The Senase Project

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Good Morning Viet Nam!

        Viet Nam, holy cow. My Asian tour is off and running. We had one day in between Singapore and Viet Nam. Not much time to really let Singapore sink in and get ready for another country, but oh well. I also found out in that one day that my main trip to Nha Trang was cancelled. One day is also not enough time to plan out a whole country when you haven’t looked up anything. My plans got drastically changed, but I still had a great time in Viet Nam. We weren’t allowed to go to Nha Trang because of the horrible flooding. There was no way to get to Nha Trang. The highway was shut down because of a land slide and the airport was shut down because it was flooded. I made due and still had a great time.

        On my first day in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), I went with my Cognition professor on a FDP. We first went to the Ben Thanh Market and then to the Viet Nam War Remnants Museum. The market was very cool. You could get pretty much anything you wanted there. They had all sorts of clothes, textiles, restaurants, fish and meat markets, jewelry…you name it. There were also tailors inside that could make you a suit or dress in a day. It was awesome and cheap. I didn’t buy anything during my trip because we didn’t have enough time. Tucker and I walked through it then decided to go walk around outside with the time we had before lunch. We walked down a few streets close to the market. We ran into a cool looking Hindu temple. After we took a few pictures, we found a nice coffee shop. We ordered some coffee…not realizing that it was going to take forever to make the coffee. We discovered that Vietnamese coffee is the best ever, but we had to chug it in order to make it back to the bus on time. We chugged it, paid, and sprinted through all the motorbikes back to the bus. We got back in time to find out that we were going to eat at a restaurant across the street from the market.

        We at lunch at Pho 2000. Pho, pronounced “Fuh”, is a Southern Vietnamese noodle. I had Pho Ga, or pho with chicken. It was delicious. They make it with a basic broth, meat, onions, and spices. The price made it even better. We got a huge bowl of pho and two drinks for about 4 dollars. This was just the start of me eating Pho in Viet Nam.

After we ate lunch, we headed to the War Remnants Museum. This museum was a pretty big eye-opener for me and the rest of the people on my trip. Being from the US, we aren’t really taught anything about this war. We are taught that it happened, and that is about it. I wasn’t even taught that we lost…or at least I don’t remember anyone teaching me that. I had never heard of Agent Orange or anything of the brutalities that went on during it. It was hard to look at all the pictures, but I am glad I went. If I hadn’t gone to the museum, I probably would have never known what really went on during that war. We only got 45 minutes or so to go through the museum, but that was about all I needed to see.

        After my FDP, I met up with Amanda and we headed back to the Ben Thanh market. This time I started my shopping spree. I brought a bunch of 1 dollar bills just for the shopping in Viet Nam. They love taking them in the market and it was easier for me to do the conversion rate. It was close to 20,000 Vietnamese Dong to 1 USD. Everything was so cheap that I felt like I needed to get it all. I only got a few things this trip, but this wasn’t my last trip to the market. We shopped around for the afternoon, then headed back to the ship to get some dinner and drop off what we had bought. 

        We grabbed a quick dinner and got ready to go out for awhile. Amanda, Angela, and I went to 39 Bonard Restaurant to meet Megan, Eloise, Jon, Travis, and Bri. It took us awhile to figure out where they were because it was somewhat hidden. It was on the top floor of a building. It had a really cool view of the market area in HCMC though. When we got up to their table, it was full of food. Apparently the staff just kept on bringing out plates of food even though they hadn’t ordered it. They wanted us to try all sorts of different things. After the restaurant we headed to the night market. It is at the same place as the Ben Thanh market, but it is on the streets around the building. The inside market closes at 6pm and the night market opens at 6pm. It is pretty much a market that never closes. We walked around there for awhile and then a few of us headed back to the ship. I got back to my room and change into my pjs just in time for Eloise to talk me into going back out to meet up with Jon, Bri, Travis, and Megan. We met them at a bar called The Factory. It ended up being really cool. It was really industrial and all the workers had on construction type outfits. They also had new American music playing. We were all really excited because we have no idea what the new music is since we left.

        Once we were done at The Factory, Eloise and I headed to Apocalypse Now. Some SAS kid rented out the top floor of this club so pretty much the entire ship was there. On our way there, I was using Eloise’s iPhone as a GPS to figure out what streets to take. I was holding it in front of me when a guy on his motorbike jumped the curb behind me, drove really close to me, and slapped the phone out of my hand. It luckily hit the tips of my fingers and flew back towards Eloise. It landed in her arm. After she flipped him off and had a few words to say, we both just stood there and didn’t know what to say. We couldn’t believe that he had done that. After we contemplated what had just happened for awhile, we walked the rest of the way to the club. We stayed long enough to say hi to some people, and then headed back to the ship. We figured we shouldn’t walk around anymore, so we shared a cab with some other SAS kids.

        The next morning, I left early for the Cu Chi Tunnels. I stayed awake for awhile to see other parts of HCMC, but I fell asleep after awhile. It was about an hour and a half to get to the tunnels from the port. When we got there, we got our tickets and headed to a covered area to watch an informational video. Our guide gave us some overview information about the area and how it was used. Then we watched the video. I missed parts of it because I could not keep my eyes open. It was a very old video that was in black and white and I couldn’t keep my attention focused. I woke up at the end of the video and we headed to the tour part. We stopped at a tree and our guide told us to find a tunnel. We all looked around and started kicking leaves around on the ground. We couldn’t find anything. She took her foot and scraped a section of leaves away and you could see the top of the tunnel entrance. We all got turns to try and fit in the hole and put the top back on. We all thought we weren’t going to fit because it looks so small. All of the people that tried fit, some easier than others though. After that we walked around the area some more. She showed us several craters from bombs, trenches, and mounds they used to get oxygen into the tunnels. It was really cool. It was all things I would have never realized what they were unless she showed us. After we walked for awhile we finally got a chance to walk through the real tunnels. We went for about 200m in the tunnels. They enlarged this section of the tunnel about 2/3 of what they originally were. I can’t imagine trying to fit in there before they made them larger.  I also can’t imagine living in them at all. It was a workout just trying to go 200m in them, let alone doing that all day. On our way through we got to see where their clinic was as well as the kitchen. It was really cool how they built this whole city underground. They showed us when we got above ground where the exhaust comes out of the kitchen. They made it so it comes out a ways away so if the enemy saw it they would just bomb the exhaust and not the actual kitchen. Once everyone was out of the tunnels, we headed to the gift shop area. You could take turns shooting all their different kinds of guns they used in the war. Amanda and I skipped out on that and headed towards the bus. It was another hour and a half back to the port, so we all took another nap. We did stop once on the way back at a rubber tree farm. That was really random, but cool. We got out and went to check out the trees.

