Ari at Sea

PURA VIDA COSTA RICA!!

2008-12-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

After finishing finals, every student on the ship was ready to get to Costa Rica. It was a long stretch between Hawaii and Costa Rica, and a somewhat stressful one at that. Finals were fine- I didn’t have the pressure of getting A’s on everything since I was doing well in my classes, so it wasn’t a huge deal. I wound up doing well on them all, and getting credit for all of my classes on Semester at Sea! A lot of people bitch and complain about finals, but it’s part of school, so we just went along with it. Plus, a few nights before finals began, my group of friends signed up for Fine Dining, which is a fancy dinner that you can sign up for on the ship. It is $25 and a 4 course meal, which was delicious. It was definitely a nice break from dining hall food, and it was fun to get dressed up.

The night before getting to Costa Rica they showed Elf in the Union on the big screen, which got us all really in the mood for Christmas. After that we stayed up for about 3 hours singing Christmas carols…it was lovely. How weird that the next morning we would be in sunny, 80 degree weather where it would feel so far from Christmas..

Anyway, we anchored around 8am and the tendering process began around 9. During tendering, there is no dock that is big enough for our ship to port, so we have to take the 100 passenger tender boats to shore. It is a hassle, but it sent rather smoothly this time, and I was on the 4^th tender. We were scheduled to meet the rafting company at the pier and there were 29 of us. Once we were all together, we piled into two different vans with our guides Kristen, Matt & Scott. They were all from the States…Kristen and Matt had lived down there for 3 years and Scott had just moved down there three weeks ago! We had about an hour ride to the place where we went zip lining! We did a total of 10 lines I think, and they were all tons of fun. I had been zip lining in France several years ago, but these were higher and longer lines so it was fun. Each time it felt like I was going to smack into the platform on the landing, but the guides stopped us every time! It was really fun and took probably about an hour and a half to get through the first section. Then we all climbed up a tower to do the Superman line, which was by far the coolest one. We had to wear full body harnesses, and we were attached to the zip line while laying on our stomachs. Difficult to explain, but just think of it as us being in the superman position. The line was probably a minute long and we reached speeds up to 70 mph!! At the end of the line we had to put our arms out beside us to build up some resistance to slow us down, but I came BOOKING in and was really nervous, but they stopped me! All it all it was a great afternoon. We had lunch there – chicken and rice and fried plantanes…delicious.

We got back in the buses for another three hours before reaching our hotel. Basically we drove from the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica all the way to the Caribbean Coast. We weren’t exactly on the coast, but we went pretty far. The countryside was BEAUTIFUL and the ride was so pretty. We got to the hotel for a fabulous meal of Garlic Bread, rice, chicken, potatoes – it was really delicious. The owners of the bar were from the States and they were a blast. We all hung out for awhile that night- there was a pool and a sauna – it was a good, relaxing time. Cindy, the owner, had all of these silly games planned that reminded me of the Feredjian’s Halloween parties (shout out to Honeysuckle). The next morning we woke up and had yet another delicious Costa Rican meal of eggs and rice and some other stuff…then loaded up the vans to head to the river!
We broke down into our raft groups…6 people plus one guide. My raft was Steph, Lacey, Daneka, Brittany, Paul and myself. Our guides name was Danny and right from the beginning we knew he would give us a good time. The last time I went white water rafting was back in 7^th grade when I used to go to camp in Oregon and we would spend a day going down Hood River. I loved it back then, so I was really excited to be doing this again! The water was pleasantly refreshing – not too cold and the weather was beautiful. We saw lots of different wildlife – mostly birds as we made our way down the river. I think the biggest rapids were Class 3 or 4…they were fun. No one ever unintentionally fell out of our raft, but we would jump out every so often and ride the rapid down. For one of them we intentionally flipped the raft which was quite the adrenaline rush with everyone out of the raft and having to flip it over – that was probably my favorite part! There was one section where we pulled the rafts on to the shore and climbed up a little ways and were able to jump in and ride the “human rapids” down. I think we were out on the river for about 3 or 4 hours so it was a solid day. At one point Danny asked us what we were doing with the rest of our time in Costa Rica and we said we were headed to the city of Jaco that night. He gave us a look, and we asked him what Jaco was like. He said three words: Drugs, prostitutes and theft. We knew we’d be in for a treat later on…

After we got out of the river and got changed into dry clothes we loaded back on the buses for a little while and stopped at a really good restaurant for lunch. We sat out on the porch and the view overlooking the river was beautiful. And surprise, surprise…the food was delicious.

We had about a 3 or 4 hour ride to Jaco from there…some of us slept, I played travel battleship for a lot of the time, and I got to know Scott, one of the guides pretty well. He had quite the story of traveling around from place to place – usually on a whim. He had never been to Costa Rica before, but knew about the rivers and the guide industry. So he looked around online for a little while, shot an email to Matt & Kristen at Pacuare River Tours and they said come on down. So he did, and he sublets a room from them and so far he loves it down there.

Half of our group actually went back to Puntarenas while the rest of us headed to Jaco. We got there around 8pm or so, and had plans of meeting up with our friends at Hotel Tangerie at 930pm. Scott decided to stay and hang out with us for the night since he didn’t want to ride the bus all the way back to San Jose and figured he would just take one the next day. So a group of about 8 of us went to grab a quick bite at Subway before meeting Sam, Stacey, Peter & Erica at the hotel. We had a villa reserved there, and we actually wound up getting another one since there were 12 of us total.

The night was eventful – we ran into all three of the incidents that Danny said we would…numerous times. It was an interesting city and was much more unsafe than we had anticipated. Throughout the night there were several incidents involving SAS students…I had money stolen. Scott had his money, watch & camera stolen. One of my friends got mugged and literally dragged to the ground. Almost everyone got offered drugs at one point or another…it was quite eventful. But despite all of that we had a really good time and it was our last night in port together. Dani (roommate) and I ran into each other, which was fun because that never happens, so we got to hang out for awhile. The night ended late…or early….however you want to look at it, with watching the sunrise over the beach. No one wanted to go to sleep since it was our last night out together. We slept for about 2 or 3 hours before waking up to go grab a delicious breakfast right down the street at Coffee Zone. We were going to catch the bus back to Puntarenas at 130pm so for that morning/afternoon we just laid out by the pool…the boys went surfing in the ocean..or at least attempted to. It was really relaxing and a beautiful day that we didn’t want to end because we didn’t want to get back on the ship. Scott caught an early afternoon bus back to San Jose and thanked us for a good couple of days. We thanked him also and we all wished each other the best of luck. It is strange to look back on all of the people like Scott that we had met during the way. All of our tour guides and homestay hosts…people who we only spent a day or two with but had such a blast and such a big impact on our adventures. We’ve made a lot of friends outside SAS on this journey and I am forever thankful for that because they have enriched my experiences so much. Well back in Puntarenas we grabbed a quick lunch (I had a delicious salad) before doing some souvenir shopping and boarding the ship around 4pm. I showered and unpacked and Lacey and I watched a few episodes of Grey’s…right after the 8pm presentation about the Panama Canal, I had to call it a night. I was exhausted. I slept right through until breakfast the next morning…went up to the deck to lay out right after breakfast and fell asleep out there until noon. I clearly had some catching up to do.

The Ambassador’s Bal was that evening, which is more or less like a prom. I was sitting at a table of 4 with Ben, Mitch and Lacey and the rest of the crew was right next to us at a table of 6. The dining room was decorated beautifully and transformed in a way that made it look nothing like our dining hall. The meal was awesome…I actually had filet mingon- what is the world coming to? Haha. There was a good soup and tasty spring roll appetizer. Of course all of the boys complained that it wasn’t enough food, but it was delicious. They had a dance afterwards and a slide show that was playing in the Piano Bar…it was a really nice night. I wore the dress that I had tailored in Vietnam and although it was a little big and I had to safety pin it in order to keep it on, I got lots of compliments and was happy with it. I’ll take it to the tailor to get altered when I get home- but it’s a keeper! Everyone looked good because a lot of girls got dresses in Vietnam, and a lot of guys had suits made so everyone was decked out. It was lovely! Some boys had ridiculous suits on…like leopard print or bright orange….it was fun!

Time is coming to an end…only a few more days left aboard the MV Explorer…how weird!

Thanksgiving in Hawaii!

2008-12-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Thanksgiving in Hawaii was one that I will never forget because it barely felt like Thanksgiving at all! A group of ten of us attempted to sleep out on the deck the night before pulling into Honolulu so we would wake up to the sunrise…but it wasn’t quite that successful. I think we tried going to bed around midnight, and it was WINDY. I could not fall asleep for the life of me…and I was awake as I slowly but surely watched the flies drop. First Chad, then Steph…awhile passed before Greg, then Peter…a little while longer and Mitch and Shannon went in. Around 330am I called it quits. I still wasn’t really tired, but I wanted to sleep, and it wasn’t going to happen out there. So I went down to my cabin and got my find and started walking around the ship seeing if we could pick up land signals yet. No dice. But I was extremely surprised at the number of people who were up and about at 4am. The computer lab was almost full…and people were in the dining halls hanging out, playing games. I was shocked. Well I crawled into bed a little after 4am and woke up at 620 to see the sunrise over Honolulu. Turned out that Ben, Erica and Lacey lasted sleeping out. Ben and Erica had sleeping bags so they weren’t cold…and Lacey had a fleece blanket that she just buried herself under. We all watched the sunrise together and it was beautiful. We grabbed a quick breakfast before all showering and running down to start making phone calls!! For those of you who know me…you could only imagine how exciting this was for me. I sat up on deck 7 with just about everyone else on the ship with my phone glued to my ear until the ship was cleared, which in total gave me about 2 hours. IT WAS AWESOME to talk to my family and a couple of my friends before I even got off of the ship. I knew that this would result in my phone being dead probably by the end of the morning, haha.

I had signed up for the Salvation Army Thanksgiving Dinner through SAS, and that was from 10-2 so I would have a solid break (probably while most people at home were eating dinner since I was still 5 hours behind) so that worked out well. We got on a bus and our driver, James, gave us a little city tour of Honolulu. It did not feel like Thanksgiving at all. The weather was sunny and in the high 80s and everyone was wearing bathing suits. The dinner (or lunch in my mind) was being held at an arena in Waikiki, and we got there around 1030am. There were only 20 of us from SAS, and we were designated as Beverage Servers. I would say that there were probably around 500 people who came to get meals that day, and we were in charge of a specific section of the arena. I have no idea how many volunteers there were, but everyone was in such a great mood and the volunteers and the people eating- everyone was so nice. They had some fun Hawaiian entertainment going on up on the stage- some dancing, singing, etc. that was fun to watch. I more or less walked around with pots of coffee for two hours just chatting with people and making sure they had all the hot coffee they wanted! Almost everyone was finished eating by about 130pm, it was a quick process with so many volunteers helping. After cleaning up, we were offered our very own Thanksgiving meal to eat! This we were not expecting, so we were extremely happy that we would get to eat some turkey on Thanksgiving! The food was really good (much better than the Thanksgiving meal that the shipped served to us a few days later) and it definitely made my day! I’m really glad I did the service project- it made the day actually feel like Thanksgiving and I knew I would still have time to go to the beach. It was a rewarding experience to help give a Thanksgiving meal to those that didn’t have somewhere to go on Thanksgiving.

From there James brought us to a Safeway because he heard us all talk about how excited we were to buy American snacks to bring back on the ship for the rest of the trip. Since we were in Waikiki and that’s where most of our friends were (I was with Lacey) we told our trip coordinator that we were just going to find where they were and not head back to the ship with them. Steph said that they were at the beach by the Hilton so I asked a man if he was familiar with the area and could point us in the direction of the hotel. He said that in about 3 minutes him and his wife would be driving right by the Hilton and they would be happy to give us a ride. They were a nice older couple from San Jose on vacation for Thanksgiving and it was very nice of them to give us a ride to somewhere that was about ten minutes away, so it saved us a cab ride! We just keep running into these nice people everywhere we go who are willing to help us out- it makes me think that there is some hope in this world…

Well we called Steph and she said that they were actually at the Hyatt…which was quite a ways down the beach. We weren’t in any rush so we both just pulled our phones out and walked along the water and made some phone calls. We finally found them and immediately we dropped our stuff and ran into the ocean. (SO unlike me..I never go in the ocean) but it was SO calm and not that warm, but warm enough. It was really nice and relaxing and felt so good to be swimming in the ocean in Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day! After a little while they all decided to leave and go to dinner somewhere and go to Wal-Mart to get groceries, but Lacey and I just stayed at the beach and enjoyed the day. She bought her first legal drink in the US, since she turned 21 while we were in Brazil, which was pretty exciting and we hung out with other SASers on the beach and watched the sunset…it was beautiful. Obviously, my phone battery died- what a surprise. But I got to talk to a lot of people and told others I would call them later once I was able to get on the ship to charge my phone. We just hung out for awhile..on ship time as 9pm, but they were as always, encouraging us to get on early…to the point that they were giving out free internet minutes if you boarded before a certain time. We figured that would get a lot of people back early so the line wouldn’t be too long by the time we got there. We caught a cab around 730 and were easily on the ship by 745pm no problem. I plugged my phone in and jumped in the shower while it charged- then made my way up to the 7^th deck to once again talk until it died. However, by the end it was almost 2am at home…but my friends (and brother) were so wonderful that most of them answered anyway. It was a nice, short visit and nice to get off of the ship…

Well, now that I am posting this mid-December…and ready to get off the ship the timing isn’t quite accurate, but that was my Thanksgiving in Hawaii!!!

Japan PART 2!!!

2008-12-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

For the next three days in Japan, we moved fast. There was a lot that we wanted to do and see in a very short period of time. So the second night in Japan when Ben, Lacey and I were all back at the terminal after our home stays, Ben’s host family was SO helpful with helping us buy tickets and find the bus that would take us to Hiroshima. We were going to take the train, but the bus was half the price and we would still get in before midnight, so we opted for that. They spent probably an hour total helping us find the ticket counter, and helping us find an ATM machine that worked with our cards, which was quite the challenge. Then they showed us to a grocery store so we could get some food for the bus ride. They were SO helpful and honestly I don’t think we would have successfully gotten on that bus. Once we got on they told us that there was a lady on the bus who spoke English who would help us find a hostel in Hiroshima. We had no plan set up for that, we were just going to find one using the guide book once we got to Hiroshima. But about half way through the ride the girl came to the back of the bus and said she had called a youth hostel for us and they had vacancy in a dorm room for I think $20 a person. So we thanked her endlessly and she called the hostel back and made the reservation for us since the front desk closes at 10pm and we would be getting there closer to midnight. She wrote the name of the hostel down in Japanese characters and once we got off the bus we were able to catch a cab and find it relatively easily. We were so thankful to get help from these wonderfully generous people…we almost couldn’t believe how much they went out of their ways to help us, it was really awesome.

We had a good nights sleep at K’s Hostel which is run by young Japanese girls and we had two roommates from England who seemed very nice. We called it a night once we settled down there for a little while and go up rather early to set out for the day. We walked to the train station to go buy bullet train tickets for that evening to go up to Tokyo. The bullet train is the quickest means of transportation in Japan and is extremely efficient and rather reasonable. From the station we took a street tram over to Peace Memorial Park. There we saw all that there is to see. First the A-bomb dome which is a building that is still standing in Hiroshima as a reminder of the power that nuclear weapons have. The structure has been maintained to look as it did after the bombing and is now a World Heritage Site. We walked around the Peace Memorial Park and saw the Peace Clock Tower, the Children’s Peace Monument, the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, the Peace Bell, the Monument Dedicated to Korean Victims and Survivors, the Peace Fountain, the Friendship Monument, the Flame of Peace, Memorial Hall for the A-Bomb Victims and lastly the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was a beautiful autumn day and the park itself was gorgeous with the changing leaves and monuments everywhere. It was emotional and trying seeing all of the monuments and memorials. To read about the horrible reality and aftermath of the A-bomb was difficult and brought me back to 8^th grade when I read the book, Hiroshima. All of the accounts told by the author came rushing back to my memory, and I could not believe that I was standing in the very place that the first nuclear weapon in world history was dropped over 50 years ago.

The Memorial Museum was quite the experience. I think it took us a little over two hours to complete the whole thing. There was just SO much information and so much to see and read about. It took us from the leading events to the dreadful day of August 6, 1945 to all the way through to the effects that residents of Hiroshima still live with today. I learned about the A-bomb from the Japanese point of view and saw material evidence that I never could have imagined. Everything from the morphing of cement form buildings to recovered articles of clothing that school children wore on that day. I saw video clips and photographs of the devastated city of Hiroshima and I can’t believe that it now looks like what it does compared to what it did in the late 1940s. I could have spent more time going through the exhibits and rooms, but my brain was fried from all that I had seen and taken in throughout the day. Even if it was only for a short visit, I am SO glad that I made it down to Hiroshima because it was definitely a place that I wanted to see for myself, and to appreciate. The city may take the cake for the friendliest and welcoming city that I have traveled to during this entire journey. The amount of peace and happiness flowing through the streets and everywhere I went was overwhelming and almost unbelievable after they suffered such a tragic and devastating day in history decades ago. There are shirts sold everywhere saying slogans such as “Nuke Free Hiroshima” or “Peace, Love, Hiroshima”. There were people standing on the bridge over the river with Free Hugs signs and giving everyone who wanted one a Free Hug. I just found the city to be extremely welcoming and gracious towards each other and towards Americans in particular. I was predicting hostility and resentment, but received the exact opposite- it was quite refreshing. We took our time enjoying the rest of the afternoon, then went to the bus station and got a quick dinner before getting on our train to head to Tokyo. It was a four hour train ride and we slept for a little while, but enjoyed most of the ride just talking and playing some games. We finally got to the Tokyo Station around 11pm and were planning on meeting three other friends at the New City Hotel which was apparently rather close by. We followed a map, and walked through a park and magically stumbled upon it! They said they would get there around 1130pm, but that was three days ago, so who knew if they were really going to be there…

We did run into some other SAS friends that we didn’t know where staying there, and eventually Antoinette, Matt & Chris showed up! The rooms were only “for two people” so Ben and Chris checked in and the rest of us staggered up throughout the next ten minutes. We all showered and got ready to go out in Tokyo – starting at 1230am about, haha. We took a cab to an area that we were planning to meet up with more friends in and wound up going to Freshness Burger, a “fast food” place to get some food since we hadn’t eaten since lunch and we just walked around and went to a few bars in the area, and wound up coming home around 3am I think. We pushed the two beds together so four people were able to sleep on the beds, and two of us slept on the floor. We would only be sleeping for a few hours so we knew it was no big deal. Matt, Antoinette and Chris had slept in a bar the night before….aka they didn’t sleep, so when Lacey, Ben and I woke up around 6am to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market, they decided to sleep in. We caught the train and made it to the market a little late, the prime time is between 5-6am and we got there a little after 7am. But it was pretty neat to see all of the fresh catches of the morning. It is basically where all sushi restaurants come to buy the fresh fish for the day. We got to try some pretty interesting food, half of which I had no idea what it was, and I ate some REALLY good raw fish. What could be better at 730am?? That was fun to walk around for about an hour or so seeing all of the interesting food they had out. We stopped at a little store to get some snacks for the day, because the night before we had decided that we were going to go to Tokyo Disney!! First we stopped at the Imperial Palace, Gokokuji Temple and the Tokyo Castle. The Temple was neat, we walked around it for awhile. The Palace and Castle we couldn’t get really close or go into, but they were neat to see. There was some sort of horse brigade coming through that no one would explain to us, but it was cool to see. Then we hopped back on the train (subway and train are the same thing in Tokyo…and we had gotten frighteningly good at figuring out all of the lines). Originally we had no intention of going to Tokyo Disney, but after seeing all of the advertisements, and that the park was revamped into CHRISTMAS, I was sold. When we were looking at a map in the station to figure out the best line to get on, we met a Japanese student who spoke very good English and helped us find lockers to drop our packs at for the day so we didn’t have to carry them around Disney for a few hours. He was extremely helpful and was getting on the same line that we were so we had the chance to talk with him for a few minutes. He recommended that we go to DisneySEA instead of DisneyLAND. We had no idea what the difference was so we took his word for it! As soon as we saw the Christmas trees and lights and heard the music, we knew it would be a good afternoon in Disney. We walked around, shopped, people watched and went on a couple of rides. We all developed this love for children while we were traveling through Asia because they are so absolutely adorable. There were a few weird things about Disney Tokyo…like the lack of Mickey, and the overwhelming presence of Duffy, a character that I have never seen or heard of before. We went to “Western Land” instead of “Frontier Land”, which was funny. It was a good afternoon and once the sun set and the park was lit up with Christmas lights it was magnificent. It probably was not as elaborate as Disney in the States, but it still put us in quite the Christmas spirit. We couldn’t stay for the light show unfortunately because we had to get to Yokohama by 9pm to go to the Ramen Noodles Museum because Lacey had to visit there as a class assignment. We caught a crowded train to Yokohama which took only about 45 minutes and after some confusion, final made it to the Ramen Museum. It was the weirdest place I have visited on this trip. First of all, not a single person there spoke English. Lacey’s assignment was to try all of the different Ramen noodles they had, but each one cost about $5 and was a huge bowl! It was this poorly lit building that was supposed to look like a city inside? And there were all these different little “stores” that had the different noodle dishes. It was very bizarre, I still don’t really understand it. But there were some other SASers there since the ship had just gotten to Yokohama that day and a number of students stayed on the ship between Kobe & Yokohama.

