And Im back…

So I disembarked from the ship on May 5th and have been attempting to calm all of my thoughts for the past couple of days. As soon as we pulled into the Fort Lauderdale port I knew this was going to be difficult. It was strange and sad when we drifted past giant beach houses, paved roads and fake trees instead of the complete chaos and tropical beauty found in many of the other ports of call.

It hit me fast. The convenience of a car…the help of your parents to carry your backpack and the sudden goodbyes of  friends who live too far away. How is it possible that I just travelled 26,000 miles around the world? I remember all of the things I was thinking when I left back in January and the things that used to bring the worst out of me. They seem so far removed now. Travelling has taught me patience I never knew I was capable of, flexibility in the fact that things never go as planned, and love. I’m not talking about love in a romantic sense, I’m talking about the kind of love that knocked me in the face when I took the time to really listen to a woman at the train station in India and looked at the ceiling of the Cao dai temple in Vietnam, and when I watched the sunrise in three different continents. I used to think that love was only something I would recognize when I finally found the right man, but I could not have been more wrong. I am truly grateful to have seen what happiness looks like without a cellphone, Facebook or shower. I am also grateful for being the fortunate one born into a society like the U.S. This whole experience has taught me that we are the lucky ones here, and we should all take the power we have and give back to the rest of the world. The world is smaller than we think…

I don’t find myself constantly thinking about the sites I saw or actually being able to answer the most commonly asked question of “What was your favorite place?!” I feel like I will never be able to cover everything I experienced, but that’s OK as I’m sure most people would get tired of hearing all of my “worldly” adventures…some of them more so than others. We were warned that we should not even talk about the trip unless we are asked questions, because we will most likely find the people around us dozing off or interrupting us, texting, etc. I haven’t ran into that problem yet…but I did forget how much precedence a cell phone call or text has over a face to face conversation. 

This entry may seem completely pointless, but I felt as if I couldn’t just leave my entire journey blog without writing about my return. Soon I will be back in Wisconsin, Waitressing and running and slowly falling back into a routine that doesn’t revolved around the lonely planet, books and time changes. I am so happy to be surrounded by my family and see my old friends, but it has been really strange being away from the people I have travelled with for the past 3 1/2 months. They were my family and now they are spread out across the United States instead of being only two floors away. However, that just gives me an excuse to travel to California sooner rather than later, so I’m ok with that.

I hope you have all enjoyed following my travel notes from around the world…Im going to post pictures now that I have internet access so be on the look out for those if you are interested! Once again…

Peace & Love

Abby

Brazil – My Last Stop…….

Brazil
So I have been sitting here thinking about what to say about this wonderful place, and I’m pretty sure my lack of writing skills may not do it justice. I have also been procrastinating on writing this particular entry, because it will be the last one of the semester. I never could have guessed how much this voyage would change me, or rather help me figure out what I really want in life. It was difficult to imagine what this trip would be like simply because it is just so intense and literally all over the place. Amidst my exams, papers, projects, journaling, and last moments with friends I have made the time to tell you all about this last wonderful port!
The morning our ship docked in Salvador, it was just like any other port morning. We sat outside and ate breakfast as the sun rose over the city and our ship neared the shore. It’s funny how you can get used to such glorious moments as if every morning will be that way. The city stacks upon itself in two levels, and you have to take an outdoor elevator to transfer up to the historic district. The building where this elevator is located stands out like a sore thumb as you get closer to the city, because it is a tall skinny upside down L shape. It also stands out with its stark white paint among the old colorful buildings surrounding it. We were hit with a wave of intense heat as we stepped off the ship once again and went off to find our first hostel. Jenna, Abbey and I stayed off the ship the whole time to travel around the city and stay in different hostels. A lot of students travelled to Rio De Janiero or the Amazon, but we were recommended to stay in Salvador by the interport Brazilian lecturer.  It was nice to live amongst other foreign travelers from all over South America and stay where the culture is rich.
The town square of Palorinio is mapped out by narrow cobblestone streets lined with buildings of all different colors.  As you walked around all of the shopkeepers kept their windows and doors open, people were everywhere and music filled the streets from a block away. No matter what time of the day it was, there was always Brazilian music in the background. As we wandered around the first day we stumbled across a music video being shot on a stage set up in the street for one of the major Brazilian soccer teams. Some of the students actually got in the video, but were obviously not as good of dancers as the locals. Unfortunately, the rain started to come down fairly hard and they had to break up the video. We ended up ducking into one of the many churches in the main square. We toured two churches, both named Iglesia de San Francisco and they were absolutely gorgeous. Every temple, monument, work of art and church never ceases to amaze me with how intricately detailed they all are. The night started early after our tours.  We checked into our first hostel where you opened up the gate from the city and you walk into a small garden entrance and into the main lobby. It was so adorable. We made an Australian friend right away who told us where not to go, which was pretty much everywhere, to avoid getting mugged. Almost thirty SAS students had been mugged within the first two hours of or arrival in Salvador. Crime was pretty intense there.  That night we had a little too many famous Brazilian beverages of caparinias made with their sugar cane liquor and is loaded with fresh limes. People filled the streets dancing and listening to live music by 9:00p.m. and we all stayed out until dawn dancing and swimming in our hostel pool.
Every morning we woke up to sounds of Brazil, strong coffee and fresh papaya and mango. It was absolutely beautiful. That day we took off and went to the bus station to buy our tickets to Pria de forte. This was definitely an experience to purchase tickets with absolutely no understanding of each other’s language…it wasn’t as bad as buying train tickets in Japan, but it was still interesting. We took the two hour bus to this beach town and walked around for about an hour going up and down the same street attempting to find our “Albergue”=hostel. After we checked in we went to the beach just in time to witness the fastest rainbow I’ve ever seen. The scene looked like a screen saver. We hung out with some Brazilian workers at the beach and waited until the rain came our way. Later that night one of our flat mates, Marialla, from Argentina went out to dinner with us. We found this hole-in-the-wall restaurant owned by a man who comes to pria de forte once a year for three months to take a break from his travels. He has been all over the U.S. and pretty much all over the world. He has a menu comprised of five different kinds of pasta and caparinas. He puts out two tables outside his apartment and that’s his restaurant. We ate dinner with Marialla and a girl from Sao Paulo from the hostel. It was delicious and incredible to hear all of their stories from travelling etc. After dinner we went back down to the beach and sat under the stars talking for hours.
The next day Jenna, Abbey Marialla and I went on a nature adventure. We took the bumpiest bus out to a nature reserve where we started off our tour with a boat ride through the mangrove forests. Afterwards we rafted down the river and zip lined…twice! It was so much fun. The Zip line was probably 100ft above the ground and you fly over the trees into the river. Before we left we went on a hike through the rainforest there. After our excursion we went to a Sea turtle sanctuary in pria de forte and saw turtles from babies, to the size of my cabin on board. We tried Acai for the first time and in Brazil it isn’t a smoothie drink and it isn’t pronounced at all how we say it in Wisconsin. They serve it as a sorbet, so to speak, and put fresh fruit and granola on it. It was basically heaven. Marialla decided to travel with us some more and we all took the night bus back to Salvador later. She told me all about Buenos Aires on the ride back, and I am convinced that I need to go there eventually.
We all walked into this coffee shop around 10:00pm and noticed there was a huge crowd of people in the back so we kept walking. There was a huge stage with a live reggae band and hundreds of people crowded in the backyard of this place. Brazil never stopped surprising us. After we became friends with a few people they took us to their favorite places in the town square and we bounced around with them all evening. I’m convinced that these people never sleep though, because before I knew it, it was 5:00am. It’s not like the United States when everything closes at 2 or 3…people literally stay out all night.
After another morning of pineapple, mango papaya and fresh Brazilian coffee we took time to explore the city a little more. We got hair wraps from a local vendor and went to the market place. We met up with a few friends returning from Rio. We went to a bar on the beach and danced the night away for one last time before going back to the hostel.  We slept in and sat on a ledge overlooking the city and just hung out there until we had to head back to the port…it was pretty bitter sweet. They had an on ship BBQ for us to celebrate our last night in a foreign country before we all frantically dove into finals. We are going to present our electronic waste project to our Global studies professor for the grant tomorrow! Wish us luck…we have put in at least 40 hours into this bad boy. I have been writing field reports and studying like crazy for all my classes, because like the rest of my shipmates I have put off every assignment until the very end of the voyage…whoops! So off I go to continue my studying  See you all soon!

Ghana

Ghana

I have been out of Ghana for a couple of days now, and as I have returned to normal ship life it has been difficult for me to really process everything I saw there. It is always so strange to go to a place where every little detail about the way they live is different from back home. The people in Ghana are extremely friendly. In fact, I think they were the friendliest of all the places we have been to. The air is almost as dusty as India minus the intense scent of spices, and it is ungodly hot there. I don’t think that I ever stopped sweating for a second while we were in Ghana. My friends and I were just talking about how we are going to describe the kind of heat we encountered in these countries, and realized it is real difficult to picture. You see, at home if you’re hot and sweaty there is always a building nearby or a house that has air conditioning. Unfortunately, Ghana like most of the other hot countries we have been to, does not have much to offer in terms of cooling off. Imagine you are extremely gross/ uncomfortably sweaty and you have to sit on a public transportation bus with no air (smashed between four people), go to eat dinner afterwards in a restaurant with no air, and you then proceed to take a sweaty taxi to your hotel room that is even hotter than it is outside. Somehow I still enjoyed Ghana despite the weather.

                The first day I went with my three friends I traveled in South Africa with to explore a little bit. We didn’t get off the boat until noon and our port was an hour from Accra (where everything is at) so the day started a little later than we had hoped. We got a tour with a taxi driver around Tema and Accra and we found a hotel room for Jenna, Abbey and Heather to stay at near the beach. We got dinner at a place called Billy Jane’s on the beach. It was an open air restaurant and we were the only white people there for miles. We literally sat there for hours watching “football” slash soccer with Billy and his friends (who apparently knew Bob Marley) and drank beer. The entire community seemed to be coming as we were leaving to go closer downtown, but Jenna , Abbey and Heather went there about three more times in the next couple of days so they weren’t too upset we left before they got there. We went to downtown Accra and sat at an outdoor live music place and once again we were the only white people there. They played their Ghanaian high life music and a ton of locals came to chat with us. It was so much fun, and we danced the night away.

