It's actually over - I can't believe it

Thought I would just update you a bit on the goings-on here on the ship as we get ready to depart – sorry that I haven’t been more detailed. I promise that I will update about Asia, Hawaii and Guatemala once I’m back at home and have nothing much else better to do.

We had a formal, sit-down dinner, the annual end-of-the-semester dance, the Ambassador’s Ball, rather than the usual buffet. The food was SOOO good. I had a steak! All of my friends looked really nice and we got a nice group photo with the captain of the ship after dinner. Then, I met up with some other friends after wandering and taking pictures with everyone. We goofed around in our fancy dress and took pictures in the library and on the back deck before the dance started. It was fun too, but TONS of people tried to squeeze onto the dance floor, so it was hot and sweaty and everyone was stepping on each other. Then when the ship rocked some would fall over while they were dancing or because of their high heels. Haha. We also had gone through the Panama Canal during the day -- that was more or an interesting experience than I thought it was going to be. I’ll have to post pictures later. They had a few lectures and then had a guide chime in over the outside PA and tell us about what we were passing. The locks were really awesome -- watching the ship go up and down and the gates open. We passed a couple ships that were just about the maximum size -- one huge cargo ship, another that I think had natural gas -- and others that were small – one guy mooned us as we passed their sailboat!! Haha!

Then I spent most of the next morning swapping pictures with my girl friends and then had choir practice in the afternoon. I had my last "family" dinner and my Mom and Dad both gave us each a book -- Levinia, my mom, gave us a book by Desmond Tutu because she was his secretary for like 30 years (and she JUST retired before the voyage started...how crazy is that?) and Terry, my dad, gave us a book that he WROTE about the South African arms deal (I don't know what exactly that entails...but hopefully I can read the book and that will make it clearer).

We had another choir practice after dinner because we were preparing two songs for the convocation and one wasn't really ready, so we practiced for like 2 hours. Then I came back and started, slowly but surely, packing. It took me ALL night, but I finished in time to get a shower and go to breakfast before we were supposed to rehearse for convocation this morning.  All of the luggage is to have a colored tag with our names and cabins on them, corresponding with our "sea" color. We're purple. Then our luggage will be taken off the ship.

AND the convocation was this yesterday morning. I think our singing went really well! We sang a piece called "Homeward Bound" (not the Simon and Garfunkel...it was more like a folk song. It was really pretty. They had the captain speak, a faculty speaker and two student speakers. They also recognized all the 4.0 students (I wasn't on the list cuz of my freakin B in Global Studies...) but Liz, my roommate, was on the list, which was kind of cool. Then they played a slideshow of photos, which was just nice at first -- it had some goofy music at the beginning. Then another familiar song came on...it was one that one of the students, Stephanie, had performed at the Talent Show! She was sitting right behind me! And the song was just so fitting and she was completely shocked that they used it. We were both crying! She even had to get up and leave to compose herself. Then the dean, Les McCabe, talked and then we sang again – the alma mater – it was really nice. We messed up the end a tiny bit at the end, but it all turned out pretty well.

Last night was like the last night at summer camp – everyone wanted to stay up late and hang out with their friends one last time! This morning at 6:30 a.m. we had a wake up call to “Coming to America” by Neil Diamond. It was great! Haha. Then I went to breakfast and we got closer and closer to land. I went outside and I cried a little when I saw the ship pull into the port. Our last one. I will probably be a wreck when I have to say goodbye to friends in about 2 hours (the ship’s not supposed to be cleared for a while). I'm in the second to last group to get off the ship -- lucky, huh? Haha. Dad is getting to Florida around 10:30, so I expect him at the port around 11 and then he'll have to wait around until I get off the ship, I guess. Then our flight back to Pittsburgh is around 6 p.m. because SAS told us not to make them before then in case of any hold ups with getting off the ship and we'll get there at midnight (which kind of stinks - there's a lyover in Atlanta). Hooray!! I'm so excited that I'll be sleeping in my own bed tonight!

I watched the sunset last night and realized that I can’t even believe I’m coming home – since we’ve been gone for so long, it’s like this distant, unreachable place, but now I’m going back! It’s been tough to be without my family for this long, so I’m excited to see them again. But, this has been an incredible experience, which I can’t express in words. From Spanish cathedrals, Moroccan markets, Namibian deserts, South African townships, Indian streets, Thai temples, Vietnamese people, Chinese palaces, Japanese cherry blossoms and Guatemalan students, I have tried to enjoy as much of this trip as possible and I am so grateful and understand what a privilege it has been to travel on a ship for 108 days with 700 other students. I’ve made great friends from all over the country and earned credits, but more importantly I’ve grown as a person and seen the world! I leave you with a quote that was hanging on one of the staff member’s doors: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

The Panama Canal today -- coming home soon!!

Guatemala was an amazing experience. I corresponded with Primitive Methodist missionaries Grace and Juan Par and they came and picked me up from the ship and were amazing hosts all three days in the country. I was truly blessed that they were so giving and so gracious. We drove on the first day from Antigua, where we ate lunch and went to the market, to their home in Santa Cruz del Quiche, which was about four hours away. The next day we visited the Colegio Evangelista Metodista Utatlan (Utatlan School). I had heard of the school since I was a little girl at my church. My grandma was so involved with mission work that she also constantly kept the Pars’ name familiar in my mind. I could not believe I was actually at the school. I also met the two students that my church is currently sponsoring through a scholarship. It was incredible and really emotional. The impact that this trip has had can truly been summed up by my experience in this last port. The once-in-a-lifetime places I went and people I’ve met have had an indescribable impact on me as a person and my outlook on life. There are only six more days left in the voyage and I promise to update more, especially since my finals are finished! The ship will go through the Panama Canal today and I have also realized that in and of itself that is a unique experience. If I don’t update sufficiently before I get home, I promise to do so once I return. See you all after May 6 – and you’re all invited to my Welcome Home party on May 16. Email me or call the house to find out more info. :o).

The Panama Canal today -- coming home soon!!

Guatemala was an amazing experience. I corresponded with Primitive Methodist missionaries Grace and Juan Par and they came and picked me up from the ship and were amazing hosts all three days in the country. I was truly blessed that they were so giving and so gracious. We drove on the first day from Antigua, where we ate lunch and went to the market, to their home in Santa Cruz del Quiche, which was about four hours away. The next day we visited the Colegio Evangelista Metodista Utatlan (Utatlan School). I had heard of the school since I was a little girl at my church. My grandma was so involved with mission work that she also constantly kept the Pars’ name familiar in my mind. I could not believe I was actually at the school. I also met the two students that my church is currently sponsoring through a scholarship. It was incredible and really emotional. The impact that this trip has had can truly been summed up by my experience in this last port. The once-in-a-lifetime places I went and people I’ve met have had an indescribable impact on me as a person and my outlook on life. There are only six more days left in the voyage and I promise to update more, especially since my finals are finished! The ship will go through the Panama Canal tomorrow and I have also realized that in and of itself that is a unique experience. If I don’t update sufficiently before I get home, I promise to do so once I return. See you all after May 6 – and you’re all invited to my Welcome Home party on May 16. Email me or call the house to find out more info. :o).

Oops

Hawaii is six hours behind, not six hours ahead. (Thanks Dad!) Sorry. Call me! :o)

In the U.S.! Briefly.

We dock in Hawai'i tomorrow! It's the United States! People speak English! They use the dollar! They have Taco Bell! Haha. Just kidding. Actually, the thing I am most excited about is being able to use my phone without it costing an arm and a leg. SO, if you would like to call or send me a text message, my phone number is 724/309/9687. I don't remember my ring tone and I hardly remember how to use my phone, so it will be SUPER EXCITING if you send me a text or give me a call. I WOULD LOVE IT! I will, of course, be traveling and might be busy, so definitely leave a voice mail and I will try as hard as possible to return your call as soon as I am not busy visiting Pearl Harbor, etc. PLEASE, HOWEVER, be aware that Hawai'i is six hours ahead of the east coast, so be courteous and do not call or text in the middle of the night for me and I will try to do the same for you. ALSO, this applies for Sunday and Monday ONLY. I will be traveling to Guatemala and they are definitely not on the AT&T plan. Haha.

Once again, sorry to disappoint and not have updates. I am working on Thailand and hope to post that. Perhaps after Hawai'i I will work backwards from there. I haven't decided yet. Sorry. I got a B on the Global Studies test! Hooray! And an A on the Downside of English essay, which I believe I mentioned earlier. I haven't gotten my second essay back yet.

Two nights ago we had a ship-wide talent show and there were a lot of great acts with a lot of talented people. The adults on the ship did a Gillian's Island parody song. Two girls did a Tahitian dance, one tapped, two others did contemporary dances. One girl did a Chinese yo-yo act and another kid juggled. A bunch of people played the guitar and sang (one did an acoustic medley of rap songs - it was awesome). One kid did stand-up and was hilarious. Two kids did an amazing parody song about the ship, complete with costume changes. One guy sang an aria. And a girl and a guy did an amazing spoken word poetry.

And I was in it too! I sang with the a capella group, Sound Waves, which formed at the beginning of the semester. We sang the song "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield. It was really good, I think. One of my friends took some video, so I'll have to show it off when I get home. We had two soloists and one guy as a beat boxer. I had lots of fun! It made me want to sing all night long!

Updating while Procrastinating

Sorry that I haven’t updated in a while – I wanted to let you in on what’s been happening on the ship since Japan, partially out of guilt and partially because I have a paper to write and I’m procrastinating.

After Yokohama we got back on the ship without very much trouble. In Japan the immigration officials had to see all of us physically to stamp our passports, so we had to do the same procedure to get back on the ship. Japan was incredible – I will get to that later, however. Everyone had to stand in line and wait to be checked back on. Then, our long stretch at sea began to Hawaii. Yokohama at night was beautiful. There’s a big Ferris wheel at an amusement park right near the harbor, so as the ship pulled away the whole skyline was lit up, including the Ferris wheel that had patterned lights and a large clock in the middle. I was sad to go, since I had such a great time in Japan.

