The journey is my home.

My Greatest Hits

2008-05-15T18:44:00.006-05:00

I graduate from college on Sunday. It's hard to believe. I'm a completely different person than when I first stepped onto ONU's campus. As part of a farewell to the seniors in my sorority, the academic chair made a slide show featuring some of our most memorable moments. It was sort of a "Greatest Hits of College." When I was watching the part about me, it was interesting to think that perhaps a year ago, those would have been some of my most memorable moments as a college student, but now a year and 21,176 nautical miles later, they don't even make the top 50. I'm still processing the things that experienced and learned on Semester at Sea. I'm still understanding the ways in which I've changed and why. The ways that I've changed aren't obvious to the casual observer or casual friend. My goals in life changed, in my opinion, for the better. My political views shifted considerably. I stand up for myself more. When I returned home it was difficult to decide when to speak and when to bite my tongue, and I mostly keep my political views to myself now, unless talking with another SAS alum. I still haven't quite adjusted back to the U.S., and I'm not sure that I ever will. I have different expectations for myself than I did before I left. There is an idea that I had about my life and how it was supposed to work out in accordance with society. I realized that society's expectations are wrong for me. My life is for me to live according to my timeline, and I'm never going to settle for anything less that what I want for my life. My "Greatest Hits of College" all come from my voyage with Semester at Sea. When I graduate on Sunday completely changed from the person I was when I started at ONU, I know that it was not ONU that contributed most to the person that I am. My parents, my friends, and my Semester at Sea experiences get that credit.

2007-12-02T07:05:00.001-05:00

The Ambassador’s Ball was last night. It’s December now. It’s real that we’re going home. I’ve been denying it, but I can’t anymore. There is a bulletin board on the ship that has some of the questions we’ll be asked when we get home on it. I don’t have answers, not the answers that people will want. What port was my favorite? I have one, but just barely. It doesn’t make sense that it is my favorite, yet still it is. How was it? Someone wrote on the bulletin board “How were your last three and a half months?” Can we tell someone who is actually interested from the casual question just to be polite? There are programs on re-entry basically every night until we get back to Miami. Tonight there’s one on how to talk to people about your experiences. I’m not ready to talk about my experiences. I don’t even know where I would start with someone who was actually interested in hearing about them. I’m not sure if I should talk about the funniest things or the most life changing things or start with the earliest things. There are habits that I have picked up in port that I haven’t quite been able to shake. The Indian head bobble. The lisp in my Spanish, when I pronounce an ‘s’ at all. The bow I picked up in Japan, that I still use, though now it’s in combination with “Gracia.” (no ‘s’ at the end)

