Andrea's derry Semester at Sea/ Paris/ Kansai Gaidai and what have you....blog

oh my here i go again...

2006-12-08T01:27:00.000-06:00

Well this is just an update but I will be off again to foreign lands....japan this time. I will be studying at Kansai Gaidai in Hirakata, Japan for a semester. I leave on Jan 22 so it's actually closer than it seems now if only I didn't have finals...

ah paris....

2006-05-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

This is the picture from my friend's room of the tower..
cheap euro wine.....yumm monoprix
Well hey guys i'm back from my adventures of Semester at Sea and that's old news. Now i'm in the "city of lights" for 3 weeks studying French History through my school. I'll try to blog a bit. Right now it's raining and i really need to be reading for class tomorrow. It's really interesting here but it's just a big city like any other except that it's filled with french people. Not all french people are mean there are some nice ones but no wonder that they are mean all the time their country isn't that great...the weather sucks apart from other things. anywho i just think that the idolized city of paris is overated. It's dirty...not india dirty but dirty nontheless and there is grafiti everywhere like LA......yea go paris.....

yeah yeah yuan and yen

2006-04-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

What a sweet place...Cambodia rules!!
Me at Angkow WAt!

When a Commie says no pictures he means NO PICTURES!!! Another great pic
This is me at the Great Wall!!
This is me and my university friends i made in beijing and nicole from the ship
so i bet you are wondering .....where are all of these posts...well because i am a master of procrastination i have waited to do all my homework until the very end of the voyage...and do you know what gets pushed back...blogs so until after my homework is out of the way there won't be any good updates....sucks i know but in a nutshell.....cambodia/viet nam were fun and hot.......beijing was freezing cold and i don't really like commie land and of course you know that i love japan...thats the jist....so yeah as of right now i'm in hiroshima, japan and it's very early and i'm tired so i will leave you with some great pictures compliments of hotel kawashima and their free lan line!!!

Myanmar/Burma

2006-03-25T10:34:00.000-06:00

Myanmar
Day1
For Myanmar I planned to go to Bagan with Teresa, jess, Declan, and Todd. We wanted to go to Bagan which is a city that has over 4000 pagodas dotting the landscape. We planned to just head to the bus stop the very first day so we could get to the city. Here starts the journal….The gaggle got up and we met at 8 to head strait to the bus stop to buy our tickets to Bagan. With a cab stuffed with 5 people we arrived at the “bus station” it was a very run down place. As I had told them the night before (like it told me in my Let’s go book) that the bus to Bagan would leave at 3pm and take 16 hours to arrive. Well the guy at the desk somehow told them it would only take 9 hours yeah right…so they believed him anyway. Well we find out that it does take 16 hours and then they decide that taking a plane would be way better than spending half your time in a country traveling in a bus…go figure. We then go to the Traders hotel where the SAS shuttle will drop people off to find a place where we can purchase tickets. We get our tickets at the hotel and because they aren’t till tomorrow we have the entire day to bum around Yangon. The biggest market in the area is the “Scott” market and we go there. We kinda walked around then because at this time we were somewhat getting hungry we asked around and found out that there was a “food building” yeah but we were ushered in and enjoyed our first Burmese cuisine for a whopping $1.50. I had some veg noodles and a coke (imported from Thailand of course). Nobody wanted to really shop (what is wrong with these people??) so we just walked around until we ran into this guy “uncle” who was a tour guide per se. He agreed to be our guide for a couple of hours and show us around town... he also got us a van to drive us around. Our fist stop was at the Glass factory. We watched as they made various glass shapes and such and how they sanded down the finished pieces. Then we walked along the glass graveyard and the little store... I saw some really cool looking vases that would be a B to get home but in the end I purchased some glasses and glass fishes for like 14 dollars…maybe they will make it home intact? I hope. Then we went to the big reclining Buddha…big stone Buddha… white elephant park….pretty lake (totally reminded me of Calhoun) a another lake and “zoo” and finally the Shwedagon Pagoda. The pagoda is Myanmar’s prize attraction. It’s really big and really shiny with gold and gold paint everywhere did I mention that there is also tons of Buddas around…yea there are. As we entered the grounds we saw the “sunset” at Shwedagon Pagodas trip leave (I was gonna be on that) but the sun hadn’t quite set at that time so it was a kinda rip off for them sad… well we got a complete tour of the grounds and we each found our astrological animal on which day of the week you were born on.. I was a gola sp? Bird it’s an Asian bird that can eat any other animal…kinda scary but after a long day and a long tour of the grounds we left to go back to the hotel to pick up our plane tickets. The guy wasn’t there so uncle showed us to an Indian restaurant where we could get some food fast. We got back to the hotel and got the tickets in time. We hired a taxi for the ride back and he also was going to stay at the port and drop us off at the airport in the morning. I didn’t wanna stuff in the cab so I gave some money to the groupie and I hopped on the SAS bus instead. I got back around ten I think and got ready for Bagan……

Day 2
Wow….early day…..I went to bed around 12 or sumthing like that and was energetically woken up at 230 by my alarm. Even tough I knew tat I would not in any sort of way take an hour and a half to get to the airport from the ship... I said 45 min …the group insisted that we should get up and leave at 330 yeah well we did leave and get to the airport in 40 min so we found ourselves sitting outside of the gates to the still not open airport. We waited for about 15 min until we were even allowed to go into the airport. We sat in the waiting area until they called out our flight at 6. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 615 so I thought we were for sure going to be late but we boarded the flight and it didn’t matter if you were in your seat or not they were going to leave at 615…amazing if I do say so. The flight was actually pretty smooth and we arrived in Bagan around 715 or so. We got a taxi and went to our first choice of hotel the Hotel Bagan in the old Bagan city walls. The hotel was really nice, prob the nicest one there and at a whopping $60 a night was too much for my friend’s budget…seriously?? I can’t wait till they get to Japan….lol….umm yeah back on track so we went to another hotel called the golden express and at $16 dollars a night they decided it was the best hotel ever. So reluctantly I agreed to stay there that night and see how it was. At least it had hot water...now that’s the determining factor for hotels….at least it has water. J well we checked in and negotiated with the driver if he could also take us to Mt Popa which is the most sacred mountain in the Nat religion in Myanmar so on a Van with no shocks left we headed down the very bumpy Myanmar roads. Because of the bouncing around I couldn’t sleep at all so we basically talked the entire trip there (2 hours). We arrived at Mt Popa and started the ascent to the peak of the mountain. There is a covered, winding, stairway the entire way up…oh did I mention that there is also a huge present of rabid monkey’s around yeah also somewhat freaky. The whole time you have to be watching out for rabies and trying not to step in monkey pee or step on a rusty nail, something sharp the whole time...yeah see at Buddhist temples and at every one of the 4000 pagodas in Bagan that we went to we had to remove our shoes and walk around barefoot…I didn’t enjoy this part so much…me and my crazy American-shoe loving ways….but when I was walking past rabies and up rusty stairs I was secretly thanking my mom for making me get that tetanus booster and rabies shot …oh wait I didn’t get that rabies shot…maybe that’s why I was fearful of the monkeys…that’s right….rabies=death…other than the fact that the closest “real” hospital was in BANKOK, THAILAND I was really aware of the dangers of rabid beasts…where was I …yes walking up Mt Popa…well it took like 30min or so and we reached the peak where there is a shrine of sorts..it was kinda anti-climatic if you ask me but fun nonetheless. We walked around, took pictures and watched the monkey’s play around for a bit… then headed back down the stairs of death….At the bottom we went to a local restaurant and enjoyed a lunch. With tip mine came to be around $1.50 spendy huh…then me and jess ventured to the exciting squat toilets out back…ahem yes…after that we walked down the street then went back to the van. I wanted to visit a monastery but it was kinda farther out of our way and because people really don’t want to do anything cool we went back to the hotel. This puts us around 3pm or so…remember that we have been going since 230 in the morning. Well on the way back we stopped and let our driver go at the village of Nyuang U about 2 mi from our hotel and we shopped around the market for a while. I bought some sweet monk robes and got a laquerware tray. I really wasn’t in the shopping mood and we met up again and hopped on a tri-shaw…have to see pics…a bicycle with a seat on the side…and with 3 passengers our poor driver had to peddle us back to the hotel in the 100 degree heat. We felt sorry so we gave him double of what we said $4. At the hotel we rented bicycles for fifty cents and rode off to find the big pagoda that everybody watches the sunset from…well yeah it turns out that everybody was there including SAS…they just keep following us around. We also ran into the group of 3 independent girls that were on our same flight and they were staying at the “nice” hotel. So they had to bring back their bikes and we stayed back for while and rode to see another pagoda. We went to a restaurant close to their hotel and they met us there. Our meal was ok not as great as before but still good. This is around 9ish and we are totally spent. So excluding Eric we went back to the golden express…along the way we did explore a pagoda in the dark….Buddha is so creepy at night….but because I only had my small alarm light we decided that tomorrow would be better for Pagoda hunting at night. At the hotel I took a shower and fell asleep around 11? I don’t remember but that was one long day……..