After that, I knew I had a paper due, so I needed to work on that. It was for my linguistics class, “English as a Global Language,” the subject was the downside of English as a global language, which we had discussed in class. I finished that off just in time to have a day to study for the Global Studies exam (remember, that’s the class that everyone on the ship has to take). Because of all our time changes, we had two Easter Sundays, since we were set to cross the International Dateline, but my Easter was filled with writing that paper and the next studying for the exam. There was a sunrise “service” on the top deck on the first Sunday and I went to that. It was nice and there was a good turn out. One girl played some praise songs on her guitar and everybody sang and then another student gave a short message about the life of Jesus. It was nice, but it was really cold up on the deck – I had to wear my winter coat because of the wind! The Jewish students on the ship have been celebrating Passover and they have a separate buffet line at all the meals for them. I thought it was just being strongly suggested, rather than totally prohibited to go in the Passover line, so the first night I had some matzah and cream cheese – it was so good! We don’t get cream cheese any other time, so I didn’t realize I missed it so much! Haha. The next day they made an announcement about not eating there, so I haven't tried to sneak any more. Then the next day, April 13, we had the Global Studies exam. I should find out what I got on it within the next day or so, we’ll see how that turned out.

That night there was an event to help raise money for the student activities on the ship – a silent auction, live auction and raffle. I bought some raffle tickets for things like first person off the ship in Florida, last person off the ship, a milk and cookies party, a pizza party, free laundry and others. The silent auction had things like making the announcement that the ship is cleared, flags from the sea Olympics, a SAS gift pack usually given to the interport lecturers, a pair of overalls signed by the crew, a guitar lesson and other things. I wanted to win a poster that was apparently made in Kobe with a picture that had the ship in it. It was a poster for a park in Kobe and had some cherry blossom trees in it overlooking the port with the ship – I had a bidding war, actually with a girl who lives across the hall from me, and put in the final bid, but I kind of scribbled it because it was at the last second, so they gave it to the other girl. I asked her if I could just take a picture of it and that will have to suffice. The live auction was really fun – some guy paid $50 for four boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Another girl paid $240 for a map with the ship’s course on it signed by the captain. There were also simple prizes like a Hawaiian ukulele and 30-minute lesson, figurines from China, a movie party with popcorn for 10 people, but other donated items included trips from some of the faculty and lifelong learners – a trip to boat on the Chesapeake Bay, a week in a time share on the Grand Cayman Island, a weekend in a condo in Hawaii, a week for eight to 12 people in a condo near Yellowstone, a weekend in a cottage on an island near Seattle. They were all pretty cool and went for what I thought was pretty cheap, but I didn’t bid on any of those because of long term planning and lack of funds and all that. I was really excited for the one item I did bid on – two tickets in the Diamond Club section behind home plate at a Phillies game with seat side refreshment service, donated by a girl whose dad gets season tickets. I knew Tim would have been really excited (and he was in an e-mail reply that I sent him) and I even bid up to $250, but there were still lots of people willing to pay that and they ended up going for $350, which was too rich for my blood. Haha. It was still fun.

Then the day after that, yesterday, we finally got a day off from classes – it was nice. I should have worked on my second paper (the one I am procrastinating about right now), but, since it was our day off, I watched a movie in the morning, but did a little bit of research in the afternoon. We had a ship group photo yesterday, but it was at 8 a.m. (of course, it’s at 8 a.m. on our freakin’ day off...I think someone said it was because of the way the light was...whatever.) and I don’t think everyone came, but I was in it. They also took pictures of everyone by school. Penn State has 16 students – I think 11 came for the photo and we had two alumni in the picture too: one who is a living-learning coordinator (like an RA) and his fiancé, who works in the computer lab. One girl brought her Penn State football blanket and held it up like a banner in front of us. The alums brought their camera, so I’ll have to get a copy from them. After the picture I asked everybody if we could do a “WE ARE…PENN STATE” cheer and we did! It was great! I didn’t realize I missed that so much! It was kind of surreal – doing the cheer that is so familiar, which I haven’t done all semester, on the back of the ship with all the water behind us. Sometimes, I STILL can’t believe I am doing this, even though the voyage is closer to the end than the beginning.

So, now, the inevitable – writing this paper. I will update about Asia as soon as possible – I want to update the blog as much for everyone reading as for me – I sadly couldn’t keep up my journal and the blog at the same time – the journal only has up to Namibia. I hope to get around to updating that too, eventually – some people on the ship put a priority on their journals, but I tried to focus more on the blog, so that everyone at home would keep updated too!

So, we really have schoolwork to do? Crap.

Japan was incredible. I traveled with four other people throughout the country, seeing Hiroshima, Kyoto, Hakone, Mt. Fuji, Tokyo and Yokohama. There was not a dull moment the entire time. We saw and did things I can't even believe I actually saw and did -- real geishas in Kyoto, hundreds of cherry blossom trees, the peak of Mt. Fuji (it was foggy when we got there), a capsule hotel, hot springs bath, Shibuya crossing, Harajuku girls and a Japanese baseball game, among other things. The country and its people were beautiful and kind. I will go back to Japan some day, there's no question about it.

I PROMISE to update from all the way back in Thailand as soon as some of my schoolwork calms down in the next three or four days. We have nine days on the ship before Hawaii.

We're all in school mode once again -- another Global Studies exam coming up and I also have two papers due. All this amazing experience comes at a price, I guess!

Oh, and HAPPY EASTER! We get to have two because we're crossing the international dateline! But, none of the fun celebrating, sadly not even a day off (We have class! Both days!). I will be going to the sunrise service tomorrow morning, though, if I can get up on time.

From China to Japan

Just a short post to let everyone know that I am back on the ship and that China was amazing! The abbreviated version of what I did: two days in Hong Kong, bus to Shenzhen airport (cheaper than Hong Kong), hotel then flight in the morning. About one and a half days in Beijing -- climbed the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!! :o), saw the Olympic stadiums, among other things -- then took an overnight train (that was REALLY nice) to Shanghai. Then two days in Shanghai to regroup.

Alright, I will continue with the longer versions either within the next two days or after JAPAN! Eee! I'm so excited for Japan!

It's on like Hong Kong! (Reaching a bit, I think. Haha. )

We'll be in Hong Kong tomorrow! How awesome is that?! I'm sorry that I've got this weird chronology going on where I'm telling you about what already happened and what is happening...it's confusing, but I promise to catch up after Japan.

We're spending two days in Hong Kong with the ship, then two other days in Beijing -- and seeing the Great Wall! -- while the ship travels to Shanghai and then we'll spend the last two days in Shanghai. China should be awesome and our ship is supposed to be docked somehow so that it's literally a part of a mall. I can't wait!

Thailand Part One, Or, "Tigers, Crocodiles, Elephants, Oh My!"

When we pulled into Thailand I didn’t know quite what to expect. For some reason, after India, I was expecting every country to be like India, which I know is not true. By “like India” I mean chaotic and kind of rough around the edges. But it wasn’t like that at all. The only downside was that the port was no longer in Bangkok, as it used to be years ago. It is now in Laem Chabang, which was about two hours away from the capital. I enjoyed a leisurely morning on the first day because of this – where are you supposed to go with only like an hour or two if it’s a huge hassle to even get out of the port? – then I went on a trip to Sri Racha Tiger Zoo. It was a lot like an animal park in the States. I didn’t get to see it all, but they had lots of tigers, crocodiles and elephants! We walked into the park and passed some crocodiles in an enclosure and a few elephants before the tiger show started. An elephant picked me up with his trunk! (You had to pay a little for it, but it was totally worth it!) I believe I put up a picture of that. The tiger show had about eight tigers perform for a little bit. It was kind of difficult to understand because the announcements were in Thai, but the tricks were alright. One of the tigers seemed like he wasn’t getting along very well with the handler, but that could have been part of the show, I’m not sure. They even jumped through hoops lit on fire! After the tigers, we went straight to another arena with a moat-like thing for the crocodile show, which turned out to be pretty cool – one of the trainers stuck her head in the croc’s mouth! They also took money from people after the show and put in the croc’s mouth. Between the croc and elephant arenas there was a huge moat enclosure under the raised walkway that we crossed full of hundreds of crocodiles. It was crazy. I didn’t even know crocodiles were native to Thailand. The final show was the elephant show, which was also pretty cool. About a dozen elephants were paraded around and did various tricks. They played basketball, threw darts (at one SAS volunteer!) and ate bananas from the audience (which they sell to you as you’re watching the show). One elephant also walked across two ropes suspended off the ground. Directly after all the animal shows, we were able to walk into the souvenir shop that also served as a place to get photos with a baby crocodile or tiger. It was so cool, except we had to wait in a line because all the SAS kids wanted to do it and I got about 45 seconds with the tiger since there was such a high demand. After that we had to get going and on the way out, I noticed that you could buy a plate with your picture on it – a photographer from the park snapped a picture while you were walking in. I avoided him, so there was no plate of me, which is just as well.

After that we went to this kind of bizarre place called Mini Siam. It reminds me of an over sized mini golf course without the golf. There are all these manicured displays of famous landmarks around the world, most are about waist to full size height, some are even larger. For example, there’s an Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel Tower, St. Basil’s Cathedral from Russia, the Busimbel from Egypt, the Trevi Fountain, Coliseum and Leaning Tower of Pisa from Italy, London Bridge (complete with model cars over a large pond that also contained some other displays and wound through the park). Can you guess what the two U.S. monuments are that are there? The Statue of Liberty and Mt. Rushmore. The other half of the park is obviously disproportionately dedicated to things in Thailand, such as the Grand Palace, the Bridge on the River Kwai (which I thought would be cooler if it exploded and rebuilt itself every ten minutes like something off the MGM back lot tour) and the Bangkok Airport (who knows why). The other entertaining part of the trip was that the Mini Siam park was located directly next to a McDonald’s! Of course, I had to go check out. I got a Happy Meal, which was pretty cool – it had a Spiderman toy! (I saved it for Tim. Haha.) But of course they had some interesting fair, including a DOUBLE Big Mac (eek! Four patties!) and a tuna fish pie of some sort. The coolest thing was Ronald McDonald doing the Thai wai, which is when you press your hands together in front of you and bow, a way to say hello (which is “sa wat dee kaa” thank you very much). The only bad thing is that they charge you for each piece of the Happy Meal, so French fries are extra a part from the drink and the burger. Interesting system.