                The next morning I went off with the semester at sea trip to a village in the Lake Volta region. Lake Volta is the largest manmade lake in all of Africa, and the village we visited was Torgome. We took a motor coach bus that was decorated like Queen Elizabeth was coming to town over many unpaved roads and through the bush until we arrived. As soon as we pulled into this village there was a circle of about two hundred people with all the chiefs in chairs lined up to shake our hands. We were seated on the right/center of the circle and stayed there for our African naming ceremony and multiple dance performances. The kids tried teaching me the Volta dance moves many times, but apparently I sucked because they continued to laugh at me for the next two days. My African name was Abla Nanunana which means “gift.” They had all of us try to pronounce it in front of the whole village…so embarrassing. At the end of the three hour long ceremony, they introduced us to our specific home stay hosts. My “father’s” name was Samuel and his wife’s name was Patricia. They both spoke really bad English which made it difficult to have long conversations, but we mostly just sat and chilled together the majority of the time if we weren’t dancing.  

He took us around the village for the rest of the afternoon. All of the village children were let out of school around that time, and they surrounded us the rest of the day. They were so adorable. They would all fight over who got to hold your hand, and they would step on each other’s shoes so that the kid holding your hand would have to let go to get their missing shoe, and the other could sneak in to hold your hand in their place. It was hilarious. These two little girls claimed me and would practically beat up anyone that would try to take my hand. I learned so many hand clap games, and dances from the kids the rest of the night. Their favorite thing though was probably taking our cameras and taking a gazillion pictures of everything. They were pretty good photographers. After dinner in the village and multiple games of football, we danced around a fire with the whole village. A little boy, who couldn’t have been more than two, wouldn’t let go of me the whole time because he was scared from all the motion surrounding him. It was so adorable, but it made me realize how independent these kids are. You would see four year old kids carrying around their younger siblings on their backs all over the place. You never quite knew where their parents were. The whole village just took care of one another. My roommate and I went to bed at nine, and I took a shower from a bucket of water in a room made of mud. The curtains and bed sheets were covered in Star Wars logos and the room we slept in had a mattress on the floor and another on a short bed frame. They had one light in the whole home and it was in our room…it was fluorescent blue. The living room had two chairs and a slab of loose carpet. This family was well off compared to the others and still had very little.

The next morning, we woke up and the village prepared us a breakfast of goats butter and bread, and hot tea. The butter was so good and the bread was like Hawaiian bread. It was delicious. Everything there was made from goats, because goats are like deer where we live. They were EVERYWHERE. After breakfast our hosts gave us kanti cloth scarves and we gave them our lame American gifts, before heading off to see the Mona Monkeys. We drove for about two more hours through the jungle before reaching this village filled with sacred monkeys. They would rip bananas out of our hands when we tried to feed them, it was definitely interesting. Needless to say, we were all happy to shower and rest when we returned to the ship three more hours later.

The last night I took the bus with some friends to downtown Accra and we went out for dinner and back to the outdoor music place I talked about earlier. So many locals came up to me that had met me the first night, one of them made me a bracelet with Abigail stitched into it. We continued to dance to the rhythmic High Life music once again before heading back to the ship. It seems that most of the time I spent in Ghana was spent dancing…loved it. The next morning I went to the Electronic waste dump a few hours outside Tema.  If you remember me writing about my global studies project on electronic waste, that was why we all went to this dump. We went with the ship videographer, who is letting us use his footage for our project and we saw the most deplorable living conditions yet at this dump. We were all talking as a group today about the fact that we will return to the states having seen the poorest people around the world. These were a prime example of people who live on less than a dollar a day. When we asked what age they start working at the dump, one of the 60,000 villagers told us that they start “as soon as they know what money is.” These kids run around gathering toxic electronic parts to burn off the insulation and sell the precious metals. I will have to show you our final documentary when we are done. Exciting news, is that we were asked to show our project as an example for the rest of the ship before the due date. This means that our project will win one of the top ten spots and it will be shown to high school students all throughout Virginia. So we have been working every day almost all day on this…we are pretty excited our work has paid off!!

We are now on the ship working on our project like I said and our final FDP papers. Our professors and the rest of the students all seem pretty overwhelmed with all of the work we have put off this entire voyage. I can’t believe we only have one port left…crazy!! I am planning to travel independently with two of my close friends around Salvador. Hostels will be our lodging of choice and we plan to seize every moment we have there. After Brazil we have 9 days on board the ship, two of which will be exams and the rest will be spent hanging out with all of our new life-long friends. Hope you all have been enjoying my voyage blog…only one left! Geez Laweez!!

Peace & Love

Abla Nanunana (Abby)

South Africa – Probably the best place on earth!

 

South Africa—probably the best place on earth.

 So I originally thought India would be my favorite port, but I was wrong. Although it is difficult to compare any of the places I have been, I experienced more moments of bliss in South Africa than in any other port. The strange thing about this country is the obvious disparity between races. Even though apartheid is officially ended, there is still so much separation between the black, “colored,” and white Africans. They don’t eat, sleep, or work in any of the same places. Also there is the city of Cape Town, which looks like a European village, and ten minutes outside of it are the “informal settlements.” Really they are called townships and they are basic structures without even nailed down roofs.  Some of the white Africans I met in Stellenbosch have never even been to a township in their lifetime, which I couldn’t believe because I was only there for five days and went to two.

The day we arrived in Cape Town we had a guest speaker talk instead of the usual diplomatic briefing. Amy Beihl’s mother came to speak with us about her foundation put in place after her daughter was murdered doing peace work in South Africa. I decided to tell this story after I went to South Africa, just for my parent’s sake 🙂  Anyways, Amy Beihl was a graduate from Stanford and was doing political peace work after apartheid. She was driving through the township of Guguletu in her yellow Mazda and got caught up in a group of young men who had just come from a political riot. They decided to uphold their motto of “one bullet, one settler” and she tried running out of the car. They chased her down and stabbed her 200 times and stoned her to death. After her death her parents upheld her wishes and made sure that everything was handled through the South African government. Amy always said she wanted to be a number and not a name if she died like all of her black friends who never were recognized by their name when they died. However, she became a very important name among the population in that township. Her killers were sentenced to eighteen years in prison, but were granted amnesty by her parents at the Truth and Reconciliation committee after five years. The committee was set up by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu after Apartheid for people from all races to come forward and apologize and reconcile. Amy’s parents ended up setting up the “Amy Beihl Foundation” with one of Amy’s killers. He is now the program manager of the foundation and has a family of four. Of course we all wanted to know, especially the mothers on the boat, how Linda and her husband could stomach working with their daughter’s murderer everyday and learn to forgive him. She was so amazing…she told us that it was clear that Amy’s death was not a personal attack, but rather a statement during a time of major political unrest in the country. Also, they really emphasize reconciliation after forgiveness, because it is easy to just walk away after forgiving. Taking the time to reconcile is the key to how they found a way to carry on Amy’s work. I met both Amy’s mother and her killer the next day when I went to the Amy Beihl foundation’s after school program…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

After Linda Beihl’s talk Jenna, Abbey, Andrea and I got off the boat, exchanged our Mauritian rupees, and found some wine and cheese for lunch. Best idea ever…little did we realize that that would be our diet for the next five days plus chocolate. There were African singers and dancers performing around us, a soccer ball boat going by to honor the World Cup coming in a few months, and the sun was shining. It was a great afternoon. We then went over to take the ferry to Robben Island for our tour we had gotten tickets for…unfortunately it was scheduled for Sunday…fail. Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela and many other prisoners spent many days during Apartheid. We ended up taking a taxi up to Table Mountain instead, and sat on a bench talking and drinking wine all day long looking over Cape Town. It was unbelievable. It made Green Lake look so small!! Our taxi driver blasted, and I mean blasted, “Only Fools Rush In” on the way back (his favorite American song). After we showered we went out to Long Street, which is the place to be in terms of night life in Cape Town. We met a couple of locals named Shizzle (haha can you believe that was his name?!) Marshal, Gerome and Marlon. Marlon looked like Bob Marley, and they took us to their favorite spots for the rest of the night. I met so many foreigners from Namibia, London and Belgium. Quite a few of the students I met were studying medicine at Cape Town and others were on Easter “holiday.” P.s. South African accents are so much cooler than any accent in the world…seriously.

The next day Jenna, Abbey and I went to the Amy Beihl Foundation all day long for service work and to learn more about their mission. We went to the foundation headquarters in downtown Cape Town and watched the CNN news report of when Amy’s mom and dad first started the foundation and other interviews with children at an Amy Biehl high school. Then we talked with the president who changed his life to run this program and since he came the foundation has expanded exponentially. He tried to convince us all to come back and do an internship…it seems intriguing. We went to eat lunch in the township after the introduction and they serve you grits, salsa and meat in a huge metal vat…I just stuck to the grits and salsa. O yea, and we had to eat with our hands which was interesting for the locals to watch. There was a huge bus there decorated in World Cup 2010 and a guy that goes around Africa to get the people excited for it. We are missing the World Cup in South Africa by only a few months!! There was FIFA gear everywhere! They taught us the soccer dance, and we sang Shosoloza together. That song was so beautiful…I wish I could sing it to you over this blog. You know those songs you hear, and you instantly stop what you are doing to sing it, the song was like that. After lunch we went and played soccer and did arts and crafts with Kids in the program. I made two friends, two boys, Tabisho and Annelle. They are twelve and thirteen years old, and they came right up to me from the get go and would  not stop hugging me and holding my hand…it was so sweet. Tabisho and I played soccer all day together and Annelle was with my friend Jenna all day too. The first thing they told me was “we are best friends…best friends for life!” It was so sad when we left. I can’t describe what it felt like to hug them goodbye and wave when they just stood there looking up at our huge bus as we left. I hope I never forget their faces. It was life changing.

When we got back to the ship we met our taxi driver, Ganeif, would drive us to Stellenbosch and other destinations the rest of our trip. First we stopped at the Pick n’ Pay grocery store, where we bought essentials like wine, chocolate, cheese and bread. Then we drove under an orange moon the size of a football field until we reached our hostel…and get this…the name was “The Stumble Inn.” Despite the way this place sounds, it was actually really nice! I am never staying in a regular hotel again, because you meet so many more people in hostels and they are so laid back. We also had a pool behind our rooms! It was a great time. The first night we dropped off our things, had some champagne, and went out to some local bars. We met a bunch of students from the University of Stellenbosch, and hung out with them the rest the night.

The next day we woke up and were planning on going on a multiple vineyard wine tour, but unfortunately Good Friday hindered our plans a bit. So, we went in search of guacamole…something we all miss a little too much, and for the first time since God knows when, we found some! We were so ridiculous. We ended up going back to that same place later to hang out with the waiter we had, Chris. After our late lunch, we found a local winery at Spier and did a little wine tasting, got some traditional face painting, and saw some cheetahs. The sun at dusk over the vineyard and cheetah reserve was an unbelievable site. We ended up going to dinner and meeting another server friend, Shantal. She, Chris and the rest of us stayed together the rest of the evening. That night we also met a bunch of travelers from Oxford in London, who are travelling all over Africa! It was pretty sweet…and they legit sounded like they go to Oxford. The next morning we met Ganeif, our taxi driver from the second day, and he took us to breakfast where Shantal worked so we could all say goodbye and have some much needed coffee.

