Anchors Aweigh!

Vietnam

2011-03-26T21:55:00.000-04:00

Vietnam

March 25, 2011

We arrived into the port later than normal because of the tide. We got to the port around 11 in the morning. We went up the Saigon River a ways to get to the port. It was funny having our huge ship sail by these tiny boats with little motors transporting things like branches and bundles of leaves. Hanna and I had a trip planned to go to Hanoi to stay with her uncle so we were ready to explore the country away from Semester at Sea. We got off the ship and went to the airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and is in the northern part of the country. Ho Chi Minh is more developed but less traditional. We didn’t get a chance to see much of Ho Chi Minh City (originally named Saigon) so it was hard to compare the two but Hanna’s uncle taught us a lot. When we were driving to the airport I was amazed at the sea of motorcycles that filled the street but besides that I felt numb to the culture shock. We have been to so many foreign places in such a short amount of time it was hard to absorb the initial culture shock feeling of the country. I feel so used to seeing things that are so different to what I am used to that it was just another city to me.

Everything went really smoothly for Hanna and me on our flight to Hanoi and we got to Hanoi around 6 p.m. Hanna’s Uncle Pat greeted us at the airport and he wasn’t hard to miss considering he is 6’ 4” and towers over the locals. He is in Hanoi working for the airplane side of Rolls Royce. He has a driver so we got in his car and the driver took us to Pat’s apartment. The sun was setting and it was really pink because the sky wasn’t very clear. We drove past so many rice paddies before we got into the city part and the sun reflecting on the water in the paddies was beautiful. There were just as many motorcycles in Hanoi as Saigon. The driving was CRAZY! There are no lanes and people once again honk at everything.

We got to Pat’s apartment building and went up to the 8ths floor to their very nice apartment. It was extremely spacious especially since just he and his wife lived there. They had a hug balcony that looked over the two lakes that were below their building. The lakes were surrounded with building but as it got darker the lights from the buildings reflecting on the lake looked so cool. Hanna and I stayed in a room that had 2 twin beds and a large bathroom. We were so lucky to be staying in such a nice place! We cleaned up and they took us out for traditional Vietnamese food. We had spring rolls and different kinds of chicken and beef with rice. They produce bananas and coffee (I would’ve never known if Pat hadn’t told us) so they had a lot of banana desserts and we tried fried bananas.

The next morning Hanna and I got to skype with our parents which was really nice because we haven’t had much contact with people outside of the ship besides brief emails. When I was trying to describe some of the things I have experienced that is when I realized what an impact this trip is making on my life. It was nice to be on the internet again but facebook is banned because of their communist government so that was kind of a bummer. That morning Pat took us to a pagoda and around the lakes to see the daily life of the locals. They have a lot of cafes and karaoke bars. We walked through a fish market and they had full chickens with the heads still on and everything bare without any feathers next to a dog that had been through the same process I’m assuming that took all its hair off but the tail and everything was still intact. There were intestines, brains, and all sorts of meats. It was just as shocking as any market I have walked into in this trip. After our walk Pat’s wife took us out for lunch and then to a women’s museum.

After the museum she went back to the apartment and Hanna and I walked around town. I will never forget having to cross the street in Vietnam. There is never a break in traffic and the cars don’t stop for anything. The trick is to walk into the traffic and take long strides and don’t stop. If you stay consistent the motorcycles will drive around you. It was so scary though walking in front of motorcycles going so fast and just hoping that they wouldn’t hit you. We survived though and were pros by the end of our trip. The North Face factory is in Vietnam so Hanna and I got some backpacks on the street. We walked around and stopped for a drink trying to soak in the chaos of the city. We paid a man $5 to drive us around on his little bike rickshaw and it was fun to be in the middle of the traffic. We made our way back to the apartment and went out for Indian food.

The next morning Hanna and I were picked up by a tour company to take us to Halong Bay. We picked up a van full of people from their hotels in Hanoi and drove 3 hours to the bay. The weather was overcast and there wasn’t much to see on the drive. It was so fun to travel just the two of us because there were so many different types of people at the rest stops and at the entrance of the bay. There were a lot of Australian tourists and young backpacking groups. When we got to Halong Bay we got on a boat that took us out to a boat that we would stay on for the night.

Halong Bay is a bay with 3,000 islands poking out of the water. The story of how they were formed is that a dragon lashed his tail around the bay forming all the islands. Halong means descending dragon. The geological reason for the islands formation is that over millions of years the rain eroded the islands into what they look like today. It was a very beautiful place. We went to one of the islands that had a huge cave in it. There was a path touring the whole thing and it probably took us 30 minutes to get through. We ran into a lot of Semester at Sea kids there that were on different boat tours but that was the only time we saw any SAS people on our whole trip. It was really nice to be on our own. After we were back on our boat our new French friends asked us why a lot of the people we talked to had their heads shaved. They thought they had lost a bet or something but it was really because of Neptune Day. I can’t remember if I mentioned that in my last blog but before we got to Singapore we had Neptune Day on the ship which is basically just a tradition when you cross the equator for the first time (even though we had already crossed it a few times but this fit the best in our schedule I guess) and you do initiation type things to go from a pollywog to a shell back. The tradition is to shave your head, have fish guts dumped on you, jump in the pool, kiss a fish, and then kiss King Neptune’s ring (which was the captain painted green). I did everything but shave my head like most people but there was about 40 people that did shave their heads. So as if we don’t stand out enough being white college students roaming around in Asia, now a good chunk of them are bald.

We went kayaking around some of the islands and had a nice dinner with a group of Polish people on our boat. They shared their wine with Hanna and me. I don’t like wine but I choked it down to be polite. The next day we hiked to the top of another island and had a great view of all the islands in the area. We learned how to make spring rolls and then headed back to Hanoi around 1. When we got back Hanna’s Aunt and Uncle had to go to an opera they were invited to so Hanna and I got our nails done (mani and pedi for $10 with a cool design) and had the place to ourselves for the night.

We flew back to Ho Chi Minh City the next morning and spent the afternoon shopping. We went to a popular market that had all sort of designer clothes, purses, make up, and perfume. They have many very talented seamstresses in Vietnam so a big part of the market was for women making all sorts of clothes. A lot of the people on the ship got suits and dresses made for the ball that we’ll have at the end of the voyage. Hanna wanted one but it usually takes them five days to make them. When we were walking around a lady grabbed us and kept assuring us she could have a dress made by 5 pm before we had to get on the ship. She wanted to show us pictures of dresses she could make so she told us to follow her. We thought she was just bringing us to another stall in the market but instead she lead us out of the market, across the street, down the street a ways, through a moped shop, passed a cock fighting ring in the back of the moped shop, went up three flights of stairs, and finally into their little apartment with 6 sewing machines and fabric everywhere. Hanna bargained a price from $60 to $30 and got a cute little black dress made just in time.

We had a great time in Vietnam and couldn’t believe how smoothly everything went for us. The mass amount of motorcycles will always stick out in my memory when I think of Vietnam. Most girls and some guys would were surgical masks to cover their nose and mouth while driving through all the exhaust. It has turned into a fashion statement so now they are made out of pretty clothes and not only do they where them for pollution but also to keep the skin on their face white. It was pouring by the time we got on the ship on Wednesday night. We didn’t leave until the next morning when the tides were back up.

It was so funny to see everyone sit like this because when I tried it was physically impossible

The rice paddies

The view from the apartment

Pagoda

The way their hosues/apartments are built

View from a cafe we ate at

This was seen often in the streets

Halong Bay

The Chinese ladies that would come over to the boat and try to sell us snacks and beer

Part of the cave

Our French friends (minus the mom and dad)

There was a random ax in our room so it was only appropriate to take a picture

Just a couple million Dong

On the balcony of the apartment

Getting her measurments for the dress

Singapore Pictures

2011-03-19T21:14:00.001-04:00

On the transit system

Food markets everywhere

There were hedges in the shape of shoes and purses

One of the many malls

Instead of tanning lotion they have lightening lotion

The downtown area

Singapore Sling

Add caption

India

2011-03-19T21:01:00.001-04:00

There was so much to absorb from India that I haven’t even been able to write my blog until a week after leaving. Amazing how time flies on this trip and to say that I left India a week ago feels like it was actually months ago. I am going to split this entry up based on the days spent in India so it will hopefully be easier to follow.

