100 Days Around The World - SAS Spring 2007

2007-07-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

India: The Adventure Begins

Pulling into India was quite an adventure! We were all pretty exhausted from seven straight days at sea of classes and of course the Sea Olympics, which I will write about eventually! I want to remember the stuff from the countries first! I woke up around 6:30 to see us arrive in Chennai. Unlike the other ports, there was no real grace or beauty about pulling into Chennai, formerly known as Madras. It was incredibly humid and muggy and my camera lens would not defog up on seventh deck. There is an incredible difference between the frigid interior of the ship and the humidity outside! I stood next to Jane Wisner, the woman who ran our shipboard dependent children’s group and someone whom I confided in on the voyage and was a great woman with whom to spend time. She told me some about her experience on her previous voyage that traveled to India and she said it was one of those countries that you will never forget because of all of the vibrant sights, sounds and smells. There was a different feeling up on deck 7 as we pulled into Chennai, however, Because of the actions of some students in Mauritius who trashed the villas they stayed in and did not represent the ship, or the United States well, they gave us a little talking to during pre-port. Beth Hellwig-Olsen, our student life director pleaded with us to continue to be careful, Dean Larry asked to continue to be lifesavers and Dean Mike took on the major role of being the one to say that we all were hurt because of part of the student body’s actions. And…we were warned that India is often the turning point in the voyage. In some ways, it was all fun and games up until India and we had no idea what lay before us in Asia.

Preport the night before also starred our wonderful interport lecturers Sherad and Prujval. Dean Mike did his PhD research with Sherad with California and so they are old friends and can harass each other the way that only old friends can do. They are from Bangalore and along with their two children Ahbimanyu and Ashutosha has thick accents, but even the children can speak four languages. I put on a spelling bee on the way to India as well fo the children and Ahbimanyu decided he wanted to participate and he spelled all of the words correctly! Okay: back track to the spelling bee. It was awesome. Almost all of the parents showed up, and Jeff came to be my sticker man. I took the words for the kids to spell from their own vocab or spelling books and so Sage and Mischa Zimmerman, Maddie and Michael Milner, Sopahn, Hannah Maniates and Ahbimanyu spelled their wy to greatness. There was always an awkward pause as one of the children incorrectly spelled a word while Tela, Sarah, Jeff and I would wait for one of the parents to say: Nice Try or something to that effect. I ended up with 4 kids who spelled every word right which meant that I was buying frozen yogurt or a snack on 7^th deck for all four of them. Maddie and Michael regularly got treats from their shipsister who spoiled them anyways, but the other two were pretty excited. I got keychains for those who missed one word and then everyone got a Semester at Sea temporary tattoo. If you can’t tell already, I really like the kids I had.

Anyways, back to preport. The admin team and some of the faculty and lifelong earners participated in skits for us to teach us about India. Ohhhh Dr. Matt and his preport skits. At one point Sherad played the part of a rickshaw driver and as Dean Mike said: that is the best performance of a rickshaw driver I have ever seen a man with a PhD do! Haha It was pretty great. Dr. Dan, our global studies coordinator, also played a starring role in trying to get to the Taj Hotel. Haha It was good.

So back to pulling in happenings…Brianne, Ashley and I went to eat breakfast around 7:00 and then at 7:20 I headed up to deck 7 again for the Eucharist in Dean Larry’s cabin. This time it was Brenda the nurse and us students. There were only seven of us plus the Singells and the Tutus at the Eucharist. I definitely got teary-eyed again. It was wonderful and Mama Tutu has a wonderful singing voice. I went to my room and relaxed after that until the first round of Indian immigration. I went up when they called the trip CHE01 and had my face to face meeting with them, and we had our passports stamped. T one Chinese student on our ship, Zhimin, was not allowed to get off the boat at all in India. How sad. We were never given an exact reason, but it clearly has to do with the tensions in Asia.

I went to my yoga demonstration for my Mysticism course and began watching the students perform their asanas, which are the positions used in this form of yoga. However, we had to return to the faculty staff lounge to receive our Indian landing cards and customs forms. After about ten minutes we returned to the Union and finished watching them contort themselves into various positions. There was a chance at the end to try it out, and perhaps I should have, but I quickly stepped out. I grabbed lunch with Caitlin, Christina, Liz, Katie, Jen and some others which was nice.

I then went to the Union at my appointed time. As it turned out, Wes, my Internatioal Relations prof and shipdad was the trip leader, which meant quality time with Maddie and Michael too. Wes and Susan kept saying if I didn’t want them to sit with me it was okay and all of that, but I really enjoyed the company of those two kids. Maddie sat with me on the way there and we folded lots of different origami things, took a lot of crazy pictures and played hangman and the square dot game. Before we knew it we were pulling into the driveway of the farm.

We exited the bus and boy was it HOT. We had to walk a little way into the farm because the bus could not pull up far enough to drop us off exactly where we needed to be. We walked past two pretty big bulls with big horns and trying to keep Michael back from them was interesting. Haha We went to the backyard of the house and sat down while the owner of the farm told us all about his operation. I wish I could remember off of the top of my head what it was about, but at one point Maddie shot me the dirtiest look in the world and if looks could kill, it would have. It was some fact that one of us was right about and the other said was wrong, and I was right. I am really going to have to think to remember what it was because it was funny.

We began by eating a lunch prepared by him and his family. It was quite spicy and there were a lot of fried doughy kind of things, but boy oh boy was it good! Liz was on the trip which was nice and then after we ate, there was a demonstration by one of the workers as to how they harvest the coconuts from the trees. He scaled up the tree similar to the way in which our Amazon guide shimmied up the tree. He climbed up with his feet bound together by rope so they could hug the tree more easily and he shimmied up and then cut the coconuts down. Another man on the ground began to cut them open and give us straws with which to drink the coconut milk. I was really excited…this was my first taste of coconut milk and I had heard such fantastic things about the sweetness of it. And I was disappointed. It was warm water consistency nastiness. If I never drink another drop of that stuff, it will be just fine. However, I did get a wonderful picture of me taking a sip of it, so I guess that’s okay haha. We also had Coke and Pepsi in the old fashioned glass bottles which was a nice little throwback.

Then we began our tour of the farm. We started off by going to the coconut tree area of the farn. He described the process he has gone through to make this part of the farm successful. He used to irrigate the area and he had more trees with more fruit, but he has stopped irrigating it and has less trees with less fruit, but he still makes more money because the irrigation system was costly in its upkeep and in the water bills. We all took pictures by the trees and I got an amazing picture of Michael trying to break a coconut open on one of the trees. His face was just so intense and he was trying so hard with no luck. We then visited the eucalyptus area of the farm which smelled pretty good! Michael asked us what eucalyptus was used for and we all paused for a second and responded with “oil.” Haha The owner of the farm set us straight and told us it was used for just about everything, including paper and cooking.

We walked around the farm some more and then loaded the bullock cart to go to the village. We were all looking forward to the village part of the visit, but because we spent so much time on the farm that we did not have as much time to see people in the village. However, one of the highlights of this part of the visit was once again the children. Some people had brought things to pass out and one girl brought little containers of bubbles. She handed one to a boy of around 8 or 9 and he didn’t know how to use it. So, I took it from him and pulled out the wand and blew the bubbles and he was so excited! I then got a great picture of him blowing bubbles at me which was priceless.

I had walked this far into the village and then I hopped onto the bullock cart for the rest of the ride. The bullocks were long horned, big and scary looking and I was glad to be riding on the cart now and not walking in front of them praying they didn’t suddenly get some energy spurt. Plus, it was pretty hot and I enjoyed being a little lazy. Michael sat next to me and so I took it as my own personal duty to make sure he didn’t fall off the cart. One of the best moments of the cart ride was when we made the turn onto a very busy and fast road. We were still a slow slow bullock cart. We had to hurry, as fast as we could, to get all the way over to the left side of the road! Luckily, some of the vehicles slowed down for us to get across, but not many! What a spectacle we were! A bunch of mostly white people riding on the back of a cart in the middle of rural Chennai! Our next destination was the rice field of the farm which was across town. I mean, it was nice to see it and all, but most of us would have rather spent more time in the village than going to the rice field.

We boarded the bullock cart back to the farm and had one final coca-cola in a glass bottle and then began to leave. There was a Hindu temple on the property and so I snuck away from the group for a minute to check it out and take a few pictures. It was very ornate for being on private property and I became more convinced that this farmer was not one who was just trying to make it, but was doing pretty darn well! I got some great pictures of the Shiva linga out front and of the temple exterior. There was a locked fence around the temple, so I was not able to get a glimpse of what the inside was like. I went back to the group and they had already gone off, so I ran to catch up with the group and made it while they were making sure everyone was there.

One of the most heartbreaking moments of my trip until then happened on the bus ride back to the ship. We were stopped in traffic and an elderly women stepped off the sidewalk and came up to our bus and held her hands up to us, just pleading. She would alternate holding her hands up to us an bringing one hand to her mouth indicating she needed food. She was clearly emaciated and simply looked exhausted. It was heart wrenching that I did not have anything to give her and there would have been no way for me to get it to her short of demanding that the bus stop and pull over. What struck me even more is that she had her hands outstretched in the same way we do in church when we receive the bread at the Eucharist: right hand over left. And it just left me sitting there wondering what the hell was going on. When I approach God at the Eucharist I receive spiritual nourishment in the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but here was this woman, just pleading for physical nourishment, and she was not receiving. The image of her is burned into my head and it haunts me. She was the turning point in me realizing that the notion of being out in the world and helping people was not just something I wanted to do, but something I NEED to do.

It was a long day out on this trip, and even though I had a ticket to the Welcome Reception, I decided not to go. I had never skipped a SAS trip before this, but I was exhausted, and running into this woman on the way was something that needed some time for myself before leaving on my marathon Taj and Varanasi trip. I ate dinner with my ship family which was great. They did not adopt any students through the actual shipboard family program, but I got lucky and they adopted me anyways J Susan and Wes are great for conversation and it actually feels like someone gives a damn about me on the trip when I am with them. They ask how I am, what is going on and I feel lucky to be a part of their ship family Even though I originally stayed back from the Welcome Reception to have alone LeeAnne time, Michael and Maddie asked if they could come back to my room for awhile to hang out and I agreed. Along the way we went past the Piano Bar and I immediately gave in to their requests for a little snack. I’m seriously a sucker for them. We went to my room and watched a little bit of Remember the Titans, but Michael got bored and so he played Snood while Maddie and I talked, and then we had this brilliant idea to have a pillow fight…and videotape it. Well, if you have ever spent time with an 11 and 7 year old, you will know that this is a bad idea. So we pillow fought and I ended up with two small children on my back and at that point, it was time for them to go home! I packed for my trip and then went to bed around 10:30. My roommate came back and kept clicking lights on and off and packing and was pretty noisy. At one point when she was in the bathroom for a long time I just got up and turned her light off because I needed to sleep!

Day Two: Travel in India…

Now, our trip left really early in the morning. I woke up at 3:15, packed my last minute stuff and then called home right before I left home at 4. I called down to Gram because I thought Bob and Collene were going to be over and I wanted to talk to Isaac. However, they were there the previous night so no such luck. So…it is a bit hard to get to the Union by 3:30. I really understand. Leaving at 2 am for the Amazon was better than this because there really wasn’t a point to going to bed. So..there we were. Our trip leader was Bob McGowan and our bus leader was Lesley the RD. So, Lesley shows up at 3:30 like the rest of us punctual people to get everything ready and she starts calling roll. Finally, everyone was there, except some guy named Bob. So, she keeps calling and calling his name, until we all finally realized that the person who was not in attendance was the trip leader. Bob finally showed up and it was quite an interesting start to the trip.

We boarded our buses, and I was not really close to a lot of people on this trip, but my friend John from international relations was and so we became bus buddies for the trip. There were actually a ton of us from Wes’s IR class which was fun. We drove to the airport in Chennai and experienced some new things. We had to turn in all of our batteries into our trip leader to put in a checked bag because the Indian airport guidelines are so strict. I could not pry the battery out of my alarm clock, so I just chucked the whole thing in the bag. Haha. We arrived at the airport at the same time as three other Taj trips and so it was a little confusing to try to stay with the correct group while weaving through the airport. I mostly just looked for John because he was so tall. We were all huddled outside looking crazy and they began calling our names to give us our passports and plane tickets. We made our way inside of the airport and almost all of the signs were in Tamil and Hindi so we would have had no clue without our guides.

Workers began to give us tags for our carry on luggage, but they never said whether they were mandatory to have on our bags or not, so a lot of people who already had nametags on their luggage did not grab these. Logically, they weren’t necessary. I grabbed some for my scrapbook, and then I saw one of my friends get all the way to the security people and then have to go all the way to the end of the line to get tags to put on their bags. When I got to the front of the line I became aware of how it worked…Security guards with large rifles would stand at the entrance to the security area and would check to make sure all carry ons had the appropriate tags. Then, men and women would send their bags down the same 4 or 5 xray machines.

Men were permitted to go right through the metal detectors, but women were pulled aside to one single separate line. Not only did this separate us from our bags for an inordinate amount of time, we were taken behind a screen to be wanded and felt up by female security officers. Then, the tickets of females had to be stamped saying we cleared security. During this first time through the wanding, I left relatively unviolated, but more was to come… We would then go retrieve our bags, and luckily some of our guys friends were nice enough to watch our bags as we went through our screening and we would watch bags for the other girls who were still going through. When we finally received our carry on bags, the tags that we were required to attach were not also stamped with something that declared our bags had indeed been through security.

WHEW. It was intense. We had to wait at the gate for a little bit and we bought out the cookie and soda stand. We were then allowed to proceed through the gate. Here at the gate, they once again checked to make sure we had the appropriate tags affixed to our bags. One person’s bag was not stamped through security and so he had to go back to security and have the appropriate tag affixed to his carry on. Our flight to Delhi was uneventful…we ate breakfast on the plane which was a little sketchy, but we all ate it because we were hungry. I slept for a little while, but not very long or well. We had a short wait before our next plane took off for Varanasi. That flight was also uneventful but we had an excellent lunch! It was spicy, but definitely spiced down!

Now…the Varanasi airport is almost beyond words. It was not too bad from the outside, but obviously small. There was a sign on the exterior of the airport saying “Holy City Welcomes You.” We proceeded inside from the tarmac and we saw one baggage claim and an incredibly small space! We boarded our buses which took us to our hotel, the Radisson. Varanasi itself is not a wealthy place and it was incredibly awkward to see this fabulous hotel rising up out of the small buildings around it. However, the hotel lobby had a fountain in the shape of a quatrefoil which was incredibly exciting! It is my sorority’s symbol and it reminded me of how much I missed my sisters at home. We could not go to our rooms immediately because they were not all ready so we proceeded to the restaurant on the pool deck. We all made sure to take our Pepto Bismol, and the meal was once again excellent! Plus we had lots of naan, which was exciting beyond belief. When they announced roommates my name was never called, which may not be a good sign. As it turns out, my assigned roommate had a friend going on the trip and switched, so I ended up with Molly from International Relations and she is fun.

We had a little bit of time to relax and then met in the lobby to depart for Sarnath. As we pulled out on the bus we saw a man with a monkey on a leash and the monkey was playing with a gun. The whole bus laughed and wanted to see it, because it was just such an incredibly odd sight that we couldn’t help but be absolutely curious. Sarnath is where the Buddha gave his first sermon. As soon as we got off of the bus we were swarmed by people trying to sell us things. We made it into the gate but then some of them followed us in, which put a little damper on the fun we had. It was amazing to see the excavation work that has been done and one of the originals stupas had been entirely uncovered. There was also an old Buddhist monastery on the grounds and I got a picture in front of it holding my religion department sign.

While we were there a group of monks, nuns and other practitioners were also there chanting in front of the stupa. I took a few pictures and felt really bad for doing so, until one of the monks reached into his bag mid prayer and slid one of the Malotte boys his video camera to document the occasion! On the way out of this particular location, an older Indian woman saw the people selling goods inside the gate and began chasing after them to get out. We walked just down the road to an archaeological museum. We were not allowed to take any bags or cameras in, so we had to leave them on the bus which was a little unnerving. The museum was full of artifacts found in Sarnath, which was mostly Buddha figures and other symbols. The swastika is prominent in the artwork and one of the Jewish members of our group became indignant and almost a little rude about it. People kept telling Josh that this symbol was around before the Nazis used it, that this one is the other way, but he just didn’t get it. We kind of breezed through the place because there were not many explanations next to the artifacts and many of the exhibits had been sent to China. I could only appreciate so much without more knowledge!

After leaving the museum we visited a Buddhist temple. It had gorgeous paintings on the walls and a beautiful Buddha up front. I died a little on the inside when a girl leaned over and asked me if that was Shiva. Four words: “THANK YOU ELLEN POSMAN.” I just told this girl no. As we left the temple there was the usual crowd of beggars, and we were actually starting to become accustomed to them, which was unsettling. Before we left any building, there was a collective groan about having to go out and maneuver past the people. I never ever want to become complacent about such poverty and have to remind myself every time to not just look past them, but to at least in some way acknowledge our shared humanity. Seeing the children is what breaks my heart. I don’t care if it is just their parents sending them out – it is a horrible situation to be in.

I think this specific experience with the beggars affected me more than any other because a woman actually reached out and touched my arm. While I had that moment of panic before I saw who had lightly grabbed my arm, I turned around and saw a woman who I’m sure looked older than her years. Touch is that direct connection between two people and when you are touched, everything changed. I could no longer ignore or try to push out the suffering of all of them, and specifically her. I still don’t know what I should have done. I didn’t do anything. I smiled at her and squeezed her hand back but then got on the bus. Maybe I should have given her some rupees, maybe I was right in not doing…its all a game of second guessing myself.

We got on the bus and they announced that we would be going directly to the optional shopping trip which was okay with me because I was going to go anyways. After a long and too difficult process, I ended up buying a tie for Ken, a mail holder for Mom and Chris, a wall hanging and pillow case for me and then at the last minute I added this awesome bag. It is patchwork with different colored asterisks and its pretty cool if I do say so myself. The shopping trip lasted much longer than it should have, but we made it back to the hotel in time for dinner. Afterwards a lot of people were going out to the bar, but I just decided to go to bed and so did Molly. We watched Friends and Seinfeld before dinner and then part of Ocean’s Twelve before we went to bed. Hooray for a little familiar television!

