The Last International Port & More! April 25, 2010

Well hello there once again and probably for the last time! I apologize, like in every other blog I’ve written that it’s taken me so long to post this one. You see, life on the MV Explorer has been rather hectic (yes, I know I also say that every time), but really, it has been. Between stopping at ports, finishing up classes, and spending time with papa and friends, life is busy! Classes have been going really well, we only have two class days left (only one of each class), that’s pretty exciting, but the closer those come to finishing means the closer to the end of the whole voyage, which is devastating. Finals are the 30^th and 2^nd of May, so wish me luck!! My first college finals (minus the calc one I took last semester; lucky for all of us, the teachers only have 24 hours to correct our exams, so the majority of my tests will be multiple choice! YAY!! Probably the easiest college finals I’ll EVER have :-p

Ports have been FANTASTIC to say the least, although I’m going to skip over South Africa (went on a safari and biked through the wine lands…the time of my life and STUNNING) and Ghana (went to an orphanage the last day which impacted me tremendously) and just fill you in on both of those when I see you back in the states. There’s too much info to go over for both of those ports combined with the adventure that I had in Brazil! So, lets get started on the story telling, shall we?!

We arrived in Salvador, Brasilia on the 21^st and we’re leaving tonight, the 24^th. The first day we went into Salvador, me and a group of six other people went straight to the bus station to buy our tickets for Lencois, Brazil, which we were traveling independently to (along with four other people) that night for our three day stay. Once we bought out tickets, we decided to take a taxi to the elevator, which brought us from the lower city to the upper city. We were all starving, so we asked some locals where to eat; they sent us down a road to look for a restaurant. Important info to remember: it was pouring at this point and we were all walking downhill. So, I was second to last as we were walking down this street, Kevin (who was just tagging along and not traveling with us to Lencois), Brigette, Adam, and Tyler were about 50 feet in front of Lauren, who was in front of me, and her brother Zach who was behind me. As we were walking, a man walked by Lauren and snatched her Jewish star that her great-grandma had given to her when she was 14 right off her neck; he got the chain, but the pendant fell into the stream of dirty, brown water that was flowing swiftly down the street to the drain. Lauren began to freak out and Zach took off down an ally after this guy. The three in the front had no idea what was going on, they thought we were playing a game of chase, but once they realized what was happening they tried to search for the pendant. Zach was gone for a good 5-10 mintues when Adam and and Kevin decided to go down the same ally way and look for Zach. We came to the conclusion that the pendant had fallen down the drain. During this time, Brigette was in a store and someone had tried snatching her bag and camera right out of her hands; she yelled at the guy and he ran off empty handed. Lauren was traumatized, she was searching around in the water on the street and crying; it was extremely distressing. Zach ended up coming back and told us that he had stopped briefly to talk to this guy who said he saw the guy Zach was running after; Zach ended up getting jumped by three guys who stole his bus ticket, camera, cash, and ship I.D. So, the five of us went back up to the top of the hill and got a cop. Tyler and I waited for a while for Adam and Kevin while the other three went to the police station. After 10-15 minutes of waiting, we figured that we better go find the station and see how Lauren was doing. Lauren had found some of the adults from the ship who were consoling her and Adam and Kevin were at the station perfectly safe and unharmed. Everyone was uninjured and that’s all that mattered. We got everything squared away, Zach and Lauren went back to the ship, and the rest of us got lunch. We walked around for a while and ended up finding ourselves participating in a music video for a commercial for the World Cup; we were in three takes out of the ten or so they shot. One extreme to the next. We all went back to the ship after shopping a little, then around 10:30 we headed to the bus station to head to Lencois.

 

At 6 am the next morning, we arrived on a dreary, rainy day in Lencois, Brazil, which is six hours away from Salvador and is located essentially smack dab in the middle of a national park (let me add that I got sick on the bus ride to this town…gotta love traveler’s sickness!!). When we got there it was a ghost town, every one was still sleeping and the hustle and bustle didn’t begin till around eight. We walked around for a little while, found the two hostels we were staying at (after a grueling hike up a road that wasn’t necessary) and checked in; the hostel the majority of us were staying at was run by a woman named Patricia and her husband (who wasn’t there because he’s in a rock band that’s touring right now); this place was adorable, homey, and cozy. Patricia is probably one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and she spoke superb English…she had the most adorable puppy named Tattu, who actually reminded me a lot of both of my dogs combined. We ended up taking our first hike to natural waterslides and a 15-20 foot cliff to jump off of; I jumped, but didn’t go down the slide. When we got back we rested, then went for a delicious first meal J