        When we got back to the ship, Amanda and I cleaned up and headed out for lunch. My roommate Anthony came with us to get more pho. Before we went to get pho, we stopped at the Rex Hotel and booked our plans for dinner. My boss Yvonne recommended the Bonsai Cruise. It is a dragon boat that serves a huge buffet dinner and entertainment. We didn’t have any plans so we figured that would be a fun way to spend the night. It was a pretty easy process to sign up. After, we headed to Pho24. It was delicious. It was even better than Pho 2000. We each had vegetarian pho, spring rolls, and 2 drinks for about 6 dollars. After we had that, we headed to Tutti Frutti. It was a self-serve frozen yogurt shop. I hadn’t had any froyo since I was last in Denver. I had a gigantic bowl. I had tart and passion fruit mixed with gummy bears on top. When we were done with yogurt, we were stuffed. We decided to walk it off around the market. I ended up getting a whole backpack full of stuff at the market. Much more than I had planned, but it crossed off a big chunk of gifts I needed to get. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time there. We walked back to the Rex Hotel to catch the shuttle back to the ship and stopped at a few shops on the way there.

        When we got back to the ship, we relaxed until we needed to be ready for the cruise. We took a nap, and then got dressed up for our dinner. The cruise left from right next to our ship, so it was really convenient. We walked over and checked in really early. We got to take a picture with some of the performers, and then we were taken to our table. The buffet looked so amazing. It was almost the entire length of the ship. We had a welcome drink and some small appetizers while we waited for the rest of the people to show up. It ended up being half of our ship’s crew that sat near us. It was really cool to eat with all of them. They don’t get to do things like this very often so they were all very excited. Once everyone showed up, the boat took off and we were allowed to go to the buffet. The food was amazing. I think I had 4 or so plates before dessert. I had spring rolls, sushi, salads, teriyaki, shrimp…about anything you could think of. It was so nice to have a really good dinner. They had live music and traditional dancing going on the whole time we were eating. The ship was going up and down the Saigon River, so we also got a really good view of the HCMC skyline at night. We ate all the way up until we had to leave. When we were getting ready to leave, Amanda and I put our money together to pay. We set it down on the table waiting for our waitress to come pick it up. We hadn’t thought about the wind that was being caused by the ship moving. We turned around and then heard our money move. By the time we could react, the money had blown right off the ship. Luckily we only had to pay for our drinks on the boat since everything else was prepaid. That would have been one expensive dinner if we had to pay twice for everything. After the dinner cruise, we were all pretty tired. We headed back to the ship to relax for the rest of the night. I took my computer and sat outside to get free internet for awhile, then headed to bed. Amanda and I were getting up early to run, so we called it a pretty early night.

        The next morning we got up at 730am to run for awhile. After we were done, we showered and headed to Highlands Coffee. We wanted a good breakfast and some really good coffee to go with it. We got just that. I had fried eggs, bacon, potatoes, fruit, and a coffee with condensed milk. It was all delicious. After our breakfast we headed to a large park in the middle of HCMC. It was a short walk from the coffee shop. It was a really cool park. There were people all over the place. Running, dancing, playing games, or just talking. We walked around for a good 2 hours taking pictures and watching everyone else in the park. I was really tempted to find someone else on the ship that plays tennis, because there were tons of courts at this park. They were only by reservation though, and the people I know that play weren’t in HCMC. After we walked around the park, we decided to walk around the city some more. We went all over. We walked through a bunch of other parks. We didn’t really have anything we wanted to see, but we didn’t know what else to do. After we walked around forever, we headed back to the ship for some lunch. We barely made it back in time because the shuttle driver decided to stop and get some coffee. We made it back with 5 minutes to spare before they shut down lunch. It was nothing special though, so I had some fruit. When we were done eating, we got our computers and headed back down to Highlands Coffee. They had really fast, free internet, so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on some stuff. It started to pour while we were there, so we ended up staying there even longer. We headed back in time to grab some dinner and called it an early night.

        The next morning we headed to the market again. We stopped by the tailor Amanda had gone to get some dresses made. It was just a small shop down the street from the market. I ended buying some stuff from her as well because it was really reasonable priced stuff for being handmade. After that we just walked around the market again until lunch. We surprisingly enough had pho again. This time my friend Michael met us. We all had big bowls of pho and spring rolls again. We then walked around the market some more. After awhile we decided to try and find a different section of HCMC. It was called the backpacker’s district. It was suppose to be just a really lively place where all the European and Australian tourists stay. We hoped on some motorcycle taxis and told them to take us there. We ended up at some random building. I think it was a post office. It was pouring rain by the time we got there, so we just jumped off and stayed. There were some shops inside so we looked around while we were waiting for the rain to stop. It didn’t stop, so we decided to buy some ponchos and run out to find a taxi. We ran out and by the time we hailed a taxi, we were all drenched. We decided to just go back to the ship before dinner.

        We got back and cleaned up. We decided to try and find the real backpacker’s district. The motorcycle taxis outside the port knew where it was so we jumped on. They took us to an Irish pub. It was still raining so we hung out there for awhile. We then headed to a restaurant called Go Go Go. I just had some happy hour spring rolls because I had some nachos and fries at the Irish pub. When we were done eating we headed back to the ship before going out for the night. On our way back we heard that someone had passed away on the ship. We wanted to figure out what was going on. When we got back it was confirmed that Andre Ramadan has passed away in his cabin. It was a pretty unfortunate event. We still haven’t heard what the actual cause of death was. The mood on the ship after that memo was pretty somber. A few of us decided to go back to the backpacker’s district because the ship wasn’t a good place to be at the time. We went to a place called The Crazy Buffalo. It had a huge buffalo sign on the side of the building. We ordered a bunch of food. It was all delicious. We got in a huge fight with the waiters and managers when we were trying to pay though. The American dollar is accepted pretty much everywhere in Viet Nam, so we paid part in Vietnamese Dong and part in USD. They took the money and told us that it wasn’t enough because it was 17,000 VND to 1 USD. It really is 19,600 VND to 1 USD. Most places even round up to 20,000, but the place wasn’t going to budge. We ended up making a pretty big scene before I slapped down an extra dollar and walked off. If I would have known that that was all it was going to take I would have done that a lot earlier. After that we decided to try and find a decent club. We ended up going back to Apocalypse Now. It was really fun. It was packed, but this time it wasn’t complete filled with SAS kids. We stayed there until 3am or so then headed back to the ship.

        The next morning I slept in a bit because I was out so late. I met Amanda at Tutti Frutti for some lunch. Annie and Gina ended up wanting to get some lunch as well so they joined. We got some sandwiches and froyo. This time I tried the vanilla and chocolate swirl. It was good as always. After we ate Amanda and I walked around for the rest of the day. We had planned on going to get massages because they were so cheap, but we ran out of time. I tried camera hunting, but didn’t find anything for a reasonable price. We spent our last money and headed back to the ship. It decided to pour rain on us right when we wanted to get back so we sat under an awning of a shop until we could get a taxi. We thought we were going to have to stand in line at the ship in the pouring rain, but we were able to get right in when we got back.

        Well, this once again took me longer to write than I had planned…and I am still well behind on blogging. It is slowly but surely coming along. I will try to get China written before we get to Hawaii...that is if I don't go crazy with this rocking boat. It feels like we are on an endless roller coaster at the moment. The seas are HORRIBLE. I am finally done with almost all my big assignments, so I just have my finals left WOO HOO! Only 2 weeks before I am back home in the continental states. I can’t wait. Well I hope Thanksgiving was great for everyone!

SINGAPORE!