There are so many things that made the last 3 months what they were. The kofte, udon and unagi, naan, pho, apple tea, sangria, haggling, 4-5 hour bus rides, the little tricycle that hasn’t faded from my thoughts, lifeboat drill on Thanksgiving, being a ‘princess,’ cheesy pick up lines, bats, Varanasi, “mystery cream” in Japanese pastries, Shinkansen, sake, yen, euro, yuan, rupees, kuna, lira, camel rides and elephant rides, being stopped to take pictures with the locals, conversations with random people I sat next to on planes, trains, and bus rides, Hero, Stardust, Mulan, Spirited Away, eating jellyfish, ox tongue, and bird’s nest soup, acting out the process of making butter in order to bridge the communication barrier, confessional videos, seeing nearly every middle aged American man in Bangkok with at least one Thai hooker, the Great Wall, Peking Duck, getting lost, figuring out how to get back, the presence of KFC everywhere, perfume bottles in exchange for conversation, sunrises and sunsets, seeing the difference between a war memorial and a peace memorial, being comforted by a Japanese man at Hiroshima, the stairs at the Great Wall and Angkor Wat, the 34 ramps at the Giralda, looking at Singapore all day but not actually being able to experience it, work outs with Donna and Nicole, Donica, the 67th, Stardust, Croatian pizza, grocery stores always being closed when I try to go to them, the depressing Split Zoo, batiks, calligraphy lesson, Ganesh, Shiva, Buddha, deep fried bread, Taco Day, taking a terrifying rickshaw ride, offending an entire group of Indian men because I hugged one of my female friends, 36 Sticks, Ben and Jerry’s right across from the Cadiz Cathedral, the landmine victim selling books outside of the National Museum in Cambodia, the bumpy runway at Xian, Henrys, Leroys, railpasses, trams, SkyTrain, taking Pepto with nearly every meal in port from China to Turkey, sunset at the Imperial Palace, the only guy will to stand up for me in India being the videographer, Dean’s Memos, awkward turtle, rock gardens, tea gardens, orange trees, opera themed hotels, having an ATM card that didn’t work all the way from China until Egypt, no where in Spain converting kuna, bird watching, people watching, carriage rides, buying bracelets from every child at Phrah Khan, not having any clothes in my size anywhere in Thailand, having my dead batteries taken from me the only time I was pick pocketed, crispy mint M&Ms, nearly everything at the Dubrovnik Aquarium being labeled incorrectly, Ben Thanh Market, Kapali Carsi, Silk Market, seeing a statue of Victor Hugo in a house of worship, setting off the metal detectors everywhere in Thailand but just being waved through because I’m an American, not having to have any form of ID on any flight in Egypt, chicken baskets, Planter Spunch, Gulliver’s Travelers Tavern, bamboo rafting, retarding clocks, security checks in India at the airport, giant rifles being present everywhere in India, Egypt, and Turkey, paparazzi, cable knit sweaters, castles, Scattegories, the Union, anything but studying study sessions, unfair Global exams, leery waiter, always getting 2 desserts, the Voice, head bobbling, bowing, being from everywhere except for the U.S. in Egypt and Turkey, can-bottles, Pillow Talk, standing for a montage of photos of the king before a movie in Thailand, baksheesh, scarves, all 6 Mohammads helping lead my trip in Egypt, seeing Japanese people everywhere, being cut in line by French people anywhere they were, the quest for a Turkish bath, Black Cat Bistro, Vigor, getting saved by the hair, my new Spanish lisp, the lack of pronunciation of the letter ‘s’ in Andalucía, being the navigator, silk, Grand Theft Blanket, mashed potatoes for breakfast, mummies, crypts, cisterns, mosques, cathedrals, temples, waterfalls, learning to sleep whenever I was in transit, Sukhumvit Night Market, the Paragon, Mao watches, rumors, Boss, Can You Beat Ken?, tigers, crocodiles, snakes, being the only girl out of a group of 11 that could handle getting rid of a spider, writing the Honor Code on my exams, cramming 5 days of clothes and toiletries in a bookbag and saving room to buy other things, the line for add/drop, what did happen to September 7?, fugu, the Beijing ‘funk’, the hours spent laughing about that one time in “insert country here,” the gang that hangs out in 4048, my work out and B day lunch buddies.

This morning someone asked me what my area code was. I had to have a few seconds to think about it. Then I needed to figure out my entire phone number and my address and my AIM screen name. At home I’ll be switching from cabin numbers to addresses, from A and B days to days of the week. I haven’t known what day of the week it was since the beginning of September. I won’t be using countries as a point of reference anymore- no more saying, “Was that before or after India? That’s not to say that I’m not excited about home. I am; it’s just that home won’t be the same as when I left. No, that’s not true. Cardington will be the same. But I won’t. I’m excited to see my family and catch up with my friends, but right now the whole process of going home is a little overwhelming. Home is just going to be the next adventure.

I've tried uploading a few pictures, but the internet is too slow right now. I have around 7,500 when I get home though.

Spain

2007-11-28T02:45:00.000-05:00

I apologize for how horribly written this is, but I did it last night after I got back on the ship. I have a lot to get down with finals and things now, so that's the only way this entry was getting written.