Day 3
Still not quite up for another day of a hot hellholeish weather I left the hotel at 530 on our bikes to ride out to a pagoda to watch the sun rise over the Bagan plain. At this time in the morning it was a chilly 85 at least but when the sun touches the horizon it jumps up to 100 or so…..yeah loads of fun when riding on a bike…dangerous even. but yeah so we watched the pollution driven beautifully red sunrise over the pagodas of Bagan. We then biked back to the hotel for our complementary breakfast. I tried the authentic Burmese breakfast of a noodle and fish soup…it was ok but not delicious or anything. And I had some really good fruit and a crepe pancake thing. This puts us around 830 in the morn and everyone regrouped and wanted to go bike riding around the pagodas and such but I not so into the torture thing in the burning sun decided to let them have fun and I stayed at the hotel. I went to the pool and read my only book my Burma Lonely planet for an hour or so…when that was too hot I went back to the room and lied down for an hour or so before they returned. School’s kinda rough here huh? As the gaggle returned we ate lunch at the hotel (can we say only people there?) but it was good as most of my meals were. Because the real heat of the day was going on everybody was already exhausted they wanted to take a nap before riding out again…I didn’t object at all. Oh I forgot to mention that somewhere during the day they ran into some guy and he invited us to his house for dinner that night and he was also going to show us a really good spot to watch the sunset as well. We woke up and left at 330. We went to look at a couple of more pagodas/temples and met up with our friend at 5. He brought us to a secluded spot away from the tourists to watch the sunset. It was really cool and we practically climbed all the way to the top. It was really serene until a gaggle of French tourists decided to join us…but they didn’t stay that long and we had the place to ourselves again (along with a few laquerware sellers). After that we decided because I was always the slow one when we were biking that I would just hop on the back of somebody else’s bike the rest of the way to _____’s house (I can’t remember our friends name) so we stashed the bike in a pagoda and I got onto the back of Declan’s bike….hey if the locals can do it why can’t I?
Well as it turns out Declan hadn’t had the years of practice of biking with extra weight on the back and he was swerving near busses and such which ranks up there with my scarier SAS moments….I didn’t want to havta jump off a moving bike. Also since I don’t have that much padding in the buttal region…my butt was hurting so much from the bike rack …so to help out our friend took over and peddled a way.. As we were going he sees a friend on a scooter with her daughter. So my next leg of the race I am on the back of a scooter with a mom and daughter riding though New Bagan….insane lol….so I was the first one to arrive at the house. Shortly later everyone made it to the house. We sat outside on a “porch” around a small little table. We ate some good Burmese home cooking all the while I was trying to avoid eggs in the food…see.there was this little thing called Avian Flu less than a hundred miles away from where we were lol..We talked as much as we could and _____ wrote all of our names in Khmer (Burmese). His family sold laquerware so he had some pieces in his house so we went inside and looked at everything that was laid out on a blanket. Their house they lived in was a 1 room with bedroom partition house that was about the same size as my living room. The kitchen was outside and I never saw the bathroom but I don’t think they had plumbing. The house was made out of bamboo I think…it was really cool to see a home up close. We sat inside as he showed us various pieces. Since his family went to all of the trouble of cooking for us we thought we should all buy something at least. I ended up buying a dish and an old story that belonged to his grandfather. Hopefully that money will go a long way for them. After that we didn’t wanna bike too much in the dark so we set of soon after that. We got back to the place where we left the bike and we rode back to the hotel to drop off everything that we had. We were getting g tired but we regrouped again and went out for one last nighttime pagoda hunt. We didn’t want to go that far away so we went to the closet grouping of pagodas. We left the bikes and ventured inside. Inside this particular pagoda there weren’t stairs to climb up so we walked around the courtyard. Jess and I just stood there and watched the stars and amazingly big moon. Together we walked through the grass to another pagoda…the entire time I was praying we wouldn’t step on poisonous snakes or other animals. I was the last one in the line and came up upon the group looking at a huge spider spinning a web…yeah adria an unknown humongous spider….enough of that we went up the pagoda. We sat on the stones and looked upon Bagan under the moonlight (with our hotel about a good 500 feet away) and after awhile we called it a night and climbed down. What we should find at the bottom is a dirt road that brings us directly to the place where we left the bikes…..figures….well nothing much happened after that except packing and a shower. I eventually fell asleep at 1am….

Day 4
Early morning are so fun…everybody should wake up at the butt crack of dawn…..see how much I love early mornings….I am such a night person it’s not even funny….yess back on track.. I got up at 545 and we had breakfast on the lawn outside at 6 I was running kind of late so I had to stuff my face with a crepe and grab my bag. Our taxi met us at 630 and we were on our way to the airport. We checked in with no showing of any ID of any sort…I feel very safe…actually the motto of the airline was “Your safe with us” yess……as long as you had the airlines’ sticker on your chest your in like gold….as we waited Team SAS arrived in full force….and completely took over the airport. They were on various different flights... Security was a joke and we walked out to the plane awaiting us on the runway with another group of independent travelers. We hopped in our seats (again) just as the plane started rolling on the runway. We had a short 25 min flight to Mandalay and another 25 min flight to Inle Lake where we picked up a SAS trip. Our next flight (we did the triangle of flights) was an hour to Yangon. I tried to sleep but it was a no go and I talked to people the entire flight. We arrived in Yangon on time at 1030 and with the chaos that surrounded the airport got a taxi to the traders. We were supposed to meet Teresa at the traders at 12. We met up and everybody wanted to go back to the ship on the shuttle that left at 1…everybody hated the hot, polluted crazy city life of Yangon (5million people), they all wanted to be back in Bagan…. But I loved it….Bagan was a cool place but I love big cities that’s why I will never live in the country….can’t really stand it. But since I had nobody else to hang out with I went along with everybody. We went right across the street to the sakura tower to get the best view of the city from atop the building. The city doesn’t really win any of my best skyline awards but was still sweet. On the way down Declan almost got crunched in the elevator door….?? But he survived. Me and Jess with the remaining 30min went walking around the streets to do a little shopping. I bought a sweet fanny pack (Tori—I’m so wearing it around!) and a duffle to carry my crap for $15. I was under the impression from my book that the Scott market was closed on Mondays but I guess because SAS was there that the market was in fact open…sad that I didn’t know that or maybe I would have stayed in town longer. But at 1 we hopped on the shuttle and arrived at the ship at 2. At 230 we regrouped and went to a local pagoda in a town along the way to the city about 10 min away. Even tough we said that we might be there for while our driver stayed with us at the pagoda. Walking around the scolding hot marble tile was for awhile but we sat down on a bench. Jess did a drawing for class, Declan and Teresa were reading, Todd was semi-trying to communicate with our driver using my Burmese phrasebook and I sat around. I took pictures of the kids and one of the kids actually had a camera and then took pictures of me lol. I walked around to watch workers as they we chipping away at a stupa because they were going to repaint it gold. All of a sudden a worker hands me the tool and I am there trying to get paint off of a lion statue. Somehow Teresa sees me and tells everybody and they have a good laugh over it. I took some more pictures and walked back. I gave pencils to some boys and Teresa gave them some gum. They asked for money but we didn’t give them any. We sat there for 2 hours or so… awhile to say the least and left a little before the sun set. There was hardly anybody there. Before the sun set we got some pops then the driver took us to a local restaurant for dinner. We got there and nobody spoke English and even the driver was having a hard time…so we looked at the variety of animal parts and then conveyed that we only wanted vegetable dishes. We had cooked veggies and rice and the Myanmar local Star cola. Unlike all the rest of the “spendy” restaurants around Myanmar with the five of us, the driver and either one or two colas each the entire bill came to $5….yeah that’s $5…I told ya it was expensive. So we pilled into the car and went back to the ship listening to American songs recorded in Burmese….good times…I got back to the ship around 730 and pretty much wasted the rest of the night doing nothing…..

Day5ish…
Well I don’t know if this really counts as a port day or not…I will have it semi-count as a port day….I thought we were going to be in this country for five days not 4 I demand a refund of 1000 dollars…at least…jk but in all seriousness our on ship time was 1130 in the morning which is so incredibly unreasonable… This was due to the tides of the river and such. We also had to turn the ship completely around in the harbor so they had changed the time to 1130. Well everybody was just gonna call it a day off and just stay on the boat but I couldn’t justify not going into the city…when’s the next time that I’m gonna be in Myanmar? Well I took the last shuttle into town at 8 and on the way our bus broke down and that wasted 15 precious shopping minutes…we got back on the road at got to the hotel at 9. I had a whole hour to work with because the last shuttle to leave left the hotel at 10. I kinda booked it to the market to find only a few stalls open. I bought myself a longi (Burmese skirt) and a couple of sweet $2 t-shirts. After awhile all the stuff you see in these countries starts to look similar….ohhhh pretty carved animals or sparkling tapestry…I didn’t think it could happen but I’m kinda getting tired of shopping…yeah so I finished and went back to the hotel to hop on the shuttle. We arrived at 11 and I took my last steps in Myanmar. The normally long queue didn’t really exist but the normal dunkers were present. I can’t believe the determination of some of these people to get drunk at 11 in the morning... But it was just a handful not the usual hundreds of drunken SASer’s. I had lunch and basically cleaned my room the rest of the day. I found out that my bed is now full and I am in no space available panic mode….well I am scared for packing day…but all is good. We left Myanmar in the afternoon and floated down the river towards the strait of malaca……….on to Viet Nam!

I just have one thing to note….even though it may seem that I didn’t have that much fun in Myanmar I actually had an amazing time and I think so far Myanmar might be my number one country…it’s such a cool place actually it’s really hot there. But I hope one day I will be able to return.

Ok yeah I’m sorry about not update so quickly... Well after I get back from a country I am totally tired and what not see I’m tiered right now….and I also have this little thing called homework. I have so much to do at this time that it’s not even funny ha-ha... but I guess my advanced skill in procrastination will pull me through again as it always does. Today is a day off of school for Crew Appreciation Day but I can’t really enjoy it too much because I have pictures to do, prepare to write and a global studies exam on Saturday morning. Not to mention the fact that I will be in Viet Nam on Sunday morning…details details…..well you may ask where India is. Well I did go to India and had an amazing time but since I did soooo much the journal kinda got lost to the sands of time well hopefully it will be completely written and updated…hopefully…until then…stay classy!!

Mauritius!! err Port Louis

2006-03-05T09:31:00.000-06:00

Mauritius
Day 1
So……this again….ok here we go…
We pulled into port Louis early as usual and again I didn’t get up to watch the sunrise…hey it’s uber early like at 6…but I did get up for breakfast and what not. Different groups were getting ready to leave for their trips but I did go to the union to watch the diplomatic briefing and right after they announced that the money changers were onboard so I hopped into line …pretty close to the front.. I saw Teresa, Steve and Cindy and they all gave money to me to change so I had a big wad o cash…we waited and waited and finally we got our rupees heck yes…..I went to my room to grab my city travelin’ bag and we left the ship to explore the streets of Port Louis.
We had to take the water taxi across the bay into the heart of town. The water taxi is $1 one way (or 26 rupees). Right away we headed towards the market. Since the population of Mauritius is very diverse and almost 2/3 of the people are of Indian decent the whole place felt like a little introduction to India….seriously a little slice of chaos. The market wasn’t totally started up yet but we did walk around the booths with sellers yelling “good price!” at us… I didn’t really buy anything though. One of the main kitch around here is things that have the dodo bird on them. this is the last place that the bird was seen…because they couldn’t’ fly all the new sailors to the island and the introduction of new animals killed em off….so now they make the moolahhs off the dead bird…ok back…then we went to the fruit and veggie area of the market..they had some amazingly good-looking fruit and some that I have never seen before. With the market behind us we just roamed the streets of Port Louis. I bought some breaded-chicken thingy for (15R= 50 cents) and a coke for (30R = $1) with hope that I wouldn’t contract some rouge disease. We walked around looking for the illusive Telecom Tower but found out that I could buy a sim card at any old store and that’s what I did. Mom, I bet you didn’t realize how much time I actually put into finding these cards. It was about that time and Kaitie and Emily were returning from their trips so we went back to the old ship. We ate “lunch” and got ready to leave. We were going go to sugar adventure (a museum type thing where they show you how they make and refine sugar) but because everybody sensed that it would have the scent of education they decided that they wanted to go to the beach instead. We hailed a taxi…just walked up to one at the pier and we were soon on our way to Tres aux biches. Our driver dropped us off at what I think was a private beach for the hotel…also on the way I broke my polarizer filter it fell apart in my hands…um yeah and here we got a boat that would take us snorkeling. I didn’t want to go but I said I would go in the boat with everybody..So we get out there and by peer pressure and the fact that I had never gone snorkeling I decided to try it out…wise decision..heh heh…well first of all the water was amazing clear but there was this tide thingy so we had to swim a lot to just keep wit the boat and in the end we just hung off the side of the boat. I got to feed some fishes and what not but it wasn’t the most amazing thing that I had ever seen. After we got out of the water me and jess (who is from Chicago) came to the conclusion that ocean= salty/sticky water weren’t for us and we would take a disgusting lake any day…Midwestern stick together lol…and while we were on the water it started to rain so our hour long snorkeling event really only probably last 30 min...figures..and we returned to the beach to lay out for a bit..The sun did make a small appearance for us..with a cab call later we were returning to Port Louis. We asked our driver what music was popular and he turned on the radio…with this crazy Creole song we were partying in the back of the cab. We got back and everybody took a shower and got ready to go to dinner. Finally not all salt watery…we headed outside to wait for people to come down. We waited for a good 15 min…and got into a water taxi…seriously the min we left it started pouring…could this day get any better lol…thanks a bunch tropical climate…so water pouring we walked to the mall..and found a café to eat at..becauase it was a nicer place the prices where comparable to America and I shared a pizza with jess. We wanted desert but not there so Jess, Teresa and I left to go to a crepe place we saw..a place with way more character and $1 crepes. We sat and talked for awhile before calling it a night. What a crazy day…