        Singapore. I really hadn’t heard much of anything about this country before I signed up for SAS. It completely surprised me. It was nothing like I would have expected a country in that area to be like. Singapore is probably the nicest city I have ever been to. It is amazingly clean, the people are really nice, and there isn’t much of a language barrier.

        The first day in Singapore, Annie, Gina, Eloise, and I headed to Sentosa Island. The island was right across the water from where our ship was docked. We just had to go to a building right outside the ship to take a cable car. The cable car was really cool. It took us right over the ship. None of us had seen our ship from above before. It looked pretty lame compared to the cruise ship next to us though. When we got to Sentosa, we felt like we had just landed in a Disney World for adults. It all had a theme park feel to it. Food stands all over, big colorful buses, and tons of attractions. The first place we went to was Underwater World. It was a huge aquarium. They had all sorts of exhibits that you could actually touch the animals. We saw sting rays, sharks, jelly fish, eels, and even Scuba Steve…at least that’s what we called the guy inside one of the tanks cleaning it. I felt like I was back in 4th grade at SeaWorld in Orlando. After we went through everything, we stopped at the gift shop. We all found these amazing hats. They are just these really cheap baseball caps, but they have a built-in fan in the bill. On the top of the hat there is a small circle solar panel, so whenever you are in direct sunlight, the fan turns on. The hat was the coolest/geekiest thing I have ever bought.

        After the aquarium, we grabbed a bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant and then headed over by the Hard Rock Hotel. It was right outside the Universal Studios Singapore. There were all sorts of stores, so we just walked around for the rest of the afternoon. A little before dinner, we headed back to the ship to change and head to our hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton Towers. It was one of the nicest hotels I have ever been to in my life. There was a black Lamborghini outside if that explains anything. Eloise, Jordan, Travis, Ellie, Meghan, and I stayed there. Eloise had her dad use his Starwood points to get us the Executive Suite. It came with our own butler and everything. We didn’t ever need to leave the room, but that would have defeated the purpose of being in Singapore. The majority of us just snacked around in the Executive Lounge until everyone else met us at the hotel. After we all met up, we headed out for the night. It was Halloween, but since it fell on a Sunday, not a whole lot was going on. We went out for awhile then came back to the hotel.

        The next morning we ordered in breakfast to the room. It was great. They just rolled in a huge table of food right to our bed. After we ate, we got ready and headed out. We went to Orchard Road. There was a subway right outside of the hotel, so we just took that. This is when I learned how dangerous Singapore is. Every subway station is a mall. You get off and you don’t even have to come out of the ground to live. There are huge food courts, supermarkets, and every type of store you would want. It was incredible. We eventually made it out to Orchard and it was even worse up there. It was just a huge road full of stores. We started off at the cheap market. I got some awesome fake asian/nerdy glasses and a watch. I then just ended up walking from store to store with everyone else because it was too expensive to buy much else. I did get to have my first Starbucks of the whole trip. It was amazing. I hadn’t had good tasting coffee in a long time.

        SAS made us get on the ship an hour earlier than normal, so we didn’t have much time to go around the second day. It was definitely not enough time to do what I wanted in Singapore. I still had an amazing time, however. It is a place I want to go back to for sure. I say that I could live in about every country I have been to on the trip, but I can realistically see myself living in Singapore.

        Well, this one is a short one, but there wasn’t much time to write about in Singapore. I get to Japan in day and a half and get to see Mara. I can’t wait and I will be writing about Viet Nam as soon as I get back on the ship after Japan. Until then…see ya!

India...

        India. Always on the go. That was pretty much the story of my time there. It was absolutely incredible though. I really had no idea what India was going to be like. I knew it was going to be hectic, but I didn’t really know to what extent. I had an action packed time there. There was little time that I actually got to spend not running around.

        On the first day, I went on the Dalit Work Project with SAS. We went to the Dalit village in Chennai and painted a building they wanted to use as a community center. When we first arrived there, all the village school kids ran out to the bus and greeted us as we got off. They put flowers around our neck, and had boys playing the drums up and down the streets. It was really cool. They made us feel like royalty. When we got off the bus we walked into the village. They had a canopy set up outside the building we were painting. They had a whole introduction welcoming us to the village and addressing the village on why we were there. I couldn’t understand anything they were saying so I just smiled, nodded my head, and clapped when they did.

        When the introduction was over, we were all handed buckets of paint and a brush and we went at it. We only had to paint for an hour or so, but I think I lost about 10 pounds in the process. I have never sweated that much in my life. We were all dripping with sweat. There was no air conditioning and only one little fan. I was inside painting and there was only one window and a small door. We were also covered in paint by the time we were done too. They water down their paint a ton. It was practically like trying to paint with water. There wasn’t a way to paint without getting it all over the ground. They had some of us going around with pads cleaning it off the ground because of that. I did that for most of the time because there weren’t enough buckets of paint and brushes for everyone. After an hour of painting, it wasn’t completely done, but it was so much better than it was before.

        When we were done painting, they took us on a little walking tour of the village. It almost reminded me of Ghana. The kids swarmed around us grabbing our arms. They all wanted us to take pictures of them like the kids in Ghana. It was really fun. They were constantly trying to get our attention and shaking our hands. These kids don’t get to see anyone from outside their village very often. We also got to meet the village doctor and musician on our way around. The village was very small so everyone knew everyone. There were so many goats and cows in the streets. It was so weird to just see cows hanging out in the streets. When we made our way back to the community center, they had another ceremony set up for us. They sang and danced for us. It was a way of saying thank you for coming to the village. We had our own little dance party as well. It was the same cultural thing as my experience in Ghana. They expect singing and dancing in return if they do it for you.

        After we left the village, I took the rest of the afternoon to wash up and rest. That short trip ended up being pretty tiring. A whole group of friends and I planned on going out to have a really nice dinner, so I wanted to be ready to go do that. There were 9 of us all together going to dinner. We convinced our taxi drive to take us all. We crammed into every possible spot in his suv. It was a fairly long ride to The Verandah, where we ate. The restaurant was inside of the Taj Connemara Hotel. This place was absolutely incredible. There was just one extremely long buffet. There were all kinds of Indian and Chinese dishes and tons of fruit and desserts. Everything I had was so good. They had one dessert that I had probably 5 or 6 of as well. It was passion fruit custard. I could have eaten that for the whole meal.

        When we got done with dinner, we all headed back to the ship. We got to take our first ride in an auto-rickshaw. These little vehicles are all over India. They are pretty much a go-cart with three wheels. They are incredible to ride in. They are such crazy drivers in India that we definitely thought we were going to die at some point. You get so close to the other cars in the street that you can touch the other cars without putting more than your hand outside the rickshaw. Once we finally made it back to the ship, it was about 1230am. I decided not to go to bed at all because I had to be up and ready to leave for Delhi at 345am. I have a habit of sleeping through my alarm if I get less than 4 hours of sleep. My trip was so expensive that I couldn’t afford to miss it. I just sat around the ship and made sure I was all packed for a few hours. It went surprisingly quick.