The next day, we woke up early and relaxed for a while; we had to stay close by the town because Bridgette had to register for classes that afternoon. We decided to go look for a nearby waterfall that was easily accessible by walking. Well, let me tell you, this hike was most definitely hike…a vertical hike; it was an extreme work out. We hiked for about an hour and a half each way and Brooke, Bridgette, and me never found the waterfall, but the other four did (Mem, Lettie, and Lauren had gone on a tour that day because they were leaving that night…we changed our plans the first day we arrived to the town. Our original plan was to leave on the 24^th at 1:15 pm, but since Bridge had to register, we stayed an extra full day and left last night at 11:30. Mem and Lettie didn’t want to stay that long and Lauren wanted to go back because she wasn’t having any fun from the disturbing experience back in the city.)…Bridge had to get back and my shins were killing me. We relaxed for a while, then had a scrumptious Italian dinner with some other people from SAS who traveled independently to Lencois.

The last day (yesterday) we booked a tour and hired a tour guide to bring us around the park. We left at 8 am that morning and headed to our first stop, which was a waterfall. There was repelling and zip lining available for a price (didn’t end up doing either of those), swimming, and cliff jumping. I had awkwardly jumped off the rock the first day and my back and neck were stiff as a result, so I decided not to jump from the even taller, 30-35 foot cliff. Tyler, Brooke, Adam, and Bridgette did though…Theresa stayed with me J We both swam though, which was really refreshing. From there, our tour guide who had wolf-like eyes, brought us to a mountain where we climbed yet another vertical hike, but it was so so so worth it. The view from the top of this mountain was indescribable. Drop dead gorgeous. Then we took a 30 minute drive to go to lunch, another swimming pool, and a bioluminescent pool (which you couldn’t swim in because of the natural chemicals), which had an electric blue, vibrant color to it. Then we went to a cave that we were led through by a guy (once again this man had intense grey eyes) and a lantern. At one point we all sat down and he turned off the light and told us to not talk…the quietness was deafening and the darkness was fiercely black. We went back to the hostel after, packed our things, got divine Mexican food then hung around with some of the local guys we met the first day we arrived. We hopped onto the night bus at 11:30 once again and made our trek back to the city.

I’m so happy I chose to go to Lencois, the city was quaint and everyone seemed to know everyone. It was extremely safe and no one ever looked at you weird. Brooke and I actually met a man who lived in Queens, NY for a while…he grew up in Salvador, but is now living in Lencois. He spoke exceptionally good English and he knew where upstate New York was!! It was fantastic. Tyler told me that at one point when I was in a store, there was this guy who ran into a store really quick and left his motorcycle outside. This other man went to go touch it and the swarm of men started yelling at the guy not to, that’s pretty safe to me!! Ah, I didn’t want to leave…

So, now is our last day in Salvador and papa and I are going to a favella (slum) to paint their recreational center and do drumming. Later tonight the ship is having a barbeque and showing Avatar to celebrate the departure of our last international port…how depressing. We officially are on our way back home. I need to start mentally preparing myself for the last day when I have to say my (not goodbyes, but) see you laters :-p  It’s going to be ROUGH! We all need to start packing up soon…May 2^nd is the Alumni ball where everyone gets dressed up and we have a fancy dinner. Then on May 3^rd a bunch of us who play this card game called pounce or nertz are having an all night tournament from 10 pm to 7 am; we’ll watch the sun rise and have breakfast…it should be crazy! I’m not sure if I’ll be updating this again because everything’s coming to an end..

This trip has been more than I ever imagined it would ever be. I’ve discovered so much about myself, have learned so much about the world, and met some pretty remarkable, unforgettable people. This so far has been the best experience of my life and I’m so intrigued about what’s to come in the future; I’ve also been inspired to do a lot more for people than I already wanted.