Day 1

    There was a lot of hype building up to India. There were so many rumors about India being so dirty everyone throws away their clothes after, you must wear conservative/traditional clothing or else you will be targeted, you will see dead bodies some places you go, the food will make you poop your brains out, and that the poverty just slaps you in the face. Every night before we get to a port we have preport where you learn last minute things about the country; customs, currency exchange, phrases in other languages, and things about the trips through SAS. There were 2 nights worth of preport for India because there was so many necessary things to know about the country. Let me remind you that we have been learning about each country in all of our classes all semester so we already know a lot about the places but India had a few more necessities than the others. There are 1.2 billion people in the country and 300 million of them live on less than $1 a day. I think everyone was expecting to see a lot more poverty than we did but a country with such a large population doesn’t only have poor people. They also have 1 million millionaires but many people don’t realize that because when a lot of people think of India poverty is one of the first things that come to mind.
    The morning we were coming into India I woke up around 5 am to a very weird smell in our room. I knew it wasn’t something from our room and it had to be something coming through the vents because it smelt like sewage. When we were in Ghana I noticed a smoke smell in our room. This was because they burn all their trash so the air smelled like a forest fire and got in our ventilation system. When we were in Cape Town the port was really fishy smelling and I blame all the sea lions playing around because that was the only part of the shore I was around that smelt so strongly of fish. Before we were even in the port in Chennai it smelt like what I would imagine a slum would smell like. I kept trying to fall back asleep but the smell kept waking me up so I decide to just get up and get ready. The port we came into was industrial so all I really saw when I went outside was 500 mini coopers parked on the dock that I’m guessing had come off the ship before us.
    Hanna, Jill, Drew, and I wanted to go into town to get some traditional clothing before we all went on our trips the next day. We have to take a shuttle to the gate of the port before we can get a taxi or anything. It is the best feeling walking off the ship for the first time and just soaking up everything around you. There is a big line to get out of the gate because each person has to get their passport checked every time we come in and out (India had very strict immigration). We are standing in line and see these little yellow, 3 wheeled, motorized hooptie. We figured out that it was a rickshaw and was the common way to get around. We hopped in one and zipped through the line and made it through immigration in a jif. We couldn’t stop laughing because the situation was so funny. 4 of us were packed in the back of this weird taxi moped and this barefoot Indian man is sitting on one foot and casually weaving in and out of the crazy traffic around us. There were a lot of people out and about but it wasn’t anything compared to what I was expecting. We got through traffic really fast and I was terrified by their traffic system. To me it seemed so unorganized and dangerous but somehow it worked for them. Everyone went so fast, completely ignored traffic signs, and while driving full throttle with people turning from every direction they were inches from the person in front of them. Random cars and people would come right in front of us and it didn’t even seem to faze them. Slamming on their brakes was as common as using a blinker (assuming they used a blinker for half the turns they made). So even though the ride was really scary I had no control so all I could do was sit back and laugh. We went to a shop and got really cool cashmere shawls and a couple things to wear. Girls aren’t supposed to show their shoulders or wear anything above their knees. Everywhere in the country is different but overall it is a conservative country and some places are more traditional than others.
    We got back to the ship just in time to go on an FDP called Socioeconomic Problems in Chennai that was supposed to take us to a slum and show us the way of life in a poor area. Like most Semester at Sea trips it was somewhat organized and unpredictable. We were brought to a place that was government housing for people who were displaced from the tsunami in 2001 and from various slums. It was a poor area but the people were being taken care of and were nothing like a real slum. The community was set up in a way to make itself sustainable. There were jobs created to take care of their community so in order to live there they had to have a job in the area. They had this composte system where they took their trash and made it into fertilizer. There was an interesting story about a lady who had gotten a small business loan to go to cosmetology school and open a barbershop up in their neighborhood. It was a very poor quality of life but they still had water and electricity. Something I saw in more than this neighborhood was random cows walking around on the streets. The cow is a sacred animal in the Hindu religion so they just roam around everywhere and sometimes in the weirdest places. The consequence of hitting a cow on the road is the death penalty. In the northern part of India there is a big Muslim population and the pig is their sacred animal so most of the food is vegetarian. Along with the random cows all over the place there was trash everywhere. It is cleaned up in the street area for the most part but any bare patch of land is covered with trash. They just don’t care as much. We were coming back to the gate one day and my friend had a cup he wanted to throw away so he asked the immigration people where he could throw it away and they pointed behind their desk thing which was an open field. He went back there and was looking around for a trash can and couldn’t find anything. He hesitantly kept looking at them and they insisted him to just throw it on the ground, it was so weird.
    After the FDP we packed for our trip and took it easy because Hanna, Drew, and I were going with SAS on a 4 day trip and Jill had a home-stay in Chennai.

Day 2

   We left the ship at 4 am for the airport to catch our flight to Dheli. I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed because I was not in a good mood. Of course at the time I didn’t feel like I was in a bad mood but I was extremely irritable. I seemed to only let it out on Drew though who is one of our really good friends. I met him on facebook a few days before I left for the Bahamas because he lives in the same neighborhood as my big sis in my sorority. Hanna, Jill and I met him on our Amazon Explorer trip in Brazil and we have all been great friends since. But back to India, unfortunately Drew was the recipient of my irritation that morning. It had been building up for a couple of days because we had all been getting ready for the trip and to me Drew kept asking Hanna and I the least logical questions I’m assuming because he was a little anxious about the trip. He showed up to the airport with a bag that was equivalent to the size of a body bag. We aren’t allowed to check bags while on SAS trips so I couldn’t even imagine what he had in his bag that couldn’t be left behind. Turned out it was 6 rolls of toilet paper and like 13 outfits of which 2 were worn. I’m sure I am making it sound worse than it was but it was just one of the many things he did that I did not understand. I felt better after the flight and was nicer to him.
    The flight was about 2 hours and we were served a free meal and had free TV. I had no idea what I was eating or most of the things that were on TV but it was still a nice treat. Our trip was nonstop from then on. When we got off the plane we met our tour guide and got on a bus that had a huge TOURIST sticker going across the front of it. So much for trying not to stand out. We headed to a monaument called Qutab Minar, a victory tower of the first Islammic dynasty. It is red sandstone and is decorated with geometric designs and verses from the Koran. We stopped for lunch at this place called Pepper. It was our first taste of India and we all passed pepto around the table to prepare for what was ahead of us. The food was great and the Nan bread so good. For dessert they had these balls of dough that were freid and soaked in a honey sauce with ice cream. They were DELICIOUS! After lunch we stopped at the India Gate which is a memorial commemorating all the soldiers that died in World War I. It looked just like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Two of the girls in our group of 30 got lost within the 30 minutes we were there. Our group leader is an Asian Politics professor on the ship. Her name is Margeret Fu and she was one of the highlights of the trip. She is a younger lady from China and she is so awkward and clueless but it makes her so funny! When she thought something was funny she would laugh so hard and was shy about it and you couldn’t help but laugh with her. She made a system that every time we met at a spot we would count off to make sure everyone was there. Everyone had the same number each time so we would know who was missing.
   The girls finally found their way back and our next stop was Ghandi’s memorial. It was a really pretty, green grassy area and was a place I never thought I would be in my life. As we drove from place to place in our bus I tried to study everything that was happening on the side of the road. There were all sorts of shops and people walking around. Things you would never see in the U.S. There weren’t any sidewalks and when I thought we were in the lane closest to the edge of the road motorcycles and small cars still seemed to squeeze by. Another thing that shocked me was a little girl doing cartwheels and all sorts of acrobatic things on the side of the road next to our bus. A teeneage boy that seemed to be her brother was following her playing some instrument and the longer we stayed at the stoplight the crazier her tricks got. She was popping her shoulders out and basically jumping rope with her arms. It was so freaky! When she was done she looked up at us and was making a motion to her mouth like a ‘give me money so I can eat’ gesture. Our last stop was Humayun’s tomb which was this beautiful building that looked like a palace. Then we headed to the hotel after a long day.
    We stayed at a Ramada Plaza and it was so nice! They welcomed us into the hotel with an Indian lei and put a bindhi (red dot) on our forehead to represent peace and luck. I must’ve gotten the peace and not the luck because shortly after we got there our room keys were passed out and it was people to a room. I was supposed to room with a lifelong learner on our trip (one of the adults on the voyage just doing this for fun) but she wanted her own room so I got my own room too. Awesome!....I thought until I find out Dew was paired with a girl named Francis and the hotel must’ve though that was a guy because all girls were with girls and boys with boys. They don’t know each other so that would be really awkward so gritting my teeth I give Francis my room and volunteer to switch places with her so she doesn’t have to be with some guy she doesn’t know. Any other day I probably would’ve willingly switched but of course I had to room with Drew the day that he is driving me insane. We walked up to our room and see a honeymoon suite sign next to our door and I’m like of great this would happen. But it was the room next door to us and we had a different room but still had to share a bed. It ended up being fine and after that day I was in a much better mood but it was just funny how it all happened at once. We feasted with another buffet dinner and went to bed for another early morning.

Day 3

    We had to be in the lobby ready to go at 5 am. The hotel had a breakfast for us before we headed to the train station to take a train to Jaipur. The train station was only 5 minutes from the hotel but when we were dropped off in the dark to cross the street to what I was guessing was the train station I was a little uneasy. It was so dark out and there were so many people around the train station walking around and I had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. I was just following the crowd hoping that the people around weren’t sketchy.
    We got on the train and they fed us another breakfast during our 2 hour ride. I was falling asleep on and off but when I was awake looking out the window I was surprised at how many people I saw popping a squat at the train tracks to take a dump. It was all men and boys that just pulled their pants down and let it go. I had seen a lot of guys peeing on the side of the road the day before but didn’t see anyone squatting. They don’t use toilet paper and the rumor was that men would grow their left pink nail out to use for a scraper. It was inappropriate to use your left hand when gesturing in public because the left hand was used for ‘dirty work’.
    We got off the train in Agra and this train station was as hectic as the one in Dheli. There were people everywhere and I saw a poor girl sitting next to a vendor looking miserable and had flees all over her. When we were walking to our bus people swarmed us trying to get us to take a taxi or buy things from them. It was a little scary because I wasn’t used to it but little did I know that was going to happen to us every time we got off the bus from then on. These poor half naked kids were following us making the same gesture putting their hands to their mouth and then reaching out for us to give them money. We were told from many different people to never give them money because a lot of times they work under a pimp and don’t get the money. Also because some poor people make more money begging than they do from some government systems that are set up for them so giving money is just encouraging their lifestyle.
    We went to another hotel for a 3rd breakfast. Fu, our group leader, thought it was so hilarious that we had three breakfasts and she kept saying “errywhere we go we eat! We have had sri breakfasts already, it so crazy!” (in an Asian giggling accent). After that we headed to the Taj Mahal. I was really excited because this was one of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip. We got dropped off on the other side of the roundabout to the entrance. Crossing the street was a challenge. Cars definitely have the right away. There was never a break in traffic so trying to find a safe time to cross was impossible. I wasn’t going to be the girl that got hit by a rickshaw and didn’t get to see the Taj Mahal so I just waited for someone else to make a move and was going to follow right behind them. We finally got across into the roundabout and stood with a random cow for a minute until we could cross again and get to the entrance.
    There was about a 10 minute walk to the actual gates on a side walk. There were monkeys on the trees next to the sidewalk and once again we were swarmed with kids and people trying to sell us things. I got some funny videos of people trying to sell us a glitter Taj Mahal snow globe for 500 Rupee and then by the time we were leaving they got it to 3 snow globes for 300 Rupee. We tried to politely say no thank you but they would not leave you no matter what. We later learned that you have to act deaf and blind and act like they aren’t there. It felt harsh but it was so much better than them shoving Krishna sculptures and elephant paintings in your face until you basically pushed them away.
    The security getting in was really intense. You couldn’t bring anything in but your camera. There were all sorts of people coming in. Most of the people in my group were wearing traditional clothing (even though we still stuck out like sore thumbs because we were white) and when we were waiting for our whole group to get through security random girls would come up to us and take pictures if we were wearing a similar color as them. It was really funny and they couldn’t speak English so they would just stand next to you and someone would randomly take a picture. We got our whole group together and we had to walk through a palace type thing and as we walked through the passage we say the Taj and it was so beautiful! It was so surreal looking. I know it is cool looking in pictures but something about actually being there was so amazing! We all kept snapping pictures while our tour guide told us the significance of it which is that a man Shah Jahan built it as a tomb for his lover. It’s quite a beautiful monument just for a tomb. Our tour guide was nice enough to get a group picture of all of us and had copies made for everyone. My friends and I took a million pictures within the hour we had to look around. We got to go inside and see the actual tomb too. It was the best feeling being there and I’m so lucky to mark one of the seven world wonders off the list at such a young age.
    We then went to the Agra Fort which is another beautiful monument that the same guy built to imprison his father. It is made of red sandstone, is a mile and a half circumference with 20 meter high double walls, and can only be entered on a drawbridge. We were there around noon so while we were walking around there was a singing that I heard and didn’t realize it was a prayer call being done by the Muslim visitors and they all bowed down towards Mecca, it was very interesting to see. We went to lunch and then took a five hour drive to Jaipur. On our way we stopped at the sacred city. It was a fort type of monument that was kind of in the middle of nowhere. It was really neat but most of my memories of that place again were the hawkers (people forcefully selling us stuff) and the rail thin begging children. We got into the hotel late and had dinner and went to sleep.