Day 2
Because today I had a field trip I didn’t worry too much about getting up way early I think I got up around 8 or so. I got to eat breakfast, go run to the internet (while talking on the phone) and make it to the bus on time. Our first stop on the rainbow religion tour was to a Hindu temple. When we got there we had to remove our shoes and what not…we toured the place but there wasn’t really anyone there at the time. But it was a really beautiful clear day until the tropical climate kicked in and it started pouring and blowing…yeah I learned my lesson and brought an umbrella. but still we were walking about the place in the pouring rain without shoes..all is fun. The downpour aside our next stop was at the Muslim Cultural Center (not to be mistaken for a mosque there is a fine line or whatever) but I have to admit the place was pretty sweet and I am happy that I can use what little Arabic skills that I have. Next we went to a Church that was built with lava rock so the inside was really dark and gloomy..but they did have a sweet Mary with Christmas lights around…yeah then we left to a Chinese pagoda thingy…it’s raining all the while..it was ok but boring to say the least. The next stop had nothing to do with religion but was a old colonial house that was a museum/restaurant so at a very long table we all sat down for a meal. It was rice and chicken and most of my chicken went to the cat that wouldn’t leave me alone. We toured the grounds after and were able to visit their gift store…yeah loads o fun..next would be the university of Mauritius at the center of Indian studies…we got to see some dancing demonstrations and tour of the art center. The university really isn’t that pretty of a place but the scenery was really cool. Our last stop was at the hotel school where people are studying to work in the hotel and entertainment sector. So the students put on a cultural show and after the hotel people served us juice and snacks. People were able to speak to the students who were really outgoing. The trip ended at 5 and was a really long trip.. so after I returned I took a little break and as a group we were going to go get something to eat before the movie started. I was going to meet with Teresa and jess to go a Hindi movie at this cute-ghetto theater on the waterfront. But people went to the internet café and because of the mass of people and the fact that the internet was really slow they sat there for while. Time ticked by and before I knew it it was almost 8 (movie started at 830) so with Megan, Steve, Tracy we went to the crepe place cause I needed something to eat (never did get to eat lunch) so with the slow service I was scarfing down the crepe at 825 with jess and Teresa cheering me on amazing race style. We did make it to the movie and found our seats in the sold out show..jk there were prob 20 people there and half were SAS…but the movie was called Rang de Basanti…it wasn’t a bollywood type gig with dancing and singing but was 3 hours long and an amazing movie…everybody left the theatre crying…I was a little…but not as bad as Teresa lol …I need to buy that movie when it comes out.. so when it ended it was 1130 we just went back to the ship. I took a shower and eventually went to bed.

Day 3
Well I didn’t have to do anything officially until 1230 so I woke up and went to breakfast with the crew. They left at 9 and I waited a tad and got my snazz together to get ready to go to the mall to use their free wifi. I waited until 10 when seriously everything opens in this town…hours are 10-5 maybe 6 but usually 5…do people even work??.... and with laptop in tow I ventured to the mall…one water ferry ride later and a good 15min walk I was at the mall. I first went upstairs to the second floor where there weren’t that many people but I wasn’t getting a reception so I went downstairs to another place where they had signs but again it was a no go. So I went inside right next to the information booth and I sat down right on the floor because of lack of seats or benches…ok people have free wifi but nowhere to sit. The signal was stronger but still not that amazing. The whole reason that I wanted to bring my laptop out was to download TV shows but it was incredibly sllllloooowwww … I was able to check info for class for fall…hey tori what are you taking??? Ok that took awhile and I was also talking to my mom during this time…after a while the security guard at the mall told me I couldn’t sit on the ground ok… so I went to a table outside of the café but I hoped that they wouldn’t make me buy anything…they never did….so overall I did get some free internet time but I was there for quite a while way over a hour. So when it was around 11 I went to buy a cd then I left to go back to the ship before I had to leave again. I get to the water taxi and I was the only one there… and they didn’t look like there were in any sort of hurry..some more people arrived including my Amazing Races buddies Todd and Decklin and by this time I had been waiting an uber long time maybe 20 min…usually they pull away in a matter of mins but I was seriously starting to panic because it was almost 12 and my reservation for the Blue Safari was for 1230 and the taxi ride was a half hour taxi ride to the north part of the island…..uhh so I hopped off the water taxi and ran to the ship…to my room grabbed my money and camera and was out of the room around 1215…I ran out of the ship directly to a taxi and told them where I wanted to go…we bargaining a price and he asked what time my app was for I said 1230 and with that we were off….my driver (forgot his name…was indian sounding) called the place and they said they could wait till 1235-1240 at the latest..so he said that for us “every minute counted” now we weren’t on a highway just a two lane road that went through small towns and it was chaos the entire way….he was passing cars and at times the cars on the opposite lane had to actually stop because of us (they have the right of way….it was their lane) and I closed my eyes a couple of times…I asked how fast we were going and he said 130 kph but the speed limit through there was 50 kph but that the police are never here because it was a waste for them…ohhhh that’s nice. But he was an amazing driver…I just wish I had my video camera with me lol…ok so he was like “were almost there….” and we pull up to the place at 1238 with just enough time for the people waiting to look at me with that awkward silence…you know…who cares…like I would ever see them again…lol ..ok so we leave and go to a small boat that would take us to another ship in the ocean where we would load into the subs. I was placed into the small 5 seat sub with windows all around. Our pilot checked everything and we were soon descending we eventually hit the bottom at 35 meters or like 110 or so feet. We floated around and saw some fishes…I saw an angel fish also…but here the coral wasn’t in that great of shape..i also saw a ship that they sunk so coral could grow on it…we were down at the bottom for 45 min. We surfaced and eventually went back to shore. I asked my driver if he would take me to the craft market also..in grand baie.. I walked around there for an hour and bought some stuff. This was nearing 330 so I needed to get back so that was the end of the sightseeing. I got to talk with my driver guy for while about life in Mauritius and the weather…I also told him about Minnesota. He was really cool. Right as we were pulling up to the ship the gangle was coming out so I found out that they were going to the internet café I said I would meet up with them there. I dropped off my stuff and went to the internet café where it was just as chaotic as last time. I wanted to do some last min shopping before the stores totally closed at 6. I ran into Todd (amazing race) and he was going to meet decklin at 630 so he walked along with me. I went to the shoe store and bought some fake pumas for $19 and we went into McDonalds…. same thing except for a few extras. I wanted to go to the fake shirt store…they said they would close at 6 but even when we got there at 545 the lights in the store we already off…figures….so Steve spotted me and everyone (literally every saser) was at Ale (Irish pub) I met up with everybody and we talked for awhile. Because of the fact that the store was closed earlier and I still had some rupees burning a whole in my pocket and I still wanted to buy something before the last of the tourist shops closed at 7. so Emily and I walked over to the shopping area where she decided to return to the ship. I spent my money and walked back over to ale where I met up with kaitie and together we went to the crepe place one last time. I used my remaining change to buy a banana and chocolate crepe. We shared it and talked about school for a while until we decided that we needed to finally get back to the ship around 8. At 830 we went up to watch the normal ensuing chaos that surrounds the on ship time. After I called my mom and used the rest of my rupees on my cell phone and I was the last one on deck 7 as we sailed past Port Louis. After that Emily and I were still hungry so we got a pizza on the pool deck which puts an end to this story of adventure and intrigue.

Yeah now I’m in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Our first few days back on the ship were a little rocky ok a lot rocky we think we went through a storm but nobody ever confirmed or denied anything (global studies was a ghost town and everybody was sick….even Emily who has never been sick) but now the ocean is like glass…or a huge lake…everybody is commenting on how creepy it is. Yea yesterday was our day off of school and we held the sea Olympics were the floors compete against each other…well the sea who comes in first place is the team who will get off the ship first in San diego..Yeah and my sea the Bering Sea won!! It was so cool to be there at the end when they read off the final positions…it was crazy. Other than that I’m trying to plan what exactly is going on in India…still quite unknown. I also have a ton of work and reading to do..always behind it seems. For those of you who care the air temp in the Indian ocean is a nice humid 84 degrees…harsh huh? Other than that I really don’t have anything extra to say…keep ya updated after India.

South Africa!!