I’ll be home soon to see everyone I love I miss you all so much! Thanks for traveling around the world with me every step of the way (minus South Africa and Ghana :-p)

South Africa and a Safari April 4, 2010

Stay tuned for the South African blog post, lots to say

What an adventure that was! March 26, 2010

Ready for an adventure story because Mauritius was one! Let me give a little background info before I start this tale… once upon a time. five days before we pulled into port I booked an apartment in Flic en Flac for six other people and me through Expedia. It’s a common thing for SASers to book villas and hotel rooms the one night that we stay in Mauritius; we call it our spring break on our spring break :-p So, I booked the apartment, was charged a good wad of money on my dad’s credit card, and was pumped for a night of unforgettable fun! Fast forward to 7 pm on the night of the 23rd (the night we were staying in the apartment) when Kevin and I are riding in a taxi, an hour away from the ship, trying to find this apartment complex with a taxi driver that speaks barely any English. We had to stop multiple times to ask for directions and we finally got them at the police station. Once we arrived at the apartments, James (who was already drunk after a day of drinking) was there with Jen and Bailey (both of them weren’t staying with us, they were just there to make sure everything went smoothly; as you will see, this is ironic). Apparently Austin, Natalie, and Abby had gotten to the apartment earlier in the day (also after a difficult time trying to find the building), but had complications so they left to find people they knew at the Hilton.

When we arrived, there was a man at the gate who was talking to Jen and Bailey, he spoke limited English, but knew enough to ask me what apartment numbers I had reserved. Funny thing is, Expedia never gave me any apartment numbers. He ended up calling one of his friends who spoke better English and was one of the 18 apartment owners (keep in mind that on Expedia, the description of the complex was two stories high with only three guestrooms…); he told me that I would have had to contact an owner directly about staying the night, that they would have NEVER charged me for the rooms over the internet, and that none of the owners had ever done business through Expedia, nonetheless even heard of the website. GREAT! So, by this time I was a panicky because all of this money was charged on my dads card and we were a $40 taxi ride back to the ship, with no place to stay! The man who worked at the complex kept saying that he could get us an apartment there for the night, but when I talked to the guy on the phone, he mentioned how he had called all of the owners he could and none of them were willing to rent me an apartment for the night…even if we paid. So, we said what the hell and went to the Hilton to see if we could grab a room.

A bunch of SASers were staying at the Hilton and we figured that we’d join the party and get a room… When we talked to the concierge though, a single room (we were planning on sneaking four other people into it) would have cost $150 per person. NEVERMIND THAT!! I felt terrible at this point, I wasn’t talking one bit and I knew it all was out of my control, but I just felt terrible. I knew the night would work itself out, it was just a matter of time, but I was a little wary at this point in the night. We decided to grab some grub at a local restaurant, which had hookah and drinks (just what we needed) and discuss what we were going to do about sleeping arrangements then.

We arrived at 90 degrees and saw one of the SASers who rented a villa. He told us that their group of people had a lot more to drink that they could finish and once we were done dinner to come over! We were completely down for that; was the night turning up after all? The food ended up being divine and very inexpensive (for a chicken entree with four different sides, a margarita, and chip in on the hookah, I only paid $18!!) and we decided to check out of the nearby hotels, which Natalie had heard about from other SASers (she heard a room for three people was $200).

After full tummy’s and renewed spirits that the night could be salvaged, we took a ten minute walk to the hotel. Natalie, Kevin, and I went in to try and get the room, but they said it was $200 for two people…AWESOME! :-/ We sent Abby and Austin in instead (I’m sure they looked like honeymooners) and they were able to book it. We gave them our bags to bring back to the room and then took off to go find the villa were the party was at. We took the directions Eric had given us, but of course with our luck that night, no one was to be found! We saw a couple people on the way back to the hotel that were in that villa and they asked if we wanted to go back with them, but we were all so fed up with the night that we just wanted to go back and sleep.

The five of us ended up stopping at a local bar for a couple of hours called Shotz and ordered a few drinks; there were some people we knew there, so we figured why not stop! It was a relaxing night, to say the least…we talked to the bar owner about his tattoos (he had a snake from his shin all the way up to under his peck, a dragon on his arm, and many others), watched some SASers dance in a fountain (this included Natalie), and brainstormed about what piercings we were all going to get the next day!

By 2 am we had had enough and decided to head back to the hotel. Kevin and I had to leave a little earlier so we were staggered going into the hotel since we weren’t all supposed to be staying in one room. No one was at the front desk anyways (thank god!), so it was an easy breakaway

The next morning we all woke up around 9, took showers, drank coffee, checked out, then went to a nearby grocery store to get food for breakfast and snacks for the ship. Austin, Abby, and Nat went ahead of Kev and me to the tattoo parlor (Abby was planning on getting her nose pierced,  me my third hole only in my left ear, and Austin and Kevin had a deal that if Austin got both his nipples pierced, Kevin would get both of his ears pierced), while I stopped in a bikini shop…none of the bikinis fit me. I feel that every where else other than the US, woman don’t have large chests…I just don’t understand, NOTHING fit me in Mauritius, or for that matter any of the other countries we’ve traveled to :-p When we met up with the other three, the parlor wasn’t opened so we went across the street to the beach and played around in the water.