We finally made it to the port around 11pm after making friends with this very interesting man on the train. He spoke very little English, but explained that he was also a backpacker and insisted on helping us find our way to the ship (since we didn’t exactly know where the port was). He also wanted to take us out to drinks and back to his house for dinner (which we obviously declined) but he did catch us a cab and took us to the port which was very nice. We probably could have walked, but when we told him that he basically started to tear up, so we let him catch us a cab. I know as soon as my head hit the pillow in my cabin I was out.

The next morning we debated taking the train to Mt Fuji, which wasn’t very far away, but at this point we were running low on money and just wanted to stick around Yokohama. So we walked around the pier, where many other ships and cruises were parked and enjoyed the beautiful weather just walking along the water. We did a little shopping at a nearby mall and then found a Round Sushi restaurant which was exactly what we wanted! We call them Conveyer Sushi in the States…where you sit at a big counter and the sushi chefs make two pieces of sushi and put them on color coded dishes that cycle around the conveyor belt and you just grab what you want! The plates have different price values, and then you pay at the end depending on how many plates you have…I had been to one in London before, but not in the States. The sushi here is really different than at home, and not exactly what I expected. They don’t really make rolls unless you request it, and they use a lot of mayo which is interesting. The best one that I had was avocado & tuna with mayo. They also have crab, tuna and shrimp salad pieces which were interesting. Overall, fantastic lunch and just what we wanted as our last meal before getting back on the ship for the long haul to Hawaii. After lunch we walked around the park for awhile – climbed trees, watched families fish from a river and then we went on the World’s Biggest Ferris Wheel! It gave us a beautiful view of the city, and apparently on a clear day you can see Mt Fuji, but it was definitely not that clear that day. It took about 20 minutes to go all the way around and was pretty fun. We bought some groceries after that (half of which I had no idea what it was…) and then we went back to the ship to get on a little early. We were pretty exhausted and my feet were actually in pain from all of the walking that I did the past two days through Hiroshima and Tokyo.

Throughout most of Japan there was Christmas music and Christmas decorations and it was fall weather, so it actually got me in the mindset for the holiday season. Japan was one of my favorite countries of the journey, and once again a lot of it had to do with the home stay that I did while in Kobe. I found the Japanese to be extremely kind and helpful and although I did hear other students talk a lot about racism throughout the country, I never once encountered it. Lots of people were rejected from bars or clubs for being American and received dirty looks from the locals. Although it wasn’t the cheapest place we had visited, I enjoyed my stay there and was very glad that I did not get back on the ship between Kobe & Yokohama. As the last major part of the journey, I was glad I traveled with Ben & Lacey – it really put a nice end to the travel through Asia. Although it was stressful at times trying to read train maps and figure out the schedules, overall it was a pretty stress-free port and we met some really friendly people who helped us along the way. Japan is definitely a country that I would like to visit again one day (It seems like this is a trend after most of the countries that I have visited….)

JAPAN PART 1- HOME STAY!

2008-11-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

This is way overdue, but I think I’ll be able to back up a few weeks and relive Japan through writing this. We ported in Kobe, Japan on November 13^th, and this was by far the most difficult immigration process yet. They did face to face passport inspection with everyone on the ship, which takes a considerable amount of time. I was signed up to do a one night home stay in Kobe, which started at 11am. We were the first group of students allowed off of the ship, and all of our host families were in the ship terminal eager to meet us. There were 60 students, and each student stayed with one family, which was different from India where we were either paired or tripled up for each family. So that meant 60 people holding up signs with all of our names, and we had to find our name among the whole crowd! After a few minutes I saw Arianne Templeton from across the room. I met my house mother, Haoko and she spoke good basic English. She had a picture of her family – her, her husband Hukoyoshi, and her son Shuishu. We talked for a few minutes about the trip so far and where I had been traveling, and she shared with a little about her family and about the Hippo organization, which is what the home stay what set up through. It is an international language association based in 8 different countries, and the main thing that they do is arrange home stays so people can go abroad and have places to stay all over the world. Once everyone was paired with their families, the head of the organization welcomed us and we were taught a welcome song in Japanese and also played some ice breaker games including a variation of Japanese rock, paper, scissor. We were all told to enjoy our time with our families and to meet back at the terminal at 5pm the next day! Hao said we would be carpooling with her friend, so then I met her friend, Rata, and the student the was hosting, Karina. We had about a 30 minute drive to their neighborhood, so Karina and I got to know each other and just chatted and enjoyed the scenery of Kobe, which was beautiful! It was autumn there, so the leaves were pretty colors and the temperature was just perfect. I thought I was going to miss fall completely this year, but luckily I got a little taste of it in Japan!! Rata dropped Hao and I off at her apartment complex, which looked really nice. Her apartment was on the third level, and had a beautiful view over a park and tennis courts. Their apartment was cute, and it was interesting when I realized there was hardly any furniture! They did have a kitchen table that they ate at, but the TV sat on the ground, and they just sat on a carpet in front of the TV to watch. There were no beds, just mats that they lay down for sleeping, and no dressers, just closets. Quickly I just placed my pack down because Hao had English class for an hour and a half that afternoon, and we were going to go have lunch at her friends house, where I would stay while she went to class. Hao’s family doesn’t have a car- they all ride bikes everywhere. So she got her bike and she walked it (since I was with her) to her friend’s apartment. Her friend Mum, also had her daughter, granddaughter, and another friend there for lunch. She had made vegetable soup, small snack sandwiches (tomato & cheese and also egg salad) and french fries! Basically an American lunch, which was funny because I wanted to eat Japanese food! But it was really good and they had some good pastries for dessert, so I couldn’t complain! The other woman that came over spoke really good English and had been to the states several times, and traveled rather extensively through Europe. She had photo albums with her when she was younger and stayed in California for 2 months, so she was fun to talk to. Mum was working on her English, and I think we made progress throughout the afternoon. Mum’s daughter also only spoke basic English, but she was really nice and sweet, and her daughter, Aio, was the cutest baby. It was her first birthday, so we had a little birthday cake and they taught me how to sing Happy Birthday in Japanese- it was fun. So I got to play with Aio for a little while, and around 330pm Hao came back from class. Mum let me borrow an extra bike that she had for the rest of the day, which was really nice of her. So we rode back home, which was beautiful. I hadn’t been on a bicycle since this past summer and riding through the park with the changing leaves was just beautiful- I couldn’t get the smile off of my face! Back at the apartment, Hao showed me some books that she had about Japanese culture and food. They were interesting to read through and as she prepared dinner I read the books and asked her some questions, it was very interesting. I read a lot about mannerisms and etiquette- things are done much differently in Japan than they are in the United States, especially with things like bathing. I read about how to properly take a Japanese bath, and I was almost hoping I wouldn’t have to because it seemed so confusing! I’ll explain more about that later…Oh and the toilet that they have in their home has a heated seat and all of these different functions and settings, it was pretty bizarre. I was also given a pair of slippers to wear through the house for the next two days. Wearing shoes in the house is considered very rude and never done. Even in some restaurants and public buildings, slippers are worn and not shoes. A little while later her son, Shui, came home from school and I got to meet him! He speaks a little bit of English, and he showed me a book that he has that talks about his family, what classes he takes in school, what his hobbies are and what other things he enjoys, and where he has traveled. He did a home stay in Australia last year and had lots of pictures from that trip that he enjoyed showing me. By using the pictures we were able to communicate OK for the most part and he taught me some Japanese words while I taught him some English words! He was 12 years old and plays basketball and piano. His favorite class in school is English and he wants to go to America on his next home stay. He was so cute and really fun to hang out with. The three of us sat down for dinner, which was absolutely delicious. It was a form of sushi, but not the type of sushi that we are used to in the States. It was basically all of the same ingredients, but not presented how I was expecting. It was a huge bowl of rice, seaweed, fish, eggs, and wasabi. So everything was just mixed together and it was so tasty! They were impressed with my chopstick skills, which led to me talking about my favorite sushi restaurant at home, Mr. Sushi. They got a kick out of it when I told them what was served and how it was served and all of the details. It was interesting to talk about what I thought I knew about Japan and what was true and what was just Americanized. After dinner Shui left for night school which is strictly English classes for 3 hours, that he attends every night. Keep in mind this was Friday night, and he was going to school, and he was excited about it—not something you would exactly find in the States.

Hao said we were going to go to a Hippo Family meeting, which is what she does every Friday night. We cleaned up the dishes after dinner and we started talking about piano. She said she has been taking lessons for a few years now and it was her favorite thing to do. I told her that I used to play for several years until I quit midway through high school. She encouraged me to play something, and I was really nervous since I haven’t even sat down at a piano since I quit almost 5 years ago. I pulled one of the books out and dug wayyyy back into my memory about how to play. After a few minutes it more or less came back to me (I was only playing one handed…I couldn’t exactly jump back into it that quickly) and she came over and sat on the bench and started playing the left hand bass clef. It was really, really neat and one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. It was really special to share those few minutes with her playing- something that completely breaks the language barrier and eventually we had to get up because we were going to be late for the meeting. It made me want to start playing again once I get home, so Mom & Dad- there might be some hope!

We rode our bikes about 10 minutes to the meeting, which was held in a nursery school. There were probably 20 people total, including children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens. We sang some songs first- in several languages- English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. Then played some games, again in all of those languages. There were two other SAS girls there with their host families- Karina who I had met earlier, and Jackie, who I had never met before. Everyone sat in a circle and they had a microphone that would get passed around. In whichever language they preferred, everyone went around and introduced themselves and talked about their families, their hobbies, where they have traveled, etc. It is interesting because every Japanese person has a long name that they would say, and then would have nicknames that they preferred to go by or basically their “American names”. Once that was finished they actually broke us up in groups and each of us girls sat with 3 or 4 of the Hippo Family members and talked about where we had been so far on our journeys and they asked us questions about all kinds of things. The purpose of the meetings are really to improve their English and learn from each other. There was no leader at all, they would all just take turns talking and sharing stories and information. At the end they all talked about new phrases or words that they had learned from us- a lot of it being slang that they thought was funny. We taught them phrases like See ya later Alligator, Hit the Road, Just Google It, etc. It was funny to watch them understand it and then say it to each other. Overall it was probably an hour and a half long and it was really fun and the time flew by and all of the children there were so cute and fun to hang out and play with. Hao, Mum and I hopped on our bikes and road back home, which was again, really fun. I had my video camera out and was trying to film while riding which was fun. A lot of people ride bicycles in their area so I had a few close calls with people and railings, it was really fun. I dropped the bike back off at Mum’s and we said our goodbyes since we wouldn’t be seeing each other the next day. Walking back to Hao’s was a little chilly as the temperature had dropped, but it was not far away and we just enjoyed the walk. Back at home, her husband, Hukoyoshi, had come home from work so I had the pleasure of meeting him. While he ate dinner, Hao and I had some dessert. She had some different cake breads, some sweet rice crackers and some fruit, which was delicious. Huko didn’t speak much English at all, but he is a big tennis player, so we talked about tennis for a little while and then we were talking about what else I would be doing in Japan. I explained that the next evening we were going to go to Hiroshima for the day, then up to Tokyo for two days then down to Yokohomo, where we would be leaving from on the 18^th. They couldn’t believe how much I was traveling and how short I was staying in each city. I explained that we only have limited time in each country, so we try to see and do as much as we can in the short time that we are able to. He was very helpful in printing out maps for me and explaining how to get to the train station for the ship terminal and where to get tickets. When Shui came back from night school, he was very excited to do a magic show for me. It was so cute and he kept going behind his bedroom door and preparing the tricks before coming out and performing them. It lasted for about an hour- some tricks were better than others but it was very entertaining and we all laughed a lot. After that they asked me to teach them some American card games. It took me a minute to decide which game would be easy enough to teach quickly and I decided on spoons, since it is easy and really fun. (Many of you may not know how to play, I learned it at camp..). It is a fast paced game and they picked up on it quickly and we played a few rounds which was really fun, they enjoyed that. Then they taught me a Japanese card game which was also simple and fun and I wound up losing- oh well! Beginners luck wasn’t on my side. By this time it was about midnight and we decided time to go to bed. (I forgot to mention that Hao had bought a box of clementines (or the equivalent of) during the day and Shui kept sneaking them and handing me pieces, all very secretively. It was hysterical, and you could tell he enjoyed having another “kid” around). So I laid out my sleeping mat, Hao gave me some sheets and blankets and I wrote in my journal for a few minutes before falling into a deep sleep and not waking up once!

I woke up at about 9am to a delicious smell coming from the kitchen. Hao offered me to take a bath, and I accepted because I read that it is rude to decline. I was nervous because I had no idea how this was going to go. Well I ventured into the bathing room which is a tub that is filled with scorching hot water, a tile floor with no drain and a bath mat, a showerhead above the tile floor, and several pales and buckets- some filled with water and others that were empty. Basically I had read that you soak in the bath, but you don’t bathe in the bath, which made no sense to me. So I kind of cleaned myself, trying not to get soap in the tub, but also trying not to get the floor of the room soaked. It was an adventure, and I wound up feeling somewhat clean so that was all that mattered. After dressing for the day I sat down for a delicious breakfast of rice, eggs, cabbage (I think) and fruit. For the first time I had persimmon (no idea how to spell it). I later found out that it is a native fruit of Japan which is imported to the west coast…something I had never had. It was really, really good. Hao said that we were going to go to a park with Karina and her host famiy, and they were going to pick us up in about 30 minutes. I assumed that Shui was going to come but he said he couldn’t because he had a test in 26 days- 26 DAYS! I couldn’t believe that is why he was going to stay home on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Apparently he needed to pass a particular test to go to the high school that he wanted to go to and it was very competitive. He is so devoted to school it was so neat to see. I don’t think I have ever seen that in the States…

Huko had already left for work, he has off on Sundays and Tuesdays, so it would just be Hao and I joining Rata’s family, which would be nice. We all piled into their car and drove about 20 minutes through the outskirts of Kobe, which was just beautiful. The trees were all different colors and the sun was out…I was SO glad I was experiencing a little taste of autumn weather!

We got to the park and walked around for probably about an hour total. Rata’s six year old daughter, Keke, was adorable and she collects leaves so she was running in every which way and climbing trees to get particular leaves, it was precious. She didn’t speak any English, but Rata’s husband, Kamine, spoke pretty good English and was a funny guy so he was fun to talk to. They had a traditional tea ceremony in the garden which was quite the adventure. The women serving the tea were dressed in traditional kimonos and had their faces painted white. At first we had a small ball which was some sort of sweet. I did not like it at all, but ate it anyway (something I have gotten very accustomed to on this trip) and then they passed out small bowls of powdered green tea which was extremely bitter and also difficult to finish, but I did it all with a smile on my face! A woman was making the tea outside so we could which was very interesting. They said that this type of tea ceremony is very popular and very traditional in Japanese culture. After walking around a little more, on our way out there was a cart that was selling a particular type of sweet nut that you crack open and eat. Hao said it was her very favorite food, so she bought some and I tried it and it was delicious. I have no idea what exactly it was, but it was very good and unlike anything I have ever tried before. We piled back into the car and Kamine said we would go to lunch before going fishing! So we went to a nice Japanese restaurant where I told them to order what they wanted for me. So they ordered us udon noodles and also a soup. Both were extremely delicious. The soup had fried tofu in it which was delicious and some sort of fish, and the noodles had almost a sweet and sour sauce- it was a really good meal. Perhaps my favorite one in Japan. They taught us how to respectfully eat noodles, which is “with noise”. In other words, it is polite to slurp your noodles as you eat because it is a sign of approval, that you are enjoying the meal. Karina and I were trying our hardest to slurp while we ate which was very entertaining for everyone and quite the experience. After eating, there was a “hot spot” outside of the restaurant where you take your shoes and socks off and soak your feet in a bath of scorching hot water. It felt so nice and we stayed there for a few minutes just relaxing and digesting our wonderful meal.

We hopped back into the car and drove about 15 minutes to a Rainbow Trout fishing pond. In the first pond there were coi fish that we bought little pellets to feed them. Kamine said it was one of Keke’s favorite things to do and since it was such a nice day he decided it would be a good activity for us. After feeding them for a little while, we got 2 bamboo and string fishing poles and some bait and began fishing. Karina and Kamine started, and Kamine caught one right off of the bat. Almost immediately after dropping the bait into the water, the fish swarm around and within seconds you either catch a fish or lose the bait. It was fun to watch and we had a bucket that we would put the fish into when we caught them. I think we caught 6 total and I caught 3 of them! I never knew I was such a skilled fisherman, haha.

Well, Karina and I were both in for a surprise when we thought we would just put the fish back in the pond, but no- not at all. They carried the bucket of fish over to a register and paid per fish. Then they took the fish and Hao explained that they would fry them so we could eat them. Karina and I were shocked- we had no idea that we were going to be eating the fish that we had just caught! Literally 3 minutes later we had a plate of fried fish on our table that looked exactly like they did in the water, just dead. Head, tail, everything. Kamine explained that you eat the entire thing, just not the tail. I think Karina and I both threw up a little bit in our mouths when Kamine put the entire fish in his mouth except for the tail. Well, when else was I going to have the chance to do this? So I picked one up with my chopstick and bit the head off. I tried not to think about what I was eating, which was very difficult, but I got through it. Karina couldn’t do it, she had to politely decline. They didn’t understand why she wouldn’t try it and we explained to them that we had never seen anything like this. It is funny to look back on and laugh about but it was actually pretty disgusting to think about..

All in all it was a beautiful afternoon and the weather was absolutely perfect. We walked around the pond for a little while after eating our delicious meal, then we got back into the car to drive to the terminal. We got there around 4pm and showed them the ship and all took our time saying goodbye and giving them gifts thanking them for hosting us for two days. It was actually pretty emotional and we all exchanged emails and took photos together, promising to keep in touch. I wish I had more time to spend with Hao and her family, but not in this visit. They were so hospitable and welcoming and I really enjoyed spending time with them. I am glad that I decided to do another home stay in Japan. Similar to India, it is difficult to actually experience the culture any other way than spending time in a home, doing exactly what they would do for two days. I hope that I get to see them again at some point in my life- either in Japan or the United States, but I will never forgot their graciousness and hospitality during my short stay in Kobe. Now all I had to do was wait for Ben & Lacey to come back to the terminal so we could make our way down to Hiroshima for the night!