Next, we were supposed to be going to a souvenir shop, which was what the guide called it, but the bus ended up at a place called the Gem Gallery with tons of jewelry. I actually didn’t buy anything, but they had this really silly dark ride in a conveyor-like car (reminded me of Spaceship Earth in the sphere in Epcot). The ride was supposed to show how gems are created and found and used mannequins and light effects, which was so bad that it was kind of cute and funny. There was a huge, classy jewelry showroom, but like I said I didn’t buy anything. I was going to buy something with my birthstone (extra souvenirs if you know what it is), like a necklace or earrings, but I didn’t like any of the ones they had. After that two other girls that were on the trip wanted to go to the city of Pattaya, which was close to the Gem Gallery. Everyone else went back to the ship. Pattaya is very much like any beach or shore city in the U.S. from my impression of it. About a thirty-foot strip of beach borders Pattaya before it gives way to a street and on the other side of the street are all kinds of shops that sell fake purses and things, beach gear and about four malls one right after the other. The beach, as I would find out later in the week when we came back, was kind of gross there was garbage floating in the water and little bits of wood and things, so I don’t think I missed out on too much by not going in the water. It was also almost dark by this time, so there weren’t many people on the beach. We got dropped off at this HUGE mall. It was seven stories with a bowling alley (yeah, a bowling alley!) and a movie theater on the top floor. There were lots of familiar stores, Puma, Adidias, Starbucks, KFC, Dairy Queen, The North Face and Ed Hardy among others. Grace, Sam and I split up and then met later so that we could go get some dinner.

We walked along the beach, which had many open-air restaurants and bars. We decided on a place and had some good Thai food for dinner. We were a little disturbed by the fact that it seemed that almost all of the white guys who came in there had two things in common: they were old and they had a young Thai woman with them. If you know anything about things in Thailand, you know what I’m talking about, or at least what I suspected. Can I just say...EW. Not only is that disgusting, it’s degrading and undermining the women there in Pattaya. I think I would personally beat the crap out of anyone who thinks that’s a good idea for a vacation. What kind of disgusting fiend would support that? For once (because in many of the countries we’ve visited, the men are the ones who judge us), I think I as a white woman felt like I had power to judge those terrible, vile, disgusting men (of course, there is a possibility they could have had positive motivations for doing such things). There was also a shirt I saw later that said “Good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya.” EW. My feminist self was totally disgusted by this, as everyone else should be as well.

After dinner the mall was open for about another hour, so we split up again and shopped. We met a few other girls later when we were ready to leave and all five of us took a truck taxi back to the ship. The ride was really fun – these trucks have benches with cushions and a roof built over the bed of the truck and an open back with a step built in. It was really fun to ride in! I think it’s a good idea that could be adopted anywhere in the U.S. where there’s nice weather often and people only need to go short distances, but the government might frown on the no-seat-belt thing. Haha. That was a fun end to my first day in Thailand!

Access to Free Internet for Me Equals Pictures For You!

Hello everyone! There was a coffee right next to the ship, literally within a stone's throw, that had free wifi, so I posted lots of pictures! Also, Photobucket actually has a new program that puts photo slide shows directly into the blog, so I tried adding it on here (it should be directly to the right --->). Let me know if it works! Otherwise, here's the link to my album:

http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv92/staceyfederoff/

Enjoy! We're having a barbecue tonight on the ship, so I'm going to pry myself away from this free internet to get some hot dogs and hamburgers. After losing my ATM card a couple days ago (but I didn't realize it until yesterday) I thought I had a crisis on my hands, BUT after an hour an a half search including visits to three banks a trip back to the ship to get my passport and lots of hot, sweaty walking - I got it back!! How awesome is that! So, I had a GREAT day. I promise to update about Thailand and Vietnam ASAP. Missing everyone and can't wait for China!

Sunrise Over the Mekong

I honestly can't believe I'm even here doing this. We are floating down the Mekong River towards Ho Chi Mihn City. Some of my friends and I slept out on the deck so we could wake up and see the sunrise over the river as we were nearing the port. It was truly breathtaking and emotional. I was seeing this stunningly beautiful sunrise over the jungle and the water. Watching the fog in the tops of the trees, passing little fishing boats and hearing the sounds of birds in the jungle and I just felt so thankful. I can't believe I'm here doing this. I can't believe that I'm seeing this river as a beautiful scenic place in a country that so many American soldiers thought was absolute hell on earth. Every day I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be able to do something like this and today is one of the moments that stand out the most. So begins my five days in Vietnam. (Sorry I haven't updated about Thailand.)

Incredible India Part Four: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

Our last day in Delhi we hired a car for the day to take us around the city to see some of the landmarks. First we visited the Jama Masjid, the oldest mosque in India. It was really pretty and has a big courtyard that can hold lots of people. After that we met up with Vivek again! We had arranged to meet again and were able to find him outside the mosque. We walked with him to the next sight, the Red Fort. It was built by the same emperor that built the Taj Mahal lived in the Red Fort. Is huge once you’re in the inside, there are lots of different shops in the market as you walk in, then there’s a huge gate that you pass through into the courtyard. From there you can see where the king received all his constituents with a large white throne. Within the complex there’s also a war museum and a museum of objects from the court. The king also had his own mosque and hammam.

Next we visited the Baha’i Lotus Temple, which is a huge temple shaped like…a lotus. It is a huge building and there were tons of people visiting it since it was Sunday. This place is huge and really pretty, so the pictures are nicer than any description I could give. After that, one of the girls we were with wanted to buy a sari, so we stopped at a store for a little bit – I bought some tie-dyed skirts.

Next we went to see the Gandhi Smriti, which is a monument to Mahatma Gandhi at the place where he was assassinated. The building there was where Gandhi stayed before he was walking out for his evening prayer on January 30, 1948 and was shot by a man in the crowd waiting to pray with Gandhi. The whole place was really nice and the building was converted into a museum. The upstairs has an interactive exhibit “in keeping with the times,” according to the sign. Haha. The downstairs had Gandhi’s room decorated as it was when he was there, then the entire place had lots of posters up and down the halls that talked about Gandhi’s life and philosophies. There was also a room with a movie about him and another with a bookstore. Once outside there is a path marking where Gandhi walked out of the building before he was killed. Then the path ends at a small pagoda with a stone marker that has his last words, “Oh, God,” and the date. It was really moving to see. Along the side there’s a huge display with the entire history of India and the path also has some of Gandhi’s famous quotes alongside it. I was really glad we got to go see it, out of all the things we had seen that day.

After that, we were about out of time for the afternoon, so the driver sped us past the street that is kind of the equivalent of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. On one end is the president’s house and the parliament and government buildings and at the other end is the India Gate, which commemorates Indian soldiers that were killed in World War I. The street also has a mall on either side where the driver said lots of people bring their families and have picnics and there were plenty of people out since it was a Sunday. The only thing different about the president’s house was that there were about a dozen monkeys hanging around the gate, which was pretty cool!

After that we had to go back to our hostel to get our things and pay. The driver parked on the corner near this alley where the hostel was. So, we walked toward the hostel and there were some boys in the alley that had some water balloons – and decided to throw them at us! It was so funny! Maybe it was funnier for me because I only got hit in the shoulder, but a couple of the other girls got soaked. The boys were out with water balloons because the Holi festival was set to start the next day – during this Hindu festival people go out in the streets and throw powdered dye and water at each other. It seems really fun – a group at Penn State does it every year and we missed it in India by one or two days. Anyway, a few of us ran and screamed and three of us ran the opposite direction – they actually passed the hostel and had to run back to it. Once we got to the safety of the building, Ferros said that he was up on the balcony yelling at them, he was upset and said, “It’s not fair, you should have punched them in the face!” We thought it was all in good fun, but we knew they’d be waiting for us when we went back down to the street. We paid and everything and were ready when we went back downstairs. Marina threatened them with a mean face and Blair threatened them with a full bottle of water and they kind of backed off. That was unexpected and fun!

So, we made it to the airport early in the taxi and noticed that the inside of the airport had a McDonald’s!! It was really cool – we had to try it! They only had three options because the majority of Indian people are either Hindu or Muslim: McChicken, Fish Filet and the McVeggie Burger! Haha. So, of course, I got a McVeggie Burger and some fries. The veggie burger wasn’t that bad, actually, and the fries tasted exactly like they do at home. It was pretty cool. Then, we got on the plane and the flight back to Chennai was great again with all the amenities of the first one. I watched Dance India, Dance, which was sort of the equivalent to So You Think You Can Dance and one guy did popping and locking. It was great! Haha.