Nov. 23, 2007
“Is this where they breed those bulls that kick?”
Cadiz y Sevilla, España

I woke up at 7 to watch us pull into port. No one else was out there, so I just went to breakfast. I met up with Kristy and Beth and everyone else followed. The ship was cleared very quickly, and Caitlin, Meghan, and I were ready to leave the ship as soon as it was. We got off the ship as quickly as possible, and darted to the train station to get on the quickest train to Sevilla. We found the train station fairly easily. I think it helped that Meghan and I could ask directions and understand them in Spanish. We got to the station before most of the other SASers did. We got on the first train and there were probably only 15 SASers on the train.

When we got to Sevilla we took a taxi to the Alcazar. We weren’t actually going there yet; we just wanted to get ourselves to that general area. Once we got there we looked around for a hotel. We walked up a street near the Catedral and stopped in the first hotel that we found. The receptionist told us that they were booked because there was a horse show in the city, and we were going to have a very hard time finding a hotel. We kept walking and then found one just down the street. We wanted to get it for 2 nights, but they only had space for one. We changed our plans a bit, and decided to head to Cordoba the next day rather than in two days. After we got ourselves checked into the hotel, we decided to get some lunch. We found a little café near the Catedral and got some lunch. Afterwards we went to the Catedral. The Sevilla Catedral is the 3rd largest in the world and holds the supposed remains of Christopher Columbus. They’re actually likely his sons, but it hasn’t been proven, so they can still claim that they belong to Columbus. The three of us decided to climb up the Giralda, which is the bell tower that is attached to the Catedral from when the Moors were in Andalucía. There were ramps up to the top rather than stairs because they used to take horses up to the top. There were 34. It was quite a hike up to the top, but it was completely worth it. The views of the city were unbelievable.

When we left the Catedral we went to the Alcazar. We got in for free because we’re students. The Alcazar was beautiful. I loved the tilework. I could have wondered around for several more hours than I did. Caitlin was tired of the whole thing, and Meghan had been there before, so they were both ready to leave long before I was. When they finally did drag me out they decided they wanted to take a quick power nap. I believed them when they said it was going to be quick, so I went back with them. After an hour and a half I tried to wake them up, but they refused to move. I tried several more times, but with no success. I wanted to leave and explore a little on my own, but I couldn’t even get them alert enough to tell them that I was leaving, so I ended up staying. After 4 hours I just figured they weren’t getting up and it was getting late anyway, so I gave up and crawled into bed. Just about as soon as I got into bed, they decided it was finally time to wake up, so we got out for dinner around 10. Meghan wanted to find a tapas bar, and was convinced that she remembered where they were from when she was there over the summer, so I followed her on what turned out to be a wild goose chase across the city. We did end up at the hotel that she stayed at over the summer. She wanted us to see it. After that, she was even more convinced she could get us to tapas bars, but she failed. We did end up near the Torre de Oro. I finally got to see it, even though I couldn’t go in because it was closed (as it should be at 10:30 at night). We couldn’t find tapas bars so we ended up going to a little café and then getting ice cream. We went back to the hotel for the night so we could get up for the early train to Cordoba.

Nov. 24, 2007
“If I’m going to be poor and alone with all of my birds, I’d rather not know.”
Sevilla, Cordoba, y Granada, España

We checked out of the hotel and had the receptionist call us a taxi. The taxi driver didn’t reset the meter when we got in, but we didn’t end up noticing until it was much too late. The ride was a lot more expensive than it should have been. We got there and figured out the ticket situation and found our train. When we got to Cordoba, we tried to figure out how we were going to get to Granada that evening. The bus station was across from the train station, so we went over and bought tickets for the 4:30 bus.

We got a taxi to the Mezquita, but it was closed for mass. We decided to get breakfast at a little pastry shop across from the Mezquita and then decided to walk to the Alcazar. It was open yet, either, so we walked off in search of the tourist information center just because I wanted to get a map. We actually walked right past it and didn’t even realize it. We continued walking because we had a lot of time to kill. Eventually we ran into a couple of scary dogs and a potentially crazy man, so we turned around and went back. When we got back we saw the tourist information center was right across from the Alcazar. We got into the Alcazar with a student rate. I enjoyed the building immensely and the gardens were striking as well. I have become a big fan of gardens on this trip. There’s just something relaxing about them. Anyway, we walked through all of the grounds. When we left we decided to take a carriage ride around the city. The tour was entirely in Spanish, but I was able to understand most of it when the driver spoke slow enough.