Day 4

    We didn’t have to leave the hotel that morning until 7 so we basically slept in! (haha) We were heading to Amber Fort and wanted to get their early so we could ride the elephants to the fort. The elephants can only take 4 trips a day so it was definitely worth leaving early for. Driving up to the fort was beautiful! It was up on a hill and there was a lake at the bottom so you could see the reflection of the fort in the water. The fort was surrounded by a wall to protect it. The fort was built during the Kachchwaha Dynasty. Like I said it was up on a hill and we got on elephants that took us to the top. It was SO COOL! It was one of those moments where I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. Hanna and I were wobbling back and forth on an elephant while looking at the beautiful scenery of an ancient Indian Palace. We got a tour around the fort and one of the coolest things there was a big open room embedded with tiny mirrors in intricate designs so that when a candle was lit at night the walls would twinkle like stars. We walked down to the bottom instead of elephants and while walking down we saw snake charmers. It was just like the movies, men were sitting cross legged on a rug with a snake in a basket. I could only watch for a few seconds and when I saw the cobra popping up I was out of there!
    Our bus was a little late picking us up so of course as our big group stood at the bottom we were swarmed with beggars. I will never forget the women I saw holding a baby that I could’ve sworn the baby was dead. The baby’s skin on its face was spotty, filthy, and lifeless. The kids around us were touching our feet begging for money it was so sad. When we left that fort we went to a rug making factory and printing shop. They had a neat little co-op going. The company made single and double knot rugs which can take from 6 months to a year to make. They give the supplies to people in surrounding villages to give them jobs and they make the rugs for the companies to sell.
    We at lunch and had the same delicious dessert as the first day. They were called Gulab Jamun but it was much easier for us to just call them Indian balls so that was their name to us. Their ice cream was SO delicious. We later found out it was made out of buffalo milk and the other SAS groups were advised not to eat it but our group seemed to be fine. Right as we were talking about how impressed we were that no one from our group had gotten sick Drew spent the rest of the night in the bathroom because he was sick. That afternoon we did some other sightseeing, got henna tattoos, shopped a little bit and had an earlier night at the hotel. Drew made it through the sightseeing but hung out in the hotel while the girls and I in our group of friends shopped. He was feeling better by the time we went to sleep which was good because we were still sharing a room but this point in the trip we are close enough that it wouldn’t be that awkward if he was still sick. I treat him like a brother and I think he sees me as a sister too so despite my bad mood the first day we just got even closer by the end of the trip.

Day 5

The last day of our trip was mostly a travel day. We took a 5 hour bus drive from Jaipur to Dheli. Before we even got out of Jaipur we were stuck in a massive traffic jam. I couldn’t believe this was the first time we were in a traffic jam for the way they drove but it was very interesting to see how it was resolved. It seemed like there were 3 roads leading up to one intersection and everyone had a different plan on where to turn. Our tour guide had to go out and try and direct traffic but there were so many people trying to go different ways and motorcycles were zipping around making it even harder to make a move. I think our guide gave up and our driver resulted in laying on the horn for minutes at a time to see if it would do anything. I forgot to mention that the driver honks as often as he breathes (not a joke). Every time he would pass someone or someone would pass him or he was turning or he was letting someone turn her would honk and that was how every driver was. I got an awesome video of people trying to direct the traffic and thought to myself wouldn’t you think that when kids and homeless people are directing traffic you may want to invest in some traffic lights. There was this homeless guy that I have a video of grabbing a guy on a motorcycle being like “what are you thinking!?!?” it was so great!
    We made It to Dheli a little late but in time for a Hi-Tea they set up for us and we had a flight back to Chennai at 9 pm. Before our Hi-Tea we stopped at a Sikh Temple which was a very interesting experience. We had to cover our heads with cloth or scarves, take our shoes off, and wash our feet before we entered. Sikh is a religion that is a mix of Hindu and Muslim. Men in the Sikh religion never cut their head or beards so they wear turbans and twist their beard and tuck it into their turbans. Before people would enter the temple they would touch their forehead to the stairs and some would bring this special break in as an offering. There was a golden arch thing in the middle of the room where a man was playing some type of music. People would come in and sit on the floor and pray. When exiting the temple you had to walk out of the doorway sideways to show respect. As we walked out you would be given a scoop of some sort of mush that they would eat as an offering. The people serving it scooped it with their bare hands into your hands. It was flour, butter, water, and honey. I tried it but there was no way I could stomach eating the whole thing. We all stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do with it. We finally found a trash can and tried to discretely throw it away. We then got a tour of this dining hall that the Sikhs were welcomed to eat at for free and they showed us how they made the meals. I had a hard time controlling my gag reflex because of the smells and tried not to think about what was on the wet floor that we were walking through barefoot. Let’s just say their sanitation standards are very different from America. After that we went to Hi-Tea and headed to the airport. We made it back on the ship around 1:30 a.m.

Day 6
    The last day I went out with a group of friends and went to a mall to do some last minute shopping. I went to subway for lunch and had a chicken Tandori sandwich and it was very good. Their whole menu was altered to suite the Indian pallet. While we were eating news about the tsunami in Japan was playing on the TVs. We knew it wasn’t good news and we were supposed to go to Japan in a few weeks.
    We aren’t going to Japan anymore and just heard we are now going to Taiwan for 4 days instead. The radiation in Japan is too dangerous for us to be around. We were hoping we would be able to go to our two ports in Japan and head up to the northern part of the country to do a service project and help out but now we aren’t even going there. We have Japan in the itinerary for all of our classes so I think we will still be learning about it but integrating it with Japan where we can.
    But all in all India was a great port that I will definitely remember forever. The build up was all hype because I definitely didn’t see any dead bodies laying around (that I know of), I didn’t crap my brains out, we did stand out even with our traditional clothes, and it wasn’t near as dirty as everyone said.

All of us in the rickshaw the first day

Family of 4 on a motorcycle

The girls would sit with their legs on the side of the motorcycles because of their saris (dresses)

The school we went to for our FDP

Qutab Minar

Indian balls

Ghandi's Memorial

Qutab Minar

Agra Fort

The Sacred City

Snake Charmer

Gate of India

The Pink City in Jaipur

Drew and I at Amber Fort

The Rickshaw

The inside of Amber Fort

Just a typical street

Henna

Amber Fort

At the Sikh Temple

Amber Fort

The group after our elephant rides

Mauritius

2011-03-07T07:11:00.000-05:00

I will post a blog about what we did in MAuritius later but right now I am in India and have a short amount of time to post pictures so I am making that first priority since it has been a while! I went scuba diving with a group in Mauritius and had a great time! It was so beautiful and unfortunately we were only there for one day.

South Africa

2011-03-07T07:01:00.000-05:00

February 26, 2011

South Africa

We were due to get into Cape Town on Thursday February 17^th. The whole ship was like a middle school the day before Spring Break. Everyone was really excited for Cape Town and everyone had big plans. It was finally a town that was more modern that had so many things to do. As I mentioned before my roommate had kidney stones and still hadn’t passed them before we got there so she had arrangements to go to the hospital once we arrived. Wednesday night a bunch of my friends and I watched the lion king to get ready to see something similar in real life. Hanna and I woke up early Thursday morning to join a group to watch the sunrise. I think it is a tradition to watch the sunrise on port days but this was an especially popular day just to live the opening scene of lion king with the famous ‘Circle of Life’ song that had been hummed on the ship since we came to Africa. It was rough but Hanna and I made it to the top deck around 5 am. The wind took my breath away and it was definitely the coldest air I have felt since I left Colorado in January. We toughed it out and saw a beautiful sunrise and went to bed for a couple more hours. Thursday was the only day I didn’t have a field trip planned so I had a lot to get done so we were all ready to get off the ship when we went to breakfast. We still couldn’t see land which was very strange to us but we patiently waited for ‘the voice’ (the name of the lady that makes all the announcements on the intercom) to tell us we were about to go through immigration. Instead we got an announcement saying it was too windy for the pilot to bring us in so we had to wait until the wind died down. Unfortunately we got many more announcements throughout the day saying just about the same thing. They looked for other ports we could dock in but there was no luck. Instead we went in circles on the really rough sea and hoped the next announcement would bring better news than the last one. To keep us busy they played movies in the Union and planned an open mic night since the last one was so popular. Our friend Kenji always plays his guitar in our room and is really good so we convinced him to play a song. He seemed nervous but finally agreed. There were some really good acts and open mic is exciting because you never know what is going to happen. Last time this girl reinacted a Lady Gaga music video and it was SO funny because she was so serious and didn’t know any of the words and people thought she was kidding but she was so serious. She wasn’t going to leave it as a one hit wonder so she performed again and this time she did “Hot Stuff Baby Tonight”. She knew just as many words as the Lady Gaga song, maybe less but made up for it by ripping her sweater off in the middle of the song to keep the crowd roaring through the whole thing. For some reason it reminded me of something Emily, my sister, would perform for family and friends. Kenji also was a hit and probably had the best acoustic song of the night. I recorded most of the acts so I can share the laughter when I get home.

We went to bed with an announcement saying we were supposed to reach the port between 11 and 1. People had already missed flights for their safaris and a lot of trips were missed. I woke up around 4 in the morning to the drawers banging in and out because we were still rocking back and fourth. I was pissed. We ended up getting in around noon on Friday. I had an Operation Hunger service project planned that day and it was still going we were just going to do the afternoon work. Pulling into Cape Town was jaw dropping. The city is framed in perfectly with 2 large mountains (Table Mountain and Lion’s Peak) and there are high rise buildings in the background behind the Waterfront port area. It was tourist heaven. We drove through the town on our way to our Operation Hunger site. There were all sorts of high end designer shops, restaurants, palm trees, nice cars, and cute boys! Everything was so eye appealing. The drive on the left side and the driver’s seat is on the right. We were in the nicest tourist bus we had been in on the whole trip. It had a huge bathroom right in the middle of the bus, two entry ways, squishy seats, and tinted windows. It didn’t take long until we drove a few minutes outside of the main part of Cape Town and started seeing all the shacks in the townships line up. It was a sea of poverty as you looked out the window and saw townships that went 8 miles in from the highway.