That was the end of our adventure to the Taj Mahal, but wasn’t the end of my adventure in India! After getting back to Chennai, I stayed on the ship without any plans for the last day, but it turned out to be awesome! So, my only plan was that I wanted to go shopping, since I was kind of ‘traveled out’ after our big adventure. So, I decided to tag along with some of the girls who I traveled with in Spain – Jane and Sarah – and Rachel. They were going to the mall and I had just ran into them, so it worked out really well. We actually got a taxi to an area where Jane was going to meet a friend she knew from school (she goes to Parson’s School of Design in NYC). We went to a few stores around there and waited for Jane’s friend. We all got to meet her (her name escapes me at the moment…I will have to ask Jane what it was) and she had hired a car for the day to take us wherever we wanted to go. She was 24 and her family is from Chennai, even though she was partly raised in England. She went to graduate school and then had to return to India to continue her father’s wholesale clothing business. It was amazing, she had so many responsibilities and seemed so in control, it was really cool. We wanted to go get lunch, but first she had an errand to run for her mom. Apparently their dog, a lab, had given birth to pups and they had given on of the pups away, but her mom didn’t think that the dog was getting treated right or something, so we went to the home of the guy who had bought it and she went in and talked to him. We were in the car for a while, but she brought the precious little puppy out and we got to pet it for a little bit before she gave it back to the guy who bought it. She worked it all out, I guess. Then, she took us to the Sheraton in Chennai. Man, that place was amazing! Apparently, she said all the of the hip, young people hang out at the nice restaurants and bars in the hotels. The restaurant was really nice and she helped us order and we all shared some really good food for our last meal in Chennai.

Afterwards, she and Jane separated from the rest of us to go catch up and get some coffee together. The rest of us went to the mall. After shopping for a little while, it was getting kind of late in the afternoon and we needed to get back, but we met another one of the girls, Claudia, who was there with the homestay family. It ended up that her “family” offered us all a ride back to the port! That was so nice of them! I couldn’t believe it. And then six of us piled into their little car. We were cutting it pretty close, this was at about 5:30, so we were all worried about making it back to the ship on time. We got a couple bicycle rickshaws from the gate and realized that there were about four of them with SASers and we had a friendly race back to the ship! India was fun, right down to the very last minutes there. So far it has been my favorite port! Everything was so awesome. I want to take everyone there to share more amazing experiences like the ones I just had!

Time release blog

So, I know I haven't finished up with my adventures in India quite yet, but I wanted to let you all know that we're docking in Thailand tomorrow! Hooray! I'm doing a bunch of day trips - one to a tiger zoo and another to an elephant village! And I will be staying over in Bangkok one night before returning to the ship for our last day. I'm excited! Promise I will catch up later instead of being on such a time delay. Lots of things to see and do!

Incredible India Part Three: THE TAJ

We paid the entrance fee for the Taj Mahal and got a large ticket, which I think was also usable at a few other tourist attractions in Agra. We had to go through the separate gender security lines again and then we had done it! We were finally seeing the Taj! But, actually, you’re not allowed to bring electronics in, so two of the girls had to take the iPods that they brought and walk them to a locker. So, the other three of us rested and waited for a bit for them to get back from the lockers. We took some pictures and tried to find shade. They were finally back and we were ready to see the great tomb. It’s all in a walled complex, which in the first set of walls you pass from the outside. Then, there’s another huge gate that you have to walk through. While we were waiting for the other girls we could kind of see the top of the Taj and I started to get really excited! Finally, they came back and we all walked together over to the gate. Our first glimpses of the Taj Mahal in all its glory were through the archway in the huge gate. Then, we emerged out into the sunlight and I couldn’t believe that I was actually seeing it. The Taj Mahal is so beautiful. I just couldn’t believe I was actually seeing it. I almost started to cry. Sure, pictures of it are exactly like it is in person, but I think that’s part of the reason it’s so beautiful when you see it in person. I just didn’t expect to be so beautiful. And every part of it, no matter what angle you look at it from, is beautiful. It was literally breath-taking. I was in Agra, India, seeing the Taj Mahal with my own eyes. I couldn’t believe it.

There were lots of people there doing the exact same thing: taking pictures from every conceivable spot. Once you enter at the gate there’s a large courtyard with sidewalks that line either side of the reflecting pool. The pool is also lined with tall, skinny bushes and in the pool are little fountains that squirt up little streams of water. There’s a large platform in the middle of the courtyard and we all stood up on the platform trying to set up pictures like everyone else that make you look like you’re picking up the Taj from the topmost spindle in the middle of the huge dome. We walked toward the Taj, snapping away and eventually made it to where you line up to go inside. The line’s not very long, you’re just halted near the entrance to either take off your shoes or put little shoe covers over top of them. All us girls opted for the covers and looked pretty goofy. Haha. After walking up some stairs you are able to enter and see the tombs inside the Taj, one for Shah Jahan, who built the Taj, and one for his wife, who he built it for. The detail is amazing. Nothing is painted on the Taj – there are all these flower borders in different places and they’re actually inlaid gemstones in the marble. It was awesome. The two tombs are enclosed in a huge screen that is carved marble made into scrolling vines and flowers, which was beautiful. And this was all built in the 15th century. Amazing.

We walked through the building around to the back side where a lot of people were just sitting and talking and hanging around. I wish we could have just spent hours there (the lockers actually had a two-hour time limit). The four minarets on either side of the tomb are awesome as well. Everything is perfectly symmetrical. We walked around for a little while longer and came back out of the area that needed the shoe covers. Some Indian guys asked to get a picture with us and I coyly said that I would take the pictures for everyone, rather than be in them. It was kinda weird. It was also kind of funny, though, because right before we took the picture, there were some guys who ran over to be in the picture, about 20 guys total in the frame with the five other girls in our group. It was funny.

Then we strolled back to one of the sides of the courtyard to rest for a few minutes in the shade. It was a really beautiful day. And, almost 100 pictures later, our visit to the Taj Mahal was over after we walked back out of the gate and down to where the girls had put their stuff in the locker.
Right inside the security point the post office sells stamps and official post cards, so I bought some stamps there as did the other girls. Then we walked back out to the road (after Blair was followed by a little kid selling snow globes again: “50 rupees? Good deal, 50 rupees. Be careful, camel. Three for 50 rupees? Make a good gift.” All the same breath. Haha.) and got a rickshaw so that we could go see the Agra Fort.

The fort looked really cool and their was a man outside trying to convince me that he would make a good tour guide, but we were kind of short on time and hungry, so we took a few pictures from the outside and walked across the road to a little roadside restaurant. It was funny, there were about three restaurants lined up together and once we got within a few feet men working at each of them came out and tried to yell and gesture toward their restaurant…we were for the one with the menu in English. We enjoyed our food (and, surprisingly, I’m pretty sure no one got sick later). Then, we took another rickshaw to the train station. We had plenty of time before the train, so we stopped in an air conditioned restaurant for some cool air. Then on our way to the train platform, I stopped at an IST STD PCO phonebooth, which are these pay phones, but pay phones in the sense that they are regular phones that people make you pay for, but they’re all over India, marked by black letters with a black background. Anyway, I called Vivek and sure enough he was on his way! He met us at the train platform and told me that he was looking for us at the Agra Fort, since he got done with his work early. So, I was talking to Vivek and we were waiting on the platform. How it works is they announce all the trains over the loudspeaker – at the Delhi station we were at it made the noise just like Windows makes when there’s an error (over and over and over and over again). And, thanks to Trixy’s sharp ears, we noticed that our train was on a different platform entirely! We had to run to the other side of the station, up a ramp, across and down a ramp on the other side, just to be sure we caught the train before it left! All of our seats weren’t together, but Vivek assured me that he could figure it out, so we all sat together. It was the same type of train, still grungy, haha. But once we were actually on the train we were relieved. The ride wasn’t too remarkable – everyone was tired, especially since we had gotten up at 4:30 a.m. I climbed up and slept on the top bunk for a little bit, being careful to position my arm so my face was not in danger of coming too close to the bunk. There was this really cute family in the next compartment that I noticed – the man was a sikh because of the tuban on his head and his wife and son, who was about 8 or 8, were with him. They shared some fruit and talked with the son and slept a little on two of the bunks. It was cute.

Vivek pulled some sweets out of his bag after I woke up and climbed back down into the bottom seat. They were called puta, I think. Imagine some chunks of pineapple that are saturated with sugar and somehow taste like coffee a little bit. Vivek couldn’t really explain what it was made out of, except that it wasn’t pineapple. Haha. Around that time, a family got on the train at one the station stops and a little girl with pigtails sat down in the seat across from us. Blair said that she was all smiley and excited before she started talking her, and we found out it was because she was excited to see some native English-speaking girls. Her name was Dinky and she was 10 years old and phenomenally cute with her little red and white striped outfit and pigtails. She could have passed for a 10-year-old in the United States because her English was so good, and practically accent-free. When she talked she was excited and she tried to answer all of our questions, and some times Vivek helped a little bit, even though his English wasn’t as good as hers. She told us the words in Hindi for yes, no and thank you and explained some of the titles used in Hindi. Usually, tacking –ji onto the end of a word, means the equivalent of sir or ma’am. So, “ha” is the word for yes, and if you say “haji” then you are saying “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am.” Dinky told us that she went to a private boarding school that actually admonished you if you spoke any Hindi rather than English, which is how she knew English so well. I think she said she was even more excited to talk to us because she said she usually talks to men who are native speakers, and was really excited to see that we were all young women. Blair explained that she knew a little girl who she babysits that is the same age as Dinky and gave her address to Dinky so that they could  be pen pals. It was so great! We got some pictures. I wish Dinky had been on the train the entire time!

So, the train finally stopped and we got off, except that Vivek realized that we had gotten off at the wrong train station! We actually got off at the New Delhi station and were supposed to get off at the stop before that, but because we were talking to Dinky, we were distracted (even Vivek, who even told me he thought she was really cute and hopes that his son grows up and can speak English as well as she could). Vivek said it wasn’t a worry and that we could get a taxi to take us back to her guesthouse, he was just a little nervous because he said there’s actually a fine if they find out that you get off at the wrong stop. He generously helped us find a taxi, even though it was already about 9:30 and his motorcycle was at the other train station.

There were so many people at that train station. I wasn’t really too surprised, but seeing everything at night was really different. There were tons of rickshaws out buzzing past the stores with signs stacked on top of one another. But, we made it back to the guesthouse after having a quick dinner. None of the people I had met the night before were awake and we were all really tired anyway, so I went to bed.

