. They had acrobats, dancers and singers. They sang “You’ve Got A Friend in Me,” “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You,” Beauty and the Beast,” “Something There,” “You’ll Be In My Heart,” and a bunch more classics. Tarzan came out and did some of the rope acrobatics and it was fantastic. Of course, they also had amazing costumes and sets.
We grabbed a lunch of sweet and sour pork and white rice and people watched. The silverware that we got was sweet. It was a packet and it had chopsticks, napkin, a Chinese spoon, and a toothpick. I meant to ask for one packet to bring home, but I forgot. And the food was good too.
Our next stop was back to the castle to meet Belle and Snow White. I really wanted to talk to them backstage because they are clearly American and I want to know how they came to work there, but I never got the chance.
We decided to explore Tomorrowland next and ran into another group of SASers. The group consisted of Charity, Mario, Maria, Dani, and Alyssa. We chatted, but then we left them and went to go ride Buzz Lightyear, which is also the same as it is in the states, except the guns are cooler and I did much better than I normally do. Level 3 baby.
Autopia was next, but I have never ridden that in the States, so I don’t know how to compare it. Kelli said it was slower. I did meet a girl working there who is hoping to do the international CP and going down in January. So hopefully she gets it.
We finally went to ride Space Mountain and it was awesome. The music was probably the best part besides the fact that there was no line. It defiantly had better effects than the one in MK. I think the MK Space Mountain refurbishment should make it better though.
We also caught an in English show of Stitch Encounter, which is basically a Stitch themed version of Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor. It was adorable and really funny.
We had to find a spot for the parade next. We found a sweet spot on the corner and sat down. The parade was so cute. It wasn’t very long and the music wasn’t that good, but the floats were awesome. They had a huge castle that all the princesses were on and a huge flower for Alice to sit on with the Caterpiller behind her. The dancers were in costume as animators and had rolling easels to dance with. Some of the other dancers were dressed up as film rolls. It was pretty neat. It was a quick parade and afterward we went to Adventureland.
The first character we ran into were Chip and Dale so of course we got our picture taken. Then Mackenzie fell in love with a pirate named Jake Sparling (get it? Jack Sparrow?) It seemed like his main goal was to remind people to sanitize their hands after they got back from Tarzan’s Tree house. He was really funny. We said goodbye to our new pirate friend and decided to check out Tarzan’s Tree house for ourselves. It really wasn’t all that exciting. It was basically the Swiss Family Robinson tree house from MK.
We left the Tree House in time to go see The Festival of the Lion King. It’s not the same as the one at AK, but very similar and very good. One thing that was interesting was that some of the fire dancers had tattoos, which I didn’t think were allowed, but they did go with the theme.
We got out of the show and literally ran to the castle to catch then last High School Musical show. It was great. They mainly did songs from HSM and HSM2. Of course they ended with “We’re All in this Together” so I busted out the dance. At the very end, they pulled guests in to teach them a part of the dance and Kelli and I got pulled in! It was so much fun! But I didn’t get a Star Dazzle Award, though.
We then hit up the castle again and met Cinderella. She was cute and super nice. We headed back to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain again and again. We ended the night on the Orbitron before we went to the castle for fireworks.
The fireworks were good, but not as good as Wishes! Of course. The castle is just so small that the fireworks dwarf it even more. It was weird, we hardly saw anyone in the park, but then the fireworks come around and the place is packed.
As we were leaving, we stopped in the stores and shopped. I got a t-shirt that says HK Disneyland on it. After taking a bunch more pictures we finally had to call it a day and head back to the ship. None of us wanted to leave, but we were all exhausted.
We found a cab and headed back. We had to walk through a really ritzy mall and ended up shopping at Pizza Hut for dinner. I didn’t feel like paying $12 for a pan pizza so I just waited while Kelli and Mackenzie ate.
Once we were back on the ship, I went up to Deck 7 and grabbed some food and we had a picture swap for the day. We all took so many pictures. I hurried down to my room so I could shower and pack because I leave for Beijing tomorrow. I got packed and got in bed around 0030. I have to be up at 0430! I am going to be so tired.

Pre Hong Kong/China

2009-11-19T10:08:00.001-06:00

I am excited for these countries! I am going to Disney in Hong Kong so I am excited to see the differences compared to the one in the States.
I am also excited to see China and Beijing. The culture, the food and the GREAT WALL! This country is huge and is rising. I am interested to see how communism affects this country. They are so censored and regulated, which is so different from the US.
I am a little worried about the language barrier because clearly I have no idea how to speak Mandarin or Cantonese. Hopefully, we will get through it. I am really excited for this country, but I don’t know if it is a place that I will want to come back to.

Getting Ready for China

2009-11-19T10:08:00.000-06:00

11.9.09
I accidentally slept through Global Studies this morning…whoops. I will just have to go tomorrow to make it up. I tried to take it easy because I think I am coming down with a cold. I eventually emerged from my room for lunch.
I grabbed lunch with Mackenzie before class. We met for class up on Deck 7 forward for some flag flying ceremony. The flag came from the rotary club in India and the flag was for a polio free India. At some point in this ceremony, my notebook decided to flip open and all sorts of papers went everywhere. Luckily, I didn’t lose much.
Our service learning class was made up of talking with out provost. It was interesting to hear what she had to say.
At 1630, we had the Kentucky event. We had great food and drinks and it went pretty well. We inducted Dean Bob and Dean Nick as Kentucky Colonels. They were so surprised.
Afterward, we all went to dinner with the provost. She seems really interested in what we have to say. She also is really passionate about SAS and wanting more WKU people to participate in the program. I would really like to talk to her more about everything and hopefully I will be able to.
Tonight instead of a cultural preport, we had an extension of global studies and had a panel about China. It was vaguely interesting. Dr. Aimee was on it since she got her doctorate in Hong Kong. Then we went back to the room and played pish-posh and crashed.

Stress at Sea

2009-11-19T10:07:00.001-06:00

11.8.09
Today I was expecting to sleep until noon because I was exhausted from Vietnam and Cambodia, but of course I woke up at 0830 and couldn’t go back to sleep.
Katie knocked on my door and we had a nice chart about planning Japan. She was stressing out a little bit, but we got it all figured out. We had to plan our independent travel in Japan because we have to have the forms in today. Originally, we were going to stay off the ship, but now after really looking at it and realizing how much it was going to cost, it just made more sense to stay on the ship. But now I don’t get to go to Hiroshima and DisneySea, but I still get to go to Tokyo, Kyoto, and now explore Kobe and Yokohama. But I figure that Japan is a country that I think I will want to come back to.
We grabbed some lunch and then hung out in the room. At 4, we went to Mackenzie’s Women in Leadership panel. Christie, Eileen, Dr. Burch, Dr. Mitnick, Rosario, Grace (from Global Nomads) and Dani were all on it. It was really empowering and amazing to hear all of their diverse backgrounds. I never realized how much I could learn from the people on the ship.
Afterward, we went to dinner and I finally got to meet Dr. Burch, WKU’s provost who has joined us on the ship until Hong Kong. We went up to Deck 7, grabbed some ice cream and I had to go to a CSI Committee meeting, where I realized that I have a lot of work left to do. I also went to a workshop on networking. I closed out the night with a game of pish posh.

Post Vietnam/Cambodia

2009-11-19T10:07:00.000-06:00

Post Vietnam/Cambodia
These two countries were nothing like I expected. They were beautiful and the people were friendly. These countries are ridden with history and that should really tear these people down, but there seems to be no resentment. They are forgiving and ready to move on. They are willing to forgive, bit never forget. The fact that we were able to meet a survivor from the genocide museum. He wanted to tell his story and wanted us to bring it back to the US and let people know what happened in Cambodia.
Angkor Wat was incredible as well. I was supposed to see how little the influence of communism is. I was expecting people to be repressed and unhappy, but that wasn’t the case. The other shocking thing was that the ATMs in Cambodia gave out US dollars. It just goes to show that their government is leaning on the US and is unstable. But I loved their cultures and their food. Southeast Asia is a place I want to come back to as soon as possible. There is so much to explore and see here. Plus, it is gorgeous.

"Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh" Clap Clap Clap

2009-11-19T07:55:00.000-06:00

11.7.09
Mackenzie and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn this morning (0430) and stumbled half-asleep down to the bus. We made our way to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. We got to the temple and went down to the reflecting pool and waited for sunrise. Sunrise wasn’t nearly as pretty as it could have been. It was pretty cloudy so a lot of the light was blocked out, but even so it was still really fantastic. We met a couple from Colorado. They were really nice and they had had some friends do SAS.
After walking around the temple for a little while longer, we boarded the bus and went back to the hotel for breakfast. They had cereal and fried rice, which is not exactly the best combo, but I still enjoyed it. We had about 30 minutes before we had to leave again, so we went back to our room. I set my alarm from 0755 because we had to be on the bus by 8. I woke up, looked at me watch and it was 8. I fly out of bed, yell at Mackenzie, we grab our stuff and we literally run down the stairs to the bus and we made it just in time.
Our first stop of the day, well actually it was the 2nd, was Ta Prohm Temple. It was by far the most spectacular thing ever. It was set back in this jungle and it was huge! They are constructed in a similar way to Angkor Wat, where they are huge stone blocks and built over 800 years ago. It was absolutely gorgeous. Mackenzie and I were acting like little kids. We climbed around on all the rocks and took all sorts of pictures. Our guide warned us that it is really easy to get lost. Well of course we got lost. After wondering around and taking more pictures, we somehow stumbled upon our guide and the rest of our group. This was really lucky or I don’t think we would have ever gotten out of there. That would have been bad because it was super hot and humid. It was like Florida after it rains in the summer hot. It was basically a sauna times 10. Since it is a really big area, Mackenzie got lost and we decided that she needed a leash. We bought these coconut clacker things so whenever we got separated she would ring the clacker and we would be able to find each other. It really worked out quire nicely.
After we had gotten our fill of climbing around and being little kids, we climbed back on the bus and went to our third stop of the day, which was Angkor Wat. This time we went through the back entrance. We then walked around through the actual temple and our guide gave us the history and we got to see the detail of the carvings on the walls. At one point, we were walking through an area that I only know how to describe as a courtyard, and there were rocks sitting on top of a huge boulder. These rocks kind of looked like a huge version of the Indian money stones that you find in the rivers at home. Mackenzie touched one and it fell over, off the rock and broke into about 10 pieces. Way to go Mackenzie…you broke Angkor Wat. It was pretty hysterical to see her reaction. She was so worried that she was going to get into trouble.
We had an ungodly amount of free time. We chilled in the archways and took in the scenery and just relaxed. After spending some time taking in the view, we decided to check out the vendors and got mobbed. There were people selling post-cards, t-shirts, paintings and about pretty much everything else you could imagine. Mackenzie got a dress and I got a coke and some banana chips. As we were walking along the reflecting pool enjoying our cokes, these two little girls came up to us selling postcards. I didn’t want any, but we started talking to them. I didn’t really have anything, but I remembered that I had these two rings that I had bought before we left Vietnam. They were kind of like the old school friendship necklaces where they break apart and they form a heart or something when they are put together. I found rings in the market that formed mickey ears when they are put together. I had bought them originally for Ebonee, but I decided to give them to these little girls…sorry Eb. Don’t worry I got you something else. But anyway, I sat down with the girls and gave them the rings. They got so excited. Mackenzie then remembered that she had a bunch of plastic necklaces that she had intended to give away at the orphanage that we never went to. So she gave them to the little girls. They were adorable. They posed for the camera and when we got up, they ran back to admire their new jewelry. We met back up with the group and headed back to the hotel.
We grabbed lunch at the hotel and had a little time to relax. We changed into the dresses that we bought because it was so hot outside and we didn’t have to dress conservatively anymore. We gathered up our belongings and checked out of our hotel.
Our last stop of the day was Angkor Thom. This is another stone temple that is made up of over 250 stone faces that remind me of Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple. Once again, Mackenzie and I transformed into little kids. We took prom and senior pics in the windows and doorframes. There was also a freak rainstorm, but luckily I had my rain jacket. It ended up just turning the entire place into a sauna. It was pretty gross. At the temple, there was this annoying high-pitched buzzing noise. Turns out that it comes from a form of cicada. It was probably one of the most irritating sounds ever. The way the templeis laid out is that it has 3 levels. It is really old and it has a lot of steps and they have worn down over time so it was a little treacherous. I was a little concerned because I was in a dress and topsiders, but it all worked out.
After we had explored the temple we got back on the bus and drove by the Elephant Terraces and the Terraces of the Leper King. They were really not all that exciting. They were basically terraces with elephants carved into them…not that exciting.
After the terraces, we went back to the airport and the best thing happened at the airport…there was a Dairy Queen! We all ran in and bought blizzards. I would have never got an Oreo blizzard at home, but in this time and place it was delicious. We ended up having 2 hours to kill before our flight. I sat in the terminal and ended up just facebook stalking everyone on Mackenzie’s phone while she wrote her postcards.
We boarded out big (thank god) plane with about 800 small Asian women and it was pretty hilarious to watch them all get aboard the plane. The plane ride went quickly and we landed in Saigon around 1700. We ended up not getting back to the ship until 2000. Our guide that was with us from the airport to the ship was hilarious. He entertained us with some kara-o-kay. He even busted out a harmonica at one point and taught us a song. All it said was “Viet-Nam. Ho-Chi-Minh” clap clap calp. Yep great song.
Once back on the ship, Mackenzie and I literally ran from the gangway to my room and dropped our stuff in the room and ran to deck 7 for the BBQ. When we got to deck 7, they told us to go to Deck 6. I was really disappointed in the BBQ. Plus, they didn’t even have enough ribs for everyone. So I just grabbed a salad and about 5 pieces of corn on the cob.
After dinner, I went back to the room to figure out what the heck I had bought and clean my room. We ended up just watching a movie and catching up on everyone’s stories from Vietnam. We also had a mini fashion show of all the clothes people had made in Vietnam. Katie and Kristin’s dresses were beautiful and Jeremy and Bryan looked so handsome in their custom suits. I kind of wish that I had gotten a dress made, but I guess that gives me a reason to come back.