Day Three: The reason I came on this voyage

Our wake up call came way too early at 4:30 am! We quickly prepared for our day and were in the lobby for tea at 5:00. The lobby was quite crowded and so many of us were on the floor and just sucking in as much sugar in our tea as possible! Our buses departed at 5:15 and I could not contain my excitement! It was a 30-40 minute drive and the bus let us off about a kilometer from the river, because the roads from there on out could not accommodate the weight and width of the buses. We were dropped off right at the middle of a busy intersection without a stoplight and crazy driving, so that was scary in and of itself.

We walked down the narrow streets past the crowds of people and cows. There were stalls for vendors to sell items, people praying before the altars for gods and everything in between. We were huddled together walking down the street and then suddenly the group split into two on either side of the street because a lovely cow was sauntering down the street, daring someone to try to get in its way. There were once again many homeless people just sleeping on the side of these small dirt streets. I was disgusted with the actions of a few SASers on my trip who were just taking a ton of pictures of these people. On one hand, I don’t think that I took the perfect route. It was just too hard to look at for more than a couple seconds for me, and I think I should have looked just a little longer to really let it sink in. I can’t always shy away from things because they are “just too hard.” On the other hand, these people took it to an absolute extreme of paying too much attention and mocking.

Right down by the river there were people lined up and down the stairs begging for money and food. There were children sleeping right there on the ground and those images are burned into my brain. When people ask me now what affected me the most on the trip, I recall these images in my mind. We navigated around the hawkers and reached the banks of the Ganges River!! This is what I wrote my SAS essay on this was the point of my voyage around the world! Each bus had a boat, so we were packed in pretty tightly at 35 people in each boat. A boy came on board selling little bowls with flowers and a lit candle for a dollar for us to make an offering on the river. It was especially awesome until the muffin cup the wax was in caught on fire! At about that time I blew my fire out and placed by offering on the Ganges River. One girl asked our tour guide the specific reason for placing these in the river, and he replied that it was a way of honoring the holiness of the Ganged. Even amidst the hullabaloo of starting out on the Ganges, it felt great to be participating in something that has gone on for centuries.

We first went to the right when looking at the river and we saw people washing at the banks and many more scattered up and down the ghats. There was a married couple holding hands as they walked in and there were children just swimming about. Sumit, the tour guide, told us that if people are in the river before 10 am it means they are there for the cleansing and if it is after 10 am it means they are just there for a bath. We also saw several illegal acts against the Ganges! You are not supposed to lather up with soap before you get into the river, because it affects the balance of the river…however…the river is the dirtiest one in the world, so the rule makes me laugh a little. Also, you are not supposed to wash your clothes in the river, and we saw that as well.

A “Ganga supermarket came up to us and we bought postcards and beads and he had everything imaginable. Another boat pulled up to us with a TV and a DVD player and a child was selling DVDs of Varanasi. It seemed like a cool souvenir and I can’t resist children, so I purchased one for 200 rupees. Upon returning home, I now know that it does not work in any DVD player, so I was duped for 200 rupees, but in the scheme of things, oh well. We began to go down the river towards the crematorium.

On the way down we saw something rather large bobbing up and down the river. Well, our tour guide told us that it was a body that had risen to the surface from below. This is because some people cannot be cremated. People of the untouchable class may not be cremated, despite the fact that they are one who are responsible for the cremation of others. Prostitutes, Pregnant women and children under the age of 12 must also be sunk to the bottom of the Ganges. They are wrapped in a shroud and then rocks are put into the bottom so that they sink. However, the problem is that the stones often escape and the bodies float to the surface.

We came to the cremation area and it was not what we expected, mostly because no bodies were being cremated. There was a pile of burned ash, which was once a body, and then we saw bodies wrapped in the shrouds and lying on sticks waiting to be cremated. They ask that pictures not be taken at this site, but I will admit to not adhering to this. I only took one picture and was discreet, not that it makes it right, but there you have it. It doesn’t smell bad at all down by the cremation because they use sandalwood. Women are also not allowed to be present down by the cremation mounds. There is a fear that women will commit sati, which is burning themselves on their husband’s fire. It has been outlawed for some time, but the fear of it happening is still there.

We paddled back to shore and they let each of us row who wanted to. I was the first person to ask and it was a little cool because I had my Baldwin-Wallace Rowing shirt on. We saw three white guys at the bank of the river and they jumped in…I’m not sure I would have done that! We also learned that getting three drops of water on you from the Ganges means that you have been cleansed, so I stuck my finger in the Ganges and placed three drops on my hand. See, I’m still alive! As we pulled up to the shore there was a big groan once again because no one wanted to face the hawkers or the poverty again.

Walking to the bus was the one time I actually cried on the streets. These babies were horribly emaciated and tiny. They were smaller than baby dolls and certainly much thinner. There was just no question about the fact that they are not getting enough to eat. These mothers and older siblings followed us the whole way from the river. One person tried to get me to take the baby from her. I reached the bus and took my seat, but then they stood outside of our bus windows. I didn’t want to look, but I didn’t want to be a jerky American and close the window blinds on them. These hawkers kept telling our trip leader, Bob, that he looked like Michael Jackson and then called him pops. Haha It was the one funny part about the hawkers at this point. For the rest of the trip, we would call him Michael and pops.

We departed from there to visit the Mother India Temple, which wasn’t really temple like. It was a map of India on the ground and a large picture of Gandhi, but other than that, fairly unimpressive or worth the stop. We returned the hotel immediately after that which was a very good thing because I had to use the restroom and I was really trying to avoid using the squatty potty. We had an excellent breakfast that included real egg omelets!! The other was decent, but having real eggs was a treat for us, because the ship has fake eggs. After the meal there was another optional shopping trip, but most people just went out into Varanasi on their own. I, however, just chose to sleep, because I was going to be miserable the rest of the day if I didn’t. I slept until Molly came back to the room with her purchases. We finished packing all of our stuff and headed down to the lobby. I bought some stamps and then we boarded the buses to the airport.

Once we arrived at the airport two girls on our trip remembered that they left their passports in the safe deposit box at the hotel. Seriously? They tell you over and over again before we leave any location to make sure you have that stuff, so it was just a poor mistake. People from our tour guide company went back to the hotel to get them, but luckily we had a long time before our flight. The other group doing the same trip we were doing, but in reverse order, were arriving at the airport when we were leaving, so we got to say hi to them which was fun.

We proceeded to enter the airport and then walked up a flight of stairs to a restaurant. Well, I should use the word restaurant loosely. Haha It was like a diner in the states, but take away air conditioning and add in a lot of small flies and bugs. The food was excellent though, albeit quite spicy and hot. We had to pay for our cokes, which once again came in old glass bottles, and cost way too much, but it was hot. We were up there for quite a while, but then it came time to head through security for our flight. Once again the women had to go through a separate line to be searched, and this women was a little more thorough that the security officer in Chennai. I really don’t like being felt up by strangers. Haha Then we had to wait for a pretty long time to board our plane, during which time I wrote in my journal and slept…Delhi was next!

early morning on the Ganges River...

more soon Auntie Anna!

2007-06-26T11:01:00.001-07:00

Mauritius continued...

Once again we boarded our buses to head to the Chinese pagoda. At this point we were simply exhausted already and quite hungry. However, we had two more stops to go before lunch. The Chinese pagoda was rather small and was decorated on the exterior with Chinese characters and red paint. The interior was overwhelmingly filled with gold products and gold leaf. One woman was inside doing her devotions and we created quite a commotion. I felt bad because this woman did not know that a group of 40 SAS people were going to be tromping through during her prayers. HOWEVER, the side of me that loves to see religion in action was incredibly excited to watch the woman and observe her as she moved from altar to altar.

The main altar was set up with a table up front on which candles and incense holders were set and behind the table was an area for statues. This entire pagoda was not very big, so there was not much room from the table to the area with the statues. At one point during the woman’s prayers she circled around the table 3 times while talking quietly, so at some point I would like to find out more about why she circled the table. On the left side was another altar which was a miniature version of the central altar with different figured behind the candle and incense table. Near the entrance on this same left side were what looked like mini tombstones with Chinese writing on them. I have no idea what they actually represent, so there’s something else I should look into! Near the right side entrance there was a bright red gong which the woman rang before she left the pagoda. This right side altar was much more vibrant than the other two. There was bright yellow and green paint and an altar which had more bright gold Chinese characters. As we exited the pagoda, there was the cutest little dog on the front steps and so of course most of us avoided the warnings of Dr. Matt and we petted it a little bit. Rabies here we come.

Our final stop before lunch was on the top of a mountain that looked down over all of Port Louis. From up top we could view the pagoda, the mosque and just the beautiful sights of Mauritius. The water was bright cerulean, the sky was the clearest baby blue and there was another mountain across the city from where we were. That mountain was lush and green and had these great natural terraced rock steps up to the peak that we could see with our zoom lenses!

I do not remember the name of the restaurant at which we dined for lunch, but it was this great open air restaurant with a rustic feeling. It was set back in the woods and we had this great rice and chicken meal. Jon, the editor for our voyage DVD, was with us and was the lone vegetarian at our table and got the same meal we received, just without the chicken and less rice! It was a little spicy, but boy oh boy was it good! We quickly finished our meal and then we headed to the river we had heard running during our meal. There was a little waterfall, and we had to cross a little wooden bridge to get to the prettiest part. HOWEVER, we quickly remembered the downfall of natural beauty when we were absolutely covered in mosquito bites that began to itch immediately!

We visited an enormous home quite near this restaurant that was home to some rich Europeans. It was beautiful and it was old and contained many antiques, but I was slightly bored. I know this was something important to the history of Mauritius, but I just didn’t care much. Call me cultureless. Haha We then drove to our final stop of the official tour which was an Indian Cultural Center. We first walked through a museum which described the first Indian settlers to Mauritius and the second floor contained a photo gallery of Hindu religious festivals and I became incredibly excited when I saw a picture of Holi, which is a festival where lots of powders of colors are thrown in the air and all over! To be honest, I do not remember what the festival is for, but it just seems so exciting and festive!

After walking through the museum we sat outside at some picnic tables because we were just tired! It had been a long day of simply walking around a lot of places, and anyone who has been on a bus tour before can attest to how tiring it can be! Another little animal graced our presence at the picnic tables: a little cat! One again, we ignored Dr. Matt and enjoyed playing before we were shipped over to the performance center to view some Indian dances. We were shown three different varieties of dances by instructors and students of the cultural center. Afterwards several of us were interested in going to the Eucharist that Desmond Tutu was preaching and celebrating back in downtown Port Louis at St. James Cathedral. There were 5 students and 5 adults who wanted to go, so we commandeered one of the three minibuses that had provided our transportation throughout the day!

Kate and Giles Wayland-Smith, Lois and Mark Helland and Arnie the ship shrink and five of us headed back into town and just made it to have seats in the back of the cathedral! There was massive media coverage and people were quite dressed up for this affair! I sat next to two girls from Mauritius named Zohra and Azraa. They were 13 year twins from Port Louis. They were born in India, lives in England and now reside in Mauritius. They are actually Muslim, but their father wanted them to hear from Desmond Tutu, and so he brought them. Zohra and Azraa and I talked the whole time before the service and then before they left, we exchanged email addresses! I never thought I would meet a pair of cool teenagers when I wanted to go to Desmond’s service!

The Archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean was there as well as several other bishops of the region and other religious leaders from the Island. The Archbishop of the Indian Ocean was awesome and he was really funny. He made a joke about when he goes to Lambeth Conference in England with all of the other bishops of the Anglican Communion, he gets to say that he has a whole ocean to himself, which no other bishop can say! While everyone else wondered what Lambeth was, I giggled quite a bit. Haha The only downfall about having Desmond Tutu on our ship is that we have heard all of his stories 3 times over and I heard many of the same ones again at the service. Nonetheless, it was an amazing experience! He danced out during the processional which was fun, and it reminded me of back in the day when Bishop Grew would dance out of convention Eucharists.

After the service we all decided to go out for dinner since we had not yet eaten after the craziness of our day and it was approaching 9 o’clock. I had missed meeting up with my friends to go out to dinner, so I was glad to be able to still go out and eat some food. We finally settled on an Indian restaurant called Namaste. I had the same dish we had had earlier in the day for lunch, but I still can’t remember the name of it for the life of me! It was good company and good conversation and enjoyable. Halfway through the meal, some of my friends appeared from the next room to use the restroom and it turns out they had come to the same restaurant to eat dinner! How funny. They finished before we did, so I decided to stay with my dinner party and eat my wonderful naan! After we finished our meal, we walked back to the ship through the mall area and saw our crazy crew and students drinking at the bars. I almost stayed out when I saw my friends, but I was just tired and decided to be a party pooper! I relaxed, got some froyo and went to sleep! Oh and I contacted Elise and Jen and decided to spend the next day with them!

Day Three: Seeing the Island with a Random Taxi Driver!

Bryan, Jen, Elise and I were scheduled to go around the island with this taxi driver that the three of them had met the first day in port and had arranged for him to meet them again on our last day. Bryan ultimately decided not to go, but we still had quite the day full of random adventures! Our first stop was a scenic overlook of a volcanic crater site that was now a lake and of the beautiful view all over. There were a ton of SAS kids with personal drivers too who we would continue to see the whole day through. After this we continued our drive to the waterfall, but we stopped at the biggest statue of Shiva that I have ever seen. It was simply enormous. I have a picture of me standing beneath it which truly shows its height.

Our next stop was a Hindu temple on the shore of a lake on the island. There was a series of steps leading down to the lake where there were several altars in the water, where people hiked up their clothing in order to wade in and present their offerings and prayers. There were also a lot of monkeys simply roaming free around the area which was both and scary when they were bare their teeth. At the entrance to the interior of the temple was a Shiva linga which was a popular altar that had people lining up to pray. We began to walk inside and forgot to remove our shoes so someone promptly reminded us. There were people performing pujas all over the interior, even though it was quite small. One man was placing the dot on everyone’s forehead and Jen and Elise went and got one. I went back and forth and I ultimately decided to not receive one. Most of the tourists were not doing it and I did not know if it was disrespectful or not to do so, so I just opted not to. We also saw some of the cutest little kitty cats as we walked back up the steps to our cab and we resisted the temptation of playing with them, for once heeding Dr. Matt’s advice.

We then went to this amazing waterfall site, Alexandra Falls, which people on the ship had been raving about. We had to walk along this long path and we first found a little waterfall-ish area, and almost stopped, but we decided that there was no way people were in love with this little waterfall, no matter how beautiful it was! We continued down this path, and we passed a bunch of native Mauritians who were dressed 80s style and carried this great boombox with them. Haha it was like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or something! We finally found the waterfall and my oh my was it pretty! It was a fairly long drop even though the volume did not seem to be enormous. It was just surrounded by forest. We were on the opposite side of the valley, and so it gave us this great overlook to the forested valley below and the entire length of the waterfall. This cute couple speaking French took pictures of us on the overlook and we took pictures of them….they looked pretty touristy, so I don’t think they were from Mauritius, and we spoke in broken English and broken French to each other trying to be gracious and friendly. Haha

Our driver then took us to the over side of the valley which was the side the waterfall was on. It was much more touristy, but still pretty fabulous. There a lot more monkeys and people would give the monkeys what was left of their pineapples. The monkeys became pretty fierce and we stepped back quite a few times when they started growling. Monkeys are not nice animals…don’t trust the curious george writer!

To end the day we stopped at a bank to get money to pay our drive, who did not give us a set price. He just said, pay me whatever you think the day was worth. He really was a wonderful driver and took us to all of the places we want to see, so we each gave him about twenty dollars worth of rupees. And Jen says I must not forget to say that I fell asleep on the way home in the cab. Haha I got one final picture of the Mauritius Molasses Company drum that was by our ship and made the air smell so sweet. After that I stayed on the ship and caught up with friends and then we departed the wonderful world of Mauritius after locating several of our shipmates! Au revoir, Mauritius!

2007-06-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

So Mauritius, So Delicious

Day One: What the hell is there to do here?

I did not wake up early in the morning to view arrival into this port because….we didn’t pull into the port until later in the day! We were scheduled to arrive at our usual 0800, but the previous night we were warned that we might not pull into port until close to 1600. However, we arrived at a happy medium of 1200 but all of the field office activities for the day were cancelled and refunded. When we disembarked the ship, our first task was to find where the water taxis were located to take us over to the main part of Port Louis. We were told at pre-port that it was a fairly long walk into town from where we were ported, so the water taxi was the way to go.

We headed to the right off of the gangway and walked for a few minutes and thought it was going no where, so we headed back toward the ship, only to be herded again in the direction we were originally headed! The water taxis were the ricketiest little motor boats ever…you had to jump over about a foot and a half of open water in order to get to the steps that led you down to the dock where the water taxis were waiting. We had to pay $1 each to make the 5 minute trip across the water and we were let off right at the front of this shopping mall. There was everything from restaurants to Burberry stores and other designer labels. It was as if we stepped off into a designer outlet mall. I started off the day with Jen, Elise and Bryan and we just started wandering around. The goal of most people staying in Port Louis the first day was to find some markets! We saw the post office when we first came out of the mall and then it was just a wide expanse of city! We did not have a map so we just started walking! We found a market that was all food and vegetables on the first floor…it was really exciting because the part we were in was mostly where local people were buying their produce and hanging out and talking. We wanted to find a travel agency to see about a villa or just hiring a driver for the day, and we ran into Jeff, Brianne, Ashley, Cristie, Janet, Jika, Brad and Brandon. (haha or I think Brandon was there now that I am looking back!)

I split off with the bigger group and we wandered our way through the back streets of Port Louis. We found some other really great small little markets and they were all little local ones for the neighborhoods we were in. We stopped by a travel agency again so Brad could try to arrange travel, but it ended up not working out. We walked back toward the ship and stopped at a restaurant right by the mall to get some drinks. I was going to try one of the local beers, but I decided to get a chocolate milkshake instead. Haha typical me. I tried some of the beers my friends ordered and they were okay…I mean, I hate beer, so they were palatable. We took the water taxi back to the ship and ate dinner on the ship. I decided not to go out on the town because I didn’t want to be exhausted after Mauritius. I stayed on the ship and went to the 7^th deck with Bryan and we talked a little bit about life on the ship and then I just went back to my room to read and to sleep.

Day Two: It’s a good thing I like learning about religion…

This day was spent on a Semester at Sea Field Program called “Rainbow Culture and Religion.” Mauritius is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse countries in the world. We began our day at a Tamil temple. The tour guide just simply kept saying Tamil temple and not mentioning that Tamil was Hindu. I was lucky and saw several of the statues and knew we were at a Hindu temple, but many people were confused as to what sort of religious place we were visiting. It is called a Tamil temple because the people who began and still worship at the temple were from the Tamil Nadu region of India. The port city of Chennai is in Tamil Nadu. Tamil is also a language. In many ways, it seems as thought Tamil is really a distinct culture among Indian traditions.