After the carriage ride, we walked to the Mezquita, but decided to get lunch before we went in. There was a Burger King right across the street, so we went there. The cashier there spoke really good English, and we talked to him for a while, then finally went into the Mezquita. It was a mosque that was later used as a Catedral. It was spectacular. I spent a long time exploring, but Caitlin was getting bored and Meghan had already been there, so I got through it kind of fast. When we left we had several hours before we had to catch our bus to Granada, but we decided to try and switch our tickets to the 3:30 bus and just leave early. It took a combination of mine and Meghan’s Spanish skills to be able to convey that we were trying to switch our ticket time and the man at the ticket booth left once to laugh at us, but we got our tickets changed. There was a candy store in the station, and we all got a little something for our 3 hour drive to Granada. I slept most of the way there.

We decided we were going to try and stay in a cave hotel in Granada because it was the cheapest thing there. We got a taxi and told him where to go. He understood what we wanted, and seemed to know where it was, but didn’t actually. We got dropped off at some random spot on the mountain and couldn’t find the hotel, so we walked down. We stopped in the first hotel on the main street to look for a room. We got ourselves a room for about as cheap as we were going to find in the main city. It was just as cheap for a hostel for 3 people, so we took it. We dropped our bags off and then went to find dinner. We went into a little sports bar and watched the Barcelona soccer game while we ate. I had some sangria and then we went back to the hotel.

Nov. 25, 2007
“How’s the inflamed esophagus?”
Granada, España

We left the hotel kind of early in the morning so we could have a full day to explore the Alhambra. We had a little difficulty finding the bus we needed to get to take us up the mountain. We asked an older man where the bus stop was and he walked us there. There was another man talking to the bus driver in Spanish, and Caitlin wanted to know what they were talking about, so Meghan tried to translate for her. They weren’t talking quietly because there was a language barrier (or so that had assumed). He started talking to Meghan in English though, and they knew that they had assumed wrongly. When we got up to the top of the mountain, we got our tickets with our assigned time to visit the Palacio and had morning tickets to go to the Alcazaba and the Generalife. The Alhambra was amazing. The gardens were lovely and I was very captivated by the tile work and the carvings. Like always, I could have explored all day, but everyone else was ready to leave. We left a little after 1 and caught the bus down the mountain. We got lunch at a little pizza place near Plaza Nueva.

Meghan and Caitlin decided they wanted to go to the train station and get our tickets back to Cadiz and then go back to the hotel to take a nap. I knew what napping meant for them, so I decided that while they did that I was going to explore the city some on my own. There was art museum and a monastery that I wanted to go to, and they were relatively nearby. I navigated myself to both of them, but as it was a Sunday afternoon, they were closed. I wandered onto the Universidad de Granada campus and had a conversation with a few guys for a little while before trying to go to Granada’s Islamic Quarter. One of the guys told me which bus to get on, but I think I misheard him or he was wrong. I got on the bus I thought I heard him say, and then somehow ended up at the top of mountain on the edge of Granada when the bus driver made me get off the bus. I was familiar with this mountain, as we had walked down it the first night. It was a different path than before, but I got down just fine and got myself back to the hotel.

I got my train ticket from Meghan and Caitlin and saw the time we were going to have to leave the next day. There wasn’t going to be any time to go to the crypt of Ferdinand and Isabella and the Granada Catedral. I asked Meghan and Caitlin if they wanted to go, but they didn’t, so I went by myself while they slept. They were still asleep when they got back to the hotel, and I tried to take a little bit of a nap. When we got up we met Kristy, Ashley, and Jason for dinner at the same place we went to for lunch.