"Madam!! You want fish massage? Good price!!"

2009-11-18T22:02:00.000-06:00

11.6.09
This morning we woke up at 615, collected our stuff and checked out of our room and went to breakfast. When we were down at breakfast, it was then that I realized that we had left our passports in the safe in the room. I ran back to the check in counter and they let us get back into the room.
Our first stop of the day was at the Genocide Museum, which is a bit heavy at 700 in the morning. The Genocide Museum is located in an old high school that the Pol Pot regime used as a torture center. People would stay there for a maximum of 6 months and then they were sent to the killing fields. They were tourtured for information before they were sent to the killing fields where they were executed by being hit on the head with a club. Also, if there was a family involved, they would kill the children in front of the parents, then the wife and then kill the husband. They wanted to inflict as much pain as possible, both physically and emotionally. In total, 1.7 million people were killed with 15,000 coming from the camp we were at. Out of those 15,000 there were only 7 survivors. 4 have since died of natural causes, but there are still 3 alive. While we were walking through the archives, an older man approached us. It turns out that he was one of those 7 survivors. He came over to speak with us and answer our questions with Sun acting as translator. It was incredible. He told us his story and it was gut wrenching what he went through. His whole family was killed right in front of him. We asked how he could stand to come back to a place where he was tortured. He said that he has made peace with it because his torturers are being brought to justice in court. Also, he wants to come back and tell people like us his story so we can go back and tell others.
It amazes me that all of this happened in the mid 1970s. Sun’s family was relocated from the city into the rural area, where they were forced to work in a field. One day, his mother just didn’t come back. He was 2 years old. It is amazing because hardly anyone in the states has ever heard of it. Sun said that everyone has lost someone in the Pol Pot regime. It is so much more raw than the Holocaust. It is almost worse. Yes, Hitler killed a lot more people, but at least he didn’t torture them by pulling out their fingernails and then pouring alcohol on it. Yes, people endured hard labor camps, but from what I have read they were at least able to walk around. Here they were chained into the cells. It is crazy how the survivor just wanted to talk about it.
We left the museum and went to the actual killing fields. There were these mass graves. One had 450 bodies in it. Sun was telling us that how when they kill people, they kill them in brutal ways. After seeing some of the graves, we saw the only thing I know to call it is The Tree. This is a tree where they would hold toddlers by their ankles and bash them into the tree until they died. All of this was done in front of the parents. They also club people rather than shoot them because they want people to suffer and it would have been a waste of a bullet.
They had a memorial set up on the grounds. It was basically this tall tower and they had taken all the skulls that they had found in the mass graves and assembled them. This has caused quite a bit of controversy within the Cambodian culture. Cambodians believe that the body must be cremated in order for the soul to move on. People want to come and collect their loved ones remains and with DNA testing they have been able to identify some, but it is a very long process.
We boarded the bus and it was pretty quiet. It is all a little intense and a lot to take in before lunch. It was just hard to process because by The Tree there was a little boy and little girl just running around and playing and laughing. It was just really spooky. It was way more intense then going to Auschwitz.
Our next stop was the Russian Market. It is called the Russian Market because apparently that is where a lot of Russian people used to shop back in the day, but now they are all gone and it is just a market. We didn’t have a lot of time there, but I bought a couple of silver bracelets and a little Buddha that I am treating as my thimble from Cambodia. One small note about Cambodia is that their economy and currency is so unstable that they use US dollars. Even when you go to the ATM you get US Dollars out rather than Cambodian Riel. The market was crazy though. It was very cramped compared to the Ben Than market.
We went to lunch. I managed to swipe some awesome green chopsticks. My lunch again consisted mainly of rice, but there were a few dishes that were good. The restaurant had these crazy fish that were HUGE! And they looked really grumpy.
We made it to the airport about an hour before our flight to Siem Reap. We had to say goodbye to Sun ☹. He was such an awesome guide. He ranks right up there with John, Sam, and Jamal. But he helped get us checked into our flight and then we said goodbye.
Our flight was on a baby plane again and I sat next to Dr. Strenecky. He read the paper and I read my book and 40 minutes later we were in Siem Reap. We met our new tour guide, who was not as cool as Sun and went to our new hotel. It was much nicer than the one before. There is mahogany wood everywhere, we have a balcony and flat panel TV. There is a peek-a-boo window from the bed to the bathroom. It is so nice. We had some time to kill so we relaxed and watched CSI: New York.
We all met in the lobby at 1630 to go to Angkor Wat. Wat means temple and Angkor is the town. So it is like the town’s temple. Angkor Wat is around 800 years old. It was awesome. I didn’t realize how big it is. Mackenzie and I barely got into to it before it was time to go. We went right at sunset so the lighting was perfect. We only had 45 minutes, but we are going back tomorrow morning at sunrise. But the temple itself is made out of large stone blocks. And there are all these intricate hallways and rooms and worship sites. It was pretty incredible.
After leaving Angkor Wat, we went to dinner. It was in this huge open-air pavilion and was a buffet dinner. The dinner was pretty good and had a wide variety of food. I had some sweet and sour pork, fried rice and spring rolls. The only down side was that the pork had bones in it so that was hard to maneuver.
After dinner, we were treated to a cultural dance show. We had a perfect seat right up front. It was really interesting. They had really elaborate costumes. The dancers are known for being able to bend their hands backward where the tips of their fingers touch their arms. It is the weirdest looking thing ever. They also move really deliberately and slowly and it was pretty neat to watch. One of the dances they did had to do with a boy and the girl in the rice fields and their flirtation. It is just really cool to think that even though I had no idea what they are saying in their language, everyone in the audience clearly understood what was going on in the story.
We hopped back on the bus and it dropped us back off at the night market. It was pretty neat. One thing that I wasn’t expecting was Dr. Fish massage. They have these kiddy pool looking things full of fish. You pay for a Dr. Fish massage and you stick your feet into the pool and then these fish attack your feet and pretty much eat the dead skin off your feet. The little fish looked like minnows and they literally swarmed your feet. It was the most bizarre scene and sensation. I didn’t get one on my feet, but I did put my hand in. I didn’t really like the idea of sticking my feet into this pool on the side of street in Cambodia with hundreds of fish and dirty water, especially when I have a cut on my foot. That is just an infection waiting to happen.
We wondered around the market and I bought a couple of things, well actually a lot of things, but I didn’t spend more than $30. I love Southeast Asia and their prices. The market was really intense compared to the ones in Vietnam. They people actually grab you and pull you back to their stalls. And all they can say is “Madam! T-shirt! Very Pretty! Good price!” It is really annoying. Mackenzie, Kaitlyn, and I grabbed a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel. A tuk tuk is a mix between an auto and a cyclo. It is a motorbike with a seat on the back, but it is two seats that face each other and you can usually fit about 4 people in one. They are much more comfortable than autos, though. I love the tuk tuks. Our driver was really nice and we were able to bargain down out price. Mackenzie loved our driver so much that she got his business card and a picture with him.
We crashed once we got back to the hotel because we have to be up so early for the sunrise at Angkor Wat tomorrow morning.

"Do You Want To Kara-o-kay?"

2009-11-18T10:02:00.000-06:00

11.5.09
This morning, Mackenzie and I gathered in the piano lounge at 10 to leave for CAMBODIA! We drove from the ship to the airport for our flight. Once we got checked in, we had some time to kill, so we walked around. Everything is SUPER expensive. For example, a Cosmo costs $15! We eventually just sat at the gate and jammed out to my iPod. When it was time for boarding, we got on the bus and drove out onto the tarmac. Our plane was a little worrisome. It was bright purple and about the size of my car and operated on propellers. So this was my first prop plane experience. Thank goodness it was as short flight. I sat next to Kaitlin and we chatted about WKU study abroad for a bit, but then we had to fill out our Cambodia paperwork. The flight was so short that before we finished the paperwork, we were landing.
We got into the airport and walked through the heat senser to make sure we didn’t have a fever and got in line to get our visas. Eventually, we had all paid our $20 and got our visas. I am going to have to get more pages in my passport if I go out of the country again. I only have a couple of pages without stamps on them.
We boarded our bus and met our adorable tour guide – Mr. Sun. He is probably the most adorable thing ever. We drove a little ways then one of the girls lost her money belt. So Dr. Stenecky went with her back to the airport to look for it, while the rest of us went on to the Silver Pagoda and the Royal Palace. It was absolutely beautiful and huge!!! There were flowers and pagodas and Buddha statues everywhere. Inside the Silver Pagoda the floor is covered with silver and also inside are about 900kg of gold and over 8,000 diamonds, with the largest being about 26 karats. It was awesome. We also saw where outside where monks write blessings on the leaves. It was really cool. We also walked through what used to be the elephant stables. Sadly, there are no longer elephants there. They all died of starvation during the Khamer Rouge. It was still really pretty. Mackenzie and I saw some monks playing these really interesting instruments that were making some melodious music. The instruments looked like xylophones. The best part was that they invited us to play with them. They showed us what to do and then it was show time. So I just had a jam session with some monks. It was marvelous.
We boarded the bus and went to the National Museum. We saw a lot of statues that showed how the Hindu and Buddhism have blended together and how Cambodians practice both. We stayed there for about an hour and it really wasn’t all that exciting.
Our next stop was a sunset cruise on the Mekong River. While waiting in traffic to get to the boat, I look out the window and what do I see…Jumbo the local elephant. Yep, an elephant. It turns out that Jumbo (how fitting of a name) is the only elephant in Phnom Penh and we were lucky enough to get to see her. According to Mr. Sun, Jumbo is very lonely, but there are no male elephants around for her. But come on, it’s not everyday that you see and elephant just walking down the street.
We boarded our somewhat sketchy little boat and cruised along the river. It was so relaxing and a neat way to see the city. It kind of reminded me of the Danube cruise we did when we were in Budapest.
Afterward, we were supposed to go to an orphanage center that was founded by SAS alumni. The traffic was really bad and we were wiped out so we decided to skip the orphanage and go directly to dinner. Sun told us how he eats spiders (yeeah!) and silk worms (You want the wom?). Luckily, dinner did not include spiders or silk worms, but rather of rice, rice cakes, spring rolls, a weird fish dish, a seafood soup and a platter of some sort consisting of shrimp, octopus and something else that I don’t know what it was, but it was good. I mainly stuck with the rice because I didn’t much care for the rest.
We eventually made it to our hotel, where we were greeted with what I take to be the Cambodian equivalent of a Shirley Temple. Our hotel is really nice. Mackenzie and I settled into our room with our bathrobes and our slippers. We ventured down to the spa. I got a pedicure and an hour and half long massage for $20.
We got the pedicures first. They didn’t really scrub our feet like they do in the states, but it was still nice. And even better it was only $8. Our massage was next and that was an experience in itself. Mackenzie went for the aromatherapy one and I went with neck, back, shoulders and head massage. They showed me to the little room, which was pretty nice. I changed into the robe, but didn’t get completely naked because that kind of freaks me out and even more because I am in Cambodia. But anyway, the woman comes in and I lay down on the table and she lays a towel over me and I just think I was going to get a normal massage. But I was wrong. The next thing I know the woman is wrapping the towel around my underwear and pulling it down. I was a little surprised, but I just went with it. Who knew that a head, neck and back massage also includes your butt. It was also a little awkward to have a small Cambodian woman straddling me and massaging my back, but whatever it’s an experience. Toward the end of the massage she left and washed her hands. When she came back she had me flip over and lay my head in her lap. She then massaged my scalp, face and ears. When she started massaging my ears, it took everything I had in me to not smack her, but she did feel me tense up. Overall, it was a great massage and it made it even better that it was only $12. And to think that I even overpaid because when they are not in a hotel they only cost about $7 in a 24 hour massage parlor…yeah that is not sketchy at all.