The temple from our vantage point at the entrance consisted of a long red walkway with golden poles on either side down the aisle. There was an entryhouse type of building which was decorated with many circular paintings and a few statues of gods and the same red aisle in the middle. Before we entered into this building we were required to remove our shoes, and we left them outside of the gate that guarded the building. There was an absolute life giving force that was exuded from the paintings and decorations and we were not even looking at the main temple yet! The top of this initial structure was covered with carvings of the different Hindu deities They love Ganesh in Mauritius, and Ganesh is the elephant headed god. He’s pretty fabulous looking.

We circumnavigated the temple and took the opportunity to stop at the shrines to the various gods around the temple structure. I recognized many of my American Religious Pluralism course with Ellen at BW and so that was nice. Our tour guide was friendly enough but not very informative. It felt nice that I could explain the very little that I knew. I was very excited to point out Lakshmi and I don’t really remember why. Haha There was a school group there and they were being shown around the grounds by their teachers, but they were speaking Creole, so I couldn’t gain any extra information from listening into them. One must be a Hindu to enter the main temple, so we could only peer in from the outside. Like the first building we saw, it was colorful and out side posted on the wall, I found what I think might be the name of the temple, but the rest of the writing was in Tamil, so this is what I think the name is: Hindu Maha Jana Sangam. We walked around a little more, but then boarded the bus to head to our next location.

We arrived at a Roman Catholic Church. We were not told the name of the church and I could not find the name anywhere. I am still hunting through other blogs to see if anyone else found the name. There was a service in progress while we were there, so that made it slightly awkward to be the Americans in the back gawking and taking photographs. They were singing some hymns in French and I believe another was in Creole so I took some video hoping that would be better than the flash on my camera and I really wanted to get some of the chanting! It was a beautiful church. I am not an expert on religious structures, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t gothic. Haha And then before we knew it, out buses were leaving and that was it. Haha

Our next stop was a Muslim Cultural Center. We were told we were going to be visiting a mosque and many of us were a little disappointed when the only spaces for prayer in the whole place were a room for men and a room for women. These rooms were just off of the main lobby and had green carpets and prayer rugs in the corners. The room for men was much larger than the room for women and the room for the men had a fan. It’s so bad, but one of the girls on the trip kept saying she was going to move the fan into the room for women!

After waiting for half an hour for our tour, we were taken up to this incredible air conditioned room. Yes, that is what I remember first, because we were sweating our butts off! We viewed a short film about the history of Muslims in Mauritius and of the center we were currently visiting. After the film he took a few questions. A lot of the questions were about Islam in general because we had not discussed it much on the ship yet. Once again American Religious Pluralism had given me enough background to know what the heck I was seeing and hearing. After the film our guide took us to the library on the top level of the cultural center. There was an amazing view overlooking Port Louis. There were many beautiful copies of the Koran and several volumes of other books that created beautiful golden phrases in Arabic when placed together in order. There was also a section with modern magazines for Muslim teenagers. It was interesting to go through and read some of the Muslim “Dear Abby” sections and see what this organization was recommending to the readers. There were three different magazines that fell into this category if I remember correctly and they were three distinct viewpoints. One was very hardline and would probably fall into Islamic fundamentalism, one was middle of road, and one seemed nearly secular. We were led back downstairs and given juice boxes before we left. Guava juice boxes are not so hot. Just trust me on this. Okay…I’ll finish Mauritius soon, so this should tide my family over so they leave me the hell alone! I am working 40 hour weeks, taking 9 credits and babysitting 10 hours a week, so I am a little busy to update!!

2007-05-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

It's my 21st birthday!!! I began celebrating at 5 pm on ship time on the 4th because that is when it became the 5th at home, and I am celebrating until it it midnight on the ship! I am maximizing my birthday potential!

People have been wonderful - My ship granny bought me an ice cream cake, and a teddy bear and my granny family signed a card and then I got cards from other people and then the Milner's bought me lots of cookies for our family dinner.

I am so lucky to have my two families on ship and the friends who decorated my door and gave me cards...I probably would have gone crazy without the Milners and the friends this semester...Mom - basically Susan Milner is the woman to thank for my sanity this semester :) haha

We have our last global studies test tomorrow, and I am done studying. I have my 60% attendance, and I know the map, so that gives me an 84% automatically and I am just DONE! Two tests and my academic portion of SAS is done.

Talk to you all soon!
I can't wait to meet you Blog Mom! Sorry I have not been the best poster on the trip! Hopefully I'll get you reading after I start posting from home!!

2007-04-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

hey from tokyo...I have been keeping great notes at the end of the every day since I last updated the blog, so I will begin the massive updates after arriving home AND visiting my little in Chicago.

Tokyo has been great, but expensive...gram - I saw some baseball games!

I'm getting my flight info from mom (aka mom, send it to me) ad Ill post it before Hawaii so you know...if you want to see me asap at the airport you can ;) haha

love and OHAYO gosaimas! I loved hearing my state all over japan!

2007-04-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

sugarshoez (08:51:28 pm): or what about updating at least to say, there is so much to say and i'll have to do it when i get home

so thats the scoop...I admire those who have continued to update, but I can't right now.

So hello from a beijing internet cafe!

2007-03-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Day Four: Departure from Kruger

I didn’t sleep very well last night and neither did anyone else. At one point Matt just got up and went outside. Everytime he opened and closed the door the cigar smoke from his cigar earlier wafted in. At one point I sat up and I couldn’t really see out of my right eye. I could see the light from the window with my left eye, but only a grey haze with my right. I put my glasses on to see if it would make a difference and I still couldn’t see well with my right. I turned on the lights and could see, but as soon as the lights were off again, the right eye went hazy again. It is weird and freaking me out just a little. I fell asleep pretty soon after though, but it wasn’t a fitful sleep.

We again woke up at 5:00 am for our morning safari. We were a little late getting down to the camp from our bungalows, so we rushed through tea and biscuits, and everyone else was already gone in their safari vehicles. We went with Sibongylie and Elton again and it was just the four of us late bungalow arrivals. One of the very first things we saw this morning was a lion! It was pretty far back in the bushes and could really only see it when it moved, but for a few minutes it walked straight out in a clearing and it was beautiful. I was simply stunned and just watched it and watched it walk back into the bushes. It had the mane around its face and the hair was the color of caramel. The fur kind of blew back as it walked and it is just so hard to describe the awe I felt at seeing it. To put my awe in perspective for those of you that know me…I didn’t even take a picture. It was kind of nice though…I know I certainly judge many things on this trip based on how nice of a picture it would be, and for once, I wasn’t worried at all about how a photograph would turn out.

We sat around for awhile talking and writing as we waited for our transport to the airport. Our van didn’t come until 12:30 and our flight was leaving at 6 from the JoBurg airport. We had to drop an Australian woman off at the airport and then we went to the Siyabona offices once again for lunch. We were rejoined by Blake, Victor, Jayme and Catie and the couple from Boston. After we filled out evaluation forms and ate, we were on our way to JoBurg.

The ride was long and boring…we stopped at a store and all got loads of food for the rest of the way, and at that point it became incredibly obvious that we were going to miss our flight. It was just too late and there was no way we were going to make it. Everyone else in my little group was fine with if we missed our flight, because if they charged extra, they could afford to pay for a flight change, but I am kind of doing this trip on a budget and couldn’t.

A really scarring part of the trip came when we happened upon an accident. There were ambulances all over and police cars and when we went by we saw a lot of blood. I am incredibly sensitive to violence…I can’t watch movies with violence, and I have good friends that tell me when to look away in most movies. It just gives me nightmares. There was one body on a gurney being lifted into the ambulance, and then another body laying on the ground. They were pulling up a sheet on that body and I was on the opposite side of the van from where the accident was and so I asked if he was dead. I guess I knew the answer, because my eyes were prickling with tears as I asked, but one of the guys in the back of my van answered yes. I’ve never been around a dying person at the time of death or a recently perished body, so this was a crazy thing.

We arrived at the JoBurg airport 15 minutes after our plane took off…I was so nervous so Regina handled talking to the airport agents, and we were able to get on the 1900 flight. We just made it to the tram before it left for the plane and we got on our plane! Another SAS group was on the plane to Cape Town including Elise, Bryan, Ashley and Cristie. I went and sat with Elise and Bryan, and then Cristie told us that liquor was free on the plane. So, we each got a drink and then a glass of wine with dinner. Part of it is nice because it’s just socially acceptable. We can get a drink and not have it be completely taboo just because we are 2 months under 21 or whatever nonsense.

When we arrived back in Cape Town we all piled into taxis and then headed back to the ship. I was in a taxi of about 15 people and at one point “A Whole New World” from Aladdin came on, and we all burst into song…it was great. I captured the impromptu sing a long on video. The poor taxi driver kept yelling at us to shut up…maybe we should have listened but we were all so excited to get back to the ship!

A bunch of people were heading out, but as soon as I got back to my room and saw my mail, my initial idea of staying in seemed even better! And…I had a note saying I had a package!!! I ran upstairs to the Purser’s Desk and claimed my package: it was from St. Luke’s!!! I had letters from Addie and Helen, Heather, Lori and many of the youth group kids!!! They were all asking me questions, so I soon have to respond to them. I also had things from all the people mentioned in the two previous posts…Lyss and Kristen sent me articles from the campus newspaper, pictures, and crazy letters…Gayle sent me her sermon..oy vey! Basically…all of my mail is on my wall…I feel kind of bad because my roommate doesn’t get much mail and mine is all over, but it just reminds me of home. In any case..that was the end of the return to Cape Town!

Day Five: Khayelitsha and Camps Bay

We gathered at 8:15 in the morning and headed out to Khayelitsha Township. It is one of the newer townships, being created in the 1970s because they were running out of space in the other townships. The first place we went to was the Information Center which also doubles as a national athletic center. It was built when Cape Town was vying for the 2004 Olympic games. There is a quote above the entrance from Danny Glover that reads in part, “ [Khayelitsha] helps us understand and appreciate our collective humanity.” And I would find that to be true as I went through my day in Khayelitsha.

Our next stop was Vicky’s B & B…Vicky got sick of people always coming through the townships but never spending time there so she converted part of her home into a bed and breakfast. It is beautiful and quite remarkable. One of her neighbors was selling things he and is community had made and they had this beautiful table-like thing. The base looks like three pieces of wood interwoven, but in truth it is carved from one piece of wood to receive the desired effect. Then, a bowl rests in the grooves on top and will make an awesome little decoration in my room next year.
For awhile we went to Masakhenifox EduCare Centre, where the motto on the sign is, “We will build and brighten this nation!” This was my first interaction with the children of the township. We taught them how to do high-fives and then they sang and danced for us. I have a lot of it on video, but then I just put the damn camera down and sang and danced along with them, and that is so much more rewarding. I did tape one particular song called, “Telephone to Jesus Every Day” and I want to teach it to the little kids back home. I taught them how to make the monkey face too..ahaha spreading it around the world. At one point I was taking a picture and trying to get one girl to smile and so then I put two of my fingers at the corners of my mouth as an example…well they thought this was how I wanted the picture so I have some of them smiling with their fingers in the picture too!!

The next place we went was the Philani Centre. It is a place that distributes information about nutrition to families and also employs women to do weaving. They make beautiful tapestries and bags and I bought one of their smaller bags. I shouldn’t have spent more money, but I look around me at the township, and if I was going to buy one more souvenir in South Africa, I would rather it be from them than one of the touristy markets. We wandered into another school and they sang for us, and then Jenna and I taught them the hokey pokey! Dr. Steffel kept getting so mad at us, as our trip leader, because we would never leave the kids.

Finally, we went to the Khayletisha Market..I only had ten rand left, which made not buying anything easy, but there was a great marimba band playing and I gave them my last rand because they were excellent. There was also a school and church across the street and we were allowed to go over there for their recess time. At all of these places, these kids just want to see what they look like on the camera…at this particular school, they were obsessed with my sunglasses too, so they all got pictures wearing my sunglasses! There was one girl who just curled up in my lap for most of the time too…it is simply incredible to hang out with these kids. When it came time to leave, one kid tried to grab my camera and the tour guide came over and strictly reprimanded him, but that was the only encounter I have had this far, and I could have taken the little 4th grder down ;)

To end the day we went to Kopanong B and B and met a women with a very similar story to Vicky from the other B and B. I cannot for the life of me remember this woman’s name. She was given a grant to study entrepreneurship at Pitt back in the 90s and then came home, turned her home into a B and B, and then has helped other women do the same and employs women from her community. It was wonderful. We had great food too! Fried dough balls and little meat pockets…we all chowed down! One of her workers showed up around the neighborhood…we saw sheep’s being cooked and cleaned, which is a South African delicacy apparently. We were invited into a man’s house where he had homemade township liquor and some of the brave guys drank some. I chose to sit in the corner and play with a little boy who couldn’t have been older than about 18 months. So cute.

We came back to the ship and the goal at that point was a picnic on Table Mountain…well, it was way too windy to go up the mountain, so Aja, Elise and I took a cab to Camps Bay which is in the resort area of Cape Town, but the beach is beautiful. We brought some food with us to eat on the beach, but didn’t get very far because the wind was blowing so hard that the sand was hurting us. We ended up going to a restaurant and getting an appetizer of fried camembert and some drinks and watched the sun set. The camembert was amazing and we had some champagne cocktails that were delightful. It was absolutely amazing to see the sun go down over the ocean! Stunning is one of the only words that would do Camp’s Bay justice. I ended up staying in and sleeping the rest of the night because I had another FDP the next morning.

Day Six: Amy Biehl and Out on the Town!

Amy Biehl was a young American who went to work against apartheid in South Africa after she graduated from college. In 1994 she went to a township with some of her friends and they were caught up in a rally. She ended up dying because she was stoned to death by the people who were protesting the oppressive government. Her family was the first to go through the Truth And Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu, and her parents ended up forgiving the people who were accused of murdering her. As a result, they began the Amy Biehl Foundation which provides in school and after school programs in township schools. Two of the men who took part in Amy’s death now work for the foundation, and one of them, Tobeko, was our tour guide for the day. Talk about a unique perspective to have from a tour guide. Our trip leader for the day was Jane Wisney. Jane is the wife of the Assistant Dean and runs the dependent student program, where I work with the children of the faculty and staff. I always get in trouble when helping the students because I laugh so much and sometimes get the kids in trouble, and before we even left on the bus she said to me, “I have my eyes on you LeeAnne! I am going to turn around and see you getting the township children in trouble!”

The first place we went was John Pama Primary School. We first saw the garden that they have in the back of the school. Parents without jobs will come and tend the garden and the kids, during free time, go to the garden and pick up the trash. We arrived just before lunch time, so when we went into the classrooms they were preparing to go to the shed in front of the school, where lunch is prepared by neighborhood women, and sponsored by the Amy Biehl Foundation. In our first classroom they sang us a song in English, and then we had a few minutes to play with the children, and then we were herded to the next classroom. When they began to sing the same song, I snuck outside where other children were eating their lunch. They had rice with a chicken stew over top and they were all eating it up, so it must have been good. All the kids wanted to do was share their lunch. We would point to their bowl and make a thumbs up or thumbs down with a questioning face, and they would smile and give a thumbs up and try to give us some. It was simply awesome, that they wanted to share their food, when Tobeko said it was probably the best meal they would have all day.

We left that school and headed for the next school which none us can remember the name of. We have a ton of pictures of the kids from there and none of know the name! We all keep saying, “Yeah, the school with the red uniforms…” I am going to talk to Jane, the trip leader, and see if she has it. There was a vendor on school grounds selling chicken feet, which is something the kids like. At first we were kind of surprised to see someone there selling them, but we have vending machines all over schools and our college campuses, so it is just another vendor in a sense. One of the girls on our trip, Jenny, told the vendor she would buy as many chicken feet as the kids wanted, so they lined up and each got a chicken foot. Even after 35 kids got them, she still only paid ten rand, which is just over a dollar.

Our next stop was another bed and breakfast. This one was at the outskirts of a township, and pretty darn close to being a suburb. It was an amazing meal and it only cost us 85 rand, which is just over ten dollars. We had this amazing beef stew, rice, a bean and apple salad (which we expected to be gross, but was actually pretty good!), chicken, rice…It was everything wonderful! This B & B was close to the township, Gugulethu, and we drove by the Gugulethu Seven memorial after we left lunch. There were a series of incidents in the 80s and 90s which resulted in the particularly violent deaths of seven people in the township. I believe they were all men, but I could be wrong. We also stopped by the site of Amy Biehl’s murder. It is just outside of a gas station now. There is still the steel gate standing in the air that was there when she died, and there is a cross in front of it as a memorial. If it had not been pointed out to us, it was something we simply would have just driven by.

After this stop we went to Qinqa Mntwana school. Those Q’s are some of the clicks of the Xhosa language, and so it was impossible for us Americans to say the name of the school properly. We sure did try in vain! At this school our entire time was spent watching the after school programs put on by the Amy Biehl Foundation. The first classroom we entered was where students were learning how to play recorder. The first song they played for us was “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic! I mean, I barely got past Hot Cross Buns in 3rd grade! These kids were incredible! We also saw kids learning how to play trumpet from an older man wearing a beret, and others learning how to sing opera music properly…you music ed kids at BW would have simply been in your own personal heaven watching these kids!

We saw a modern dance class practicing and a realistic moment came when suddenly the music turned off because the power went out at the school. Apparently this is a pretty frequent thing, and it didn’t faze any of the people from the school. The kids just kept on dancing and moving. Some of these kids were good, and would give some American reality show contestants a run for their money! A different group also performed a series of native African dances and were again simply spectacular. I have so many pictures and videos and you are all just going to have to see it to believe it!

The final school we visited for the day was Nomlinganiselo Primary School. This school has a putting green in the front and side yards for the children to learn how to play golf and these kids love it! We had a girl in our group who plays golf for her college team, so she had a lot of fun playing with them for the short time we had. The first classroom we visited was full of high school students learning about HIV/AIDS. The SAS students sat down next to the high school students and we began to talk with them. This was one of their first meetings and they were writing letters about why they were there are at the program. I sat next to an 18 year old named Bulelwa. I asked if I could read his letter, and from there on out, Bulelwa’s name and face will always be in my mind. Both of his birth parents died from AIDS when he was in primary school, and now his adopted parents and adopted sister have all been diagnosed with HIV. Bulelwa said he was at the program because he wanted to learn how to take care of them. My heart cracked as I read that. I looked up at him after I read the letter, and he said, “It’s okay. I’m going to change the world.” He broke my heart and then mended it a little in a period of 20 minutes. We also sat in on more recorder and dance classes and I have plenty of those pictures too!