Nov. 26, 2007
“I’m not a good fisherman, but I haven’t tried being a lumberjack yet.”
Granada, Dos Hermanas, y Cadiz, España

We decided to just get breakfast at the train station, so Meghan got us on the right bus and to the station. We stopped in a grocery store to get snacks because the trip back to Cadiz was going to take 6-7 hours. While we were waiting for our train, Ashley, Kristy, and Jason showed up. They missed the earliest train out, so they were taking ours. I slept for most of the train ride to Dos Hermanas where we had a layover until the train to Cadiz. There wasn’t a lot to do in Dos Hermanas. It wasn’t even in my Lonely Planet for Andalucía. We found a place that was open for lunch and then went back to the train station. On the train back to Cadiz, Caitlin started talking to a Spanish guy sitting next to us. His English wasn’t very good, but Meghan and I were able to talk to him in Spanish. The conversation was a combined effort on our part, but between the two of us we were able to get our point across. Once we got back to the Cadiz, we went straight back to the ship. I grabbed dinner with Nichole, Beth, and Kristy on the ship because España was so expensive.

Nov. 27, 2007
“We’re naturals at being naturalists.”
Doñana Parque Nacional y Cadiz, España

Nichole spent the night in my room last night because Kelsey and Bo were going to try and force her to go out, even though she wanted to be able to go on the National Park trip in the morning. I got up at 5:30 and got breakfast in the dining room because it opened early for the people on the National Park trip. I slept on the way to the park. I have become very good at using transportation for sleep, because that seems like it is the only place I get sleep sometimes. We took a boat across the river and then got into our vehicle for our trip across the park. We got to see 4 different ecosystems and I saw a bunch of cool birds and some wild boars. The trip was really cool, and I’m glad that I decided to go on it. After we toured the park, we went to the visitor’s center back across the river. After that it was time to head back to Cadiz. I slept the whole way. When we got back to the ship, Nicole and I set out with one goal in mind: to find a grocery store. We wandered around the city. We stopped at Ben and Jerry’s, where we met up with Sarah and Stacey. Nicole split off and the three of us wandered around still looking for a grocery store. I asked for directions and got myself to several different grocery stores, but they were all closed for siesta. There was a little shop open and I got a few things so I could have some snacks while I’m finishing up the last days of classes, and then we got dinner. Sarah and I came back to the ship afterwards. It was really depressing boarding the ship for the last time. I’m still a little in denial that this is coming to an end. I’m not ready to admit to myself that Miami is next and not Panama or Cuba or France. I can’t believe that there are only nine days left.

I promised my Grandma I would put up more pictures before Spain, but when I tried the internet was down, so I'll probably put some more up tomorrow (provided we have functional internet).

Croatia

2007-11-19T01:31:00.001-05:00

I am not going to post an actual Croatia update. I traveled with 10 other people. It was not an idea that I was fond of, but I didn’t find out that the group was that large until it was too late. We ended up splitting in Split (which is kind of fitting). I went hiking and to the Split Zoo. I also ended up going on a hunt for the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace, which was not nearly as cool as I thought it was going to be. Meghan Thomsen and Caitlin Thomas are pretty much my heroes. It was very much the offseason in Croatia, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do. I got a lot of time to process things that I just haven’t had time to yet, and I came to some interesting conclusions.

One last thing: Happy Birthday Wam!

Turkey

2007-11-14T00:56:00.000-05:00

The short version on Turkey: I hung out in Istanbul, went to Ephesus and Pamukkale, and got majorly ripped off for lunch one day. I had a Turkish bath (which was amazing). The group that I traveled to Ephesus and Pamukkale with was one of the best groups I’ve traveled with, and it completely made the trip.

November 7, 2007
“Can I hassle you?”
Istanbul, Turkey

As has become the tradition, I got up early to watch us pull into port with Ashley. I went up to 7 forward, but it was closed, probably because of the wind. I saw other people out there, so I went out too. I think that I went out just in time, because I walked out right as we were pulling around the Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. It was something spectacular to see. Ashley wasn’t out there, so I assumed she went back to bed because our usual spot was closed.