Halfway Point

Not that I'm exactly happy to announce this, but I thought everyone might like to know that today marked the halfway point, the 54th day, of our journey. The professor announced this today in Global Studies to a loud boo/sad groan. It was also Friday the 13th and the 13th A class day! OoOooooO.

We were also warned that we have six class days in the next 26 days, so we should be diligent in keeping up with our classes, and I haven't had too much of a problem so far. I do have a test coming up in my sociology class, but I've been trying not to worry too much about class (but not slacking! Don't worry!) and instead trying to enjoy the journey as much as possible.

Incredible India Part Two: The Beginning of Our Trek to the Taj

The next day, I got up and got breakfast and went with a group of girls to the Spencer Plaza, a HUGE shopping mall that has everything from tiny, shops crammed with stuff to big department stores. I think it would take days to even see everything in the mall. I didn’t really buy much because I had to be back at the ship at 1 p.m. But, I did find a music store while we were wandering around, so I had fun seeing all the music there and ended up buying a bunch of CDs and two Bollywood movies for about $30. The exchange rate between the rupee and the dollar is really good right now – it’s 50:1.

So, I was just about to look in the Saree Palace, but I had to get back to the ship to meet the girls I was traveling with to the Taj Mahal. We planned on meeting really early for our 4:30 flight so that we could account for traffic and be at the airport with plenty of time to get onto the flight. We were told by Semester At Sea that you couldn’t take liquids on Indian flights, just like American flights, so we gathered all our toiletries together in one bag. Our plan was to fly from Chennai to Dehli then stay the night in Dehli, catch an early morning train to Agra, see the Taj Mahal, then take the train back to Dehli and stay in Dehli again that night before flying the next night back to Chennai.

So, we were all packed correctly and ready to go to the airport! We got a taxi and got to the airport with plenty of time. It wasn’t a very big airport, so we got through security pretty quickly. The thing that’s different in India is that women and men have to go through the security separately and frisked behind a screen, presumably to retain the modesty of some of the Hindu and Muslim women who prefer to be conservatively covered. Each of the carry-ons had to have a small tag on them stamped by security, as did the checked bag. We waited in the upstairs lobby and got some snacks from a stand. We sat where we could see the smoker’s area – a small glass-enclosed room with a large ventilation fan and a window – which I thought was kind of funny. Once the plane began boarding we took a bus to the airplane and boarded without any trouble. I was sitting in a window seat on the wing and two of the other girls were directly in front of me. The flight was really, really nice. Kingfisher Airlines, which I believe is owned by a beer company of the same name, has a lot of nice accommodations that aren’t present in most American flights. There was a TV in the back of every headrest, and the headphones are complimentary. There was also free food including a “snack” on our afternoon flight to Delhi and a dinner on the way back, which was basically the same amount of food as the generous snack – complete with small entrée, side vegetable, desert and coffee. And these were only two-hour flights. It was great!

Once we landed and got off the plane, Robyn, who had made most of the plans for the trip, had someone from our hostel (they call them guesthouses) come pick us up. So, everything worked out very smoothly and we were able to get the guesthouse with no problems at all. Once there, we met Ferros, who was in charge of the “Sunshine House,” as it was called. The only trouble was that we had actually booked three rooms, decided we only needed two, then were only able to take one because the other people in that room were sick and had to stay an extra night. But the backless wooden couches in the living room doubled as cots, so Ferros just moved two of them into a room with a king-size bed that was big enough for three, so all five of us stayed in one room. We had a shared bathroom connected to one of the other rooms, which was fine.

At first our plan was that we would have enough time to go see a Bollywood movie once we got settled, but by this time is was already 10 o’clock, and not only are the movies usually three hours long, but also we were kind of beat, so instead we just hung around in the living room and talked to the other travelers there after we ordered some take out from a nearby restaurant (even the chicken-fried rice was spicy!). The best part about the guesthouse was Ferros’s little dog, Romey, like Romeo, because they said he loves all the girls that come stay there. As he should – he was a black and brown wiener dog! With his little tail whapping and his waddling all over the place, we enjoyed the fact that he was there.

I also enjoyed the company of the other guests: two Italian girls, who I didn’t get to know too well; an Iranian-Canadian guy named Shayne (pronounced like Cheyenne, Wyoming); and an Irish couple, Tim and Slaine (pronounced slow-na). I really enjoyed talking to the couple, who had just begun their traveling and had arrived in India that day (Friday). They were traveling around India for a while and also decided to trek to Nepal and go up to the Mt. Everest base camp (inspired by Slaine’s sister) and they were also visiting Tibet and Cambodia or Laos, I think. Slaine said they only had about 8 weeks (because they had to get back for Slaine’s sister’s wedding) and had been saving up for about six months. She said after that they were continuing to Australia to look for jobs, Slaine as a dentist and Tim as some kind of architect. Tim said that the two met when they wre in a nightclub and Tim was “taken advantage of,” in his joking words, when Slaine threw her scarf around his neck and started to dance with him. I thought it was cute. They were really cool and I first talked to them about Galway, since that’s where Katie is studying this semester. We also talked a little bit about St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, which the two said was actually more fun in Galway! Even though Tim regaled me a bit with stories of Germany’s Oktoberfest, he, and Slaine alike, said they preferred Irish hard cider and didn’t really like Guiness! Hmm...there goes that stereotype, I guess. We also talked about pets and TV and a few other things. It was a really nice night! And meeting them in India made it even better.

The only bad thing was that I stayed up until about 2 a.m. and we were getting up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the train station early to catch our 6 a.m. train. Hooray! Haha. Actually it wasn’t really a problem. The other girls set their alarms and we all got up and out on time. The train station we went to wasn’t the big New Delhi station, it was a little smaller and more navigable, even though it was still chaos, as I found most of India is. I think we were some of the only white people in the whole place, but we didn’t have any trouble figuring out what platform we were on. We noticed it on a big lighted sign, then asked a security guard and were able to find it just fine. That was an interesting experience – waiting on the train platform amid people sleeping in the station, most of which was open rather than enclosed, people trying to find their train, women carrying large packages on their heads, people selling snacks from little stalls. People everywhere. And kind of dingy and dirty, too. But nothing too scary. It was also comforting that you knew even if something happened that most people spoke English. For instance, once our train got there we wanted to be sure it was the right one and as we were about to get on, we simply asked a young guy if it was the right train and he checked out our ticket paper and helped us. We were lucky to have gotten five seats together on the train to Agra in a six-person little compartment. The seats were like benches and the backrest of the seat could actually be lifted up to make a middle bunk, while there was also a bunk on the top, so when they were all folded properly they were actually three beds. I don’t think our car was air conditioned, but it could have been, either way, it didn’t really bother us since it was early in the morning. Again, the train wasn’t totally filthy, but it was a little rough around the edges and was definitely an interesting experience. Across from the six-person compartment was an aisle, then space for two more seats that also converted into bunks. There were guys that would come past yelling “Chai! Chai!” or whatever they were selling – soup from a large canteen, omlette, and other things. It was about a two and a half hour train ride.

During the course of the ride, I started to talk with the lone person in our compartment who wasn’t in our group, a man named Vivek. I think I first started talking to him about the newspaper he had. It was in Hindi and I couldn’t read it obviously, so I asked him if there was any good news. We talked for most of the train ride and I learned a lot about him. He was a battery salesmen on the way to a meeting in Agra to discuss a new branch of the business there, I think. He was married and just had his three-year anniversary with his wife, Ranjana, and had a 2-month-old son named Daksh, which means “precious,” “costly,” or “valuable.” He said that he had a “love marriage” (as opposed to an arranged marriage) and had met his wife at work. I forget how much schooling he said he had, but I do remember that it seemed like he had been at his job for a while, since he and his co-workers played in a volleyball league at night after work. He was a really, really nice man and helped us out a lot and even went out of his way when he didn’t have to. We were really glad to have him and he became really good friends with me. I didn’t really sleep too much on the train as I had planned to because I was talking to Vivek. His English wasn’t phenomenal, but we could understand each other enough to have a conversation that wasn’t frustrating. I think I remember him saying that he was originally from farther north than Delhi and that he still went to visit his parents there often. He also mentioned that his business plans a vacation for workers and their families to go on and go to the beach every year and that was coming up soon. A few of the other girls started talking to a man on the other side of us in the little two-person compartment. So, the ride was very pleasant all around, I think. Once we got off the train, Vivek helped us find our way out of the station and got us all a taxi so that we could go get breakfast together before venturing to see the Taj Mahal. Vivek even thought he would have enough time to be able to see the monument with us. So, we went to a place called the “Only Restaurant” (for some unknown reason) and had a traditional Indian breakfast, rather than the toast and eggs that the place also offered. It was really good, and wasn’t too spicy. We all got coffee too.

Then we headed off to the Taj. The taxi driver dropped us off and it seemed like the whole place was enclosed in a kind of park atmosphere, which you have to walk through to get to one of the gates where you can get in to see the Taj Mahal. Down the street as we were walking, there are all types of transportation: horse-drawn carts, camel-drawn wagons, rickshaws, etc. There were many different drink and snack carts. There were also lots of people, as there is everywhere in India, and lots of hawkers trying to sell Taj Mahal snow globe key chains, t-shirts, postcards and magnets. All bombarding you with: “50 rupees? How about two for 50? Ok, three for 50? All six of these for 50?” “No, no, no, no.” Since Morocco, I’d like to think I’ve gotten better to saying no to people like that. I also got kind of good at saying no or casting my eyes somewhere else when beggars asked for food. I don’t know if I’m necessarily proud of that, but we can have a long philosophical discussion when I get back about whether or not it’s good to feed or give money to beggars.