We learned a lot about the apartheid before we got there so we were keeping our eyes open to racism and segregation. Apparently the townships didn’t have much to do with the separation of the black and whites that had happened 20 years ago it was more of people coming from all over the country for work and getting stuck in the townships. The country has a 36% unemployment rate. We were with the founder of Operation Hunger and we were going to a place in a township that was a soup kitchen. Operation Hunger provides them with food once a week and on this visit since we had so many people we were going to help him by weighing all the children so he could keep tabs on them. The kids were so welcoming just like in Ghana. Once they saw we had scales though they got really shy and scared because any time they have seen scales and white people in the past that has meant they were going to get a shot from the doctor. Some of the little ones cried and fussed when we tried to weigh them but were happy to find out they weren’t getting a shot. Most of the kids spoke English which is the country’s main language but they also speak Afrikaan and Xhosa (sounds like klosa but the ‘klos’ is a clicking noise you make with the side of your tongue). Xhosa is a clicking language and is very interesting to listen to and try and figure out how they incorporate a click with the letters in the words. I still can’t even pronounce the name of the language.

The little girls in the township had so many songs to chant for us and dance to it was so cute to watch them. A meal was made for them and they all stood in line with their Tupperware and got something that looked like mashed potatoes and a stew. There were way too many kids for the amount of adults that were there. I don’t know where the parents were but the kids were just roaming freely in the street. Driving through the townships was amazing. The shacks are so close together with metal roofs with tires or anything heavy they could find to keep the roofs on. There were electric poles that had about 20 wires dangling down into each shack. No wonder they have problems of fire! If once shack catches fire they all do because there is no way to get a fire truck in there.

When I got home from that trip a lot of people were leaving the ship all giddy on their way to the U2 concert that was playing in the stadium that the World Cup was played in. Hanna along with 72,000 other people fit into the stadium and enjoyed a great show. I went to dinner in the Waterfront area in a nice restaurant with some friends and neighbors on the ship. It was a very nice restaurant but the food seemed to be very reasonably priced in South Africa so we all splurged a little. Being so thrilled to have a break from the ship food I got a peanut sesame chicken dinner and a ‘Robin Island Iced Tea’. I was so jealous of the girl across from me that got a Karibu Kiss to drink (Karibu was the name if the restaurant and had got awarded the best drink in Cape Town for this drink). It was a chocolaty banana drink in a glass rimmed with powdered chocolate and a massive chocolate elephant head hanging from the glass. It was delicious! Before dinner I thought my malaria medicine was trying to kill me because I felt so terrible until I finally ate some food and I am blaming it on the medicine because it does that from time to time.

After dinner we all went to check out the hot spots on Long Street which is popular for all it’s bars and clubs. One of the girls we were with had friends that were studying abroad in South Africa so we met up with them and went to a club that was having lady’s night. It was fun and such a different experience than we had had anywhere else. There were finally so many people in the city that Semester at Sea kids blended in so much better. We weren’t the only white people for once and there were a lot more people around our age out and about. We went to a few other places and before the night got too late I went back to the ship with some people so we could wake up early to go cycling through the winelands.

This was a trip put on through Semester at Sea so we packed into a few vans and drove about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town into wine country. I got lucky and was in a van with really fun people which is rare because I usually get stuck with some sour apples in my group. Our tour guides name was Neil and he had just spent the last 8 years traveling the world while he worked on a cruise ship. He was very interesting and was a really nice guy. When we were asking questions about South Africa he had a much less liberal view of things than most people that lived there. When talking about the crime in the townships he tried to explain to us that it was the very low percentage of bad people that gave townships their reputation of being dangerous and that the crime really isn’t as bad as people say. We got on our bikes in an amazingly beautiful town that reminded me of a quiet upper scale Californian wine town. There were mountains in every direction you looked. It is getting close to the end of summer for them so the weather was beautiful and the grass was green.

We went on about an hour bike ride through wine vineyards and finished with a picnic at a winery. The views were beautiful and the ride was a little strenuous at times but very enjoyable. Each picnic basket was made for 2 people with samples of all sorts of food and a bottle of wine. I don’t particularly like wine but this trip is all about trying new things right? Kenji (my friend from earlier that was in the open mic night) was on the trip and he and I shared a basket. He doesn’t like wine either so it made us a little more comfortable that we could gag at the wine together if we needed to. The wine was a rose wine and wasn’t too bad. Kenji couldn’t handle it as well as I could but we made a good dent in the bottle. The food was good too. I have no idea what anything was except for the chicken and fruit but it all tasted good! There were some kids playing cricket by us so we played for a little bit and then went to the winery for some wine tastings. I don’t know if it was because I had already had a glass or two but the wine we tasted was amazing! There was an African Jazz wine that was delicious.

After our wine tasting we stopped in a town called Stellenbosch. It is home of South Africa’s oldest college campus. Again the town was really nice and reminded me of a California town. When we were leaving our group split off and Neil, our tour guide, agreed to take us to Table Mountain so we could ride the cable car to the top and watch the sun set. He drove us there but the winds were too strong so the cable car wasn’t in service. Neil was so nice though and drove us to the other side of the mountain to see a really nice part of town and give us another view of Cape Town. It was beautiful! When I got back to the ship I was crossing my fingers that my roommate would be back from the hospital because she had already spent one night there. She wasn’t in the room. I was starting to get really worried because I hadn’t heard anything about how she was doing so I found the number for the hospital I knew she was in and got a hold of her. She was alive and I told her I was going to come see her and asked if she wanted me to bring her anything.

With Jill’s toothbrush and some snacks in hand I headed to the hospital with Hanna and another friend Kelly. She was in this room with 8 other beds but only 2 other people were in there with similar problems. The stone still hadn’t passed so they had given her some other medicines and were still waiting to see if she would pass it and if not they would do surgery. She was in good spirits and was happy to see us. I couldn’t imagine being in a hospital alone for 2 days in a foreign country. Hanna and I were leaving for our safari the next morning so we couldn’t be there if she got surgery. She did end up getting surgery and is on all sorts of different medicine now but should be okay for the rest of the trip.

On Sunday morning Hanna and I and 40 other kids from Semester at Sea headed to the airport to fly into Port Elizabeth and then drove an hour and a half to Kereiga Game Reserve for our safari. We stayed in a lodge on the reserve and it was so nice! They welcomed us with a massive buffet lunch that was absolutely delicious. Every meal from there on out was just as good and just as filling. I left that place with a serious food baby. We were in groups of 4 and had our own cabins called chalets. They were really nice and we all had our own room. The view was beautiful overlooking a green valley. We would go on drives in the evening and early mornings. My safari ranger was so cute! It is always a fun atmosphere when our trips are filled with kids our age so you can tell the guides enjoy it a little more. Terry, our guide, was our age so it was fun to learn about his life because we could relate to it. We saw all sorts of animals; all of the big five except leopard. The big 5 are the most dangerous animals to hunt. They are elephant, water buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhino.

The elephant were my favorite. The first day we saw them they were walking right past our truck and we didn’t faze them at all. They would pull cactus off a branch stomp the thorns off and eat it. The second day we saw them the weather wasn’t as nice and Terry said the wind bothered them because their ears are so sensitive. We were driving and turned a corner and there was a huge elephant in the road so we stopped. The elephant was making a growling noise and flapping its ears and Terry said she was upset about something. She continued to eat and slowly came closer to us. She would lift up her front foot and kind of make a shooing movement which meant we were too close. And we were too close! Too close to start the car and get out of there because the engine would’ve scared her. She got closer and closer and luckily I was the farthest from the elephant in my row but the kid next to me was practically sitting on my lap. She got really close and lifted her head up and was looking right at us. I have this whole thing on video and the kid closest to her is in the whole thing and it is hilarious! He is looking at the elephant then Terry then the elephant then Terry. It was like he was waiting for Terry to do something but there was nothing to be done. Finally she backs up and walks in front of the truck and takes a huge dump right in front of us and we took that as our cue to leave.

We had a great time at the safari and made it back to Cape Town just in time to do some shopping before the ship left. I got a blueberry cheesecake frappe with my lunch and it was scrumptious!!!! There was so much to do in Cape Town but just not enough time. It was a place that I will definitely make my way back to. We just got to Mauritius today and are only staying here for the day. Apparently some voyage in the past stayed here for two days and just destroyed the island because they partied so hard so the government won’t let us stay overnight….that’s embarrassing. I plan on going scuba diving with Hanna and some people on my floor that organized a trip.

The sunrise on the first morning

Operation Hunger

Cape Town's best drink- Karibu Crush

Wine Tour

Bottom of Table Mountain

Visiting my roommate in the hospital

The place where our safari was

The view from my chalet

Wine tour again (i don't know how they got out of order)

The food at our picnic on the wine tour

Drew and I trying to hurry and use internet during our last hour in Cape Town....we failed (but there is the delicious blueberry cheesecake frappe)

Trying to figure out my calling card

Eating dinner on the ship as we left Cape Town

Ghana

2011-02-14T11:06:00.006-05:00

February 14^th, 2011

I had a great time in Ghana! I felt so safe and comfortable the whole time and I don’t think my stories will do justice when trying to explain how nice the locals were to us. As the ship pulled into the port on Saturday morning you could see a bunch of people unloading all their souveniers and goods they were going to try and sell to us. There was a group of men dressed in traditional clothing and they started playing their drums, chanting, and dancing. They were as excited as we were that we had finally reached Ghana. The first day I had a trip for my class and that was to meet the Queen Mothers of Essikado (the name of a town). The port was really far from the town and about a 15 minute walk to get to the security gate where the taxis waited for us. If you had a trip that through Semester at Sea the buses could come all the way to the ship though and eventually there was a shuttle set up for us to take us from the ship to the taxis.

I got on my bus in the morning and headed to one of the Queen Mother’s houses where we had an open Q&A session pretty much. Of course the trip there was another culture shock looking out the window and I was just happy I wasn’t embarrassing myself trying to get into the bank like I was in Brazil. I got to gape out the window freely without much embarrassment. I just remember thinking this is soooooo different! It is hard to explain exactly what Takoradi looks like. It is definitely very poor but it wasn’t sad poor. It was hard to differentiate the poor from the decent. They all looked really poor but it just seemed like their way of life and people didn’t seem to be struggling, they just aren’t anywhere close to we are as far as technology and modernization. Most of the houses looked like shacks that were either made out of brick, shipping containers, or mud. The main road we drove around on was paved but nothing else was. It is their dry season so the dirt made everything really dirty. There were kids everywhere and they were always so excited to wave to us as we drove by. The kids were SO sweet. Everyone carries things on their heads. It was amazing to see what and how much they could balance on their heads. They would carry big bowls of water, boxes filled with things they were selling, a bowl of bags of water (their form of purified water), huge tree branches, and even suitcases which was funny to me. If they had to carry anything they would just plop it on their head and sometimes put a rag on their head to help with the balance.