I went up to breakfast after I got done hanging out in the wind. I saw Laura and Tim and joined them, where Laura let me know that Ashley and Meghan would be up soon. We all ate and then decided to nap until the ship was cleared. I ended up sleeping until 10, but then I figured that Ashley and Meghan would be awake, so I went over to their room. I ended up waking them up, but then slept on their floor because we were all still tired. We finally got the call to get passports about the time that lunch was opening, so we all picked them up and then ate on the ship. During immigration form passout, I had the unfortunate experience to be in Akirah’s line. I couldn’t find the spot on my landing form that I needed to fill in my name, so I asked her. She rolled her eyes at me and sarcastically said, “Where it says name.” Akirah is really the only RD that I don’t like. All of the other RDs are really cool, and Akirah can be just flat out mean.

When we finally left the ship, we were offered so many taxis that it was just insane, but the girls decided they wanted to walk to Kapali Carsi (the Grand Bazaar). It was cold and raining, and we didn’t really have any sense of orientation as to where we were, so I would have just assumed take a taxi, but no one else wanted to. We walked down 2 tram stations and we ran into Dr. Wattenmaker (who lived in Turkey for a long time) and asked her if she could direct us from where we were. She wasn’t oriented herself, so she translated directions from someone else. We got the tram to a stop that let us off right next to the bazaar.

The bazaar was extremely overpriced. I couldn’t afford anything there. We all got hit on a lot. Some of the lines are just classics: “It’s pretty, but not as pretty as you,” “Can I hassle you?” “Do you need a Turkish boyfriend? I’m rich!” While we did get ogled and hit on, we were never groped, which is a huge improvement over India, so we all just went with it. Meghan and I went into a carpet store because the salesman had said his carpets were cheaper than Kmart. Now Meghan and I were not naïve enough to believe that his carpets were cheap. I took the line exactly as he said it: buying a carpet would be less than buying the Kmart corporation. His cheapest carpet was $650, which was completely out of our price range, so we left fairly quickly.

When we left the market we decided to amble around for a while. We actually ended up walking to the Istanbul University area. Everyone had to show id and go through security. We wanted to check out the campus so we asked security if we could, and they let us just walk right on. We found a very picturesque spot and got to hear some Korean students singing. We walked over to the student building and went into the Kantin (canteen). I got to try apple tea (which was amazing) and have a chocolate muffin before we left the campus and walked back to the metro station. We got back to the ship, and Meghan and I figured out what time we were meeting the next morning for our flight. Laura and I went over to the pizza place across the street and took advantage of their free wifi. I came back and got packed for the early day I had coming.

November 8, 2007
“I wonder why they’re all international flights…” “Maybe because we’re in the international terminal.”
Istanbul, Izmir, Selcuk, Ephesus, and Denizli, Turkey

I woke up and got out of bed at 4 to finish my packing. At 4:30 I went to Tymitz Square to meet the rest of the group, but I was the only one there. Jason showed up soon thereafter, but it was just the two of us for a little while. We left the ship at 5, and Kristen said that she had arranged for a taxi to be waiting to take us to the airport. When we got outside there were no taxis waiting, but there was a van that we could hire to drive us. Someone from port security translated for us, and the price was 50 YTL, which was around $10 each. We knew we wouldn’t get a better taxi fare than this because all the drivers were using the double fare that early in the morning. When we got to the airport, we were dropped off at the international terminal, and the driver told us we needed to pay 50 euros rather than 50 YTL. We argued for a long time, and I was to the point that I was willing to pay the extra charge. Eventually the driver got so fed up with arguing with us that he just left with the 50 YTL. When we got through security, Meghan and I told everyone that we were in the international terminal, but we were ignored. Eventually the other 3 came back and told us that they were all international flights. I wasn’t surprised, as we were in the international terminal after all. We found our way to the domestic terminal. Most of the group wanted to get breakfast, but Kristen and I didn’t, so we went ahead through security and then to the gate.