        345am came quick enough and I was off to Delhi. I fell asleep immediately after I got on the bus. It was about an hour to get to the airport from the ship. When we finally made it to the airport, we had to rush through ticketing and security. We were all pretty late. Annie, Gina, and I barely made it on to the plane. They were paging our names on the intercoms for awhile. We luckily made it and were fine. I was awake long enough to know we took off, but fell right back asleep until we got to Delhi. Falling asleep on transportation became a theme for me on this trip. When we got to Delhi, we got on a few busses and headed to do some sightseeing around the city before lunch. We went to a hotel to eat. It was another Indian buffet. It was very good as well. I ate a ton.

        After lunch we headed to the hotel. We stayed at Le Meridian. It was probably one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at in my life. After we got our stuff in our rooms, we had the option of going with our tour guide to some temples or exploring the city on our own. Annie, Gina, and I decided to go off by ourselves. We got a rickshaw and went to some type of market. We were looking for a traditional outdoor market, but the driver took us to a place that was more like a mall. It had stuff that we were looking for, but it was pricier. We shopped around for awhile, and then headed back to the hotel to get some internet before dinner. The internet wasn’t free, but I didn’t care. It was fast internet and that’s all I cared about. The internet has been getting worse and worse on the ship, so we take any opportunity we can to get good internet.

        We ate at the hotel for dinner. It was once again a huge Indian buffet. I think they wanted us to be fat. It was delicious as well. It was much better than lunch. They had this chocolate brownie dessert that I ate a whole plate of. I could have had a ton more, but there was never any left when I went back up there. After dinner I ran into Chris and Shelly from another trip that was staying at the same hotel. I went and talked to them for awhile. We all were exhausted and decided to not do much. We headed to the main section of the hotel. There was a chocolate bar, which sounded much more appealing than the actual bar. I had homemade hot chocolate made with dark chocolate chips and a box full of really good chocolates. After I finished my hot chocolate, I headed back to my room. I lounged around and checked up on some stuff on the internet. My roommate never came back to the room, so I had the whole room to myself. It was pretty nice.

        The next morning came too quick. We had to be on the bus around 5am, so breakfast was at 430ish. I made it there around 445, but that was a struggle. Once we got everyone on the bus, we headed to the train station. We took the train to Agra. I have heard so many stories about the Indian rail systems. This train really wasn’t that bad. It was the nicest trail line though. It was pretty dirty and old, but it could have been much worse. It was comfortable enough for me to fall asleep on the entire way. I think it was about a 2 hour train ride, but I would have been ok with it being a lot longer. That nap wasn’t long enough. When we got to Agra, we headed to a hotel for breakfast. On our way to our busses, we saw some eye-opening things. There were just masses of people begging for money. Some were in wheelchairs. Some had amputated limbs on their bodies. Some had elephantiasis. It was hard to see. It was even crazier when our guide told us that some parents cut off their child’s arms or legs so they can go there and beg.

        After that sight, we were all ready to get away from there. We headed to a hotel that another trip was staying at. Another Indian buffet was waiting for us. This time it was a breakfast buffet. I had some really good bread and sauce. I have no idea what it was called. It was pretty spicy though. I didn’t eat all that much since we did have a breakfast at our hotel before we left. After we ate, we headed to the red fort. I think that was the name. I have a picture of the ticket, but that’s about as interested as I was in it. It was kind of fun to run around and take pictures in it, but other than that I have no idea what was going on there. We went right back from there to the hotel for lunch. This was our third meal in 8 hours. I wasn’t hungry in the least. We again had an Indian buffet. It was good, but I could not eat much.

        After lunch, we headed to Agra Fort. This place was a lot more interesting than the first fort. It was like a huge maze. It just kept on going. There were some really cool looking buildings inside. There was a really good viewing spot from one section to see the Taj Mahal. We roamed around there for awhile and took some more pictures. We then got to finally go to the Taj. It took us awhile to get there, even though it was relatively close to Agra Fort. There are just so many tourists and you only get so close to it by vehicle. They have it blocked off from vehicles from a really far distance. We had to get off the bus and walk to the entrance. We were immediately bombarded by vendors. Everyone was trying to sell us everything. It was quite annoying, but that’s what happens when millions of tourists come here every year.

        We finally made it to the gate and got in. The second we walked through the huge entryway, we were in awe. It is just one of those places that are incredible to see in person. The building just seems flawless, and the color of the marble during the sunset was awesome. We first tried to fight all the crowds to get some good pictures. We also had to fight off all the “professional” photographers that want to take your picture and sell it to you. We then walked around the grounds by the reflecting pool. While this is a really cool place, there isn’t much to do there other than take pictures to have proof that you have been there. I am glad I got to go, but I have no reason to ever go back.

        After the Taj, we got to stop at a marble store to check out some handmade goods. They were incredible, but insanely pricey. There wasn’t any way I could afford anything there, so I just looked around. We then headed back to the train station. We caught a late train back to Delhi. When we got back, I was way too tired to do anything. I just went back to my room and lounged around again. My roommate once again didn’t stay in the room, so I had it alone again. We got to “sleep in” till 6am this time, so we were all excited.

        The next morning we all got herded back up at 6am to head to the airport. We caught a mid-morning flight to Varanasi. All of our flights in India were on Kingfischer Airlines. They were probably one of the nicest airlines that I have ever flown on. Every flight had satellite tv, comfy leather seats, and really good Indian meals. Two of our flights even had cameras on the bottom of the plane so you could watch what was going on outside. The Varanasi airport, however, was the worst airport I have ever been to. That kind of set the mood for what Varanasi would be like. Varanasi is the most traditional and unchanged place I have ever been to. It really feels like you go back in time when you go there. They have electricity and vehicles and that stuff, but it still seems like it is very old.

        Varanasi was by far my favorite part of India. It really felt like I was seeing the real culture there. When we got there, we checked into our hotel and got situated. We then had lunch in the hotel. The hotel was owned by the same chain as the hotel I ate at the first night in Chennai. The meal was fantastic as usual, but I was getting sick of Indian food. It is great food, but I get sick of any type of food that you feed me for 4 days straight, every meal. After lunch, we headed to Sarnath. Sarnath is the place where Buddha gave his first sermon. It was a really cool area. We went to the museum first to look at all the old statues that they had preserved. We then went outside to the grounds that he gave his first sermon in. We saw all the stupas surrounding where he would have stood. That was a pretty surreal feeling knowing that he gave his sermon right where we were walking.

        We then headed to a silk factory. We got to watch as the workers made the silk scarves and other products. It is quite a process to actually make one scarf. I would have bought some from them, but their prices were insane. Some people were dropping close to a grand there. I’m on a bit more of a tight budget than them. After we got that tour, bike rickshaws were waiting outside to take us to the Ganges River. These were so cool. They are a 2-seater cart thing with a bike in the front. We had a convoy of about 40 of them going through the streets. We were also heading to the river during rush hour, so traffic was insane. We finally made it as close as the rickshaws could get, we hopped off and walked to the end of the road. When we got to the end, we looked down at the river and it was just filled with people. They were standing all over, sitting in boats, sitting on buildings…people were everywhere. Every night, there is a ceremony at the river to thank it for the day. It is a ritual that has been going on for hundreds of years. There are 6 guys that dance on platforms to traditional music. It was a really cool thing to see. It was even more exciting to think that we would be back at this same river in a few hours to see it at sunrise.