We arrived back at around 5:30, and then Elise, Jeff, Jen, Bryan, Anna and I went to dinner. We tried to go to the African Café, but they were booked, so we walked across a few streets to Marco’s African Café. It was amazing! I had a plate of fries (or CHIPS!) and filets of kudu, ostrich, and springbok. It was in a great sauce and was simply awesome! I think kudu was my favorite.

After dinner we went out to a bar at the mall and we had a great South African beer called Savanna Dry. On our way back to the boat around ten we had to go past the tequila restaurant where all of the SAS kids were getting fishbowls. Fishbowls are enormous bowls filled with juice and liquor, and between 6 and 10 people share them. Some people were only sharing them between two people, and I don’t know how they lasted the night. Sharing with about 10 people still gave me a little buzz, but nothing bad. I went back to the ship pretty early because I had an FDP the next day, and it was to the winelands!

Day Seven: Winelands

Well, this was quite the day in the winelands! I woke up, had breakfast, and then we climbed into our busses outside of the ship! Our first stop was the factory of J.C. Le Roux and they make sparkling wine. They cannot call it champagne because only sparkling wine made in France can be called champagne. We had a tour of the factory and then we sat down to sample some of the wine. It was good for the most part. I enjoyed the first ones we had much better than the fruitier sweeter ones at the end. After the first two, we went outside and our guide did the thing with the sword where you run it up the seam and then it pops the top off…it was awesome! The champagne started bubbling out and we all put our cups underneath. The lifelong learners with us were simply hilarious!

We next went to lunch at the Goatshed Restaurant. We had this absolutely amazing quiche. It was so incredibly cheesy and had mushrooms and some vegetables. This same stop had Fairview wine and cheese, so we had wine tasting, and I wasn’t really a huge fan. I had 4 glasses, when we had the opportunity for 6, but since I dumped out most of the first three, I decided to simply move on to the cheese. Alyssa: you would have been in heaven here! We had some amazing Camembert and this great goat cheese with peppadew, whatever that is. I ended up buying some of the goat cheese stuff because it was so excellent.

Our final stop was at a brandy factory, and I am now fully aware that I hate brandy. However, I did eat the chocolates that came with the brandy. Haaha we headed back to the ship and then I went grocery shopping and that was it. We did not pull out of port that night because of the wind: it was not safe for the pilot to get us out of there. We had to bunker over night for fuel anyways, so it was okay.

Day Eight: Bunkered

This entire day of classes was spent bunkered while taking on fuel. It was ridiculous. Good food was just in the wharf a second away!

Boat to Mauritius: I don’t have a lot to say except I hate Global Studies with a passion, I was putting together the spelling bee for my study buddy kids and the seas were so incredibly rough. I have never been so seasick. BLAH.

Mauritius was great, update coming soon. Classes till India..my spelling bee for the kids is on Tuesday!

Mauritius update coming soon!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

2007-03-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

South Africa: Cape Town to JoBurg

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to go up to 7^th deck and see the sunrise over Table Mountain. When I got up there, the dawn sky was just breaking and it was incredible to see the entire sunrise process. Jeff, Danielle and the rest of the gang stayed up there until breakfast and then we made the trek to the incredibly busy dining rooms – so we waited and waited in the lines and got our mediocre food. After that we all went our separate ways until the consular briefing. The tag team of senior diplomats managed to not absolutely terrify us like the lady from Salvador. These guys were pretty upbeat and kept showing random pictures that only college students and their wacky professors would find enjoyable. Plus…the first guy waddled like a penguin for us. Haha

The consular general also spoke and then the Premier of the Western Cape came into the Union to speak. This is the equivalent to a governor coming on board, and he was great. He is a Muslim, and he spent a lot of his time speaking about the religious unity and disunity in Cape Town. At one point he pointed to Desmond Tutu and said that he has more in common with the archbishop than with Islamic fundamentalists. He meant well, but the way he said it kind of seemed like he was puffing himself up a little bit, but overall, he was an excellent speaker and I can certainly see him winning political office!

At that point we were cleared to get off the ship. Jeff, Brianne, Ashley, Janet, Jika, Cristie, Jen and I took off for Robben Island hoping to get tickets for the day. However, they were all sold out. Jeff then remembered that an SAS trip was leaving the ship for Robben Island at 12:15 and we decided to try to crash it. People kept trickling into the Union and then two other people showed up trying to crash the trip. In the end, more people showed up with tickets than who were even supposed to be on the trip, so we definitely did not get in!

The five of us packed up our bags and headed off ship. Jeff and Jen went and climbed Table Mountain and I didn’t go because I wouldn’t have made it back in time to meet my group for my safari. Evan from Penn State and Kristen from Texas and I headed out to find lunch and some drinks. We found a group of people going skydiving and the RD Drew was one of them. He pulled me aside and asked me what I was doing on Sunday. I told him I was going on my safari and then he said if I was in town he was going to invite me to go to the Archbishop’s church with him. WHAT THE HECK! I was crazy upset!

We then went to this great little restaurant and got sandwiches and a couple drinks…the panini was excellent. We went wandering in the enormous mall right in the Victoria and Alfred Wharf and we came upon a bar where there were a lot of SASers wandering around and Evan wanted to go in. We got what is called a “Jam Jar” which is a mason jar with fruit juice and rum…I was expecting it to pack a punch, but it was incredibly weak and was like drinking pineapple juice by itself. It was close to time for me to head back to the ship, so we wandered through the parking garage encountered a brick wall and then a metal fence. We finally found the opening to the road and they dropped me off at the ship and went to drink some more.

We were meeting up at 4:30 and Regina didn’t come until 4:50…We were honestly about to go, because we weren’t going to risk missing our flights if she didn’t show up at 5. The taxi to the airport took about 45 minutes, but our driver explained a lot about the differences between the townships and about where he lived. We arrived at the airport and headed to check in…we got that done and then hoofed it to our gate to make sure it wasn’t boarding yet. It wasn’t, so we grabbed some chocolate milkshakes which were different, but quite good. We had to board a tram to take us to our plane, and then boarded it…but it wasn’t quite as fancy as the Magic Flying Carpet in Brazil! I had the window seat in my row and no one was in either of the seats in my row, which was nice because I could spread out a little bit. The flight was uneventful and included wine and decent food. When we arrived in JoBurg we asked the baggage claim guy to call our hostel for us and he arranged for us to be picked up.

Then…we saw our new home for the night. At first it was very nice, but then when we moved the one towel, a rather large bug scurried out…all of you at home should know how much this excited me! We tried to use the internet but it was not working, so we sat down with girly magazines and watched television. It was so nice to relax and drink some hot tea. You would think it wouldn’t be a huge deal to watch TV since we do have some movies playing on the ship, but it was just nice to see real shows, even if they were South African shows that we didn’t know…we did watch part of Armageddon..haha

After I sat on the couch, I noticed the ants. And then they were on my bed. And in the bathroom. And on my bed. And everywhere. You will all know how much I loved that too… Before we fell asleep we heard that Victor and Jayme’s group was staying in the same hostel but they were in the dormitory area and we had one set of bunk beds and a king size. The sleep was not very fitful, mostly because the bugs caused nightmares of scorpions and huge bugs…haha but I slept a little.

Day Two: Safari at Kruger!

This morning we woke up at the hostel at around 730 and ate breakfast with the other group and we had Nutella! Matt came into our room after breakfast and said that we owed 288 rand…I booked the hostel with my debit card at Hostel World, and it said the rest of the money would just be charged to my card after our stay…well this guy said no when I brought my card in to him. I felt so stupid! Luckily, Regina had a lot, so all of us put together what we had and paid the bill. We all got on the hostel’s bus that took us to the airport, and then we waited close to 45 minutes for the Siyabona bus to arrive..we were supposed to leave at 9:00 and didn’t pull out until around 10.

We were all packed in like sardines in the bus and we had an insane French woman in the front seat. The drive was about five hours, but I slept for most of it. We stopped one for toilets, ATM stop and snacks. I got Salt and Vinegar chips, and it was incredible. I haven’t had those in about 8 weeks, and they were fabulous. 45 minutes before reaching the gates of Kruger we stopped for lunch at the Siyabona offices. We had an amazing fruit salad and best of all? IT WAS NOT SHIP FOOD! South African sandwiches all have butter on them instead of mayo or mustard or anything, and it reminds me so much of Ireland!

We arrived at the Pretoriuskop camp around 3:00 PM and were shown to our bungalows. They are simply fabulous! We have air conditioning, hotel like showers and amazingly comfortable and fluffy beds. Regina and Liz are staying in #14, (the bigger one!!) and Matt and I are here in #15. Regina has two beds put together and she is quite excited haha We relaxed for a short time, but we soon had to go on our first safari drive! We met a couple from Boston on a vacation and then the other huge group of SAS kids showed up – it was Princess and Carl’s group of about 20.

Regina, Liz and I sat up front and had a great view of everything. We saw baboons everywhere, a group of rhinos, some impalas, some kudu, and the top of a hippo bathing in water. Toward the very end we saw a giraffe! It wasn’t very close though, so none of us got a very good picture of it. It was exciting to be seeing these animals up close. At some points it just seemed unreal. Every port so far has contained some moments when I had to pinch myself to make sure it was actually happening.

The gate to Pertoriuskop closed at 6:00 pm, and we did not arrive back until 6:10, so our guides had to pay a small fine to get back in, but luckily we were only 10 minutes late because the fines are more depending on how late you are returning home. Dinner was not until 7 so we stopped by our bungalows and then went to the gift shop. There is so much in there I want to buy for my friends and family back home! Every time I see an elephant, I want to get it for Kimi! Don’t worry x-roomie doomie: you have got a special African surprise! I am really considering buying a great coffee table book they have with pictures of the animals of Kruger. I did buy some chocolate though because I am craving it! I bought “elephant droppings” which are chocolate covered marshmallows.

Dinner tonight was with the whole gang of SASers and the couple from Boston and the meal was authentic and delicious. We had salad, mashed something, minced meat stew, corn in squash and this amazing garlic bread made in Kruger. Now I am back in my bungalow about to go to bed! We have to be at our game drive location at 5:15 tomorrow morning!

Day Three: The Early Rise

I slept like a baby last in my comfortable, fluffy bed last night. We had the air conditioning on high and we were all cuddled up in our comforters. Part of me feels like I am not fully living into the safari life, but then I see the other people sweating their brains out in their tents and I fall in love with my bungalow all over again. I woke up at 5:00 am this morning and headed down to the camp at 5:15 for tea and biscuits before our morning safari drive. We saw so many animals this morning! It was probably the best drive we had the whole time!

We began with the usual kudu and impala and we saw the most amazing moon! There was a lunar eclipse last night that we didn’t know about, but this morning it was still this dark orange red and we got a few good pictures. I heard that one of the other people got a great picture of the eclipse, so hopefully I can steal it from the intranet!

We saw a rhino at the side of the road and then an elephant was right in the middle! It danced backwards a little at the sight of our vehicles, but I didn’t care because I was taking a zillion pictures hoping one would be good enough to blow up and frame for the x-roomie. Haha Kimi: I basically thought of you the entire time I was on safari!

***GOOD PART!*** After a little more driving, three safari vehicles happening upon a sleeping momma and baby rhino at the same time. We began taking pictures and then they woke up…never good! They were not very happy! They began to stamp their feet and start to charge forward a little bit. I was in the front left seat in the vehicle and they were just in front of our vehicle on the left. I would have been the first to be impaled! Haha They crossed the road several times and kept stamping their feet…definitely a tense moment…even the safari drivers were talking to each other about how to get out, because one vehicle was blocked in! That said…it was impressive to see their huge horn…it is beautiful and literally awe-some. They can do some serious damage with that thing. My first thought when they began to stamp was: Please don’t impale me!!

The next big excitement came when we saw a lone zebra surrounded by a large family of giraffes. They were so elegant…perhaps the better word in graceful. As they lumber on, they seemed to walk in a perfect harmony, and delicately reached their heads up into the trees for a bite. We proceeded on to a little lake where the excitement was supposed to be the rhino bathing in the water, but the REAL excitement turned out to be the crocodile and two ducks heading on a collision course for each other. We’ve all been really wanting to see something get eaten, but every time the croc would get close enough to make the kill, the two ducks would scatter. I videotaped it, but the croc just wasn’t skilled enough! As much as I hate everything bloody and violent, it would have been unique. We saw another family of giraffes and then another highlight came with a family of zebras and there was a baby! It was snow white and jet black and just a little skittish, but curious enough to try to come closer to our vehicle.

We arrived back at our camp around 9 and ate a breakfast of cereal, fruit, eggs, sausage and just about everyone except me had the beans! Please don’t make any of us return back to ship food! There was nothing to do until lunch at two so the four of us headed back to our bungalows. I showered and man did it feel good! The water pressure was fabulous! Then…we all went to sleep! At around 1:00 pm I went to see if Liz wanted to go to the shop like we planned, but she was still sleeping, so I went back to bed and she came and got me at 1:30.

I am basically done souvenir shopping after the safari shop for people back home…granted, I find something to buy my mom at nearly every place I go. I did buy myself that coffee table book, and then I got the grandparental units something as well. Lunch was sandwiches and I am getting a little sick of the butter on the sandwiches, as much as it does remind me of Ireland…I scraped it off there, and I am starting to scrape it off here!

Before our afternoon drive, I made a “Thank You Mom For The World” sign, hoping that we would see something great where I could get a picture of me holding that sign. Well…it was perhaps the most boring drive of our stay. Haha Regina busted out her camera and we all took silly pictures, and Lamer, Zeke and Shawn fell asleep. We all ended up talking about life which was fun, but animals would have been preferential!

Before dinner we went back to the shop and I bought some kudu beef jerky which is pretty good…dinner was also amazing! These people know how to cook over an open fire! It was sausage, chicken, salad and a glass of wine! One of our guides, Elton, sat with us tonight and we were all trying to ask him questions for our classes…I asked him about religion and I found out that his church is Christian, but still has a lot of African influences in every area, which is pretty cool. He didn’t seem to really want to talk about it though, so I will have to find some other people to talk to for class! Tomorrow is our last day…I can’t believe it! Then it’s just praying that we make it to our flight on time!

more to come as i finish typing!

and thanks to anna and wayne! they were the last card i forgot yesterday!

2007-03-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

South Africa was amazing, and I am still writing my blog and reflection for the time here...we are still waiting in Cape Town for the bunkering to be done! Good food was in the wharf just a second away!

I will try to post soon!
Here is a picture to tide you over!!

And from all the letters I got in South Africa, I know many of you read this, so comment and make me feel loved! hahaha Thank you to Mom, Steph, Alyssa, Kristen, Abby, Joanna, Gayle, all of St. Luke's for the huge package of letters, and I know I am missing someone right now, but my list is in my room! Just know how much I appreciate every letter!

2007-02-28T05:54:00.001-08:00

Ahhh finally up to speed. Went to Mysticism this morning, and then skipped global studies. For the past three days the revenge of traveler’s diarrhea has made my life fairly miserable. Sorry if that is too much information for some of you, my beloved readers. I woke up for the announcement after Global Studies today: we are doing an apartheid simulation on the ship. The privileged class? Those who shaved their heads or got Mohawks within the past week. Well shit. All of my friends have hair. So..for lunch I could not go eat on 5^th deck because that was for the unprivileged class only. I went upstairs and found Perry and some other people which was fun.

We also found out that we were allowed into the faculty/staff lounge…so after we chowed down quicky, we all sprinted to the faculty staff lounge. At which point we sat down and started doing homework, but then it just felt so incredibly uncomfortable that we simply left. I went and napped until it was time for International Relations.

We covered all economic stuff in IR…it makes me ever so glad that I did not take Intl’ Political Economy with Dr. Wes too! I would have died a long horrible death! Brianne and I are going to have to review this stuff, especially because Dr. Wes made some board errors while writing so I am extra confused.

Immediately after IR, I went to day two of being a study buddy…as soon as I walked over to the kids, Sage Zimmerman yelled, “Work with me today LeeAnne!” haha So Maddie was a little tiffed, but all she had to do was tests. I helped Sage with her geography and daily oral language, and then she worked really well on her own with her English workbook. These kids are bright, and so dedicated. Sage and Maddie are both almost done with several of their subjects because they have been working ahead and are just bright kids.

We talked about apartheid with the students because some of them were already angry about the situation because they were not allowed to swim in the pool, with the exception of Mohawk-ed 6 year old Michael, because that was one of the off-limits areas for our simulation. Being 6 years old, Michael was not at all afraid to taunt his older sister and her friends about this fact. It was really interesting to hear what they thought, because they could still get away with a lot, but the pool was one of those things that they couldn’t weasel into.

After that, I was supposed to have my ship-family dinner, but the rest of them were haired folks, so I couldn’t join them in the 5^th deck dining room. Stacy, my ship sister, was angry, and she grabbed my elbow and said, “We’re protesting..this is family!”, and we walked arm in arm to the 5^th deck dining room to go sit with Granny Joan, but I was soon removed from the area. I went to go eat upstairs, and there was a protest blocking the way into our dining room.

People were yelling singing, doing whatever they thought good to stop baldies from getting into their dining room. I joined the protest, and then one of my haired friends from the Amazon and I decided we were going to go into the privileged class dining room and eat together. So we got up, again walked arm in arm, and walked to the serving line. She grabbed her tray and plate and began to put salad on it, and the crew took it away from her! So, she sat down, and I brought over food for the both of us. Finally, all of the protesters came inside the privileged dining room and stood in line, and all that jazz.

The baldies were all yelling, “Shave or Behave” and the haired people were all yelling insults back. Elise and Jen came to sit with us along with another baldie girl…two of them left, and then I saw Maddie outside alone on the 6^th deck, so I went to see if she wanted to come eat with me and my haired friends. I didn’t realize her dad was already in line for food, but at the rate some of these college kids were acting, I wouldn’t have put it past them to say something rude to the 10 year old about having hair and still being on the privileged deck. She grabbed Dr. Wes and they came down at sat with us.

At that exact moment one of the baldie guys came over and started yelling at the people with hair and cussing. Now…he definitely saw Dr. Wes, and while he may not have seen Maddie scooted low in her chair, there was no excuse. Dr. Wes calmly told him to stop cussing because his daughter was there, and he stopped cussing, but kept yelling, and finally said, “Do any of you know what Apartheid was about?”