Stress at the $100 Solution

2009-11-18T00:45:00.001-06:00

11.4.09
We woke up this morning, grabbed some breakfast and went to the union. We had an orientation with some Vietnamese students that will serve as our translators for the day while we are doing the $100 solution. We basically just sat around. Since I am a bus leader, I passed around the sign in sheet.
Once the students got back from their tour of the ship, Aleks and Colby gave a presentation about the $100 solution and basically talked about what we are going to be doing today and the history of the $100 solution.
We loaded onto the bus and drove 45 minutes to the YMCA. We were welcomed with a chat with the director and he gave a 141 slide powerpoint. When he finished, we had lunch. We all sat at tables of about 7 and lunch was delicious. They just kept bringing us more food. It was funny watching Mackenzie eat with chopsticks. I tried to teach her, but it didn’t really help.
After lunch, Paulo and Olivia got up and did a presentation about American culture with the help of our translators. Then Mackenzie, Maria, James, Paulo and Olivia all did the Thriller dance for all the girls that are at the YMCA. They are there because they work as seamstresses and sew school uniforms. The money they make doing that they send back to their families. They loved the dance and wanted an encore. We didn’t really prepare for that so Paulo got a beat working and did some break dancing. Then as in a response, one of the girls got up and sang a Vietnamese song. It was so pretty even though I had no idea what she was saying. Then they wanted to hear an American song. Joey saved the day by getting up and singing Wagon Wheel. Carly, Bobbi-Lee and I proudly sang along. They loved it.
Then it turned out that the orphanage was a lot farther from the YMCA, so Dr. Strenecky said we had the option to either stay at the YMCA and do a $100 solution there or go to the orphanage as planned. Mackenzie and I decided to stay at the YMCA because we wanted to get back earlier so we could have more time in Ho Chi Minh.
After the groups split up, which was really stressful because I had to get a list of who was going and who was staying and then there wasn’t enough room in the van so some people couldn’t go, but then they just decided to take the bus so everyone could go. It was just confusing. After they left, we got a tour of the facilities and got to speak with some of the girl who work there. It was amazing seeing how quickly they can sew. After we got the tour, we had a question answer session with the director and then it was time for the $100 solution. We asked what he wanted and he said training. He believed that the girls needed more training because the work that they do at the Y is very temporary, but when they leave they don’t have a skill. Yes, they can sew, but it is not good enough to be a tailor so they are kind of in limbo. Somehow, we got off on a tangent about HIV/AIDS education and a library. It was the most frustrating 3 hours. The whole point of the $100 solution is asking what THEY want and not doing what WE think they need. He said training so why are we talking about HIV/AIDS education? I spoke with Dr. Strenecky and I still really didn’t get a straight answer. All he said was that I would really like the solution. Well great.
What we ended up with was that we would send one girl to get tailor training and then they could come back and train the other girls. Well then if we just picked one girl that would cause tension between the others. Then we thought about just getting them a machine that they could practice on because the ones they use to sew the uniforms are different than what they use as a tailor. But then how would they get money to buy supplies to practice because they send all their money back to their families. It just seemed like whatever we came up with, it would just not work out. In the end, we just gave them $100 with the promise of coming back and doing another solution. I really felt like it was a complete waste of a day. I think the reason we had such an issue is because there was no apparent need. Everything they needed was long term.
After venting out my frustration and getting back to the ship, we had dinner, grabbed our laptops and went to the market. I bought entirely way too much stuff. We then hit up Tutti Frutti, a local ice cream place and used their free internet to skype.
We headed back to the ship (while on the way back I was walking and stepped on a HUGE bug) I bought more DVDs and got on the ship. Once I was back in my cabin, I packed for Cambodia and watched America’s Next Top Model.

Good Morning Vietnam!

2009-11-18T00:45:00.000-06:00

This morning we docked in Vietnam. The pilot joined us at the mouth of the river. Us going up this river is completely dependent on the tides. This river is really narrow and we have to make sharp turns. It was really fascinating because we went through really rural Vietnam. People were just chilling in their boats and fishing and we sail by in our huge ship. These poor fishing boats got taken out by our tidal wave of a wake.
We slowly moved from rural to urban as we got closer to Ho Chi Minh City. (Saigon=Ho Chi Minh City) I chatted with Dr. Aimee and Carter English for a bit. I then went to my cabin to get ready for the day.
Around 1130, because this is the SAS parent trip, all the parents were allowed on board. Katie’s mom came so we all went up to deck 7 to greet her. Katie looks and acts so much like her mom. It is so cute. She was so excited to see her mom. It was nice to have a mom around. It just makes you feel so much better.
We grabbed some lunch on the ship and then jumped on the shuttle into town. It dropped us off at the Rex Hotel, which is where the parents are staying and is also right in the middle of downtown Ho Chi Minh City. There was a large group of us. Most of the group was looking for tailors to make dresses or suits. Mackenzie and I decided to break off on our own and go to the Ben Than Market because we don’t have a lot of time because we are going to Cambodia. We thought we were going the right way, but we weren’t. We had to duck into the Park Hotel to get directions. Turns out we were going the wrong direction.
We eventually made it to the market and it was the most overwhelming thing ever, but awesome. I spent entirely WAY too much money. I bought a bunch, but I spent most of it on DVDs and seasons of shows because they are super cheap. Even though I spent a lot of money I justify it by thinking about all the money I am saving…right.
Mackenzie and I spent the whole day at the market. It was quite ridiculous. We made it back to the ship and relaxed for an hour before going out to dinner with Becky. We went and ate at Pho 24. Pho is a noodle dish with beef or chicken in some sort of broth. It is kind of like ramen, but way better. It was really good, but very funny to watch all of us try to eat it with chopsticks. We also got some spring rolls.
There ended up being a night market. Becky found a shop with a bunch of NorthFace jackets and I got a fleece lined one for $17. We walked and observed and made it back to the hotel by 1030 to catch the last shuttle back to the ship.
We got back on the ship and Mackenzie stayed in the room since Rosario is in Cambodia and we watched The Ugly Truth. It is probably one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time.

Pre Vietnam

2009-11-18T00:44:00.000-06:00

I didn’t realize how excited I am for Vietnam. I am excited to see the country behind the war. Right now whenever anyone says Vietnam, I automatically think war. By the time I leave I want that to change to a country. It is supposed to be beautiful and have delicious food.
It is my first Asian country, as well as my first communist country. I don’t really know what to expect because communism has such a negative connotation in the US. I am also really excited for shopping. There are NorthFace and other designer brands pretty much everywhere. I am ready to shop – probably a little bit too much.
I feel like there is a lot that I can learn from Vietnam. They have such a different culture and history that no one knows about because of the war. It will be interesting to see how they will treat us because of the war.

Fun and Games

2009-11-18T00:43:00.000-06:00

11.2.09
I can’t believe that it is already November! It is crazy this is going by so quickly. Yesterday was cultural pre-port for Vietnam. I feel bad because I can’t understand a word that our interport student is saying. She spoke most of the time so I really have no idea what to expect for Vietnam. During global studies they had a panel of teachers talking about the war and the draft. It was really interesting to hear.
After pre-port, they had 80’s bingo. It was a blast. I wore Mackenzie’s leggings and some bright blue eye shadows and rocked a pretty sweet side pony. It was pretty awesome. I don’t know why I didn’t wear that for Halloween. I didn’t win any of the games, but it was still really fun.
Afterward, I went to find Mackenzie who was learning the Thriller dance to perform at the $100 solution orphanage in Vietnam. They all looked great. We went and grabbed some ice cream and played pish posh with Rosario, Erica, and Robyn. Mackenzie ended up winning.
Before bed, I had to plan out my semester classes for next spring. It is not the best schedule in the world, but it works. I am taking 18 hours so my last semester won’t be as bad. When I tried to plan earlier in the day, I got kicked off TopNet because it was 2am at home. That was annoying.
We also had a presentation about the $100 solution and the do’s and don’ts while we are at the orphanage. Mackenzie led it and did a great job. I had a meeting with Bridget because I am a bus leader for the trip so that was kind of exciting.

Lauren Gray
Career Development Program Assistant

Happy Halloween and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!!!

2009-11-18T00:42:00.001-06:00

We had a big presentation in Dr. Aimee’s class, so I spent most of the day preparing for that. In the end, the presentation went well so now until the end of the voyage, I only have a few big projects, which is really nice.
But on a happier note – today is HALLOWEEN!!!
All the dependent kids came by the cabin and were trick-or-treating. I signed up to participate and bought some candy in India. Unfortunately, a lot of it melted, but I still gave them some candy and stickers. There were 12 kids total. I dressed up as a FGIT. I wore a long blue skirt and I borrowed a purple shirt and belt from Mackenzie. I made a wand out of cardboard and construction paper. I even broke out my pixie dust. When the little twins came I gave them some pixie dust. Dr. Aimee even wanted to make a wish and got pixie dusted. Mackenzie got it all on video and it was great. After trick or treating we grabbed some dinner I went to an explorer seminar and then at 2100 it was time for Halloween Dance!
People got soooo creative with their costumes. My favorite was that someone was a SAS student on a rickshaw and the duo was even complete with a hawker following them. Terrence and Bobbi-Lee were Beetlejuice and his girlfriend. They looked great. The Ambiguously Gay Duo was there, someone was the picture from the room complete with crazy stories on the back, the girl from the grudge who even did the creepy crawl across the floor and a ton of people were zombies.
Becky, Katie, Kristin, and Mackenzie were the SAS dance crew. I found a silky bright green shirt in Mackenzie’s closet and I went as Tinkerbell, even though I didn’t have time to make wings. The dance was packed!
Maria was the emcee, and cleared the dance floor. She acted like we were going to have a fashion show of people and their costumes for the costume contest, but then zombie’s took over. They crawled over the floor and then jumped up and did the Thriller Dance, with Paulo as MJ. It was the hip-hop class that Paulo had been teaching on the voyage. It was fantastic. Bryan, Olivia and Rochelle were all in it and did great! They had a costume contest, but I don’t know who won. The dance ended about 1130 and then we all had to leave the union. We were all pretty tired so we just went to bed.

Crew Talent Show

2009-11-18T00:42:00.000-06:00

10.30.09
Today was a normal class day. Kristin and I had our voyage of discovery meeting and that was exciting. I was going to go to an explorer seminar, but I thought that it would be better to stake out a spot on the stairs in line so I could get a seat for the crew talent show. Katie, Kristin and I managed to get into the union pretty quickly and snagged seats in the 3rd row.
The talent show was so good! Our crew is so talented. There were some fabulous singers, a lot of great dance numbers, comedians and much more. One crew member did a dance to joyful joyful from Sister Act and it was fabulous because while he was dancing he went back to this easel and finger painted a picture of Jesus and it was great. To close the show all the crew members came out and sang We are the World. It was a great way to end the show and the night. Everyone was on their feet singing along. The whole show was a way to raise money for the crew. I don’t know how much was collected, but I gave $20. Afterward, we just went back to the room and went to bed.

Global Studies Drama

2009-11-18T00:41:00.000-06:00

The big scuttle on the ship today is the global studies midterm. He is offering an additional test that won’t replace the first one, but will act as another grade to try to help the people that bombed the first one. People were in an uproar. If the man would just make a powerpoint that we could study from instead of getting up there and rambling on for an hour and a half things would be much better, but because someone advised him that powerpoints wouldn’t work so he won’t do it. The whole thing is just being so blown out of proportion. He said he wants to uphold the high academic standards of his home university, but I’m sorry IU is not exactly an academic hotbed. (sorry Alex, but WKU really isn’t either). A girl got up and asked him for the people that came to class, studied and did the reading what they needed to do in order to do better on the final. He basically looked at her and said I don’t know what the hell to tell you. Well that’s helpful. Plus, he kind of took a shot at all the other professors saying that they dumb down their classes because we are on Semester At Sea…nice.
Eventually, he just stopped letting people talk and turned on a documentary about Pete Peterson, a Vietnam POW turned Vietnam ambassador. I found it interesting.
Nothing else exciting happened except I took 2 tests. I think I did alright on both. We also finished our SWOT analysis of the World Cup in South Africa presentation.
We had a lifeboat/muster station drill this evening. That was annoying as usual. I had dinner and went to an explorer seminar about leadership in movies. That was kind of neat. I finished the night by playing 2 games of pish posh.