That was our big tour day. He drove us along the beautiful coast to Boulder beach and the Cape of Good Hope. There were so many penguins at Boulder beach, and you can walk right up to them and they just waddle around you. Ashley would have died of excitement there! They were the cutest things, and don’t worry I have pictures where Im practically hugging them. On the way up to the Cape of Good Hope we stopped at a spot that overlooks a famous surfing competition beach (the name escapes me right now, but no worries I’ll get back to you on that). Then it was off to the southernmost point of the inhabited world where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet. The current that runs along the eastern coast of Africa turns around on itself at this point, and you can see where the whirlpool pattern is on the ocean from it! At the Cape we walked up thousands of stairs to an old historic lighthouse that overlooked the peak from really high above sea level. On the way back to the ship we went to another Pick n’ Pay and got more cheese and bread for the drive back to the ship. Later that evening we went to the Cape Town Jazz Festival…which I know is making my Dad realllll jealous right now 🙂   George Benson was the main performer but my favorite band was called Soil and Pimp from Japan. It was so fun, and unlike much jazz I’ve heard before!

Early the next morning a group of students went to church with the interport student, Luzucko. He took us to his township and we saw his home where he grew up. There are two or three people to a bed and their most prized possession is their television. Luzucko moved into his own personal place, but that consists of a shack he is renting in the backyard of a neighbor’s home. We walked down the street to his church and the Easter service was in Xosa. The language is super intense; it operates on three different clicks. The music was so beautiful and the people in the church got so into it. There was a moment when I just closed my eyes and listened…I had a moment. Later that day we thought we were finally going to be able to go to Robben Island, but there were torrential winds and we couldn’t take the ferry over to the island. So we ended up getting my first falafel and bumming around Capetown for the day…it was great but I wish we could have seen Nelson Mandela’s cell. I honestly thought about jumping off the ship just to stay a little longer, but we all know that I don’t need to get into any more trouble!

 I ❤ South Africa!

Mauritius—i.e. Cancun for Europeans and South Africans 3-24-2010

Mauritius—i.e. Cancun for Europeans and South Africans

                So this blog will be much shorter than the last couple, because we only had two days and one night in this beautiful island. Mauritius was a location I had never heard of before embarking on this voyage. It is located off of the coast of Madagascar…and if some of you still don’t quite know where that it, it is a few islands away from South Africa to the East. We are now on our way to South Africa, and hence almost on your side of the globe.

                Mauritian people look a lot like Indians, but there is a large variety of heritages on the island. Their currency is stronger than the other places we visited due to the intense amount of tourism they rely on…so that was a bummer but what can you do? We didn’t get stared at too much, because most people thought we were from South Africa, and after awhile we just told people we were for fun. Luckily none of them asked specifically where in South Africa, because that could have been embarrassing.

                The first day we arrived in Mauritius we had the usual diplomatic briefing and were on our way to exploring Port Louis. Two friends and I roamed around the city at the market, and on the water front all day. The market was just as smelly and dirty as those we saw in Vietnam, but the prices were much higher. We ended up spending a substantial amount of time at a British pub for lunch and ordered brushetta which for Mauritians is apparently pizza bread. It was delicious, but not exactly what we expected. At the pub we met two 70 year old women, who looked like they were 50, from Cape Town, South Africa. They were so excited when we told them we were docking there and they gave us their number so they could show us around once we get there. One of the women said, “we will show you where all the sexy youngsters hang out.” I thought that was hilarious.

                The market we went to had so much fresh fruit and they would cut open a fresh pineapple on the spot for you to eat. The vendor we went to up the stairs from this farmers market was owned by a 17 year old girl who ended up befriending us on facebook and giving us free henna. It is amazing the people you meet in the market if you take the time to get to know them. Later that night we beautified ourselves and got a taxi up to Grand Baie about thirty minutes north of Port Louis. The next morning we had a catamaran tour leave from there early in the morning so we decided it would be best to crash at a friend’s hotel for the night. We all went to eat and met a random Frenchman from Paris. He taught French at a middle school there and was on holiday alone so we invited him to eat with us. It was helpful at the end, because he spoke French and that is the most common language amongst Mauritians. After dinner we went to Bob Marley bar where there were only a few locals and about five of us. They made us mojitos and margaritas and played only Bob Marley music. It was so cool. I’ve never seen so many Bob Marley posters in one location before.  

                We got up early to watch the sunrise on the beach by the hotel, and then left to find our group of 30 for the catamaran ride. We met at the “public beach” of Grand Baie, and took off on a huge catamaran at 8:30am. We sailed along the beautiful coast all morning and stopped for snorkeling about two hours in. It was fifty American dollars each and it was an eight hour ride, included snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, drinks, grill out, and drop off at the boat. It was so worth it. We snorkeled in the Indian Ocean, the saltiest water I have ever encountered and saw some cool fish and the amazing coral reefs there. Then they grilled us chicken, gave us fresh pineapple and the works for lunch. It was so intense. Along the way we passed by the most beautiful lighthouse and there were mountains all in the background along the coast….I was in heaven. A lot of people got sea sick, because the catamaran is really small compared to the majority of the waves two hundred-three hundred feet off shore. Luckily I was fine from all of the practice I have had from our ship rocking all the time.

                I ended up with a real nice burn on my back, but the day was a perfect way to end our short stop in Mauritius. The background looked fake and the ocean water was incredibly clear where we were. When we were dropped off by our boat we went and got ice cream sundaes that were larger than the portions in America…it is going to take me awhile to get used to that when I get back to the states. Basically, that’s it! It was a great “spring break.”

“I <3 My India" 3-15-2010

“I ❤ My India” (As seen painted on a truck in the port of Chennai)

Sorry about the delay on my last blog…as well as this one. A ship is a very distracting place. There is so much to say about India that I don’t even know where to begin. They warned us (way too many times) before we got off of the ship that it would be a sensory overload. They told us the sights, sounds, noises and emotions all would hit us at once. When someone tells you these things, however, you kind of just brush it to the side. We were all so excited to be going to bohemia central and experience something completely different in comparison to our own country and the rest of Asia. Along with the excitement came sudden nervousness as we thought about the extensive poverty, early mornings of our trips, cultural norms/ dress codes for women, and chaotic traffic. Fortunately and unfortunately the shipboard was right when they told us how different we would feel in India. We all adapted to the dress code…instantly. Which means us girls had to cover our knees and shoulders and avoid V-neck shirts. A lot of us wore bindis the entire time, because Indian people think that the forehead is a boring/blank space on a person’s face that should be decorated to make it beautiful. The dress code was somewhat frustrating in the intense heat, but by the end of it we were all so used to the dirt, dust, and sweat that we didn’t notice. I bought a pair of floral, tan, ankle length pants that are extremely loose fitting and linen shirts for the Taj Mahal/Varanasi SAS trip I was on, and I lived in those the entire time. It is amazing how much more respect vendors, and the people in general give you when you wear their common clothes. Half of the people in our group sported Aladdin pants as well…it was pretty comical.

When the ship got into the Chennai port, it was clear that India was going to be extremely different. The dust from the streets hovered above the low rise buildings in the “metropolitan” area and the sun looked as if it had a blood red blanket around it as a result. When we were eating breakfast outside, a small fishing boat with three Indian boys came up close to ours. They were waving with both arms in the air and were so excited if we even looked their way. They looked like the boys straight out of Slumdog Millionaire…not to be cliché or anything…but it’s true. Then came the smell. The smell of sewage and rotten fish mixed together in a scent I will never quite be able to describe. The smell seemed to come around every time we crossed a bridge or were near certain areas of the port terminal. I found out later that the smell is a direct result of waste disposal in India. They literally have pipes of raw sewage, and sometimes just trenches, going into the water they bathe in. I know I’m not painting a very beautiful picture right now, but somehow India ended up being the place I want to go back to the most.

The terminal we docked in was about a ¾ mile walk away from auto rigshaws and taxis.  It was completely sketchy, with abandoned trucks and rundown maritime buildings and groups of men cat calling at the American college girls walking through. I don’t think Semester at Sea has ever ported in that particular spot before…Anways, Theresa, Adam and I bartered with a rigshaw driver and he took us around for the majority of the day. It is key to barter before you get into whatever mode of transportation you are taking (this included A/C taxis) or else they completely rip you off. He took us to an ATM in the middle of nowhere, and then to a nice traditional Indian restaurant. We invited him to sit down and eat with us, and of course he ordered food to go and a drink that we had to pay for. We ordered what they call “the meal” which is a turn-table for each individual that has six different dipping sauces surrounding a crepe and glass noodles. Our driver told us to eat with our hands and we majorly struggled. It was hilarious…every Indian person in the restaurant stopped and stared at how pathetic we looked. After you finish the crepe and noodles the waiter comes around with a huge vat of rice three different times and gives you three different kinds of curry to put on top of each scoop. Needless to say, we disappointed them when we couldn’t finish the meal. They probably had faith in our American abilities to eat all of it. I could not finish mine if I tried… A.) it was spicy and B.) it was an extreme amount of food. The rice was definitely more difficult to eat with your hands than anything else, so we eventually resorted to forks. At the end of “the meal” they gave us sugarcane and ice cream, and sugarcane is now one of my favorite deserts! O yea…and the soda they gave me was a process. They first put a glass down in front of you, pour the flavor syrup in it, then they take carbonated something or other and mix it all together. Their juice is different from ours also. They literally grind up fresh fruit in a blender and serve it to you in its liquid form. Pineapple was our favorite.