WRONG person to ask that question to: Dr. Wes is our international relations professor, was there when the Berlin Wall fell, has been to South Africa many times, and is one of the most aware professors on this ship…the kid started to walk away and Dr. Wes followed him and gave him an earful. When he sat back down, he said in his Texas drawl, “I’ve got a long fuse, but you don’t want to light it.” And then we had a peaceful rest of our dinner.

Later, before watching the nightly movie, Dr. Wes saw me and asked me if anything had happened before he and his daughter sat down between us and the kid, and if we had provoked the kid, and to be honest. Well, we hadn’t. Dr. Wes had identified the kid on the board with all of our pictures and had already talked to his RD.

I studied in the library a bit, and then I went to watch An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. No matter what you think of Gore, this movie was well done and humorous, but also drove home a serious point. Bryan was really happy, because he did all the publicity for it and everything and it filled the Union. After that I just read in my room for awhile and got Katie tea because she is sick and then went to bed.

This morning Jen and I were going to have breakfast on 6^th deck together, but we forgot the simulation was still in effect…so I ate with Zeona and then a guy named Evan from Penn State. I went to the Union to get a seat, because Sage made me promise I would come sit by her in the Union. It was also the day that Desmond Tutu was speaking to Global Studies!

First of all, any day Dr. Dan isn’t speaking is a good day. When the Archbishop speaks, it is an EXCELLENT day. Or to use the word Tutu loved to use today, “fantastic!” with his little high pitched squeak!

He told many stories to convey his points about apartheid, but one of the most heartbreaking came when he told a story about his family. When he was a boy, he and his father went to the local grocery, and a young women called his father, “boy” and the Archbishop said he always wondered what his father felt like. He then told a story about his daughter, who was born in England, but then they returned to South Africa. She saw a playground and asked her daddy if she could go play. He had to say, “No, you can’t play there.” And then he said he finally knew what his father felt like. He wanted the ground to split right open and take him away.

However, he told many more inspiring stories too. At one point we clapped when he declared, “and apartheid was over!” So then he said he had a magic wand, and made the appropriate hand motions, and said he could turn people into instant South Africans…so he waved his magic wand over us, and said South Africans were much more raucous! He made his end of apartheid declaration again and we became the boisterous, raucous South Africa crowd. And then he turned us back into non-South Africans so he could finish his talk! Haha

One last point about him is that he made the point about the anger and hurt that is in South Africa, but he focused so much more on the capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation that we all have. It was beautiful. In a way, listening to him leaves me feeling slightly inadequate but also deeply inspired. Who knows what will happen with the rest of this voyage and the world is waiting for me.

And on that note, I have to do some real work. So mom…I hope you’re happy with the blog updates!

Neptune Day to B6

2007-02-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

Today is B7....this is the blog from Neptune Day until B6...enjoy!

Neptune Day

We were warned of an early wake up call on Neptune Day and we got one! The crew came through the hallways at 7:49 am banging pots, pans, and drums and blowing whistles and pounding on our doors! A lot of people didn’t get up, but I changed and headed up to breakfast and then at 8:45 we went to 7^th deck to wait for the festivities.

We sat on the wooden platform surrounding the pool, and then suddenly we heard the crew playing their instruments away again…this time they were followed by King Neptune, Queen Minerva, and then the people who have already crossed the equator. Everyone was dressed up in costume and it was a grand parade!

Dean Mike came up to introduce the King and Queen when it finally sunk in who the King and Queen were…starring as King Neptune was CAPTAIN JEREMY in full on green body paint and no shirt, and making an appearance as Queen Minerva was DEAN LARRY! Holy Cow! They are brave! Some of the other professors and staff made debut appearances as the supporting cast and it was great!

We swore an oath to King Neptune, but he still did not believe us to be worthy of turning from pollywogs into shellbacks. So…the games began! At first they told us to just jump into the water and didn’t mentioned the fish guts, so even though I was not originally going to get in, I thought I might as well before the fish guts were brought out. So I jumped in. FULLY CLOTHED. No swim suit and a tank top and my khaki cargo capris. Hot diggity! I got out and kissed the fish and at that point Captain Jeremy told me I was not worthy and told me to get the fush guts.

I was already soaking wet, so why not? Elise and I got the guts dumped on us together and then jumped into the pool… I got out again and this time they made us kiss both of the fish, and then I proceeded to kiss King Neptune’s ring. As I was about to walk off the platform, Dr. Dan (the global studies prof) took his tin foil sword and rewarded me with being called a shellback! Whoohoo! I went back to my room to rinse off and change and then I began to prepare for the shaving of the head!

I waited in line, and my professor, Dr. Wes, shaved my head! I have been harassing him for weeks about him not being sure about the shaving of the head, and so I figured he deserved to take this Mohawk off. There was more dying of the shavers, and so we all had to wait…finally the smart Dr. Wes from Texas decided to go inside and put the overheating clippers on the ice cold metal railing of the ship. Miraculously they started working! So he clipped my head, and did a little hack job, but overall pretty good. I don’t have a good picture of me without any hair, but the picture on facebook is of my Mohawk, which looked pretty good.

The rest of the day after getting my head shaved was pretty boring…we just hung out and since we had goofed around the night before, we actually had to get work done for the next day. They did have a barbecue for us that night and we ate like a bunch of gluttons…they had hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue chicken, barbecue ribs…the works. If there is one thing this ship does well, it is their barbecue ribs.

I will always remember the day A6. It was the day I woke up at 6:45 in the morning so that I could attend a Eucharist in the Executive Dean’s cabin celebrated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I woke up at 6:45 and showered and made myself look pretty and then at 7:15 I headed up to the 7^th deck to go to the cabin. Theo, Anna and Kate were the other students to attend, even though six of us total were invited. How could someone possibly sleep through the chance to be a part of this??!?! My on ship granny was also there, along with some other life long learners.

Before the service he forgot to ask someone to read the appointed psalm, so when it came to that point, he jumped up and said, “You! Read this psalm” and I got to hold the personal prayer book of Desmond Tutu. I read quite beautifully if I do say so myself, reading the slowest I ever have in order to not completely screw up! Being in a community reciting the Nicene Creed and the Eucharistic prayers and the Lord’s Prayer and ALL of it brought some tears to my eyes. I am still searching for the right words to describe how being present in that time and place, but I’m working on it. It just felt like my soul was refreshed and lifted a little after being on this ship so long.

It was weird to have to go right to Mysticism right after the service..it created a disjointed kind of feeling for my day…joy and a sense of calm during the Eucharist and then rushing right into the hurriedness of the day…Mysticism was good though. We discussed the Gospel of Thomas and did a close textual reading of some of the parts. I’ve never looked at the Gnostic gospels before and so it was really interesting to dig into it and see the differences with what has become orthodox Christian theology.

Global Studies was boring…I fell asleep for a little bit and once I started to lightly snore, Jeff tapped me awake. Thank you Jeff! I also had International Relations and I had forgotten to do my journal for the class, and Dr. Wes told us it was due at 1700. However…I had to go to my first day as a study buddy for the dependent children on ship until then!

Working with the kids was pretty darn fabulous. It made me miss my daycare kids so much! Dr. Wes’s kids are Michael and Maddie, who are 6 and 10, Toni Zimmerman, the psych prof, has two kids, Sage and Misha, who are 10 and 13, and the ship shrink has her daughter Supohn with her. Those are the five that are there on a daily basis.

For the first day I helped Maddie…she was practicing her social studies and science tests and so we went over all of her review sheets. she answered almost all of the questions perfectly, so her mom said that it counted for her test…now we have a little joke where I ask her what the two oldest colleges in the US are and where they were located because that was the one thing that haunted her until the end!

We also held the first on-ship worship service that night. It was three worship songs, a welcome, my prayer, 2 worship songs, prayer for South Africa, 3 worship songs, dismissal, worship song, prayer. So…we sang a lot. However, it gave me an appreciated for how some people genuinely worship and how their spirits were lifted so much just through that 50 minute service of singing. That’s really all from that day

Absolutely nothing interesting. Seriously.

Except that I had my first real test. Medieval Travel Accounts. I am usually one of the first people done with essay tests because I write so fast, but there was so much information to convey in this exam.

Jeff reminded me: this boat has been rocking like CRAZY. When we would sit at meals, we would gaze out the various windows and see all ocean one moment and then all sky the next moment. It became a running mantra where everyone would say, “Ocean! Sky! Ocean! Sky!”

Other than that? Relaxed, watched part of the movie Ed Woods, and then read some of Teresa of Avila.

2007-02-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

- Amazon!!

Picture of my shaved head coming soon!

Quick update: I'll write more later, but I need to get this out there now.

I am one of 6 students who has been invited to participate in the Eucharist celebrated by Desmond Tutu tomorrow morning. Let that sink in for a moment. I am one of six of over seven hundred students to be invited to Eucharist with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

I am on all of those religious programming committees with the Resident Director, Drew, and I talked to him a little bit about how much I miss the Eucharist and being in the midst of the community, as I've explained on here. Well...for tomorrow, Drew was allowed to invite 6 of the people he deemed appropriate to attend Eucharist with the Archbishop.

He grabbed me in the piano lounge tonight and said he needed to talk to me, and I kept thinking of what I hadn't done right for the Christian worship servce tomorrow night, and then he asked me if I would like to go to the 7:20 Eucharist in the Executive Dean's cabin. We are the first 6 students to go, and I am freaking out. Drew said to keep it on the downlow, but I have been telling all of my friends. oops...I can't keep something like this to myself!

I called my mom, and then I called Stephie...I haven't been able to get ahold of the BFF for days, so I got to tell them.

update on Neptune Day coming sometime...I'm a buzzed head and loving every minute of it. It is so incredibly freeing. But...I have lots of work to do since I have to be up so god forsaked early tomorrow morning!!!! And we lose another hour of sleep tonight...good night!

Brazil and Amazonia!

2007-02-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

Brazil: Salvador and the Amazon

Salvador

I woke up early in the morning once again to see us pull into Salvador. Coming around the coastline you can just see the beautiful churches of the Pelhourino and the vast dichotomy with the favellas that are down by the port area. Elise, Bryan, Jeff, Jen and I went to breakfast, and then we had to clear immigration. Again we had to have a face to face meeting with an immigrations officer, and they are pretty serious. I think it was Dean Mike who said that they are particularly tough on Americans coming into the country because the United States is stringent with the Brazilians we let in. After we went through immigration, a US Consular Agent spoke to the entire ship in her diplomatic briefing. She decided it would be a really great idea to tell us a story of a carjacking where a 6 year old boy was caught in the seatbelt outside the car and dragged 6 kilometers to his death. Was it really necessary to tell us that? Marvel, the ship shrink, was sitting in the piano lounge too, and we all noticed her shaking her head and putting her hands up. Later I talked to Dr. Wes’s wife, because they have a six year old son, and apparently after that briefing he asked whether something bad was going to happen to him like that. NOT cool.

Jen had to stay on the ship for them to take her to a dentist in Salvador, so Bryan, Elise, Jeff and I went out exploring in Salvador. We walked to the Elevador Lacerda trying to find the Mercado Modelo, and couldn’t find it, but we explored some really interesting parts of Salvador. Off of the elevator we turned left and kept walking and walking and we finally reached these amazing old cobblestone streets. We found some great local artisans and Elise bought some jewelry, Jeff bought a mask, and I bought a painting of Capoeira. We bought some ice cream at the top of the elevator on recommendation from Marvel as she walked back down to the elevator, and then we came back to the ship for lunch because we all had FDPs to go on anyways.

My FDP was the Candomble Temple and Museum. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I certainly learned a lot more in depth material than what was covered in global studies and cultural preport. Our guide was a member of a Candomble house, and so she explained about each of the house shrines we passed. It was a little bit of a let down that we could not enter, but they are only for the members of the house. They had the beads that represent the orixas, and so I got a string of white and blue beads because they represent the orixa Iemanja. She represents water and life. We also heard some stories from Mother Detina. She has lived in this Candomble compound almost her whole life, and she spoke about her time away from Candomble and her return. It was incredible to hear such wisdom from her and it was easy to see why she is so respected within the community.

I returned from the FDP at 1800, and I decided not to go out to Carnaval. I mean, I am sure I would have been okay, but at dinner I heard a story about three girls already being held at knife point and robbed, so I decided to play safe. I went to bed at 8 pm, because I had to wake up at 12:30 am for my adventure to the Amazon!

*The writing from here on out for the Amazon is basically my personal journal that I updated each night on the riverboat*

Amazon: Day One

Holy cow! I could leave the Rio Negro right now and still be completely satisfied. We met in the Union at one o’clock this morning and departed the MV Explorer around one forty-five. When we arrived at the airport, the tour operator took me and Jika to the ATM and then we rejoined the rest of the group. The security here in Brazil is so incredibly relaxed. At no point were we asked to present our passports or other photo ID, and there was just one little x-ray scanner that looked like it was made in 1970. One kid from our Amazon group showed up absolutely blazing drunk from Carnaval. In the Union before we left he was so obviously drunk and a lot of us wish he wouldn’t have been allowed to come, because everyone had to babysit him a little. At the airport he was inappropriate and we were all a little embarrassed to be there with him. At one point he had all of his cash hanging out of one pocket, his passport barely in his back pocket and then emptied an entirely different pocket into the hands of the ticket taker when he went to board the plane. GAH. These are the people that give this program a bad name.

We boarded our plane to Sao Paulo after eating ham and cheese croissants and drinking water with some major gas. Seriously, gassy water does not hydrate. I felt more parched after drinking that water, but that’s a conversation for a different day. Haha Oh – and a Jeff quote. He said something about Marvel that was along the lines of “Hi verb, I’m a proper noun. What do you do in your spare time? Join together subjects and objects?”

Our flight to Sao Paulo stopped in a place called Vitoria, but we were not aware that we were landing before Sao Paulo. So…five of us SASers got off the plane in Vitoria and made it to baggage claim before we realized that no one else from our group was coming. Luckily the baggage claim was right off the tarmac, so ran back out, and Paul Travis and I showed our tickets to the people on the ground who hurriedly pointed us back to the plane..OOPS.However, we did make it to Sao Paulo, and somehow Sao Paulo is an hour ahead of Salvador, even though it is further west. Our flight to Manaus was on a huge plane with two aisles. The seats went two – four – two. I sat next to Ryan from Texas who took up most of my leg room because his legs are so long. Not entirely his fault, I know, but pretty uncomfortable for me. I slept most of the way to Manaus, but I woke up in time to catch episodes of The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, and The Jetsons! HELL YEA!

Upon arrival in Manaus after three and a half hours in the air, we split into our two boats. We gave our boat one guides, Antonio and Allan, our passports and then set out in our motorcoaches to the river. Our riverboat was named the Joas Silva VII, and as soon as we got there, Jika, Perry and I claimed awesome hammocks in the very back of the boat. They gave us some snacks and then we went to the meeting of the Rio Negro and the Suliemon (I have no idea how it is spelled!) River, which form the Amazon River. The Rio Negro begins in Peru, the Suliemon begins in Colombia, and then they meet near Manaus and it is the Amazon all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean.

One is black and the Suliemon is tan because it is full of clay, but when they come together they actually stay very distinctly separate. The pictures are amazing because there is actually a line in the water where they come together but do not mix. We aren’t actually on the Amazon River, because it has far too many bugs and too many birds, so it isn’t as conducive to the trip that we want to have.

They gave us some time in our hammocks until we reached our next location, and they were pretty darn comfortable. We woke up to go see some absolutely enormous lily pads. The lily pads were great, but the kicker was the completely unsturdy and swaying platform we walked across and stood on to see the lily pads. Perry and I hightailed it out of there because we were mildly terrified of the thing crashing down. There was also a souvenir shop there, but nothing struck me as something I wanted. We had a lot of time budgeted to be there, but there wasn’t a lot to do, so almost all of us came back to the boat. Some people slept, but most of us decided to have group bonding time downstairs.

At five pm we crawled into our motorized canoes which held ten of us in each canoe plus one driver and one guide. Perry and I grabbed the very front seat which was awesome. As we were heading out, some local people came by with sloths, baby caimans (or gators), and….AN ANACONDA! I held the sloth and the anaconda. I don’t think anyone will ever believe that I ever did these things! We continued for awhile more, and then we disembarked the canoes to see this absolutely enormous tree. Antonio, the guide, said that 17 men holding hands cannot fit around this tree, and I believe it.

After we returned to our canoes, it was time to look for caimans!! Most of the time it was petrifying to be sitting up front. Everytime we would go head first into the tall grass, I would freak out and grab Perry’s hand! Antonio caught a little 8 month old caimen right at the beginning of the search and we held it up front most of the time. It kept trying to fight Perry and he would say, “No, Sir!” and so we named the caimen Sir and we became a little attached to it. After many failed attempts into the grass, Antonio caught a 4-5 year old caimen. I also held that!! It was a risky day for me! It really is a good thing I have pictures because no one would EVER believe this at home. I kind of like that I am beating everyone’s expectations for me and my trip.

After that we came back to our riverboat for dinner and some Uno action in the dark! I’ve never played a game so badly that we all had to resort to just putting cards down or passing because at the end we would only have one card in the draw pile at a time. Haha Now it’s time for bed, because tomorrow is the day of the jungle trek!

Amazon Day Two: Amazon Trek

At several points last night I woke up in my hammock and it was simply pitch black. The engines and generator were off and it was just us in the middle of the Rio Negro with the sounds of the Amazon around us. We woke up really early this morning both because of the engines but also because of the natural sunlight pouring into our hammock area. How wonderful! I woke up this morning and my first thought was, “Thank you, God.” Kind of cheesy, I know, but it was just so wonderful. We ate a filling breakfast and then again got into our motorized canoes to arrive at the start of our jungle trek.

To begin we went up a huge hill! I think we were all sore just after that ten minute hike! I went with the guide Antonio and our native machete wielding guide, Michel. For most of the time we were not on a path and Michel was simply cutting away. At one point we lost Stephanie Sue, our resident director/trip leader and Michel had to go back and find her. Antonio showed us many things like the chicle tree which is used to make gum, and a plant called breyo. Breyo is the plant which can be used to make gun powder. It is lit on fire an the burning oil falls onto a leaf and when it hardens it can be ground together to make gun powder.

And yes..Antonio started fires about three times in the rainforest. Oy! Our hike took about two and a half hours and then we ended at a waterfall. I made it all the way through the hike without doing anything stupid and then right at the end I stepped on a mossy rock and fell quite hard onto my behind. And it is quite a fun shade of black and blue already. Some people swam at the water fall, but the rest of us just waited and then we returned to the boat to eat lunch.