        Once the ceremony was over, we headed back to the hotel. We had to take the rickshaws back to a certain spot to meet the busses. There was so much traffic that the busses couldn’t get through. We got back to the hotel and ate dinner. They once again had a huge Indian buffet ready for us. I was still full from the million other pounds of Indian food I had eaten in the past few days. I didn’t eat much, and headed back to my room to go to bed. I called it another early night because we had to be up around 4am to get to the river before sunrise.

        4am came way too quick. It felt like I had just fallen asleep and I was back up ready to get on the bus. We were coming back to the hotel for breakfast, so we didn’t have to be packed or anything. Once we got everyone rounded up, we headed back to the river. We got fairly close this time on the bus. We walked the rest of the way. We went right back to where we were the night before. It was a completely different feeling. It was very quiet. There were people bathing in the river. Others were praying or meditating. Others were getting their heads shaved. It is tradition that if you are the one bringing a deceased family member to the river, you are to shave your head before you take the body. We walked around for awhile, and then got into a little boat to go up and down the river. When we first got in, they gave us a little votive candle. We all made a silent prayer or wish and let the candle go down the river. It was a really cool sight to see them all float away. After that we just started going in the boat. Our guide pointed out all the different people along the river. He pointed out the ones meditating, the ones bathing to wash their sins away, and the ones bathing just to bathe. It was a really cool sight this early in the morning. Then the sun began to rise. This was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. As the sun began to rise more and more people came to the river to pray. They have prayer beads with 108 beads on it. We saw many people in the water praying and counting the beads. After the sun rose, we headed over to the main crematorium. This was very interesting. We got to see the whole process. It is crazy to see how they deal with death compared to our culture. Once we were done seeing the cremation, we headed back to dock and walked back to the busses.

        We headed back to the hotel to grab some breakfast. On the way back we drove through the largest university in Varanasi.  It is called Banares University. I don’t know if that is how it is spelled. They had everything there. It was a huge college. They were telling us to come back to study there after SAS because it was only $2,000 for everything for an entire year. That would be very cool, but I don’t think I could spend an entire year in Varanasi. After the drive through of the university, we stopped at Mother India Temple. It is a small temple, but it has a whole map of India made out of marble on the ground. It is one of the original maps of India. It included Pakistan and that area, since that once was all India. After we took some pictures we headed back for breakfast. We grabbed a bite to eat, packed our stuff, and headed to the airport.

        When we got to the airport, we had hardly any time to get to the plane. We took up most of the plane, so we knew they wouldn’t take off without us. They were not happy though. They rushed us all through security, but about 5 of the students about didn’t make it on. They were already playing the safety videos when the last kid got on. We all made it and got to Delhi safe. We had 8 hours to do some more sightseeing when we got back to Delhi. We went to a large Hindu temple and walked around for awhile, then went to a market nearby. This market was interesting. They had a lot of stuff that we hadn’t seen before. That’s because it was all stuff made by Tibetan refugees. I didn’t end up getting anything, but I thought it was pretty cool. We stopped shopping pretty early because we had nothing to get, and we went to McDonald’s across the street. McDonald’s in India was interesting. Since they don’t serve beef, their menu is completely different. I had a Chicken Maharaja Mac. It was like the Indian Big Mac. It was…alright. Probably the worst thing I have ever had at Mcds. However, Annie had a wrap that was delicious. It all tasted like what we had been eating at our other Indian meals, but McDonald’s style.

        After everyone was done shopping, we headed to a hotel to have some ice cream and tea before we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Chennai. We ran back into some of the other SAS kids and talked for awhile. This was our first time that we had plenty of time to get to the airport. It was nice to not have to rush for once. We got to the airport and had an hour and a half before we had to board. Annie, Gina, and I went to get some coffee and a dessert while we waited. We finally got on the plane and I went to bed. I woke up when we landed and fell right back asleep on the bus. It was about 2am when we finally made it back to the ship.

        On the last day in India, I went shopping around Chennai with Amanda and Gina. We didn’t get much time the rest of the trip to get many gifts, so we did some shopping. We spent most of our day at Spencer’s Plaza. It is just a huge mall with market type stores. It was great. I also had Pizza Hut there. It was a lot different than Pizza Hut in the states, but it was still good. I had had enough Indian food that pizza sounded great. Once we were sick of shopping, we tried heading to a movie theater to see if we could catch a Bollywood movie before we left. We had missed the only one we could see before the ship left by about a half hour, so we went to the post office to grab some stamps and headed back to the ship.

        YAY. I finally finished this blog. I am sooo behind on writing. I only have 3 more days on the ship between now and when we leave Japan, so I probably won’t get Singapore through Japan blogged about until I am on my way to Hawaii. Expect quite a few blogs between Japan and San Diego! I hope everything is well at home. See ya.

Mauritius - Island Paradise

        AH, this semester is going by so fast and I am having a hard time keeping on top of this whole blog thing. I am most likely not going to get back on track until after Japan, but I am writing as much as I can.

        Anyways, onward to Mauritius. I had never heard of Mauritius before I signed up for Semester at Sea. I had no idea where it was or who lived there. Come to find out, Mauritius is Europe’s Hawaii…and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We were at the point in the semester where all our exams and assignments were due. I was getting really stressed out and needing some time to relax and get away from shiplife. A few days before we arrived, I booked a private studio apartment in Bain Boeuf. I just wanted someplace to go for a night by myself and do nothing pretty much.

        When we got to port, I headed out for awhile to see Port Louis. Our ship was too big to get very close to the actual city, so we had to take a taxi or watertaxi into the city. The watertaxi was actually pretty fun, but took a long time. When I made it in, I went out into the waterfront to get some money. I walked by some restaurants and ran in to Bri, Jon, and Amanda. They were headed up to Grand Baie in a little bit which was where I was headed, so I decided to take the bus with them. I headed back to the ship and grabbed my bags then met them all back at McDonalds. We got our ritual McDonalds stop in and headed to the bus station. We luckily made it to the bus station right before the bus was taking off. There wasn’t enough room so we ended up standing the entire way to Grand Baie. It wasn’t bad, but I was trying to eat my Chicken Mac and fries at the same time. It was only a 30 minute ride.

        When we got to Grand Baie, I had to figure out how to get to my apartment. Hotels.com said that it was located near Pereybere Beach, so I asked this guy if he knew how to get there. He told me I just had to jump on a local bus and it would take me there. A lady on the bus overheard me asking how to get there. She happened to be heading there with her husband on their way back from work. She came and found me when I got off the bus and told me they would take me there. It was so weird to have people I have never seen before in my life be so nice. They drove me to Pereybere Beach and refused to take any type of money. However, I wasn’t done trying to find this place I was staying at. I walked around forever trying to find someone that knew where it was. It was called Cape Garden Residence. No one had even heard of it. I couldn’t tell if they had never heard of it before or if they just couldn’t understand my English since they speak French. I ended up just walking around for about an hour before a taxi driver found me walking on the side of the road. He told me to get in even though he didn’t sound like he knew where this place was.