At noon we headed back over to the parlor; Abby got her nose pierced, taking it like a CHAMP, I got my ear pierced, Austin got his nipples pierced (funniest thing EVER, I’ve never seen this kid be so serious the whole voyage, yet he was still making ridiculous jokes and faces), and Kevin got is ears pierced. Natalie was about to get her nose pierced, she mustered up the courage and all, just to be denied by the piercer because she had a million and one bug bites on the back of her legs from the adventure park the day before. That took about two hours, then we hopped into a cab to go back to Port Louis to walk around and do a little more shopping. Good luck did NOT come our way this trip; there ended up being a terrible car accident and we had to take a 40 minute detour to the city. When we got there, we walked around the waterfront shopping area, then got another taxi and headed back to the ship.

What an adventure…

The first day in Mauritius I went on an FDP for my marine bio class to a marine research facility and park. We were given a short presentation on what the facility does and then we loaded onto glass bottomed boats and were transported to an uninhibited island. This place was GORGEOUS and the food was scrumptious (that’s where all the money we paid for for the trip must have gone), buffet style I indulged, let me tell you! The snorkeling was pretty gorgeous too, it was definitely a complete different experience from the snorkel adventure I had in Hilo, but that’s a good thing! The coral wasn’t as colorful as it was in Hawaii, but I saw a lot more fish.

Overall, Mauritius was a good time…not what we were expecting, but HEY! we still have a month and a half to make up for lost time

THE END

Soon-to-be post! March 26, 2010

Please keep checking back…there will be a post up about Mauritius soon enough!! It will be worth reading as well…adventure time

The Eye-Opener March 18, 2010

Another post has arrived and this time it’s from INDIA! Wow, what an experience this country was. The whole stay was exceedingly eye opening, curious, educational, bustling, and astonishing; there was so much to take in every where you looked and the culture was very different from ours back in the states. I’m not really even sure where to start because there’s so much to say!! Lets start at some cultural differences from the US: men and women hold hands with the same gender as a sign of friendly affection, Indian’s move their heads side to side to say “yes” or agree with something, there are many arranged marriages still (although, love marriages are becoming more popular), Indian women wear sarees (gorgeous pieces of cloth that they strategically wrap around their body with a little belly shirt underneath, this makes India really vibrant and colorful because there are so many colors and patterns to choose from) and matching outfits (shirt dresses, pants, and scarves), and the traffic is ridiculously crazy (it’s essentially bumper cars and the traffic lines on the street are utterly pointless). You need to continuously watch your back so you don’t get whammed with a car mirror, rickshaw, or motorcycle. The food was SCRUMPTOUS!! Curry, naan, rice, dosas, samosas, little swirly sweet pies, yogurt, and so much more, ahhh DELICIOUS, I couldn’t get enough of it!! The second day we were in Cennai (ON MY 18^th BIRTHDAY!!!!!), I ordered dragon chicken…I had no idea what it was (chicken of course, but I don’t know what it was spiced with) other than heaven in my mouth along with a lot of saliva and spice! :-p One common thing people in India do is eat their food with their hands…all SASers LOVED this; I’m pretty sure we all felt like two year olds again J  The shopping was really great…this was the first country that I actually wanted to buy native clothes in…and I did! I bought six pairs of Aladdin pants (that’s what all us SASers call them) and a few silk shirts!!

India wasn’t all magnificent and happy though, there’s a lot of poverty and homelessness. I saw many communities of shanties and shacks on the side of the road, along with many families rolling out mats on the sidewalks during the night to sleep on. Many people, especially children, come up and ask you for money, food, and miscellaneous items such as toiletries. The first day, I was on a field directed practicum and one of my teachers (who was born and raised in Mumbai, India) handed out toiletries that Semester at Sea students had collected from the hotels they’ve stayed at throughout the trip so far. Near the end of the field trip before we got back on the bus, I, along with two other students and our tour guide, approached three girls that were walking home from school. We asked them if they’d like some of the toiletries we brought along and they were so incredibly grateful and happy when we handed them over; it was a pretty eye opening experience. Just the dynamic was fascinating, us approaching these girls asking if they wanted the gifts, rather then them coming to us and asking for them. This country is the worst poverty-stricken country we’ve seen and are going to see on this voyage, but I feel that everyone on this ship (unless they’ve experienced it before and even then, it’s beneficial to encounter again) needs to see how a large population of our world lives.