Disney At Sea

2009-11-18T00:40:00.001-06:00

Today was a reading day as well as picture day. We had our WKU picture and then I had so much homework to catch up on. I spent basically the entire day studying for tests, writing FDP journals, and preparing for my international management presentation. That turned out to be a lot less stressful then I thought it was going to be. Thank you Dr. Aimee.
We went to an early dinner and then I had my Disney info session presentation. A good number of people came, but Rita didn’t make an announcement so not everyone knew about it. The presentation well really well though.
Afterward, I went to post port reflections and it was great. Hearing everyone’s stories was really hysterical. I wish I had brought my video camera. I even got up and recounted my adventure from Bangalore to Chennai. That is something I normally wouldn’t have done. Kristin got up and talked about the art of living and their breathing techniques that they used. That was pretty funny. Olivia also told about the massage she had and how invasive it was. Post-port ended with a group of people that did one of the village home stays. It seemed like they had a very cultural experience even though they had no idea what was going on half the time. It was a great way to end the reflections.
After post port we had the idea that we were going to plan Japan, but that never really materialized. We all just ended up going to bed. Yep, we were really productive.

Post India

2009-11-18T00:40:00.000-06:00

India was not nearly what I was expecting. That was the underlying theme for sure. I was expecting poverty and shacks everywhere, but I found a modern bustling city. It was quite amazing.
I LOVED the rickshaws. Granted the driving was a little crazy, but still awesome. When you are riding in a rickshaw you are right in the center of the action and India is just in your face.
While being by myself was very stressful, it all worked out ok and it is now a great story. It gave me a confidence that I have never had before. I figure if I can survive being lost in India, I can survive pretty much anything.
Overall, India surprised me. It had nice cities, good food and friendly people. I really want to go aback though and see the other side and the Taj. While I was in India, I made a list of observations about India and everything I saw.
1.      The Head Bobble – Indians had this adorable head bobble where they kind of wiggle their heads back and forth. And they use it for everything: yes, no, maybe, to fill time, to laugh at you and about 20 other things
2.      It’s Dirty – No matter how nice of a place you are in it will never live up to the cleanliness standards in the US, but that is not necessarily a bad thing
3.      They are never on time – Shashank confirmed this when he said that you normally tell people 30 minutes before you want them to show up so they will be there on time, but it is not nearly as bad as Ghana.
4.      They are crazy, but good drivers – They don’t really oey traffic signals or lane distincitions and everyone uses their horn, but yet te closest thing I saw to an accident was when my auto bumped into a motor bike’s review mirror. They all watch the other guy and drive defensively and somehow it works out.
5.      They don’t believe in automatics – everything in India is a stick shift from the 3 wheeled autos to the tour buses
6.      They like to see how many people they can fit on a motorbike – it is amazing to me how many people they can fit. Families of 5 ride along like it’s nothing. The kids just balance somehow holding onto their parents and the bike.
7.      Everyone has 2 cell phones (or at least everyone I met) – Shashank explained to me that it is cheaper to text with one plan and call with another. So one phone is to call and the other to text, which is what his rally car driver friend does. Or, like Shashank, one is a business and one is personal.
8.      Sandals are the way to go – Even though you can buy tennis shoes on the street – no one does. Everyone wears Velcro sandals, flip flops, or some sort of dress shoe.
9.      They have delicious food – Granted I was tasting the watered down “bland” food, but it was still really good.
10.     They substitute the word nice for the word good – Where Americans would normally say “the food is good”, Indians say “the food is nice.”
11.     They are obsessed with cricket – Even though their national sport is field hockey no one really cares. And the world cup is coming up and the whole sports section is still dedicated to cricket.
12.     It is the most colorful place I have ever been – Whether it is the fabric of the sarees, the lights leftover from Divali, or the decoration on the autos everything is super colorful and I love it.
13.     The can fall asleep anywhere – Everytime Shashank and I got on a bus everyone feel asleep. People sleep in their cars, in their autos or even on the streets.
14.     Everything is a journey – not a trip – I love this and I think that I am going to start using it. It just makes everything sound so much more exciting.

Lights! Camera! Shop!

2009-11-10T10:20:00.001-06:00

10.27.09
Today I barely got up in time to get to the bus for my trip. Mackenzie (who got back around 2am) and I toured Prasad studios, which is one of the largest movie studios in India. We met a director/teacher and got to see the sound mixing area. We got a preview of some of the movies and that was cool. The studio wasn’t as big as I thought it was going to be. We were hoping we would get to see some shooting, but there was none going on. We did get to see them build and tear down a set. The set they were building looked like a music video of some sort. It looked like it would be really cool. We also got to see them splice negatives and put them back together. They operate completely on film, which I thought was interesting since most of the industry works digitally now. They took us into the developing room and I was all the sudden hit with a flashback of the photo lab with all the developing chemicals. It made me really glad that I don’t have to smell those chemicals anymore.
Afterward, we signed out of the trip and went to Spencer’s Plaza. It is like a shopping mall/marketplace rolled into one. The first store we come to has a huge sign that said “Special Discount for MV Explorer” So of course we went there first. Their stuff was pretty cheap and I loaded up on gifts for people. But the time I left Spencer’s I had way more stuff then I was expecting.
We got outside and needed a rickshaw to take us to the post office and then back to the ship. The first guy said 300 – I said 150 and he walked away. There was no way I was paying that much because we are not that far from the port. Another guy said 200, but I grabbed Mackenzie and we started walking in the general direction of the post office. Then another driver came up and said 150 so we went with him. Once we actually got in his auto, he said 150 and one store. The driver’s in India work with shop owners to bring tourists to their shops. The more people the driver brings to their shop the bigger the kick back from the store the driver gets even if we don’t buy anything. We agreed on one store because we had time and nothing else to do.
We made it to the post office and I mailed a letter to Nate and my Disney Campus Rep application. Our driver waited outside for us and then took us to the one store. The store actually turned out to be really nice. If there was any way that I had a lot of money and a way to get furniture back to the US I would have bought something. We left and didn’t buy anything, but our driver still got some money. After the store, we had to argue with him to get him to take us back to the port without any other stops, but he eventually did.
We checked back on the ship and just hung out and showed everyone each other’s purchases. It was a pretty chill evening because everyone was exhausted from the craziness that is India.

Lost On Planet India

2009-11-10T10:20:00.000-06:00

10.26.09
I woke up about 8 and finished getting my stuff together. I had the same breakfast of my grilled cheese type thing and waited for Shashank. One of the hotel guys called about 9:15 and escorted me to the campus gate. We waited there about 5 minutes and Shashank showed up. We got in an auto and went to the bus terminal. I am not really sure what happened, but we ended up following this guy into what looked like a booking agency and Shashank got my ticket. We stood around for 20ish minutes waiting for the bus.
The place next door to us had a homeless man sleeping outside of it. The people from the other store poured water all over him to try and wake him up. I was afraid he was dead because he didn’t move, but after they poured a pot of water directly on his head he stirred a little, but still didn’t get up. He must have been really tired. When Shashank and I left to go to the bus, he was still there.
After some mild confusion, Shashank put me on my bus and we said goodbye. He wrote down the address of the port gate and told me not to pay more than 200 rupees. He also arranged for the bus driver to help me find an auto when we get to Chennai. He had to pay them a little bit, but it worked (I think it was only about 30 rupees which is <$1)
We got on our way, but things quickly turned south. After picking up a few more people, we got stopped. I really wasn’t sure what was going on, but someone finally told me that the bus I was on did not pay their road tax. After about 45 minutes, we got back moving again. Turns out that we ended up going to another bus depot and we were kicked off the bus. Great. So here I am on the side of the road by a bus terminal in the middle of Bangalore. I have no idea what is going on and no idea how I am going to get to Chennai. I met a nice guy from Tibet because neither of us spoke whatever language they were speaking. Eventually, this nice Indian man took pity on me and tried to explain to me what was going on. His name was Ganesh and I decided to attach myself to him because he had to get to Channai for a job interview. I figure that eventually we would get there. After standing on the side of the road for about 20 minutes looking completely confused another bus pulled up. I asked the bus driver if it was going to Chennai and I got the annoying Indian head bob that could mean a variety of things. Everyone else that was on the original bus got on so I got on as well. I sat next to my new friend Ganesh. Ganesh loved my sunglasses. He was trying them on and asked me how much I paid for them. He also loved my nalgene, but he was very concerned about whether or not it was India water or US water. Then he started asking me about my life at home. He asked how old I was and if I was married. I figured my best way to answer was to say yes, I was married. Then of course he asks me about my husband and what he does, so the only thing I ca think to do is make something up. I ended up describing a mix between Brian and some made up person. So thank you Brian haha. Apparently, my answers appeased him because he quickly went to sleep.
As we are slowly getting closer and closer to Chennai, the not in my stomach slowly got bigger and bigger. I was supposed to be in Chennai around 5:30, but with the issues we ended up not getting in until 7:30. That means that it was dark outside…great. Before we got off the bus, I started talking to a guy that was about my age who was sitting behind me. It turned out that he wasn’t from Chennai, but was studying there. When we all got off in Chennai, he ended up helping me get an auto to the port. He actually got be a discount. He said that he could get it cheaper, but at this point I didn’t really care as long as the driver knew where the port gate was because it was a bit away from the bus terminal. The driver assured me that he knew where it was so I decided to pay a little more and just get to the port. It was so stressful getting off this bus because it is dark, I am by myself and there are a ton of drivers hassling to get you to go with them. So as I am riding with my driver, I am trying to relax because there is nothing really I can do. I am going to make it eventually. I started taking in my surroundings and watching my driver. That is when I realized that my driver had a twitch. It was probably the cutest, and most funny thing. It probably wouldn’t be that funny normally, but the events of that day I just had to laugh. But my adventures were not over. Turns out that my lovely driver, which I have come to affectionately call Twitch, does not know where the port gate is. We end having to stop and ask about 3 other drivers to see if they knew where it was.
We came around this corner and who do I see by James and Rosario and I felt like I was going to burst into tears. The stress that I had been carrying around all day just melt away. The ship was still there. I made it back without getting mugged. Everything worked out! I have never been so excited to see the ship in all this time. I made it to the port gate and had to check in at security. I found a rickshaw driver and he drove me to the ship because I was not about to walk through our port at night since it is such an industrial port.
I finally got on the ship and dropped my stuff in the cabin and pretty much ran to get food at the piano bar. That roast beef sandwich was some of the best food ever. I was exhausted, but I found Katie and she told me about the Taj and Varanasi. It sounded amazing. We both eventually just crashed.