        It was a correct assumption to say that he didn’t know where it was. In fact he took me all the way back to where I got off the bus. We had gone the complete wrong direction. We finally found someone that spoke English and pointed us in the right direction. We got back to Pereybere Beach and had to find another person to ask. This guy knew English really well and knew that Cape Garden in French is Jardin du Cap. All I have to say is screw Hotels.com for trying to make us happy and translate names into English. Well, after finding that out, I finally made it to my apartment. There was a nice big sign on the front gate that said Jardin du Cap.

        When I got there, I had to check-in with the guard at the gate. Once he cleared me, my taxi was escorted to my parking spot. When we pulled in, a guy opened my door for me, said “Welcome Mr. Nagaki”, and grabbed my bags for me. I was instantly creeped out. I felt as if I had known these people for years since everyone was calling me by my full name already. This guy showed me to my room, explained everything and made sure everything was ok. The apartment was so nice. It had a king sized bed, nice kitchenette, and a nice big bathroom. After I got settled in I went and walked around the property. I found the pool first and decided to go lay out by it. It was a very cool area. I layed out for awhile before I had to go get ready for dinner. I headed back to my room and cleaned up before I met Jon, Bri, Megan, and Travis for dinner. We had initially planned on meeting at my apartment and cooking dinner, but I didn’t have a full kitchen so we scratched that idea.

        We ended up at a restaurant and I had a steak with potatoes and crispy onions. I hadn’t had steak in awhile and it was really good. We hadn’t really eaten all day so we just shoveled food into our mouths. Once we were done eating, I decided to go with them for awhile. We went to Jon and Bri’s hotel to get another room for Meghan and Travis. It was the most disgusting hotel I had ever been in. It had mold all over, broken everything, and cockroaches in the ground. I don’t know how they stayed there.

        After we got them a hotel, we headed to the B52 bar. We sat around and hung out for awhile. This part of the island was supposed to be really popular and busy with all the SAS kids in town. It was actually quite dead so we decided to head to the Intercontinental Hotel. My internet was down at my apartment, so I actually had our taxi driver, Deepak, go to my apartment first and I packed up all my stuff and decided to stay the Intercontinental in an open bed. I felt bad not staying at the place that I had booked, but I planned on getting some work done on the internet and that wasn’t going to happen there.

        When we got to the Intercontinental, it was insane. The whole place was packed with SAS kids and it looked like spring break. I went straight to my friend’s room that had an open bed and didn’t leave. I didn’t want anything to do with what was going on outside, so I just connected my computer and got some stuff done. It was so nice to actually have decent internet for the first time since I left home. After I got some internet time in, I went to bed. I had the option of laying on the beach or going on a catamaran the next day, but didn’t want to decide till the morning.

        Since I had stayed up so late the night before, I decided not to go on the catamaran since it left at 7am. Instead, Gina, Annie, Eloise, and I stayed at the Intercontinental for the day and layed on the beach. It was so nice. There were barely any clouds and it was really hot. The hotel was right on the beach so it was a private beach just for the hotel guests. It was also very clean because it was on hotel property. After we layed out for the afternoon, we grabbed a few drinks at the pool and cooled off. We then dried off and headed back to Port Louis.

        When we got back to Port Louis we dropped our bags off at the ship and headed back to the city to do some last minute shopping. We all had some extra money so we found some souvenirs around the waterfront. We wanted to go to a market, but we didn’t have that much time before we had to be back at the ship. We made it back with plenty of time before on-ship time. However, tons of kids didn’t. On-ship time is 6pm. At 6pm, there was still a huge line of kids waiting to get on the ship. All of them got dock time for India. Since we only stayed in Mauritius for less than two days, everyone was cutting it close getting back to the ship. We all wanted to spend as much time as possible in port.

        While it was only a short stay in Mauritius, it was a great time. I didn’t end up spending as much time as I had wanted by myself, but it was relaxed enough for me. It was nice to get away from schoolwork and the constant bustle on the ship.

        Well, I am off to take my Global Studies exam #2. We will be in Singapore in 2 days. I will try to get my blog about India posted right after we leave from Singapore. I hope everything is going well at home. See ya!

Waka Waka...South Africa!

        Hello again. I have gotten behind on my writing, but I will hopefully have everything through Mauritius up by the time I reach India on Friday. Enjoy!

First of all, South Africa is beautiful. Rolling into the Cape Town Waterfront during sunrise was amazing. Seeing the skyline with Table Mountain in the background…so cool. We were all amazed with South Africa right away. South Africa is very deceiving though. We walked off the ship and it seemed like we landed right in the US or Europe. It was very developed, had a huge mall, and there were tons of nice cars and buildings around. Drive for about 15 minutes and you are in a township. Small, broken down huts all over the place. It was pretty interesting to see the difference.

        Well, the first day in SA, Amanda, Bri, and I decided to hike Table Mountain…along with half the rest of the boat. It was really fun. We didn’t feel like taking a taxi, so we walked from the ship to the top of the mountain. It took us from about 10am to 6pm to get there and back. It was definitely the most strenuous hike I have ever done. We started at sea level, and ended at around 2,700 ft…I believe. The hike up the actual mountain seems just straight up. It was pretty much like climbing stairs the entire time. It took us a good 2 hours to get to the top. We hung out at the top and got lunch before heading back down. There is a really nice restaurant at the top. We contemplated taking the cable car back down because it was getting cold, windy, and late, but we toughened up and hiked down. It was much easier getting down. On the way back to the ship, I took off the bandana I had been wearing. It didn’t cross my mind to actually put sunscreen on my head because I have always had hair. Everyone I was with laughed hysterically at the fact that I now had a perfect red stripe on the top of my forehead. It is now a lovely tan stripe. By the time we finally got back to the ship, we were exhausted.

        We all ate some and debated on whether or not we wanted to do anything else. We had planned to go out for awhile, but we didn’t know if we could anymore. We did end up going out. Everyone told us that Long Street was the place to go at night, so we headed down there. We ended up at a place called the Dubliner. It was a pretty cool place. It was packed with Europeans, but eventually a bunch of SAS kids packed in there later. I only planned to stay for a little bit because I had to be at the bus for my trip the next day at 5:30am. I stayed around and talked for awhile longer, and before I knew it, it was 3:45. We all headed back, but I decided I would just stay up the whole night so I didn’t miss the bus.

        That plan didn’t work out so well for me. I went back to my room to make sure I had everything ready, and I instantly passed out when I sat down on my bed. If it wasn’t for my roommate being on the same trip, I would have missed it. He woke me up at 5:40am…only 10 minutes after I was supposed to be there. There were a bunch of us that were late, so I made it on the bus. We then headed out to the Bloukrans Bridge for the World’s Highest Bungee Jump. Yeah, I didn’t tell my parents about this one beforehand. It was about a 6 hour drive, so I slept the entire way. I got up once to go buy chips and water at a gas station, but other than that I was sound asleep. It worked perfectly. I was completely rested by the time we got there. It was probably a good thing, so I didn’t freak out about the jump all the way there.

        When we arrived at the bridge, everyone was going crazy. We drove over it slowly and just gazed in awe at how far down it was. I couldn’t believe that I was about to jump off of it. We first checked into our rooms. They have a bunch of cabins around the bridge that we stayed at for the night. Once we got that done, we headed over to be weighed and signed up for the jump. They then put on our harnesses. We had about 30 minutes before the jump, so we just stood there and stared at the bridge…all freaking out.