Lets get down to the juicy stuff though, a.k.a. our home stay!! The second day we were in Chennai (again, my 18^th BIRTHDAY, which I celebrated at a hookah bar with ten other people the night before, then was serenaded by three of the boys outside the ship, a girls dream! :-p ) we left for Erode on a sleeper train at 8 pm. This was an adventure in its self. When we were waiting around for the train, there was this little girl who was holding a teeny tiny baby without any pants on, asking for money. I had never seen a baby that small in my life an apparently families will sedate their babies to make them look like their sick or sleeping so they get more money…absolutely terrible. How could you possibly do that to your child? This is when the saddening aspects of India first hit me… When the train arrived I had a mental picture of what the train was going to be like (we had taken a sleeper train to Florida when I was younger) and this train car was NOTHING like my mental picture. The train car had about eight different sections to it, on one side there were four beds (two on bottom, two on top) and across the walkway were two more beds (one top, one bottom)…the bedding was provided for us; who knows how well it was washed! Right at that second when I realized that I was going to have to make do with the things I was given, I made a pact that I wasn’t going to shower for 3 days!! I wanted to be grimy! Just the fact of telling people that you didn’t shower for 3 days in India, makes your story so much better! I didn’t get too much sleep that night, but enough that I was rested for the next day.

We got off the bus around 6 am and were greeted by a tour guide who brought us to our vans. We were transported to our home stay house where Uma’s mother and father lived. (Uma and her daughter Sanjan, were already with us because they met us at the train station in Chennai). This house was gorgeous, actually it was considered an estate, which has been in their family for 200 years. They live on a really large piece of property with farmland around them where they grow guava, papaya, coconut, watermelon, nutmeg, bananas, and silk pods. Once we settled in, drank dust tea and coffee, and ate our first home cooked meal in a month and a half, we went to their farm, took a short walk, and drank fresh coconut milk! Then we went to a local sugar making factory, a rope-making factory (they shred up the coconut husks and fluff them before making them into the rope), a local temple, and market (sensory OVERLOAD).

The second day, we woke up early and were transported to the B.V.B boarding school where they have 5,500 kids, co-ed. We went to the campus though, that housed the middle and high school students 11-18 years old. When we got there, only the boys were out playing in recess…we came to find out that they separate the boys and girls and the girls don’t have recess because they don’t play sports. That’s COMPLETELY different from the USA. After meeting some of the boys and eating breakfast, we went to a few more temples (one of which was 2,000 years old where we were blessed by an elephant!!), a local weaving place, and clothing store. We went back to the boarding for lunch, then a group of students performed a cultural dance for us! They had practiced it for half a month just for us!! It was so spectacular! In return, the group of us SASers had to do a performance which we were NOT prepared for whatsoever… we ended up singing the national anthem and the hokie pokie. Then the students came back on the stage and we tried doing their dance with them, utter failure, but such a fantastic time!!!

Then came one of the most moving parts of the voyage so far…we went to a disabled children’s school where they greeted Dad and I with a ceremony before we were all allowed into the building. Two girls put huge pink garlands of flowers around Dad’s and my neck, put water between our eyebrows that’s supposed to ward off evil, then broke a coconut. When we got upstairs, I heard this clapping and when I walked into the room, there were about 80 kids sitting on the floor greeting us with claps and huge smiles! Most of these kids have polio in one form or another, but a few are orphans. Dad and I sat in the front row of seats and were able to light two of the candles in the front of the room before two groups of students (one group was girls, one boys) performed dances for us. Once again, the group of us had to perform something in return so we did the hokie pokie and Hey Now You’re a Rock Star by Smash Mouth. After the performances Dad presented a check to three of the kids and a faculty member…I teared up at this point. It was so moving watching Dad hand the check over and seeing him be so gentle and loving with these three kids. I think it was also a mixture of that plus the fact that these children were all so euphoric and happy, it made me think of everything I’ve ever complained about and now I regret all of it. These kids don’t have much and they all suffer from one of the worst viruses out there, yet they were all so content, strong, brave. We were given about 30 minutes to hang out with all of the kids…all they wanted to do was take pictures of each other and us and have us take pictures of them. I really can’t explain what this all meant to me, being with these kids, in that moment, hearing their laughs, seeing their gigantic smiles, and being able to make them so happy! It was extraordinary.