So we got to the Queen Mother’s house and we were all a little nervous because we didn’t know the customs yet. Our tour guide told us it is rude to use your left hand, only the elders cross their legs, to speak to the queens we have to talk to him, he will interpret, and they will speak to him, then he will deliver the message to us. There were about 8 of them sitting in front of about 30 of us. They spoke a dialect called fanti and could understand and speak some English. It started really proper and was really hot and uncomfortable and really hard to try and not cross my legs. Apparently the way the queens work in society is that the county is broken up into regions, then districts, then parliaments. The queens are head of their parliament and work as a role model and political figure in each town. After about an hour a queen came running in and said she was sorry she was so late, she got caught up at church and joined the group. Once she got there everything was a lot more casual. She was so charismatic and lightened the mood. We took pictures with them after our discussion and headed back to the ship.

The port was far from town but their conveniently was a duty free store right across from the ship so the first night it was bombarded with Semester at Sea kids. Of course we had to go check it out so my group of friends went over there and were bombarded with locals trying to sell stuff. They would roll out these painting in front of you or ask you your name and 5 minutes later tie a bracelet with your name on it around your wrist. The ship was playing the Super Bowl so we went back and it started around 11:30 p.m. because of the time difference. I think I lasted about 2 commercials in and had to go to bed.

The next morning I was out at the bus at 6:45 a.m. to do Habitat for Humanity. The houses we were building were 3 hours away so I had more time to observe the culture as we drove past all the houses/shacks/vendors. The southern part of the country is very Christian and almost every store name incorporated God in it. I saw ‘Trust God Cosmetics’, ‘All Things Possible Through God Barbershop’, etc. Goats run around like stray dogs. They burn their trash to get rid of it. They have open sewage systems. They loved Obama! He was on billboards with their politicians and they had t-shirts with him and the Ghanaian flag everywhere. After the 3 hour drive we took a turn on a dirt road and as we were turning we hit the front of a school just a little. The bus couldn’t fit in the turn so he tried 2 more times and kept hitting it. The road we had turned onto didn’t look drivable for the bus and I’m pretty sure the group of 40 people plus me was holding our breath. We got as far as we could and got out and walked the rest of the way to the 4 houses were helping build. The process wasn’t very organized but I ended up helping move these 25 lb bricks that were laid across the lot they were going to build the next house on. We stacked them up and got them out of the way. It took almost the whole day. I felt like I sweat my body weight. There were little kids from the neighborhood I’m guessing that were walking around helping and taking pictures with cameras that the semester at sea kids would let them play with. They didn’t speak much English but they were really cute. Most people speak English there but their other language is Twe. After the long day we drove back to the ship and I was so dirty and sweaty and ended up being sore for 3 days.

I was free on Tuesday so I went to check out the market with Jill, my roommate, and 2 guys. It was similar to Brazil’s market where they sold anything and everything in their little vendors and everything seemed to be used. It was called market circle and there were buildings built in a circle and the vendors were lined up around them. If you went through the vendors into the middle of the circle that was the real ‘produce’ market I guess you could call it. It was an extremely congested, compact, disturbingly disgusting market. Somehow I got the privilege of leading the group and as we walked quickly trying to not look anymore touristy than we were and stay away from the annoyed looking women at their stands I got to hold all my gagging and shocked facial expressions in. They had the normal fruits and vegetables and then we saw dried fish baking in the sun, live massive snails crawling on each other, and pig’s feet dripping juices into a bowl. Imagine all of this in 90 degree weather and no such thing as a refrigerator so who knows how long that stuff had been sitting out. I felt like I could taste it, I couldn’t get away from the smell.

After the adventure through the market we went back to the ship for lunch. Someone told us about a really cool beach that he had spent the last 2 days on so we decided to check it out. It was amazing! There was only one other small group on the whole beach. The water was so warm and pretty. It was a great afternoon. That night we decided to go to The Ocean Bar that everyone on the ship kept talking about. I don’t know what was so special about it because when we got there all I saw was prostitutes scouting out which older white man (I don’t know where those guys came from because I felt like we were the only white people in the country)they were going to leave with that night. Luckily there were enough SAS people there to still have a good time and if we went next door to a reggae bar there were a lot of cool locals to talk to.

We went back to Busua Beach the next day but had a much bigger crowd. There were 15 of us. We had to take 3 taxis or so down to the bus station and then get on a Tro Tro which is the public transpiration system. It only cost us $3 cedi ($1.50 US) if we did it that way. We packed all of us into a van that should’ve only taken 10 people. The way it works is the Tro Tro goes one direction and people get on and off throughout the trip if they are going the same direction. We of course didn’t have any room for anyone to hop on but the driver still made a few pit stops (I’m guessing he was running errands). Luckily we were with a pretty cool group that could only laugh about the situation and the fact we were on an adventure in Africa. The ride was about an hour long and then we had another amazing day at the beach. It started raining around lunch but everyone was excited to swim in the ocean while it rained. Again my waterproof camera was very handy. In the afternoon the local kids started coming out and they were so interested in us so they came over and started playing with us. More and more kids kept coming and at one point I think I had 7 kids on my towel playing with my ipod, camera, and they were interested in my belly button ring. They were all so sweet we knew they didn’t mean any harm and they loved getting to play with our cameras. They were doing gymnastics for us and we played soccer with them and that was what made the trip so memorable.

The next day was our last day and I got a last minute trip to an orphanage from someone who was tryin to sell their ticket. It was another great experience with the kids. All the kids were abandoned or their parents couldn’t take care of them anymore so they were going to school and living at this home. We played all sorts of games with them and it was so fun to see them scream and laugh. It is amazing to compare them to American kids. There were some families from the ship that came on the trip and we were playing summer camp games like sharks and minos and everyone was getting pushed around as we ran around. The American kids were drop to the ground if they got pushed and gasp for air as they broke into hysterical sobs. The African kids would look at them like whoa what is wrong with them? Some would help them up and give them a hug but the American kids were way too dramatic to brush it off. Not many of the Africans were wearing shoes and they were fine the whole time. We spent the day there and it was a great way to end the trip.

When we would come home from all the trips there were a couple tents with souvenier things next to the ship. You would walk past in the morning and they’d ask your name and somehow they remembered your for the rest of the trip. They were really cool to talk to once you would get it across that you weren’t going to buy any of their bracelets or paintings. There was a lady that really liked me and taught me how to make bracelets and the next day she gave me a bookmark that said Erica in Ghana 2011 in the Ghanaian flag colors. We exchanged addresses and took come pictures. A lot of people asked for our addresses or facebooks while we were there and were so friendly. Most of those people were from Accra, the Capital, but everyone knew when Semester at Sea was coming and they said it was like Christmas. A guy said the amount of money they make from us when we come is the reason their family has food for the year. When we pulled away at 8 they were packing all their stuff up but stopped and played their drums and waved as we left. My friend Sandra was still down there and somehow spotted me and yelled my name and waved goodbye.

We have had class for 4 days since we left and have 2 more then we are in South Africa. My roommate woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain in her stomach so I got help and brought her to the health clinic downstairs. Turns out she has a kidney stone. They gave her a shot of morphine and some other pain meds. She has been sleeping all day and I have been really worried about her. I haven’t even heard her move around or go to the bathroom. I make sure she is okay every time I come in or leave the room but hopefully it will pass and she will be okay before South Africa!

Pictures coming soon!

The kids always chased the car waving when they saw white people

The Queen Mothers

Picture of a typical neighborhood

They loved Obama

Habitiat for Humanity

Our helpers

At the Father's Ministry Orpahnage playing sharks and minos

The whole group

My new friend Sandra

Busua Beach

Going out to Ocean Bar

More new friends

I wanted to take him home

More friends at the beach

Sea Olympics

2011-02-14T11:06:00.005-05:00

February 5^th, 2011

We are finally finishing our 9 day stretch from Brazil to Ghana. We just finished our pre-port briefing and tomorrow morning we will be in Ghana. The long haul on the Atlantic Ocean wasn’t as bad as I was expecting at all! The water was as smooth as glass almost the whole time, it was amazing. My days consisted of waking up to work out at 7 (a group of us do videos like p90x called insanity), going to breakfast, shower, class, lunch, class, pool, nap, dinner, study, movie almost every day. We had class for 6 days in a row and it didn’t feel that weird having class on Saturday and Sunday because we are in our own little world while everyone at home is freezing and having snow days.

My roommate’s birthday was last Saturday so a group of us surprised her and signed up for fine dining. We each have to pay for our spot but it has a 5 course delicious meal! It was such a treat! So nice to get a break from the cafeteria food. Almost every meal consists of potatoes in some sort, pasta, and some sort of meat. It is amazing how many potatoes they cook on this ship! At the fine dining we had stuffed chicken breasts, chicken lollipops, pasta, salad, and a delicious chocolate soufflé and a birthday cake of course.

One of the days I went on a bridge tour (where all the controls of the ship are) and it was so neat! It was cool seeing the ocean from the front of the boat instead of the sides and the back. The captain came out and talked to us for about 30 minutes and it was nice to get to know him a little bit. He is from England and has quite the sense of humor but is still very reserved. I asked him what his favorite part of his job was and he said, “Some people say absolute power corrupts but I think it’s rather neat (English accent).”

The other day we had a break from classes and had Sea Olympics. Each deck represents a different Sea and we had 8 teams compete against each other in all sorts of silly games like tug o war, dodge ball, 3 legged race, trivia, house of cards building and the funniest was the synchronized swimming. I competed in the hula-hoop contest but didn’t win. My Sea was the Bering Sea and our color was purple (how perfect for me). It was so much fun cheering everyone on and each team had their own chants it reminded me of high school pep rallies. Everyone on the ship was involved, even the teacher and their families. The winning team gets to get off the ship first when we get back to America. My team didn’t win unfortunately but it was still a great day.

In all my classes we have been preparing for Ghana so I am excited to see what it’s like. At night they will play movies on a loop on a few channels that goes to all the tvs. After Brazil we watched City of God which is about the slums in Brazil, The Bittersweet Truth about Chocolate (a movie about child labor in the cocoa business in Ghana), and right now I am watching Blood Diamond. There is so much going on it kind of distracts me from not living the normal like of watching TV, having a phone, and using the internet. Tomorrow I am going in to a village to see the Queen Mothers of the village for one of my classes and then tomorrow night they are trying to get the super bowl streamed to the ship. It will start at about 11 here. On Monday I am doing habitat for humanity all day long and then the rest of my days will be free to explore. I will post pictures and another blog after all my activities!