PART 2 COMING SOON!

November 22nd!!

2008-11-22T05:57:00.000-08:00

So tonight the ship is crossing the International Date Line! As we have been traveling east around the globe, we have been losing hours many, many nights during our time at sea. So as we cross the line, we will live our second November 22nd tomorrow. It is going to be bizarre because right now we are 16 hours ahead of East Coast Time, and as of tomorrow morning we will be 8 hours behind East Coast Time. Our bodies are already so confused by this point that I don't think it will phase us at all - nothing seems to these days! So in celebration of November 22nd x 2 we don't have classes tomorrow!! Everyone is very busy with school work though since we have barely done any over the last 5 weeks. Finals are coming up the first week in December, and most assignments are due before we get to Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day, so we are keeping ourselves busy. We are also ready for it to be hot and nice out again so we can start to get tan before coming back home to winter weather! I know I still owe a journal of Japan, which is in the works, it is just taking me awhile. In short, it was amazing and a great way to finish the journey through Asia. I had an awesome time traveling from city to city everyday, and Japan officially depleted just about everyone's bank accounts. It was quite expensive compared to the other countries that we have been spending time in.

Other than all of this- life on the ship is good. Everyone seems to be in pleasantly good moods which is nice. I am getting back into a schedule which is nice and catching up with friends who I didn't necessarily see much between ports. I am also fully recovered finally, but unfortunately Dani has been really sick for the past couple of days. The food on the ship is getting worse and worse, good thing we all bought snack food in Japan to keep us going until we get to Hawaii. Along with getting my work done, I am also working on a DVD of all of the pictures and videos I have taken along the way, which consumes a lot of my time, but I know the final product will be completely worth it. Grey's Anatomy has also been keeping me quite occupied at night once my brain no longer feels like working. We plan on having a marathon tomorrow once our brains are fried after getting all of our assignments finished! Feel free to email me for the rest of the time before I get home (Dec 14th) since I will be able to respond since I am on the ship for all but 4 days from here on out! This trip has been amazing, and I am going to miss living on a ship, in the middle of the ocean and doing my homework out on the deck overlooking the ocean with no land in sight, but I am very excited to get home- to see my friends and family and be home for Christmas (Christmas music is already constantly played in my room) and for winter!! I'll post the Japan update in the next couple of days!!

Peace and Love

It's a little Chilly in China

2008-11-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Hong Kong the morning of November 6^th with absolutely no game plan. All I knew was that I only got half of my laundry back – shorts and t-shirts, not the half that I needed! So that got me a little flustered to start…

Stacey, one of my good friends on the ship, lived in Hong Kong for 3 months this summer and said just to wander around the city, and the only thing she truly recommended was going to Victoria’s Peak to see the view of the city. Our boat was ported at Kowloon Island, so we took a short ferry ride over to Hong Kong Island and basically wandered around for a few hours with some friends. We found a few markets, some good food, and my personal highlight: Seeing a Christmas tree being decorated in the center of a plaza!! There were actually a lot of Christmas decorations and holiday spirit throughout Hong Kong which got us all pretty excited! Around 4pm we took the tram up to the top of the peak to catch the sunset over the city. It was absolutely gorgeous and we just hung out up there for awhile taking photos and having some snacks…it was pretty relaxing. So then we headed back to the ship to see the Light Symposium that goes on every night at 8pm. It was a little corny, but pretty cool- it was definitely the nicest skyline we had seen yet and there was music and lots of lights – it lasted for about a half hour, and it was a beautiful night so it was definitely worth seeing. Most of us wound up staying in that night- some of the boys went to see the new James Bond movie, but Lacey and I stayed in and watched Grey’s Anatomy. We were able to make a few phone calls, and I called my friend T who goes to Ithaca and is studying in Beijing this semester. We had been in touch via email, but I gave him a call to confirm my flight itinerary and my plans once landing. He agreed to meet us at the airport and help us get to our hostel! So I headed to bed rather early that night…I had been feeling pretty crappy all day so I wanted to get rested before heading to Beijing.

530am approached quickly and our 19 person group traveling independently to Beijing was headed down the Gangway at 615am. It was a complicated process getting from our ship to the airport…including a ferry, a train and a shuttle, but eventually we made it, with not much time to spare. We all successfully boarded the plane (except one who had to take an earlier flight and planned on meeting us at the Beijing Airport). We landed, found Hillary, and T found us!! It was great to see a familiar face and also to be with someone who spoke Mandarin- so helpful! He showed us where to exchange money and gave us a few pointers. Group decision was to go to Tiananmen Square and see the Forbidden City before it closed because this would be our only opportunity to do so. We all split up into 4 different taxis, T and I made plans to get together later, and we were off! Once our taxi pulled up, we realized that meeting in Tiananmen Square wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to do…but we figured since the plan was to do the Forbidden City, we should stand at the entrance and hope everyone would find their way there. All but one taxi did. We waited for 45 minutes, hoping they would show up, but they never did. And it was COLD. Much colder than the weather we have been used to for the past few months. I quickly changed from flip flops to sneakers and busted my new North Face jacket out while we waited…They never showed, so we went in thinking they must have gone in before we even got there.

Well the actual gates to the Forbidden City, which were further down than we knew, closed at 330pm, we thought they closed at 430pm. So we were able to walk around, but not go into the city which was pretty disappointing. We did see Mao’s Mausoleum from the outside but again, the inside was closed. There was a student art exhibit that we were encouraged to go see, which was really neat. Several of us bought artwork. Ben had said that his sister bought a series of four paintings- the same picture of the Great Wall, but in all the four seasons. They only had one of those, and I wasn’t in love with it, so I didn’t get it. But I didn’t see another grouping like that again…oh well. All of the boys that we were with bough big bomber hats that had the communism star on the front. So as they walked down the street in a group of 8 you could imagine the laughs that they got, and the number of Chinese who wanted to take pictures of them, with them- you would have thought they were celebrities, it was quite comical. Well as we ventured to find our hostel, now that the sun was set, Andy came running out of a restaurant because he saw us walking by. The 4 of them said they walked around the city for 3 hours looking for us- they went to the hostel, called the dean on the ship to get our numbers (but none of us had international phones) and just walked. We asked if they went to the Forbidden City, they said no. So how did the other 3 taxis miraculously make it there…? Haha oh well at least we all found each other. So we dropped our stuff at the hostel, which was called the Far East Youth Hostel. Very friendly staff, pretty clean, the beds were hard (too bad)..all in all decent place. I called T, agreed to meet him at his campus at 8pm, and 5 of us headed down the street to a small place for dinner, which I think may have been the best meal I had in China. One of my friends, Ricki, is part Korean and part Japanese. So she speaks both of those languages, and a lot of the characters are the same, so she is great to have around. She also knows a lot about the culture, so it was great having her advice on what to order, how to use our chopsticks, proper etiquette, etc. We had the best sweet and sour pork I will probably ever have. After that fabulous meal, Lacey and I caught a cab and had the driver take us to T’s campus. He met us at the entrance and it was really neat to see a Chinese campus. I forget the exact name of his school, but I think it is the International Studies University of Beijing. About half of the students there are Chinese and the other half are international. I met one of his friends who was from Texas, and another girl who was from Singapore. They were all pretty intrigued by our travels, but all we wanted to talk about was China!! All in all we had a great night- they showed us where all of the Westerners go, and then where all of the locals go – HUGE price differences. We didn’t stay out too late because Lacey and I had to be up at 8am the next day, so T and Cody brought us back to the hostel and then caught a cab back to their campus. We had decided that if we could get our outgoing flight changed to the following day then it was scheduled for, then we would stay with them another night in Beijing. That didn’t wind up happening, unfortunately, but it was still a great night and fun to see someone else from Ithaca on the other side of the world…who ever would have guessed??

So 8am rolls around, we all get up and dressed and ready in the lobby by 830am for the tour guide to pick us up. As already recounted in the story below about how we found out about Kurt, there was quite a delay and we wound up getting picked up around 930am I think. There was a little shop a few minutes down the street that sold these bread/vegetable sandwiches that were only 1 Yuan each which is about 30 cents and they were such a delicious breakfast. We kept them in business that morning because we all kept going back to get more!!

Our tour guide was Serena and she was a 24 year old girl from northern China who has a degree in international tourism. She was super nice and sweet and had good English, so she seemed like she would be a lot of fun!

Well that morning, filled with the confusion about what happened with Kurt, we rode on the bus for a little while before heading to a pathway where the 12 Sacred Animals were. It was absolutely beautiful because their autumn was just coming to an end, but it was the first glimpse of autumn we had seen yet!! From there we headed to the Emperor’s Palace and spent a good hour or so there seeing the Ming Tombs and palace itself.

We had lunch after that at a little restaurant that was pretty good. Peking duck was fabulous!!!! Maybe my favorite food item of the whole trip?? The tea warmed us up and they ordered all of the food for us which was wonderful because we didn’t have to choose anything!!

After that we all loaded on to the bus for about a 3 hour ride outside of Beijing to the part of the Great Wall that is unrestored and where we would be camping. When we first got there we had to walk very quickly up so that we could see the sunset. We caught the tail end of it, and I think we were all overwhelmed that we were actually at the Great Wall (at least I definitely was). The view was unlike any view I ever knew existed. It seemed like the Wall never ended, it just went on for miles and miles- we couldn’t see any end. And boy was I glad I bought a hat and gloves earlier in the day because it was getting quite cold. We only spent probably 30 minutes up there before it started to get pretty dark, so we walked back down and got some dinner (even though it felt like we had just eaten lunch). We psyched ourselves up for getting ready to sleep out on the wall and started to bundle up. I put on leggings, shorts and sweatpants…a long sleeve t, sweatshirt, fleece and jacket- along with gloves and a hat, and two pairs of socks and my sneakers. At the bus we each got two sleeping bags and a sleeping mat, and there were enough tents for about half of the people. I opted to sleep out under the stars because I didn’t think the tent would really make that much of a difference. So we set up all of the tents that needed to be pitched on a flat clearing right next to the watch tower. Then we just kind of walked around and went exploring. Mitch and Ricki have really nice cameras so they were experimenting with different night settings on their cameras and got some really amazing pictures. There were a few other SAS groups who were using the same tour agency, but had different guides, and they were all more or less in the same area as us, but we didn’t see them much. I think it was around 1030pm or so that we turned in to our sleeping bags because a) we were freezing and b) we were waking up at 630am for sunrise!! It was Ben, Mitch, Frank, Greg, Lacey and I who slept together a little away from the group and sadly I kept a few of them awake for awhile because I was coughing my life away. I did eventually fall asleep for a few hours before awaking again having to go to the bathroom- the most dreadful feeling ever. But by this time the moon was gone and the sky was absolutely magnificent. It reminded me of the starry sky I saw one of the nights in the Amazon – it was so gorgeous, it just looked like the entire sky was glittered. I debated whether or not it was worth it to get up to go to the bathroom, and eventually I decided to, which led to not being able to warm myself up again once I crawled back into my sleeping bags. But oh well- gotta do what ya gotta do. Well we woke up about 20 minutes before the sun actually rose over the mountains. It gave us a little time to begin wrapping up our sleeping bags before climbing to the top of the watchtower and seeing it come over the ridge, which was beautiful- and finally we began to warm up a little bit!! We took lots of pictures, and explored a little bit just enjoying the sunshine on the Great Wall of China!!! We packed all of our things up and headed down to the bus to put our gear away and grab some breakfast before embarking on our 10K hike that would take a few hours. At breakfast about half of our group had convinced themselves that they didn’t want to do the full hike and would stay on the bus and meet us at the other end of the hike. A few of us spoke up and said how absolutely ridiculous that was – they were at the Great Wall and they were going to sit in a bus instead of hiking for a few hours!? I couldn’t even believe the thought crossed their minds, but I was sure a few of them were going to stay behind. I’m not sure what hit them, but when the time came to get ready to hike, everyone decided to come. Serena had warned us to take off layers- that we were going to be hot, so I took off my fleece, but couldn’t bring myself to shed more layers than that. Well 45 minutes later, I realized I should’ve listened to her. I started off by just taking my sweatshirt off and tying that around my waist…after that came the sweatpants…and then the jacket. So I was literally carrying more layers than I was wearing! I also looked like a mess because I had been too cold to put my contacts in so I just had my glasses on, had been wearing a hat the whole day before….but we were all in the same boat so it was all good! I’m just glad that I had my good sneakers and not my casual ones because it was quite the hike. The part of the wall that we were on was more than 500 years old. There has been no reconstruction or renovation of any sort, and some parts were definitely quite treacherous. For the first hour or so, there were all of these people who kind of latched on to you and wanted you to buy their souvenirs. They also tried to tell us some history about the wall and explained to us that we were actually in Mongolia for a little while, which we didn’t even know!! But eventually they left us and we were free to hike on our own! It was quite tiring, especially with the lack of exercise that we get while we are on the ship! It total it was about a 3 ½ hour hike, up and down stairs the entire time! I fell once, just wasn’t paying attention to my footing, but no injuries- not to worry! I knew my knee would we incredibly sore the next day, but that’s not what was I concerned about at the moment! We had the perfect weather for the hike- it was sunny out but not too warm. It was chilly, but not too cold. We just happened to have too many layers with us when we started. It was probably one of my favorite days of this entire journey. It was so refreshing to be out in the open, on the Great Wall of China!! After I had seen Kate’s photos (friend from home who was studying in Xi’an last semester) of the Great Wall, I knew it was somewhere that I knew I had to visit. Never would I have imagined it to be only a few months later. It was just a great day, and I hiked with different people over a few hours which was nice because a few girls on the trip I didn’t know that well, so we really had a great time chatting and telling stories. It was just a really special day that I will never, ever forget. At the end of the hike, there were two guys from the States who were just walking and when they heard us speaking English they asked where we were from and we started explaining Semester at Sea and everything and we were with them for probably the last 30 minutes or so – a decent amount of time to touch on where we had been and what we had done. It was amazing to try and recap everything into a short conversation, and actually impossible. The highlights, sure that’s possible, but to explain everything is overwhelming. That’s when I realized I am so glad that I wrote my journals because there is so much that I would forget, even that I have forgotten from only two months ago.

Once we made it to the end, over a cable bridge, there was the option to take a zip line down, but Erica and I took our sweet time buying t-shirts and missed the opportunity by the time we got down there- oh well! So we hiked down with the other half of the group and let’s just say when we had the chance to sit down for lunch, we all just wanted to crash. Everyone was glad they did it though and as tired as we were, I think we were all on a high from the hike. It was a quick lunch, I think we were still in shock that not only did we hike for 6 miles…but that it was up and down stairs…and that it was in China on the GREAT WALL!! Let’s just say that as soon as we loaded the bus, we all passed out for a few hours. By chance, I woke up for the sunset, which was beautiful, then went right back to sleep. We were running a little late due to some traffic, so our stop at the Bird’s Nest and Swimming Cube were short and sweet, but at least we got to see them. It was crazy seeing that all in person, what I watched on TV every night this past summer during the Olympics, and we pulled up just as the buildings were lighting up, so that was really neat to see.

As we pulled into the airport, Lacey and I decided against changing our flight and staying for another night. By this time I was pretty sick – I could not control my cough and all I wanted to do was get some medicine and crawl into bed for a day or two to get better. I’m not even sure how it happened, but we were able to find a hostel for all 19 of us (we were almost positive we would have to split up). They had two available rooms with 10 beds in each. Perfect- a boys room and a girls room, we couldn’t have asked for better. I literally laid down as soon as we walked into the room and fell asleep immediately. Everyone else went down to the restaurant/bar that was on the first floor in the hostel, but I had absolutely zero desire. We woke up for breakfast in the morning (banana and pears in this milky oat mixture…very tasty) and we were planning to head to the ship which was supposed to get into port at 8am meaning it would probably get cleared by immigration by 930 or 10am. Well just before we were getting ready to head out, our friends Chad, Peter, Michele and Meg (who we had seen the day before on the Wall) walked into the lobby with a girl from China who was trying to help them find a place to put their packs for the day. We started talking with them, and earlier we had tossed around the idea of a Chinese Acrobat show, a highly recommended sight in any of the large cities. The girl who was with them, Lisa, said she could help us get the tickets and would call her friend if we wanted more details. We said sure, so she was able to tell us that for 12 of us the tickets would be about $32USD each. We thought it would be worth it and she offered to buy the tickets for us and then meet up with us later in the afternoon so we pick them up. We thought that it would be strange for someone young to put up that much money and just trust that we would show up later to pay and pick up the tickets. But we talked with her for awhile and she seemed genuine and has traveled extensively herself and realizes how helpful it is when people offer to do such things to make it easier. So we decided to meet her back at the hostel at 4pm to pick up the tickets! Now we just had 5 hours to spend in Shanghai. The group split…naturally into boys and girls. The boys wanted to go on a river cruise and the girls wanted to go shopping. I was in no mood to do either since I was feeling awful, so Britni, Lacey and I just decided to walk toward the port (it was far…from where we were either a cab or subway ride away) since we just wanted to kind of take it easy. So we walked and walked and walked, with our packs, until we thought we were somewhat in the right area. We took a seat around noon to get some lunch, which was an adventure in itself. Basically we just pointed to pictures in the menu without knowing what we were ordering, but it was OK. The fried rice was really good, and if the sweet and sour pork didn’t have bones it would have been REALLY good, but it did the trick. We were really looking for some American food, since we had eaten Chinese food every meal for the last 3 days…but were unsuccessful. So we made our way to the ship around 130 because we knew the line would start to get long with everyone coming back from Beijing. We sat there for awhile before Frank and Jared (my neighbors who were also on the trip with us) came up and then we played Asian hacky sack for about 30 minutes (it is very different from the US- weird I know..) and finally the ship was cleared around 315pm. All we wanted to do was shower (it had been a few days) but we had to go meet Lisa at the hostel. So Ben, Lacey and I sucked it up and collected everyone’s money and went to go meet her. Low and behold she was there, with all of the tickets. Through all of our heads we were of course wondering whether or not they were actually legitimate tickets, but we were pretty confident in the exchange. She was just so nice and seemed so happy that she could help us out, and really, she was a huge help. We would have had no idea where to go or how to go about it without having internet resources or anything. She was a real sweetheart and we were very grateful for her helpfulness and kindness. So we got back to the ship and had to wait in a massively long line, some of the group went to eat since they had the time to shower and such, but we all just showered and caught a quick bite to eat on the ship then headed to the show. Our tickets were legit and we were about 7^th or 8^th row which was fantastic. The show was AWESOME! There were 12 different acts, everything from balancing acts to bicycle tricks to hula hooping and juggling. Then the final act was the ball of death, where ultimately 5 motorcycling were looping around in this huge metal cage- it was really nerve wracking to watch, and really awesome! We were so glad that we went, the show was about an hour and a half long and totally worth the 30 bucks! We had heard that there was a Coldstone Creamery in Shanghai, but we didn’t have the energy to try and find where it was (hardly anyone spoke English) so we settled for McDonald’s. I got a McFlurry (second one of the trip) and fries and was completely satisfied. It is funny how many times I have been to McDonald’s once I broke the ice and went one time, I just keep going back because it is so convenient and easy and cheap! Some people went out to a sports bar to watch some football, but most of us just went back to the ship to catch up on sleep.