Mysore

2009-11-10T10:19:00.001-06:00

10.25.09
I woke up in time to see the sunrise over Bangalore this morning from my window. It was beautiful. I got ready and had some time to spare so I flipped through the Cosmo that I bought yesterday. About 7, Shashank called and we had breakfast in the lobby. We grabbed our stuff and went to the bus station. We caught the 7:50 bus to Mysore. We chatted the bus ride there, which took about 3 hours.
Once in Mysore, we got a taxi to the Mysore palace. The palace is huge!!!We bought out tickets. Shashank only had to pay 20 rupees. I had to pay 200!! Dang my not being an Indian. We had our bags checked. I had to check my camera because they didn’t allow cameras inside. We then checked our shoes. My tennis shoes stood out like nobody’s business amongst all the sandals. So Shashank was barefoot and I was comfy in my socks. We walked into the palace and had our bags checked again. I got in trouble because I forgot I had my flip so after the guard laughed at me, we went back to the camera check.
We came back for round 2 and we were allowed inside. The inside was gorgeous. The carvings and everything are so ornate. We walked into the wedding pavilion and I wish I had my camera. There were beautiful peacock motif stained glass windows and these archways that looked like carved wood, but they were actually cast iron. The place was spectacular.
We kept walking through the palace. We had got a little audio tour so we walked and listened. We next entered a huge pavilion thing where the king would hold court. They had magnificent archways that looked out into a beautiful courtyard. I thought a saw a rat scamper across one of the balconies, but it was actually a squirrel. I thought that it was interesting that they are worried about people taking pictures, but they have squirrels running around inside.
I would have never imagined the wealth of India. There was a thing to put on the back of an elephant that was covered in 80 kilos of gold! And there were chairs made out of crystal!
Right after we entered the palace we went into a temple. It was totally not what I expected. It was kind of dark and not at all like I thought a place of worship would be. Shashank got these sugar-covered things that tasted sort of like a sugar cookie that people consider holy. I can’t remember what it was called.
Once we were out of the palace and collected our shoes, I perused the gift shop, while Shashank went and returned the audio tour headset. I thought surely I would find a thimble because the palace is such a touristy place, but no luck.
We went and collected the cameras and walked around the courtyard. It was full of beautiful flowers and the humungous bronze tigers. It was very pretty.
As we were exiting the palace, we walked through all the stalls of the street vendors and Shashank got to experience a new side of India. Since he was with me and in cargo shorts and a Walt Disney World polo, all the vendors assumed that he was a tourist too. It was pretty funny to him react to all the vendors. By the end of it, all he had to say was that he was glad he was Indian and doesn’t have to be put up with that.
Shashank called our taxi and he took us to one of the 8 sacred hills in southern India. There was a huge temple at the top. The line to get in was at least a 2 hour wait. We decided to pass on going inside and walked around on the outside. As I was taking a picture of the temple, I almost got run over by a cow. It was really funny. It is amazing how they are not afraid of people like the cows at home. They bolt if you get too close. It could have something to do with the fact that they don’t eat cows in India. While we were up there, I had a red and yellow cloth tied around my wrist and a red dot put on my forehead by one of the holy men for luck. That was pretty cool. Up at the temple, they sell coconut with flowers on these platter things. Shashank explained to me that they are offering to the gods. Inside the temple, they break open the coconut. The water inside is used as a sacrifice and then the coconut is returned to you. You then go home and make a meal with the coconut and have a blessed meal.
When we were done at the temple, our driver took us to The Bull. It is a large black statue of a bull that is a holy place for Hindus. That was not what I was expecting, but that seems to be a common theme for India.
One the way down from the Hill we could see all of Mysore. Although, it was a little hazy due to the pollution, but it was still very pretty. I felt a like driving back at home because it was hilly and windy road.
The taxi dropped us off by the bus station and we headed into a local hotel for lunch. The hotel had 2 restaurants with different themes. One was a jungle theme and the other was a cave theme. We went with the cave one. It reminded me of a cross between T-Rex and Rain Forest Café. Shashank made a point to ask for stuff that wasn’t spicy. The started we got was delicious, but it definitely had a kick to it. It was kind of an Indian take on chicken wings, but much better. For the main meal we had white rice with a cashew chicken gravy. It was more sweet than spicy. It was definitely my favorite meal so far. I wish I could learn how to make it at home.
After lunch, we walked back to the bus station and caught a bus back to Bangalore. Once back in Bangalore, Shashank dropped me off at the hotel. I had about 3 hours until he would be back to pick me up for dinner. I showered, watched some TV, and used the hotel computer to look up information on Japanese rail passes.
Shashank picked me up and then we picked up his friend who we are going out to eat with. His friend is a rally car driver and is leading the league right now. We went to the building and up to the 13th floor where there is a really trendy lounge bar – aptly called the 13th floor. We ate out on this balcony overlooking the city of Bangalore. It was absolutely beautiful. It turned out that Shashank’s boss was there, so I got to meet him. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. He obviously had some clout because whatever he wanted got done. The place was blasting techno music and I felt extremely out of place in my tennis shoes. We had some French fries and I felt so stereotypical. I had chicken kabob thing that was good. Shashank and his friend had something really spicy with peppers all over it. He tried to get me to try it and he thought it was spicy so there was no way I was trying it. We stayed there for a while and chatted. It was a very nice way to spend my last night with Shashank.
After dinner, Shashnak dropped me off at the hotel. It was about midnight so I got my stuff ready and went to bed. When we got back to the hotel the doors were locked so Shashank had to call his friend to come let us in. I went upstairs and crashed.

Shopping with a New Friend

2009-11-10T10:19:00.000-06:00

10.24.09
I woke up this morning and got ready for the day. The next thing I know a man is knocking on my door with a tray of breakfast. What service! I stayed away from the omelet, but there were some slices of toast and cheese and that was delicious. I ended up making a grilled cheese type thing. So good!
Shashank came by to check on me before he went to work and he looked so handsome in his business suit. It was weird because I have never seen him dressed up like that. I am so used to his Casey’s Corner costume. Shashank is the assistant dean of the university.
Anyway, I hung out in the room until about 11, when one of the guys at the hotel came and told me that my ride was here. He escorted me to the elevator and there was Shashank. He took me to the car, which he apparently he had gotten for the day. The car took me to pick up his girlfriend, who I am going to call Hashi because I butcher her real name and that is somewhat close. The ride took about 40 minutes and the drivers had Hashi’s number. We picked her up and she ran to go buy her bus ticket back to Mumbai, where she is working as an architect.
The cab dropped us off and we had a time trying to cross the street. We made it and saree shopping began. The first shop we went into was a small one and he showed us all kinds of sarees. They are all so beautiful and colorful! I had no idea what I wanted. I wanted them all! We set some aside and said we would be back (which would never happen). We went into the next store, that was much bigger and had much more of a selection. They had this beautiful red one with gold bead work and real gold in the fabric, but it was over 10,000 rupees ($1 = ~46 rupees you can do the math). Clearly, I didn’t want to spend that much. I set 2 more aside and left. Hashi had been trying to call Shashank’s friend, who owns a saree shop. She eventually got a hold of him and we headed back to his shop. It is in the tallest building in Bangalore at 24 stories or something like that. We went into this store and it was all manned by women, where as all the others were manned by men. After looking at about 234275987 different kinds of sarees – I FINALLY found one! It is maroon and dark blue and has fabulous bead work and gold thread. The best part it was 3,000 rupees or roughly $80. I figured I should go all out because I am not in India everyday. I also got 2 gold and red bangles to go with it.
When Shashank’s friend got to the store we ended up going out to lunch with him. We all went out to eat at a rather upscale restaurant. At first the served us cantaloupe juice – that was interesting. That is probably not what it was, but that is what it tasted like. Then there were waiters that walked around and put chicken, fish and veggies on our plate. I stayed away from the fish and I tried a bit of the veg dish, but it really wasn’t my thing. The chicken and potato thing was delicious. After that, we got a plate and went up to the buffet. I had a chicken stew and mutton stew type stuff. When we got back to the table we dipped Nann (Indian bread) in it. They were both tasty, but I preferred the chicken one.
After lunch, we went to his other store. He had more bangles then I have ever seen. They seemed to go from the floor to the ceiling in every color of the rainbow. We ended up not buying anything so we said goodbye and went on our way. We ended up on Commerce Street, which is a market place in Bangalore. I bought entirely way too much stuff. When we were done shopping, we went to the mall to go see a bollywood film at the multiplex. The security to go to the mall and movies is ridiculous. You park underneath in a parking garage, but they swipe you car for bombs and you are not allowed to take cameras into the theater because of the whole copyright thing. Unfortunately, there were no playing at the time we were there. So instead, we grabbed some drinks and a doughnut and sat in the food court and chatted. We had a great conversation about the environment, her career, arranged marriages, life in India, life in the US and so on. I hope we can keep in touch!
We eventually left the food court and I grabbed some candy at a little stand for the dependent children on the ship for trick or treating. We dropped Hashsi off and we had to say goodbye since she is leaving for Mumbai tomorrow.
I made it back to the hotel and chilled out. Shashank and I are going to Mysore tomorrow so I need a good night’s sleep.

REUNION!

2009-11-10T10:18:00.001-06:00

10.23.09
I woke up this morning in India! I did not see us pull into port. I figured Chennai would look a lot like Casablanca with it being an industrial port and everything and I was right.
I had some breakfast and looked into India. It did not smell as bad as I thought it would. Actually, I really can’t smell anything at all. The ship took forever to clear, but before that there was a diplomatic briefing. There were 4 people from the US consulate speaking to us. It was pretty interesting. They review over 500 applicants for visas to the US in Chennai alone! And that is considered a slump. At peak, there are about 1800 a day. Afterward, I went and got some money exchanged and headed back to my cabin to wait for the ship to be cleared. We do not carry our passports, but rather a shore pass while we are here. Shore passes are really important and if we lose it we are screwed. They were calling us by seas to come pick up our documents from the faculty/staff lounge. While waiting, I receive a phone call from the pursers desk saying that my pick up is here and I can leave. I was a little confused because the ship wasn’t cleared. I was thinking what crazy mystical power does Shashank have to get me off the ship before it clears? I went to the pursers desk and a woman was telling me that I needed to leave, but I didn’t have any of the proper documents so I was super confused. Once I relayed this to the woman she told me to wait. But she did tell me that Shashank was waiting for me at gate number 7. I just couldn’t really believe that I was in India and going to see Shashank.
The ship was finally cleared and Katie, Kelli and I set off in search of Gate 7. Well, we are in the super industrial port and there are trains and buses and rickshaws and random people and it is hot as hell. Welcome to India. Gate 7 turned out to be a 15 minute walk through the port. By the time we are reached the gate we are dripping in sweat because most of us are in jeans because we were told to dress conservatively. At the gate, we have to show our shore pass and get checked my the port agents. The process took forever! I finally got through and walked through the gate and there are Shashank and his girlfriend. I got so excited I ran and gave him a huge hug. He told me we were headed to Bangalore. The only issue with that is that I didn’t pack anything for overnight. That was a little dumb on my part because I really don’t know what I was thinking. I convince Shashank that I have time to run back to the ship and pack a quick overnight bag and that I will be back in time to catch the bus to Bangalore.
I sprint back to the ship. I pass a ton of SASers and they all look at me pretty strangely because I am running back to the ship rather than into port. But I get to the ship in record time. I am running back to my cabin when my purse handle catches on the banister in the hallway and I pretty much flipped backwards. I am really surprised that I 1. My purse didn’t break or 2. The banister didn’t rip off the wall. After recovering, I made it to my cabin and packed a small backpack. I had 2 shirts, my jeans, and a skirt and my tennis shoes. It was packing REALLY light, but I figured I would buy clothes along the way. I ran off the ship and found a rickshaw driver to drive me to the gate. I kind of cut the shore pass line so I would make it out in time. I stood in line longer than it actually took me to get back to the ship and pack.
I eventually made it back out to Shashank and we made our way to the bus station and all three of us squeezed in an auto. An auto is a three wheeled, mini bus looking things that runs on a go-Kart engine. After about 45 minutes, we got there and found our bus, which thankfully is air conditioned. We all chatted and caught up and it is so good to see him!!! A friendly face. We made a small pit stop at this little place off the side of the interstate to have a meal. They call it a meal and it is basically rice with all sorts of fun things you can put on it. Shashank thought that they were really bland, but I thought they had a little bit of a kick. This does not bode well for future meals. I am convinced that Indians burn their taste buds off since birth so therefore they can’t really taste the spiciness. But that is just a theory. I also tried to eat with my hands like the Indians do, but I looked stupid. So much so that Shashank laughed at me so I gave up and used a spoon. We got back on the bus and continued our journey to Bangalore.
We stayed on the bus for what seemed like forever because of the traffic once we got into Bangalore. Shashank’s girlfriend, whose name I can’t pronounce and therefore need to give a nickname, got off in front of us because it was closer to her home. Shashank and I had an interesting conversation about arranged marriages. I never realized how common they still are. He said that about 6 or 7 out of 10 are still arranged. That blew my mind. Then we moved on to the caste system and I always assumed that the caste system was monetary, which I think a part of it is, but it is also about what denomination (which is probably the wrong word to use) of Hindu you are. He did say that you usually marry within your caste. There are agencies and databases of people to help get matched up for arranged marriages. I think that is absolutely fascinating. I would have never guessed. There is no way that would fly in the US.
Once we got off the bus in Bangalore, we were both hungry and Shashank suggested I try KFC in India. It was so good! Definitely better than in the US. We had to cross a busy street to get to the KFC and there were autos and rickshaws and cars and buses and about every other mode of transportation you can imagine. They don’t exactly obey traffic laws or lanes so it is kind of confusing. Luckily, Shashank guided me across the street.
After we ate, we grabbed an auto and drove to his university. Everything here is so colorful! I love it! The only down side is that there is a lot of pollution. It was kind of giving me a headache.
He got me all checked into my hotel, which is on his campus. They have a hotel on their campus so the hotel management majors have a place to practice and then students families have a place to stay when they come and visit. The room itself is much better then I was expecting. There is a big bed and air conditioning. The shower is a different story. I can’t really figure it out. There is a showerhead, a drain on the floor, a stool and a bucket. I ended up flipping my hair over in the bucket and washing my hair and that made me feel a million times better. I was also really excited to see that I had a normal toilet. That has not been the case in some of the countries we have been in. And bonus! They provided toilet paper!
I got all cozy in my bed and settled in to watch Disney Channel. So I am happy. I am a little nervous because this is really the first time that I have been away from SAS. I also had my Mauritius green sheet, rather than my India green sheet, which sucked. I just have to put it out of my mind or else I will not be able to enjoy my time here. I just keep having all these irrational thoughts go through my head like the ship was going to leave a day early and I wasn’t going to know and I was going to miss the ship. Stupid, I know. I ended up going down to the computer and checking the dates to make myself feel better before I went to bed.