After we visited with the students we meditated a little (we all needed to unwind from that experience; I’m pretty sure we all grew as individuals by it) then went back to the boarding school for dinner and our departure to the train station. What another adventure this was!! The sleeper train this time had a million and one mini cockroaches on it…no sleeping for me!!!! I was on cock watch for the night :-p So, from 11 pm till 2:45 am I stayed up reading and watching a movie on my ipod, all the while smacking bugs that rushed by me; when all was said and done, I probably had killed a dozen or so. GROSS! Once we got off we went to a hotel where I took a MUCH needed, glorious, refreshing shower then passed out.

The next few days in Cochin, I shopped and ate more amazing food I’m so happy I did the home stay instead of the Taj Mahal trips, which more than half of the student body went on. I feel like I experienced the real India and I was able to learn so much from the host family we stayed with; they were such sweethearts and so accommodating. Uma’s mom has been doing these SAS home stays for 20 years now I believe…LONG time. Uma was extremely helpful and had great insight to a lot of topics..her daughter Sanjan was so cool!! She’s fourteen and spoke perfect English (she goes to an American run school where they speak English)..she was reading To Kill a Mockingbird, which was really interesting to me. I didn’t even consider that other parts of the world (other than the US) read that book!! We’re now on our way to Mauritius, which should be a crazy good time The end of the voyage is beginning to hit people…we know we have another month and a half, but when anyone brings up anything having to do with time, where we are, how many more stops we have, etc. the usual response is “shut up” cause no one wants to be reminded. It’s pretty depressing thinking that in a month and a half this dream semester will be finished Okay, enough talk of this! Keep coming back for more posts

Upcoming post March 17, 2010

Hey everyone! So, I promise to blog about India soon…too much to doooo!!! Dad and I had an incredibly eye-opening experience in the country, we did a home stay…A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Welcome to India! March 12, 2010

Namaste from Chennai, India! This place has been pretty interesting and eye opening; there’s so much to take in! Actually, I thought it was going to be a lot move overwhelming than it really is, so that was a relief. When we pulled into port yesterday it took us about 2 ½ hours to be cleared to get off the ship, but I had an FDP with two of my teachers called the Hindu Family. Around noon we left to go to a person’s house where a professor (she was an interport teacher during the last SAS spring semester) was to talk to us about Hinduism and the Indian family. The house ended up being her friends because her house couldn’t accommodate 25-30 people and we stayed there for three hours. There wasn’t much of a reference to the Indian family, which is why I signed up for the trip, but of what I got out of the talk (my mind asleep half of the time and thinking about shopping for the rest of it, with a little variation of listening every now and then) I learned a lot. The gave us delicious little snacks, chick peas and cookies ☺ After the home visit we traveled to one of the most popular temples in Chennai where we got our first real experience of Indian life. Before we got into the temple, men surrounded us trying to persuade us to buy their little drums…it’s actually kind of nice having them around cause they’ll play the drums while you walk; it’s like a little soundtrack to your five minute adventure! We had to take our shoes off before we entered the temple and once inside we had to pay to take pictures, being careful not to take pictures of certain shrines and statues. This temple seemed to be a little bit of a hang out place for people to come and have conversation; it was quite interesting. There was also this little nook in the middle of the area that sat a tree with a bunch of wooden structures hanging from it; this is where couples come if they haven’t had a child or are having difficulties having children. When I got back to the ship I met up with ten other people and we all took a rickshaw to a hookah bar called Mocha to celebrate my 18th birthday! We stayed there for a good amount of time, had shakes (best shakes of my life by far…I had a Lindt chocolate one…HEAVEN!), then headed back to the ship where at midnight I was serenaded by Kevin, Jimmy, and Flick (Robert) for my birthday; I turned 18 in Chennai, India right outside the gate from the MV Explorer. A birthday I will NEVER forget.