Theresa and Adam were taken around the rest of the day by the same driver after they dropped me off at the ship for my FDP to a children’s orphanage. They only ended up paying twenty U.S. dollars for a seven hour chauffer around Chennai. The service trip I went on was for my environmental ethics class. We went to an orphanage run by Catholic nuns, and it housed  mentally and physically disabled “unwanted” children. There were only a few kids here, because a newer facility is being built and this was a sort of temporary housing for them. We were given from 2:00pm until 6:00pm to play with the kids. We brought in coloring books, pencils, crayons, bubbles, chalk, bouncy balls, and paper for them and they loved it all. We taught them how to play hop scotch and they loved playing with our cameras more than anything in the world. I played with two children in particular most of the time. They both had minor mental disabilities and one was a boy the other a girl. I think they must have been around seven or eight years old. The girl had me do her hair and the boy just wanted me to color with him the whole time. All of the children had lice and by the end of the trip my legs were caked with mud and dust, but eventually you stop caring about that stuff when you are in the face of that kind of desperation. One of the girls in the orphanage was blind and would lie on the ground in the sunlight, because the sun was the only thing she could see. It was so sad to see a little girl so miserable while all of her friends were screaming and playing around her with toys she will never understand how to use. A boy, Ardun, had physical disabilities in each limb and cleft lip and pallet. He was twelve and was the size of a two year old baby, but still functioned fairly well in terms of grabbing pencils and such. I helped him take pictures with my camera and they are some of the best pictures I have from India. At the end of our trip one of the nuns gave us Mother Mary and Mother Theresa pendants, and the little boy that I mentioned earlier took them from my hand and kissed them before giving them back to me. I cried when we had to say goodbye…it is so strange to think I will never see those kids again.

I came back to the boat and showered before heading back out with Theresa and Adam for dinner. We ended  up near a night market where I got the pants I described earlier for 120 rupees…which  is only two or three American dollars. Then we got dosas for dinner. These are giant crepes with masala and ghee in the middle. This translates to a dollop of cheesy potatoes in a very thin crepe that is about the size of my lower leg. Very good, very good…once again. I like Indian food a lot, but my stomach never quite felt normal the whole time…along with all of my classmates. I went to bed around midnight only to wake up at 2:30am for my SAS trip the next morning. Most people never went to bed, but since there is no night life in India it seemed counterproductive to try and stay up for twenty-four hours. Women are actually not allowed to go out after a certain time in India and drinking Alcohol is considered extremely disrespectful. Some kids still found ways to drink of course, but a lot of us felt to strange doing it. We left for the airport and arrived in Varanasi around 11:00am. We took a tour of Saranath soon after we dropped our things off at the hotel. This was where Buddha preached his first sermon. The ruins are still intact and there is a new bright yellow Buddhist temple there as well. This was the first place we saw devout monks meditating without flinching for hours on end. It reminded me so much of Eat, Pray, Love I could barely stand it! There was also a massive prayer service where hundreds of people dressed in white robes walked around the stupa and prayed together in a huge group.

From Saranath we drove through the crazy, chaotic streets of Dasaswamedh Ghat to go see Ganga AArti on the banks of the Ganges. The streets were packed with all sorts of vehicles, bikes and random cars that don’t really have a specific lane to drive in. Also, no vehicles stopped for pedestrians…so if you ever go to India, make sure not to cross the street unless you absolutely have to because there are no crosswalks. Basically, no cross walks + non-stopping vehicles= an inability to cross the street without getting severely injured. Several people on Semester at Sea said that their busses or rigshaws hit people while they were on a trip… moving on though, the Ganga AArti is where they worship the Ganges itself. There were thousands of people lined up along the bank of the river and crowded onto hundreds of steps that lead down into the river. The area where the ceremony rituals took place was surrounded by arches of lights and there were about seven alters with some pictures of religious figure heads and ornamentations. Six men in traditional robes came out and there were singers humming and chanting in the backround as they lit massive amounts of incents that fogged up the entire river. I literally think my mouth was hanging open…I don’t know how to describe what we saw on that river. There were so many people in so many different colors lit up in the dim overhead lights clouded by the incent smoke as the sounds of their chants flew all around us. It was hypnotizing.

That night our rigshaw driver decided to race ahead of our entire group and proceeded to get a little turned around. We ended up flying through the back streets of Varanasi where we had to cover our faces because there was so much soot in the air…everywhere. We would blow our noses at night and the tissue would be black.  The next morning our wakeup call was at 4:30am and we left to go back to the Ganges to sail along it at sunrise. Varanasi is a different place in the morning. The buildings were so colorful and old. We witnessed people bathing all along the river (which is one of the most unsanitary rivers in the world) and the cremation services. They believe that if you die in Varanasi your soul goes straight to heaven, no matter how sinful you were when you were alive. So people go there to die, and they have homes there for people who are dying to go stay in before they are cremated. We saw people carrying out bodies on decorated planks of wood and burning them in piles right next to the water. It was unreal. Afterwards we went to an archaeological museum in Saranath where we learned all about the Hindu gods, before we took our next flight to Delhi.

New Delhi was so different than Varanasi. It looked like the United States. The roads had structured lanes, there were government embassies right and left and there was an intense separation of the hotels we stayed at and the people you see on the streets. We went to a Hindu temple that was absolutely gorgeous and looked like a palace with elephants and Shiva all over the place. We got henna later that day from some nice locals we attempted to have a conversation with, but most of the time they laughed and said a bunch of stuff about us in a different language. It’s so awkward when you know that people are talking about you, but you have absolutely no idea what their saying. I feel like I should learn about 500 more languages for this reason…Rosetta Stone here I come!

Our last full day in New Delhi started at the hour of 4:15am. By this point we were all walking zombies, but we were pretty excited all day to get to see the Taj Mahal at sunset!! First we had to board an express train that only the upper caste could sit in to Agra. The strange thing was that it was really dirty and not that comfortable, but it was the “nicest” train in all of India. At least there was coffee. The first place we went to on this packed day was Fatehpur Sikri. This which was built by Emperor Akbar as his capital to honor a Muslim saint who prophesed the birth of an heir, and all of the structures were red sandstone palaces. Then we continued on to Agra Fort where the emperor Shah Jahan watched as the Taj Mahal tomb was being built for his wife. It was crazy to look out a window and see the Taj Mahal in the distance. I was like “O look…there’s the Taj Mahal…no big deal.” This was amazing, but actually walking through the entrance of the Taj Mahal grounds was indescribable. I literally just stood and stared at it for five minutes before taking a million pictures with friends and Indian strangers. The Taj Mahal is a different color at different times of the day, and we saw it at sunset where it absorbed the low rays of the sun. I will only be able to explain what I saw with pictures, because very few words are worthy of describing the Taj Mahal. It looked fake it was so perfect. That night we left for our train back to New Delhi.

While we were at the train station at least ten child beggars with multiple deformities constantly tugged at our sleeves, and by that point we were so uncomfortable, tired and speechless that we just wanted to leave. As I walked away from that situation I ended up next to a huge Indian family of around 25 people just sitting in the train station. All the women were in beautiful saris in all different colors even though it was clear they had nowhere to go. One of the guys in my group gave their little girl a pack of colored pencils and I have never seen a smile that big in my life. The girl could not have been more than eight or nine, and she threw her head back and laughed as she held this gift to her chest. The family saw me smiling and looking at them, and they automatically assumed I was the boy who gave the girl colored pencils from my trip’s girlfriend. Four of the women ran over and stood in front of me and started touching my bindi and telling me how beautiful I was. Let me tell you  though, I was sweaty, greasy and my bindi was upside down ha. They started fixing it and it wouldn’t stick back on my head so they all dug through one woman’s purse and pulled out a bindi for me that was clearly a nice brand to them. It was individually wrapped, teal blue and extremely sparkly. It took them so long to decide which one they wanted to give to me…I felt so bad because I had nothing to give to them. However, I did give them my autograph (which they really wanted) and wrote “I ❤ India” under my name. They loved it! Apparently I’m famous, but anyways we all talked for a long time and I cried when we had to say goodbye to them. I felt so strange that they revered us just because we were white and from America…we walked on the train as they walked to wherever they would sleep that night. It was tough.

Our last day was in Kochin and we spent that day roaming around the city and exploring some temples, museums, spice markets and such. It was really fun and by the end of the day I was ready to collapse…all those early mornings were really intense. All in all India was probably my favorite country because it was so culturally rich and so different from anything I have ever seen. The experiences I had were so bitter sweet. Even though it was so hot and dirty, the people were beautiful and every object had meaning behind it. Sorry for the novel…but I hope you all book your flight to India now…it will change your life.

Vietnam – A Favorite!

Good Mornin’ Vietnam!!

I know it’s cheesy, but when else could I say that? Anyways, here is my awaited blog about one of my favorite countries thus far. I realize that my blogs have been kind of dry and lacking sensory detail. I have been journaling more about the smells and metaphors surrounding the places I see, but  I will try to make it feel a little more like you are there in the blogs to come…depending on the amount of time I have.

            The first day in Vietnam we had a diplomatic briefing before we could get off the ship. These briefings may sound super official, but in reality it is just a Foreign Service worker telling us what not to do in their country. Sometimes they throw in some useful tips, but for the most part it is just repetition of pre-port meetings the night before. The most useful thing they told us was that there are only two reliable taxi cab companies in Vietnam. I found that out the hard way when my friend and I had our money ripped out of our hands by a sketchy cab driver the first day…o well I guess I need to pay more attention at those meetings!

            I traveled with a slightly different group of people which was really fun and we just explored Saigon, or what is now called Ho Chi Minh City. The locals all call it Saigon, because it was renamed after North Vietnam took over the south and became a “unified communist” country. Anyways, the first place we went to was a tailor shop. We walked into the front of the store and asked to get dresses tailored, and before we knew it we were being brought down a back alley to a room filled with fabric and magazines. It was super overwhelming but I ended up with a beautiful sage green silk dress made especially for me for only $40 U.S. dollars. Then we went to the War Remnants Museum, also called the American War museum by the Vietnamese, for less than a dollar entrance fee. The outside of the museum had old war airplanes, helicopters, and tanks as well as models of the tiger cages and prison cells of war prisoners. The tiger cages were really hard to see. They were 3 by 5 barbed wire cages that about 5 people would be stuffed into. The rest of the museum proved to be just as sobering. There were extremely graphic pictures of the victims of Agent Orange put into the river by the U.S. The museum was pretty biased against the U.S., but I suppose that makes sense…it just felt strange being an American in that setting. Seeing all of the weapons and bullets used during the war was difficult. Right before we got to Vietnam, we had Vietnam vets speak in Global studies and we were all crying by the end of it. They were my age or younger when they were sent over, and I couldn’t believe they were carrying the weapons and driving the tanks I saw that day.

            After we made it through the museum we ventured out into the city. Saigon is interesting in that the city itself is made up of mainly 5-7 story buildings. It is also so tropical that it looks like you are somewhat in the jungle, especially when you consider how humid it was. The instant we got off the boat we were instantly covered in sweat…it was lovely. We then walked around until we found the Ben Than market. This market was so expansive. It had shoes, clothes, bags, perfume, jewelry, knick knacks, art, food, tea, coffee and anything you could really want for less than $20 U.S. dollars. They loved when we would barder with American dollars. One vendor asked me to marry him after I gave him ten U.S. singles…and he was legit.