The group showed up right as a line was forming to board. Mind you, we weren’t actually boarding, we were just standing in line like little lemmings. A random Turkish man started talking to me (it’s the blonde hair, I think). We didn’t have any set plans for our second day, so I asked him what was around Ephesus. He suggested Pamukkale, which I didn’t realize was anywhere near Ephesus, but I always wanted to go to. He told the rest of the group what it was, and they misunderstood a little bit as to what it was, but wanted to go. I tried to explain to them what it was, but I was brushed off again, so I just kept my mouth shut about the place. We boarded the plane and I was next to Kristen for the flight.

When we got to Izmir we went straight ahead to look for transportation. We were joined by 2 more SASers, who were going to Ephesus. We found the train station in the airport, but there was no one there selling tickets. We went back into the airport to see about renting a car and driver for the day. They were all way too expensive, so someone went to the information desk and found out that a train would be there within 45 minutes and it would be super cheap. We grabbed a little bit of breakfast from one of the little food stands in the airport and then went back to the train station. There were other people waiting on the train, so we knew we were on the right track. We boarded and headed for Selcuk. Once we got there, a lady at the train station walked us to where we could get a cab to Ephesus. She owned a hotel, so she was really hoping that we would stay at her hotel that night. We arranged a cab to drive us to Mary’s House and the ruins of Ephesus for 50 YTL.

Mary’s house was up a mountain. The house is actually now a chapel and most of the information provided on the boards around the site was provided by the American Society of Ephesus, which is located in Lima, Ohio. Pretty cool, right? There was a spring that you could drink from or wash your hands in, and someone said it was supposed to be good luck. I washed my hands in it. The site where Mary’s House was at was so beautiful. It’s no wonder she lived there. It was just amazing. The next stop was the actual ruins of the city. When we stopped, we realized that we had no way to get back to Selcuk, so we asked our driver what the new price would be if we hired him for a couple more hours. It only raised the price by 20 YTL, so we went ahead and hired him to wait for us. The ruins themselves were just amazing. After all the ruins I have seen on this trip, I still love them. There was a section of the ruins that cost extra to go in. I was straggling behind the group because I was taking it all in, and when I got there to pay the fee, the group (besides Meghan) was way ahead of me. The man selling us tickets was leering at me to the point that it made me uncomfortable. When we got into the building, I saw Nick and yelled, “There’s my favorite husband!” and then he just yelled back, “Damn straight! I’ll kill anyone who touches you.” It was really funny and also nice to know that I was traveling with guys who had my back. We were late to get back to our cab, but our driver didn’t seem to be too upset. He dropped us off in Selcuk right in front of the hotel of the lady that helped us that morning. She ran out of her hotel, thinking we were there to stay for the night. Of course, none of us actually wanted to. We got lunch in town and then went to the train station where we got on the train to Denizli. After getting to Denizli, a few guys stopped to talk to us in the station and help us figure out where to stay. They walked us to a hotel and helped us get rooms and told us how to get to the bus station the following morning.

November 9, 2007
“I got ripped off at Burger King.”
Denizli, Pamukkale, Izmir, and Istanbul, Turkey

We got breakfast at the hotel, which consisted of just bread. We walked to the bus station and found a bus with relative ease. It was a bus used primarily by locals. Someone helped us tell the driver where we wanted to get off. When we got to our stop, everyone turned around and looked at us sitting in the back of the bus, because it was obviously the stop for the five tourists in the back. It was very foggy when we got there. Pamukkale/Hieropolis was a ruins site with carbon hot spring located on the side of a cliff.

The beginning of the ruins was the cemetery of the old city. It was so foggy at the beginning that it was really difficult to see. Jason and I decided that we wanted to walk back through the ruins after we had seen the hot springs. We walked through the ruins trying to find the white cliffs we saw in the picture the day before. We ended up finding the aqueduct the old city used and then the hot springs (which if I had been listened to, we would have found in the beginning, but I was just ignored, as usual). We got to the hot springs soon after. All of the guidebooks said we had to stay off of the white cliffs, but people were walking all over them, so we did too. At about this point, Kristen decided she was so hungry she just couldn’t take it anymore. We went to the little cafeteria and she got a cheeseburger, but the rest of us wanted to wait until we walked into the city. She didn’t even eat it. I ended up feeding it to the stray cats crawling all over the café. Since she was still hungry there was no way that she was going to tolerate walking back through the ruins, so we climbed down into the city. Jason and I actually climbed down the white cliffs, while the rest of the group went down an actual path into the city.