After lunch we went swimming in the Rio Negro!! I wasn’t going to swim but then I said what the hell! I’m probably going to be in the Amazon only once, so live a little and take some more risks! The water was amazingly warm, but then there were little pockets of cool water. Some of the local kids came to swim with us, and then after about half an hour we dried off on the boat and then climbed all 140 steps up to the village. Their medicine man leader showed us around, but I was definitely more interested in the kids that were following us around.

Stellani and Manyete guided me down the hill to the manioc plantation that supports their community and then Heicey and Stellani took me up to the store. I bought a bracelet and necklace. Then…it was soccer time in the raging heat. This whole trip has been absolutely humid and hot. I know all of the people back home in Ohio will despise me for complaining about the heat, however, so let’s move on!

The SAS guys played against the Brazilian guys from the village, and Team Gringo got their butts handed to them on a platter. However, they did score one goal and managed to keep some dignity. The best part for me was that during both the guys and the girls game, Hiecey sat in my lap and Stellani was resting on my leg. At one point Hiecey fell asleep in my lap and it was absolutely priceless. When we left we all wanted to bring our new little kid friends with us…we all just kept yelling, “Ciao!, Ciao!”

After we left the village we went back to the riverboat for snack and then Perry, Stacy, Danielle and I had mad karaoke time with the iPod and sang our hearts out. At around 6 pm the guides hurried us onto canoes and said we were going to go see the sunset and the stars and that we would be back by 7. The sky was absolutely fabulous. I can’t even describe it in such a way that would give it justice. There were no lights whatsoever and even the tiniest stars twinkled brightly.

Around 8:30 we began to get suspicious, and finally I remembered something about a beach party from the SAS itinerary and we began to piece things together. We swung the canoes back around to the beach where our riverboats were, and we immediately saw fireworks being set off, which seems mildly inappropriate in the Amazon, but there were also little fires all over and it was a big beach barbecue! IN THE FREAKING AMAZON!

The other boat was there as well and Jeff finally admitted that boat one was better. They had so much food at this barbecue” meat on skewers, rice, potatoes and the list could go on. We had limbo, tug of war and musical chairs. The lifelong learner, Donna, played musical chairs and we all booed when the “Canadian Killer” of musical chairs, Lindsay, got her out…Lindsay was awesome…I told her I am making her a Canadian Killer tee-shirt haha. I did tug of war, so it was a little reminder of April Reign here in February.

We clambered back into our riverboats, and set out for the night. Most of my boat decided to lay our towels on the back, open sky area and stargaze and talk. Jayme brought a star chart, but nothing would match up in the sky. Finally Owen realized it was for US use only, and it was a good thing nothing matched up because we would have been imagining things. We did find the Southern Cross though, and it was huge! We all hung out and told stories, but I am going to bed now, because I am tuckered out!

Amazon Day Three: Piranhas!

As seems to be usual, we woke up pretty early again this morning as the sun came up and the engines revved for the day. We ate our hearty breakfast and set out in our canoes once again. Our task for the morning? Piranha fishing! Allan was our guide and there was also the captain of the boat. We used beef as our bait and the piranhas are tricky little devils! They would nibble the bait right off of the hook…the worst part was that you could feel their little tug on the line, but then not be able to get the line up in time to hook them!

The captain came and helped me for about 15 minutes and I finally caught one! It was such an exhilarating moment, because when else am I going to catch a piranha? Only 4 of 10 people in my boat caught them, but we all had a lot of fun. Right after fishing we went on another hike. This one was shorter and a little more focused on rainforest survival and things like that. The very interesting part of this trek is that during this hike, Antonio found bug larvae and told us they were edible. He started a fire of leaves and cooked about ten of the larvae and offered them to us to eat. And yes, friends, I ate firefly larva. It wasn’t horrible, but it had a very chewy exterior and a creamy interior. It took me a second to choke it down, but I did it.

After our hike we returned to the Joas Silva VII and changed into our swimming attire. We went to a different beach and it was also amazing. Lindsay and I swam some laps and talked and then vanity set in. Stacy brought a razor with her and we all shaved and then we got Lindsay’s shampoo and conditioner and the hairwashing began. We all just felt a little better. We also discovered that the sand on the bottom of the Rio Negro made a great exfoliant…our feet have never been so smooth!

After our swimming adventure we ate lunch on the boat and had about an hour before we reached the next village we were visiting. The man who greeted us was making a canoe when we walked up the hill. We saw the rubber trees that they tap for extra money and then we walked into the main part of the village. We were given time for shopping so I bought some more jewelry to be presents for people at home (Steph and Mom watch out, you’re getting Brazilian jewelry!)

There were three churches in the village and only 25 families. The Presbyterian and Baptist churches are both pretty small, and then the Roman Catholic church has about 20 of the families. The Protestant churches don’t really have any leaders, and the RC church has a priest come in from Manaus once a year. When the priest comes every couple who wants to get married gets married on the same day.

After we wandered around, a local artisan came out from the store with a fruit that can be mushed up to make dye that sticks to skin for about two weeks. I thought it would be really unique so I got one. I told him to do whatever he wanted, so I now have a bird and flower on my left wrist. It was really cool at the time, but now it is a little smudged and kind of ridiculous looking!

We left the village and began the four hour boat trip back to Manaus. To keep us entertained Antonio and Allan brought a map of the region upstairs and we were supposed to guess where we were. They finally told us we were at the widest part of the Rio Negro. After that, they taught us how to make things out of palm leaves! I made a fan, and Matt made me a crown! Then we played that game where everyone picks one person to recognize and it is everyone’s worst fear to be the last one called out. Haha well, yes, my friends, this time it was me. But hey, Antonio gave me all of the chocolates that were left for my pain. Haha

After that it was show time at the Tiwa Lodge…there was an Amazon “show” which just involved scantily clad women and men dancing. They gave us three drink tickets, so I had a Skol beer and a Soda Antarctica. Jeff was on a roll as he nursed his two sodas all night long and kept yelling “oopa!”

We returned to our boats at 11:15 and departed for Manaus.

Day Four: Return to Salvador.

At midnight we disembarked our boats carrying all of our possessions. I should mention that I bought my hammock. They gave us the option of buying them for 15 bucks and I figured why not! Maybe next year instead of having a futon underneath the one bunked bed, I can have a hammock! We said goodbye to our crew and guides and traveled for 12 hours back to Salvador.

Our first plane left at 2:30 am for Brasilia and then we had a 3 hour layover in Brasilia during which I slept on the floor using my hammock as a pillow and sharing with Jika and Jordi. We boarded our plane home and then we got on our busses and arrive back at the MV Explorer around noon. Thus far I have not been this excited to see my ship!

We showered, ate lunch, napped, and then Elise, Bryan, Jeff, Seth, Jen, me and some of Jen’s friends went out to eat at a Brazilian steakhouse. It is like a revolving buffet in which the meat cutters come to your table and constantly cut you more meat. We spent about 40 bucks each, but it was definitely worth it. That brings my total spending in Brazil to $100 dollars. Thank goodness.

Back on the Boat:

The only real update is that I shaved my head into a Mohawk last night. I’m rocking the hawk today and the scary thing is that I look halfway decent. Tomorrow is Neptune Day and I am getting rid of the rest of it.

And I had my first batch of sea sickness today, so that’s always a joy.

Anyways…off to do work now!

2007-02-14T08:46:00.001-08:00

February 14, 2007

In other places: Valentine’s Day…Here on ship: B3

Last night I went and watched the movie on Candomble in the Union and I felt so incredibly sick that I left. However, I am absolutely fascinated by it and the orixas and the syncretism with the Roman Catholic Church…so I added a trip on the first day in Salvador to a Candomble house with Dr. Joyce.

We also heard back on our Sale #1. Through SAS I will be going to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, to Renmin University/Beijing in China, to Khayelitsha Township in South Africa, on a city orientation and service visit in Mauritius, on the “Rainbow Culture and Religion” FDP, and a yoga demonstration in India. I did not get the rural village and farm visit in India, the Winelands in South Africa, and something else that I now do not remember. However, after dinner last night Cristie, Ashley, Brianne, Jika, Janet and I sat down and we figured out when we are doing everything else that we did not get into.

I also went to my leadership meeting for the Spirituality Programming Committee…there are five girls and the RD Drew. We are going to try to have a weekly worship on Sundays when we are not in port. I have a feeling I am not going to get anything near what I am used to. The other people on the committee are Assembly of God, Nazarene, non denominational, and a former Roman Catholic turned Methodist. That being said…I’m going to try really hard to be flexible and try out new things, while still loving my little Iona book prayers in my cabin!

At dinner we had cake for Cristie’s birthday, and Dante did more tricks for us! After that…of course we did more homework and picked our trips and went up to 6^th deck for 2000 snack time. I think we all live for 2000 snack time…we had tuna salad last night and it was delish. Also assorted snack cakes. I wasn’t getting any work done, so I went down to my cabin and Katie and I just chatted and didn’t get anything else done, but such is life. I’ve been doing so much work that I deserved some time so not do a thing but pleasure read!

Last night, we also lost another hour of sleep. I am DONE losing an hour of sleep. I am gong to begin a coup on this ship, and organize a rebellion. Today, I decided to get out of my fifth class. I finally realized that the last third of the class completely overlapped with the World Civs class that I took at BW, and it was definitely not going to fly with Dr. Gesink..haha So…I now get to sleep in on B days and as much as it sucks that I only have twelve credits, it will allow me to sleep a little bit and not have a ton of extra work to do for something I may or may not get credit for. Here goes a hellish senior year of 18 credits a semester. It’s the price I pay for this 12 credit semester.

Global Studies fails to capture my attention still. The articles we read are absolutely fascinating…many so far have had to deal with the debt of developing countries and organizations such as the IMF and the international banks that continue to lend to developing countries. Today they tried to do an exercise to show the disparity in the world, but it was not very well executed. However, our interport lecturer, Lucio, did an excellent job explaining the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, especially in Brazil.

At one point Elise, Jeff and I thought Brianne was sleeping, so Elise took a picture, but apparently Brianne was just feeling really sick, so that has led to some drama today. It is really hard to have drama on a boat of this size, because no matter where you go, you somehow manage to see that person.

On that note, let’s talk about the intricacies of shipboard life. You know longer apologize when you bump into someone because if we did, we would be apologizing for more than half of our day. We no longer get scared when we heard the thumping noises of the ship, because if we did, we would waste another part of our day. There is a shortage of hot water. We are so sick of cold showers, we might revolt. Only having 23 hours a day for 2/6 days makes everyone really grumpy. On the way to South Africa, we lose five hours.

As Jeff said this morning, “this is what they should do to prisoners…’today is a 19 hour day, suckers!”

I also turned in my alternate day sale form today…for people who did not get everything they wanted in Sale #1, all of the trips with leftover spots go on sale…so I added the Chennai Welcome Reception…and other things I don’t remember.

I am really worried about my roommate in Brazil…she is traveling all alone. Just her. She is flying to Iguassu Falls from Salvador on her own, taking taxis on her own, staying at the hotel by herself. And…if there is one thing they tell you to not do on Semester at Sea, it is travel in Brazil by yourself. I’ve honestly been trying to convince her not to go, and she knows there is a big risk…and today she asked me if I would pray for her every night she was gone. So…for all of you out there in blogosphere…say a little prayer for Katie from now until she comes back to the ship on the 22^nd of February.

In any case, I am back in the piano lounge to do work until 5.

OH THE NEWS FROM TODAY!!! At 1214 we CROSSED THE EQUATOR!!!!! 0 degrees and 0 minutes! Many of you might be saying, “Well, LeeAnne, shouldn’t you be celebrating Neptune Day?” and the answer is yes, we should. However, because we have to have a certain number of classes in before the first global studies test on B4, we are not having it until February 24^th. And my friends at home…you will be waiting with baited breath until I return home to know whether I shave my head or not…it is still up in the air, but 90% one way and 10% the other…say tuned for May 14 J

At 5 I have my Spiritual Programming Committee full meeting which the 5 of us from yesterday are leading, and then at 7 I have a meeting for SEAS. And Monopoly night tonight at 8…because we are boycotting the Stoplight Dance for Valentine’s Day…although if I went I would wear a neon green shirt with blinking green LED lights. Haha adios for today!

2007-02-13T10:57:00.000-08:00

February 12, 2007

So last night? My mom called J Thank you for spending that ridiculous amount of money to call, because I really really really appreciated it! Go tell those roadpost people that you want a freaking refund, because honestly, I spent 200 bucks I could have used on that crappy satellite phone.

We lost another hour of sleep last night. I am getting really really sick of this losing sleep thing! Just when we begin to get adjusted to our new time, we are told to turn back our clocks again! GAH! I went to my new Western Civs class this morning in the classroom that has the picture of the woman balancing on her hand on top of a dolphin…someone please remind me to take pictures of the kooky artwork on this ship sometime. I began to feel incredibly seasick during Western Civs because they kicked up the engines to go around 19 knots. I think it was just exacerbated by how freaking exhausted I am. So I went back to my room during Global Studies…I know, my first skipped class on the ship. I was going to be so incredibly sick if I stayed there. I went back to my room and I tried to sleep, but I just felt so sick that I couldn’t sleep. I got up for my Medieval Travel Accounts class and we watched a movie about the Vikings..it was incredibly interesting and we began looking at the modern ideas that we place upon the Vikings (and others past groups) and how we have to look at their cultures and practices through the lens of their values.

After that I went and showered because during medieval travels the Dean’s Memo scrolled by and I saw that Desmond Tutu was signing autographs in the 6^th deck at 1600. At 1400 I went to 6^th deck dining room to do homework and just sat there doing work with Kaitlyn, her roommate and some other people. He walked in and pow…the line formed.

It was very low-key autograph today, not widely announced, and so of course I was there. I would have been first in line, but some creeps jumped right in. haha I had him sign my Book of Common Prayer…Bishop Williams and Father Gary signed it when I was confirmed, so I only thought it would be cool to have the Archbishop sign that as well. When I arrived at the front of the line, I sat down next to him, and when he saw that I had brought my BCP/Hymnal, he said, “well, this will have to be a special autograph then!” and he signed it, “LeeAnne, God Bless You. +Desmond 2.12.07” I have been waiting for the right time to ask for a picture, and since BW college relations just sent me an email asking for a picture, I used that to my benefit as well..haha I’m sure he is sick of the pictures already, but he had to expect at least a little bit of it!

I continued to do work…dinner at 5:30…more homework. Honestly, I don’t think I actually have more work here on SAS as compared to Baldwin-Wallace. I do think, however, that I am actually DOING more of my work. We do not have the distractions of stalking facebook for hours, playing online games, or talking on Instant Messenger. So…most of what we do is do our homework. We also don’t have jobs on this ship, except for the work-study kids, so it leaves a lot of open time especially on these long stretches at sea. And unluckily and luckily, we have a ton of work to do to fill our time.

Oh…and at dinner we made friends with our busboy Dante. It was me, Brianne, Ashley and Cristie. At one point Ashley looked up to ask Dante if he knew when we were going to have oranges out next, but instead of actually asking him anything, she just gazed up with this goofy grin on her face. It was hilarious.

That being said…we also watched Eddie Izzard at 2000. haha For those of you who have not heard of Eddie Izzard, he is a transvestite British comedian, and Rick brought them. (Rick’s mom…my mom sent me an email saying that you two have communicated! I hung out with Rick in San Juan the first day, and he has been a part of the two movie nights we have had!) Eddie ripppppped the Church of England and I laughed forever…some of the other people watching didn’t get it all, but man oh man, I almost cried I was laughing so hard.

After that I went upstairs for 2200 snack time, but everything good was gone, so I just came back to my room and here I am…roommate and I are having our usual re-freaking-diculous conversations and we’re going to bed.

February 13, 2007

I didn’t have my 800 class this morning!! Woohoo! Thank you Dr. Joyce! At 1700 tonight we are watching a movie on Candomble with the Spirit Possession and Ethnography class. However, because she moved class, I am missing my Spirituality Programming Leaders meeting and the Ambassador’s Club meeting.

I woke up at 8, met the gang for breakfast at 815, and then we went to the Piano Lounge for Global Studies. I do not go to the Union at all anymore…I get so incredibly sick when I am in there, and I would rather not vomit, thank you very much. (too much detail? Sorry…) Today we talked about Sustainable Development and the Brazilian Economy and Environment. I really like the definition given to us by Dr. Monty about Sustainability. He said it is the intersection of Economics, Environment, and Social Equity.

After Global Studies I napped until 12:30, and then I went and put my fliers for the Social and Environment Awareness Society (referred to as SEAS from here on out) on people’s door. Every day Bryan and I are putting up facts on people’s doors. Today the fact we put up is that JCPenney’s Sears, Toys R Us and many other mainline stores use prison labor to make their products. Even worse? Pedophiles are making children’s toys for Toys R Us in two states. Makes you think a little, eh?

I had International Relations with Dr. Wes today and his quote of the days is, “Fidel Castro..he’s the real never ending bunny.” That class goes by so quickly because he is just so engaging, and I wish Global Studies was like that…

Ever since then I have been sitting in 6^th deck dining room doing homework and writing this. Tonight at 5 I have that movie on Candomble, and then at 6 we are celebrating Cristie’s 21^st because that was yesterday!! Then? Ha probably more work.

They’ve been having “AFTer Hours pub night every night at sea lately, but I really don’t feel like squishing myself on deck 7 with 200-300 other SASers. Not to mention that I have a lot to do. Anyways, off of that soapbox. I am going to go try to get some actual work done. Adios!

2007-02-11T02:07:00.001-08:00

February 7, 2007

Puerto Rico: Day One

Puerto Rico was fun, but in the ways I did not possibly expect. On Wednesday morning I woke up at 6:15 in the morning to go up to 7^th deck in order to see us pull into our first port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Long story made short: the group I was hanging out with for the beginning of the voyage is not really the group I am going to continue to be traveling and being with for the rest of this voyage. But, things could change…only time will tell. They’re not being very nice or genuine, and those are not the people I want to spend my time on this voyage with. The view was excellent as we pulled into San Juan. We circled around the island a little bit, and passed Fort El Morro and saw the sunrise and it was simply awesome.

Right after we docked, the governor of Puerto Rico boarded our ship, along with the Secretary of State! We all gathered in the Union and before the Puerto Ricans came in, the San Juan press boarded and came into the Union, followed by Desmond Tutu. Then the governor came in and spoke to us. Roberto, a student on ship from PR, had the honor of presenting our gift to the governor…what a special thing for him! He spoke in Spanish to the governor and had pictures taken by the press, so it was really cool for him.