Today I woke up around 8, packed for our homestay trip, which we’re leaving on tonight and waited for Dad to get back from Pondicherry. Once he got back, him, Jimmy, and I walked around Chennai at the Pondy Bizarre ☺ I got two pairs of traditional Indian pants and a few gifts; I wanted to spend some more moola, but I’ll get to that in Cochin where I have two days to shop till I drop! We ended up at this restaurant that had mouth watering, nose dripping, lip scorching, tasty food where I got Dragon Chicken and Dad and Jimmy got a curry dish. We split three things of naan as well…SO yummy in my tummy! Afterwards we walked a little ways trying to find post cards, but eventually gave up and got a rickshaw. Now, this rickshaw ride was pretty intense; we almost slammed into the sides of at least three cars, almost got hit by one, almost hit an elderly lady, went up and down the same street probably half a dozen times, dodged hundreds of cars, motorcycles, people, bikes, and buses, almost got flattened by a bus, and had one guy pull up next to us, talk to Jimmy and hit on me. Gotta love India, it’s a totally new experience! The traffic is even crazier than it was in Vietnam, but you get the hang of it and used to it after spending a day in the city.

Some cultural differences that I’ve noticed: people move their head side to side when they’re agreeing with you or saying yes, men and women hold hands with the same gender as a sign of affection, people don’t wear deodorant, dogs and cats roam around free, taxi drives really don’t know where they’re going, the majority of woman dress in traditional sarees (they’re all so gorgeous with so many different colors and patterns…it makes me want to buy one!!), men are a lot more obvious about looking at you, and you shouldn’t wear shorts or revealing shirts and always closed toe shoes. There are also the poverty levels that are a little jolting when you first experience them…many people, especially children, will come up and ask you for money, food, or miscellaneous things. For example, Medora (who grew up in India) told us that children will come up and ask you for toiletries, so during our FDP she passed out a bunch of them from the hotels people have collected stuff from. After the temple yesterday, I, along with three other students and our tour guide, went up to three girls who were passing our bus on the way back home from school and offered them the toiletries. They were tremendously grateful, all smiles, and thank yous… it was a little odd just going up to three random girls asking if they wanted the gifts, instead of being asked for them. Odd dynamic, but I felt really good doing it because they were so content afterwards.

Dad and I are leaving tonight at 8 pm for our village homestay in Erode. Tonight we will be on a sleeper train, where we’ll arrive in the city early tomorrow morning. We’ll meet our host families and go back to one of two farms SAS picked out for us where we’ll get a tour of the farm I believe…I’m not sure what we’re doing after that. All I know is that that night we’re most likely getting a home cooked meal and I’m STOKED because I LOVE Indian cuisine, especially the naan. ☺ The second day all I know we’re doing is going to a school where the children will put on a performance for us and we will most likely have to put on one for them! That’s going to be a blast..we might be going to see how silks made too, not sure on that one. The last night we’ll be back on a train on our way to Cochin, where we’ll arrive at the ship at 9 am!! I’ll have two whole days to roam around Cochin and drop some dough and absorb the inconceivable Indian culture. Stay tuned for more!

A post from the stranger! March 10, 2010

Well hello there, long time no post! Once again, I’m so sorry I haven’t posted ANYTHING and ANYTHING. Here I go again though So, the last time I posted was before China (wow. so incredibly long ago it seems) and I’ve experienced so much between then and now; way too much to post. I’m not going to get into much detail, I’m essentially going to start off fresh.

Let’s start way back a long time ago when we were once in China… For the first two days, dad and I were brought around Shanghai by Fan and his family (a friend my dad met through Pstate). We were immersed in the Chinese cuisine (nothing like the “authentic” Chinese food we have back in the states) and a market called The Temple where we learned how to bargain. Mama also arrived the second day which was sooooo freakin’ exciting, I almost started crying!!! It was so unbelievable seeing her come out of the immigration doors, the month we were apart from each other was the longest we’d ever been apart. For the next four days after that, we traveled in Guilin and Yangshuo, which was breath taking and drop dead gorgeous; Guilin and Yangshuo house the Karst mountains, which inspires a lot of Chinese artwork. We went into a cave to see stalagmites, took a bike ride through the mountains to see the half moon crest and the 1,400 year old Bunyan tree, ate WAY too much food (it seemed that for 75% of the trip we were eating because SAS had set up the program, so every meal was planned out for us. The meals were served on a lazy suzan in front of you, where they’d bring out platters of food and of course you couldn’t resist eating everything!! I must have gained ten pounds by the time I got home :-p), shopped and bargained a ton at the world’s “largest” market (what largest refers to I have no idea, but it was pretty crazy big), went to a tea ceremony, took a chair lift up on top of a freezing cold mountain, then tobogganed back down, we saw the rice fields from the top of one of the mountains (there were villagse that were built on the side of this mountain, it was pretty incredible. We saw two out of the four different minority groups that lived in that area as well and had DELICIOUS bamboo rice), and saw a performance choreographed by the man who made the opening and closing performances for the Beijing olympics. Every night I went out with the group of students that was on our trip to experience the Chinese night life, that was a good time in itself

Once that mind blowing trip was over we headed to Hong Kong for a few days. The first day I went around with the Whites…we went to the flower market which smelled glorious!!!, then to the ladies market which had EVERYthing a woman could imagine. The day after that I went up the longest escalator in the world and got lost with a group of people (now when I say “got lost”, I don’t actually mean we got lost…we just didn’t have a destination and we were wandering and walking for a REALLY long time). We stumbled upon a really good restuarant though and then afterwards, Skye and I got pastries!