The next morning after breakfast Lacey, Erica, Steph and I decided just to walk around a little bit. All we really wanted to get accomplished was some shopping at a market (we wanted to get Beijing 08 apparel since we didn’t have the chance to in Beijing) and to get Pizza Hut- we all had a craving. Well about 10 minutes into our walk, a group of friends asked if we could take a picture of them in front of a monument. Then they asked us to get in the picture with them. There were four of them and four of us, and they were all extremely excited to talk to us. So we kind of paired off and were talking for awhile, probably about 20 minutes. They all had surprisingly good English and said that they were students and were traveling in Shanghai for holiday. Most Chinese people have their Chinese names, then a western “nickname” that they introduce themselves as. So our friends were named Sherri, Alfred, Jasmine and Corinna. I talked to Alfred about everything from Obama and where I had been traveling to table tennis and what kind of computer I used. They were really friendly and talkative; it seemed as if they wanted to practice their English with us. Eventually they invited us to a tea ceremony that they were going to a few blocks away. They had never been before, and it is a very traditional ceremony in China. So we decided to go and it was lovely. We chose four different teas and each got to have a small cup of each one. There was one made of ginseng, one of jasmine, one called 8 medicines and another that I cannot recall. I personally liked the medicinal one the best, perhaps because I was feeling under the weather. But it was very interesting and we were taught how to properly hold the cup and a lot of the history behind Chinese tea. It lasted a little over an hour long and was a really cool thing to get to do that, we would have never found on our own. They were interested in talking about cultural differences between Americans and Chinese- from marriages to clothing to music and so forth. It was neat to get their perspectives on a lot of issues and topics that we had been wondering about ourselves. After the ceremony we walked with them a few blocks to People’s Square and saw a Pizza Hut, so we had to decide to split from them. I feel like they were offended that we wanted to eat Pizza Hut instead of Chinese food, but we tried to explain to them that we had been eating only Chinese food for the past 4 days and just had a little craving that we had to satisfy. So we said our goodbyes, exchanged email addresses, and made it to Pizza Hut, where to say it nicely we vegged out. We were pretty hungry and didn’t hold back at all- it was delicious. From there we stopped at a department store called Metersbonwe that they had suggested to us as a cheap, local store. It was huge and we each bought a few things- and I found my token Asian sweatshirt that I had been thinking about since the beginning of the voyage. By this time it was already time to get back to the ship! All around People’s Square there are these guys who have little pamphlets of knockoff shoes, purses, wallets, you name it and they try to get you to come to “their store”. Erica and Steph did it the day before and basically they take you to a store that is tiny and remote and through an apartment building and up a tiny, narrow set of stairs. We had no desire. We didn’t make it to the market, but I think the tea ceremony wins any day over that anyway since we have been to more than our fair share of markets and discount shopping. For the next two days on the ship I literally slept the entire time. I NEEDED to get better before traveling through Japan and I knew sleep would be the most effective remedy. Luckily it worked out because upon arrival in Kobe I felt a whole lot better and ready to take on a full travel schedule for 5 days. It is so bizarre having only 2 or 3 days between each country because as soon as we get on the ship we barely have time to unpack and repack and get all of our plans together. I’m finishing this now as we are about to leave Japan, but I can say that as the leader of our group, I was a little nervous when the night before our arrival in Kobe we had no place to stay and no idea about the train schedules or anything. But we did know that Japan is a very safe country and rather easy to navigate, so I wasn’t too worried. And I can happily say that it all worked out and we had an AWESOME time. But as a wrap up for China- I LOVED IT. My only regret is not going to the Silk Market in Beijing, but oh well, we can’t do it all. The food was great (nothing like American Chinese food) and the Great Wall was a sight like none that I have ever seen before. It was a lot of traveling through China, but it was totally worth staying off of the ship between the two ports and traveling independently.

REST IN PEACE KURT LESWING

2008-11-11T05:43:00.000-08:00

It is with tears that I write this email. A fellow classmate was killed in a car accident while we were in Hong Kong. This is how I received the news:

It was about 9am on November 8th, and a group of 19 of us were sitting in the lobby of the Far East Youth Hostel in Beijing where we had stayed the night before. We were waiting for our tour guide to pick us up to take us to the Great Wall. Our guide called us at 830 saying they were running a little late and would be there within the half hour. Then we received another phone call from the tour agency saying that someone named Shalina Akins had called them trying to get a hold of a student named Vince, who they thought was in our group. Ben was on the phone with them, and all of the information he was told was Call Shalina at this number she wants to talk to you because one of the people on your ship died. That was the only thing we had. Immediately the two people who did have cell phones who we were traveling with tried contacting the ship. It is difficult because we only have contact information for when the ship is in port, and by this point it had already left Hong Kong and was en route to Shanghai. I bought a calling card and Ben and I tried about 5 phones, 5 different hotel lines, none of which were going through. We were able to get a hold of the tour guide and have him call the number, but that wasn't working either. Basically, we tried for about an hour, until the guide finally arrived , and were unsuccessful. Once on the bus that they picked us up in, all Serena (our guide) could tell us was that one of her friends who is a guide for the same agency called and told her that there were girls on her trip crying because of someone who died on our ship. She said she thought it was a girl, but didn't have any information. We finally found out around 1pm from a text message that Lauren, a girl in our group, got from her mom telling her that his name was Kurt Leswing and he was hit by a drunk driver the night our ship was in Hong Kong. At this point, I still could not put a face with a name. While we were in Beijing we ran into a few other SAS groups- either independent or sponsored trips, and all of the information was vague, rather unknown. We later ran into Kurt's roommate, Vince, who I know from the Sea Olympics committee. We saw them drinking and knew immediately that it would be a rough night for them. I'll write later about my China trip, which was nothing short of amazing despite this awful cold and cough that I am fighting. But to get to the details, everyone got back to the ship today, and at 8pm tonight they had an informal gathering to formally address the entire shipboard community of the happenings. The information is still vague...still eerily unknown. This is what they do know:

He was out with friends and was last seen at 1230am at a bar called the Happy Valley Sports Bar, which was about 6K from the ship. From then, his whereabouts are unknown. He apparently got in some sort of altercation with a taxi cab driver and a cop around 2am. It was nothing big, sounds as if they were just arguing over the cab fare, and a cop just walked over to make sure everything was OK. It was around 3am that the accident was reported. Kurt was hailing a cab and was in the street. A cab driver had swerved to avoid hitting Kurt, but the car following the cab did not see him and struck him. He was unconscious when someone approached him only seconds later and never regained consciousness. The driver was found to be intoxicated and the investigation is still underway with the Hong Kong police. The accident happened 3K from the ship. So seemingly he had been alone for about 2 and a half hours that night, and the only form of ID that was found on him was a credit card. It was not until later that morning around 530am when immigration officials were aboard our ship processing passports that our administration was told the news. As soon as Kurt's passport surfaced, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. The official recognized the name and requested that our Dean of Students and our Head of Security go to the mortuary to identify the body. It was a few hours later when the ship began contacting those traveling throughout China as well as those that were aboard the ship, and news travels pretty fast, even through a huge country.

It was all so surreal, and it was the moment I stepped on the ship yesterday afternoon around 3pm that it really hit me. His picture was posted in Tymitz Square (where we board the ship) along with the letter that was sent to his parents and a biography of Kurt. I was finally able to connect the name and the face. Someone who I had never spoken to, yet knew exactly who he was. Every face is now a familiar face on this ship, it is only so big - there are only 700 of us who live, eat, sleep, study, travel all in a very small area. We are now a family, and this is a tragedy for all of us. I cannot imagine what his family is going through- his family in Milwaukee and his twin brother who was studying in New Zealand this semester. But our thoughts are with them, and we have the chance to send pictures, cards, thoughts, anything to his family from the ship. A commemorative service will also be held after we depart Yokohama, Japan in about a week to remember Kurt. It is hard to stomach, this whole situation, and I feel so much for his close friends on the ship. It is almost unbelievable the connections that we have made with people on this voyage so far. We have only been on here for 2 and a half months, and I feel like I have known some of my friends that I met in early September for so much longer than that. This tragedy will only bring us closer and hopefully open our eyes even more to the realities of life.

Apparently Kurt had been moved by Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu while he was aboard the ship for a short visit while we were in Capetown, South Africa, and he used this quote quite frequently, "Take the anger from your hearts. Wipe the tears from God's eyes. And live a life of love." Rest In Peace Kurt Leswing November 7, 2008.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM

2008-11-11T05:05:00.000-08:00

This post may or may not turn into a compilation of emotions that I felt while traveling through Vietnam. We have been told since the beginning, that there will be one port that opens your eyes – that changes your perspective on things – that leaves you as a different person when you leave that country. Well, for me, it happened in Vietnam. To my parents, brother and Nate, who were the only people I had the chance to briefly talk to before having to run through the port to catch the ship, it probably didn’t sound like that because I had been going going going for 5 days and truth be told, the reality of what I saw and what I experienced didn’t set in until this morning, after watching the live broadcast of the 2008 Presidential Election. And it actually started two nights before we got there, when we were shown a documentary called Bomb Hunters, which was directed by the husband of faculty member on the ship. It was the story of the people of Cambodia, and how the Vietnam War affected their current day lives. It showed us the brutal living conditions in present day Cambodia caused directly by the bombs that the American Government dropped. I had NO idea that there were even bombs dropped in Cambodia, and that the Cambodians go bomb hunting now to sell the metal as their only source of income, and extremely dangerous task. And once I started to think about it, I knew very little about the Vietnam War in general. Why? Because we were never taught about it in history classes. It was not a war that we won, so it is not a war that is talked about. I knew it was a controversial war, a highly unsupported war by the American people, but I didn’t know why. I had no idea why or how we got involved in Vietnam, so the 3 days of classes between Malaysia and Vietnam really opened my eyes. I heard facts and information that I had never thought about before, like we dropped 4 times as many bombs in Vietnam than we did in Europe during WWII. I had no idea over 4 million people were killed in this war, and the roles that the French, Japanese and Chinese held during the conflict. I had heard that the Vietnamese people are some of the most friendly to Americans in the world, and I thought, how is this possible? If we bombed the shit out of them only a few decades ago. Kesho, my radical, passionate sociology professor told us this the day before we pulled into port, “The Vietnamese know there is a huge difference between the American people and the American Government.” This, I came to find out, was eerily accurate. And here is what I did in Vietnam for 5 days…
        Our ship got cleared around 12 noon (Oct 30…and might I add that the night before we had a “Halloween Party” on the 7th deck…we were the Spice Girls – original I know. I was Ginger Spice and we had few resources to work with, but lots of people were very creative!), 3 hours later than expected due to the tides of the river and the incapability of making it upstream faster. We had originally planned on going to the Cu Chi Tunnels that day, but needed to change plans because there wouldn’t be enough time. So Steph, Erica, Lacey & I took the shuttle to downtown Ho Chi Minh City (about 10 minutes from port) and found a tailor so that we could get custom made dresses. It was a little difficult with the language barrier, but we went to a place that former SASers had recommended. After describing the designs of the dresses we were looking for, they then sent us to Ben Than Market with the needed measurements and types of fabric that we needed. I found a beautiful silk print that is blue, yellow and pink- very loud and bright and fun that I loved. So I brought that back to the tailor and they took all of my measurements and said it would be finished on Nov 3rd! We grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby café and continued to shop in the market all of the afternoon. This place is huge, packed and cheap- a shopping paradise, basically. They except US dollars as well as Vietnam Dong, and have everything from TShirts, to jewelry to artwork to fabric to fresh flowers to china sets – all of different quality, and all negotiable. I don’t even remember all that I bought that night, but it was fun, despite the fact that we are all so over bargaining. It was exciting in the first 3 or 4 countries- now it is just annoying and stressful. We came back to the ship to shower and get ready then met Peter, Stacey and Jack to go out to dinner. Peter and Stacey are both vegetarian, so it was a little difficult finding a suitable restaurant, but we finally found one that was very nice and had delicious food. It was only the beginning of what seemed to be hundreds of spring rolls and pho (noodles) over the next 4 days. After dinner we went two doors down to a German bar that some of our friends were at, and the bartender was a really sweet Vietnamese girl who spoke decent English and was so friendly and helpful showing us a map and explaining where we were and how to get to where we needed to get to- she was lovely. So we walked a few blocks to a club called Apocalypse Now. Ironic, huh? That proved to be a fun place that was of course swamped with SAS but had good music and dancing and caused me to stay out too late as usual.
        Dani and I both had to wake up at 430am to get to the airport, so it was kind of a hectic, frazzled morning for the both of us- we were both headed to Hanoi (the capital) but she was going with SAS and I was traveling independently with 5 other friends. The 6 of us were able to catch a cab and get to the airport, luckily, with enough time to spare because there were problems with my reservation and long story short I wound up having to buy a new one-way ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and had to pay cash – luckily I had $100 USD on me, but they were all single dollar bills, so that was comical because I had to pay $87 and Peter has pictures of me behind AirAsia desk looking up my reservation because they didn’t speak any English. That was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do so I just had to deal. The airport was MUCH smaller than we anticipated, but our flight left on time so that was nice. I naturally conked out as soon as I sat down on the plane, and woke up when we landed….and Eric told me the news that we did not land in Hanoi, but he did not know why. Eventually we figured out that the runway in Hanoi was flooded, so we were circling for awhile, but then had to land because we were running out of fuel. Luckily a very nice man who spoke good English came up to help us because he could tell that we were distraught (this is now at a tiny airport that only has 4 outgoing flights a day that all of Hanoi’s flights were being diverted to). We basically figured out that we were only 70km from HaLong Bay, which is where we were planning on driving to from Hanoi the next day anyway. They said it should take only about an hour and a half, compared to a 3 and a half hour drive from Hanoi, so we did not get back on the plane, found a driver, and went to HaLong Bay! It was a little overcast, but not raining, so we were able to charter a boat for the 6 of us and go spend the day on HaLong Bay, which is one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. Nothing can describe it, not even the pictures, but it was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking and magnificent all at the same time. The rock formations are certainly wondrous. We went into a few beautiful natural limestone caves and got to hike through the dense forests surrounding the bay. We also had a delicious feast of fish, shrimp, squid, rice and vegetables on the boat, and then went out for an hour long kayaking adventure, where we could go through small caves and navigate through narrow canals. It rained a little bit, but was quite refreshing. After that I took a brief powernap on the boat because I was dead tired, and we were only out for another few hours before heading back to where we started! After negotiating some prices, we were able to hire a driver to go back to Hanoi. This was at about 5pm, so we planned on arriving around 9pm. Well, about 2 hours into the drive, we hit torrential downpours. And talk about a language barrier, our driver spoke NO English. He did have a friend who spoke broken English who he would call every once in awhile and have Peter talk to her, but even that was a hassle and difficult. I don’t even know how to recount the last 4 hours of our ride, but basically the rain was SO hard and SO steady that the streets were flooded to the point where people were walking around in water up to their wastes. Cars were abandoned, people riding their motorbikes were struggling to walk them through the puddles, buses were breaking down left and ride, and we would sit in one spot for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. At one point our driver wanted us to get out and start walking, but we refused because we had no idea where we were or where we were going. Long story short, we eventually made it into downtown Hanoi in the Old Quarter. He didn’t know exactly where our hotel was, so we just got off at the Hilton, assuming they could point us in the right direction since we knew we were close. It was about midnight at this point, so we obviously paid the driver much more than we agreed upon and after another short cab ride finally made it to the Hotel Gecko, which was a lovely place tucked away in an alley. We crashed HARD that night, I was asleep in seconds from laying down, and the morning rolled around way to quickly. Breakfast was included, so we headed downstairs and talked to the manager (a 25 year old girl from Australia who just started working there 3 weeks ago) and she gave us some good pointers, where to go, what to do, what to eat, etc. So we set out in the heavy rain around 930am with quite an ambitious itinerary. Our hotel was right near Ho Kiem Lake, a beautiful location, despite the fact that the lake was flooded – but we were able to see several of the pagodas and temples around the lake, and the Martyr Monument. We walked to the Opera House (which was closed unfortunately) and St. Joseph’s Cathedral and then caught lunch at a nice café. Then we made our way to the Revolutionary Museum- which took about 2 hours to go through. It was quite an eye opener seeing the perspectives of war from the Vietnamese instead of the Americans. It was more than a history lesson could ever teach me, seeing everything from newspaper articles to bombs that were dropped to all different types of flags. The museum was broken down into sections. The first was the struggle for independence for almost one hundred years, the second was the Resistance War (known to us as the Vietnam War) and then the end was their steps to building a unified nation. I am not a museum person, and I loved this one because I learned so much that I feel like I should have known, but was never taught. It was absolutely horrifying to see images and read facts about what the American Government did to millions of innocent civilians in a war that to me seemed pointless. I think after that museum we all felt extremely moved and definitely effected by what we saw and learned in only 2 hours.
        From there we tried to get to the Hoa Lo Prison, where American pilots were held captive by the French Colonizers (which I will explain later) but it was just about to close when we got there, so we would have to go the next day, which was fine because we were pretty drained from sightseeing all day. So we lightened the mood a little bit by shopping! What else?! We just walked around some markets and bought a few things…before heading to a cute pizza place for dinner which was nice because I can’t remember the last time I ate pizza. From there we went to the night market, where we bought so much in the first hour that we had to go back to the hotel to drop everything off before continuing. Stacey and I went back to the market after dropping off our goods and Sam & Peter went to get massages. Once Stacey and I finally said no more, we found a cute balcony restaurant because we were in the mood for dessert. Once Stacey saw Vegetarian Spring Rolls on the menu, she immediately had to get them, then we saw they had a whole vegetarian menu, which was really exciting because it was the first place we had seen that! So I had some great ice cream while she had spring rolls before heading back to the hotel around 1230am – the boys were already asleep from their massages, haha. The next day, we had even more to do, so we were up and out by about 830 to go to the “backpack capital of the world” as we called it. I kid you not when I say there were hundreds and hundreds of knockoff North Face backpacks for as far as we could see. I’m also not kidding that about 2 hours later…between the 4 of us we bought 21 North Face bags. RIDICULOUS, we are aware, but it was so worth it. Stacey got 9 for less than $100 USD. Some are better quality than others, some are fake and some are real, it can be hard to tell. But they are manufactured in Vietnam, so regardless, they were dirt cheap. I bought a new pack for myself which I have been looking forward to all trip because the buckles on mine are all cracked and there are holes in it – I mean, I have had it since about 7th grade, so it was time. Around the corner from Backpack World was Shoe World, where I bought a pair of really fun black & pink sneakers for dirt cheap. Of course, at this point we had to go back to the hotel to drop everything off. From there we hired a driver for the day and had him take us to whatever other sights we wanted to see, because there was a lot to do. We started off by heading to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. His body was in Russia, so it was not open and we could not go in the tomb, but we were able to see the Changing of the Guards which was pretty neat, and also see his House, as well as the Museum. The Presidential Palace was also right there, we didn’t go in but the grounds were absolutely beautiful. From there we headed back to the Prison which was again quite the eye opening sight. It was a French fun prison where hundreds of Vietnamese were held captive, and later where many American pilots were kept for quite awhile, including Senator John McCain. The prison was considered Hanoi Hilton by the Vietnamese because they claimed that the American soldiers had it so easy that it was barely a prison. There were pictures of the pilots playing volleyball, watching movies, cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and playing instruments. It was interesting to see it from their perspective, once again. Who knows what it was really like? McCain I suppose.
        After the prison we went to the Museum of Ethnology which was interesting to see all of the indigenous tribes of Vietnam and learn about all of the different ethnic groups that make up the country. By this point we were pretty much burned out of museums and the such, but it was still a fun museum with lots of visuals which was good because I was over reading. We headed back to the hotel to take a quick nap before showering and getting ready for dinner (we went back to the same place Stacey and I went the day before) and got a FEAST since it was our last night in Hanoi. Then we headed to the Water Puppet Show, which is quite the interesting form of entertainment in Vietnam. They are hugely popular, and sell out every night, usually a day or two in advance. Basically, it is a pool of water with a curtain that puppeteers stand behind waste high in water and maneuver the puppets out of our view all around the pool of water. There is also a live band a singers that play on the side of the stage. There is no way to describe it without showing pictures and videos to you all – it is just a very bizarre theater arts that I am so glad we went to see because it is such a cultural staple in Vietnam. Stacey and Sam went to do more shopping after that while Claire, Eric, Peter & myself went to get foot massages which were amazing. I had never had one before, and it was glorious, and they served us hot tea! A 30 min foot massage for $4USD…who would pass that up?? After that we were exhausted and ready for bed! We woke up around 530 to catch a cab for our 8am flight back to Ho Chi Minh City. I had bought a Lonely Planet Japan guide book so I stayed up the whole flight reading about what I was going to do in Japan and transportation, etc. I think it was the first flight ever that I did not fall asleep during, which was pretty notable…and also which made my pretty tired for the last day in Vietnam!! So right when we landed in Ho Chi Minh we decided last minute that we would have time to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels if we did it quickly. So we found a driver, and drove about an hour and a half to the tunnels. THIS was an eye opening experience. I will be honest when I say that I didn’t know much about the tunnels at all, I even think part of me thought that the Americans lived in the tunnels. Well, how wrong I was. We saw a video at the very beginning of the tour which was in our eyes, ridiculous. It just seemed like such propaganda against the Americans, talking about the people of the Cu Chi region who were reigned as heroes when they shot down the “American devils”. But it was truly impressive the 250km of tunnels that they constructed. All of the ones that we went through (except for one) were enlarged by 40% so that tourists could walk through them, and that is NOT comfortably. We were all hunched over, our backs were touching the top of the openings. There was one that we did go through that was 70 meters long, that honestly was quite frightening. Stacey legitimately had a panic attack because it was so dark and so claustrophobic. We were literally crouched down on the ground and all sides of our bodies were touching the walls and ceiling and it was extremely difficult to walk through. I could not imagine how this is the way the people of the Cu Chi region lived during the whole war with the Americans, and how they won from living in those conditions. We felt bad because we kind of had to rush through the rest of the tour because we needed to get back to Ho Chi Minh, but we were SO glad that we went there to see the dense jungle that so many soldiers lost their lives in and where we fought in a war for so long- it was really the first time I had been to a place where I knew so many thousands of American soldiers died from war. Never would I have imagined…
        The two hour ride back to Ho Chi Minh got us to the ship around 4pm, and on ship time was 9pm. We all had certain things that we had to do, including going back to Ben Thanh market for several different things, and then going to the tailor to pick up our dresses/suits. I got to the tailor around 630pm, which turned out to be an hour long mess. The dress was beautiful and fit really well, except for this little bubble that was right in the middle of the dress. Basically, they sent me across the street to the third floor of this apartment building, where about 15 tiny Vietnamese women and girls were sewing there little hearts out, and it was craziness up there for 45 minutes. First they tried to iron it out, but that was not going to work, so they had me in the dress, out of the dress, drawing with chalk, stitching while it was on me, ironing more, stitching more, taking stitches out…basically mayhem. And none of them spoke English- and I just wanted to leave for 2 minutes to get my bag since Stacey was still at the tailor with it, so that they could go do what they needed, but they never let me. So after 45 minutes I told them I needed to leave and just kind of took the dress and left- and I didn’t actually try it on the final time, but that is OK I can get it fixed at home if it still needs more. By then it was about 745pm and we had to get back to the ship because there is typically a lot of students getting on the last hour, so a long line is possible. So we rode on motorbikes back to the port. Somehow Steph and I both got on to one, but she got the helmet and I didn’t…and I had bags of stuff- it was quite interesting – then I burned myself on the exhaust pipe when I got off but it was OK. I saw a pay phone across the street which I had a calling card that I had bought in Hanoi….but of course like all other public phones in Vietnam it was broken. Luckily there was a nice man who saw how much distress I was in and let me pay him $2USD to use his phone, so I was able to talk to my parents for a few minutes, then Darren for a few minutes which was SO nice. I was on the phone with Nate when I saw an SAS shuttle bus come in, which usually means that there are a LOT of people on it, which a LOT of stuff, and there was no way I was getting stuck behind them on the gangway, so I hung up and then RAN to the gangway, and luckily beat them by only a few minutes, and had 40 minutes to write 10 postcards. So I apologize to those who are getting postcards from Vietnam and they are so messy and frazzled, but I was on quite the time constraint! So that was my Vietnam experience, and it didn’t settle in until the next night when we had a panel of faculty members on the ship who told personal accounts of their lives during the time of the War and how little I knew…how my family had been affected and the entire country. It was an emotional night to say the least of stories being told and the highest of feelings coming out to the whole shipboard community. I am too tired to write about the election right now, but perhaps if I have time in the morning, I will write more about that. Let’s just say, almost everyone on the ship has Obama Fever, and no one went to class this morning because we were all crammed into the Union watching the live coverage that we were able to get. Many tears were shed and it is surreal not being anywhere near the United States for this day that will forever be remembered in American history.