2006-02-25T14:43:00.000-06:00

Day 1

Well today started out like any other day that we pull into port. First everybody wants to get up early to watch the sunrise at like 6 but I was fully content on sleeping in my bed. But when 6 or so rolled around we opened up the shade to discover that we couldn’t see anything because a thick fog was covering everything. When the normal breakfast came and went we discovered that because of the fog they had closed Cape Town harbor. So to make the best of the situation I jumped back into bed until 11. The voice then announced that they were going to be serving lunch early so with nothing else to do we went down to the dining hall. Because the engines were turned off the waves were throwing everybody around. There were many dishes broken at lunch that day. The fog did lift and we docked in Cape Town and were able to get off the ship at 130. Steve, Emily, Chris and I then ventured downtown to visit the castle of good hope. It was old... (Like any fort) and we got to walk the ground for while. We started the walk back and wanted food so we saw a pizza place and went there. Even though we told them we didn’t have that much time they were still kind of slow… we had a banana and bacon pizza. Actually it was really good. It seems that all of us are on a banana craze here…everything is about bananas…banana milkshake, crepes, ice cream, cake, soup….you name it.. ok so Emily and Steve had to do a Township music thing at 5 so we didn’t get a chance to walk around downtown anymore. We walked back to the ship on the waterfront. In search of an internet café me and Chris went into the clock tower mall… we didn’t find one of those but we did spot Teresa, jess and Cindy shopping. Together as a whole gaggle we went to the other mall the Victoria waterfront mall. We headed strait to the Pick and Pay (supermarket in the mall) were I bought myself a south African sim card from Vodacom 27-021-055-1445 if you ever wanted to call me in South Africa….yes….umm yeah oh and Chris also bought the girls roses because it was Valentines day in all. Since big groups are not that cool in all we broke up and even though I already ate I went to the panekoek huis with Teresa and Jess. We talked and whatnot...oh so very exciting. I can’t remember exactly but I think I might have gone back to the mall but I know I returned to the ship early. I talked to my mom and went to sleep….

Day 2
To keep up with tradition I got up with the groupies and ate breakfast at 730. The group left around 830 to venture out and to climb up Table Mountain. I wanted to go abseiling down Table Mountain (repelling) but when I called to make appointment at 9 I found out that because of the wind the cable car was not working at the time. We had bought tickets to Robben Island the day before for 2 so I didn’t know if I would have enough time to have to wait for the wind, go there come back and still make it so I just told the lady that I would climb tomorrow at 230. With oodles of time on my hands what else did I do but go to the mall that is just a block away… so for about 4 hours I pillaged that mall. There was this sweet store that sold clothes from up and coming designers for relatively cheap prices. I bought some crap there…umm I also went to the diesel and miss sixty stores… I was under the impression that everything in Cape Town was about the same price as things in America but actually things are slightly cheaper. I was walking around the 2nd level of the mall and I spotted a sign for sushi…I had a craving so I went for it…so alone I had a sushi lunch in cape town with a view of table mountain…crazy I know. I got Kappa maki the uge for R12 which is 2 dollars yeah cheaper than the US. The whole lunch for was like R50 with tip which is like 8 dollars…two kappa makis, French fries and a coke …yeah still amazes me. So after that I went back to the ship with all my purchases to meet up with the crew to go to Robben Island. We met up and walked over to the boat landing. The trip over to Robben Island was pretty uneventful so I actually fell asleep…we got to robben island and were then put onto buses to tour the island. They drove us around the city. People actually live on the island also. It’s not that big though.. maybe 7 miles? If I remember correctly? We got to hop and get a photo op.. Then they take us to the limestone quarry where they made the inmates carry loads of limestone back and forth around the island. It was supposed to demoralize them. After that they dropped us off at the maximum security section of the prison where a former inmate was our guide. I got to see Nelson Mandela’s cell and our guide showed us his cell.. I forgot his name…but he was at Robben Island for five years from 16-21 because he was a student protestor. He is one of what South Africans call the lost generation because during this time many people did not receive proper education in the apartheid system. Because we were the last tour of the day we really didn’t get to see the penguins that roam the island and we actually had to run to not miss the ferry going back to the cape. Now going back was a little bumpier. So because of the salt spray I went inside to sit down but after 10 min people were starting to get sea sick….not cool. I was sitting there then the husband of the lady I was sitting next to got a sick bag from the holder and I knew that was my cue to get out of there…none of that. So I braved the salt spray outside. After a half hour very exciting ride we were back at the dock. The crew met up with Jess and we were on the hunt for dinner. We looked in the lonely planet and made a reservation for the African café. We walked there and that took like 45min. The Africa café is a really cool restaurant. It’s a set meal so you go and order drinks then they bring out all these different dishes from all around Africa. It was family style eating and you could reorder as much as you want. During the meal they also came to the different rooms and sang and danced for us. It was a ton of fun and we talked forever… We were there for about 3 hours…told ya it took us awhile. We didn’t want to walk the “scary” walk back and I had my camera on me so we grabbed a taxi back to the ship. We said our goodbyes and I went back to my room… I also talked on the phone…that’s a given…

Day 3
Today was one very long day……..
I woke up uber early again…see the trend….umm delish…ok so I got ready and my trip left around 830 for a township tour. Our tour was going to the Khayelisha Township on the outskirts of Cape Town. Townships are basically squatter villages that people have built from whatever supplies that they can find. The government is trying to help to get people into permanent housing but that takes a very long time so the townships remain. In the townships people have access to electricity that they pay for by a purchasing system, sanitation and water…that’s it..It’s very basic but cool to see what people have done with what they have. So we first went to the craft market where people have made stuff from different things like art from pop cans and jewelry, this way we are helping the people in the community directly. After we stopped by a school and gave stickers to the kids. We also visited a bed and breakfast that was started by one woman in her community and her idea has now spread to other women in the township. There were also a lot of people just sitting around in the township and we learned that the unemployment in South Africa is thirty to forty percent…so people just can’t find work to do. it’s a endless cycle. One interesting place we did get to go was a work project where women get to bring their children and while they are there they make rugs and when they sell they get the profit. I did buy a really awesome placemat from the women.. Wish I could have bought more but I had absolutely no more money on me…. So we went to the last bed and breakfast and had cookies there…so we finally loaded the bus up and went back to the ship…this is at 130 they were holding the ship lunch until we got there but I had no time for that snazzy so I packed my crap and left in like 15 min for my abseiling appointment on table mountain. I took a taxi there for like 15 dollars and bought myself a return ticket on the cable car up to the top. I got up there only like 5 min late and walked on over to the abseil umbrella. So I paid the money and the guys gave me a quick 2 min lesson in abseiling (repelling) I really should think that people need more training than that…I survived though…umm yeah then they hooked me on a lead rope and I had to climb over the side and down some boulders to get to the take off point. At this time I had started some sort of following and I had a audience watching me fall off of the face of the earth…exciting. They allowed me to look over the edge (sheer drop) and I was like “cool” they found it very entertaining that I was so calm about the whole deal. I mean it was fun but after skydiving and hang gliding I don’t know it just wasn’t as scary. plus I’m not that afraid of heights…so I started walking down the cliff and I noticed that I was the only one going and I asked “ are you guys coming with me” and they were like … it’s all you …there will be somebody at the bottom…uh that’s reassuring… so I just repelled down some 350 feet. The views were crazy and it was a clear and sunny day. Oh and they told me that there would be a surprise for me later on. Well the whole surprise was that all of a sudden there was a indent? In the rock so I was just sitting there letting myself down the rope for the last half. I don’t know how long it took but probably around 10-15 min or so. So I got to the bottom and the guy was like now you have to walk back up… ok…..his exact words were “just keep going to the left” sure….i mean there was a little leeway but this wasn’t a little hill it was a mountain…with dangerous cliffs…lol so I started my “25 min” hike back up the mountain alone… there was somewhat a path but it was hard to see at times. All I had was my throw-away camera and my bottle of water….and the beating sun. so hot….I was glad that I decided to wear pants because otherwise I would have had scratched all over my legs. I finally did find the top after quite a hike of a hour….the whole thing was quite an adventure. I went to the gift store and ended up spotting a fellow yearbook photographer. She was with some friends that decided to climb tb and were just arriving. So I stuck with them and ended up sharing a taxi back to the ship. This would put me around 530 or 6. I think I laid down for a few mins but the call of the mall was too strong so I left to go to the mall. As I was leaving I spotted Cindy who was also going to the mall so with some girls we went to the pick and pay. This is around the time that I also made the decision to go on a safari and I made the reservation 10 min before they closed not knowing anybody who was going to go on it….so the stores closed and we went to a sports bar/restaurant on the waterfront. I wasn’t that hungry so I got some chips (French fries) and we talked for quite a while and watched some of the Olympics on the tvs. We left the bar prob around 1130 and returned to our floating home…I talked on the phone…and went to bed around 2….see told ya it was a long day…..

Day 4
Not long after I laid my head down to sleep my alarm was going off at 530 to get up for my day safari. I walked down the gangway towards the meeting point and I spotted some SAS people I asked them if they were going on the safari and they were so I walked with them. The van was supposed to be there at 6 and they were actually there we pilled in and sat there for like 30min we waited.. There were some other people (non sas) who were like window shopping outside but then they eventually got into the van… I don’t get it were we waiting for them? So “late” we left Cape Town for the 2 ½ hour drive outta town. We pasted the wine lands and mountains. I fell asleep for maybe 1 hour but the ac was soooo cold that I couldn’t really fall asleep. You know that feeling. WE arrived and they offered us juices…we went striate to the buffet breakfast hat they were serving. The safari was on a game reserve so it’s not the wild but the reserve was very large and the animals can roam freely around. ON the reserve was the lodge/hotel and restaurant. After breakfast we loaded up into the safari truck. We drove around a very bumpy dirt road in search of animals…. I saw hippos, giraffe, springbock (deer things), wildebeest, ostrich, zebra (far away), rhino, and lions…I was like 15 feet away from a lion….ohhhh so after a fun drive and very educational too J we returned to the lodge we were served lunch and had a ½ hour or so before our van was gong to pick us up again to bring us back to cape town. They had a cheetah area in the reserve so I went there and was able to pet a cheetah that was lying down…they are the fastest land animal crazy. This is nearing 2pm and since it’s in the middle of nowhere with no shade it’s like a billion degrees I swear African hot.. At least in Cape Town you get a wind from the ocean not here…just hot. So the van arrives and we take off not without me forgetting my jacket on the desk in the lodge…I tell the driver before we totally left and we turn around….seriously….uhh.. All drama aside we start the drive again with a full van…where did these extra people come from??? This time it’s different and instead of being uber cold it’s uber hot….. But I fall asleep anyway for like a hour and then watch the scenery for while. My mom calls and I talk to her until we arrive in Cape Town. I walked back to the ship and was there for a couple of hours but in the end I went back to the mall again. It really was a cool place. I brought my film and waited as it was developing. Because I knew that I didn’t have that much time left I did some last min shopping and exchanged some money. I ran to the store just as the mall was closing luckily they let me get my photos…J and I went to get some gelato and headed outside. I was sitting there listening to the group of singers when Steve comes up to me from behind and I was surprised so he was with some people and I went and sat with them. We went back into the mall and I ended up getting a slice of pizza. Steve and I needed to use the internet so we went back to the ship to get out thumb drives and then went to the internet café for a while. I uploaded some pics and looked at Kari’s pics of Europe! I can’t wait to see Paris, was it a easy city to get by with absolutely no French skills? I hope so…. Umm yeah we left and went back to the ship…talked I think and went to bed….