We made it to the ticket counter, which was separated by native Indians and foreigners. The Indian government figured it out (which I’m surprised that the American government hasn’t done) that people are going to come see the Taj Mahal regardless of how much they pay, so the foreigner price is Rs750 (about $15), where the Indian price is Rs20 (about $0.40). That being said, a couple of us didn’t have that many rupees in our wallets, so we had to go find an ATM, which wasn’t really close – probably about the equivalent of about 4 or 5 city blocks before we actually found one that was working. And this was the part that Vivek was also an invaluable asset, since he was able to ask people on the street for us and lead us to a reputable bank. It was kind of warm and even Vivek was getting kind of sweaty during our trek. But, we all got out some more money and were finally ready to see the Taj. Unfortunately, Vivek had to leave for his meeting even though he said he had never been to the Taj Mahal before. We said our goodbye before entering an auto-rickshaw, but he had urged me to give him a call as we were waiting for the train back and perhaps he would try and catch the same train back to Delhi with us. But, he did say something to the effect of, “If we’re meant to see each other again, we will, but if not, I’ve truly enjoyed your friendship.” He was just extremely nice and caring – and we had just met him, I couldn’t believe it! I just couldn’t imagine someone in the U.S. opening themselves up enough to do this sort of thing for another American, let alone a foreign visitor. It was truly amazing and a demonstration of one of the best parts of humanity – kindness.

Finally, on to the Taj!

Why don’t I make it a cliffhanger and save that for my next post, since this one is getting kind of long? :o)

Dancing in the Desert

While you, my devoted readers, await my next installment of Indian adventures, I would encourage you to view the Semester At Sea photo slide show from Namibia that has my lovely self in it. I meant to mention it when Dad brought it to my attention about a week ago, but better late than never, I suppose.

Here's the link to the page with all the slide shows so far:

http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/watch-slideshows.php

And then you can choose any of the ones currently posted, and, as I said, I'm in the one from Namibia. Enjoy!

These photos and audio clips are all being taken by a staff photographer employed by Semester At Sea. He was taking pictures last night at karaoke and I asked if he got a few pictures of me if I could maybe have copies of them, but then he said, "All the pictures I take are property of the ISE (Institute for Shipboard Education, which runs SAS), I can't give them out to anyone." Oh, OK, fine. That's kind of creepy, but, I guess I should have sort of known that from working at the Collegian. Oh well, someone else will have photos.

...In between, what I find is pleasing and I'm feeling fine...

Sorry about the first India post - I sent it to the wrong place the first time and it should be posting correctly now (after I sent it I also realized that I repeat myself a little...sorry, I'll fix that later). But, we interrupt Stacey's Indian adventures to bring you this special update:

We had a karaoke night tonight -- and -- guess what?! I sang!!! For some reason, I got up the courage to do it and I signed up yesterday to do "Heart of Glass" by Blondie...I think it went pretty well. My friend Alicia took a video for me. I was a little nervous at first - the Union was pretty full with people since I was close to the beginning of the two-hour long event, like fourth, I think. But, overall, I think I did pretty well. It was so much fun!! I borrowed some leggings from one girl, then had a girl across the hall do my makeup and put on lots of eyeliner and some red lipstick. And I wore this pink shirt off my shoulder to kind of make it look 80s-like. And I tried to frizz up my hair and part it to the side like Blondie. It was so much fun!

A few of the other songs were really good too - I'm a Survivor by Destiny's Child, I Will Survive, I Want It That Way, Man! I Feel Like A Woman -- they were all good, some of the others were just silly. Haha. I was one of only like three people to go by themselves, but I think it worked out well. I wish I could have practiced at least once, then I wouldn't have been so nervous and I could have some dance moves too - I got a little thrown off when there was this unexpectedly long music break. Haha. But it was really fun!!! :o)

I guess you'll all just have to wait to see the video until I get home! Too bad! I wish everyone could have been there to cheer me on.

I will continue with India tomorrow. I think we are now 11 hours ahead of the East Coast.

Incredible India Part One

Even before we got to India, I had a positive first impression of the country. Two students had joined the ship in Mauritius, Sneha and Anousha. They were chosen by their local Rotary club to join the ship. They conducted most of the cultural pre-port meeting for India along with an interport lecturer. After the pre-port meeting, I hung around afterwards because I think a group of us were going to ask a question about which train to take to Agra. Anyway, after the presentation we ended up talking to the girls for upwards of two hours in the hallway outside the Union. It was great! We talked about family, schoolwork, future plans, what India and the U.S. are like. They spoke English really well, but sometimes we would have to rephrase things. It was funny when Anousha and Sneha would disagree about things too. I even learned more about my friends, since we were all sharing stories and everything. They even had little gifts for us – I picked out a little wooden elephant on a keychain. I had bought a few trinkets that say “Pittsburgh” on them in the airport before I left for SAS and gave them to the girls – Sneha picked out a magnet and Anousha picked out a mini deck of cards. Another girl gave out postcards from her home state of Utah. It was a nice meeting.

I had asked about Indian music and Sneha said that she had some CDs that she could give me, but needed to copy them first. So, I came to visit her the next day and talked to the girls for a little bit in the afternoon and she gave me three CDs with mostly Bollywood filmi music on them. Then there was a farewell Q&A reception for them that I went to. It was really great to meet them and that gave me a great, positive feeling about our arrival to Chennai the next day.

First thing in the morning I got up and got breakfast. We weren’t required to pick up our passports for India, but instead needed a shore pass as identification once we were off the ship. So, I had to pick that up after the diplomatic briefing meeting. There was also a money exchange set up on the ship, so I exchanged about $10, just so I would have enough rupees to use a taxi. Then, some of my friends were going to an ATM, but I decided not to, since I had to leave for a trip at 12:30 p.m. and by this time it was already around 10 a.m. My friends left and I went down to my cabin to pack for our trip the next day. I had planned to eat lunch, but got caught up in preparing for our trip, so I just went to the meeting point outside the ship for my field trip.

It was an FDP, or a field directed practicum – basically, an educational field trip – for my English As A Global Language class that was about the use of English at an outsourcing business. It was really interesting. The founder of this company called Congruent, which dealt with managing pension information, spoke to us about the usefulness of outsourcing and the role that English plays in it. The most interesting aspect of his presentation was that he said outsourcing actually isn’t as cost effective as it used to be about 10 years ago when the idea took off – some workers’ skills in IT or American English are actually making them more valuable and irreplaceable, so they can demand or achieve higher salaries. Workers have to learn an American accent in order to communicate with their customers – I think this was illustrated best when the founder said, “Language skills aren’t necessarily communication skills.” He said that watching “Friends” is one way employees actually study American English. The founder used one example, among many, of differences between the British English learned in India and American English: the phrase “touch base” isn’t familiar to Indians since that is a reference to touching baseball bases and the most popular sport in India is cricket. The company employs about 200 people and has branches in the U.S. to help deal with their customers there.

Next, we heard a presentation by the president of the Rotary Club in Chennai. I thought it was interesting, since we got to meet Sneha and Anousha who were sponsored by the organization. He spoke at length about a few of the Rotary’s programs in Chennai, including rebuilding a school, a major renewal program including running water, paved streets and education in a slum neighborhood, and a bakery course program that helped women learn a skill and start their own business. The club seemed to do a lot of good in the city, which countered my image of the Rotary Club as old people who just have luncheons and play bingo. The program has been associated with SAS for 12 years, sending the students on the ship. 

I also noticed that news offices were located in the same building. I thought it was neat to see the tuk-tuks marked “press”. I got speak with the PR representative for the company, Ganesh, who was really interested when I started to talk with him about newspapers in India. Each state has there own newspaper in addition to the nation newspapers in both Hindi and English. He said that you didn’t have to specialize in journalism in school to be able to write for the newspaper. It also seems that if there are so many different newspapers in different languages there would actually be more jobs in print than, for instance, in the U.S. where all of the news in English. I think that should be a new marketing strategy for the newspaper industry – get everyone to speak a different language! Haha. Then I told him I was collecting newspapers from each country and he collected some newspapers from around the office and gave them to me. It was so nice of him! They served us some snacks including samosas (which I would have about 6 of over the course of the entire stay in India). They also gave us each a gift, which turned out later to be little wooden peacocks and elephants. Then we were able to go up to the rooftop, which seemed like where everyone from the office building came to eat lunch and take breaks from work. It was nice, since there was a horse racetrack near the building, but the area was crisscrossed by highways and it was a pretty industrial place. Overall, I enjoyed the FDP.

It’s strange because I remember odd things from that day that have stuck in my mind. Like the traffic that we were immersed in with all types of honking horns, motorcycles in huge packs – some with the father driving, the daughter smushed in the middle and the mom in the back – buses packed full of people. The smell of the city, which was like soot and exhaust near the port, fish and sewage near the beach, garbage and dirt in the city. All the colors of the people – their skin as well as their clothes – all different shades. It seems socially acceptable to throw garbage into the street. And, for some reason, everything seems covered with a thin layer of dirt; grimier than any place in the United States. And that’s just how it is, unless you’re inside a business or a home. The other thing that makes India unique is the languages. Unless you’re familiar with Hindi, there are hardly any similarities I could pick up on with any of the romance languages, so I was completely lost. But, then again, just about everyone knows at least a little English. In my opinion, most of the charm of India comes from its people. I didn’t meet a single person who was rude or uncaring directly to me in the five days we were there. Everyone was kind, hospitable and helpful.

That night, I went to a welcome reception that Semester At Sea had planned with some college students from an engineering school in Chennai. There are a lot of higher education schools in India. I think I understood that most kids start school at the age of three, have three years of kindergarten and then go to 12 years of grade school, similar to what we have. I think there are a few tests, one between 10th and 11th grade and one after 12th grade, which the students must pass in order to continue to the next level of education. Sneha also said that there’s an interview with students and parents between the kindergarten and 1st grade level that is very difficult and helps determine where you will go to grade school. Then I think you are able to get your undergraduate degree in two years and masters in two years, but I could be wrong. Everyone strives to send their kids to private school for obvious reasons, just like in the U.S. The taxi driver that we hired one day said that he hadn’t taken a day off in seven years just so his three kids could afford to go to a private school and his wife wouldn’t have to work.