I will put pitcures up when I have better internet :)

Brazil

2011-01-27T11:07:00.003-05:00

This is the first time that Semester at Sea has gone to Manaus, Brazil. It is 1000 miles up the Amazon River. On Wednesday night (January 20^th) we entered the Amazon River and the water went from blue to muddy brown pretty quick. The captain made an announcement that they were bringing the stabilizers in so we needed to make sure everything in our room was secure because the ship might roll a lot so we all got really worried. The ship went from rocking so much on the ocean then when we woke up it was like we were floating. The river water is like a lake and is so much calmer than the ocean. It took us 4 days on the river to get to Manaus. The water is really muddy and was light brown and all sorts of weird insects made their way to the ship (luckily we are all on malaria pills for the rest of the trip so we don’t have to worry about the mosquitoes anywhere). It was overcast most of the days we were sailing but still SO HOT!!! You could definitely tell we were on the equator. I laid out the day before we got to the port and fried! It was overcast but occasionally the sun would come out from the clouds and it was unbearable to sit out, you had to get in the water.

On Sunday we finally made it to the port and Hanna, Jill (my roommate), and I were going on an Amazon Explorer trip at 10:30. We decided to go look around the town a bit before our tour and planned to go to a bank to get Real (Brazilian currency). We got off the ship and we were FOBs, what Hanna and I used to call tourists in Hawaii (fresh off the boat). We were taking pictures of everything and I’m sure looked so lost and confused. Since it was Sunday a lot of things were closed and they have this be a family day so a lot of people were at the bus stops which were right by the port. When we had our preport discussion which was the night before they tell us do’s/don’t, things about the culture, and other things we need to know about the place. There were diplomats and people that worked in Brazil that got on the ship with us for a couple days that were telling us important things and it was pretty much a whole week of hearing about how Rio de JaneIro is the most dangerous city and it sounded like if you walked anywhere you were bound to get robbed. About half the ship was taking a trip to Rio and the other half was staying in Manaus. Most of the people aren’t back yet so I haven’t heard if anything bad happened or not. So anyways we were still paranoid even though they said Manaus was safer. We hadn’t walked very far and a guy in a police uniform came up to us and said “Oi!” (which means hello in Portuguese) and he took Jill’s camera from her hand and was talking so fast in Portuguese and I’m guessing he was saying don’t walk with your camera in your hand because someone could take it right off your wrist. Then he looked at me and said “thank you” and shook my hand. Then we were scared and couldn’t get in the bank when we found it because we were too stupid to open the door and we felt so helpless. Finally we followed someone in when we saw we were using the wrong door and tried to figure out how to use the ATM that was mostly in Portuguese.

Hanna, Jill, and I split up with our group and decided our 35 minutes of culture shock was enough for now and headed back to the ship where our tour was meeting. On our way back this tour guide who spoke English was trying to get us to come see the pink river dolphins with us. He was really nice and we were around a bunch of security guards so we didn’t think he meant any harm. He was friends with one of the security guards (who was tall dark and handsome with huge muscles) and he was like do you think my friend is bonito or auguala (I’m not sure if that was the word but it doesn’t matter because I think it means ugly and he definitely wasn’t ugly) and pointed to the security guard. And we all three went “bonito!”. So for the rest of the trip we would look for him and called him Bonito.

The conversation with him lightened our moods and we were excited for our tour. We got on river boats and went up the river to where the Amazon River begins. The Negro river and the Solimoes river meet but don’t mix. The Negro river is black from the decomposition of the trees and everything that falls in the river. It moves much slower than the other so it is a lot warmer. The meeting of the rivers was so cool because they don’t mix until 6 miles down so it is two different colors of water flowing down the same canal.

We learned about life in Manaus and everything that goes on along the river. We went in a side channel of the river to this floating restaurant where they had prepared and authentic Brazillian meal for us. It was delicious! After that we went in the rainforest and saw giant lilipads, a massive tree, the huge fish they made us for lunch, I got to hold a sloth, and we fished for Paraná. It was such a great day and we were hanging out with some really cool people. My roommate and I get along so well. I laugh so hard with her! We have a little group of girls that we eat most of the meals with and we all have a great time. It seems like every night I have gone to bed Jill and I have laughed ourselves to sleep. She makes me feel a lot funnier than I am because she laughs hysterically at all the weird voices I make.

That night the Brazilians that were staying on the ship with us wanted to take us to Samba. So many kids on the ship got ready and I’m pretty sure we were all thinking we were going to be taking dancing lessons and learning how to samba. We got there and it was a huge block party in the street. There were so many people and the beat of the drums was so loud. We were still in a bit of a culture shock and no one spoke a word of English so we were struggling to communicate with people all night. I felt uneasy because no one besides the group we came with spoke English around us but once we worked our way through the crowd we found so many Semester at Sea kids. The samba was more like people jumping around to the beat and wasn’t exactly a specific dance (or there were just too many people for it to actually look like a specific type of dance). There were about 50 people with drums and tambourines that were spread throughout the crowd and somehow they were all playing to the same beat. It didn’t take long until I was feeling more comfortable and didn’t feel like anything bad was going to happen. There were people of all ages there and a bunch of the teachers and lifelong learners from the ship. This local girl adopted the group of girls I was with and even though we couldn’t understand each other we danced all night and had a great time. Hanna and I were on cloud 9 by the end of the night and had so much fun interacting with their culture.

The next day we went to a mall that had free wifi so some kids got on the computer but we walked around the mall. We ate at a restaurant and once again used sign language for the waitress to understand what we wanted. We ended up with a Portuguese pizza that was delicious. It had ham and hardboiled egg and olives on it. Later we went up an escalader and didn’t really know where we were going and this guy could tell we were kind of lost and pointed up and said cinema and we smiled and he was like the movie theater is up there and we were like ohhhh and he got really excited and was like you speak English? And he introduced himself to us and was struggling with his English but was really excited to practice his English and talk to 4 American girls. We talked to him for a long time and decided to walk around with him and he was SO funny! You could tell her was nervous to talk to us and he would get so frustrated when he couldn’t say what he wanted to. We talked to him for probably 2 hours and asked about his life and he asked about ours. It was so amazing. We exchanged facebooks and emails and he hugged all of us goodbye.

Sorry this is getting so long so I will highlight what we did for the rest of the trip so it won’t be such a novel. We went to the fish market and was with a group of girls again and when we walked in it was like a whistling competition between all the butchers to see who could whistle at us louder. It was so funny and loud we couldn’t hear eachother talk. Then next door they had a huge warehouse filled with bananas and plantains and I was trying to take a video of the assembly line of men as they took the bundles of bananas off the truck and as soon as they saw me with my camera they stopped and started waving and lifted up their shirts so it ended up being a really funny video.

The markets are crazy here. The sidewalks are filled with vendors and they sell EVERYTHING. It really isn’t a tourist town so the markets and street vendors are for the people who live there. Most of the stuff are things that are used that they are selling again but on the street they were selling everything from remote controls, kitchen knives, haircuts, underwear, wheels, pots, and pretty much anything you could think of. One afternoon Hanna, Jill and I went to the opera house and were tired so we sat in this park and another local came up to us to practice his English and he was so nice too. He was a hairstylist so he was tan with blonde hair and eyebrows were blonde and was wearing pink shox and a purple Brooklyn shirt. He said his name was Jefferson but I’m pretty sure that is his American name. He went around and shopped with us and was so fun. We exchanged emails and got a picture with him to. It seemed like every time we went out on town something amazing would happen and we would come back to the ship so happy.

They have DELICIOUS chocolate here. We went to a Brazilian BBQ place and that had unlimited beef and sides and we got a chocolate molten cake desert and we were all fighting over licking the plate at dinner. None of the food made me sick so I was a little more daring than I think I will be in other places.

Yesterday Hanna and I went on a trip with Semester at Sea to the zoo with kids who were abandoned and have special needs and it was so incredible. The kids were so so so happy to see us. They got to eat hot dogs and popcorn for lunch so everything was American themes since we were coming to visit them. I am involved in a group on the ship that is called One World Futbol and we have 35 soccer balls to give to kids who don’t have balls to play with. They are made out of the same material as crocs so they are indestructible. You can flatten them and it will pop back out. So at the end of the service visit a lady translated for us that we were giving them a ball and it was a symbol of a friendship that will last forever. They were so happy and were cheering and it was a moment I’ll never forget.

Last night was out last night here so we went with a group of kids to this club called Crocodillios. It went from like 10 people being there to half the ship was there in about 10 minutes. They were playing techno and had crazy laser lights. I was with Hanna and Jill again and it seems like anytime we are together it is a great time. All of a sudden the man that we met on the first day with his security guard friend came up to me. We had talked to him every time we saw him by the taxis because he would interpret for us and tell the drivers where we wanted to go. He grabs my hand and pulls me to a section where the couches and pointed to this guy. All three of us at the same time went “Bonito!”. It was the sexy security guard and we were so excited! I guess he is an MMA fighter and he gave us one of his promotion shirts that is now hanging on our wall. It was a great night and an all around amazing time in Brazil. Sorry about all the typos I’m sure I had. I had to write this quick but will try to at least proof read next time. We leave today and have an 8 day stretch to Ghana. One of the days is Neptune Day and we celebrate crossing the equator and have the Olympics on the ship.

Cio! From Brazil

Pictures from Brazil

2011-01-27T11:06:00.001-05:00

Click on the pictures to make them bigger

Laying out on the equator (SO HOT!) with the Amazon in the background

This is my wolf pack

There was not much civilization on the coast of the Amazon

The favelas or houses on stilts in Manaus. The water can get really high! They said the safest house is a floating house.

Mixing of the rivers

The river boat we were on

Last year the water was over those houses

Our delicious Brazilian meal

Jill and me (my roommate)

Giant Lilipads

I wanted a picture with my hand in the Amazon and something hit my hand and it scared me

Tour guide trying to drown bob

we held a sloth!

Fishing for a parana

The ambassador that brought us to the samba

The band let us bang the drums at the samba

Trying to communicate with our new friend

Crammed taxi ride

Most amazing chocolate!

Our friend in the mall Marcos!