MONSOON MALAYSIA!!!

2008-11-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

So I’d say that so far Malaysia was definitely the most relaxing point up to this point. I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Practicum) on the first day and a service visit on the last day. I had thought about going to Kuala Lampur for two nights, but decided against it because with the hectic plans that I had coming up in Vietnam, China &Japan, and after the intensity of India, I wanted to just relax and take it easy while in Malaysia, which turned out to be a FABULOUS plan. Well what a surprise, it was raining when we pulled into port!! At this point we have still not pulled into port on a nice morning. The port in Penang is not very big, and our ship could not dock there. This meant we had to take tenders to and from the ship to get to shore, which yes was an experience, but also a hassle. They left from the ship on the hour every hour and left from the shore on the half hour every hour, and each tender fit 100 passengers. Usually we are used to coming on and off the ship at our will while docked, but in Penang we would pretty much take whatever we needed for the day and just stay out because it was such a hassle. So on the first day I had an FDP called Ethnic Communities in Malaysia for my Sociology class. Well let’s just say that we sat on a bus for about 3 hours and learned NOTHING about the ethnic groups within Malaysia –it was a waste of time and money, and the students as well as the professors were absolutely disgusted with the trip itself. Luckily some of my friends were on it, so at least it was bearable, but still annoying. Once that was over and done with, Ben, Mitch and I decided to go to the Chocolate Boutique (I know, right up my alley) because apparently they had lots of free sampling. So it was a nice little place, and apparently the chocolate was phenomenal! From there, the boys were DYING for American food, so we headed to Gulley Plaza which is a pretty nice mall and after shopping and browsing around for a bit, decided to grab dinner where else but CHILIS! It was happy hour so we had beers and bottomless chips and I must admit it was pretty nice to have Chili’s appetizers and fries and all that good stuff. After that extended meal we headed to the night market, which was probably about a mile long with cheap, cheap shopping. We did a walk one way to see what there was, then bought things on the way back! I didn’t buy too much –just some trinkets and decoration type things, but they had everything from knockoff Prada and Louis Vitton purses to Lacoste polos and Rolex watches –quite the variety. Ben &Mitch bought ridiculous silk robes with dragons on them, and my big purchase was Season One of Grey’s Anatomy…I wanted to buy just one season to make sure that it worked on my computer. Each disc (CD or DVD) cost 4 Ringetts which is about $1.15 USD. We were able to catch the 11:30pm tender back to the ship to settle down and watch some Grey’s and it worked!!!

The next morning I caught the 7am tender with Chad and Peter (two guys who live a few doors down….Chad is a ski racer from Oregon, and Peter is a boarder from Utah –obviously we all get along well) to go to an island north of Penang called Langkawi. The ferry ride was about 2.5 hours and we just slept the whole time since it was early. The weather was a little overcast when we got there, but still hot and nice out. We were able to find a decently cheap hotel right on the beach and ran into two SAS girls who had also just gotten there- we grabbed some lunch then just laid out all afternoon which was so relaxing and something I had not done all voyage! We showered and got some pizza on the way to a hotel where we were meeting Steph and Lacey who had taken a flight from Penang and landed around 830pm. After they dropped their packs off at our hotel, we went out for the night and met some friends at a bar that turned out to be WAY too packed with other SAS kids for our liking, so we went to a different club in a hotel called Enigma, which was quite an interesting place. There was a good mix of Malays and Americans and Europeans –and there was a live band playing the most interesting variations of anything from Nelly Furtado to ACDC to Jason Mraz to Black Eyed Peas. They were quite entertaining to say the least. So that was a fun night and a late one at that. The next morning we got breakfast at a cute restaurant right at the beach that we had walked by the day before –and then the skies OPENED UP. It had rained a few times the day before, but only for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Well this lasted for about an hour…so we went to an internet café to kill some time, before realizing that it wasn’t letting up any time soon. Our plan was to go to Seven Wells, which is a system of waterfalls and watering holes with natural waterslides. Also, there is a cable car that goes to the top of a mountain which is supposed to have an incredible view. Well the man at the internet café said that it wasn’t storming up there, so we gave it a go. Big surprise, it was raining even harder there –not really a surprise since it is the heart of monsoon season right now. So we thought about it for about 3 minutes, then just decided to go for it. It was warm out, so we weren’t cold, just WET. So we started hiking up to the waterfall, which probably took about a half hour. Once we got there it was beautiful and overwhelming, but people had already gotten out of the water because it was getting too rough from all of the rain. After hanging out for about 10 minutes, two staff members from the ship (one LLC and one of the counselors) were on the other side of the watering hole, which was now quite a dangerous, fast-flowing body of water. Well, there was no really safe way to cross, and it was so loud from the rain and the flowing water that we could barely even yell to them. They had crossed earlier in the day and been hiking on that side of the falls for a few hours, and when they had crossed the water was only up to their ankles –now it was up to their wastes. Luckily they had found a length of rope and were able to tie that to a tree, but even then, the water was flowing to quickly to cross. Eventually they were able to find a break the water that was only up to their knees a little while upstream and they were able to cross. Another man was not so fortunate, and as we were hiking down the fire company had just gotten there and they were going up to rescue him. The monsoon was pretty intense and basically lasted until the next morning. Of course that didn’t stop us from going back to Enigma that night, then to a reggae bar and also eating the most incredible Nan (a type of bread) at the 24 hour food court right next to our hotel. The next morning, after breakfast the weather actually cleared up which was LOVELY. And by chance we ran into Steph’s roommate Erica! One of her best friends is studying in Bangkok for the semester, so she flew to Malaysia to spend time with Erica, so it was great to hang out with her and hear about all of her Thailand adventures. We then caught the 230pm ferry back to Penang, even though we did not want to leave Langkawi. It was basically an island that many Europeans went to for Holiday, and there were a lot of backpackers, so over two days we met some pretty interesting people.

That night back in Penang we caught dinner on the ship before heading back out to the night market because some of my friends hadn’t gone yet. Since Grey’s Anatomy worked, I bought every episode of all the seasons so far as well as a few more DVDs and a handful of CDs, and had a final great meal of Keoy Taw which is a noodle dish with vegetables that is fantastic and I had about 5 times I believe. Luckily we made it back to the pier for the last tender at 1am and finally got a good night’s sleep. In the morning Chad, Peter and I headed to which is a huge temple. Some of it was under construction but it was really beautiful and a magnificent place with a fantastic view of the city of Penang. We were there for about an hour and a half, and then took a cab back to the pier because Chad and I were doing a service visit to the Cheshire Home, which is a facility for people with disabilities. I was under the impression that it was going to be children (I’m not sure why) but the residents were between the ages of 16-45 with a whole range of disabilities –mental and physical. It was a really difficult place to spend a few hours because the disabilities were pretty severe and there was a huge language barrier so it was somewhat difficult to interact with them. Mostly we either colored, played cards, or did some sort of craft with them. My friend Jocelyn and I spent most of the time in the arts and crafts room with some of the residents who made beautiful things- from Christmas ornaments to jewelry to hand woven mats. Several of us purchased many of their goods and even though it cost more, I was so glad I bought things from there instead of the night market because I know the money is going to benefit the residents and because the things were definitely hand crafted. It was never discussed what types of disabilities most of the residents had, but they were all mostly in wheelchairs and the majority seemed to have mental disabilities. It was a really rewarding experience because they loved having interaction with others (there are only 18 of them and they live there anywhere from 6 months to 2 years) and playing with things like Play-Doh and koosh balls. We were able to donate a whole box of supplies and toys when we left that they were clearly grateful for and they all loved taking photos with us which was really special. It was a great way to complete my time in Malaysia because the smiles were contagious and unforgettable.

All in all the demographics of Malaysia are pretty interesting. In Penang specifically, I believe the numbers were…they both respected the other religion and it did not interfere with relationships or friendships at all which was very interesting to me because I am used to seeing the differences in ethnicity and race rather than religion.

Overall, Malaysia is a very beautiful country and somewhere that isn’t first on my life of countries to visit again, but definitely I would if I was ever again in Southeast Asia. I feel like it was a great introductory visit into the region because many of the locals and other travelers spoke English and the food was great and the atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming. The days in between Malaysia and Vietnam were a little hectic, because there were only 3 and a half, but now it is rapid fire all through Asia. Starting in Malaysia, in 21 days we only have 7 days of class…so a lot will be happening and my goal is to stay healthy and not get sick between now and the end of Japan!! And maybe get a tan?? Just kidding I’ll worry about that for the 26 days following Japan…

ps I will be posting Vietnam later tonight....I don't want to forget all of that before China so I am writing it tonight!

Photo Update!

2008-11-02T01:40:00.000-07:00

ok so here are some photos...

from the sea olympics, me with Krishnan (my host in India), Steph and I at the service visit at a Dalit Village in India, a shot of Penang, Malaysia at night, and Mitch, Ben, Steph, Erica and I on the MV Explorer!! Hope you enjoy!

I know I'm behind on blog posts...since I haven't gotten Malaysia up yet...but I am in Vietnam right now and I LOVE it and while I have free internet for a little while, I'll post some more photos. Vietnam is crazy- in a nutshell, my last 4 days. Arrive Ho Chi Minh City at noon..go to a tailor to get a dress made (which I have to pick up tomorrow) and explore the markets for awhile...too long probably. Then dropped everything off, showered, got ready, went out to a fabulous Vietnamese restauarant, then to a German pub for a little while, then to a club called Apocalyse Now which was just insane. Slept for about an hour, caught a ride to the airport...had issues at the airport and had to buy a new ticket to Hanoi. The runway in Hanoi was flooded so we landed at some tiny airport that only has 3 outgoing flights a day. After some interesting conversations, figured we were only about an hour and a half from HaLong Bay, so we caught a cab there...rented a riverboat for the day- went kayaking, saw the limestone caves, had lunch, it was beautiful. Then it took about 6 hours to get to Hanoi because there were flash flood warnings - people were literally up to their wastes in water. We didn't think we would make it into the city, but our cab driver was amazing, despite his lack of English and by midnight we made it to our hotel- which by the way is gorgeous and in a great location and the staff is so helpful. Yesterday and today all we have done is a TON of sightseeing and LOTS of shopping. We have to check bags on the way back...that's how much we have bought. I'll obviously write more details...but thats the jist. I can't wait to post photos from Nam because the monsoon that we experienced was like nothing I've ever witnessed!!!