The reception was at a hotel outside in a courtyard. We were greeted by women who gave us flower garlands and put kum-kum on our foreheads (those red dots in the middle of Hindu women’s foreheads). Then we were greeted by the college students and I met two guys (who I think were a little nervous) and talked to them for a bit before I wandered away to talk to another SASer and a guy he had met. All in all, I think I met about five students and we talked about school and family and stuff like that. Since they were all engineering students (most were electronics engineers) I mentioned that my dad was an engineer. One girl asked what kind of engineer he was and after I told her that he’s a chemical engineer she said, “Oh, he must be very brilliant to be a chemical engineer.” I, of course, said that I wish he could’ve heard her say that! Haha. There were some food and drinks for us, so I sat with one of the students and another SASer to eat while we chatted and watched a Indian classical dance performance. I also got my first serving of chai tea (but the word “chai” means “tea” so I learned that “chai tea” is actually  redundant), which was so good! I found out later that the tea and milk and water are actually boiled together, so it is much richer and milkier than the way we think of regular tea. It was really good! With my chai in hand I walked around to where there was a long set of tables with Indian handicrafts on them – I just looked, however, and didn’t buy anything. No sooner did I start talking with the girl (who’s name was also Sneha) that complimented Dad’s career choice than did I hear that we were supposed to get back on the bus. We got back to the ship at about 10 p.m. I chalked up a great first day in India. But the adventures in "Incredible India," as it's called in the tourism ads, was just beginning!

Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka dot bikini

Number of guys wearing a speedo on the pool deck: 1 (of about 15)
Number of girls wearing a one-piece swimsuit on pool deck: 1 (of about 25)

I was one of those ones, and let me tell you, I wasn’t in the speedo! Haha. What was even funnier was that the guy in the speedo was less than two feet away from me while we were sunbathing. I was excited even though I was in my one-piece swimsuit, because today, aside from Neptune Day (which doesn’t really count because that was for like 30 seconds), was the first time I went in the swimming pool on the ship. I wasn’t going to let the fact that I can’t parade around in a bikini stop me from having fun –and it was fun! I was actually really surprised when I jumped in because the water’s really salty –they must fill it with ocean water. Someone told me that it was from the ocean, but I must have forgotten how salty ocean water really was, I guess. It was a really nice afternoon. First, I sat outside with my feet in the water and read an article for one of my classes, then I put my swimsuit on and went back outside, read some for another class and then jumped in the pool for a little bit. Hmm, seems I heard that there’s snow on the East Coast right now? It was in the mid-80s here! Man, do I feel sad that I’m missing winter…I don’t think so!

The group of girls I’m traveling with finally figured out our plane and train plans to get from Chennai, where the ship is docking, to Agra to see the Taj Mahal! We’re taking the middle three of the five days we’re in India –flying from Chennai to Dehli, next day train from Dehli to Agra, then vice versa after our sightseeing. And, we’re trying to make plans to see a Bollywood movie, (they’re three hours long)!

Tonight we had the usual cultural pre-port meeting where guest lecturers speak about the culture of each port. There are two interport students on the ship as well as an interport lecturer that just got on the ship between Mauritius and Chennai. One is an undergrad studying business, Sneha, and the other is a grad student studying retail management, Anusha. They touched on a lot of things and then ended their presentation with how to tie a sari and a demonstration of how to make a rangoli –a good luck symbol in flour that is put outside homes and acts as food for bugs so they stay out of the house. After the lecture, somehow it worked out that a group of six of us hung around to ask questions (I think about our train tickets, actually) and then we ended up talking to the girls for almost three hours! It was great –Sneha had some little gifts that she gave us and then I remembered that I had bought little things from Pittsburgh at the airport, just for such occasions. So, Sneha chose a magnet of Pennsylvania and Anousha took a little deck of cards with Pittsburgh on the front. Another girl, Alicia, gave them postcards from Utah. It was also really cool because we were sitting with another girl, named Shafiqa, who’s family is Afghani. We were all having a great cultural exchange with one another. We talked about everything from what to do and eat in India to clothing, comparing how college life is, family life, weddings, weather, Bollywood, etc. I asked Sneha if she could tell me some good Indian music, and she said, “Oh, I can just give you some.”Yay! So, I’m meeting her in her cabin tomorrow at noon to talk about Indian music and she’s burning me some CDs. She took down our contact info too and we’re gonna be Facebook friends.

Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day!

I'm sorry but the ocean's BLUE!!

The Sea Olympics were scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. after we returned to the ship from Mauritius. I think I mentioned this before, but all of the students are divided by cabin into “seas”that all have a “living-learning coordinator,”or LLC, which would be equivalent to floors in the dorms being supervised by a resident assistant. Each of the seas have the name of a real sea –since I’m on the port side of the third deck, I belong to the Mediterranean Sea. Our color is blue. Other seas include the Caribbean, Yellow, Red, Aegean, Baltic, Bering and Adriatic as well as a few others. Each of them has a corresponding color as well. So, after I showered I put on my blue Semester at Sea t-shirt and bandana, then went over to where most of our sea congregates, a large empty space in front of our LLC’s cabin –lovingly dubbed our “lounge.”Everyone was told to meet there before the opening ceremony to get some blue face paint and then we all marched up to the Union and waited until they let us. That got a little crazy, since all the seas were hyped up and chanting, wanting to get into the Union.

Each sea was judged during the opening ceremony on their chant, mascot and flag. Since we were blue, all we came up with for a mascot was a Smurf, so one of the guys in our sea had red shorts and a tossle cap on. He was painted blue and even painted his beard white. He looked pretty good. Haha. Then, our flag also had a big Smurf on it blowing a huge wave labeled “Mediterranean”onto these little boats with all the other seas’names on them. It turned out really well. (I helped plan it a little with a group of people, then another girl drew and colored it in.) Our chant went something like this: “Pink, yellow, purple, white –I could keep this up all night –black, green, brown, BOO! I’m sorry but the ocean’s BLUE!!”Haha. Then we had a little dance with some stomping and clapping. It was pretty fun. We got some of the words jumbled when we did it, though. But throughout the whole ceremony everybody was cheering and excited for their sea, which was really fun –it reminded me of a little of a Penn State football game! We didn’t win any of those medals, though (as I learned at the closing ceremonies).

There were a number of events that were available to participate in throughout the day. Everyone signed up ahead of time and was given a schedule, since each thing was at a different time in different locations around the ship. I had signed up for the orange pass and fireman’s line (when you try and pass water from one end of a line to the other and fill up a pitcher). Both of those were a part of the Olympic Relay, which was in the morning. I was only upset that I didn’t get to sleep in any more than I did because we didn’t have class yesterday. Otherwise, both of the events were really fun! I was on the end of both of the lines –I got to take the orange from our line and tag the people doing the three-legged race and then was on the end pouring water from our line into the pitcher. It was really fun!! The only problem was everyone was jumbled in the same area on the seventh deck and those who weren’t finished with the orange pass were horizontal across the deck while the fireman’s line was trying to go vertically. Then, people were walking between me and the pitcher. So, we ended up…winning our heat!! Yay!! There were two heats, though, and the judges were basing their scores on time. So, we still got the bronze medal!!

After that we just did OK –three bronze medals and two silver medals –coming in second to last place. I think we did really well for the small number of people we had involved from our sea. Some of the other seas had more people that were really into it. I don’t know what was the matter with us anti-social Med. Sea kids.

The best event of the day was in the late afternoon: Synchronized swimming. Oh, yeah. It was great! Each sea did like a five minute routine. I thought they were all going to be kind of lame because of our crazy schedules and time in port and everything like that, but all the seas pulled it together and did great. Some of them were themed –one sea made fun of our executive dean (he likes to work out, so they had a guy with fake muscles), another used Thriller to start off, another did one themed to each country we’ve visited already (for South Africa they used Lion King music and had a kid pretend to be Simba –it was hilarious). Our sea did a mish-mash of songs and Yash was in it. All the guys did this really funny N*Sync thing –he was much more coordinated than I thought he would be! They also did part of the routine swaying and spinning umbrellas. It was great! And I had a really good spot to watch, right in front of the pool deck –I just wish I would have had my camera with me.

During the closing ceremonies last night, all the final medals were announced –synchronized swimming, mashed potato sculpting and the mascot, etc. as I mentioned. I don’t know what the winners actually will get, if anything, but the rumor is that they get to be first off the ship in Florida, which would be pretty sweet.

Ok, so now we’re finally all caught up to the present! I have a paper to write for one of my classes, so I should get to that. I’ve been trying to make plans with some girls for India and Japan. They’re coming together, but we had some snags trying to book a flight. It’s so hard to communicate with the outside world on this ship!

Speaking of communication, you should all write a comment or e-mail me –thanks for your reminder to everyone, Mom! And thank you to all those people who have commented and written. Even if you haven’t talked to me since January, feel free to e-mail! You might think your life is boring, but since mine is so crazy it’s nice to hear about the regular stuff that everyone is doing. Otherwise, all I have to think about is schoolwork and worrying about trips and such. And, I will definitely reply to all e-mails as soon as I get a chance. I love getting e-mails and check them all the time, but my family can only do so much!

Paradise Lost

Ah, the day in Mauritius was an interesting one. I decided it would be a good idea to take the city orientation tour to learn a little bit about the country itself, rather than just doing a snorkeling or diving trip and then I would have time afterwards to do that sort of thing. Well, the city orientation actually just went to a Hindu temple and the botanical gardens. I was expecting to see downtown Port Louis, but I don’t know why, since we get to read the descriptions of the trips beforehand. I really wanted to go snorkeling after the trip, and somehow thought I would have time, but it ended up not working out.