        We finally got called to head to the bridge. We walked through some trees and came out at the side of the bridge. Then you have to go up into the catwalk type thing. It is essentially this walkway that is bolted to the underside of the bridge…with a mesh wire bottom. Yeah, if that isn’t scary enough looking straight down over 700 ft. That seemed like the longest walk of my life. We made it to the middle of the bridge and it became real. We were really going to jump off the bridge. When we got there, they welcomed us and explained it all to us. Then they started blasting music to get us all pumped and excited. We all were ready, and then the electricity went out. Hmm…that didn’t make me feel so safe, but what was I going to do? I was already on the bridge in a harness. When their generator started again, they blasted the music and called off the first name. They said they were going to go by weight, so I figured I would be somewhat close to the beginning. They kept on calling names and calling names and I still wasn’t going. I had been so stoked to jump, but this waiting while everyone else was going was killing me. I finally got called and I didn’t know what to feel. I had no idea how to act. They kind of just grab you and you don’t really have a choice anymore, so I just went with it. They strapped on a cord to my feet, walked me out, told me to wave to the camera, and shoved me off. HOLY CRAP. That’s all I can say. That was the biggest rush of my life. It was a 216m fall. Freefall of about 5 seconds. I was going about 70-80 km/hr as I fell. It was crazy looking and seeing the floor of this gorge come closer and closer. Then all of a sudden it pulls you back up and you see the bottom of the bridge. Then back down again…and up and down for awhile. Then a guy gets lowered down, connects himself to you, and pulls you back up to the top. I think I was more scared during that then the actually fall. All I can really say about it is, WOW. I would definitely do it again though.

        After everyone jumped, we all checked out our videos and pictures (which I will be posting to Facebook as soon as I can) then headed to the Cliffhanger Bar for dinner. They made us delicious pizzas. We all got one to ourselves. After we ate we had a huge dance party for the rest of the night. We got the whole kitchen crew and everyone out dancing with us. We all crashed relatively early compared to other nights…so probably around 2am…so we could be back on the bus at 5am to go shark diving.

        Once we got back on the bus, I fell right back asleep. We had about a 3 hour ride to Gansbaai to shark dive. I woke up to grab some food at a gas station again, but that was it. When we got to Gansbaai, we checked in and had some breakfast. We had to wait a little while for the group before us to get back with the boat. Once they were back, we headed out and got on. It was a small white boat. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the diving spot. When we got there we anchored the boat and we all struggled into our wetsuits. Our leader then gave us the briefing and safety information about the dive. Before he could even finish, a huge great white shark was already circling our boat. We all freaked out and our leader just quit trying to give us information. He instead just told the first group to get in the cage. The sharks weren’t being that cooperative that day so we didn’t want to miss out on a shark being around. We didn’t know at this point that we would get as lucky as we did. We had several sharks circling us the entire time we were out there. It was so insane. The sharks would go for the bait then swim right next to the cage and just stare at us. We were literally less than a foot from these sharks. The only thing that was saving us was some metal wire. I was in the last group to go. We all got to go twice though because the sharks were so good. On the last time, the guy threw out the bait and the shark actually bit on to it. Normally they pull the bait away so they don’t get it. This time the shark got a hold of the entire thing. The guy was pulling the shark back…which was directly at me on the edge of the cage. When the shark got next to the cage it looked over at me and the girl next to me. The shark immediately started attacking the cage right in front of my face. We were flailing around like crazy. The sharks nose and teeth were about 5 inches from my face. That had to have been one of the most frightening things I have ever done. It was so cool though. I have it on video as well.

        If that wasn’t enough of an adrenaline rush those two days, I don’t know what would be. After the shark dive I was pretty worn out. We only had about a 2 hour drive back to Cape Town. When I got back I immediately cleaned up and got ready for dinner. A bunch of us went out to dinner at a restaurant called Belthazar. It was right on the waterfront and it was delicious. I had a salmon filet with potatoes. It was the best cooked salmon I have ever had. After dinner Amanda and I went to Mitchell’s and found some other people to hang out with. We hung out there for awhile then a huge group of us decided to go to a club outside of Cape Town. It was called Tiger Tiger. We all got there and found out that you have to be really dressy in order to get in, so we scratched that idea. We decided to go to a club not too far away instead. I have no idea what it was called haha. Only Amanda, Jourdy, Ed, me, and 2 locals we were with got in. The rest didn’t have their IDs and you had to be 21 to get in. Hmm, I guess they don’t know how to read US drivers’ licenses since I’m definitely not 21. Oh well, we had a great time dancing around for the night.

        The next morning was another early one. We had to be a Café Eco at 830am to meet our guides for our Bikes ‘n Wines tour. I was woken up at about 805am and hadn’t started getting ready. We eventually made it down to the café on time though. Once we all made it we headed out. We had to take a train to the winelands. Once we got there we all got situated with a bike and a helmet. We then headed off to our first vineyard. It was called Spier, one of the most famous in the world. It was a very cool property to walk around. We then got to start tasting some wine. When we heard wine tasting, we took that literally. Apparently in South Africa, wine tasting means you have a glass of each wine. We tried five different wines at Stellenbosch. My favorite was the rosé. After that we knew it was going to be a long day. We luckily got to go to a small game reserve before we went to the next winery. We got to check out some cheetahs and this one dog that is now saving livestock in South Africa from cheetahs. After the game reserve we headed to our second winery. We ate lunch at the second place. It was so good. I had a bacon, avocado, and blue cheese pizza. I definitely recommend it. After we ate, we had round two of “wine tasting”. We had another 5 glasses at this place. My favorite here was definitely the white wine or the rosé again. We did get to try a wine at this place that only had 3,300 bottles ever made. It was a red wine which I’m not a huge fan of, but it was cool to get to try such an exclusive wine. 

        After the second winery, we headed to Van Ryn’s Brandy distillery. Van Ryn’s has been voted #1 in the world several times. That didn’t mean much to me, however, because brandy was disgusting. The only thing I liked there was fresh apricot and peach nectar with brandy in it. We got to try the 10 year and 12 year brandy. Supposedly the 12 year was much better than the 10. I wanted to die trying both. Anything you drink that doesn’t allow you to breathe in at the same time shouldn’t be allowed to drink. I wasn’t aware that you aren’t supposed to breathe in through your nose at the same time and now I think my nostrils are burned. I think brandy is just classy rubbing alcohol. Ok, maybe not that harsh, but I’m not a fan.
        Now that we had 10 glasses of wine and some brandy in us, what else to do than get back on our bikes and trek back to where we started! Haha. No, it really wasn’t bad. We only had to go about a mile or two back. Once we got back, we put away the bikes and headed back to the train. Once we got back to Cape Town we hung out for awhile with our guides then headed back to the ship. We were all pretty exhausted so we called it an early night.