India is OVERWHELMING

2008-10-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

It is impossible to actually explain in words how my India experience was, but as always I will do my best. For the first time we all experienced a HUGE culture shock the first day that we ported in Chennai. Despite it being about 95 degrees with dense humidity, the culture is very conservative, which meant we had to dress accordingly- no shorts/skirts/pants above the knee, no shoulders, chest or back exposed. Also, close toed shoes because the streets are so disgusting. The smell of India is something that I will never forget. We could smell it well before we got into the port, probably a day before- and to be honest the ship still has a bit of a smell going on.
On my first day there I was signed up for a service visit to a Dalit Village School. When I signed up for it back in September, I had no idea what that would entail, but it had been recommended to me. Well, turns out there were 18 of us and we took a bus to a school on the outskirts on Chennai. The bus ride itself was overwhelming.
The level of poverty throughout Chennai is above and beyond anything I could even imagine, let alone drive through. There is trash everywhere, the streets are somewhat paved, most people don’t wear shoes, there are stray animals – dogs, goats, cows – everywhere. Even though the caste system isn’t legally still in effect, socially it is. It is clear that the rich are rich and keep getting richer- and the poor will continue to be poor. Driving through the city was a feat in itself- there aren’t really any driving regulations. You drive on the left side of the road, but even that is very flexible. You see everything on the street from bicycles, to rigshaws, to pretty nice cars, to really crappy cars, to oxen pulling carts with vegetables to packed minibuses. And the beeping is endless. In India, using your horn isn’t a sign of aggression, it is a warning, so when you are coming up behind a bicycle you honk so they know you are there. Plus there are no traffic lights, so you just beep to let people know that you are there. 4 way intersections caused me to see my life flash before my eyes several times as well as a few close calls, but I’ll get to those later. But I am glad my first tour around the city was from the bus because I really saw a lot and took a lot in before doing anything else in the city.
Well when we got to the village, we were welcomed with a whole parade of people- playing music, singing, dancing, wanting to take photos with us and shake our hands – it was overwhelming. A 5 man band led us down the street to the school, where there was a pavilion in the courtyard area with a big poster that said “Work Project – Students of Semester at Sea – University of Virginia, USA – Organized by Human Rights Education Movement of India”. All of the children either ran out of the building to greet us, or just came to the windows of their classrooms and began screaming and cheering. It was really special and immediately we could tell that they had been looking forward to this day for a long time. After welcoming us with music and an introduction to the school, and some of us got henna tattoos by girls who were SO excited to see us, they put us to work! We were to paint the exterior of three of the buildings that all faced the center of the courtyard. I had yellow paint, so after 4 hours I was absolutely covered in paint. They didn’t really care how neat it was, so we were just slopping it on and it was going everywhere! I was painting with Ellen, one of the nurses from the medical team on the ship – and probably every couple minutes or so, one of the children would come up to us and ask us what our names were, and ask us to write our name and phone number down in their notebooks. It was hysterical. For most of them, that was their vast English knowledge. Several of them however were able to talk to us about school and what their favorite subjects were, how old they were, etc. Mayhem really hit when school let out around 3pm or so. Kids just started RUNNING out of the school and wanting to touch us and shake our hands, and they would have us sign their hands, it was crazy. OH and cameras are the most exciting things for them. They would fight each other to have their pictures taken. Once any of us took a camera out of our pocket or our bag we had to fend for our lives, haha. They loved seeing themselves on our cameras – so we have LOTS of pictures of them and with them, which I will eventually post..the stickers were also a huge hit…but we waited until the end to give those out because we knew it would cause chaos!
After painting for about 3 hours (with very frequent interruptions) they had us sit under the pavilion and thank us for all of our hard work and for simply coming to the village because as we could see, it absolutely made the children’s days. They had been looking forward to meeting us for so long, and the smiles on their faces were really all we needed as a Thank You. Basically the school itself is in a Dalit neighborhood, which is the lowest caste system, also known as the untouchables. They aren’t even in the caste system actually, they are below the lowest level. So it was the poorest of the poor people in India, and the work that the Education Movement doing is phenomenal. Every SAS group does service projects through them, but they move around so different children get to meet the students over the years. As we were leaving they were holding our hands and hugging us and kissing our cheeks- they were all so cute and we could have easily stayed there for a few more hours. It was exhausting but an incredibly rewarding experience.
After getting back to the ship and showering a group of 6 of us went out to dinner. We were told that Amethyst was a good Indian restaurant, so we caught a rigshaw – let me explain. It is a little three wheel vehicle powered by a two stroke engine. The driver sits in the front and it is meant to hold up to 3 in the back (4 can squeeze). They are rickety things with a roof, but with no sides except bars to hold on to. Well it was an adventure. It was about a 10 minute ride through crazy traffic and they insisted that we stop at two different stores- which was obvious that they would get a commission on anything that we bought- but we didn’t buy anything. Finally we got there, and low and behold it turned out to be an Italian Restaurant! We were quite disappointed, but we were there so oh well. We had some good pizza so it wasn’t a total loss. After that we walked over to where the movie theater is where there are good dessert places and WOW – we went to a French place called Ecstasy that had wonderful desserts – I had a banana and crème crepe. Delicious. We walked around for a little while, which isn’t exactly the most pleasant thing to do in Chennai, but it is actually the safest I have felt in any of the countries thus far. Not once did I feel in danger – and I was expecting to get stared at, but that wasn’t the case at all. It seemed as if they saw us, and just accepted that we were foreigners. It was only the children that stared. So yeah let’s just say that our shoes were absolutely filthy and I don’t know what know what I was walking through, but once it started pouring we decided to call it a night and head back to the ship. There is no night life in India- it is just not part of their culture. Everything closes around 11pm and there are no bars or liquor stores or anything like that – only in some really nice hotels are there bars, but it is just not really heard of or accepted. So back at the ship- they had the entire carpets covered with plastic so that our shoes wouldn’t ruin everything, and we went to bed early since we were pretty exhausted from being out in the sun all day.
The next morning we left around 1030am for our homestay!! It was set up through the Madras Rotary and SAS has been doing it with them for over ten years. SO we all loaded on to the bus and met the host families. I was staying with Krishnan! He is who Ben had been in touch with because his sister Ally stayed with him three semesters ago and he was hoping to stay with him also, but I was the one who got lucky! So my homestay partner was Tristen, a girl who goes to Quinnipiac University in Connecticut who I had met once or twice on the ship already. Krishnan is a professor at a university in Chennai, and one of his best students was with him when he came to pick us up, and she was fun to talk to about schooling and her wanting to come to the United States. It was about a 30 minute drive to his apartment, which is where he lived with his aunt and uncle (but from different sides of the family) his mom and his dad. Krishnan is not married, and neither are his aunt or his uncle. I am still interested why, but it was clearly a subject that they didn’t really want to talk about. Anyway, he showed us our room, which they refer to as the “American room”. They have been hosting SAS students for 12 years so he has had close to 80 students stay at his home, which I thought was awesome! His aunt speaks pretty good English and seems like his mother figure, I think she is decently older than him, her name was Usha and I grew to LOVE her. His uncle did not speak any English but was this cute short really old man who would just smile and laugh and walk around. His mother I only saw once, she is bed-ridden and not in good health, and his father speaks no English and is blind but he ate with us a few times, which was nice. The apartment was pretty small, but the table in the kitchen was big, and the living room was nice- and although it had cracks in the walls and ceiling, they had a huge Sony TV with large speakers, so that was interesting- they also have broadband internet.
OK so for lunch that day, one of his former students, Sarden, who is now working in IT just applied to Graduate School at both UVA and William & Mary in the States, but he said the whole process could take up to 2 years before he actually goes if he does get accepted. We had a very traditional Indian meal- it was SPICY! But they gave us plenty of water which was great and I ate with my hands for the first time, which I am not so good at but did improve every meal. I don’t remember exactly what we had, but most of their dishes are similar- some sort of bread or rice paddy with several different dipping sauces. They are all vegetarian, so lots of potato ingredients, vegetables, I don’t even know what else, but it was delicious!!! And they don’t really accept no as an answer, so I stuffed myself every meal.
After lunch Usha took Tristen and I out shopping for sarees (the traditional Indian dress)! We had a banquet that night that the Madras Rotary hosted so Krishnan insisted that we get all decked out for it. So the shopping experience was intense- all of these young girls wanted to help us pick our and try on our sarees- so it was fun. I wound up getting a dark green and gold one, and Tristen got a maroon and gold one. They are three pieces all together, and LOTS of fabric- but we trusted Usha that she got us the right sizes and all together it cost 600 ruppees, which is about 12 dollars! We also had to buy bangles and bindis (the dot that goes on the forehead for channeling positive energies- they have fashionable ones which were fun!) So after buying our sarees she took us to a parlor, where about 12 Indian women just went to town with us. They dressed us in our sarees, which is quite the process since they are so huge- and then they did our hair and our makeup- they put jewels in our hair and flowers (they are all about jasmine there) and it was a lot of fun, all while the Indian radio was playing that we got a kick out of. From there we headed to the banquet.
It was at a gorgeous hotel and first was a regular Rotary meeting, and the two interport students that we had aboard (between each port we have one or two students come on the ship to run through pre-port presentations, and sometimes we have professors also) gave powerpoint presentations and showed slideshows about their experiences for the entire rotary to see. Then we just took a lot of pictures with all of the officers and the Rotarian Students…then we had yet another delicious meal. It was outside in a courtyard, almost like a cocktail reception with different stations. They had macaroni and cheese which we laughed about because that was the LAST thing we wanted considering we have pasta everyday on the ship. So we had some dosa, which is Indian pizza which was good- it is just dipping the bread into two different sauces, and I had some chicken dish and a fish dish and a lot of the veg stuff- basically I had no idea what I was eating but I loved it all! And they had DELICIOUS vanilla ice cream and apple crumb pie which was just fabulous. So we just had some food and some drinks and chatted/socialized with the Rotarians and other students. It was really nice, and actually relaxing! It went pretty late so by the time we got back home we stayed up and chatted for a little while, but called it a pretty early night.
The next day all of the SAS students came together to go on a bus tour to all different temples and sculpture sights around Chennai. It was a full day long and we stopped 4 different times at different sights. Lucky for us every time we got on the bus, it was raining, but when we had to step off it always cleared up! We also stopped for lunch at one of the Rotarians houses, which was so beautiful- they had a little pond in the back and the patio was gorgeous and the food was great! Surprise, surprise. So we went to see different temples of Vishnu and Krishna, the Shore Temple and ButterBall Rock- a few other places that I am not sure of the names. But it was a fun day- and Krishnan was the only host with us because he was in charge of the day! He is hysterical too, he is like a teenage girl with his camera- he takes pictures of EVERYTHING! Our last stop was at a Crocodile Camp, where they had 2,000 something crocodiles…we got to hold one and we also got to hold a snake!! That was my first time doing that and it was kind of scary- they feel so weird! But I got tons of bugbites there, just hopefully not malaria! They also had several cobras that they showed us during a little demonstration- they all were snakes that are deadly within a few hours of getting bit, kinda crazyyy.
We didn’t get home until about 8pm that night, so we just had a good dinner at home and I stayed up for awhile that night with Usha talking about all different things- from food to Hinduism to the other students that have stayed at the house…it was really nice- and then eventually bedtime!
In the morning we got up not too early, we had time to go to some temples, which they do everyday- probably multiple times a day- they are EVERYWHERE. Every nook and corner in the street has a temple, it is very interesting. We also did some shopping around Pondi Bazaar before meeting some of Krishnan’s neighbors for lunch at Savannah Bhavan (an awesome Indian restaurant that actually has one in Edison, NJ and one in NY that I will have to check out!) so it was a great lunch buffet – it is a vegetarian place and probably my favorite meal of the whole trip- and it only comes out to $4 a person! After lunch it was time to head to the ship to give them a tour! Technically the homestay ends after the tour of the ship, but they had invited us to stay for another night at their house. Tristen politely declined, but I said I would love to. So Tristen & I took Krishnan, Usha and one of their neighbors who is 22 I believe to see the ship! Krishnan has been on MANY times, Usha 3 times I think and this was the neighbors first time. So it was exciting to show where I live and everything on the ship…and for the first time Usha and (I forget her name but I want to say….Ansi) had peanut butter! Then we found Ben and he came back to the house with us! But Krishnana decided to take us out for a nice dinner at GBT which is a restaurant in a really nice hotel, and his favorite place to eat in Chennai! Sarden also met us there which was nice- and Sarden, Ben and I split some non-veg dishes- one was chicken the other was crab, but honestly they tasted so similar. Before we had our main dish, they have several different appetizers out, and one was just a vegetable platter, and what Ben thought was a green bean turned out to be a green chili and me being such a good friend could not stop laughing- while he was crying and sweating…it was quite the sight. He said the only way to help it was just taking a sip of beer and holding it in his mouth for a few seconds to relieve the burn…oh man. So the meal was great, and we stayed there for a long time having good food and good conversation and there was good music there, so no reason to hurry! Plus the tagline that we have come up for India is…”But wait, there’s more!” Because whenever you think everything is said and done, there is ALWAYS more- whether it be in a meal or shopping…there’s almost more than you expect.
We logged some internet time when we got back to the house just to upload some photos and I went on Facebook for the first time since I left New Jersey!!! I was only on for a few minutes because I was trying to find a specific pictures…which I could not, but I did make me miss Ithaca and all that has been going on…but then I thought, well- I’m in India---life isn’t so bad for me! Haha.
The next morning we woke up early to go play badmitton at the YMCA- Krishnan is PRO! There is a whole league there and he plays everyday for 2 hours. We didn’t play for that long, and Ben and I were totally out of practice but it was really fun. I did break the norm and played in shorts though- partially because I wasn’t going to play in a skirt, and also because I wanted to see the reactions- there were some looks, but not as many as I expected. It’s not like they have never seen legs before…
After that we went to the post office and a few temples and just walked around their neighborhood for a bit meeting neighbors and such, then watched some cricket on TV and exchanged email/phone numbers with them and they gave us each a candle holder and an incense holder, and I gave them a calendar from NJ- so they could see what the weather was like in NJ while it was either Hot, Hotter or Hottest in India – their only 3 seasons. We went shopping some more in the Bazaar- there were just certain things that we were looking for that we wanted to get before we left, and then we actually got stuck in LOTS of traffic from a political rally that was going on so we made it back to the ship with only 30 minutes to spare which was pretty lucky! When they dropped us off I was very close to crying- I had grown very close to them in only 3 nights- it was incredible the way that they opened their home to us and I really did feel comfortable and welcome there. He kept insisting that we come back to India with our friends and family and that we always have a place to stay. And If friends ever needed a place to stay, they are always more than welcome at their house.
All in all India was an amazing country to visit- the people here are the nicest people that I have yet to come across on this trip. Never once did I feel unsafe (except while on the roads) and everyone wanted to talk to us and have conversations and were genuinely interested in why we were in India and what we thought about the country and they had SO many questions about the States. I would love to go back there and visit someday- and I would absolutely love to see the Taj at some point. Most of the SAS students went up to see the Taj and several different parts of Northern India. I felt like that would not have been the best use of my time in India this visit and I am SO glad that I did the homestay because it truly was an amazing experience and a great way to really experience the culture. The general feelings on the ship…either people loved it or hated it and the most descriptive word for India is overwhelming. I absolutely loved it which does surprise me because I wasn’t terribly excited about going there, even though it has come to be one of the best ports yet! It is hard to compare them all because they are so different and I have been doing such different things, but it was totally refreshing to be in a country that was not in one way Westernized and has such an old history. I could write pages more…but I will stop here!
Now that we have made it to Asia we are jumping from country to country with very few days on the ship- which is SO exciting. We get to Malaysia in two days, then Vietnam, China and Japan are all going to be a whirlwind. Posting will be difficult, but I will do my best even if they are short updates. Also, there is a change in some of the addresses for shipping, so I will post that also. Classes are going good, but now we get bombarded between ports because there just is no time.
My plan in Malaysia is to go to an island called Puala Lankawi. It’s supposed to be gorgeous (as all of South East Asia is) and relaxing and LOTS of shopping!!! I can’t wait! I miss you all so so so much, and by the way I am now 12 hours ahead of East Coast time- so weird! Losing an hour every night is not fun…but hey- gotta do what ya gotta do when traveling around the world…

I have Family in India!!

2008-10-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

So I am currently at my host family's house- this trip to India has turned out to be amazing. I did a homestay that was set up through a Rotary here and have been having such a great time that even though it ended this morning, I came back for one more night and all day tomorrow!!

I will update in a few days, but Krishnan is letting me use the internet, so I figured I could post some pictures while I can!!

Safari!

2008-10-11T21:54:00.001-07:00

Sorry this has taken me so long to post, but things have been crazy around here! I just had my Global Studies midterm this morning (I think I did all right!) and handed in a term paper this afternoon…so now that those things are out of the way I have some time to sit and type this! Ok so backtrack to….September 29th..or somewhere around there.

Our flight left Capetown somewhere around 5am and I kid you not as soon as I sat down I was out like a light, and I didn’t wake up until the plane landed- I don’t even remember take off! So that was a great flight, then we got to Johannesburg around 8am, and had to wait around/eat some breakfast before we were getting picked up by Viva Safaris at 9am. Little did we know that we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us in a van with all 13 of us and our bags…it was quite cozy as you can imagine. In total it took about 7 hours, with stopping for lunch and a few other times- thankfully I was tired enough to sleep the majority of the time! We finally made it to Trumasani Game Reserve, which is not part of Kruger National Park, but where a lot of the lodging and accommodations are. So we went out for a sunset drive, which was about 3 hours total. Right away we saw giraffes up close and personal. They are such beautiful animals- and we were pretty close to them which was cool to see them eat and walk around- they are HUGE. Our guide spotted some rhinos really far away, but none of us could see them- our eyes weren’t trained he said. We saw a lot of the common wildlife, like impala (which are a type of antelope) and monkeys and some wildebeests, which are pretty ugly looking. We were able to go to this little hut by a watering hole to watch the sunset which was absolutely gorgeous- just what I would expect an African sunset to look like- it was perfect. Mind you, after the sunset we still drove around for a good hour, and I definitely dosed off a few times because I was so tired…but as soon as a branch hit me in the face it would wake me up. Then we were on the trail on the way back to the lodge, and RIGHT in front of us was a HUGE black rhino. They are nocturnal and live in solitary, so he was by himself just milling around. But as soon as our car headlights shined on him, plus we had a huge search light he was so disoriented and had no idea what was going on (plus they also can only see 10 meters in front of him) so he was really confused. We didn’t bother him for too long, plus there was the chance that he would charge, but he was really cool to see SO close. And that definitely woke all of us up! So when we got back to the lodge the other car (our group was split in half) had only seen one giraffe from afar the whole time- so we were the lucky ones!! From Trumasani we made our way to our lodges, called Mark’s Treehouse Lodges. And as we pulled in the gate, there were at least 20 water buffalo just sitting there hanging out! It was so cool- so I already had 2 Big 5 sightings in the first day! Literally, treehouses on a game reserve where they had rhinos, water buffalo and cheetahs (3 of the Big 5- elephants, rhinos, water buffalo, lions and cheetahs) plus other wildlife. So they were pretty cool- Lacey and I were roommates!! We had a big bed to share in the middle of the tree house with a big mosquito net to cover us (even though the mosquitoes weren’t bad at all- it was the other animals that freaked us out a little bit, like scorpions and spiders…) After dinner @ 8pm that night, we sat around the campfire for a little while but we were all so tired that we just went to pass out…which is exactly what we did! Then we woke up at 545am for the bushwalk- an hour long walk through the reserve with a guide who describes the land and the plants and all of that fun stuff- and he originally told us not to expect any animal sightings, but if we are lucky we might see some. SO low and behold about 5 minutes in we saw two giraffes up really close which was cool, then Toby (our guide) found a Warhog in a hole that was sleeping. So it was pretty informational, and just as we were about to finish up, we saw a heard of water buffalo that was pretty close…about 100/150 meters away. And then we realized there were two rhino there also!!! So Toby stopped us and said, “Walk very slowly and very quietly. They know that we are here because they can smell and sense us, but if we don’t pose as a threat then they shouldn’t charge. If I say run, you do that and climb the first tree that you can.” Thankfully he had a rifle with him, and thankfully they didn’t charge, but it was pretty crazy being so close to them on foot. He said that was the best animal sighting that he has ever had on a bushwalk!! Lucky us!
After that we had a delicious breakfast of eggs, muffins, bacon and fruit and the monkeys joined us! I don’t know what kind of monkeys they are, but they are ALL over the reserve, and they are not afraid of humans at all. As soon as we were up from the tables, they scrambled on to the tables and grabbed everything in sight and stuffed their tiny mouths- I have video of it- it’s absolutely hysterical. So after breakfast we piled into the van to go to Kruger, about 20 minutes away. Once we got there we split into a couple different cars that we would be in for the entire day. My friends Andy and Jonah were staying at a different lodge but also on an Independent Trip, so I joined in on their car, which also had a Xhosha family (indigenous tribe of Africa) and a couple from Australia who had been traveling around Africa for 4 months! So it was a fun ride, and I had the same guide from the sunset drive the night before. So it is kind of tedious to go through everything that I saw…so I’ll just summarize. LOTS of impala, waterbuck, wildebeests, monkeys, giraffes, elephants, zebras, baboons, some alligators and hippos, and a pride of lion, which was a difficult sighting. Besides that pride, we only saw a few other lions. Unfortunately we had been about an hour late to the attack of a zebra, which would have been something to see. But we did see them eating the carcass and at one point our guard told us to be completely still and silent…and he started imitating a sheep call, and two of the lions actually came pretty close to the car which was awesome/frightening at the same time. Basically it was awesome and again the African sunset was beautiful. But it was a LONG day and a HOT day…in the high 90s for sure and we were out from 9am-5pm with a lunch break. We got back to the lodges with enough time to shower before dinner, and then we again hung out by the fire for a little while just relaxing and chatting with our guides before hitting the hay again. The next morning we did a bushwalk, not nearly as exciting as the morning before- only one giraffe, then it was time to load back into the van for the several hour long drive back to JoBurg. We did stop at a canyon on the way back, and I forget the name of it, but it is the third largest one in the world! It was gorgeous and just absolutely huge. We got to the airport to find that our flight was delayed about 2 hours, but there was another flight leaving within a half hour- so everyone from our group except for Ben, Lacey and myself paid to get on that flight, but we were really in no rush. It gave us the chance to find a World Cup 2010 store, which we were looking for! And I also got to buy a calling card to make some calls! (It was Mom & Dads anniversary a few days prior to that so it was nice to get to cal them and talk to them for the first time in a month!) So we just relaxed- met up with Jonah and Andy and our flight home was fine- the one that they paid to get on actually wound up being delayed too..and when it was all said and done we got back to the ship right before midnight. I thought about going out, but a shower and my bed sounded much more enticing, so I stuck to that!
I woke up pretty early in the morning to meet my friend Marissa to walk around the Waterfront and go to the mall to get a few things- then we met up with Sam and went down to Green Market, which has every African handcraft, painting, artifact, one would ever imagine. So that was fun and we grabbed lunch at a little café on Long Street before making our way back to the Waterfront to see a musical performance by a Township Choir and then getting back on the ship before all of the SAS Safari trips get back! (We have to be on ship by a certain time, and if you swipe in after that you get dock time, meaning you have to stay on the ship for X number of hours once we get to the next port…but if you are on an SAS trip it doesn’t count) so we had to be sure not to get stuck behind them going up the Gangway…plus it gave me time to write some postcards before departing!!
So THAT was South Africa. It came and went by so quickly, but it was a beautiful place, somewhere that I hope to visit again someday. Capetown really didn’t feel like Africa at all, I felt like I was in the States- it was so modernized and western culture is everywhere- from the music to the food to the fashion. But the people were very friendly and the sights were beautiful. There was all of this talk about how dangerous Capetown was going to be, but not once did I feel unsafe at all. Granted, we walk around in a sizeable group and don’t carry bags or valuables on us at all because that is just asking for attention. And the safari was an experience that I may never have again- even though I didn’t see a Cheetah, I felt thoroughly satisfied with my sightings!
Now that we are back on the ship, well as I post this we are only a few days from India- but things have been busy. The night we were back on the ship and going around the cape it was rough as could be, so Dani and I went to bed around 9 because we were not feeling well. And we have avoided pirates thus far through the Indian Ocean…apparently when they claim to have “stargazing” on the 7th deck it is really because they need to turn all of the ship’s lights out to avoid being seen…not sure if that is a rumor or not though.
We did have the Sea Olympics two days ago which was a huge success!! I was so so so busy that day it was craziness. We got up at 630am to begin setting up and I had about 15 minutes to sit down around lunch time to have a quick bite, and was back at it until at 7pm. I participated in Pictionary…unfortunately we got 5th place and didn’t place (we got out on artificial heart- SO HARD!) and then I hosted Tug-O-War, Flip Cup, Hot Dog Eating Contest and Paper Boat Float. My sea (the Red Sea) placed 5th overall out of 10 teams. We were obviously not happy about that, but satisfied- all in all it was a very fun day and extremely exhausting. Stephanie (my good friend who was also on the committee) popped in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy at 9pm and were in bed by 10pm- it was lovely! Now it is midterms time…so everyone is stressed/tired—but we will be to India in two days!! I will doing a homestay there, meaning me and another SAS student will be staying with a family for 3 days and 2 nights- one of the most highly recommended things to do by past SAS students because it is truly an immersion into the country and a realistic way to get a sense for the culture.
Hope all is well back in the States- well, thankfully they do keep us informed here about what is going on- so we are not totally out of the loop in the economic crisis, and we were able to watch the Debates the day after they were aired, which was great- there have been some pretty heated discussions among students- so we aren’t totally out in left field as we cross the Indian Ocean….
Asia will fly because we only have 2 or 3 days at sea between Malaysia, Vietnam, China & Japan…but I’m REALLY hoping to get on an internet café so I can send out more pictures!!! PEACE FROM THE EAST.