Anyway, we arrived in Mauritius on time at about 8 a.m. and listened to the US consulate give us a diplomatic briefing before getting off the ship and heading out for our tour. The trip was interesting, but it was really humid and sunny and I would have rather been at the beach. First we stopped on top of this big hill (or maybe a small mountain?) where a fort was located to defend Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius, but it has been virtually never used. The views of the city are nice, though, and you can see the horse racing track right below the hill –apparently it’s the second oldest behind one of the racetracks in England.

Next we stopped at a Hindu temple on the island. It was really pretty, really colorful, but the guide didn’t explain much else to us. There was a main entrance where you take your shoes off, then a shrine (I think) outside in the middle of this courtyard, then the actual temple itself, which we didn’t go in because of the religious significance, I think. The temple had a sign up for a preschool and I could see the buildings off to one side and there was also a cage with about 8 peacocks in it behind the temple. Pretty cool.

Our next stop was the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens. The gardens have been there for over 200 years, I believe, but was renamed in the 1960s after Mauritius gained its independence. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam was the first prime minister of the country and lots of things are named after him. Our guide showed us around the garden and introduced some of 80 varieties palm trees that they have growing there –one that only blooms every sixty years
(the Talipot Palm), another that looks like an elephant foot –then we also passed a pool full of lily pads originally from the Amazon, which, as the guide said, can hold a newborn baby afloat for 30 seconds. They were huge and their flowers were pretty. Speaking of flowers there was also a pool full of lotus plants and blossoms. I took some pictures of their pretty flowers, too. We also stopped for a few minutes at this enclosure with about a dozen giant tortoises. There was once a type of giant tortoise that was native to the island, but passing travelers would eat them and contributed to their eventual extinction. These giant tortoises are actually native to the neighboring island nation of Seychelles. They were pretty cute and huge! Some of them were moving around too, and they were moving a lot faster than I thought they would be. I could have sat for a while longer just to watch them munch on the greens on the ground for lunch. It was so cute! There was another enclosure with little deer from Java. There was a little girl standing on my right and a deer trotted over from the middle to near where we were standing. It was funny and the little girl liked it. There is also a colonial house in the garden, which I think was only used up until the country got its independence, but it may have been used by the former prime minister, I’m not sure. There were lots of pictures of him in a little display in the house. He is also buried on the grounds of the garden. After the tour, on our way back to the ship, we passed a sugar cane plantation. Most of Mauritius’s economy used to based on sugar, but the island is trying to move away from that industry and into ITS and computers.

I returned the ship from the tour, and found Emily who I was going to go get lunch with. My only problem was that she didn’t want to go to the beach, but I really wanted to. For some reason, I couldn’t find someone to go with. (Later, a girl who happened to be on the city orientation said she would have went with me. Ugh.) So I walked around and found someplace to eat lunch after we took the water taxi across the bay from the ship to the waterfront area. We stopped at a little café and noticed one of the professors by herself, so I asked her if she wanted to join us. Her name is Marchesa and she is an anthropology professor. So that was interesting. Then, I ended up breaking from Emily and shopped around by myself. I went to find a newspaper and wandered out of the waterfront to the market, which was more of a local thing. I was interviewed by the videopgrapher even though I wasn’t happy that I hadn’t gone to the beach. One of the librarians said they had gone to the beach and that it was a half hour taxi ride that cost US$35, and this was at about 4 p.m., so I didn’t have quite enough time or money to go by myself. I was kind of upset about it, because that’s really all I wanted to do in Mauritius. Instead I hung around for a little while longer before I went to the internet café to talk with Tim and Mom on Skype.

I talked to Tim for almost an hour, then called Mom on a fluke, thinking that since it was a Friday morning no one would be around, but she answered! She seemed happy to hear from me, even though she said I woke her up (this was at like 6 p.m. in Mauritius, so it was about 8 a.m. at home). Well, this is where the adventure begins: I finished talking to Mom and realized that I had about 20 minutes to get back to the ship! We had to be on the ship by 8 o’clock and I had just lost track of time, since the clock on the computer I was sitting at was an hour behind. So, I go up to pay for the internet and I don’t have enough! It was supposed to be like 290 rupees and I only had 190! And they didn’t take credit cards. So, I just thought I would run outside to an ATM. Well, running outside required you to run outside, down into a pedestrian walkway under the highway, and to the ATM. I put my card in and it was processing my request and instead of giving money it said that the transaction could not be completed because the machine wasn’t working. Oh, crap. I went into panic mode –I had to get back to the ship, what was I going to do?! A guy had asked me if I needed a taxi as I was running to the ATM, so I hurriedly asked him if there was another ATM nearby. He pointed down the street and tried to give me directions. I ran down the street for a block and was so panicked that I couldn’t find it –everything seemed closed up. So, I ran back down the street and figured, you know what, screw the internet café, because I had about 10 minutes to get back to the ship. All I had left was US$4. I pleaded with the taxi driver to take me to the ship because that was all I had left and he kindly obliged. (Actually, the drive wasn’t as far as I thought it would be, so that was probably about what it was worth.) I got back to the ship and there was actually another girl in front of me who was just as rushed. I had about 5 minutes to spare when I got back on the ship, so I wrote two postcards quickly (because they have to be in by on-ship time if you send them from the ship). Whew. And I missed dinner, but I didn’t get any dock time! I was just glad to get back on the ship.

So, I came back and got a shower, which I really needed, since it was so freaking humid in Mauritius. Then it was time for the opening of the Sea Olympics! That’s my next post!

Cape Town: Part Three

On Saturday, I went on another tour that maybe I could have skipped, but it was still a little different from what I had seen before. We went to the Castle of Good Hope again, but the guide we had this time was extremely knowledgeable and loved to explain things for us when we asked questions. After the Castle of Good Hope we went back to the District Six Museum. From there we did walk a bit in front of the building where Capetonians used to appeal their racial class assignment. Outside, two benches had been placed to commemorate that –one said “non-whites”and the other said “whites.”We walked through Company’s Gardens again. We passed St. George’s church, where Desmond Tutu was the archbishop. Then we passed through Green Market Square (which is also where all of the Cape Town newspapers have their offices! Eee! :o) ). And we finally stopped for sandwiches at this little restaurant (that was oddly themed with pictures of old American movie stars). Next we went to this really cool organization called Streetwires, where they make everything out of the characteristic wire-and-beaded crafts of South Africa. To describe it, it’s kind of like those bead and ribbon things that everybody used to do a few years ago, but with a much better quality –and they can make anything out of the wire. They explained that if you want something made you can let them know and they will design it for you. They even have other stores that continually stock their designs. The point of the project is to employ people from the community and give a structure to the traditional craftmaking. There were even two sculptures of Nelson Mandela made entirely out of beads and wire. It was impressive.

After we got back from the tour, I met up with two other girls who wanted to go out shopping, so I walked around with them for a while and then did some shopping of my own for the rest of the afternoon. Then, I met up with my friend Charlie for dinner at the same restaurant that had free wi-fi as the night before. I enjoyed dinner, but the manager said there was something wrong with the internet connection, so I went outside of the mall to get their wi-fi. I talked to Mom and Dad and Amy for a little bit. Then I talked to Tim for a bit until my computer died. I went back to the ship to recharge my battery and then came back to the mall in the middle of the night so that I could talk to Tim again. When I finished, I walked back to the ship and called it a night.

I got up the next day for my FDP, which is a field-directed practicum, which are supposed to be educational. Most classes require that you do three, but my professors have been pretty lenient. Anyway, this one went to the Afrikaans language monument and museum. The monument has kind of a strange art-deco-rocket-type shape with lots of symbolic meaning about every part of it, but it was in a really beautiful location –at the top of a mountain near the winelands. It was constructed in 1975 during the apartheid government and is more symbolic of the use of the languages and it’s formation than anything else. The monument is huge –it was big enough to walk into and was probably about 3 stories high. The buildings and set up of the place around it reminded me of a state park (like when we went to go see the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon) with a ten-minute explanation of the monument by a guide and not much else. I did learn that about 56 million people speak Afrikaans, a Dutch creole –which is to say, a mix of Dutch with some native African influence –it even has some similar words in French. Everyone learns both English and Afrikaans in school and some universities even continue to lecture in Afrikaans as its primary language. So, I learned a few things, got some nice mountain vista pictures and we were on our way.

We were actually supposed to also go to the Afrikaans language museum, but because it was a Sunday, the museum was closed. Our professor didn’t seem to broken up about it –he said the museum is basically a Dutch colonial house where a meeting was held by some of the Dutch farmers to recognize Afrikaans as a language. The countryside was beautiful! All green because of the grape vineyards stretching over these pretty rolling hills. Our next stop was the Boschendal winery, which was amazingly beautiful. We had lunch there, but we didn’t have enough time to do any wine tasting. It was really pretty and the weather was just right –sunny and breezy, but cool in the shade. Our next stop was in the little town of Stellenbosch. It was so cute and nice in the hilly wine country with a bunch of little shops and restaurants and hotels. There’s also a university there, which, as our professor told us, apparently grooms many rugby players and is one of the most rugby-oriented town in South Africa. It looked like a nice little town that you could probably spend some leisurely time walking around and enjoying the atmosphere. I knew I needed to do some wine-tasting there, so there were a few people who wanted to find a place and followed them. We ended up seeing our professor at a café that had tasting, so I sat with a kid named Smith next to the professor, Professor Thomas, my English As A Global Language prof. He was with his wife and had to explain how to taste the wine to us a little bit. I think I liked the white wines better, but I like the shiraz a lot too. We had a good time tasting, but we had to get back on the bus and get back to the ship. We returned at about 5-ish and got back to the ship before our required time at 6 p.m.

I filled out some postcards and some paperwork that allows you as a foreigner to get the tax back on most of the items you buy. But, it takes three months to process and they didn’t tell us the total, they just stapled the receipts to the form. Oh well, any money back is better than no money back, right?



Whew! Finally done with this Cape Town posting! I’ll tell you about Mauritius soon –since our time there was so short the post should be too, right? And all about the events today with the Sea Olympics!