Dessert gone in 1.5 minutes

Cafe

Our friend Jefferson that took us shopping

BONITO!!!! I was wearing the shirt he gave us hahaha

Dominica

2011-01-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

We left Dominica a couple days ago and I just uploaded my pictures to my computer and am ready to recap what I did there. It was so different from what I was expecting. It is an island in the Caribbean below Guadalupe and above Martinique. It was smaller so it wasn’t as touristy as you would think for how beautiful it is. The few hotels they have are very small and maybe 3 stars. The port we came into was pretty small too in the capital, Roseau. When we got there on Sunday it was raining but as soon as the sun came up it cleared up pretty quickly. The island was so beautiful from the port. It is a volcanic island so the soil was rich and everything was so green!

I went on a snorkeling trip in the morning to the Champagne Reefs. My pictures don’t do justice for what it looked like but there were streams of air bubbles rising to the surface from the coral so essentially the water looked like a class of champagne. It was my first Semester at Sea trip and Hanna wasn’t on that one so of course I made more new friends and there were like 60 kids in the water flipping around so it was a little crowded in the water but still saw some great things. It was my first time using my underwater camera that I got for Christmas and I LOVE IT! It was so perfect for that trip. When we got out of the water we all had a free drink card so even thought it was only 10:30 or so of course the group of college kids were all interested to taste the islands rum so we got rum punch. It was SO strong and spicy! It was so spicy that there were flakes of whatever spice floating around in the cup. I could barely finish mine (it wasn’t vanilla yummy spice like Captain Mo).

After the trip we went back to the ship for lunch. It was Sunday so everything in town was closed and they just had the taxis running for the tourists. There weren’t even any restaurants open. It was interesting seeing what the town was like all shut down and knowing that it was going to be completely different the next day (Monday morning). To me it is admirable that they can basically shut down the whole island for a day to give everyone a day of rest. You would never see that in America, we are all about 24 hour convenience. After lunch a group of us decided we wanted to go on a hike. We kept hearing about all of these waterfalls so we walked off the ship and worked out a deal with the same tour guide I had in the morning to take us all to the waterfalls and back for $13 each. There were about 30 or 40 of us by the time we ended up leaving and I felt like that was a pretty good deal. It ended up being an incredible trip. I don’t know if it was because we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we planned the trip or if traveling with a bung of people your age makes things more exciting but I had a great time! The hike was pretty vigorous but it was only about 45 minutes. None of us really knew each other so we all talked in groups of 5-10 as we hiked through the amazingly lush forest to this massive waterfall.

I couldn’t even get a picture of the whole waterfall because it was so tall. After everyone took pictures it was like a race for the boys to see who could get in the water first. The swam across the pool the waterfall was flowing into and there was a little cave on the other side that they climbed up and jumped off. After watching the boys do it the rest of the kids followed and again I was so happy for my camera. Everyone was like take a picture of me! Come climb the cliff with me so we can take a picture! So again it was very useful. We were all like little kids just so excited and thinking how crazy it was for us to continue the hike and talk about what we were doing in China, India and Brazil. It is hard to grasp the this is just the beginning of our journey.

The tour guide/taxi driver hiked with us which was interesting to me but it gave us a chance to ask her all sorts of questions. I was just caught off guard when she was walking through the streams that cut through that paths in her khaki pants and tennis shoes. Later I found out that it was normal for them to go with you. They feel that you are their responsibility from when they pick you up to when they drop you off. She seemed to really like us because she was telling us all sorts of jokes and dirty words and sayings they use on the island. She kept pulling over to pick all sorts of leave and grasses for us to look at. She showed us lemon grass that apparently heals any cold you may have if you make tea out of it or even just inhale it. There is a root of a plant that is apparently like natural Viagra so that was the root of most of the jokes.

The roads on the island are insane! They drive on the left side of the road and say “the right side is suicide”. On most of the roads I didn’t see a “right side”. They were so narrow but somehow we were able to pass cars on the other side of the road. They also honk at every car to wave and say hello. The next day we took a tour to a few different spots and went up so many winding roads and I was happy I wasn’t hung over like half the bus because there were definitely some gray faces onboard. They don’t have any traffic lights on the entire island. Our guide said if you can survive driving on Dominica, you can drive anywhere in the world.

The second day we went up to another waterfall called Emerald Pool. If the sun hits the pool just right it looks like an emerald. IT was raining again in the morning so I figured it would clear up again and I wouldn’t need my rain jacket….WRONG. We were soaked by the time we got to the fall because it was pouring rain so we didn’t get to see the emerald effect but I would say we got to see the rainforest effect. The next stop was Trafalger falls which were two huge twin falls. They were so big we didn’t get close to the pools of the waterfalls like the other ones but it was quite an amazing site. We hiked as close as we could and walked through a bunch of streams and some of them were warm because there was random hot springs around.

As soon as our trip got back Hanna and I spotted an internet café and got an hour of internet for $2 (WAY cheaper than the ship so we were thrilled). It felt so crazy being in a foreign country updating our blogs and just thinking we are going to be doing that in so many more places around the world. After that we explored Roseau and I was determined to try a banana because they are the United Kingdom’s #1 banana source. We went to the market and all the bananas left were bright green and we can’t bring them on the ship so I was SOL. We looked around for a place to eat for 30 minutes and I’m sure we had passed so many places but their advertisements or lack of are so different from ours that nothing was catching our eyes. They only have 3 fast food places; pizza hut, KFC, and Subway. They said diabetes was the main illness of the island but people live for a really long time there. The oldest person in the world lived there and made it to 128. They have so many natural herbs that they stay pretty healthy. Anyway we finally found a place and we had tried a cherry soda earlier in the day and this place had a banana one so I was pumped! Hanna and I ordered our food and the lady took our order in and then came back and told us they were out of pretty much everything we ordered (even the banana soda) so we went through like 2 more meals before we found something they actually had. We ended up with chicken wings and fries which were delicious.

We finished the day shopping and got back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. The sun set and there were amazing rainbows on the opposite end of the sky. We pulled out around 8 and started towards Brazil on the Atlantic Ocean. It didn’t take more than 10 minutes for us to all feel that we were in a different ocean. It was SO rough. I could barely sleep the whole night. The boat would go up and down, up and down, and every 5^th wave or so we would go really high and slam into the water again. It was so loud and in my dreams I was thinking it was so much more dramatic than it was and I felt like the ship was going to tip over. It was still rough the whole next day and kids had a hard time staying in class. Yesterday was a lot calmer and last night we passed the equator and entered the Amazon River!

Our next stop is Manaus, Brazil which is 1,000 miles up the Amazon River. It has been very calm (like we are on a lake) and it is hot and humid! The sun isn’t out at the moment but right now I am on the pool deck looking out at the brown water and the land in the distance. The river is about 3 miles wide so it is still a pretty far stretch. I started taking my Malaria pills yesterday. All the places from here until India have Malaria so almost everyone on the ship is on medicine. I have to take a pill everyday for the next 99 days! Classes are getting a little better but it is so hard to focus and do any work. In Brazil I am doing an Amazon Exploring tour and going to the Zoo with kids with leukemia. I will let you know how it goes!

Pictures from Dominica

2011-01-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

Right before we left the port in Dominica

The Champagne Reef (my pictures don't do justice for what it looked like)

The hike to the waterfall

Emerald Pool

Trying their cherry soda

Random guy on the side of the road

There was a dock everyone was jumping off of right by the ship (the water was much prettier than most ports water)

Eevrything was so colorful!

Domonica Preview

2011-01-17T12:10:00.003-05:00

I am in an internet cafe in Domonica right now. I'm soaking wet from a tour we went on this mornign through the rainforest. It was POURING rain while we hiked through the rainforest but we got to see the waterfalls at their prime! I can't wait to put up pictures! I just posted pics from the last couple days on the ship and hopefully in Brazil I will post all the Domonica pictures. This island is so amazing! The people are so nice and the scenery is beautiful! I went snorkling and hiking yesterday and today I hiked to some waterfalls again. We leave tonight so before we go Hanna and I are going to walk through the streets and get some local food, souveniers, and super glue for my dang tevas that keep falling apart! Hope you like the updated pics and don't worry there are more coming!

Pictures from the Ship

2011-01-17T12:06:00.000-05:00

Waitinf in line to get on the ship for the first time

Long line of students and parents

My room

Life boat drill

Parents on the dock waving goodbye to us

Map on the ship showing us where we are

The dean of students talking at our orientation (600 kids in the room)

Tanning after class

The pool area

My roommate and I enjoying the view as we pass an island

On the Ship

2011-01-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

So it is Friday January 14^th (may be posted at a different time it just depends on when I get internet) and it still hasn’t fully set in that this is my life for the next 4 months. I got on the ship on Wednesday and have been so busy ever since. I got to the port in Nassau at about 10 am and got behind what seemed like 100 kids in line. It went by fast though because there was so much excitement in the air and everyone’s parents were still with them so I met a lot of people. My dad stayed with me until I got up to the front an then it was time for the parents to leave. It wasn’t hard to get on the ship, just went through some metal detectors and got some paper work and went up to check out my cabin. I am on the 4^th deck inside. The room is great, way better than I was expecting. My roommate wasn’t there yet though and my bags were still on the way up so I listened to my growling stomach and decided it was time to see what kind of food I will be eating on the ship for the semester. I was kind of nervous because Hanna was checking people in since she is work study and my roommate wasn’t here yet so I didn’t have a wingman. I feel like this is my 3^rd freshman year because since I transferred this is the 3^rd time I am meeting all new people. I knew almost everyone is in the same situation as me so I figured I could make a new friend quick. Sure enough I did and a big group of us went up and ate. Everyone was so giddy and excited that we were finally on the boat.

Later on I met my roommate in the room. Her name is Jill and she is from Long Island, New York. She plays lacrosse for a small school in Long Island. She is really nice and we have gotten along really well so far. Since our room is inside we don’t have a window but there is a mirror that covers the wall at the head of our bed so it makes the room feel a lot bigger. I thought it would be really hard to wake up since it is so dark in our room but it hasn’t been bad yet. We had our life boat drill around 4 so Jill and I found our “muster station” (English accent) and met some of the lifelong learners on our deck. Lifelong learners are people of any age who are basically doing this as a cruise. They can sit it on the classes if they want but basically they are just in it for the ride. There are about 60-70 of them and a lot of them are older but there are a few kids too. They fit in with the faculty and their families so it is hard to tell who is who. Today I ate lunch with a girl that is a sophomore in high school and her parents are both professors and she is taking a semester off put is taking some classes that will later count as college credit.

Our captain is British, go figure. He has a sense of humor when he gives us safety speeches but you can tell he is a little uptight too. He hates seeing kids have feet on the furniture so that is something we have all been making an effort not to do. Our ship was scheduled to leave at 5 pm but some kids got caught up in all the storms that were happening on the east coast so we left at 8. The embankment was amazing! I had been waiting to hear that horn blow for months! All the parents that were still there gathered on the dock and we got on all decks hanging over the railings and waved goodbye. As soon as the first horn blew everyone was cheering and yelling and taking pictures it was so cool!