CAPETOWN!!!

2008-10-05T10:05:00.001-07:00

OK so far Capetown has DEFINITELY been my favorite port city. It is an absolutely beautiful city and the waterfront itself where our ship was docked had awesome places to eat, cute shops, and a beautiful view of Table Mountain. I should mention though that the night before we pulled into port, as we were coming around the cape we hit quite a bit of turbulence. I think I only slept for 2 or 3 hours because it was literally impossible. All of the drawers were opening and slamming shut- we had to stuff them with clothing and whatever else was around to just keep them open- everything in the bathroom/shower was all over the place and the majority of the boat was throwing up. So that was interesting. And supposedly Capetown is most beautiful port to pull into because the view is amazing and the city is just huge (most of the port cities are rather small) but of course it was raining and overcast and gross outside. We have yet to have a nice morning where we have pulled into port…
So once we finally got to port (it was closed for a few hours due to high winds) and were able to get off of the ship, a group of us decided to skip right through the waterfront and walk right to Long Street- the main street downtown where most of the restaurants and bars are….so we had a drink at the Purple Turtle and met some locals who told us what we should definitely do, and what is more or less a waste of time- which was cool. Then we stumbled on Green Market, which is a huge outdoor market selling paintings, jewelry, instruments, wood carvings, fabric, all sorts of handmade crafts, etc. After browsing around there for a bit, Mitch and I walked back to the ship because we had FDPs (Faculty Directed Practicums). Mine was for my Philosophy of Love, Sex & Friendship class and it was to the Triangle Project, which is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Community Center in ALL of Africa. We got to meet the director and talk with him about what their mission is and how they serve and support all LGBTs in Capetown. It was really interesting and something that I really had little knowledge about so I was really glad that I went. The most interesting thing I found was that in Namibia, homosexuality is actually illegal, and it is widely accepted in South Africa (they called Capetown the “white light” of hope and promise for all LGBTs in Africa because it is an accepting community. The Triangle Project fights for rights as well as provides health services such as free HIV testing to the community- all in all a really fascinating place.
After napping and taking a shower, Lacey and I went out with a bunch of friends for my friend Chad’s birthday dinner. We went to a place called Der Anker, a very upscale and delicious Belgium restaurant. The food (and dessert) was great and definitely filling- and it was SO refreshing to have a really good quality meal- it had been awhile. That dinner was quite lengthy (service in Africa is SLOW) and after that we went to Long Street and the nightlife in Capetown is awesome. Luckily this was a Friday night, so there was a lot going on. My friend Blake and I approached several different locals at a bar to talk with them about politics in both the US and South Africa as an assignment for our politics class which was extremely interesting to hear their views. They are currently changing Presidents and there were some very opinionated people that we talked to who claimed not to be racist, but everything coming out of their mouths were exactly that. We didn’t stay out TOO late that night because shark diving was the next morning, but we all had a great night- quite different from Namibia because there were more than 3 bars in the city, so every place was not swamped by SAS kids which was very nice.
So bright and early (by that I mean 930am) we got picked up to drive to Gansbaai, where Shark Alley is located, about 2 hours from Capetown. We had a group of 8 (4 guys and 4 girls) and once we got there and had lunch and our safety briefing- to the water we went!! Our boat was 10 meters long and there were 10 of us total along with 4 guys on the ship who we were literally trusting with our lives. Well the ride out there was quite rough- our boat was literally airborn, then the front would go under water a few feet- and this went on for about 5 minutes. Those who were hungover and those who get motion sickness were NOT feeling it- but I was fine =)
Once we got out to the spot where they wanted to drop the cage in, they had told us that most of the other boats had not been having much luck that morning and only a few sharks were around. But low and behold while they were giving us another briefing, they sighted a shark and the next couple of minutes was a blur because they wanted to get us in the water quickly thinking that it could potentially be the only sighting of the morning. So as quickly as I could I jumped into my wetsuit, put on the booties and the hoodie (the water was FREEZING- around 45 degrees I think) and they put the weight belts on us and basically threw us in the cage, which is attached to the side of the boat and holds 4 people at a time. I was freaking out to put it mildly. I didn’t know where to hold on or where to put my feet on the cage and there was a huge 10 foot great white about 2 feet away from my face. The cage isn’t deep so all you do is kind of float there until one of the skippers (guys on the boat) said “Diver Right!” and you hold your breath and go down and look to the right. There is only about a 2 meter visibility so before you know it they are right in front of you. I’m pretty sure I was screaming underwater. What they do to get the shark to come over is put out a chum line, which is just a mixture of fish oil and tuna blood, which attracts them by scent. Then once they get near the boat, they threw out a rope with a huge chunk of tuna on it, so they lure it right in front of the cage, then pull the bait away from them at the last second, so they never actually eat- but there is no hook or anything on the bait, so it doesn’t hurt them at all. I think at first I was probably stayed in for 10 minutes and saw 2 or 3 different sharks, all really close and absolutely terrifying- but they were so huge and powerful it was such a rush. Then they rotated us through, and when not in the water, we were up on the top deck of the boat watching and taking photos which was the best viewing spot ever. Then again awhile later I went back in for another 10 minutes or so. At one point while another foursome was in one of the sharks actually grabbed the cage, I would have FLIPPED so it was a good thing I wasn’t in the cage for that. But at some points we had two or three right around the boat which was AWESOME. So I guess you could say we got lucky compared to the other boats- we saw 6 total, all females (the great whites off of the coast are about 80% female). It was just so neat to be so close to an animal that will most likely become an endangered species in the near future and the coast the surrounding scenery was beautiful so I’m really glad I got to do the cage diving because it was definitely an opportunity of a lifetime and a huge adrenaline rush. The waves were really big and I think half of the people on the boat were vomiting almost the entire time- so that sucked for them, but they still said they had a good time overall. And one of the guys on the boat made a video of all of us so I got that and he is sending it back to my house so I am excited to see that again! The only bad part of the trip…the underwater housing for my camera didn’t exactly keep the water out, so my camera is fried as of now- and there’s not much hope for it. I don’t know how it happened because I tested it here on the ship before I took it out and it was fine, but I’m thinking it happened when I jumped in since it was so rushed and there was such a flurry of excitement. Luckily I do have my old camera with me, and my mom will send my charger to India so at least I will have that, but it does suck that I won’t have my good camera for the rest of the journey. Luckily a few of my friends had their cameras, so I will be able to steal their photos from them- and there was a guy from France who had really intense underwater housing for his camera, and he is going to email some of the photos to me, but I haven’t been able to check my email, but I will put some of those up when I get the chance also!!
So after shark diving we got back to the ship around dinner time- and then we went to a local bar that was right at the Waterfront before going out to Long Street- but I was pretty tired so it wasn’t a very late night, but still a fun one!
The next morning I met up with my friend Jonah around ten and we caught a cab to go hike Table Mountain! I don’t know exactly how big it is, but several thousand feet high- the total hike took us a little less than 2 hours and it was STEEP. We took our time though because we weren’t in a rush, plus the view as you hike up is breathtaking and gets better the higher you go- so we took our time and chatted and it really was a lovely hike. Then when we were really close we started to power it out because we were pretty excited and I can honestly say that it is one of the most memorable views I have ever seen. From one side you can see all of Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope and all of the white sand beaches along the coast, as well as where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, and the other side overlooks the entire city of Capetown and is just endless, endless miles of mountains. It was so beautiful, I will definitely have to steal Jonah’s pictures and get some of them up here. It was so windy at the top also, so I was really glad I had a jacket packed in my bag! If you get the chance look up Table Mountain on Wikipedia- it is absolutely a sight to see! Then we took the cable car down because we decided to conserve our energy instead of hiking back down. We grabbed some lunch and walked around the Waterfront for awhile before heading back to the ship to again shower and nap because a HUGE group of us…25 total I think went to another very nice restaurant called Quay Four right on the water for Sam’s and Ben’s birthdays. Again, a lovely restaurant with great food (I had the yellowtail) and a few nice bottles of wine. I sat with some people I had never met before, but who were all skiers, so we obviously got along very well- and Sam and Ben both enjoyed the dinner. After that we again just went to a local bar before I had to be back at the ship to leave for my SAFARI!!! We had decided to leave at 3am to get to the airport for our 5:30am flight, so I just decided to skip sleep that night and enjoy South Africa instead—so you can imagine the delirium that started to set over me the next morning. Well when I have some more time I will write about the Safari trip, but for now, that is the first half of my South Africa experience---and a great one at that.
We are approaching Midterms so classes and work are starting to get rather busy and allowing for less napping time on the ship. But I have been doing well in my classes and also enjoying them. Also, the Sea Olympics are on the 9th which I am very excited about. I am the Logistics Chair, so I have been very busy with finalizing all of the events and writing up the rules, making sure we have the right amount of supplies and setting the schedule. It has been a lot of fun and I really like the whole committee, so we are all looking forward to that day! The only event I am competing in is Pictionary (Honeysuckle, I will make you proud) and I will also be hosting a few events including Ithe Hot Dog Eating Contest! All right I think I have kept you reading for long enough! But check back in a few days for yet another recap…Love and miss you all….

2008-10-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

Namibia Recap!

2008-09-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

So who knew Namibia was such a beautiful country?? Not me, I didn’t know anything about the country before this trip! Well, to give some information about it, it is on the western coast of Africa right next to South Africa and it is about the size of Texas. The population is 1.8 billion people, and 44% of the population is younger than 14 years old. Already, quite a drastic difference from Brazil, where the city of Salvador alone had more than 2 million people. The official language in Namibia is English, but it has very interesting demographics. It was a German colony and just gained its independence in 1990, so it is a very new country. They have quite the mix of native Namibians and Afrikaans (Dutch and other European settlers), and there are several hundred different languages spoken throughout the country, but almost everyone speaks English. So we ported in Walvis Bay on Friday September 19th and it was VERY foggy and overcast. Walvis Bay has a population of only 60,000 and I can honestly say that by 5pm on Friday, I had quite a handle on the city, which is saying something (many of you can vouch that my sense of direction isn’t the greatest…)
But we had some good German food and walked up the coast where we saw lots of jellyfish and oysters. We came back to the ship for dinner, and then headed out for the night to a local bar called the Raft. There are only two or three bars in Walvis Bay, so to say the least, it was PACKED. The bartenders and owner said it was the busiest they have EVER been (granted, it was a Friday night). Normally they close at midnight, but I think they stayed open until around 3am because they were just raking in the money. But to us, it was SO CHEAP! The conversion rate is 1 USD to 8 Namibia Dollars. So we could get a full meal for under 10 USD so all of the Americans were eating and drinking like crazy.
On Saturday we walked around a bit in the morning- went to the post office, the bank, did stuff like that and then got lunch at this really cute coffee shop, then we headed to DUNE 7 for the afternoon. We took a cap ride through the desert to what is supposedly the biggest sand dune in the area- we had no idea what to expect. Well, it was a big pile of sand. Everyone was talking about it like an attraction, so I was expecting there to be SOME civilization around- but no, nothing. So it took about 15 minutes to hike up- it is REALLY steep and the sad was SO HOT. Plus it is very difficult to hike in the sand. But once we got to the top it was amazing. For miles all you can see is sand dunes. I actually got a very similar feeling to one that I have felt a few times- when standing at the top of a huge snow mountain peak and it is just complete calmness and serenity all around. It was a really breathtaking feeling and I hope the pictures do some justice when I eventually get around to posting them…
That night we went back to the same bar, but it was much more fun because there weren’t nearly has many SAS kids (as they had dispersed to surrounding cities) so we got to meet more locals and we could actually hear each other which was nice. The locals were SO nice in Namibia and they were really interested in talking to Americans and we all have assignments to do for classes revolving getting information from locals, so it is always a cool experience making new friends!
On Sunday we slept in a little bit and then left for Swakopmund, another coastal city about a half hour away. We were able to catch a cheap cab ride and luckily stumbled upon a hostel that had some vacancy (there were 6 of us traveling together). So that was lucky and by then Swako was swarming with SAS kids, so we were everywhere. The hostel was really nice and clean and they offered breakfast in the morning! All shops/restaurants close on Sundays at 1pm, so there wasn’t much going on until the evening (well we found one open restaurant) but we just walked around the city and up the coast. It honestly felt more like Europe than Africa because the German influence there was so prominent. We had a fun night there at a local bar and then the next morning we got up early to head to the market before going quad biking!! We bargained for some fun and cool handmade crafts and artwork and then headed to the dunes for quadding! We each got an automatic 4 wheeler and our guide took us through the dunes for a total of about 2 hours. It was really neat and again, very beautiful. He took us to a view lookout points over the ocean which were just gorgeous and I’m not sure how fast the quads went, but we were booking. Of course, I got stuck a few times, but it was funny and no big deal. I’m really glad we did that- and then we shopped more around Swako and again had a really fabulous lunch at this tiny café that some locals from Walvis Bay had recommended.
We left that evening and came back to Walvis Bay for yet another crazy Namibian night (not really we were very tired but just couldn’t stay in our last night there!) and met some guys who had gone to Capetown University so they were giving us all of these tips and pointers and suggestions on where to go, how to be safe, etc. which was definitely very helpful! And before we left on Tuesday afternoon we just walked around the city some more, did some shopping, got some groceries, failed at using the internet café, got lunch, etc. And now we are back on the boat, but pulling into Capetown right now! (I’m writing this on Thursday evening.) We only had 2 days of classes, which was kind of a joke, because we had off for 5 days and now have off for 7 days, but hey, I guess we have to have class sometimes. By the way I am doing well in classes- I have had an exam and two quizzes- and so far so good! My sociology class is the only difficult one, but even that one I am doing well, it is just a lot of work and effort. It is very interesting information and completely applicable to all of the ports that we are going to though so I don’t mind doing the extra work because I actually feel like I am truly getting worthwhile and useful information out of the class. Other than that, nothing new on the ship- just very excited for South Africa! Hopefully there won’t be too many issues with theft or robbery or anything like that. I think there were only a handful of petty crimes in Namibia, but South Africa is much more dangerous so we have to be extra careful. And we are flying to Johannesburg for our safari which is an extremely dangerous city but luckily we will only be in that airport for a short period of time and it shouldn’t be a problem. Plus my good friend on the ship has a friend who is studying in Capetown for the semester so she is going to take us around for a few days which makes me more comfortable also! But some other plans besides the safari for South Africa include hiking Table Mountain, going Shark Diving!! I am so excited it should be a blast! I’ll try to write a few different times in South Africa since we are there for 7 days and that would be a huge and intense post after that!!! I’ll say hi to the great whites and black penguins (and Mogley)!

AFRICA IS IN SIGHT!!!

2008-09-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

So we have finally gotten to Africa!! Well not officially, but we will be in port by 8am tomorrow morning! So the plan is to get up to see the sunrise and have some breakfast before planning out our day that we will spend in Walvis Bay. We don’t have legit plans as of yet, but we will just walk around the city and see some sites and eat some apparently good German food- so that will be nice. We are all just so excited to get off the ship! It has been a long haul from Brazil…
Namibia as a country only has 1.8 million people, and 44% of the population is under the age of 14. So it will be quite different coming from Salvador, Brazil- a city whose population is more than the entire country of Namibia. Plus no one on the ship has ever been here before, so we all don’t quite know what to expect! It should be a fun experience though, I am really looking forward to seeing all of the beautiful landscapes. As of now, tentative plans include hiking to Dune 7 (one of the most famous Sand Dunes in Africa…which I’m not too sure how a sand dune gets recognized….guess I’ll find out), possibly going Sand Boarding and spending a night or two in Windhoek, the capital city. So we have 5 days to explore this beautiful country, and then we are only on board for three days before arriving in South Africa- so this is a very exciting part of the journey! It has also gotten significantly cooler out, rumor has it the high in Africa will be around 68 degrees, which is a little chilly, but more pleasant than 95 degrees for traveling.
As far as ship life goes- everything is going well. Classes are OK (I actually enjoyed the past few days because the history of Namibia is very interesting and something that I knew NOTHING about) and I had my first exam two days ago which wasn’t too bad. Sleeping has been a favorite of mine lately. We are now I believe 6 hours ahead of East Coast time…we have lost an hour every night for what seems like forever, so we have all been napping a lot. Speaking of, it’s about that time to get a good night’s sleep as I prepare for AFRICA!!! Love and prayers….Ari