Day 5
Here starts off our exciting Stellenboch adventure.
As a group we woke up early and ate breakfast together in the dining room. We gathered ourselves together down at the gangway and waited for everybody to get together for our taxi. While we waited we watched the new cruise boat and all the hoop laa that accompanied them. They had musicians and what not but one thing that was hilarious was that everybody on the ship had to at least be 75…. We nicknamed it the sail till you die cruise…I saw many a walkers….. So we waited and waited and even had to send Steve out to find Chris who was late….We went into the van and declared because he was late that Chris had to sit on the ground we had like 10 people in the car. We were on our way when all of a sudden our driver took the exit to the township…we were like what’s going on? He said that he was going to change drivers…imagine the look on our faces…it was great… so we changed drivers and we asked if he know the way to the town and he said that he did. So after 30min or so we arrive in Stellenboch. It’s a cute little wine/college town…just a cute little city with little shops in what not…well our “expert” driver had to stop like 3 times to ask directions to our hostel…uhh yeah. We couldn’t check in yet but we could leave our bags. We split our group in half and Emily, Steve, Kaitie, Rebecca and I went to the tourist info to find a place to rent bikes…to bike to a winery we found out that because of our time crunch we really didn’t have the time to rent bikes and bike around. We opted for a taxi ride. By the tour guy recommendation we went to this one afdfjdkje (German sounding name) it was really pretty and Emily, Becca and Steve did a wine tasting.. Kaitie and I watched because we think wine is disgusting….we also walked around the grounds a bit. The group ended up shipping some wine back home (we can’t bring alcohol on the ship). The whole thing lasted about an hour. We hoped back into our pimp ride off to Spier where our restaurant was. The place was really cool. It was outside and you could eat under tents or in tree houses (platforms) we ate in the trees. They had buffet and I got to try ostrich, antelope, buffalo, and springbock. I think I liked the antelope the best. They had really good deserts there also….fresh raspberries…..back on track.. Right next door was another winery so we did another wine tasting. This time kaitie and I said we had to try some.. We could get 5 different wines. We would try a sip of one…say it tasted like urine and give it to Emily (she loves wine) we tried 3 until we said we reached our limit and quit. Really guys wine is soooo uber disgusting…ick..ok at least I’ll never become a wino. We were going to go to another winery but they were beginning to close (it was a Saturday) so we opted to go back to the hostel. We check in find a guy sleeping in our room with a Speedo on (that’s just Baxter we later learn long story…) there are like 10 people in a room but yeah..ok we hang around until the group reunites with dinner plans. We start walking downtown and wanted to go to on café but end up at another. I ordered a grilled cheese with tomato comes with fries and it was only R21 which is like 3.50 yeah uber cheap… we eat then we went to Denim and Diamonds a bar…at 9. it really want’ that busy so yeah and they were playing really old 90’s music. It starts to pick up and we dance a bit but it wasn’t that exciting. We leave around 1130. Some people want to look for another bar but in the end everybody just goes back to the hostel. I slept on the top bunk with Kaitie right next to me and we started laughing at the situation …the giddy laughs…you know them…had to be there….but we decided that we need to make t-shirts that say “I survived Stellenboch SAS 2006”, and Huis Chuffy on the back…yeah….good times

Day 6
I wake up in my crazy Huis Chuffy (name of our house we were staying in) and get ready in 10 min. I say goodbye to everybody and hop in the taxi with 3 others back to Cape Town (8am) we make it back relatively quickly. I dump my snazz all over the room and hurry to get ready for my day of sand. I walk the 15 min to the pick up spot and wait for the shuttle from downhill adventures. This is when I find out that last nigh the entire western cape had a giant power outage and everything doesn’t’ work lol…exciting. I wait till like 945 but the transport is a no go (trip is sub to leave at 10) so I grab a taxi to the store. It wasn’t that much like $5. I get to the store to discover that the van to go and pick up people hasn’t even left yet so I really didn’t have anything to worry about…American me…lol thinking that people would leave on time… so I waited till they picked up other SAS people. I did know somebody on the trip and another girl from the U of M. So off to the sand dunes we went. The dunes would have been a amazing sight if it wasn’t cloudy/foggy and rainy. The rain especially made sand boarding difficult because of the wet sand you can’t really go that fast. Sand boarding is basically snowboarding on sand…same board and boots the only difference is that you have to wax your board every time you go down and climbing up the hill with a board (and no chairlift) is changeling. I never really did fall down though. One plus was when you did fall, it didn’t’ really hurt at all. I thought it was an amazing experience but even with the cold I would rather snowboard than sand board….too much energy to sand board. After we finished…all sandy in all…ohh and I scratched my lcd on my little camera from the sand. Didn’t think of it at the time…good thing I didn’t ring my good camera along. Ahh hem after we finished everybody went to the beach to try surfing well I did something else…tell you later… and I returned to the beach when everybody was finishing up surfing.. One funny thing is that today was the only really cloudy/cold day in Cape Town and this was the day that I had to go sand barding…well I did originally want to go on Monday but they weren’t doing any trips so I had to change my plants and go on Sunday… with the cold/clouds and along with the chilly water drifting up from Antarctica the ocean was a balmy 48 or so degrees. Everybody had to wear full body suits and still they were cold….not surfing a good idea…but they said it was a blast... I’ll have to take their word for it. Once they cleaned up Scott (our Downhill adventures guide) dropped us off at the waterfront. This was prob around 5ish. I went back to the ship and right after I got back Emily returned from her operation hunger trip. By consensus everybody (when I say everybody usually I mean Emily, Steve and kaitie) were hungry so we consulted the wise lonely planet no results and agreed on a waterfront venue…Lei Lei the girl I was in Rio with called and I invited her to dinner too.. Josh the ship photographer also came with us. We were going to go to Den akur but they were fully booked for the night so we went to the green dolphin right next door. We sat outside and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. We ate and talked for awhile. The bill took a while to come and we were still debating what to do for desert some wanted this or that. So Steve and lei lei left the group and the four of us moved into a inside table to eat desert and listen to the live jazz that they were playing. We found out that we had to pay a cover charge for eating inside (4 dollars) so we sat there until the guy was done. One guy in the band had an authentic mullet heck yes…ok so we were there for a total of like 4 hours lol… We returned and I ended up getting dragged back out to a bar but the one was closed and we collected people along the way so I just slipped back to the ship secretly J I took a shower and talked on the cell.. Emily had some family issues so I didn’t get to bed until 4 ….whatever happened to sleep?????

Day 7
The last day in Cape Town was my only day that wasn’t chalk full of plans. So I woke up late 945 (yea that’s uber late around here remind you that I went to sleep at 4) and met Kate (from St. Thomas) and kaitie for breakfast at Harry’s pancakes (actually crepes) we had a fun banana filled breakfast. After the fact Kate was going to go to the hospital (not for her self to visit the kodomotachi) and me and kaitie ventured into downtown. We went to Green Market which is a market with “African” goods…ya know souvenirs so I bought some stuff there and we continues walking around a bit. Kaitie needed to find a bookstore and a fabric store so we found them. This one bookstore had a ton of magazine…like the most in one area ever…so we were trying to find another bookstore but ended up on the main road so we gave up that idea and just walked back to the ship. We were planning to go to a museum around the area but it closed early so that was a no go. Just had to add that in lol… I took like a whole 15 min nap or so and Emily returned we waited some more and then Emily, Kaitie and I were going back out for a last dinner in Cape Town. We agreed to go to the same restaurant that I had my sushi in the second day (because it was relatively cheap and quick). I again had some kappa and we ate our last South African dinner with Table Mountain in the background. We even took a picture (how touristy of us) this was nearing 7pm and onboard ship time was 9. Emily and Kaitie wanted to go back so I said I would stay and finish up my shopping needs. I went to a couple of stores in the mall and on the waterfront. I walked past the restaurant that was infested with SAS students drinking fish bowls (a whole bowl of alcohol) it was insane…..and snapped some shots of Cape Town at dusk. I got on the ship around 8ish (no line at this time) and took my last steps in South Africa. I had to hurry to get all my receipts together, vat tax return on purchases, and since I saved everyone I had a ton…lady said it was the most she saw so far lol…and ran up to the deck to watch people in line. We saw this one guy puke like 5 times in line…seriously guys drinking is soooo much fun huh? But other than that the line was pretty uneventful. There just was a lot of overall drunkenness abounding around the ship. We had singers come and sing some songs for us before we left. We were supposed to leave at 11 but we come to find that it was actually 3am ok…so me and Emily gave up and went to bed. My mom calls me (4 I don’t remember what time) and I barely remember what she said but we weren’t’ that far off from the coast so my cell still worked….and it actually did the next morning for a bit. Other that that that’s the anti-climatic end to my Jam-packed story of South Africa.

Again here I find my self. Sorry that this update took quite some time to find itself on the internet. Well as it turns out because of the fact that I flat out worked myself too hard in Cape Town or I think I caught some crazy cold from the estudiantes…I was sick. It wasn’t too bad but for one day I slept a lot…I just didn’t feel too good. One good note is that even though it’s been rocky this leg I really haven’t felt seasick… maybe my general sickness is taking that over…who knows.. So I really haven’t accomplished that much this crossing. I kind of stared a Amazing Race groupie following and now they are addicted …. We don’t have that many episodes left. That’s fun …I’m sad that I’m missing the real amazing race that should be premiering any time now. When I post this should still be Adria’s birthday…so adria have a wonderful 21st and don’t be too stupid if you know what I mean….:) other than that I should be studying for a global studies test that is tomorrow…We loose another hour tonight so I’ll then be 10 hours ahead of central time. I also need to figure exactly what I’m doing in Mauritius…maybe get into contact with the people that are going to the Taj.. Among everything else…school work…bleh…. Again I miss you guys and I’ll be in Mauritius in like 1 ½ lol…. Have fun in the States!
Oh and by the way I don’t really read over my entries so if they have mistakes live wit it!