In order to go through immigration they called us up by seas to retrieve our passports, meet face to face with an immigrations officer and then give our passport back. It really didn’t take very long, so pretty soon, I was on Puerto Rican soil. The day before we learned about the commonwealth system in PR, so it was nice to disembark and throughout the days I was able to talk to a couple Puerto Ricans about their thoughts on the current system.

I met up with Brianne, Janet, Jika (who is from Mexico City!), Matt Hershberger, and some other random people. One of the best things about this trip even now is that people are all so willing to just hang out in port…almost none of us had hung out a lot before, but we didn’t have any plans for Puerto Rico, and we all decided to head out into old San Juan.

We made the 25 minute walk from the boat to Old San Juan and it was killer in the hot humid heat! I don’t think I could handle living here! I am almost longing for the snow and cold at home!! We wandered around the beautiful streets of San Juan, and slowly but surely we all broke off into smaller groups. I ended up with Jay, Jika, Janet, and Brianne. We were still wandering, but getting hungry when we asked an older man on Calle de Fransisco if there was an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant nearby. His name was Pedro and he personally showed us to a restaurant called El Jibarito. He walked in, called out “cinco!” and got us a table. The food was excellent! I had a veal stew with yellow rice and chicken sausage! I also got passion fruit juice which was refreshing! As we were eating Roberto walked in with his friends, so we knew we had a good place when the native Puerto Rican came in!

After lunch we walked up to Fort El Morro. It was what we saw when we came in on Wednesday, and the view all the way up there was simply fabulous. To the right down the cliff was a white sand beach and an old cemetery with beautiful statues. To the left was a rocky slope, with the cerulean waves crashing on the rocks. It is hard to give words to the feeling of being up so high, with the wind blowing, and the sound of waves crashing beneath. The word freedom comes to mind. Even this soon into the voyage that is becoming a theme…I am doing the things I never thought I could do, and not doing the things I always thought I would do. It’s an incredible and liberating feeling.

After Fort Morro we went and got a mojito at the local bar and then went to the ship for dinner and then we headed out to the Welcome Reception! We joined up with Cristie, Denise and Ashley and got in line. We boarded the bus, with our leader, Emily Allina, who is a nurse on board. We were told that we were headed to Caribbean University in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. It was about a 30 minute bus ride, and when we arrived there was a massive line of students waiting for us. There were girls in stilts, people in demon outfits, a drum group playing…it was great!

We went to an auditorium and watched a movie (ALL IN SPANISH!) about the university and then heard from its dean and one of the professors. The mayor of Bayamon issued a special city proclamation in honor of our coming, and sent one of Puerto Rico’s great actresses to present it to us. After that we processed in a big festive line to what was like the North Quad at BW. However, they had great Puerto Rican food waiting for us, and dancers performing! This incredible troupe of dancers performed traditional Puerto Rican dances to upbeat music all night long. Towards the end of the night they had us on stage too. There was girl from Caribbean University that I had been talking to all night long whose father lives in Cleveland. She is coming this summer and so we exchanged phone numbers and she is going to call when she gets to Cleveland. It will be unique that she was able to give me a slice of Puerto Rican life and hopefully I can show her around the Cleveland area a little bit!

We came home after that, and Brianne, Elise, Bryan and I decided we weren’t going to go out. However, we decided that we really wanted to just get a drink and relax after a really crazy and rushed day. WELL, on the way home from Bayamon, Brianne was really proud of herself because right across from the ship she saw “St. Tropez Disco Pub” We thought “this is great! We can just kick back right across from the ship and have a drink or two and get back on.” Naturally we walk across the street, and go to the door only to be given really funny looks. The man says, “No Ladies Allowed” and so we inquire further. It turns out that this place is actually a strip club at best, and who knows what at worst. Haha Oh Puerto Rico.

February 8, 2007

Puerto Rico: Day Two

And Day Two started off with a bang. Kaitlyn, Cristie, Brianne, Ashley and I headed to the Bacardi Factory. We caught a cab right outside the port authority and he said he would drive us all the way to the factory for 9 dollars each. Sounded cool right? Well..he was all over the road, never in a lane and it was the scariest ride ever. Once we arrived at the Bacardi Factory, we told him that we wouldn’t need him for the ride home, but he still wanted his round trip fare and he was a little scary so we just gave it to him.

The Bacardi Factory was simply amazing. Little thing I never knew: Rum is made out of molasses. It was gorgeous and we really learned a lot. I know what you are all thinking: what is there to possibly learn at a rum factory? Well…we actually learned a lot about the histories of both Puerto Rico and Cuba, where Bacardi was founded. It was fascinating to learn about the background of people who came to Cuba and the state of the company there today and things like that. Some lucky few received videomail from me at the Bacardi factory including my mother! Haha I’m sure she was overjoyed to see my shining face standing in front of a wall of rum bottles. Sorry mom…but it was a good trip!

At the end of our tour we were given two tickets for free drinks at Casa Bacardi! Haha Again…sorry mom, but I drank a mojito at 10:30 in the morning. They weren’t very strong though, since they were free, and it was just nice to have a cold drink in the warm breeze! We heard that it was just a short walk to the ferry, so when we left the factory we made the trek down a long and dirty road. And…I’d never been honked at so much in my life by trucks. Blech! So…we kept walking and walking and walking…and we stopped to ask a postman how far it was to the San Juan ferry and he said at least a mile and a half more. At this point, my Tevas were digging into my feet, and everyone was hot, so we flagged down the next taxi we saw, and made it to the 50 cent ferry!

After we arrived in Old San Juan we found a dinky local Puerto Rican diner and sat down and ordered…we got papaya milkshakes…and their specialty? The hamburger. Haha I took a taxi back to the ship because I was meeting my neighbor Bryan and his girlfriend Elise to go to Kmart at the mall to stock up for the rest of the voyage on food, water, juice, etc. haha However…we just ended up walking back to Old San Juan, so I wasted six bucks on a cab fare. I did get to change out of my Tevas into flip flops, so it might have been worth it. Haha My blisters are so ridiculously huge and gross! After shopping at Walgreen’s and not finding much, I caught up with Brianne, Ashley, Kaitlyn and Cristie again. We stopped for coffee, shopped at some Puerto Rican clothing stores (I didn’t find anything! Almost bought a cute sun dress, but I saw the tag was 50 bucks, and that stopped that!) We came back to the ship, and met Marissa Flores for dinner at the 7^th deck snack bar before departing for bioluminescent bay.

It was an hour and 15 minute van ride to Bioluminescent Bay, and once we arrived we put on bug spray, life jackets, took off everything but our bathing suits and hopped into our kayaks. I split one with Brianne, and for once, I was the more experience person and the calm one. Haha We started in a big open area, and then kayaked twenty minutes through the night sky and mangrove trees on both sides. Brianne was up front and once we almost crashed into a mangrove, but only once!

All of our kayaks were tied together once we reached the actual bioluminescent bay, and we were given the science behind it, and then allowed to jump in. I don’t remember all the science, but special plankton exist in 4 bioluminescent bays throughout the world. Three are in Puerto Rico and one in Japan. When disturbed, they shine and glow. The ones in this specific bay glow a green blue. When you move at all in the water, the entire spot around you simply lights up. Unfortunately, there aren’t any pictures of this, because when light hits it, they become translucent. That is why this trip is only offered at night. It was definitely worth the 65 bucks and I would definitely do it again! It was incredible to lay in the water, gaze up in the night sky, and then see the water shimmering.

After we came back, we all decided that we were going to go out to San Sebastian Street, the big night life scene. Brianne, Marissa and I showered quickly and then caught a taxi up to San Sebastian. We eventually found our friends sitting in a park, and so we got out and went to Café San Sebastian. I got a Medalla Light, which is one of the beers produced in Puerto Rico. It didn’t really taste like beer, thank goodness, and was actually pretty good. One of my guy friends bought me a Cuba Libre (it’s a rum and coke, but if you ask for a Cuba Libre it has to come with Bacardi and has a lime! Learned that at the Bacardi factory!) We walked around to a couple of bars, and met up with Brad, Michael, Jayme and Victor, but Ashley, Cristie and I headed back pretty early because we were exhausted and there wasn’t anything incredibly exciting going on.

February 9, 2007

Puerto Rico: Day Three

In the morning Brianne and I walked to Old San Juan to hit up the grocery store, Pueblo, and get the rest of the things we needed, and then we came back to the boat, dropped our stuff off, and headed to the beach! It took a while to find, but as soon as we got there, Janet, Jika, Ashley and another girl from Mexico were just getting there too. Everyone from SAS was there it seemed like…we hung out with Matt and some other guys. We put our sunscreen on and headed into the water. It was beautiful. We got out after about half an hour, put more sunscreen on and just slept in the sun for an hour and a half or so. I figured I lathered a lot of sun screen on, so I would be ok, but no.

I look like a walking talking lobster. I have sunglass tan lines on my face, and I cannot move most parts of my body. I have not gone outside at all today because I can barely move. I wore my tankini yesterday, so I also have this impressive stripe of red across my lower back from where the tankini came up. My lips were also a little swollen, so I now know the real meaning of sun burn!

We came back to the boat around 4 pm, even though on ship time wasn’t until 9. There were a lot of people back already because no one wants to risk dock time after the first port! Brianne, Elise, Jeff, Bryan and I were in the classroom across from the Piano Lounge and Elise broke the couch. Haha It is definitely not a comfortable couch because it is all just plywood with just a little padding and a cover. haha

We ate dinner here and then just sat outside with Elise, Bryan, and the other girls. I really couldn’t move. We stayed out long enough to see us pull out of Puerto Rico, and then I came in and went to bed just before midnight and talked to my roommate for a little bit.

February 10, 2007

Woooot…second day of classes. Okay…not that exciting. I can move a little more today, thanks to Brianne letting me use her Aloe gel! I met up with the Ashley, Cristie and Brianne for breakfast, and then we trekked to global studies so we could sit in Dr. Wes’s discussion group section. Haha Global Studies is ridiculously boring. When you look around the Union there are people sleeping, people who have the almost asleep bobbing heads, people so bored they can’t even take notes, and then those of us who take every last note even when we want to beat our heads against the tables.

The good part about global studies today was the discussion time during which we talked about the conversations we had with people in Puerto Rico about their status with the United States. Almost everyone I talked with was okay with the idea of continuing on as a commonwealth, but there were a few voices about statehood. However, almost no one heard a lot from people who desired total independence. We also began discussing Brazil and the geo-ecological status of the country. Dr. Ebersole lectured on biology and Dr. O’Brien on the plate tectonics that effect the nation. That part was pretty good.

After global studies I talked to Dr. Wes about adding his International Political Economy course, because I was worried about being at a disadvantage because I have not taken micro or macro and I am just now in Intro to Int’l Relations. We talked for a bit, and decided it would probably be best to not add that specific course. Now, I am looking at adding either Sustainable Communities with Dr. Rocky Rohwedder (yes…said like Rocky Road-er haha) and if I can’t get that, than I am going to add School and Society with Rocky Rohwedder, and if I can’t get that, my last ditch effort will be to take three courses from the same professor, by taking Western Civ I with Dr. Joyce. I am waking up at 6 am to go get in the add/drop line because it starts at 7 am and I have an 8 am class. I will be camping out, but for a class and not concert tickets.

I went to Medieval Travel Accounts with Dr. Joyce, and taking two upper level courses with her is going to be a very interesting experience. Elise is in that class, along with Megan from Bio Bay and a couple other people I’ve met. Ate lunch with Elise, Bryan, Jen, Christina, Jennifer and Jeff and then I took a nap while my roommate did her homework. I went up to Piano Lounge around 1545 and did homework until 1730. At about 1715 they made an announcement that there are going to be bridge tours tomorrow, so Elise and I ran to Purser’s Square to sign up, and there was already a line! There were 4 spots left when we got there and we got two of the three last ones for our time slot! SCORE! Tomorrow at 1045 we will be touring the bridge and seeing what the captain sees and sitting in his chair! However, they do not let us touch navigation, but that is a good thing since I nearly crashed Uncle Bob’s boat at Lakeside when he let me try to steer it! Haha

They also made an announcement about the alcohol policy on the ship. It used to be at the captain’s discretion that there would be pub nights called “AFTer hours” and people could purchase up to four drink tickets. The new policy is that alcohol will be available at all dinner and every night at sea except for the nights before and after we leave port. To do this you have to purchase a drink card at the Purser’s Office for 45 dollars. For that card you get 18 drinks. You can have two with dinner and four at night at the most. I understand their rationale in that they want to normalize having a drink with dinner and not having it be something that people in college to do simply get drunk. However, there are people on ship who take advantage of it. If I do buy a card, it will be one card to last me throughout the voyage, because I am not going to be that semester at sea kid who can’t remember their voyage, but I see no problem in having wine with dinner or a beer on back deck every so often. However, there are some very rich kids on this voyage who will keep buying drink cards and always be intoxicated. My roommate and I were just talking because we both like to do our homework or just write on deck 6. However, if there are always going to be people on deck 7 drinking, it won’t be that way anymore. We shall see. It is going to be an experiment for SAS and I hope my voyage can deal with it.

We ate dinner...came back to my room to do work, which we actually got done. We were motivated…if we finished our Puerto Rico papers for mysticism, we were going to reward ourselves with watching the movie “Saved!” tonight. Haha We went to the activities far and I signed up for hanging out with the children of faculty and staff (because I miss my daycare kids!), Students of Service, Judicial Panel, Spirituality Programming Committee, and being adopted by a faculty/staff member or life long learner. The “Ship Shrinks” had a fun table too where they were having people write down what they want to do with their future, and they are going to try to find lifelong learners/staff/and faculty to match us up with to talk about stuff. The “Ship Shrinks” as they call themselves are hilarious..Arnie is this hippie dude and Marvel has an adopted Cambodian daughter! It was so crowded in the 5^th deck dining room so I left!

I’m back here in my room writing and I should be doing homework…People who call this program kindergarten at sea need to really reevaluate what they are saying and talk to someone who has been on this voyage recently. This will probably be one of my most challenging semesters ever.

I also have to turn in my Sale #1 form tomorrow. I have decided to do a township visit and winelands tour through SAS, but my cage shark diving and Robben Island will be done independently in South Africa For Mauritius I plan on it being my spring break and going to the beach a lot, but I have also signed up for a Religion and Culture tour because it was colonized by so many different countries and has some very impressive religious buildings and history. I am also signing up for other trips, but really, I’m too exhausted now to list them.

I paused this entry to go watch saved with Elise, Rick, Jeff and a girl from Wyoming..aww memories of EYE…we were talking about the campus haha.

Anyways…good night…here are some good quotes from the last few days

“I was basically making out with the toilet last night” KClark on trying to find her face wash

“Did you know…you can ovulate four eggs at once” BTing for no apparent reason

“The Golden Ass is up and running.” Me – telling my mysticism prof that the “The Golden Ass” document was now working. haha

2007-02-05T18:31:00.001-08:00

February 4, 2007

It seems like a dream. For all of today, I simply wanted to pinch myself and ask if I was going to wake up from the dream or stay in it for the next 100 days. Yesterday was spent in the Bahamas and Uncle Bob and I went snorkeling…we saw some beautiful reef and gorgeous fish. There were also some prehistoric looking fish that were quite ugly. Another pair of snorkelers saw a reef shark, and at that point we decided to return to the boat that had brought us. I spent the rest of the day with the grandparents and took a nap. Grandpa took us to this presentation about some timeshare program because it gave us a free lunch. Haha That is definitely the style of my gramps. I thought Grandma was going to maul him.

Last night I went out to dinner with a group from the Nassau Beach plus Liz from Chicago. They were all a lot of fun, but after dinner we went back to the hotel. Not before ordering some Bahama Mamas though!!

This morning I split a taxi with Amanda and Caitlin, whom I met the previous night at dinner. We arrived at the harbor at 9:30, and stood in line, and eventually made it to the front of the line around 10:30. We had our passports checked, were given our ship IDs, and then went on to baggage. I should explain something here. The zipper on my huge duffel bag broke this morning and we couldn’t fix it. So…gramps duct taped the entire bag shut. It was certainly quite the ordeal. So…when we went through baggage check, I was relieved when the security officer simply asked me if I had any prohibited items, and when I repeatedly said no, he just let me give my bags to the porters.

Upon clearing this security point we had to walk down to the gangway and people had to empty any full water bottles. They are definitely convinced that we are all raging alcoholic sneaking vodka on board in our water bottles. We cleared more security going through our carry-ons and then we wound our way through paper work in the union. And then…I found my room: 4030!!

My roommate wasn’t here yet and was not for awhile, but her name is Katie Clark and she is from Sioux City, Iowa, but goes to school in Indiana, and is graduating after this SAS. She knew a girl in high school who is also on this trip, so they are spending a lot of time together. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of her…she is beautiful, incredibly outgoing, and walked in with 4 people when she came to the room for the first time. However, last night we spent hours talking in our room, which was so cool. We actually have a ton in common, and the really crazy thing is that she is an Episcopalian! Haha We were talking about our goals in life, what we want to do, and when I said I was in the discernment process for the priesthood, she just said, “cool, I am an Episcopalian too.” And that was it. Followed by: Let’s have a drink on pub night. It’s about time I got that reaction. haha

Okay…back to the day. I found Liz and Cassie on 7^th deck while hunting for Desmond Tutu, and we went to lunch and I finally saw Katie from Akron and Caitlin from the night before! We all dined, and some of the Resident Directors came and sat with us, which was nice, because the two rhat did were previous SASers. At 1:30 my grandparents came on board and I showed them around, and then finally went to the doctor on board for the ridiculous red bumps on my arm…he said they are just horrible bug bites, and if they get worse, I should take the meclyzine for motion sickness that they have in purser’s square, because it also has an anti-histimine in it! At 3:25 I herded my crew to the door, and I didn’t think I was going to cry until I went to hug Grandma, and I saw her face kind of contort with emotions. My grandma doesn’t cry. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry before in my life actually. So…I lost it. And then hugging Gramps goodbye, I kept crying.

Liz and I headed up to the top deck to wave goodbye to everyone. Uncle Bob saw me and ran back to get Grandma and Grandpa to come down to where I was…Surely Grandma does not need that cane because she practically ran down that dock! Grandpa was trying to figure out how to use the camera still, and Grams didn’t stop waving practically until the ship was out of sight. When we first started moving away from the dock, I didn’t realize it and commented to Liz, “gosh, we have not even started moving yet!” She pointed down to the expanse of water between us and the dock and I surely felt a little stupid. Haha.