            That night the five of us started walking around to find a restaurant called Blue Ginger, which our handy dandy green sheet recommended for us. The green sheet is something we get at every port that has emergency numbers, where the boat is in the native language of the country we are visiting, a map, and restaurant recommendations. It cost me the equivalent of $4.50 U.S. dollars for a full meal and a bottle of water the size of my upper body. Let me just say that I will never taste better food than Vietnamese food. The rice paper rolls at California Pizza Kitchen simply don’t compare to those in Vietnam…sorry Mom , Dad and Rachel. Then my three girlfriends and I went to the Rex Hotel for a drink….no big deal. It was so 1960’s glam style, I honestly thought I would look over and see Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn sitting at the bar smoking a cigarette together. They still had it so that you could order cigarettes on the menu! My roommate dressed me up in her pink to-to and pearls beforehand (Carrie Bradshaw style), and I ordered a sea breeze. I looked quite sophisticated J The Rex hotel is where the generals during the war would stay/meet and take off from in their helicopters. My friend that is a history major was in heaven!

            The next day we woke up early for our Chu Chi tunnel and Cao Dai temple trip with SAS. It was really nice to get out of Saigon and see more of the countryside. During our three hour motor coach the view was unreal. We would pass by motorbikes with five people on it, then huge rice patty fields that had ancestor worship shrines on them. They looked like elaborate tombs elevated off of the ground. Ancestor worship is considered a religion in Vietnam…our tour guide said he practiced this. We also passed by some patches of trees connected by hundreds of hammocks where people would rest away from the heat. In the country the people rest in the hammocks in public and in the city they park their motorbikes in the shade and sleep there. We stopped at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant in a rural village on the way, and the food was delicious. They served the usual pho and spring rolls along with meat dishes and fresh vegetables. The communal nature of meals in Vietnam was very similar to that in China, only the tables are not lazy Susan’s.

            When we first arrived at the Cao Dai temple it looked as if we were entering a candy land…literally. There were extremely ornate structures behind elaborate gates that we had to push through street vendors to get through. We all were told to take our shoes and socks off before entering and we were shoved through mounds of people, from all over the world, to witness the service. The temple was probably the size of half of a football field, and there were people in white covering the floor. There were men in red, blue and yellow robes in the front of the temple nearest to the giant “all seeing eye.” This symbol is in all of the windows as well. It is difficult to illustrate what the temple looked like without making it sound really cheesy. It was all the colors of the rainbow and there were posts holding it up that had colorful decorations that swirled around it. The ceiling was light blue with stars all over it and the front of the temple had a massive ball with the all Seeing Eye on it. The chanting and instrumental music were enchanting and the crowds of Doaists were bowing in sync to the music at certain times.

            Next we made our way to the Chu Chi tunnels that was very sobering. It was strange because the whole time the tour guide referred to all of these torture techniques and the tactics of the Vietnamese and said “we” all the time.  It was kind of disheartening that we were being killed by the things we were seeing and how ingenious it all was. I had a hard time appreciating it after I thought about all of the kids my age were being sent there into the middle of the jungle to fight against these strategies. All in all however it was very interesting to see it all and learn more about what they call the “American War.” Crawling through the tunnels was really difficult…I have no idea how people lived down in them for months at a time. One of the girls in the group had a panic attack in them. I think that is when we all got a little psyched out just because we were all sweating profusely and jammed together in the dirt tunnels with a panic attack happening behind us. One thing  I really did not like was that they put in a shooting field where you could shoot different kinds of guns. I thought it was extremely inappropriate considering how much blood had been shed already on that soil and also it is disrespectful to those in our group who had been to Iraq and the vets who served in any war. I thought it was a little ironic, but I’m still glad I got to see it. Honestly, the best part of this trip was looking out the windows of our bus for those three hours there and back. It is amazing how different the country and cities are in these countries.

            When we got back I instantly took a shower and then we went out to eat at another nice restaurant called lemongrass. The first place we went to you couldn’t eat there without reservations, so a person there walked us to the other lemongrass restaurant a couple blocks away…once again I love the Vietnamese people. I got fried rice that was served in a coconut. It was delicious. After dinner we found a grocery store on the second floor of a random building downtown. I can’t even explain how cheap things were there…o yea…and they call Pringles “Slides” in Vietnam. I thought that was kind of funny. I met up with some people from SAS and we drank (non-alcoholic drinks of course) in a courtyard packed with locals for awhile. Then we went dancing where there were tons of locals as well. I love meeting the people from the country we visit. They are always so interested in American lives and we are always asking questions they never understand…it’s a little bit dysfunctional, but amazing none-the-less.

            We woke up the next morning and we explored the city of Saigon a little more. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral and the post office right away. The post office looked like a palace, and we saw three different couples in wedding attire taking pictures outside of it. The wedding dresses in Vietnam are so incredible intricate and gorgeous. We then continued just roaming around and went to some botanical gardens where it was clearly the place that people take breaks during their day. We saw so many families having picnics (with hot pots in the middle of the blanket) and laying in the shade. Later we toured the reunification palace where the tanks from North Vietnam came to claim South Vietnam when they lost the war. There was a movie theater inside, a dance floor on the roof by a helicopter landing pad, secret head quarters, and the usual glamorous extras that go along with being a famous leader. We ate lunch at a French café, and it was fabulous to have a sandwich after having nothing but spring rolls for a while. We then went to the Ben Than again and continued to buy some really neat things. That night we went out for dinner and one drink and came back…it was a pretty casual night, because we were all so tired from being overheated throughout the day. It was surprisingly difficult to find water, because you don’t just want to buy it from the street vendors who may have resealed a used bottle after filling it with tainted water. I have never drank so much soda as I have in these countries! Hopefully it won’t affect my running abilities…o well it’s better than getting some weird disease.

            I went to the Mekong River Delta the next day with Semester at Sea and that was the highlight of Vietnam for me. The delta is where all of the major fish markets are (all by boat) and major coconut manufacturing huts. We first took a small motor boat to an island and saw how coconut candies were made. It was really interesting, because it was a zero waste business. They drink the coconut milk or use it for cooking, use the coconut meat for the candy, and use the leftover shells to make roof tops and other structures. Then we went to a fruit ceremony where we tried all kinds of indigenous fruits from Vietnam. My favorite was Jackfruit, but I tried one that looked like an eyeball and that was a wee bit much for my taste. After the fruit ceremony we took a donkey ride to where we ate lunch. During the donkey ride a boy followed us on his bike and we literally looked at each other for a solid two minutes before he speed past us. They served us a fish…and it looked like it was alive. They picked off the fish meat and made homemade rice paper rolls right in front of us. It was surprisingly good, but a little strange to have the actual fish bones sitting right in front of you while you eat it. O yea…and I held a snake that day too. I was trying really hard to smile for the picture, but I was wincing unfortunately. At the end of the day we took a canoe like boat that a Vietnamese woman paddled for us. I felt bad because she was so little and there were four Americans she had to lug around. It was so cool to be in a canoe, surrounded by lush jungle with traditional Vietnamese hats on. Even though it sounds like this was a total tourist trap, there is a large community of people on the islands in the delta. Most of them are fishing communities that sell their fish on the river in the early morning and late at night. The people there lived in run down homes and the time of day we were there was their time off, almost all of them just laid out in their hammocks. 

            That night we found a restaurant in an alleyway that our taxi driver took us to, because we said “French fries?” It was the first time I encountered child beggars. Unfortunately it got much worse in India, but at the time it was terrible to say no to these children. I never gave money to them because I didn’t want to encourage their bosses to keep them as employees. We went in to the place either way and got our fix of Mozzarella sticks and French fries J The next morning I met up with friends that did a home stay in Vietnam and I showed them around Saigon a bit since I had been there for so long. One of the girls is Vietnamese and that was really helpful when we needed to get directions and such. This was the day I got large amounts of DVD’s for reallllll cheap, and yes I did get New Moon. I was that person, but it was one dollar and it works! At the end of the day I ferociously tried to send pictures home at an internet café but that was an epic fail because so many kids were doing the same thing. I got two of them home, but they are not anything too spectacular.

China 2-16 to 23-2010 – Wow, What a trip!!!

China…Feb. 16^th-23^rd

Alrighty then…so this is going to either be extremely long or lacking detail. It depends if I can muster up the motivation to blog constantly for the next 10 hours, because we did so much there. I hope that this doesn’t get too intense for anyone: grab a cup of coffee or tea whatever you like, get comfortable and be prepared for amazingness J

We arrived in Shanghai the first day and all expected it to be similar to Japan. We were so wrong. It was so dirty and overwhelmingly crowded. You have to be prepared to be pushy and feel like cattle at some points. It was great, but Shanghai was not exactly my favorite city. Since, we only had one day in Shanghai so we just wondered around all day. We ended up on Nanjing road, which is known for cheap markets. It took us a while to find a market where people were willing to bargain with you, but all of a sudden we were in this sketchy underground black market filled with labels and anything you could possibly ask for in terms of traditional Chinese gifts. We spent a ton of time there, where I learned how to avoid getting ripped off. There were people all over the place on the streets! I saw the craziest things too. There was trash lining all of the roads, no cross walks, and people’s children going to the bathroom on newspapers on the side of the street. I was appalled that people lived like this. Also, the residential areas of the city are all thirty story buildings with rooms the size of my cabin on the ship. Families crowd into these rooms and live so close to their neighbors that they can hand them sugar out the window if need be. Also, no one had driers so there were wet clothes hanging outside peoples windows all over the place. It was so different than Japan. Japan is one of the cleanest countries anyone could visit. They didn’t have any garbage cans, and there was still no trash on the road. In China, there were trash cans all over the place, and yet there was still litter everywhere.