Capetown

2006-02-17T14:16:00.000-06:00

im in capetown right now...it's an amaznig city. This is me abseiling (repelling) yesterday off of table mountain. I went on a Safari today and saw some animales...:) ok if you want me to send you photos of my trip you need to comment with your email or just send me an email telling me so because i can't remember your email names...then you can hopefully see my sweet pics! update coming soon

Reals

2006-02-06T17:54:00.000-06:00

Brazil Day 1
We arrived in brazil on wed Feb. 1 and we woke up bright and early because we thought that we needed to be there for immigration and this was all fine but the nite before I only slept 3 hours so that added to the fun. We were told that we would need to be patient because they were going to fingerprint and photograph us but in the end I guess they decided not to. Around 11 or so we were finally allowed to leave the ship. From the fifth deck we walked down some dangerously high incline stairs and were welcomed by some ladies in white dresses. Since a bunch of the group was going to on a FDP (fieldtrip) for the Afro-Brazilian Museum we needed to be back by 1:30. With only 2 hours we strolled into Salvador, Brazil. Brazil is a very cool country with high energy. There is a market about 4 blocks from the dock in the “lower” city so we walked around there for a while; I ended up buying a brazil flag for my room. I’m trying to collect a flag from every country.
We also went to a bank because people needed to get money. I am so glad that I have money for most of the countries already…it makes life so much easier. I don’t have to worry about exchange rates, atm’s, travelers cheques, and hassle…enough said. Ok so the SAS group was organized and we hopped into a bus that drove us to the “upper” city… the city is broken up into two sections and there is an elevator connecting the two. There are also roads that you can drive from either section. Ok so in the upper city our guide took us to the museum…it was about Africans in Brazil. It was interesting but the fact that it was in an open air building with no ac in high 80”s weather made it very exciting. Ohh and all the exhibits were in Portuguese so we had to listen to the guide but there were kids playing on drums outside so I heard all of about 2 sentences and decided to just take pictures instead. After this we rode in the bus to a Condomble house.. this is an African religion that is prevalent in Salvador. They believe in spirits and what not. The house was ok…oh they also wear white but I don’t remember why and usually only women are the leaders of the religion. We sat on benches while some women of that house talked to the group. I was so tired and hot that I started dozing off against the wall.
It was ok but I was so tired and it was kind of boring if you ask me.
We got back to the ship and because some people were going to the welcome reception Jess, Steve, Cindy (who we had to drag off the shipJ) and I ventured up the elevator to the upper city in search of dinner. We picked this restaurant but the menu was in Portuguese with hand signs we ordered not knowing what we were getting. What came was some three dishes each (each order was for 2 people) rice, manioc flour, chicken and beans, some still unknown food (looked like nato of sorts) it was ok but not really outstanding. Sitting near us was some adult people from SAS as they were leaving we asked them if they knew what they were eating and they said the menu was in English…figures I guess..we probably could have asked. Then as were leaving we went to the circle in the park across the street were they were performing Capoeria. We watched for a while it was pretty cool…totally reminded me of break dancing (with instruments). After we shopped in a couple of stores and took a taxi back to the ship (no elevator for us apparently we would get gang-raped and robbed if we did) we did make it back to the ship alive around 10 or so. I ended up taking a shower and packing for my trip to Rio. I met up with the people I planned to go to Rio with at 1:40. So this starts my second day….with no sleep by the way…….

Brazil day 2
From here thus starts Brazil day 2. Together with Jesse, Richard and Janine we hopped into a cab on our way to the airport for our 4 am flight. We waited for about an hour and went through very lax (by us standards) security and got on the flight. I crashed at this time. With an hour advance we landed at 7am to a cloudy and slightly rainy Rio. Not the picture of Rio that most people think of. We found a special bus that leaves from the airport and took that into the city. At this time I hooked up with Lei Lei a girl from China. My original people wanted to stay at another hotel and I wanted to stay at the Copacabana Plaza where SAS was staying so me and Lei Lei went there. I didn’t have the actual address of the hotel so we jumped off in the middle of Copacabana and started asking people…apparently the hotel was a good 10 or so blocks away. Even with no sun it was humid and we were in pants with big backpacks… finally we found the hotel and luckily they had a room available. We got a good recommendation from a nice lady at the hotel for somewhere to eat and we went to a cool restaurant that totally reminded me of OCB. It was like buffet and you could get whatever food you wanted then you went to the front and they weighed your plate and for every 100 grams you payed so much… in the end I payed about 7 or so dollars for my plate. I tried some interesting dishes…. Very awesome way to try some brazilian food. After this we went to TIM the cell phone store because I wanted to buy a SIM card so I could receive calls for “free” instead of my Tmobile 3 dollars a min. This was a adventure because the guys working at the store didn’t speak any English……this lady at the store spoke some English and helped out some but I did eventually figure it out and received my first Brazilian phone number…. Ok my only Brazilian number.
After a return to the hotel me and lei lei went down NS avenue to window shop because we really couldn’t do any of the “cool” tourist stuff because of the weather. We walked a good 15 blocks one direction and got a feel for how the real people live. Totally exhausted we got together with a big SAS group that was done for their tour day and went to an Italian restaurant right across from the beach I ordered Pizza- how original. Lol there was a group of about 13 and I didn’t know any of them…it was ok but the whole group got kinda drunk and loud…go figure.. we ate for about 2 ½ hours then walked back to the hotel…I showered called my mom and finally went to bed around 2 am…that was one very long day……..

Brazil Day 3
Me and lei lei woke up at 8ish and went down to breakfast at the hotel…since it was free. It was really good..like a big buffet of foods…they had really good mango there..and a juice from a fruit only from brazil.. we got our stuff together and waited to leave for our hangliding appointment. Our driver Carlos picked us up and drove us to Ipenema to the beach we went to sign our life away..always fun and got into a jeep to drive up the cliff. At the top there is a wooden runway that you run down…after that it drops off into a cliff…I got ready and my instructor Marco? Told me to run really fast when he says RUN! Lol ok I get it. We ran and jumped off it was really cool…not as cool as skydiving but still cool. We flew over houses and a little over the ocean. In front of me was a pouch and I had my small digital camera in there…I slowly took it out (it has no strap) and snapped a few pics with a death grip on the camera. I didn’t drop it and we landed safely on the beach. After this we were gonna get dropped off back at the hotel but we asked how much it would be to see the cristo redentor statue with all the taxi’s and what not and he said it would be around R90 (40 or so dollars) for both of us…but he said that Carlos would probably be able to take us and give us a sonic tour also so we agreed.
Surrounding the cristo redentor statue is a Tijuaca sp? Forest one of the biggest forest reserves in the middle of city in the world … he drove us through and we stopped at a lake, waterfall and two amazing views of Rio but you could barely make out the city…it was so hazy/smoggy because it was sooo hot (35C or 90 or so)… but cool.. he then dropped us off at the statue and we looked at some gift store or two and went to see the statue. They were doing renovations to the base so only Jesus was visible but it was still cool to see. Standing on top of Rio in the blazing heat, wearing black (surprise huh?) and having no lunch (around 2) we called it a day and went back to the hotel. The SAS group was also done for the day and this is when we met up with Katie and Rachel. We were really hungry so they tagged alone in search for a meal. We went to another recommendation to a cute little place. We all ordered sandwiches (practically every sandwich was a meat ham, chicken, sausage, whatever and pineapple) I ordered a ham, cheese and pineapple. It was really good and we raced back before 5 when the lady at the HStern desk was going to leave.
HStern is Jewelry and they have stores all around the world but their headquarters were in Rio. So because we stayed at our nice hotel we got a free transport to and from the hotel to the headquarters. We got free water and name badges. We walked around with headsets to listen to a tour of how they transform rough gems to eventual jewelry... you could see the workers in action except it was around closing and most of them were gone. After this they lead us to the buying room lol where we sat at desks and they brought whatever gems we would like so we could look at them. Oh not to mention the drink cart lol… they know how to get people to buy their crap. Our sales lady was from china and lei lei could understand her then but we found out that she spoke Portuguese, Chinese and English and to work there you had to speak at least 3 languages…ok maybe I have a future job prospect working as a pushy sales lady for Hstern. It was really fun tho… in the end I went for the single gems and bought a gem that I want to get made into a ring. The prices were cheaper than the US because all the gems are from Brazil and we also I didn’t have to pay tax on them but they weren’t cheap. With our bags in tow we loaded into the van back to the hotel…see this was Ipenema the “nice part of the city” and we could tell Louis Vuitton was right across the street…and we were staying in Copacabana and it wasn’t as nice…there was an auto garage and car rental nearby but it had more character.
We arrived back to the hotel at 7 and gave ourselves 20 min to meet back up because we wanted to get out there before it got too dark outside. This was Friday night and unlike Thursday the beach was buzzing with activity. Alongside the beach was a street market and we walked the entire thing….a good 2 hours of shopping and hard bargaining. In Portuguese of course…
Now I can’t speak Portuguese but I can do Spanish and they are similar…you just have to learn the difference. I learned the differenc sounds of the numbers and that’s all I really needed to go shopping… along with sim (yes) and non (no) by the last day people were impressed by my Portuguese skills and if people didn’t understand a number like 15 quince (kinche) I would try to help out. I find my favourite part of the countries is trying to blend in and learn the language… it’s like challenge. I am very observant and try to copy what the locals were doing… not many SAS kids do. Like in stores they would talk to Brazilians in English and if they didn’t understand they would talk louder they aren’t deaf…. Some didn’t even try. Even in the end some people still didn’t learn how to pronounce the money here Real. It doesn’t sound like it looks. The r is given an H sound so 1 real is “um hayow” and 20 reals is “benche hayice” but people still called them “reals”. I am still amazed by people’s lack of effort in communicating with the locals. By the last day I went into a cd store and asked if they had a cd that I wanted asked how much it was and asked between two cd’s which one was better….all in Portuguese and I understood what the lady was saying. I’m going to miss my new Portuguese skills…and in some way I owe that to mrs.sprinkel’s Spanish class…weird how that works. Ok back on track…I bought loads o crap and we also had coconut milk on the beach. We hadn’t eaten yet and went to a restaurant on the beach (a different one) I got a salad and we talked for awhile. I got back to the hotel around 1230 but talked to lei lei until 230...another long day.