Then came Vietnam, which was our most recent stop! This was a blast and a half My mom and I went on the Mekong Delta for a night and saw some pretty amazing things…we saw how they make a living on the river (the floating market), how they make rice cakes, coconut candy, and rice, and how they filter the salt from the delta. There were some pretty eye opening experiences as well; one Vietnamese lady had never seen a black woman before and she was freaking out with laughter when she saw her…she compared her skin tone to the student and all. We also saw a little boy, probably around twelve years old, who was blatantly just playing with a gun. I’m not sure if it was loaded, but he was holding it and swinging it around. We also walked through a residential street, which I felt extremely uncomfortable on…not uncomfortable like I was unsafe, just that I felt intrusive and that we were rubbing it in their faces that we were from America :-/ When we got back to the bus from walking through the houses, I realized my tummy had tensed up…  It was an eye opening experience and a great intro to what I’ll be experiencing tomorrow and for the next six days in India. There was also the little boy that we passed as we were walking on the street who decided to just whip it out and start peeing on a tree :-p We also went to a temple, ate delicious Vietnamese cuisine, got some of the best ice cream cones my mom and I have ever had, experienced Vietnamese traffic (motorcycles dodging you as you walk through the streets praying you don’t get hit…you’re better off NOT looking at the cars/buses/motorcycles coming at you), and I got two formal dresses made.

Sorry I haven’t been going into much detail about the ports, there’s just too much to catch up on!! We’re pulling into India tomorrow am at 8, I’m so psyched!! I’m going on a Hindu family visit with two of my teachers and then Dad and I are on a homestay for three nights. The first night we’re on a sleeper train, second night with a host family, then third night on a sleeper train once again. MY 18th BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW!!! I can’t shut up about it…I’ve been reminding everyone about it probably every hour. I got a cake on the ship tonight, since we won’t be on the ship on the 12th and tomorrow night a bunch of us are going out to celebrate. The day of my birthday Dad and I are going to walk around Chennai and probably SHOP!! I’m pretty stoked for the homestay though, it’s probably going to be pretty eye opening and educating…I’ll be seeing lots on my train rides through the country.

Classes have been going really well and ship life has been out of this world incredible; what more can I ask for going from tanning right to class?! Mid terms have been going on and they still will be once we get back from India. I had to write a 5 page paper (it didn’t need to be that long, but I write novels every time I write essays) and do a marine bio midterm…I have another test when I get back for Child and Adolescent Develop. The weather has been spectacular, 85 degrees and sunny every day! One night we had a lightning storm and it was so gorgeous; I went out on the top deck to watch it all go down. I’m living and LOVING life and there’s still so much more to come!!!! The trip is halfway over though, but people HATE talking about it. We’re all just taking every day as it’s thrown at us!!!

Keep reading and I’ll keep updating! Love and miss you all <3

On break! February 24, 2010

So, I’m posting this to inform all of my blog followers that I probably won’t be posting for a week or two. Life’s getting busy and I need to catch up on mega amounts of piled up work, journaling, and emailing. I promise I’ll start this up again soon, so keep looking over the next week or two! We’re in Vietnam in two days and mom and I are heading to the Mekong Delta for one night It should be pretty spectacular. I’ll try posting pictures instead of posts, just to let you know a little of what’s been going on!

Finally a new update! February 23, 2010

Hey everyone! I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to post; we traveled to Guilin and Yangshuo and I didn’t bring my computer with me. It’s still going to be a little while till I get an actual post up describing our trip in China and Hong Kong…I have a lot of work to catch up on and I have to write lots of emails! The trip was out of this world, drop dead gorgeous; I can’t even being to explain how amazing it was. Dad, mom, and I are doing really well; Mom’s really enjoying her visit She still has tons of people to meet and lots more to do!! Classes start again tomorrow, but we only have two days, so it’s not that bad! Keep checking to see if I’ve posted again