That day we got a traditional dim sum lunch (dumplings). We never really knew what was inside any of them, but the desert ones were delicious. I have also never experienced the need for water that I have in these countries. We are so lucky to be able to drink our tap water in America. We couldn’t get anything that came in contact with the water in China. I’ve never drank so much Coca cola and beer in my life. For dinner we went out to a hot pot restaurant…not my favorite. The tables all had small fire pits in the middle and a huge pot of mutton (lamb leg) in some sort of boiling liquid. Then you ordered things to cook in it. We ordered tofu, noodles, and dumplings to put in it. It was so spicy and we were not exactly a fan of all the lamb legs sticking out all over the place, but when in China…

We called it a night early, because we all had a six day trip coming up. We left for X’ian the next day and I had my first international flight experience. It was so different than the U.S. I got through security with three huge bottles of liquid in my carry-on, didn’t have to take my shoes off through security, and they served us lunch on the plane. They also came around for refills on our drinks on the plane. My friends made fun of my nervousness during our intense turbulence, but I thought I was relatively calm. When we got to X’ian we immediately started our planned stops. The first place we went was the Tang Dynasty Art Museum, where we learned Chinese calligraphy. The art was really interesting and they had so many representations of the different Chinese signs. This year was the year of the Tiger, and we were in China for the Chinese New Year, so there were tigers everywhere! Also, the city was incredibly lit up at night, and people set off fireworks on the sidewalks. It was crazy! At one point we were surrounded by trees in blue drippy lights that had fake snow coming down. It was a legit winter wonderland there. It was New Years Eve on steroids and extended for 15 days. There were also traditional Chinese lanterns all over the place. They lit off red balloon lanterns and let them fly into the sky till their fire died. It was one of the most incredible scenes I saw. We went to a dim sum banquet afterwards at the best restaurant in X’ian. The meal was around a lazy Susan (every meal was like this) where they put a big dish of the food and you spun it around for everyone to share. The entire ship is sick because of these communal meals. We then proceeded back to the Xian Jianguo Hotel. It was pretty nice…and we went to bed fairly early.

Our first full day in X’ian was next. X’ian was also a very dirty city. It was funny, because our tour guide told us that it was small “only 8 million people.” Ha…that is how populated china is. I couldn’t believe that 8 million people was considered small to them! We got a complimentary breakfast and then we visited the Xian City wall. There were so many decorations for the New Year there. There was mixture of traditional decorations and cartoon-like statues. It was built during the Ming Dynasty and is the most complete city wall that has survived in China. Next we went o the Great Mosque and Old Bazaar. The Mosque covered 12,000 square meters and is the best known Islamic mosque in Xian City. It was really interesting, because it was all run by Islamic descendents whose ancestors were from the silk trade. They were also celebrating the Chinese New Year in mass amounts of people. So we were able to see them worship as well. There were a ton of vendors there on our way out, and I purchased some things that would be at least twenty dollars in the U.S. for about twenty-five cents. After we went to the Mosque it was time for lunch, which was at a freezing cold hotel. There were three things that I never got used to in China. They were: the lack of soap, toilet paper, and no heat. We ate lunch in our winter jackets, and hats. We would have kept our gloves on, but that would have made eating with chopsticks quite difficult. We then went to the Terra Cotta warrior museum. That was amazing, and I felt so ignorant that I didn’t know anything about them. There were mostly domestic tourists there as well. We were told that a farmer found a head of one of the generals one day and called the government so they could check it out. Little did he know that his job from that day on would be signing books about the museum from 7am-7pm for the rest of his life. There were three pits of recovered soldiers and only the first pit is the one that we all see pictures of. That was incredible. Then the second pit was collapsed, but would have looked like the first pit if it hadn’t collapsed. The third pit had only the generals and some horse statues. It was all in all a really neat experience. The Chinese people at the museum were all really excited about the recovered chariots in the museum. There were so many people there that I could barely move. I had to hold my camera above the crowd to attempt getting a picture of it. It was worth it though, because they were so beautiful. We then went to dinner where they served us a six course meal of the best food ever, and then there was a dinner show. I cannot describe how amazing and beautiful the show was. I’ll have to just wait to show you all the video. The show was based on what would be shown to the emperor at the time to entertain him. We then walked around a bit and then bought three dollar cases of beer and all of us chilled back at the hotel.

The next day we all got about four wake up calls to go to Beijing! We once again were given food on the plane and had a crazy busy day. We went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square the first day which was really interesting. They repainted some of the buildings for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and those were beautiful. The Forbidden City is legitimately a city of old imperial buildings. There was even a village for the 1,000 concubines the emperor had. We briefly saw the Tiananmen Square, and the tour guide avoided the political riots that happened there, which I thought was strange. They mainly skipped over that…I thought that may make Keri upset. She was nice enough to send me a letter all about the history of the riot and massacre there. I loved the written mail!! Kudos Keri J

After the tours we took a rigshaw to houses where we cooked lunch with local families. The rigshaws are basically carriages with a man pedaling a bike to get you someplace. Our guy’s name was Chong. It was pretty sweet…and sustainable which I loved. The families taught us in small groups how to make dumplings and I epically failed at making mine, but it was still really fun and interesting to see a traditional Chinese home. It was basically an alleyway filled with tiny shacks, and they had a bird that said “Ne How” as you walked through the door (hello) it was hilarious. After lunch where we finally warmed up with massive amounts of Jasmine tea (which is everywhere in China), we went to the Beijing Olympic stadium, silk factory and a traditional Peking duck dinner. The Olympic stadium or what they call the “birds nest” was incredible. I really wanted to run a lap around the track but there was a winter wonderland park at the time and it was covered up! I was so upset, but I at least got to see where the winner of the woman’s marathon ran her last 800 meters around the stadium. Incredible!! After we learned how silk is made, we went to the pearl market downtown, where I was so tired I could barely focus. The vendors were so intense there. They would literally grab you until you basically hit them to get away. That was an experience. The Peking duck was cut up in front of the table before being served so we got to see the entire duck…yum. We all went out dancing afterwards which was either Mix or Vixs. It was really fun, because all of the SAS kids were there.

The next day we went to the Great Wall! I don’t know if anything will ever top that. It was so beautiful, incredible and breath taking. I couldn’t believe we were standing on the fricken Great Wall! Seriously…it is something everyone should do. Then we took a toboggan down, which was basically a really dangerous roller coaster. It was real cool. We were all walking zombies at this point because we were so incredibly tired, but we continued on our two hour bus ride to our dinner. They had the best egg drop soup I have ever had. My mom would have loved it! They killed the fish on the first floor of the restaurant with a club, and beat them to death before we ate them, and that was a bit hard to stomach. However, we all got orange chicken and were pretty excited for the “American Chinese food.” We then proceeded to an acrobatic show that was crazy cool. I didn’t know people could move their bodies like that. We all passed out super early that night before our 3:45am wake up call for our flight to Hong Kong.  We all went to dinner at a burger joint in Soho, Hong Kong after checking out the markets. It was the best burger and onion rings I could have asked for after two and a half weeks of Asian food. The bartender started buying us drinks he liked us so much. No one could believe we were all travelling around the world on a boat for school…I guess it is pretty unbelievable. Then all of us girls got dolled up for a night on the town in Hong Kong. So fun!

The last day in Hong Kong we went to a HUGE Buddha statue on top of a mountain. It was a thirty minute cable car ride up and we had a glass bottom to it. It was so scary, but so beautiful. It was amazing to me that someone hiked for hours and built this thing. I was amazed, and it was so interesting to see Buddhist people worship around it. With the mountains and ocean in the background it was a perfect way to end our trip in China. Right before boarding the ship (our port was in a shopping mall believe it or not) we grabbed some California Pizza Kitchen. I know it sounds lame that we ate so much American food, but when you find a California Pizza Kitchen you have to go! Now I am ferociously writing this blog and have a pre-port meeting for Vietnam tonight. We arrive there tomorrow for another incredible adventure! I can’t wait to sleep, but that can wait until I get to Fort Lauderdale!   Wish you were here! Peace…

Japan: Chapter 2 (2-14-2010)

Kyoto / Kobe Japan

We left for Kobe from Tokyo on the bullet train. This train can go up to 200mph…it was really neat. It felt like I was taking an airplane on the ground and the food that you could purchase were traditional bento boxes. I thought that was really interesting considering the kind of food people eat on the go in traditional travel stations and vehicles. I didn’t see any junior mints boxes, candy bars or soda on people’s laps. My friends and I slept for three hours, and when I was woken up to get off the train in Kobe I literally thought I had just blinked. It was great to get that extra snooze in order to continue our day in what was now rainy Kyoto.

Right away we noticed that this particular city was a little more conservative and smaller. It was still dense population wise, but it wasn’t a constant swarm of people. Also, even though Tokyo was really clean, this was even cleaner. There were also less people who could speak English. We all liked the change of pace, because we were still recovering from the last couple of days. We got a taxi and were taken to, what looked like, a back alley. The taxi driver just pointed down the alley after we paid (oh yea, and we never had to worry about tips here) we just kind of ran out in the pouring rain and searched for a place that looked welcoming. Luckily, we found it before we got completely soaked and the owner spoke great English! Right away we could tell this was “luxury” compared to the capsule hostel. In the lobby we put our shoes in the cubbies next to the vending machines and a tiny shrine. Then we paid our 3,500 yen (35 dollars) each for our fabulous traditional room. A Ryokan is basically a Japanese equivalent to a bed and breakfast in the states. There were just the cultural differences like: public baths, floor pads to sleep on (really really comfortable), traditional robes and we had to pay for breakfast. We each had two to a room and there was hot tea waiting for us. The floor was covered in wooden mats and our furry blankets/ floor pads were stacked up along the side walls when we walked in. There was one bathroom and it had two stalls. One was a Japanese style toilet and the other was a “western” style toilet. The Japanese style toilet was very different. It is basically a porcelain basin on the floor and you hold onto a metal bar in front of it. You don’t sit down. I tried to avoid them at all costs!

After checking out the Ryokan, we tried to find lunch. We got super lost and by this time we were extremely cold/ soaked through with rain. We ended up at a strange, Japanese version, of fast food restaurant. You order your food at what looks like a vending machine, go up to the counter and give the cashier your receipt. It comes with cold, powdered green tea and the food is brought out to you within five minutes. This particular lunch was not my favorite because everything was made with fish broth, what they call fish paste. It has a very distinct flavor and smell, and at the time it was good because we were starving. However, the after taste and thought of it was just a little off. Anyways, we ventured to find our friend some new boots after this, as she was wearing Ugg boots and they got completely soaked through. We found a “western store” but they only had cowboy gear, which equated to the U.S. style of cowboy boots with fringe. We felt terrible, but the weather was so bad, we simply had to go back to the Ryokan the rest of the afternoon. We ended up having tea in my room in our traditional Japanese robes, with the heat blasting and the lights dimmed. It was hilarious…and very difficult to eventually make a plan for the evening. At that point, I think we all could have slept for a solid 24 hours. We rallied and got another taxi to go to Gion, which is a district in Kyoto with amazing things to do. We went to a conveyer belt sushi restaurant for dinner and saw our academic dean there! The restaurant is so neat. The sushi goes by each table and you are eventually charged by the amount of plates you have in the end. It is the cheapest way to eat in Japan. It’s equivalent to only $1.50 a plate at the most. Also, the tables all had their own hot water spigot for free green tea. The only other drink was beru. I tried a fish egg sushi roll and nearly threw up! Yuck…the fish eggs burst in your mouth with a very distinct flavor and it is so rude to spit it out that you really have to finish it. The other rolls I had were really good even though I had no idea what I was eating. They send around random deserts too, and we grabbed this chocolate thing that was similar to a mouse, but had the appearance of jello. The whole thing was an experience.