Pre India

2009-11-10T10:18:00.000-06:00

I am excited, anxious, scared, curious and about 8 billion other emotions in preparation for India. I am so excited to see Shashank. It will be so nice to see a friendly face, especially since we are in a port like India. The Hindu faith is something that I have always been interested in so I am excited to learn more.
They have started laying cardboard down on the 5th deck so it doesn’t get too dirty. If they are burning coal when we arrive, the ship will turn black. They have closed decks 6 and 7 so we don’t go outside until we have to. They have told us that we can actually smell India before we get there. They say that monkeys and cows roam the street. That I will see poverty that rips my heart out and it will do so even more knowing that there is nothing I can do about it. I have been told that I can get extremely sick if I am not careful, but at the same time it is some of the best food I have ever eaten. They say that all my sense will be assaulted and that I will be able to scrape a layer of grim off my skin. They say all these things in order to prepare us, but how can we prepare for India? I am ready to embrace India – both the good and the bad. This culture has so much to offer.
The counseling center is having extra hours during and after India. This place really grabs a hold of people. I have always heard of India as this mystical place and I can’t believe I am going to be there tomorrow. They say love India and it will love you back. Hate India and it will hate you back twice as hard.
I am really excited to go shopping Shashank said he is taking me saree shopping and I am pumped! Pooh (our interport student) had on a beautiful saree and I want one so bad. Gah I am so excited I can’t stand it.

Half-Way By The Numbers

2009-11-01T20:09:00.000-06:00

Half-Way
We have reached the half-way point in our voyage. So here is a little recap in numbers that I think is interesting

Countries Visited: 6
Oceans Crossed: 1½
Time Zones: 10
Mountains Climbed: 6
Near Death Experiences: 2
Items Lost: 3
Photos Taken: 4,257
Amount of Video: 11 hours 45 minutes
Times I’ve cried: 2
Time I’ve laughed until I’ve cried: way too many to count
Items bought: 101 (sorry Mom you will probably be putting stuff in your suitcase on the way home)

"Is That Your Final Answer?"

2009-10-31T01:38:00.000-05:00

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.

"Who's Your Daddy?"

2009-10-31T01:37:00.001-05:00

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!

Post Mauritius

2009-10-31T01:37:00.000-05:00

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.

Sugar Adventure!

2009-10-31T01:36:00.001-05:00

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!!

"Oh Yeah I'm Flexible"

2009-10-31T01:36:00.000-05:00

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.

Magic Pants and Dodo Birds

2009-10-31T01:35:00.001-05:00

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.

"Don't Be Stupid - Be Cute! Do It In The Aft!"

2009-10-31T01:35:00.000-05:00

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.”

Pre Mauritius

2009-10-29T03:25:00.000-05:00

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.

?I Feel Like If You Had the Resources You Would Wear a Metallic Silver Bathrobe Everywhere"

2009-10-29T03:24:00.000-05:00

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

Living Life

2009-10-29T03:23:00.000-05:00

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!

The Lion King

2009-10-29T03:22:00.000-05:00

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.

Post South Africa

2009-10-29T03:21:00.001-05:00

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

2009-10-29T03:21:00.000-05:00

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.

PICTURES!!!

2009-10-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

All My Single Ladies

2009-10-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

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.

Karaoke and Pirate Ships

2009-10-21T15:29:00.000-05:00

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.

"Did You Learn About The Birds and The Bees John?"

2009-10-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-10-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

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!!

Small Goals = Big Goals

2009-10-21T15:26:00.000-05:00

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!!!

Pre South Africa

2009-10-21T15:21:00.000-05:00

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.

On Ship Happenings

2009-10-21T15:20:00.000-05:00

**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.

From Pollywog to Shellback

2009-10-01T02:44:00.000-05:00

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!

"It's Made of Magic and Unicorns"

2009-10-01T02:43:00.000-05:00

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.

"Mackenzie Put Your Hands in the Air!!"

2009-10-01T02:42:00.000-05:00

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.

Akwaba!!

2009-09-28T17:03:00.000-05:00

I woke up at 5:45 because I had to be in the dinning hall by 6:15. Breakfast was such a let down. They only had these weird roll things. They didn’t even have cereal. It was so disappointing. So I ended up having a granola bar that I bought in Canada.
We boarded the bus and headed to Torgorme. We got there after about 1½ hours of driving. The entire village greeted us. It was so cool! They led us to our seats and then the welcoming began. They gave one of the most touching welcome speeches I have ever heard. This village really opened their arms to us. They then did a prayer from the local holy man and the chief entered. We all stood and then went and shook all the village elders hands. The chief hand some major bling going on.
After numerous dances from the village children ranging from the ages of 4-14ish, the naming ceremony began. The day of the week in which you were born is very important in their culture. SAS had provided them with our birthdays so they knew what day they were on. Everyone’s first name, or birthday name, is the name that corresponds with the day of the week they were born. For example, I was born on a Sunday, so my first name is Akosua. Then their second name is what they call their local name. My local name is Sitsofe, which means, “shelter”. So my name is Akosua Sitsofe. I don’t remember what the names were in that dialect, but some of my friend’s names were:
        Mackenzie – “My Creator Loves Me”
        Kelsey – “Day of Joy”
        Kristin – “Courage”
        Katie – “Patience”
        Jeremy – “Wisdom”
How the ceremony worked was that our names were called and we went up where we presented our left wrist (right if you were a guy) and a woman tied a bracelet around it. Then a man presented you with a pot that they have made in the village with your new name on it. The village is known for their pots. The pots are really smooth and round, but they do not use any sort of wheel to make them. It’s pretty amazing.
After the naming ceremony, there was more dancing and some poetry readings and soon the welcoming ceremony was over. We then got to meet our host families. After everyone met their hosts we all gathered around the chief and took a picture.
We only had enough time to grab our stuff off of the bus and put it in the house we are staying in. Me and three other girls are staying with a woman named Maggie. Brittany and me are in one room and the other two girls are in another. We had some quick introductions and then we were whisked away to the local mess hall for lunch. We had rice and French fries, fish and this goat stew stuff. I have been forcing myself to eat fish on the ship just because there really isn’t anything else besides pasta, but I couldn’t make myself eat this. It was literally a fried fish and you could either have the head or the tail so I settled for goat. It was actually pretty good.
After lunch, there was some drama about the next day’s itinerary. There was some debate about changing it from hiking the highest mountain in Ghana and visiting a monkey sanctuary to going to a nature reserve and seeing baboons and caves. Tom, our trip leader and the cop aboard the ship, wanted to do the later and was proposing it to the group. Needless to say lots of arguments ensued and we just said we would figure it out the next day.
We went back to the village and met back up with Maggie. She planted all of us firmly on her porch thing and let us watch her cook. It was awkward because she really wasn’t talking to us and we all just wanted to walk around the village. Watching her cook was entertaining for about 2.5 seconds. One thing that I did think was interesting was that one of the first things she told us was that Torgorme was now our home and when we graduate we need to send them lots of money….um no. She also kept asking Brittany (who has a Canon 5D) and I to leave her cameras with her. Again…um no. She said that they needed the money because they needed to clean up the village, which was true and I totally could have gotten behind that, but she told me this as she opened a tin can, emptied the contents into the pot and then flung the can into the street where small children run around barefoot.
Kelsey and Kristin joined us a little later with their host and sat and talked with us. The next thing I know I see little Ryan (who is kind of like my little brother on the ship. We have extended families on the ship and his mom is my mom, her name is Christie. Christie, her husband Jay, her two sons Ryan (4) and Luke (5), and her father in law Milton make up the Orris clan and they were all on the cultural immersion with us) running around being followed by about 20 kids. He was really overwhelmed because these kids are very physical with one another and he is not used to that. He had gotten separated from his parents because he went off chasing goats. He was trying to find his parents and these kids are just dragging him around. So I got up and went over to him and at first he wouldn’t even come to me, but he eventually let me pick him up. So Kelsey and I went off in search of Christie and Jay. We eventually found them and I had escaped Maggie. Ryan had fallen while he was chasing goats, so I went with Christie and Ryan to the first aid station at the village. I eventually just sat outside and played with the kids with Kelsey. After leaving Ryan, Kelsey and I met back up with Kristin and their host. So I just walked around with them and we went down to the school. We saw the play area that they had for soccer and volleyball. We also saw the classrooms. At this point another girl from the village joined us named Cecelia. She told me she was 14. The school was really sad. They really had no supplies, but they were making the best of it.
From the school we went down to the riverfront. It was so beautiful! It reminded me a little bit of the boundary waters, but not as big. After the riverfront, Kelsey and Kristin went back to their house and Cecelia took me back to Maggie’s. I had no idea how to get back to her house from where we were in the village. On the way back Cecelia took me by her house and I met her mom and her littlest brother. When I asked her about how many brothers and sisters she had she just said “I have plenty” which I thought was really cute. At one point we walked past these people and Cecelia stopped me and told me that we had to greet them and I totally kept on walking…whoops. But I came back they just laughed at me as I tried to say I was sorry. It amazes me at how formal their society is. That was the last thing I was expecting out of Ghana.
When we got back to Maggie’s I couldn’t find anyone. So Cecelia asked around and found out that they were down at the fields. So we walked down there and I met back up with the girls I was staying with. We hung out and played with the kids a little bit more before we headed back to Maggie’s to load up on bug spray before dinner. I still haven’t seen Maggie since I left the house with Ryan. While waiting at the common area for dinner we played with the kids. These kids are adorable. I want to take all of them back with me. All they want to do is just hold your hand. At one point I think I had 3 on one hand and 2 on the other. We played Ring Around the Rosie and London Bridge. The kids got a kick out of it.
The next thing I know Brittany is taping me on the shoulder saying we are sitting over there and then warned me that Maggie was mad at me. Before I can even sit down at the table Maggie is yelling “Why did you leave? It not good for you?” I am trying to explain that I came by the house, but no one is there and then she started yelling “You Lie! You Lie!” I just gave up and sat down. Then she just walked away. Apparently she had yelled at the other girls too. I guess she was giving us the typical Ghanaian family experience. It kind of sucked because it was such a bad way to end a fabulous day. The rest of the night we did whatever Maggie said. If she wanted to dance – we danced. If she was tired, so were we. None of us wanted to get yelled at again. I am just glad that she didn’t resort to beating us with the sticks like they do the school children. But she did force us to have these drinks called Malta that are made by Guinness. It is basically all the barley and hops in beer, but without the carbonation and alcohol. So basically, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. Maggie wouldn’t let us leave the table until we had finished our drinks. There was no way I was going to make it through the whole bottle without getting sick. Luckily, she got up and walked away for a minute and Brittany and I poured our bottles out and kicked some dirt over it.
After some dancing, we headed back to her house to go to sleep. I use the term house loosely. It was this little mud brick type thing. But we did have electricity and a fan! I actually had a mattress and it felt like I was sleeping on a marshmallow. I melted into that bed it was so comfortable. The best part was the fan though. It actually made the heat bearable, especially since we were sleeping in long sleeves and long pants to avoid mosquitoes because I really don’t want to get malaria.