Life on the Amazon

2008-09-14T03:06:00.000-07:00

Back on the ship from the most AMAZING experience in Brazil!! Bear with me because it is somewhat long and involved, but I want to cover everything because it was one of the neatest things I have done and one of the coolest places I have ever visited.
When we arrived in Brazil on the 7th, we had about four hours to walk around Salvador before we had to gather our things to get to the airport. So we went to the Upper City and the first thing we saw was a huge street festival and parade since it was Independence Day! So that was pretty neat and we just walked up and down the streets taking everything in. We did a little bit of shopping, saw some capoiera (a local form of martial arts that is a combination of dancing and fighting which is really neat) and of course had a local beer. We didn’t get the chance to get to downtown Salvador which was a taxi ride away- and this wasn’t the best area, so we were OK with only being there for a few hours. It was fun to bargain with the street vendors and also working around the language barrier was interesting and entertaining also. Then we headed back to the ship to get ready for our adventure to THE AMAZON!!
We were a group of 12 students traveling independently, meaning we had no affiliation with Semester at Sea and we did all of the arranging and scheduling as opposed to just signing up for one of their offered trips. Our group consisted of myself and the three other students from Ithaca College (Ben, Lacey and Greg) as well as two more guys and 6 other girls. So we left Salvador at 730pm, and with connections, a time change and a few delays, we landed in Manaus at about 230am. Our tour guide, Fabio, was there to meet us and we had about a half hour drive to the dock where our boat was ready to go. (Note, we didn’t realize there was a time change, so we thought it was 430am even though it was only 330am) The boat is two decks high…and there were the twelve of us, as well as a crew of about 10 guys (head guide, translator, two cooks, a few captains, the tree climbing expert, and a few others). So the twelve of us slept on the first deck and we all had to bring hammocks with us from Salvador. So we set those all up and got situated…a few of us slept for an hour or two before waking up for a BEAUTIFUL sunset at the meeting of the waters, where the Amazon and Black Rivers meet. Both rivers are distinctly different colors and it was an unreal scene to see the two meet together. From there we just cruised down a smaller branch of the Black River and Fabio explained to us a lot of history about Manaus and the Amazon region and about his past 7 years of being a guide, etc. There was a little storm that was neat to see roll in, and also it is unreal seeing the water line on all of the trees lining the river. I don’t know what the difference in river level from high season to low season is, but it is several, several feet. All of the shanties lining the river are floating so they adjust to the water height which is pretty interesting.
Before lunch we stopped at a local market and went on a little hike to see the largest Water Lilies in the Amazon and saw some birds and other neat wildlife. Then back on the boat, a few of us played cards with the staff members- luckily Luciano was there to translate- their favorite game is a variation of Rummy, so we picked it up pretty easily. It was neat because even with the language barrier, we were all able to hang out and spend time together and get to know each other. Then we stopped at a small beach and went swimming (in the Black River, not the Amazon) and grilled Timbutki, a type of fish and had a very delicious lunch, thanks to Jozue and Willande (the cooks!) In the afternoon we went piranha fishing in smaller boats. So we broke up to 5 people per boat and had just bamboo sticks with string and pieces of meat attached to a hook. Pretty basic…but the boys boat got the most, but I caught one!! It was pretty exciting because I had only been fishing a few times! But we caught them and then cooked them the next night for dinner!! We hung out on the boat for awhile after fishing and took some naps…before setting out to go alligator hunting once it got dark out. Again, we went out on the smaller boats, and one guy would drive the boats, and one would be on the front of the boat with a huge search light. Fabio was able to see the gators eyes from SO far away, and he would tell the driver where to go and would literally lunge into the water and grab the gators by their necks. It was a pretty crazy scene. But the first one that he caught the boys maturely named him Gaylord, and the second one, Crazy Craig was a little feisty and they threw him back in after a few minutes. But we all got to hold the gator and take pictures with him and Fabio gave us some fun gator facts- like you can tell how old they are by the elasticity of the skin on their necks! Then we had another delicious dinner-they eat so late in Brazil, which took a little getting used to, but we didn’t mind because the food was worth waiting for. That night was pretty chilly, so a lot of us didn’t sleep too well in our hammocks, but oh well. I had woke up in the middle of the night, and my hammock was actually on the end, so I caught a glimpse of the sky and just HAD to get up to look at it and I kid you not when I say that it was the most beautiful nighttime sky I have EVER seen. There was not a single light in sight, so the stars were SO visible- I have never seen such a bright and glittering sky in my whole life. Then of course I had Fabio wake me up to see the sunrise which was again, absolutely beautiful.
I went back to sleep for a little while before awakening to yet another delicious breakfast, and then we split into two groups for the day. My group was Greg, Lacey, Ben, John and Pooja. We headed to the tree climbing that they had set up for us early that morning. Mr. Valencio is a professional climber and in the Brazilian Air Force so he was super experienced. Another team member, Hobson, was also very experienced. So they set up all of the ropes and we each climbed the 25 meter tree to the top of the Jungle. It was really neat being up so high and I had a moment when I was about halfway up and it was so quiet because there was no one really in my vicinity (just above and below me) and I was taking a little break to catch my breath and just appreciating the beauty all around me, and then it just started to rain, out of nowhere and it was a really, really moving moment which was amazing. I continued to the top, and then the repel down was one of the most fun parts!! Once we were all hot and gross and sweaty and dirty, we headed back to the canoe to go back to the boat. We all went swimming to cool off and fool around and had some lunch, then we switched with the other group for the afternoon. There was a village not far from where we were anchored for the afternoon of native Brazilians who originally belonged to the Bera tribe. The community is only 14 years old and originally started as 12 people (I think) and now has 120 people- with a school, a church and a medical center. We had brought two soccer balls with us for the children and they were SO happy to receive them. They were really fun to play with and even though we couldn’t really speak with them much, we could still play with them, and they lovvved looking at themselves on our digital cameras! It was neat to learn about the natives of the Amazon region and the history of their village and see how simply and happily they live. It was like nothing I have ever seen before.
Back on the boat we were trying some of the native fruits from the Amazon region (which may not have been the smartest thing, but oh well). There were some really good ones, and some really gross ones. My favorite was the coconut water (which is nothing like anything coconut tasting I have had before. That night we had a lot of fun on the boat because we were getting to know the team better and started to communicate better with them. I actually was surprised how much my basic Spanish got me by and how much Spanish I was able to recall from high school which was pretty exciting!! But we had a great dinner of beef and sausage (neither of which I eat, but hey- I was in the Amazon, I had to!) and then we were just dancing and listening to music and had some rum drinks. They listen to music that we listened to in the 90s…Madonna, Michael Jackson, 90s alternative music…it was very funny for us and we had a great time with them. (Note, they are all about 23-27 years old).
Then pretty late at night we all loaded into the canoes and headed into the jungle for the night!! Fabio and Luciendo had already set up camp in the jungle with our hammocks and a tarp and everything. So we were all bundled up to keep protected from the deadly mosquitoes and insects. Fabio told us some really great stories about the spirits of the Jungle and just different stories he had from being a guide for several years which was really interesting and they led to more and more stories. I only got about 3 hours of sleep that night because we woke up at 6am to go exploring into the Jungle for a few hours!! We unfortunately didn’t see any real great wildlife, but it was AMAZING to see how resourceful those who know the jungle can be. It seems like each different plant and tree has different functions. There is a palm tree that is used to shelter, a vine that when cut you can drink the water from it, a tree that you can use as a means of communication because it echoes for miles, vines that can be used as ropes, bark that can be used as a healing medicine, etc. He was also able to make a blowgun using different branches and leaves etc as well as a compass from a few different plants. It was just really, really neat to see how useful the jungle can be if you really get to know it. And I also have no idea how they knew their way around the jungle because it was so dense that we were just trailblazing the whole time with a machete and I feel like we were randomly walking, but luckily they knew where they were going!
` When we made our way back to the boat, they had breakfast all ready and prepared for us and we just hung out for awhile, took some naps, played some cards and relaxed until we got to another beach where we went exploring and a few of us wound up repelling off of a bridge because Mr. Valencio said we should! So that was fun! And then we went to a mini waterfall/swimming hole which was refreshingly cold (because the river is actually pretty warm) and we hung out there for a bit and the boys were jumping out of trees and whatnot. Then we had duck for lunch which was great. I don’t know if we did anything noteworthy that afternoon- but late in the afternoon we went fishing again and also just exploring in the canoes- we saw some monkeys and neat birds, and then while we were fishing Luciendo fell in the water because he was trying to grab on to a tree for us to tie up to and clearly was unsuccessful- so that was a bit of excitement that unfortunately caused us to miss the sunset, oh well. But we didn’t catch anything, a few people caught some catfish, but not my boat =(
We then proceeded to the boat for the last meal on the ship which was very sad. As we were pulling up to the dock, we overlooked the city of Manaus while it was dark which was absolutely beautiful. We all just sat around talking and really bonding over a few departing drinks with each other and the team and packing up our hammocks and everything else. This trip was unreal and so memorable. Life on the Amazon is so simple and peaceful. It is just a beautiful region of Brazil with so much to offer and so much rich culture surrounding it. Our tour guide and his team were some of the nicest people I have ever met and the language barrier seemed minimal by the end of the three days that we spent together. We found ways around it and really got to know each other well and had a fantastic time together.
We cut it a little close with our flight back to Salvador due to some delays and complications, but we made it back to the ship on time- and even though I missed our tour boat and the Amazon in general, it was nice to have a bed to sleep in and a nice shower. We all REAKED of bug spray and general grossness- I felt bad for the people who had to sit next to us on the plane. I went through more bug spray in those 3 days than I probably have in my whole life. I think we sprayed ourselves down with Deet about every 15 minutes. Fabio had only gotten Malaria 3 times, but the captain had gotten it 27 times in his life! So we were trying to avoid Malaria, Denge, and all other gross diseases from mosquitoes. So far so good, and no one got sick on our trip !! (knock on wood)

I know this is unbearably long, but hopefully you got through it and got a sense of the amazing experience that I had in Brazil. It was unfortunate that I didn’t get to see Rio or much of Salvador, but we were only here for 5 days, so we had to pick and choose, but I am SO glad with our trip. It was so fulfilling and a GREAT way to start off our journey around the world.

Now we are en route to Namibia- we will get there on Friday. But it is a little rough because we are heading directly East, so we basically have a time change every night for about 5 nights- this is the 3rd one in a row for us, which is not so fun, but oh well- not much we can do about it!

Classes are going OK, but it is hard to get back into the swing of it after such a great time in Brazil. Guess we will have to get used to these transitions though. Things with my roomie, Dani, are still great and the food on the ship is still bad!
Hopefully I will write again before Namibia, and whenever I get to an internet café- either in Namibia or South Africa, I will be able to post some photos up here!!
Thanks for reading, and I miss you all a lot and think about you every day and pray that you are safe and sound back in the US!
Chao from the Atlantic Ocean!
Love Ari

To the Amazon!

2008-09-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Oi! So I am all packed for the Amazon!! I have my airline limit of 11 pounds all packed in my hiking pack and our flight leaves tomorrow evening. We will be getting to Salvador early in the morning, and it takes a few hours to disembark the ship, so we will have a few hours in Salvador, before we have to head to the airport in the afternoon. I can’t believe this trip is finally here! It is one of the countries I am looking forward to the most, and I think this trip will be unbelievable. We are all going ship crazy and we are SO ready to get on land! Our group is of 13 people, and we will be meeting our tour guide at the airport in Manuas at about 1am and we will proceed right to the Amazon and on to our Riverboat for 4 days!! We were planning on sleeping on the deck tonight, and waking up to the sunrise while pulling into port, but rumor has it it is raining right now, so looks like I’ll be waking up at 5am to see the sunrise!! Maybe when I get back to Salvador I will be able to send out some photos, but I might have to wait until Namibia if I don’t have enough time. (we only have about a 7 hour buffer zone for our arrival flight back to Salvador, which is a little nerve wracking, but we are keeping our fingers crossed!) So hopefully I’ll stay clear of Malaria and the dangerous wildlife, but I hope to see amazing sites and can’t wait to share my stories!

OH and Neptune day was yesterday- the ceremonial crossing of the equator…
We had fish guts dumped on us, had to kiss a fish, then several people got their heads shaved…including all but another of the Ithaca crew that is on the ship…including Lacey (my roomie from IC), Ben (a good friend), Greg (his good friend) and another girl from Ithaca…it is quite the seen seeing 80 shaved heads walking around..it was quite the fun day, however I opted to keep my head of hair!

Hello from Sea!

2008-09-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

Day 5 on the ship and everything is great!
I started off in the Bahamas for 2 days, which were absolutely great. The weather was amazing, and we met LOTS of other Semester at Sea kids everywhere from the flight down there to the check in at the hotel, to Subway for lunch…we were flocking throughout Nassau. I flew down with Ben, a good friend who also goes to Ithaca, and we met up with another Ithaca student and some other students we were staying with at the hotel. We spent lots of time at the Atlantis and at the beach, and it really was great. Friday was boarding day- which was HOT and LONG. We got on line at 11am I think and didn’t get settled on the ship until about 2 or 3pm. I met my roommate, Dani, who is from the LA area in California and she is great! We get along really well and she is lots of fun, so it is definitely working out. The first two days were orientation meetings and safety drills, and just getting to know everyone on the ship and getting used to sea life. It was a little rough at first because we had to go 75 miles off course to avoid Hurricane Gustav, and in the process got a little caught up in Tropical Storm Hannah. Then we had to go really fast during the night to make up time, so the ship was ROCKING. Lots of sick people for a few days, luckily not me! I have been doing fine with the motion, thankfully! Today is day 3 of classes, and I am already LOADED with work. They expect a lot from us since there aren’t many distractions while on the ship. We are on a two day alternating schedule, so I have one class on Day A, and 3 classes on Day B. My glasses are Global Studies: The Rise of New Great Powers (required class), Survey of World Music, Philosophy of Love, Sex & Friendship, and Race & Ethnicity. They are all very interesting, and tailored towards the different countries that we will be going to. The sociology class will definitely be the most work, but I am really interested in the class material and I think it will be worth it. I have also gotten involved in planning the Sea Olympics…which is a day long event with all the members on the ship. The different decks are divided into seas, and there are a total of 11 seas. I am in the Red Sea, so it is the back starboard side of the 4th deck. It should be a lot of fun, and we will be meeting every other night since it is only in a few weeks! I also am part of the Bible Study group on board…as well as Students for Service, which organizes service projects both on the ship and at port. Also, along with every class, we have to do 3 FDPs (Faculty Directed Practicums) which are trips in each port that relate to our class, such as going to museums, friendship centers, musical performances, etc. I have one scheduled for Brazil, but more importantly, I have a 3 day trip to the Amazon planned! There are 13 of us in the group and we are extremely excited to get there and get started!!
Right now we are somewhat near Venezuela, and we will be crossing the Equator on Friday. Then we port in Salvador, Brazil on Sunday morning!
The weather has been pretty good, when going up to the 7th deck, you would never know we take classes here because everyone is in the pool swimming and just laying out enjoying the sunshine…but we do get our work done! We are still waiting for a good sunset…the clouds have been heavy, but I’m sure we’ll see our fair share…
OH AND EXCITING NEWS: I have free email!!! The account is: aetempleton@semesteratsea.net, but I have my gmail and Ithaca mail forwarded to my account, so arianne.templeton@gmail.com and atemple1@ithaca.edu also work. We only have 120 minutes of actual internet time, but we have free resource sites that are available to us, so we are dealing. OK I think that’s all for now. EMAIL ME!!

And I'm Off!

2008-08-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

So I am about 10 hours from boarding my flight from Newark, NJ to Nassau, Bahamas! I am pretty much all packed and ready to go- I cannot believe that this day has come, I have been thinking about it since this past winter when I decided to apply to SAS. It is very bittersweet I must say, but I am extremely excited and ready to begin this journey of a lifetime. After some tearful goodbyes tonight with close friends from Kinnelon, and I'm sure more in the morning when I say goodbye to my family...I am glad I will be traveling with Ben, a good friend from Ithaca. Together we will fly together and then stay in Nassau for two nights with some other SASers. My IC roommate, Lacey, boarded the ship this morning in Norfolk, VA, and I will be seeing her hopefully on Thursday evening down in Nassau! I will be mentioning these two often I would imagine since we are all very good friends...OK enough rambling for me...
I will keep in touch the best I can, but please email me at arianne.templeton@gmail.com whenever you get the chance, because I will eventually get all emails, it just might take awhile for me to respond. ADIOS AMERICA!!

Send Me Mail!

2008-08-20T13:01:00.001-07:00

OK so here are the addresses for each port and when to send it.
SAS suggests shipping all mail at least 2 weeks in advance, and shipping all mail Airmail..
PLEASE don't send anything valuable, because who knows if it will ACTUALLY get to me.

When addressing the envelope, here is the format:

MV-Explorer - Fall 2008
ATTN: Arianne Templeton
Port Agent Address (see below)

PORT	ADDRESS OF PORT AGENT	SUGGESTED AIRMAIL DATE
Salvador, Brazil	OCEANUS AGENCIA MARITIMA Av. Estados Unidos, 555 7th Floor / Room 712 40015-010 Salvador, BRAZIL	August 24
Walvis Bay, NAMIBIA	OCEAN LINER SERVICES The Maritime Building 2 Third Steer / PO Box 4 Walvis Bay, REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA	September 5
Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA	JOHN T. RENNIE & SONS 19th FLOOR No.1 Thibault Square 8001 Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA	September 12
Chennai, INDIA	J.M. BAXI & CO 3rd Floor, Clive Battery Complex 4 & 4A, Rajaji Salai 600 001 Chennai, INDIA	September 30
Penang, MALAYSIA	INCHAPE SHIPPING SERVICES SDN 4th Floor Unit 4B Wisma Saw Chong Thuah 39-c, Pengkalan Weld 10300 Penang, MALAYSIA	October 8
Ho Chi Minh City, VIET NAM	GENERAL FORWADING & AGENCY 5th Floor Osic Bldg. 8 Nguyen Hue Ave. D. 1, Ho Chi Minh City, VIET NAM	October 16
Hong Kong, CHINA	INCHAPE SHIPPING SERVICES (HK) Ltd. Units 1802-1805, 18th Floor Nº 3 Lockhart Road Wanchai, Hong Kong, CHINA	October 23
Shanghai, CHINA	PENAVICO SHANGHAI 3/F 13 Zhong Shan Road (E 1) 200002 Shanghai, P.R. CHINA	October 27
Kobe, JAPAN	INCHAPE SHIPPING SERVICES Kenryu Bldg, Room Nº 502 6 Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku Kobe-shi, Hyog-ken 650 0024, JAPAN	October 31
Yokohama, JAPAN Phone: 81 45 201 6991 Fax: 81 45 212 1614	INCHAPE SHIPPING SERVICES 2F Asahi Seimei Yokohama Honcho Bldg 36, 4-Chome Honcho, Naka-ku Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 231-005, JAPAN	November 3
Honolulu, HAWAII	INCHAPE SHIPPING SERVICES 521 Ala Moana Blvd Foreign Trade Zone Number 9 Suite 256 Honolulu, HI 96813	November 13
Puntarenas, COSTA RICA	R. Smyth & Co S.A. 500 M. Norte del Super Santiago Rio Segundo Alajuela, COSTA RICA	November 23

Then I'll be home on Dec 14th, so you can send all Christmas cards to my house =)
And remember, I can't send you a post card unless you give me your address, so email it to me!!

Itinerary!

2008-07-24T13:43:00.001-07:00

Hi All! Just wanted to have a blog so it would be easier for you to keep track of my travels over the next 4 months. I will be on Semester at Sea, a program sponsored by the University of Virginia. We will depart from the Bahamas on August 29th and return to Miami, FL on December 14th...and here is where I will be in between. (Yes, I will be taking classes while aboard the ship...)

Kobe/Yokohama, Japan	(Cross International dateline, add one day)
Nassau, Bahamas	Depart	Friday	29 August	1700
Salvador, Brazil	Arrive Depart	Sunday Thursday	07 September 11 September	0700 2000
Walvis Bay, Namibia	Arrive Depart	Friday Tuesday	19 September 23 September	0800 2000
Cape Town, South Africa	Arrive Depart	Friday Thursday	26 September 02 October	0800 2000
Chennai, India	Arrive Depart	Tuesday Saturday	14 October 18 October	0800 2000
Penang, Malaysia	Arrive Depart	Wednesday Sunday	22 October 26 October	0800 2000
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam	Arrive Depart	Thursday Tuesday	30 October 04 November	0800 0600
Hong Kong/Shanghai, China	Arrive Depart	Thursday Tuesday	06 November 11 November	0800 2000
Kobe/Yokohama, Japan	Arrive Depart	Friday Tuesday	14 November 18 November	0800 2000
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA	Arrive Depart	Thursday Thursday	27 November 27 November	0800 2000
Puntarenas (San Jose), Costa Rica	Arrive Depart	Sunday Tuesday	07 December 09 December	0800 2000
	(Transit Panama Canal - Thursday, 11 December)
Miami, Florida, USA	Arrive	Sunday	14 December	0800