We set out to sea and immediately had a life boat drill. This involved putting on long pants, long sleeves, closed toe shoes, and the life jacket. We stood in straight rows in 5^th deck for almost 45 minutes because two girls weren’t paying attention to when their names were called. Woot for station B4 haha

We proceeded to have dinner and then hang out…we ate in the 6^th deck cafeteria and talked for a couple hours. We also had a “sea” meeting. To explain, the residential parts of the ship are divided up into “seas” in order to create smaller communities. My resident director is Erika and she was on the Spring 2005 voyage that is often known as the “Big Wave Voyage.” I am part of the Bering Sea Pirates! I’m ready to kick some serious butt in tug of war during Sea Olympics! I will surely miss April Reign this year at BW!

February 5, 2007

Today was all orientation and we ate and sat. sat and ate. And ate and sat. And that’s it. We talked on the back deck and hung out. We learned about safety and security, student life and everything. Our last meeting tonight was about the Field Office. Really…that’s all there is to day two. Tomorrow is the first day of classes…A1! I have Mysticism and the Religious Experience, Global Studies and Intro to International Relations. Woooot. It should be fun, that’s for sure. Haha I met all of my professors today, and we had day one of Global Studies. I actually have to do my work tonight…go figure.

I am also going to try to sign up for a 5^th class on ship. I talked to Dr. Mike (Maniates, from Allegheny College), the academic dean of the ship, who is also teaching a class on the Politics of 3^rd World Poverty. I talked to him tonight, however, and he invited me to come sit in on the class, and we can see if someone drops the class and maybe he can get me in. Even if I can’t get credit for it, I might just go sit in on it for the duration of the semester anyways. It was one of my first choices for classes, so I am obviously interested, and I hope someone gets terrified and drops!

We have only been on the ship for just over 24 hours, but it feels like a lot longer.

I am grateful that I have found a good group of friends already that I am making plans with and that my roommate seems pretty amazing.

Now…I am going to go sit in the stairwell and upload this to Blogger and waste some precious internet time…photos should be uploaded at the internet café in Puerto Rico! And then…I have to read some really boring information on the Caribbean for Global Studies tomorrow! I also have Pirate of the Caribbean playing in the background of my room on the one channel that shows popular movies! haha I love and miss you all SO much, and I can’t wait to see if I have any mail in Puerto Rico!

2007-02-02T19:14:00.000-08:00

They aren’t kidding when they say Semester at Sea is a transformational experience and I can tell you that before I am even aboard the MV Explorer. This morning I left my comfort zone behind. I do still have my grandparents with me right now, and my great-uncle Bob, but for the most part, I am on my own here in Nassau. It’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

I went to bed at 2 am last night after finishing packing…only for my alarm to go off at 3:30. Needless to say, there wasn’t much sleep to be had. Mom drove to the airport with us to say goodbye and that was the most difficult occurrence thus far. Saying goodbye to my friends was absolutely horrible. My friends are the world to me, so this week saying my “see you in the fall”s was really hard. Leaving my mom, however, was so difficult because she is my mom…you know? She is so nervous about me doing this trip, but she’s letting me go anyways, and I really appreciate it. Thank you, mom.

The flight from Cleveland to Charlotte was uneventful. I fell asleep for some of it, and we were late getting to Charlotte because of having to de-ice the plane in Cleveland. I ran to our next gate for the Bahamas while Grandma and Grandpa got a cart to ride in because their knees and backs just aren’t good. Before we got on the flight, some of us SASers recognized each other from facebook and started talking and soon enough more and more people were saying, “Wait, are you with Semester at Sea too?” On the plane there were four of us right by one another, and I ended up talking to a girl named Janet almost the entire way there.

Once in Nassau we had to clear immigration and customs and then we got on our shuttle to the Nassau Beach Hotel. Liz Marriett from Chicago was on my shuttle! However, Liz has experienced every SASer’s worst nightmare: both of her bags are lost. She is one of the sweetest SAS people I have met thus far, and I just feel so incredibly bad for her. Luckily her mom is here and they are buying things, but what a horrible situation for her. Another nightmare scenario has occurred in my hotel: there are two girls waiting to check in, but can’t because the room is in their friend’s name and he just hasn’t showed up and hasn’t called or anything. They have been sitting in the lobby for 7 hours.

Once here we found Uncle Bob Ford and we went to lunch at Café Johnny Canoe’s. It was pretty good…came back here and napped and talked to friends at home. We were attempting a meetup tonight, but it didn’t work because everyone’s flights are messed up due to the tornados in Florida and snow in Southern states that don’t often have to deal with that. I went to dinner again with Gram, Gramps and Uncle Bob, and now I am here sitting on my balcony.

Ultimately, I think I am grateful that I am just staying in tonight…no sleep last night, and I don’t feel like getting sick during the first week of the voyage. A little self-care is in order and I’m okay with that.

Tomorrow morning at 10:30 Uncle Bob and I are going snorkeling! There is a company that offers it right at the beach of our hotel, and I loved it so much with Girl Scouts that I am doing it again! Which new bathing suit will I wear? I’ve gone from not owning a bathing suit to having three from which I must choose.

This all simply seems so incredibly surreal. Getting on the plane this morning seemed like a dream, and being on this wonderful balcony is almost too idyllic to be true. I’ve had to adapt on this journey so far, which is what led me to start this entry the way I did. It will be transformational, I am sure, because I am going to have to learn to be flexible, which is not always a strength of mine, but I’ve done it so far with a little bit of grace. I hope I am not making a premature prediction here, but I’m ready to see the world, and learn to roll with the punches.

Good night from Nassau: where the music is blaring, the palm trees are swaying in the wind, and LeeAnne is incredibly content.

2007-01-30T07:09:00.000-08:00

It's becoming real while seeming more unreal.

The nerves are most definitely setting in.

The flash of fear about meeting people is gone...I am truly an extroverted person in most situations, and I have already met some great people at the pre-voyage gatherings in both Cleveland and Chicago. That will be fine.

However, the more irrational fears are starting to come to mind. Like being kidnapped in Malaysia. And losing my passport in India. And being bitten by some horrible bug in the Amazon and dying. The most realistic of these new fears being that I will run out of money.

I went shopping for toiletries and the like when I came home from Chicago last night and it came to 300 dollars...are you kidding me?? I guess that happens when you have to buy two of everything to last three and a half months.

I went and had my hair dyed to its natural color today since I will not have access to fairly inexpensive salon service during this voyage...and without sounding too much like an angsty twenty year old...I am sure that this is the ugliest hair color, that God only reserves for people who are going away and can't have their hair done. haha Maybe I will shave my head on Neptune Day if I continue to despise the color. haha

Grandma and I also went to her bank today and I was able to request $25 for each port I am going to with the exception of Vietnam and Cambodia. I will just have to find an ATM in those countries and dea with the fees.

While the nerves are taking over a bit, having almost all of my logistics taken care of is quite a relief. The only thing that comes to mind right now is one of those cheesy caritas items received at Happening so many years ago that read, "Let Go and Let God." This journey will be such a new experience for me that I feel that I almost can't prepare for it in the ways in which I desire.

One of my biggest realistic worries at this point is about church: I haven't not gone to regular Sunday worship ever. haha I'm pretty sure that qualifies me for dork status. But...even on Easter we have class on the ship. Don't get me wrong, I am not the girl who doesn't work on Sundays or any of that, but Sunday mornings have always been my major time for renewal, and I am going to have to get over that on this voyage. I am going to participate in a Bible Study on ship...I have never been a part of one before, so we will see how it goes...of course I am bringing my Book of Common Prayer as well, and I plan on stalking Desmond Tutu down on the ship to see if he will do Eucharist for the ship, or anything. Normally there are no religious leaders on the ship, so I'm pretty thankful he will be there. Not only for religious reasons, but my gosh, traveling with him for 100 days and hearing him speak will simply be wonderful.

That was quite a tangent. Tonight I am having a Bon Voyage dinner in Berea with all of my favorites. Many sisters, con kids and friends. I'm spending the night on a futon again and it will be my last night in Berea before I go. On Wednesday I am meeting with Gayle for lunch, and then Thursday I have one last meeting in Berea.

Friday at 5:30 am I will arrive at the Cleveland airport for my flight to Nassau. Feel free to come say goodbye ;) haha

I'm pretty sure the next time I post here will be from Nassau!!

11/13 days to go!

2007-01-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

And...it is t-minus 11 days until I leave for the Bahamas, and t-minus 13 days until I sail the world!

As I sat on my friend's futon here at BW last night at 5 pm, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that I was going to be at sea in 2 weeks! It is tremendously exciting while incredibly terrifying.

I have one suitcase almost entirely packed, and after I go shopping with mom this week, I'll begin to pack suitcase number two.

I met one of the two other Ohio girls going on SAS yesterday for lunch at the Hard Rock downtown. It was great...we had a lot in common and we talked for 2.5 hours! Her older sister went 7 years ago, so she shared some great advice from her sister and it made me feel SO much better knowing there would be a familiar face on the ship.

Regina and I talked again last night, and I told her I would probably be in Seattle for a church meeting right after we came back from SAS, and she said, "you can come have dinner with my family!" I know friendships will develop on ship, but it is nice to have an indication going in that there will be people on ship I will get along with!

Last nght I came to BW and went to my last Canterbury church and dinner of the year...Sarah and I got really sentimental during the last song because 1) Gayle picked my least favorite song ever and 2) we always joke about how she sings so well, and I sing off key next to her, and we've done it for going on 3 years now! I managed not to cry until I had to say goodbye to Sar last night!

I think I am only spending one more night here on campus which is odd. No more futons though! haha This weekend I am heading to Chicago to hang out with my big, little, (not so) secret big, and papabig. I will also be meeting up with another group of SASers! One of them is someone I will be traveling through Japan with!

In any case...there's the 11/13 days to go update! Mail must be sent to Puerto Rico by Wednesday if you want it to get to me on the ship!! :)

Keep in Touch

2006-12-30T04:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the deal...on the ship, I will only have 250 minutes of free internet. MEANING: My normal internet usage and having my away message up on instant messenger will no longer be a reality. I will also not be checking my email with great frequency (haha except for course scheduing time for this summer and this fall!!)

What this means is you should send me letters that will get to me when I arrive in my different ports!! Listed below are the addresses to which you can send all letters and if you mail them by the suggested date, I should get them! Also...make sure you AIRMAL the letters....if you use regular mail and it goes by ship...I'll be long back in the United States before my letters reach Malaysia!

It is recommended that you not send packages, however, because excessive duties can be placed on them, and it is likely I will never receive it.

But...the good news is that if you send me a letter in a port, I will send you home a postcard from that port...I'm pretty sure you all want to beef up your impressive post card collections, so write me! I'll miss you all and want to stay in touch!

Puerto Rico: AIRMAIL no later than JAN 24th

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives February 7, 2007
Cruise Plus Service & Sales
1760 Fernandex Juncos Avenue
San Juan, PUERTO RICO, 00909

Brazil: AIRMAIL no later than FEB 3rd

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives February 17, 2007
Oceanus Agencia Maritima
Av. Estados Unidos, 397, Room 601-604
40018-900 Salvador, BAHIA-BRAZIL

South Africa: AIRMAIL no later than FEB 16th

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives March 2, 2007
John T. Rennie & Sons
PO Box 702, 1 Thibault House
8000 Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA

Mauritius: AIRMAIL no later than MAR 1st

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives March 15, 2007
Ireland Blyth Limited
1 Queen Street, PO Box 53
Port Louis, MAURITIUS

India: AIRMAIL no later than MAR 11th

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives March 25, 2007
J.M. Baxi & CO
52 Rajaji Salai
Chennai-600 001, INDIA

Malaysia: AIRMAIL no later than MAR 19th

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives April 2, 2007
Inchcape Shipping Services SDN
4th Floor Unit 4B
Wisma Saw Chong Thuah
39-c, Pengkalan Weld
10300 Penang, MALAYSIA

Vietnam: AIRMAIL no later than MAR 26th

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives April 9, 2007
General Forwarding & Agency
5th Floor Osic Building
8 Nguyen Hue Avenue
D. 1, Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM

Hong Kong: AIRMAIL no later than APR 3rd

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives April 17, 2007
Inchcape Shipping Services (HK) Ltd.
Units 1802-1805, 18th Floor
No 3 Lockhart Road
Wanchai, HONG KONG- CHINA

China: AIRMAIL no later than APR 7th

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives April 21, 2007
Penavico Qingdao
21 Wuxia Road
Quingdao, 266002, P.R. CHINA

Japan: AIRMAIL no later than APR 11th <>

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives April 25, 2007
Inchcape Shipping Services
Kenryu Bldg II, Room 303
6, Kaigan-dori, Chu-ku
Kobe-shi, Hyogo-Ken 650-0024, JAPAN

Hawaii: AIRMAIL no later than APR 23rd <>

LeeAnne Kosovich
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrives May 7, 2007
Inchcape Shipping Services
Gentry Pacific Center
260 North Numitz Hwy, Suite 103
HONOLULU, Hawaii 96817, USA

KEEP IN TOUCH YOU CRAZY CATS! :)

Donations for Children

2006-12-30T04:54:00.000-08:00

I am stealing this idea from another SASer, and I'm just copy-ing and pasting her idea here! I think it is an absolutely wonderful way to bring a little bit of what we have here to the children in the countries I will be visiting...please consider what you might be able to do to help me do this!

"Hello All!!

I am currently accepting anything you have that would be great for the children I will meet while travelling. This includes children in South Africa, India, Vietnam, and China as I intend to visit and experience orphanges and villages. Ideas of things include:

Crayons, markers, and coloring books
Compact/ Small bottle of bubble-blower (ex: Mr. Bubble)
Compact/ Small picture-books
Kids' Toothbrush
Notebook
Stickers
Polaroid camera & film... for me to take of them, and for them to keep of themselves

... etc etc ... Basically, something compact that I can travel with... and quickly pull out for kids along the way...

I hope to give you, in exchange, a picture of the kid that received it. I can't promise the picture, but it's just one way that you can go on the trip with me.

I think this is a great way to get some 'clutter' out of your home, and 'gifts of joy' into the homes of others. After all, this is an international world that we live in, and those that are 6,000 miles away from us are more related to us than we may think.

Again, this is just a thought and I'm not expecting anything new. If anything should come of it, I just hope others are able to realize the needs of others while we look at the luxuries we posses.

Thank you!!"

November Update 1!

2006-11-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

So....that list below? Forget it! I'm planning on travelling indepedently ( here on out referred to as "indy") in a lot of ports to save money, experience the real culture of a place, AND meet new friends!

I'm still going to try to do SAS trips in India, Vietnam and China, but I think I'm going to take the world head on in the other ones! Adventure, here I come!

Just this afternoon I went and got all of my shots for the trip and prescriptions for antibiotics for traveller's illnesses, tamiflu for resporitory problems, and malarone for malaria. 66 days on malarone baby.

I also received my course confirmations!

101 GS 3 Global Studies Christie 0920-1035
372 Rel St 3 Mysticism and Religious Experience Salisbury A 0800-0915
234 Pol Sc 3 Intro to International Relations Milner A 1255-1410
322 Hist 3 Topics in European History: Medieval Travel Accounts
Salisbury B 1045-1200

I am definitely going to have to try to pick up an easy 5th class on the ship though, because I need the credits!

I'm starting to plan the above indy trips with a girl named Regina from the West Coast...who woulda thunk that Facebook would bring people together like that! yeah SAS and Facebook! haha

Just have to return my financial aid forms that were due last Friday and health forms! And get my visa apps filled out, after I come back from Chicago next weekend since I'll need my passport!

Less than three months...it hardly seems real!

Countdown to SAS..

2006-08-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

1. I've been academically admitted since February
2. I sent my deposit to the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE) in March.
3. I received the forms for financial aid about a month ago and I need to write my essay and send the information in by September 15.
4. The sample field program for my voyage was released yesterday. I made a list of all the programs I am REALLY REALLY interested in doing, and compiled them.

Here's my list for now

Puerto Rico - docking in San Juan
- I figure a lot of Puerto Rico can be done independently. It is such a tourist destination for Americans, takes US dollars, and I've heard a lot of people speak English, so it seems like it would be the ideal place to just travel with people I meet on board.
- Welcome Reception: $36
- Bioluminescent Bay $42
- I want to visit the churches: San Juan Cathedral, Iglesia de San Jose, Capilla de Cristo...and any Episcopal church I happen upon :)

Brazil - docking in Salvador
- Service Visit Cultural Mobilization Project for Children in Danger $16
- Welcome Reception $40
- Bahia by Night $50
- Itaparica Island $38
- Iguassu Falls (Three Days/Two Nights) $995
- The Amazon (Three Days/ Two Nights) $1036

South Africa - docking in Cape Town
- Service Visit: Operation Hunger $30
- Khayelitsha Township $48
- Robben Island $37
- Cape Peninsula and Cape Point $98
- And I'm going to do a safari independently with some other people on my ship for around $600
- And I'm going to sky dive and do one of the cage diving with sharks things

Mauritius - docking in Port Louis
- Mauritius is basically our spring break, so they don't offer many SAS excursions...most people just get a house and hang out on the beach and such. I plan on lazying around too, but..
- Service Visits and City Orientation $59

India - docking in Chennai
- Delhi/Agra/Varanasi (Four Days/Three Nights) $1241 (This is my first choice and if I get it, I won't be able to do these other options.)
- Welcome Reception $34
- Service Visit: Mother Theresa's Orphanage $12
Seminar on Poverty and Gender $16

Malaysia - docking in Penang
- Welcome Reception $25
- International Student Exchange: Universiti Sains Malaysia (Two Days/One Night) $75
- Singapore (Three Days/Two Nights) $454
- Temples and Shrines of Penang $26

Vietnam - docking in Ho Chi Minh City
- Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple $41
- Mekong Delta Overnight $149
- Cambodia: Temples of Angkor $689
- Ho Chi Minh City Temples and Churches $14

Hong Kong - docking in Hong Kong! and Qingdao
- I will be leaving directly from Hong Kong to the Internation Student Exchange to Beijing and will travel for four days in China before arriving in Qingdao to get on the boat.
- Internation Student Exchange $560

China - docking in Qingdao

Japan - docking in Kobe
- Welcome Reception $5
- I am going to be getting a rail pass ($250) so I can travel to Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, and within Kobe.

Honolulu
-Stars and Stripes (All about the role of Hawaii in World War II) $67
- Snorkeling Adventure $75
- Polynesian Cultural Center with Luau $107

so that's my little bit of SAS planning so far!
5 months 3 weeks 2 days :)
- Polynesian

2006-05-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

just a test...not sailing the world for another 8 and a half months, but I wanted to set this up now!