Brazil Day 4
We woke up somewhat early again and went downstairs to meet up with Katie and Rachel. I also got the checkout time extended to 4 o’clock for free. We ate and then Katie needed to go to the bank and lei lei needed to go to the internet café to figure out her south African visa situation. We went up to the room and lei lei had to use the phone and she said that she was going to be a while so we wanted to go to a Rio Supermarket. Katie, Rachel and I left and did a little window shopping. We found the supermarket and ventured inside. It was a small supermarket in the middle of the city. It was like any supermarket in the US. I bought some snacks but not a lot because I was going to be on a plane later and had to haul it all with me. I also bought some guava slices because I never had an actual guava before…it was really good. We came back to the hotel to find a note by lei lei that she went to the museum alone and would be back by 4…ok ….
We wanted to at least go on the beach in Rio and we walked the whole 2 blocks to the beach. The sand was brining so we went down to the water fighting off chair sellers the whole way. There were tons of people there it being a Saturday in all. I was dry until this wave totally splashed me…uhh but it was fun. We walked along the beach for a bit and then turned around. On the beach there was a volibol (but not normal volleyball they played it like volleyball but with their feet and they couldn’t touch the ball with their hands) tournament. That was cool because I had seen it on TV before but then I was watching it being played on Copacabana beach. …. We were running out of time so we went looking at someplace to eat and guess what we found Italian lol actually it was a pizza place. They had a special that you could get a personal pizza and a coke for R4.90 which is like less than $2.50 that was the deal of the day. After we ate…it was really good… we went to the hotel ..this is like 3 or so…to find lei lei not there…ok…
so I packed up my things and we waited until 355 and just packed up her things…because lei lei and I weren’t on the same flight…she didn’t leave until 11 at nite and I had to leave at 6 so I brought her bag downstairs to the desk. As I was checking out she ended up coming thought the door…she said there was traffic..ok good time management…so I checked out and got a ride to the airport with some girls who were on the same flight. The flight was like any other flight…I sat next to some Brazilian woman…so no talking happened there. The plane was like ½ filled with SAS students. One thing that was really cool was that when the pilot was making announcements he did them in Portuguese, English, Spanish and then French. I think his French was bad but hey give him break…loll.
One more good sign that I blended in is that when the stewardess came by for drinks and what not she asked the SAS kids on the other row what they wanted to drink in English but she asked me in Portuguese….I find it fascinating how I can blend in to a culture that I hardly know anything about… maybe I should work for the government being a spy…that would be sweet….ok random thought. We landed and I ended up taking a cab with some random people back to the ship and got back about 8. I wanted to go out to eat but everybody had already eaten and practically the whole ship was dead. Dinner was over at 730 so I went up to the snack bar with Katie to get what else?? Pizza…huh what a coincidence and a really delicious mango shake.. Katie left and The moon was so full so I ran downstairs to get my tripod to shoot it….it would have been an amazing shot except the boat was slightly moving and that caused the picture to tonally blur…sad.. Eventually I went back to my room to pack up my crap I got in Rio and go to bed…

Brazil Day 5

I woke up early….see a rut?.. with everybody and got breakfast at 8…and we got ready to head into Salvador at 9. Katie, Emily and I walked around the lower city but it was pretty dead because it was early and a Sunday so we rode the elevator to the upper city. We found a cd store that was open and I bought a cd…I’m getting a popular cd in every country… and we walked around some more and went into some more stores that were open. We also went into this church that was painted gold inside…very cool. Emily wanted to go to the internet café and everybody else was there so we went too. I got a café com leche and talked with people. It was fun just sitting there and talking in Salvador… we walked around some more in search of banana ice cream but we never found it.
We were hungry so we ended up at a Brazilian restaurant. I had peas and rice because I wasn’t that hungry but it was good…plain but good. As we were walking back some kids were in the street banging on drums and dancing for money…I gave them some coins and took a picture. I also bought the instrument that they play when they do capoera. We headed back down to the lower city and into the now open market to spend the last of our reals. I didn’t buy that much … I wanted a soccer ball but they didn’t have any there they said that you would have to go to a store and all the real stores were closed because it was Sunday…I should of bought one in Rio but then I didn’t want to have to carry it around the whole country with me.
Everybody who signed up for the soccer game ad to be back around 3 to leave by 330. with over 400 people we loaded into busses to go to the soccer game. It was Bahia (Salvador’s state) against Victoria (a team that is also from Bahia) but we were told that were sitting on the Bahia side and we rooted for them. The stadium was a massive concrete building with no real chairs but slabs to sit on… there was a pre game that was going on… but eventually the crowds started arriving. The whole place was filled with a crazy energy and there were police everywhere….the people were soo into the game. When bahia entered the field they were setting off fireworks in the stands….that would not fly in America…J one of the funniest things was that because sooo many people were trying to drink a ton the concession actually ran out of beer and had to make a beer run in the middle of the game. it was because of the SAS students I swear…the game was exciting and both teams scored once and it ended in a tie (it was a playoff of sorts) When the game ended got back around 8 and I watched as people were running to make it on the ship by 9… I also forgot to hand in my passport and I found out that would get dock time if you didn’t so I ran to my room to turn it in with 5 min to spare lol …we actually pulled out of port right at 11 and I watched out the window as Brazil faded into the distance……..

Now here I find myself…typing this journal when I should be writing a paper that is due tomorrow…I also have a quiz that I need to be studying for. I’m also going to turn in my yearbook pics. I’m sorry that I don’t really write personal emails to all of you ..I should but I’m busy here as it is and it took me seriously like 3 hours to write what I did in brazil.. I’m planning on writing updates about every country when I finish them. I absolutely hate writing things… I also don’t know what to type..umm yeah today I did nothing…blah blah ….umm tomorrow we have a required meeting to find out how to fill out immigration forms for the countries…we also move ahead another hour tonight so I will be 4 hours ahead of central time. If you guys would like to send me letter you can send them to me on the trip but there is a shed of times that you should send them by:

Communication with the Ship
Important Reminder: Mail to those aboard ship should be addressed as follows:
Name of Person
C/O: Explorer
Arrival Date
Port Agent Address
Currently the U.S. Post Office recommends sending international mail at least two weeks in advance. Please keep in mind that mail service in other countries may vary. Letters should be sent Airmail only. Please do not send any mail to the Institute for Shipboard Education to be forwarded. Do not enclose currency in the mail.
Please do not send packages to the ship - Excessive duty is charged in some countries. In many instances, packages are not delivered to the ship. Packages may be held in customs, or at a local post office, and the recipient aboard ship is never notified. If you send packages, you do so at your own risk
PORT
Address ofPort Agent
SuggestedAirmailDate
Port Louis, MAURITIUSPhone: 230 202 7040Fax: 230 208 5814
Ireland Blyth, Ltd.1 Queen StreetP.O. 53 Port Louis, MAURITIUS
Feb. 11
Chennai, INDIAPhone: 91 44 252 12032Fax: 91 44 252 43813
J.M. Baxi & CO.3rd Floor, Clive Battery Complex4 & 4A, Rajaji SalaiChennai-600 001, INDIA
Feb. 23
Yangon, MYANMARPhone: 95 1 256 913Fax: 95 1 256 321
Myanmar Port Authority Sea Horse Agency347/1st Floor, Mahabandoola RoadKyauktada, Yangon, MYANMAR
Mar. 02
Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAMPhone: 84 8 823 1052Fax: 84 8 824 2996
General Forwarding & Agency Co., Inc.5th Fl. OSIC Bldg.8 Nguyen Hue AvenueDist. 1, Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
Mar. 11
Hong KongPhone: 852 2746 7312Fax: 852 2744 3240
Inchcape Shipping Services (Hong Kong) Ltd.Units 1802-1805, 18/FNo. 3 Lockhart RoadWanchai, HONG KONG-China
Mar. 20
Qingdao, PRCPhone: 86 532 2653 332Fax: 86 532 2655 752
Penavico Qingdao21 Wuxia RoadQuingdao, 266002, P. R. CHINA
Mar. 24
Kobe, JAPANPhone: 34 94 424 2100Fax: 34 94 424 0123
Inchcape Shipping ServicesKenryu Bldg. Room 5026, Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku KOBE-shi, Hyogo-ken 650 0024, JAPAN
Mar. 28

That would be sweet if you did…my room is 4014 you need to put that on there by the way….maybe if you send a letter I will get something for you from around the world….umm novel idea…yeah maybe I’m just desperate people are getting all this mail and I haven’t gotten anything…it’s ok I understand. I have no friends I guess…. J yeah other than that…umm…let me think…please write me emails…I would like that very much…I know I prob won’t write you back but maybe I will J yeah empty promises everyone who knows me knows my email…I know you do…I don’t want to publish it on the internet just send me a email or at least comment on this site….that would be nice. Also when we do eventually get to South Africa I have 6 days there and some time to go on the internet there I will hopefully load some pics for you there……love ya all Andrea…from somewhere in the Atlantic ocean..

going to RIo

2006-02-01T19:35:00.000-06:00

Hey ill write a real update when I get done with brazil but I have to say it’s a pretty cool country… I like it a lot. It’s summer here so it was really warm today. I have had a total of 3 hours sleep and right now its 1030 at night and I have to leave for the airport around 130 for our flight at 4..all is fun. I’m going to RIO~ hopefully a real update when I return..stay tuned. Love you and miss you all

Puerto Rico

2006-01-27T22:37:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone (or anyone who is reading this)

I am alive and in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is the end of my first day in PR and it’s been a pretty laid back day we went through a very-fast paced customs and was ready to leave the ship by 10 or so. After a ton of people were going on SAS field trips so I decided to leave with these girls to walk down to Old San Juan (about a nice mile and half walk) we wondered around the streets that totally resemble Spain, seriously with the Christmas lights for every street deal. KariJ, and we looked into shops. I found a starbucks and got a frappachino. Around this time it poured rain for about a whole five min then stopped and then the heat started in full force…it was pretty hot. Yeah…umm … quick change so PR reminds me of America..because of the money, American stores, hey there is even a US postal service here.. but at the same time it’s Spanish… with little Spanish streets.. not to mention everything is in spainish..all the signs.. but everyone is bilingual. So they pretty much can spot a gangle of Americans a mile away and automatically talk to you in English. One good note is that I was in a store and the store clerk saw that I was looking at a PR flag thing and he talked to me in Spanish… so I guess I can pull it off (I was also wearing my UNIVERSIDAD GRANADA shirt too)…heck yes Spanish skills… oh I was like “si, si” then walked away but hey at least I’m not blonde and can be a native in some of these countries. Then we started the long hike back to the ship.
We regrouped and decided to go to Old San Juan again but on the way out some girls were like , “hey do you wanna go to Wal-Mart” and I did so I went with their group instead. We found out that even by taxi Wal-Mart was like 45 min drive away…second choice was Kmart which was a 2 hour bus ride or a taxi.. we choose the taxi and only payed 3 dollars each. With my new “friends” one girl Juliana ? was from mn funny.. we ventured to Kmart. I found a nicer softer pillow and fuzzy blanket. and a really ghetto shoulder bag for my camera. my bag now is awkward to hold. During check out we saw some more SASers and together we got a Van for 15 dollars about 2.50 each. Not to bad… after that I really didn’t go into the city or anything. Just hung out on the ship… used up 24 internet mins looking at weather..adria’s crazy life and reading all of my mom’s emails wondering if I was dying lol…after that I went to a nice girl teresa’s room to talk and we watched half of the first ep of Amazing Race and tried salted banana crisps (a local delicacy jk) they actually aren’t that bad. I was there until around midnight then walked around the ship a bit. I finally ended up going to sleep around 130 and that ends the day…exciting. That’s a day in the life in San Juan.. stay tuned for more info.