"You Look Like Harry Potter"

2009-09-27T05:41:00.000-05:00

I woke up early this morning to meet Mackenzie and watch the pilot boat. I never found Mackenzie, but I did find Dr. Aimee and Becky. We also never saw the pilot boat, but we saw something WAY better. We saw WHALES!!! There were two of them and they were jumping out of the water and splashing. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen! I really had no idea that whales did that in the wild. The whale excitement happened mid-breakfast with Becky. We went back and headed back to breakfast after the excitement and finished eating.
Afterward, we got ready and went to Tymetz Square to wait for the ship to be cleared. While there, I ran into Dr. Aimee, so we waited together. The ship was finally cleared and we were allowed to disembark. I headed out with Dr. Aimee for her Global Mamas FDP. Our tour guide Sam was hilarious. We asked him about the people balancing things on their heads. He just looked at us like we were stupid and said it was easy. He then grabbed one of our boxed lunches and put it on his head. Even with the bus moving around he made it look easy. I really need to practice this when I get home. We saw people walking down the streets with suitcases on their heads. I can see it now – walking up the Hill balancing my backpack on my head. That would be pretty sweet. Anyway, then we asked what this woman was selling out of this bin she was carrying on her head. From afar, it looked like bread. The people walk up and down the streets – through the streets for that matter – selling things. So Sam gets her attention and buys some – it wasn’t bread. It was fried octopus. Yep, fried octopus and it was actually pretty good. It tasted a lot like calamari.
We made it to Global Mamas and met the founder. She founded it 6½ years ago using her own money. Global Mamas is a micro-financer, but rather then loan out money they loan out supplies. They give out the amount of supplies to complete the order. Once the order is complete the women are paid. They are technically a non-profit, but they run like they are a for-profit company. They actually pay the women a living wage and about 40% goes back to the women, which is really good. Usually in other non-profits, only about 15%-20% goes back. We had a little time to shop, but we were quickly whisked away for a tour of the main market with a local named Selena. She showed us the different kinds of cloth. They reserve the colors black and red for funerals, which I thought was interesting. She also showed us the type of plant that they chew on to “brush” their teeth. The weirdest thing about the market was that there are fish everywhere! They are salted and fried and raw and they smell was horrible. One lady even had crabs crawling around. Selena also took us to a music vendor. He played us some traditional music and we all danced right there in the market. After we left the market, we went on a bit of a walking tour of Accra. The city is really dirty, but the people are really nice. We found ourselves at the beach. In Ghana, they don’t value beach front property like they do in the US. If you live on the coast they think you are really poor because most people that live there are fishermen who are uneducated. There was a small restaurant there we grabbed some cokes and I got a “meat” kabob. It was either goat or beef. I am not really sure. There were some rocks that lead down to the beach and we climbed down and took pictures.
We walked back to Global Mamas and were there for another .2 seconds and were whisked away again to the WEB DuBois Center for a drumming and dance workshop. We learned a couple of dances and then got up and did them. The group that was doing the city tour were there and joined us for a bit. It was so fun! After the dancing part was over, we were each given our own drum and we learned some beats. It was cool, but we were running late on time so we didn’t really get to finish, but it was still awesome!
We went back to Global Mamas and were finally able to finish our shopping. I spent so much money there! Well really it was only about $70 and I got all of my souvenir shopping done. If you want to learn more about Global Mamas visit their website at www.globalmamas.org but don’t buy anything because I have already gotten it for you!
Mackenzie, Kristin, and I finally had to leave Global Mamas and went to the shuttle stop, which is at a gas station on the busiest street in Accra (yeah, it was a little sketch) so we could catch the bus to the Welcome Reception. The welcome reception took place on the Asheshi school campus, which is a local university. While we were there, their dance troupe did a performance for us and we were welcomed. I got to sit next to the Deputy Minister of Education in Ghana and we chatted about Semester At Sea. He seemed pretty interested in it. Apparently, he is a pretty big deal. After the welcome, we had appetizers and were able to mingle with some of the students. I met three of the nicest students named Rasheed, Edwin, and Lady. They were all really interested about life in the US and it was neat hearing their views of the US and Ghana. They all got my information and said they would find me on facebook so I hope that happens.
We all piled back on the bus and headed back to the ship afterward. Everyone converged on the upper deck and we had ice cream, which was the perfect way to spend a fabulous first day in Ghana!

Semester At Sea's Got Talent

2009-09-27T05:40:00.000-05:00

So we have been at sea for a couple of days and we dock in Ghana tomorrow morning. The days at sea have been marked by class and my two tests that I had today. They weren’t too bad though. The highlight of this time at sea, though, was the Semester At Sea’s Got Talent Talent/No Talent Show. There were 26 acts and lasted about 2½ hours in the union. It was probably the best time on ship by far. There were so many different acts and I never realized that there were so many talented people onboard. Even some of the staff and LLLs participated. I helped Mackenzie get ready by doing her hair. She was in the talent show doing the Single Ladies dance. Luckily, I was VIP and got to get into the Union before everyone else and managed to snag front-row seats. It was pretty entertaining to watch everyone flood into the union and fight over seats. I wish I would have video taped it. Not everyone fit in the union so they had it broadcasted in the other classrooms and in the piano lounge.
The show was kicked off by the Ship Kids (aka the dependent children). They sang their own version of Yellow Submarine (We all live in a University. Semester at Sea. The Best Place to Be). It was awesome. They did such a good job. They had instruments and everything.
Other highlights included Mackenzie’s Single Ladies dance, which was pretty much amazing. Also, another person did a tribute to nutella and peanut butter. There are no words to describe what that entailed so I will try and upload a video. The sweetest thing was when Ray Fifer played the saxophone. Ray is one of the LLLs. He and his wife Gretchen have been on Semester At Sea five times and they pretty much the cutest things ever. Gretchen is so sweet and so cute. Ray and Gretchen have got to be some of the coolest grandparents ever. Anyway, I digress. The shipboard community found out that Ray has some sort disease where he still has the same mental capacity, but he can’t articulate the words and he is slowly losing his ability write. He played the saxophone and as soon as he was down the entire union (and I am sure everyone else who was watching) jumped to their feet and there was a thunderous applause. I almost started crying. It was just so touching. Also, all the guys that are from Spain aka the Latin Lovers did a hilarious song and dance to a song that only people who knew Spanish could understand it, but it was actually about tennis. It was hilarious. George did some hilarious voices including Captain Jeremy’s, he went on to win the Talent Show. Benno and Paolo did some amazing dancing and Caroline and Alyssa rapped to Lose Yourself by Eminem. Another kid re-did “I’m On A Boat” and played it acoustically and edited it. A professor told a story about biting himself in the balls and another gave a yo-yo demonstration. Apparently he used to compete.
The show ended with all the LLCs doing a skit called “Chez Ali at Sea.” My stomach hurt I was laughing so hard. They were making fun of the Medieval Times like place that apparently a ton of people went to while we were in Morocco. They were unenthusiastic; Eddie was even on the phone at one point, just like all the performers were. They even had the Darth Vadar theme music when they came riding out on their “horses” which were rolling desk chairs. They ended the skit by getting everyone up to do the Macarena with them. It was a great way to end the night and spend an evening.

Adventures in the Souks

2009-09-18T09:53:00.000-05:00

I woke up early this morning and grabbed some breakfast before heading out to Casablanca. Olivia, Kate, Carley and I headed out and sat at little café before the souks opened. When we were crossing the street to get back to the souks, a man asked us if we were from the ship. When we said yes he said “You come from Spain and you are going to Ghana!” He got so excited and introduced himself as Abdul (not the same one from dinner) and he proceeded to be our tour guide around the souks. Olivia and Kate were on a mission for bags so he took us from shop to shop until we found something we wanted. He showed us around for a good 2 hours or so. We finally had to say goodbye to explore on our own, but that was not the last time we saw Abdul. He popped up randomly throughout the souks all day. One of the last times we saw him, Olivia took a picture with him. He asked her to mail it to him, so she got his address. We spent the rest of the day buying this and that. I picked up a few things for some of you lucky people at home.
Later in the day, when we were trying to find something to, which we never did because everything was closed because of Ramadan, we stumbled upon an internet café. I talked to Mom and Dad and let Olivia call her parents. Afterward, we headed back to the ship a little early to avoid getting dock time. We grabbed some dinner, watched movies and said goodbye to Morocco.

DAD: I did find Rick’s café and I have a picture of it, but I did not eat there. It was way overpriced and there was no Sam to play me a song at the piano.

"Honest!! It's A Church! I'm Not Joking!"

2009-09-18T09:41:00.000-05:00

We got up early so we could go to the souks and shop. Mackenzie and I walked with Alyssa, Ashley and Mike. The souk was busy, but nothing compared to what it was last night. Mackenzie and I bought our dresses from a little shop. The guy that sold them to us then wanted to show us a “real” Berber house. We followed at first, but then decided against it because they would probably trap us in a shop and make us buy a rug. We spent the rest of the morning in the souks.
We had to run back to our hotel to grab our bags and get on the bus back to Casablanca. On the way back we stopped at the Moroccan equivalent to Wal-Mart to get lunch. It had a McDonald’s in it, and like typical American tourists, we flocked to it. But their credit card machine was broken, so there was a mad dash to get cash.
Once we were about 45 minutes away from the port, we started having bus karaoke. I had a flash back to all the drunken sing alongs from the bus rides while I was in Europe, except this time we had a microphone. Some songs included I want it that way, Wannabe, Buttercup, Ain’t no mountain high, and some more. We tried to get Jamal and Eddie to sing, but they wouldn’t do it. Jamal got on the microphone (tap tap tap) and said that this was going to be the last time he got on the mic. Alyssa then presented him with the money we had collected from everybody because he was an amazing tour guide. It ended up being about $40-$50.
We got back to the ship about 1630, but I didn’t get to board the ship until about 1800 because the security line was so long because all the trips got back at the same time and they have to go through everyone’s bags. We grabbed some dinner on the ship and feel asleep watching the Emperor’s New Groove.

Tap Tap Tap "Can I Have Your Attention Please."

2009-09-18T09:40:00.001-05:00

I woke up at some point last night freezing despite being under all the blankets and having a hoodie on. I am really glad that I woke up though because the stars were incredible. But I didn’t see a shooting star ☹
We all got up at 6 and hiked to the top of this hill/dune thing to watch the sunrise at about 0630. We hiked back down and packed up our stuff and dragged our mats back into our tents and then found our camel. I was able to find Elvis again. I was pretty excited I found him, but he is pretty distinctive because of all of his hair. Mackenzie jumped on the one behind him and named him Abu. Mackenzie had rode two different camels the day before and their names were Fievel and Sally (when she was riding Sally she was singing “Ride Sally Ride” the entire time. The nomads thought she was nuts). The trek back was pretty uneventful except a camel that was foaming at the mouth almost slobbered me on. NOTE: Camels make the strangest noises. I am dead set on believing that that is where George Lucas got his inspiration for what Wookies should sound like. And while I suggest everyone should ride a camel at some point in their life, the male half of the population should be careful. I imagine it could be quite painful.
We got back on the bus for the 8-hour bus ride back to Marrakech. I am happy to report that the bus ride was uneventful. We stopped at a Kasbah (Rock the Kasbah!) for lunch. Mackenzie and I sat with one of the LLLs who used to be a police detective for domestic violence and child abuse. She has traveled all over. She told us about volunteering at National Parks. They put you up and let you work in the park. It sounds like the Disney thing except National Parks rather then theme parks.
After lunch, Mackenzie and I walked around the Kasbah. We walked into a little store looking at scarves. The next thing I know, the shopkeeper has put a scarf over my face and is tying it in the traditional way. I was a little freaked out at first, but I figured I would just go with it. At one point, the shopkeeper told me I was worth 2,000 camels. According to Jamal, anything over 1,000 is really good so…yay? I ended up buying a scarf for 40 Dirham (roughly $5). I had my first bargaining experience! He started at 50, but took 40. Granted it wasn’t much, but you have got to start somewhere.
OK So I realize that I am in a different country and that they have a different culture and I should embrace that, but what I saw was just gross. When we came back to the bus, our bus driver was holding a rabbit by the ears, while one of the other guys was digging under the bus. Well that guy pulls out a knife and hands it to our bus driver. So then our bus driver walks behind the bus and kills the rabbit!!! Mackenzie was hysterical and called him Rabbit Killer the whole rest of the trip haha
What we drove through to get back to Marrakech was insane. The mountains were beautiful, but really shocked me were the little clusters of people that live up there. Their houses literally come out of the mountain. There are kids just running around everywhere. I wish we could have stopped in all the little villages. They were so fascinating, but really sad. Morocco is a country with 55% illiteracy and now seeing that part of the country I understand why. I tried to snap some pictures from out of the window.
On the summer voyage, Morocco was the last port. 3 kids were kicked off of the ship because of what they did on the same trip that I am on. Apparently, they got really drunk, got into a fistfight and destroyed one of the nomads tents. It is kind of surprising that they still served alcohol while we were there. They had beer and bottles of wine. They even had bottle of hard liquor for 1000 dirham (about $125). Luckily, there were no fights – just one really drunk guy that wouldn’t shut up when everyone was trying to go to sleep.
Anyway, we got back to the hotel about 1730ish and we had a free night in Marrakech. Jamal invited us all out to the place he goes when his mom doesn’t cook for him. We all agreed to meet there about 2030.
        Jamal took us into the Medina (old city) of Marrakech. The outside of this place looked super sketchy, especially since it was down a really narrow ally. When we walked in, it was like we were in a totally different place. There was beautiful tile work and archways. It turned out that the place that we went used to be some high city official’s house. We were led out into this courtyard in the middle of the building. It was pretty cool. It was a large square with a fountain in the middle and no ceiling. Jamal told us that this architecture is really common in Morocco and it is called Veil architecture.
        The courtyard was set up with a bunch of private tables just for us. Our waiter was named Abdul and he was pretty much hysterical. I have found that Moroccan people are SO nice. They just want to talk to you and make sure that your stay in Morocco is the best that it can be. Abdul told us all about his family and what we needed to make sure we saw while we were in Marrakech. We ended up taking pictures with Abdul and we gave us a flower. The meal was really good. Mackenzie and I split cous cous with chicken and veggies. We had some of the best dinner conversation yet with Julie, Leigh-Ann and Kristen. I have never laughed so hard. (“You want to sleep with camel? It will support your weight.”)
        After dinner we went back into the souk. When we walked through the souk before dinner, it was right after sundown. We saw thousands of people praying outside the mosque and then they came into the souk to break their fast since we are here during Ramadan. It was about 2100 and the place was packed! It was crazy so we all just stuck close to Jamal and his fancy shoes. So now after dinner, the souks still had many people in them after dinner – it was about 2230. Jamal gave us advice on where to buy stuff and get good prices. He also gave us the history of the markets. One of the areas that he took us to used to be the slave trade. And another area he said to stay away from because they sale contraband. We walked back to the main square and were mobbed by snake charmers, who I guess think that it is ok to just come up and put a snake on someone. Jamal gave us the history of the mosque in Marrakech and then we made the walk back to our hotel.