        The last two days in Cape Town were more relaxing. On the second to last day Annie, Ellie, Damien and I headed to the Cape Town Stadium in the morning. We got to take a tour of the whole stadium. It was really cool to see where a lot of the teams played in the World Cup. We got to see all the private club levels along with the jail, locker rooms, and walk on the actual field. When we got done there we stopped for our ritual meal at Mcdonald’s before heading to the Greenmarket Square. We shopped around the market for a few hours before heading back to the ship. I lounged around for several hours and then decided to go out for a late dinner around 8pm. Chris, Bri, Amanda, Jon, and I went out to a restaurant called Primi Piatti. It was delicious as well. I had a salmon pasta along with this really delicious watermelon tea drink. We sat around and had a few drinks for awhile and headed back to the ship around 10pm. The people I was going out with for the night were still flying back from Johannesburg from a safari, so I had a few hours before we went out. I just layed around again and ended up going out around 1230am. We went to Mitchell’s to meet up with other people and headed to a club called Fez. It was a very dressy club. I didn’t meet dress code or the age limit to get in, but I got in anyways. We stayed there until about 430am before heading back.

        The last day I went around with Amanda and Chris to the market again. We walked around the whole waterfront area and down to the market. It took about the entire day. I again didn’t buy much, but it was cool to walk around the whole city one last time. We also did find a hole-in-the-wall market. It just looked like a store front, but when you walked in there was an endless market. It just kept going and going. We were all mad that we found it so late because we had spent all our money already. It was much better than the Greenmarket Square that everyone had talked about. This place had a lot more authentic stuff. Oh well, some place to go to when I go back. Before we got on the ship for the last time, we stopped at Pick ‘n Pay. It is a fairly large grocery store inside the mall that was next to the ship. I stocked up on some snack foods to keep me sane on the way to Mauritius.

        Well I think that about wraps it up for South Africa. It was one heck of a time. I will be writing soon about Mauritius. Till then, see ya.

Shiplife.

        I haven’t written about my time on the ship for awhile now, so I decided to fill you in on my life back on the MV Explorer. It isn’t nearly as fun as when we are in port, obviously, but it really cool living on a ship. I can’t believe it has already been over a month since I moved into my room on here. This semester is just flying by. That is good because I can’t wait to get to all these countries ahead of me, but I also don’t want this semester to be over at the same time.

        A few days before we arrived in Ghana a few of my travel friends from Spain and I signed up for the Special Occasion Dining they offer on the ship. It costs $25 and you get a 5 course meal. It was for Ariana’s birthday. It was the best meal I have had on the ship. It started out with a glass of champagne and trays of small appetizers. I had smoked salmon with fish eggs on a cracker type thing and calamari. Then we ordered our meal. For a real appetizer I had more smoked salmon, crab, and shrimp with a mustard type sauce. Then I had cream of broccoli soup and a Caesar salad. For my main entrée, I had filet mignon with cheesy hash browns and green beans…and for dessert I had chocolate pie and cake for Ariana’s birthday. Needless to say, we were STUFFED. I ate every last bit though because it is the best food we can get on the ship. It was so nice to get away from pasta and potatoes for a night.

        Classes are going fairly well. I have had an exam in both Global Studies and Environmental Psychology so far. Global Studies didn’t go as well as I had planned, but oh well. Global Studies is really the only one of my four classes that I dread going to. If we don’t have a guest speaker, it is soooo boring. It was amazing today, however. Our class was taught by Desmond Tutu because we will be in South Africa tomorrow. It was really cool. He is so funny. Outside of that though, it hasn’t felt like we have gotten into much in any of my classes. When you only have class for a few days then get a mini-vacation, it never seems like you actually have class. I have tests in my other two classes when we get back from South Africa, so I will see how that goes. I lucked out and my classes don’t require me to do much as far as FDPs (Faculty Directed Practicum). I only had to sign up for two. They are both directed by my Cognition teacher. Those two trips will count for three of my classes. I just have to write a different paper for each class from each trip. Shouldn’t be too hard. My Environmental Psychology class requires a semester-long project as well, but it shouldn’t be too bad either.

        The 28th of September was Neptune Day. Neptune Day celebrates the crossing of the Equator into the southern hemisphere. We didn’t have classes for that day, but did have a Global Studies exam that night. At 7am we all got a wakeup call…that was King Neptune and his royal family (our Dean and administrators) banging on pots and pans and our doors. They walked around the ship doing that for about 1.5 hours. Then they announced over our intercom systems that all “Polliwogs” must report to the pool deck. Once we got up there, the royalty paraded onto the deck. Once everyone got on the deck, they made introductions of the royalty and then asked King Neptune (Dean David) for permission for all of us to pass into the southern hemisphere and be deemed “Emerald Shellbacks”. It all was quite hilarious. After that, we all got to decide how we wanted to celebrate Neptune day. You could either get fish guts poured on you and jump into the pool, kiss a fish, or shave your head…or do them all if you please. I toughened up and SHAVED MY HEAD! Yep, for the first time since 4th or 5th grade my hair is short. Probably the shortest it has ever been. I actually like it. It is pretty nice not having to mess with it ever. There were probably a couple hundred on the ship that shaved our heads. Some completely shaved it, some just got it cut off, and some just shaved part of their heads into Mohawks or other designs. There were also many more girls that shaved their heads than guys. Apparently it is that way every semester. Some cut of over 15 inches of their hair. A guy on our ship had hair that was over 2 feet long and had been growing it out since he was in 8th grade. His friends talked him into completely shaving his head at the last minute. It is pretty hard to recognize a lot of people on the ship now though.

        Intramurals are just getting under way. I am playing volleyball and dodgeball. Games will be starting after we get back from South Africa…for volleyball at least. I have no idea when dodgeball starts. Volleyball is only a single elimination tournament because we really don’t have much time left on the ship. We only have 36 more days actually on the ship until we get back to San Diego. Crazy. I am playing volleyball with Gina Hoppe and Ellie Doherty and I am on Ryan Church’s dodgeball team.

        One thing I was told to participate in from past voyagers was the Extended Family Program. The program sets you up with an adult on the ship and other students as a sort of family. My parents are Chris and Lance. They have a 7 month old baby as well, Griffen. He is the youngest person on the ship. My siblings are Inna, Lilly, and Michael. Mandy is my aunt. She was adopted into our family by Chris and Lance, but can’t be an official family member, so we call her our aunt. It is a really cool thing. I didn’t know any of them before this. It is nice to just have another group of people to hang out with every now and then. We have dinners usually after each port to reflect and tell each other what we did. I think we have other things planned as well, but I’m not sure what yet.

        There have already been some people kicked off the ship. It is pretty amazing how stupid some of these kids are. I guess the first person to get kicked off was actually in Halifax. Apparently this guy wasn’t even allowed to board the ship the day of embarkation because he was so drunk. There is also one kid on the ship right now that will be kicked off tomorrow when we get to Cape Town. He was caught with heroine I guess. Don’t quite understand why you would spend the money to do this and be that dumb. Whatever, not my problem. SAS is a bit strict with some stuff though. A kid named Tom hurt himself really bad in Ghana being stupid. He was on top of a storage crate thing and jumped off. He landed wrong and bruised both of his heel bones. He didn’t go to the doctor right away and I guess that is against the rules. He isn’t allowed to get off the ship at all in South Africa because of it. I think that is a bit harsh, since it was his choice to take care of himself or not.

        Well this was short, but I will be writing all about South Africa really soon. See ya.