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!