The vibe on the ship went from pure exhilaration and slowly dwindled down to dizzy, unfamiliar sea sickness. 20 minutes after we left the port we had a meeting in the union and packed 600 kids into a room with a small stage where kids were sitting in all the aisles. It is in the front of the boat so you can really feel the boat rock. Kids were dropping like flies as soon as they started feeling sick. I never remember feeling sea sick on cruises before but something about being packed in that rocking room with all the kids was not sitting well with me either. We had 2 other meetings after that one and the last one we were playing a stupid ice breaker game and all I could do was stare at the door out to the deck debating if I should get some air or not. When everything was done around 11 I went to bed and slept like a baby. I felt much better the next morning but then my roommate was really sick. We has to sit in the union all day long again for an elongated version of what we had heard the night before. Kids were still getting used to the rocking of the boat and I’m pretty sure 75% of us were struggling to keep our eyed open through all the orientation. I can’t believe that was just yesterday because it felt like it was a whole week long.

Today was the first day of class. Everyone is required to take Global Studies so half went this morning and my half goes tomorrow. I had a Geography of Cities Around the World class as 10:45 this morning. They suggest you take 12 credit hours of class but in order for me to graduate on time I need to take 15 so I am trying to add that geography class as my 5^th class. The grades don’t transfer to TCU just the credits so all I have to do is pass. My other class today was an International Marketing class. I didn’t get a great feeling from either class because the teachers seemed as confused as us and I think we were all looking to them for more guidance but I guess we are all on this journey together. My marketing teacher is the same teacher I have for another class so hopefully tomorrow I get a better impression. After class I found Hanna and we went up to the pool and laid out. It felt so great. The deck was just filled with kids and music was playing and the sun was shining. We keep meeting so many people but without a good way for us to communicate since we don’t have phones or internet you just have to wait until you run into that person again when you want to hang out with people. I’m sure we will come up with a system later once we find people we really want to hang out with but for now we just keep meeting more and more people.

We each get 125 minutes of internet for the whole voyage! There are certain educational sites we can use and our semester at sea emails unlimited but that is our only connection to the outside world. So if anyone would like to get a hold of me my new email is ejmadden@semesteratsea.net. I plan to post my blogs, check my other email, and send a few pictures at an internet café in the ports we go to. My email only lets me send and receive text so I would love to send pictures but I can’t and I can’t receive them either.

2011-01-11T19:14:00.001-05:00

Flight coming into the Bahamas

Went straight to the beach when we got there. After we got a pina colado of course. (Can't wait to get tan, i feel so white!)

Our dinner at the Fish Fry

Senor Frogs haha

My new DG friend

Driving up to The Atlantis

At the Atlantis. Notice the building in the background. Everything here is painted in neon colors it seems like, so colorful :)

There were HUGE yachts lined along the hotel

parasailing

The view from our hotel room

Nassau, Bahamas

2011-01-11T18:55:00.000-05:00

We got to Nassau yesterday and tomorrow is the big day, the ship leaves! My dad rented a car from the airport because we figured that would be cheaper than all the taxi rides we were going to have to take. They drive on the left side of the road here so it has been quite the adventure every time we drive somewhere (especially with all their round abouts). As soon as we got to the hotel there were just college kids everywhere! Every time we stopped for more than 10 seconds we met someone new that was going on the ship. The first girl I met was so nice and eve helped me carry my bags to my room and I later found out she is a Delta Gamma too! She told me that a bunch of the kids were going to Senor Frogs around 9.

I met up with Hanna and we met our new friends in the lobby at 9 and packed a few taxis full of kids and went to Senor Frogs. I felt like we were on a Spring Break trip because the place was FILLED with college students. It was so much fun meeting everyone. In the taxi on the way over the girl that helped me take my bags to my room said something about being a DG and I was like me too! And some other girl in the van said me too! So of course we were getting all giddy so the boys in the back were making fun of us but then all of a sudden they realized they were all Fijis so they were just as giddy as us. Hanna and I also met a funny guy from Hawaii so we all had a little connection. It was so exciting seeing how many different types of people will be on the ship; people from all over the country and beyond. Along with all the new kids we met there were a few locals in the mix. They seemed like the kind of guys that came there every night to see what the planes had brought to their island and were impressed with the sudden rush of 20 year old kids pumping through the bar.

As all of the dancing and drinking and socializing was going on the national championship game was going on. There were a couple girls there that go to OU so they were a little disappointed at the loss but not for long because all they had to do was look outside and the ship was right there! It was lit up with white lights going across the top and once we all saw the ship it all felt real again.

Today my dad and I decided to venture out and went to the Atlantis Hotel. It is on Paradise Island so you have to cross a bridge to get there. Once again the drive was very crazy on the way over there. We had to drive through downtown so the roads are narrow, people are walking everywhere, and they honk at everything! You are already on edge and then the beeps coming from every direction make you feel like you are doing something wrong but they honk even when they turn a corner. The Atlantis hotel was amazing. It was massive and had so many security guards blocking off all the cool stuff that only the guests got to see. It was really fun going there though and we probably walked (or maybe I should say wandered) around for so long. We ran into this big Caribbean poker tournament they were having and it was crazy to see how many chips some of these young guys had! Most of the tables were being filmed and I felt like it was a big deal but of course didn’t recognize any of the player’s names.

We eventually made it to a public beach and hung out for a while. It was interesting to watch the locals on the beach that were trying to sell stuff. They speak English but you can barely understand a word they are saying when they talk to each other because they have such island slang. I also watched them dance to the music that was playing and man those women are not only built differently from us but they have quire the wobbly wiggle that I could never picture a white girl dancing like.

My dad is on the ship right now for a parents orientation and I think we will go to dinner afterward and then go to bed so I can be to the port by 10 tomorrow. I’m so anxious to meet my roommate and just be on the ship finally!

Itinerary

2011-01-08T22:10:00.001-05:00

Spring 2011 Itinerary/Calendar

Destination	Arrive Depart	Day	Date	Time
Nassau, Bahamas	Depart	Wednesday	January 12	1700
Roseau, Dominica	Arrive Depart	Sunday Monday	January 16 January 17	0800 2000
Macapa, Brazil (Amazon Entrance)	Arrive Depart	Thursday Thursday	January 20 January 20	1830 2300
Manaus, Brazil	Arrive Depart	Sunday Thursday	January 23 January 27	0800 2000
Macapa, Brazil (Amazon Exit)	Arrive Depart	Saturday Saturday	January 29 January 29	1400 1530
Takoradi, Ghana	Arrive Depart	Sunday Thursday	February 6 February 10	0800 2000
Cape Town, South Africa	Arrive Depart	Thursday Tuesday	February 17 February 22	0800 2000
Port Louis, Mauritius	Arrive Depart	Sunday Sunday	February 27 February 27	0800 2000
Chennai, India	Arrive Depart	Sunday Friday	March 6 March 11	0800 2000
Singapore	Arrive Depart	Wednesday Wednesday	March 16 March 16	0800 2300
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam	Arrive Depart	Saturday Thursday	March 19 March 24	0800 0600
Hong Kong / Shanghai, China	Arrive Depart	Saturday Friday	March 26 April 1	0800 2000
Kobe / Yokohama, Japan	Arrive Depart	Monday Friday	April 4 April 8	0800 2000
Hilo, Hawaii, USA	Arrive Depart	Sunday Monday	April 17 April 18	0800 2000
San Diego, California, USA	Arrive	Sunday	April 24	0800

Packing

2011-01-08T22:04:00.000-05:00

We only get to bring two suitcases on the ship so deciding what I can live without for 4 months was challenging.

But I survived and packed it all into 2 bags, a backpack, and a purse. (Thank God for whoever created vaccum sealed bags :))

Preparing to Depart

2011-01-08T21:49:00.002-05:00

I am 4 days away from beginning my Semester at Sea and couldn't be any more anxious! I left Texas yesterday with my bags packed and headed to Florida to stay with my Aunt for the weekend before my Dad and I headed down to Nassau, Bahamas where the ship leaves from on Wednesday. I am very relieved to have everything packed and so far it doesn't seem like I forgot anything. Now I just have to pray the next 4 days go by quickly and I will be on my way around the world!

I will post text, pictures, and videos along the way so people at home can keep up with my travels since my communication will be limited. I am shutting my cell phone service off for the next 3 and a half months to avoid roaming charges. I will be able to communicate through email, facebook, and skype. We have a limited amount of internet each day but when we get to the ports we can skype and it sounds like we aren't AS limited.

If anyone is interested my skype name is ericamadden18 and the email I will be using is erica.madden@tcu.edu.

For those of you interested in why I am doing this and how I heard about it I will give you a brief story of how it all fell into place. I went to school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa my freshman year before I transferred to TCU and my friend Hanna and I heard that the Semester at Sea ship was in the Honolulu port and was giving tours to people who were interested. We had both heard of Semester at Sea but didn't know how hard we were going to fall in love with the concept until after our tour. Basically what we got out of our tour was: one semester, 10 countries, 4 continents, 15 credit hours, and an experience of a lifetime. I'm pretty sure we both had one of those moments where you are overflowing with motivation, you feel like you can do ANYTHING in the world, and you are willing to do anything to make what you want to do possible. Luckily our inspiration never faded away and two years later we are both on our way to get on the ship to go on the same voyage. I actually met Hanna in 3rd grade and she has been one of my best friends ever since so going through this with her is just going to add to many memories we already have together.

I am extremely excited and can't believe the time has finally come. I have been researching this trip and trying to make it work for 3 years and feel so lucky and blessed that it has finally worked out. There were a lot of make or break moments in the last 6 months but I worked really hard to make it all work. I had to petition through TCUs study abroad office for them to allow me to do this and accept my credits, had to get course approval through the marketing department, I applied for 7 visas for different countries the ship is going to, and of course figuring out how to pay for it has been a challenge. I was lucky enough to get TCU to accept the credits, I got a grant from the International Studies program throught Semester at Sea and am using some of my TCU financial aid, and got all my visas just in time. Although the preparation was stressful this is a once in a lifetime experience that was going to take A LOT for me to not make it happen. Plus if you think about it it's a great deal... This is the ultimate bundle package. Buy one, cross a couple dozen bucket list items off for free!

I plan to make several posts a week on this blog so feel free to follow if you are interested and you can leave comments on anything that fascinates you and I can tell you more or answer questions you may have :)