San Juan Day 2
Today I planned on trying to get on the El Yunque rainforest trip but it started at 8 so I was to tired to get up. I ate breakfast then went into Old San Juan with Teresa and Cindy because they had things to do for classes and I also needed to take pictures. We walked around and finally went into a store to ask these girls about health things for Teresa’s class. We also went into a health store were this lady who was originally from New York seriously talked to us about health, history, politics for over a hour lol. Because Cindy needed to be back by 1 re returned to the ship. We ate on the ship and me and teresa wanted to see the two forts in the city San Cristobal and El Morro but because we were tired we wanted to take a taxi into town. We found some people and finally bargained down to 2 dollars a person, we started out but the driver wanted to pick up more people seriously…. We said (there was already 6 of us) if we were gonna squish then he was only gonna get 1 per person and he got mad and said, “you are selfish, they are your friends!” lol yeah right we didn’t even know them…we was mad after that. They are ruthless. First we went to Morro it was very cool but they didn’t have that many exhibits (hardly non at all) so it had great views but it pretty much was just a old fort. We walked the distance between the two forts (15 min) and saw the “bad part of town” called La perla…basically it’s the slums that was built outside the city walls and the people are descendants of the original wall builders.. But now it’s known for drugs..while walking by I thought I saw a dog and was like… “Look they tied that dog up..wait that’s a goat” yeah poor goat… changing direction. We found this Venezuelan restaurant that they told us about and went there to get something to eat…they had real fruit smoothies I got mango and it was really good. About 5 or so we went to the second fort and also walked around it and then got seats for the dance show they put on there every Tuesday night. We got second row…it was really interesting. Reminded me of Festival of Nations..you know that kind of thing. When it was finished we then took a taxi back to the ship. We had just enough time to get ready for our Indy bioluminescent bay trip. At 8 we (7 girls) piled into a short bus made to hold at least 25, it also had a tv and speaker system. Our driver asked if we wanted to watch either ……. (some movie) or Alf yes the 80’s show about a alien puppet thing. So we watched 3 episodes on our way to the bay. On the way we got to see the real Puerto Rico the Americanized one with full shopping malls and fast food chains… I could swear I was in Florida or anywhere in America. We then in our party bus drove to the outskirts and the coast. We arrived and also saw another huge group of people prob SAS or the big Indy group getting ready to go (30 at least) So our little group of 7 and our tour guide Jose got into our kayaks of two and started towards this channel in the dark… the only source of light at this time is the two glow sticks on the front and back of our kayaks. Navigating the channel was tiring not to mention completely dark… occasionally we would hit trees with our oars.. we even had the current to battle with and other kayaks. Finally after about 30 min of paddling (arms bout to fall off, remember my day started early) we made it to the bay. Here in the bay there are microorganisms that when agitated spin and give off light 100x their size. So basically, when you would put your hand in the water it would “glow” greenish blue and you could see the individual specks of light (maybe 5mm long?). Also sense the area was somewhat dark we could look into the sky and see soooo many stars. One sad note was that because it was so dark my underwater (no flash) camera wouldn’t work here so I have no pictures from this…We were then able to jump out and go swimming. When you swam there would be a glow around were the water was moving. The actual water temp wasn’t too bad but remember this is around 10 at night. After 15 min in the water we had to start our way back. Going back was way easier but still tiring. Once back we got some more pictures and found out that even though Jose said that nothing in the area was poisonous some days earlier in the actual ocean area that we paddled through he saw a shark….thanks for letting us in the info J but he did say that he was very proud of us because nobody gave up and he didn’t have to attach kayaks and paddle for us. By this time it is getting late (I have no idea of the real time my favourite fossil water resistant watch died on me) we load back into the bus with our new phrase taught to us by Jose “VAMOS PARA CALLE!” (let’s go to the street) we watched Shanghai Noon and eventually stopped at a real Puerto Rican bar for a bathroom stop…ok yeah the bathrooms had no toilet paper or paper of any sort…always fun. The bar was in a warehouse of sorts. Some of the girls ordered Pina Coladas which they said had a ton of rum.. With pina coladas in hand we went back on the bus. After which seems to be the scenic route we finally got back to the ship around 130. I took a shower only to discover a river in the bathroom (that’s a story in itself) and then went up on deck 5 to call my mom. I ended up going to bed around 0400 uh what a day…….

Puerto Rico Day 3
Following a trend I woke up again early. I went down to the busses at 0745 to try to get a spot on the horseback riding trip.. I ended up with a ticket… the bus left at 8. After a hour or so we arrived. I listed myself as “experienced” and mounted a horse. When the whole group got together we started the ride. The horses like most horses in a group followed each other. Mine was especially stubborn.. it was also very hard to try to take pictures all the while. We even got to ride on the beach…which then my shoes and pants were wet from my knees down. Overall it was fun but not the greatest thing ever..
We arrived back to the ship around noon. We ate and a whole gangle got together and decided to go to the Bacardi Rum factory. I really didn’t care because I went to the one in the Bahamas so I found out that Jess and Cindy also really didn’t want to so we went back into Old San Juan. We really didn’t have to do anything so we went to starbucks, got gelato, found a quality watch for $10 (and laughed and said it would be a miracle if it survives the voyage), went to a music store to get authentic pr music (I purchased La famila …I still haven’t got to listen to it but the clerk said that it was in all the clubs…must be good then), went to a grocery store to get some food, and somehow wandered into a art gallery and studio. We met the artist (whose works were there and selling for 4 and 6 thousand) Jess is from Chicago and he said that he did an exhibition there…I wonder if he is famous. We just bought a poster advertising his studio and he signed them for us…really nice guy. We had nothing else to do and then waited for about a hour and talked until the rest of the guys got back from the tour. We met up and then went to Mofongo for a pr meal. We had 13 people there so it took awhile to eat but it was really good. I also sat by Alex (the birthday boy) who turned 21 that day. He was a tad drunk was trying to drink 21 drinks in 24 hours.. I latter found out that he got 24…oh my. He is really cool and funny. At about 1900 (7pm) we went back to the ship for the last time. I cleaned a bit and went up to the deck to take some night pictures and call my mom… we talked for a while. It was also fun leaning over the deck and watching people run for the ship. (if you arrive late for on ship time you receive dock time in the next port 1-15 min late= 2 hours dock…that goes up in increments of 15 until a hour…after that the captain can leave) Lucky nobody was late and we sailed early at 2215 for our next port…BRAZIL.

This is where I leave you.. Hopefully I can update what I did in port because those days are pretty packed with interesting things. Shipboard life is very busy but not that exciting. I go to class and read. Eating is also very big on the ship….everything revolves around meal times. I can tell you if the rolls are good for the day….I’m becoming good at it. The food is edible, sometimes good but not great. Very repetitious you can almost guess what will be there except when they throw you a curve ball and take away the lettuce at dinner but still have salad dressing??? What’s up with that? Rumors are also fun on the ship… I spend most of my days indoors because even though you can lie outside it is usually windy and there is a salt spray from the ocean which makes me feel sticky….not cool. Umm today was activities fair and I signed up for an interview for year book hopefully I can get a photographer spot (there are a ton of applicants around 35 for some 8-10 spots) if I don’t get it it’s not the end of the world. Monday is Neptune day…umm I’m also trying to plan a Rio trip. Actually I wanna go on the internet right after I finish writing this to look for tickets… Today even through the waves are back but not as bad as before (7-10 feet) I didn’t feel seasick at all.. I actually got land sick in pr.. J Last time I looked at the map we were almost going past French Guiana sp? So that’s were we are. If you want to know anything just post a comment or two. I miss ya all but I don’t miss the cold yeah even in the ocean it was muggy and 78. Love ya! Ja ne…

umm pictures....

2006-01-18T23:50:00.000-06:00

A Couple of pics for ya fellas...... This is me at the Bacardi Rum factory... this thing won't let me load another pic...well sorry i dont' have time right now...maybe more later

Jerk Chicken

2006-01-18T11:06:00.000-06:00

Hello from Nassau, Bahamas!

It's wed- the day before the ship departs from Nassau. Today is about 77 but rainy... in a little bit we might go walking around Paradise Island to do a little bit of shopping and what not. This morning we went to Fort Charlotte and walked among the fort while it began to rain. I must not leave out yesterday's events either... we started out with taking the long route around the island (very scenic) to find the Bacardi Rum factory. When we got there we found out that they were cleaning the factory for a big party in a couple of weeks so the real tour was closed...so the gift shop had to do.

Then after that we went to the octangonal Nassau library...it once was a prison. ohhh scary... not really just a lot of smelly books... then there was a crawl up the hill to Fort Fincastle. From there I could see the whole pier and the Explorer (my SAS ship). After that and what not we went to FedEx to get my package that arrived with my camera battery and charger... Adria is such a lifesaver!

Later on we as a family went for a authentic Bahamian Dinner at a restaurant by the ocean. I tried Conch fritters (they tasted pretty good) and I ordered Jerk chicken.. Well the chicken was good until I wanted more meat on the other side and turned it over to find the chicken head and beak....and eyes staring at me.... yeah that was the end of that. An overall interesting dining experience....prob the first of many around the world. So that was the end of my friendship with my friend Tori-Niku san .... zannen well we must move on.. I think it's for the better.

Well maybe the next big post will be on the ship or maybe even Puerto Rico as I arrive there on Monday...... Ja Ne all

almost starting...

2006-01-16T11:48:00.001-06:00

I'm in Nassau, Bahamas right now. It's kinda weird like i'm in limbo of sorts... My family is on a "vacation" but to me it seems like a vacation all the same time i have to remember that I leave for SAS on thursday...weird. Well yesterday I saw the boat docked in the pier very cool... I also walked around Nassau about 4 or 5 miles of it lol..I also have the worry that I won't recieve my camera battery charger. Well I forgot in the packing chaos my big camera's 2 batteries and charger... If i don't have that i'm basically done for...so I had Adria (thanks) send it to a Mail boxe etc in Nassau...but the store was closed yesterday so we couldn't talk to them about it so I just sent it to the address in the yellow pages.. :) hopefully it makes it!! uhh hassle..it figures that I forgot my most important thing seriously...well Ill write more later. Just for future reference I don't really like to use correct punct or grammer so sorry you'll have to live with my ..... and what not... thanks, luv you all Andrea- from Kuro land

almost starting...

2006-01-16T11:48:00.000-06:00

yea

2006-01-10T10:16:00.000-06:00

just testing pictures

2nd test

2005-12-15T02:47:00.000-06:00

testing......

こんにちは！

2005-12-12T01:28:00.000-06:00

これはテストです。