Into The Sahara...Kinda

2009-09-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

This morning we woke up at 6 to be on the bus by 7. Even though our AC didn’t work and I was bonding with my awesome towel that I bought at the Wal-Mart in Canada, I had to abandon the towel and actually get under the covers because it was freezing. But we made it on the bus and I was reunited with my Nalgene, which had been eaten by the bus the day before.

***Mom please skip ahead to the next paragraph. Thanks***

So our 8-hour bus ride from Marrakech to Zagora was probably the worst bus ride ever. Our bus driver, while I believe he is a very good driver, likes to be a little bit of a daredevil and speed up around corners rather then brake like a normal person. Normally, I wouldn’t really mind this, but when we are driving through the High Atlas Mountains in a tour bus and going around sharp curves where we could go tumbling off the edge, I tend to care. Right after we stopped at a little shop on the side of the road for people to go to the bathroom and a few other people bought crafts. Mackenzie and I loaded up on food – go figure. So we are driving to our next stop – lunch. Our bus driver comes around a corner and a truck was in our lane. He slammed on his brakes and got the bus over to the shoulder. Luckily we were on the rock side rather then the cliff side. He barely missed the truck on one side and the rock face on the other. Everyone on the bus was sleeping except for a few people, so most everyone slammed into the seat in front of them. I used the mom arm bar to save Mackenzie. If we had hit that truck, it would have gone over the cliff and I don’t really know what would have happened to the bus. Granted, he was going around the corner a bit fast, but the truck was in our lane, and he did a heck of a job avoiding an accident. We quickly made an impromptu stop so the bus driver could calm down. Jamal got the hand of Fatima amulet to ward off evil spirits from the roadside vendor haha. We eventually made it to lunch safe and sound.

***Mom you can begin reading here***

Lunch was ok. It started with bread and a salsa like dish with carrots and potatoes. Next was another veggie dish and finally the meat course. We had kebabs and they were scrumptious. Still no pigeon though. We asked Jamal and he said they don’t really eat pigeon. Weirdly, I was slightly disappointed.
We got back on the bus and the rest of the drive was uneventful, but as Eddie said “You guys put on your seatbelts. I’m not joking.” We decided to would be safest to buckle up.
We arrived in Zagora and were greeted by our camels and nomads. They didn’t have enough camels for all of us, so we had to pair up. I think that was really dumb on SAS’s part, but whatever. They keep preaching to be flexible, so I just went with it. We trekked for about 45 minutes and then we switched. I rode a camel I named Elvis. Ok just a quick note on getting on a camel. I was thinking it really wouldn’t be that hard – it would be kind of like riding a horse. Not quite. They are sitting/kneeling when you get one. Once you are on, they start to stand up with their back legs so you pitch forward and then backward and then basically thrown every other direction. If you managed to hold on through all that then you are ready for a pretty bouncy ride. But anyway, I named him so because he had some sweet sideburns. Elvis was a bit harrier then the rest of the camels. The camels in my train were named Jared, Jafar and Speedy McSmokes. When we got to our camp, there were nomads singing and dancing. We got our tent assignment and dropped our packs. Dinner wasn’t for another 2 hours, so we climbed to the top of a dune and watched the sun go down. It is crazy to think that here I am not quite in the dunes of the Sahara watching the sunset with some nomads.
We went back to camp and sat around waiting for dinner. The nomads started singing and dancing again and before I knew it everyone was up dancing and trying to sing with them. We really did more clapping and laughing then actually singing because we had no idea what they were saying.
We ate dinner at 2030 so that everyone could eat at the same time because of Ramadan. The meal started off with bread and a salsa dish…of course. I think I eaten my weight in bread while in Morocco. The main dish was a Moroccan twist on beef stew and it was soooo good. Dessert was some sort of melon that I am going to call Nomad Melon. It was delicious, considering that I don’t like fruit,
We spent the rest of the night talking, which was occasionally interrupted by more singing and dancing and clapping. We eventually got a got a game of mafia going, which I hadn’t played since probably 6th grade. My neighbor on the ship (and in the hotel in Marrakech and in the namad…this seemed to be a reoccurring theme) Bryan, decided it would be fun to kill me off every time. Thanks…what happened to love thy neighbor? Anyway, when it was time for bed, we dragged our mats out of the tent so we could sleep under the stars. We were given a mat, 2 sheets, a pillow and a THICK wool blanket. There was sand all in the blankets so therefore in all of our beds. No matter how much you brushed off more appeared. We finally gave up and tucked our pant legs in our socks (to avoid from anything crawling up there like the scorpion that was found) and settled into our sandboxes. We all feel asleep looking at the stars in our little pow wow of beds.

WTF Morocco?

2009-09-18T09:39:00.001-05:00

My 1st impression of Morocco was the industrialized port of Casablanca. They told us in the preport to watch out for cranes…great.
We huddled in the union at 0930 and awaited instructions. After the most unorganized process of handing out passports, we grabbed a box lunch and got on the bus. Turns out we didn’t even need the boxed lunches – lunch was included. So now we had a boxed snack. I feel sorry for whoever made those – there are 150 of us on this trip.
Mackenzie and I were bus buddies and we sat in the very back of the bus. It was not the most encouraging thing when the first thing we saw was a guy give our bus a thumbs down. What a great way to start. The 4 hour bus rides to Marrakech was pretty uneventful. We did get to see the 2nd largest mosque in the world. It is only second to the mosque in Mecca.
When we got to Marrakech, we were herded off the bus and mass chaos ensued. For some reason they divided our buses by sexes. Here they are telling us to make sure we have a male companion and then they take all of them away. So here is this big group of girls in the market and the only male in sight is our tour guide Jamal and Charlie (the psychology teacher on the ship). All of us were overwhelmed. I have never seen ANYTHING compared to what I had just stepped into. I basically glued myself to Jamal while he gave us time to go get money exchanged. Luckily, I already had some.
Once we had all met up, we were escorted to a restaurant for lunch. The place was beautiful and the tile work was so colorful. The room was a rich blue color and the chair and plates matched. Drinks were not included sp I bought a big bottle of water for the table because I needed to break some of the bills that I had. The first round of the food was bread and an assortment of dishes. One I know was potatoes, another was carrots (but they were gross – they tasted like flowers). One was a type of salsa and the other two I have no idea what they were, but they were delicious. The main course was brought out in the dish that looked like a volcano. Inside I was chicken in this lemon salsa. At first we all thought it was pigeon because that is a very popular dish here. They consider it a delicacy. There were these doughnut like pastries and some little cakes covered in powdered sugar. Both were delicious. Lunch was concluded with a glass of mint tea. I felt really bad during lunch because it is Ramadan and they are fasting from sunup to sundown and here we are stuffing our faces.
After lunch, we had some free time so we set off into the souks (markets). Mackenzie and I attached ourselves to Carol and Charlie because some sketchy guy was trying to pretend to be a tour guide and get us to follow him. Apparently, this is really common. One quick not on the marketplace: There are birds in the restaurants (or at least in ours at lunch), cats in the shops and snakes in the street.
Once we ere free of the creeper, we meandered through the marketplace. We walked through the produce section and the smell was amazing. I was overwhelmed with the smell of citrus. We also passed some snake charmers who yell at you to take a picture so they can then charge you 2000 dirhams or something crazy. The exchange rate is roughly 8 dirhams to $1. We saw fabrics of all kind and silver pots, shoes, backpacks and wnything else you can imagine. Mackenzie got run over by a donkey cart. Balek! Balek! I really felt like I had stepped into a Indiana Jones movie and at any moment Harrison Ford (or maybe if I was lucky Shia LaBeouf) was going to swoop in at any moment and save me from the aggressive vendors.
We had only been in the market about 30 minutes, when about 30 minutes when it started monsooning. We found some shelter to wait it out. We still had 30 minutes until we had to meet the bus. When it lightened up we made a break for it. Mackenzie went one way and ended up basically in a pond. I climbed up on a wall to avoid the water, but almost got kicked by a horse…so either way you went you were screwed. We figured the buses would be there because of the rain, but no we all had to stand in the rain. Normally, this would have not bothered me, but 1. I had my camera and 2. I was wearing a white shirt. So I was attempting to not flash the locals. I’m pretty sure that would fall under the unwanted attention category.
We finally made back on the bus and went to check into our hotel. The hotel was pretty nice except for the fact that our room didn’t have AC. Luckily, the rain had cooled everything off and we had a balcony so we just kept the door open. Even though we didn’t have AC, some people had brown water…eww. Mackenzie and I did have some issues trying to figure out how to flush the toilet. You had to squeeze this lever and then the toilet basically exploded. After that excitement, we passed out for a nap before dinner.
Dinner. I don’t even know how to describe what we experienced. We went to a place called Fantasia Chez Ali. The only way I can think to describe it is a cross between Medieval Times and Morocco at Epcot Morocco in Disney World. We were led into this palace type thing by men on white horses. As we walked in, performers representing the different regions of Morocco greeted us. They were dressed in what I would assume would be traditional outfits and singing songs. The Sahara people were the best. We were then led into the dining area. Each dining area had a different color – we chose red. Mackenzie and I ate with Eddie, the Assistant Dean of Students, Dr. Charlie Morris and his wife Carol, Christie, Lucas and Louie. We hardly had the chance to enjoy our dinner because the various groups we had seen at the entrance kept interrupting us. They took a liking to Mackenzie. A belly dancer pulled her up to dance with her and then in a separate group one mouthed something to her that looked a lot like “I love you.”
The main course was veggies, cous cous and chicken and dinner was rounded out with a HUGE bowl of fruit. It looked delicious, but none of us could eat it because of the fear of getting traveler’s diarrhea because it was washed in their water. Louis, Eddie, and Charlie all had an orange after bathing it in Purell. Mackenzie debated on a peach, but decided against it. But this spawned one of the most hilarious conversations between Carol and Charlie. Apparently, whenever they travel Charlie always gets diarrhea when they travel and she wasn’t going to take care of him anymore. He was going to have to do it himself. Haha (“You know you are going to get diarrhea.” “Carol can we please stop talking about it?” “I’m just letting you know I am not going to take care of you this time.”)
We skipped out on the mint tea to watch the horse show. Again, probably the most bizarre thing. There was a parade of the performers we saw at the entrance and a fire dancer. Then they drove this stage-looking thing out in the middle of the field and this belly dancing girl pops out of the middle of. While belly dancing it neat and all, I really don’t want to watch one girl dance for 20 minutes. The belly dancing was cut off by the Darth Vader theme song and all these horse galloping forward while the riders did tricks. The next thing I know the “Fantasia” is comes galloping forward and fire their guns. It was SO loud. After doing this about 4 times and thoroughly scared the horses, I guess this cued it was time for the finale. All the performers came back out on the field and out of nowhere comes a flying carpet. Yep, a flying carpet. Too bad the people on it looked nothing like Aladdin and Jasmine. Then in true Disney fashion, they ended the night with fireworks.
After the most unconventional dinner of my life, we made it back to the hotel about midnight. Mackenzie and I just laughed about today. Way to say hello Morocco. We get a thumbs down from a guy to start the day, get harassed by a sketchy man, we got adopted by Charlie and Carol, got caught in a freak rainstorm, the hotel had no AC, there were birds in the restaurants, cats in the shops and snakes on the street, and then we rounded out the day with Medieval Times/Epcot Morocco. I think I will count today as a success.