While we were waiting to be seated for the restaurant, I took the initiative to buy a fashionable Japanese hat. I realized that it will be even colder in China, so it seemed like I needed to pick up something along the lines of a hat, gloves &/or a sweater. I don’t know how to describe it, but let me just say that my fashionista sister will be jealous. The area surrounding the restaurant had a ton of arcades and the boys took us into a four story one. It was so different than anything we would do in the U.S. the first floor had the claw machines that suck the money right out of you and other prize winning machines. Then as you went up there were tokens on each floor and those tokens could only be used at that level. The funny thing was that you didn’t win anything but got more tokens if you won a game. Even the gambling slot machines spit out tokens. However, we found out later from some British locals that there is a small shop across the street to pick up money for the tokens won from the betting games. When we got back to the Ryokan, it was only about 10:30pm. We all took turns in the public bath (which was so interesting slash amazing) and headed off to bed. The public baths work like this: first you clean yourself with a sponge or cloth and the soap provided without water, and then you sit in the extremely hot water to rinse off. It’s pretty sustainable and it felt like a Jacuzzi. My friend and I made a bullet point list in chronological order of all that we had done thus far to make sure not to forget anything before we crashed. That is the only way I could remember some of the details and I didn’t want to forget them after we go through the rest of Asia. It also allows me to make my blogs super detailed and long for you guys! Ug…I miss talking on the phone with all of you though.

Anyways, the next day we went to breakfast at 9:00 a.m. after a flawless night of sleep. They serve Texas toast everywhere in Japan, but it is two times as thick as the Texas toast in the United States. They don’t call it “Texas Toast” but it is just like it. It was nice to finally have something that looked familiar to eat. We then went to the Neiji Castle and toured there. It was so amazing. It was where the Shogun would stay back in the day, and we were still required to wear slippers there because it was a home. Kaylin, the girl who had only brought her ruined Uggs, couldn’t go in because she was wearing plastic bags over her feet inside her boots. It was hilarious, but she was a champ for being patient. The coolest part was the extensive gardens and pathways surrounding the castle, and everything had a specific meaning. Then we went to a famous market back in Gion, near where we ate dinner the night before. There were thousands of street vendors selling food (we even saw them selling octopus on a stick that was died red) but you cannot eat the food walking around. You have to save it for later. There were also bunches of other local vendors selling clothes, jewelry, tea pots, chopsticks etc. I bought an outrageous pair of fuzzy lime green gloves to add to my warm clothes wardrobe for the rest of Japan and China. Whenever we went into the shops that had jewelry and such, the women working would watch us intensely as we danced to the American music playing and try on headbands. The Japaneses girls get sooooo excited to meet you. They would jump up and down sometimes and laugh a ton once you would say you are from America. We went to a late lunch at another conveyer belt sushi restaurant after that and continued on to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. The one in Tokyo had been demolished and we only saw the surrounding gardens while we were there, so we wanted to see the home of today’s emperor. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the palace because you have to have a reservation. So, we went to the Golden Temple and that was amazing. It was how it sounds. It was suspended on a little lake and was surrounded by a ton of Japanese trees. We all could sell postcards with the pictures we took. When it started to get really cold again, we went back to the Ryokan to check out and take pictures with the nice lady who owns it. If I ever go back to Japan (which the whole ship wants to do now) I will stay there again.

We took the bullet train to Kobe, which was only about a twenty minute ride and dropped our things off at the ship. We ate burgers for dinner on the boat and went out to experience the city. We ended up wandering around and getting invited to a local bar called Midnight Express with a huge group of British/ Australian men who have all lived in Kobe for ten years now. We had the best night ever. It was so fun to meet a bunch of locals and they all asked for our email addresses, and have already sent some to us. We had so much fun and taught the entire bar how to do a Sake bomb. Apparently, they don’t really do them in Japan…we just think they do. They said it made them feel too bloated. Then we taught them some sweet dance moves and stayed up until 4:00am once again. The whole of Japan never sleeps I’ve decided. They work 10-12 hour days and stay up until the sun rises. It’s insane. We dragged ourselves out of bed four hours later to explore the city with only about 300 yen left. We ended up finding all of these underground fashion stores and cafes. We also spent some time in China Town, and then bought 100yen C.Ds hoping that they would be good. We just grabbed some random ones…who knows if that is really what Japanese people listen to. We checked back in at 4:00pm and people crashed, started homework, or chatted all night long with others about their experiences. When the boat was pulling away, the bridge near our port terminal was lit up with tons of colors and the city was hopping once again. I was so sad to leave, as there was so much that I still want to do there – I really plan to return eventually.

Some people said they stayed at a Buddhist monastery in the mountains for a night and meditated with them. Others talked about their sobering visit to Hiroshima and the Peace museum that I really wanted to do. There were also home stays and tours with University students we could have done, and my friends that went on the Mount Fuji trip said it was their best activity in Japan. Only 30% of the people who go on that trip actually see the mountain, and they were the lucky few that did! One of the deans, who make announcements in her southern accent to us every day at sea, has sailed with the ship seven times and was super excited to finally get to see it. I also really wish we got to go to a love shrine. They blind fold you and you try to go through the maze with a partner and if you make it through the first time it means love will come to you soon. We couldn’t find the Water Temple that it was in, but other people said it was a really neat trip.

Anyways, needless to say, I am back now ferociously typing out this blog for you all to read. I hope that you didn’t just stop reading it halfway through due to the immense amount of detail. I just want to make sure everything is documented! I have cultural pre-port tomorrow for China. We always have these at 20:00-21:00 the day before arriving in a port. I can’t believe I will be in Shanghai in two days! I am planning on following around my Chinese exchange student friend (Theresa’s roommate) Ciao Cia, around Shanghai the first day. We then will depart for our 6 day trip through Beijing and Xi’an through Semester At Sea. There are 97 students going on this trip…o boy. It should be intense, but I am still excited. Just imagine how long that blog update will be! Then the last day we will meet the boat in Hong Kong and have a few hours to see that. I am doing an architecture project throughout China about the sustainability of infill. That is whether or not it is more sustainable to knock down unsustainable buildings to build “green” replacements, or use what is built and retrofit them (infill). I am excited to see this because China is going through a major development boom and tearing down buildings left and right. Ill report back in full detail again in about a week!

Japan: Chapter 1 (2-13-2010)

Yokohama/ Tokyo Japan (the beginning of my first, great, foreign adventure)

This is going to be a very detailed account…just to warn you, but please read! First of all let me just say that everyone should visit Japan.  It was not one of the places I was super excited to go to, and it ended up being one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had. It is the first foreign country I have been too, other than Mexico, so it was the first time I’ve ever had to go through customs. The shipboard staff made us all really nervous about this “thermal scan” you supposedly go through during the customs check point, and I have had a minor cold from all of the sea sickness and change of temperature. If someone shows that they have a fever, they told us, we would not be allowed into the country at all. That translates to about five days in the boat after the ten day trek from Hawaii slash missing out on seeing Japan. I had a bit of a panic attack, but not to worry, there was really no such thing as a “Thermal scan,” unless the fingerprinting actually reads your temperature.

                As you have read in the past blogs, the boat was extremely rocky during our trip from Hawaii to Japan. That being said, we arrived a couple of hours late and had to wait on the boat until about 10:00am while stationary. That doesn’t sound late, but they wake us up at about 5:00am to start the process so it was a bit difficult. When we first got into the port terminal there were Japanese drummers playing on HUGE drums. They had a whole performance planned and everyone on the roof of the building (because it was a green roof with grass and a walkway) would stop what they were doing to wave for several minutes. This was our introduction to Japanese hospitality…the kindest people in the world. My floor was called first to go through customs, which was AMAZING. I love to finally hit land, and waiting for an extra hour can be painful. The building we went through was ginormous and the first thing we did (for free) was get our names done in Calligraphy and take pictures in traditional Japanese Kimonos. Theresa and I were given the Polaroid instantly and also got free postcards. The line for these things were so long by the time the rest of the Semester at Sea kids got off the boat, which was another good thing about getting off first.

                The intense language barrier between the Japanese people and us was prevalent instantly. There are no words that sound the same and the letters are symbols. If we could not find someone that spoke English or at least several basic words we were at a loss. So we went right to the “hospitality booth” and got directions to the nearest ATM from a really nice Japanese woman. All eight of us who travelled together were then armed with maps, Japanese writing for taxi drivers, and a borderline clue of what to do next. The ATM was really difficult to find even though it was literally two blocks away, if that. Once we got to this tiny place, there were swarms of SAS kids there and the workers (who spoke no English) looked so overwhelmed with us loud, stamp and money seeking kids. Eventually a Japanese woman took it upon herself to lead us to a different, larger, post office two more blocks away. She started attempting to tell us how to get there and then just gave up and brought us there…it was so sweet. The first funny story (which may not be as good as it was in person, but oh well) is about my friend Kaylin and the stamps. She bought the stamps and we spent a solid half-hour in the post office getting money and such, and about five minutes after we left the post office we were at least three blocks away. A woman, who spoke little to no English, ran all that way as fast as she could to tell Kaylin she left her stamps there. It was so funny and amazing that someone took that much energy to tell a silly American about the stamps. We would never see that kind of “customer service” in the U.S.!

                We proceeded to a small, family owned restaurant in Yokohama to eat lunch. The family was so sweet and, once again, did not speak any English. The nice thing about the port cities is that they usually have a display case of all the options on the menu outside of the restaurant. The owners would walk us over and have us point to what we wanted. We did this in almost every place we ate all throughout Japan. We had no idea what we ate, but it was really good, I think mine was jumbo fried shrimp and some sort of side. Delicious! Unfortunately we learned very quickly that Japan is not exactly cheap. It is about a conversion rate of 89 yen to one U.S. dollar. It is quite strange to see things that are 1,000 yen and it only really translate to ten U.S. dollars. However, everything we had was at least 600 yen. Beru (beer) was about 700-900 yen each and each meal we ate was at least 850 yen. These things add up when you throw in about a million 250 yen subway passes, hotel fees, and entrance fees. It was worth it though…at least the sushi was cheap. But I am getting ahead of myself. We went straight to the extremely densely packed train station after lunch to get to Tokyo. It took us awhile, but two people in the group figured trains out really well the whole time, which was helpful. I am happy to say that we never got on the wrong train the whole trip. If anyone has seen Lost in Translation, the movie captures the density of Tokyo train stations and streets perfectly. Watch it and be proud that we navigated so well with such a large group. Not to ramble on…again…but we found the best bakeries in Japan. Nobody would expect this, but the bakeries in Japan are so delicious and very cheap. This particular one in the train station was called the Little Mermaid and it was magical. I can’t even describe it without craving pastries. The Japanese make some good bakers!

                The capsule hotel was our next destination in Tokyo. It was a loooonnggg walk with a completely stuffed little backpack and culture shock clouding the brain, but we found it. One of the girls Nicci randomly was like,” let’s see if this hotel is it,” and it was thank goodness. The sign was in all Japanese letters and we didn’t have any idea what a capsule hotel looked like on the outside, so this moment was completely miraculous. At the hotel one of the managers spoke English and helped us out a lot. The hotel itself consists of seven floors of capsules, a male and female public bath, small storage lockers, a computer with free internet, a dozen vending machines (some had beru) and shoe lockers in the entrance for when we put on our slippers. All the places you go: restaurants, hotels, homes, temples, etc. all make you take off your shoes and wear slippers. I actually really liked it after awhile, but it did take some getting used to. I need to say a word about the vending machines in Japan as well before I continue. They, as a country, have the most vending machines in the world – they really do! They are at every corner, outside every restaurant, near every temple and always at your disposal. They have beer, soda, hot/ cold tea or cocoa, ice cream, noodles, but really not many with candy. Anyways, it was really nice to grab a hot can of tea on the freezing cold days. Alrighty, moving on with the capsule hotel description… The first five floors were males only, and then the top two were women only. They would make the guys get out of the girl floors if they stayed overnight which a person from SAS, who wasn’t in our group, tried to do and got in trouble – lol. So strict! The lounge was on the second floor and it was really nice to chill in there or on the balcony for an hour in between our sightseeing and nightlife in Tokyo. The computer was fabulous; because it was free we could go on facebook! The capsules themselves were really large compared to the morgue –like containers we were picturing. Each floor had two sides of capsules set up like bunk beds, but they are just a bunch of boxes in the wall. Picture a wall and tons of deep squares in it with sheets, and there you go! Most of the time only business men are allowed to stay in the capsules but we stayed in one of two that allowed women and other travelers. It is a hostel that is cheaper than a hotel, but an upgrade from a typical hostel.

                The first night we went to a local restaurant and had Sake, and ordered spring rolls and dumplings. Mom and Dad would be so jealous of the quality of dumplings in Japan compared to that of Ripon’s good old China 1. I have never had Sake before and I really like it. It has a flavor I cannot quite describe but it is way less strong than vodka, and apparently sake in the U.S. tastes different too compared to this authentic Japanese kind. At least, this is what my fellow travelers say. Since I have never tried it before, I couldn’t really give my opinion. The place we went to was a typical Japanese restaurant where many business men go after a long day of work, and from what I saw, drink mucho amounts of beru/ sake. When you walk in you take of your shoes off and put on some slippers, then you proceed to a low table where you sit on cushions. It finally hit me that I was in Japan the moment we sat down to a nice dinner on the floor… in slippers. I loved it! After dinner we pretty much stayed up late walking around, then chilling in the hotel until 1:30 with fellow SAS students who happened to be staying at this random Capsule hotel in Northern Tokyo. Don’t worry, we woke up 2 ½ hours later to go to the fish market. Tokyo is known for their fish market and 20,000 dollar fish auctions. We took the 5:00am train to this market and it was completely worth it. You may be wondering why I chose to do this. It was for my oceanography class originally, and then I also realized it is a huge industry in Tokyo and a cultural mecca in regards to the sea food markets in Japan. We saw so many fish the size of people and unique ways of killing them (that was a little hard to see before many a sushi dinner but o well). My professor said that if we get 25 pictures of fish and find their names, it is one less scientific name we have to memorize for the final exam in May. So clearly there were many students at this place. It was dark, there were people everywhere, I almost got ran over forty times by the small carts buzzing around, and it was so fishy. I had to throw that in for Dad…I apologize for the bad joke but I couldn’t help myself.

                After the fish market, a few of us went to find breakfast. We had the option of the traditional Japanese breakfast of fish and rice, but after the fish market it was too hard to choke down. Also, we had the issue of it being only 7:30a.m. so we did what any American student would do and went to McDonalds. I have never been to one for breakfast and let me just say, I can see myself really craving a Mcgriddle after a few more weeks of authentic Asian food. Everything starts to blend after awhile and you find yourself craving things you never even ate back in the U.S. My cravings revolve around Cheetos, toast, guacamole/ chips, and burgers. I am an extremely healthy eater so that is a strange set of food right there. Anywho, we went back and met up with the rest of our group and were out and about by 8:45 am. We went to a market nearby the hostel and it was right in front of the Semoji Temple as well. The shops were fun and the food sold was colorful and either fishy, rice like, or doughy with a center of sweetness. The temple itself was the first of many beautiful spectacles to come. What was particularly unique about the Semoji Temple, was its incent pit. People gather around it like a bonfire and waft the smoke for good health. All around us by 10:30 am were the most adorable school kids on their way to kindergarten and also many teenage school children. The people, especially the women, in Japan are the most beautiful people you will ever see. They place so much emphasis on their hair and clothes. It is a fashion capital and even the men are so put together I could just people watch all day long. There was not one frumpy person in any of the cities we were in. We asked several of the school kids to get in pictures with us and they treated us like we were famous (as did everyone else the rest of the trip). They would get so excited if we simply smiled at them. For a little fun, we would wink at the boys and wave at them and they would just love it! At one point later in the day my two majorly blonde friends waved at two school girls, probably middle school age, and they screamed and jumped up and down. I love being famous just for being an American…strange but interesting.

                After the temple visit, we took the subway to downtown Tokyo (Ginza District). Here we saw the Apple mega store, Sony store, a Tiffany and Co. with amazing Japanese influenced jewelry and stopped at our favorite Starbucks. I bought an amazing travel coffee mug there that is super Japanese. However, there is a funny story to go along with this. They didn’t have enough coffee mugs for three of us to buy, so all of a sudden a tiny worker in heels and a skirt goes “one moment please!” ran out of the door into the bustling street of Ginza to another Starbucks probably a few blocks away, and came back five minutes later with the travel mug for me to purchase. I was so confused and felt so badly that she went to all of that trouble to find me this silly tumbler, but like I said, the Japanese people go super out of their way to get you something that you don’t even seem to need that much. I couldn’t believe she went to all of that trouble even after I said it really was alright that I didn’t get the mug. This was another thing that would never happen where we live. Imagine that in the Twin Cities… a worker running a few blocks to a different store of a chain for your convenience. Wowzzaaa did I feel bad. Needless to say, I purchased the mug and bowed many times in thanks. One of the last site seeing visits of the day, was our tour of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The actual palace was destroyed in WWII, but the other buildings and stone walls were restored. In the spring there are cherry blossom trees in the park that I wish we could have seen, but it was still beautiful in the cold winter. The area was huge, and full of history. It was so quiet too. I forgot to mention how quiet the whole of Japan is. For the density of the country, there is an extreme lack of talking over other people. It makes Americans and English people stand out like sore thumbs.

                We then found the best noodle place on the planet, and had the real version of Ramen noodles. Let’s just say that the packaged Ramen shouldn’t even be equivocated with this. These were amazing. Then we proceeded to our favorite place, The Little Mermaid, for even more food. We basically were walking, fat zombies the rest of the day. Can you tell we tried absolutely everything? That said, we attempted a quick stop on Ueno park , but it was so cold and we were in such a food coma that we decided to head back to the capsules for a brief (hour long) chill period. Then we met up with Austin, Theresa got in touch with a friend from Switzerland who moved to Tokyo recently and she took us around for the night life portion of the evening. This is the best part of the trip I think…I will definitely ask that if this is going into the news paper that maybe the whole club situation be toned down a bit. Origato (thank you)!

                We met Theresa’s friends in Shabuya (the busiest part of Tokyo) for dinner and clubbing. The dinner was so exciting. It was at a restaurant called Alcatraz that was basically set up like a horror film. It was so funny. There were jail cells around each table and the drinks were all inappropriate body parts, poison, and served in beakers, test tubes, and cylinders. For 3500 yen each we had 100 minutes of all we could eat and drink. I have never seen so much chaos of ordering in a different language nonstop for that long. Let’s just say they started serving our alcohol in pitchers after awhile. P.s. my favorite drink in Japan has been the Moscow Mule. This is ginger ale, vodka and lime juice. A ton of drinks are made with Ginger Ale in Japan, but this was a leader of the bunch. After dinner and thousands of pictures later, we went to a club owned by the Japanese mob. I know this sounds sketchy, but it wasn’t at all. This is basically how all of the clubs were. We were the only Americans in the place and it was such a great experience. No one was dancing really at first and all of the songs were hits from around the end of my eighth grade summer lol. My favorite moment of the night was when the song “Where is the Love” came on and all of us and every Japanese person around us (even the non-English speakers) were screaming the words and dancing together. They all imitated our dance moves despite our lack of talent. We talked to so many locals who wanted to know all about SAS and America. We attempted to ask them a lot of questions but the combinations of language differences, accents, and loud music inhibits that a bit.  From here we were invited to a bachelor party at a karaoke bar (don’t worry we were travelling with our tall, burly guy friends) by nerdy Japanese business men, but were not able to afford the cover charge after our full day of activities. We learned later that a third of all Japanese weddings are shotgun weddings, and that explained the hundreds of billboards that said advertised wedding dresses we noticed instantly in port. He was so excited to marry “his love of life.”  So we stayed up until 5:00 am to get on the first subway back (it would have been 50 dollars to go back by cab and it is only 250 yen on the train) to the capsule. There we slept until 8:00a.m. and this officially brought us to about five and a half hours of sleep in two full days. I laughed so hard when we were crossing the street in the middle of crazy Shabuya and my alarm sounded at 4:00am We were reminded of our official 24 hour day in Tokyo by the accidental repetition of alarms at that moment. It was completely worth it though. We always sleep on the ship…this made up for it.

                I was told by my friends that I almost sleep walked off the train. I had been sleeping on the subway for about five minutes (at this point it was about 25 hours of waking hours for me) and all of a sudden I apparently woke up suddenly, jumped up and started following a random stranger off of the train. I was completely asleep, because I do not remember anything. From there, I sat back down, sighed, and resumed my slumber safely. I can’t believe I did that haha. We checked out of the Capsules at 10:00am and took the bullet train to Kyoto for another great adventure.