We walked through the city and found a place to have Turkish pizza. It was basically amazing. After lunch we caught the bus to Denizli and then a bus from Denizli to Izmir. The bus to Izmir was around 4.5 hours long. The bus actually had a drink service, which was pretty nice. They showed Kangaroo Jack dubbed in Turkish. Upon arrival in Izmir, Kristen was hungry. She looked around at the bus station to get something to eat, but decided that there was nothing there that she wanted. We negotiated a taxi to the airport after the driver said he wouldn’t stop at McDonalds for Kristen. She was very happy to discover that the airport had a Burger King. It was insanely expensive, but we all got something to eat. The man that took my money said he was out of small bills and so I didn’t get change. I took a bunch of Burger King crowns as my repayment. The five of us all wore our crowns through the airport, which made us look really stupid, but we had a really good time doing it. I got some ice cream before getting on the plane. I was sandwiched between Meghan and Jason on the flight. They were talking about plane crashes and how a lot of people don’t die from impact, but from having their legs broken and being burned alive. It wasn’t really a comforting conversation, so they started doing these weird airplane exercises they found in the inflight magazine to make me laugh. It worked very well. We mostly laughed the whole flight back to Istanbul. Upon our arrival, we got a taxi back to the ship.

November 10, 2007
“If you would be my sweetie, I would care for you like I care for my eyes.”
Istanbul, Turkey

I met Meghan for breakfast at 8 before leaving the ship to walk to the tram station. We were walking through the port area when we heard someone yell for Meghan, and it was Kristen on the ship yelling for us to wait for her since we were using the tram. We were running late, but we waited for her. We took the tram to Sultanhamet and then went to Topkapi Palace. The Palace entrance said about half of the palace rooms were closed, but it said the Holy Relics room was open, which was good, because it was the only reason that I was going. Meghan, who is not a big fan of museums, was a good sport and followed me around through the kitchenware, weapons, and treasury sections. We stopped at a little café inside the palace that had an advertisement for ice cream, but they didn’t have any, despite the poster saying they did. The cashier gave us some of the pretzels he was eating and we continued on our way. I went into the Harem by myself because it cost extra, and Meghan didn’t really want to see it. It was beautiful. It surpassed the rest of the palace by far. It made the palace worth the visit. After I went through the Harem, we had gone through the whole palace but we didn’t find the Holy Relics room, so we walked back through. We finally found it and it was closed! It was very upsetting. Meghan and I begged a security guard to let us in, and he said that he would have but there were security cameras. We offered him a bribe, which he was very tempted to take, but still didn’t because of the cameras. I was really bummed, but there wasn’t really a lot I could do about it.

When we left Topkapi Palace, we walked to the Basilica Cistern. On the way we passed a few shops. We stopped in them to see if we could pick up some cheap souvenirs. It turns out that they didn’t sell anything even close to cheap so we continued on our way. We passed someone who was probably the only vendor selling ice cream in all of Istanbul and got some. As we were buying our ice cream, someone walked past a nearby candy stand and knocked it over. I helped the man pick up the candy, and he gave me some gum. We continued our walk, and got to the cistern, which really wasn’t far away. There was really eerie music playing in the cistern, which really set the atmosphere for the whole thing. After we walked through it we decided that we were going to try and find a place to get a Turkish bath. There was a place in my guidebook that was recommended and it was on the same street as the cistern. We decided on that one. As we were walking, we wanted to make sure that we were actually going in the right direction. We asked a rug salesman and ended up getting into conversation with him. The entire conversation was a lie. Meghan and I pretended we were sisters and used fake names. We told him we were from Canada (which is what we were telling everyone).

We found the bathhouse after we left the rug store, and decided that since we knew where it was, we would find lunch nearby. We found a little café right around the corner. The café played the Macarena and one other song on a loop. I ordered penne with chicken and Meghan got a pizza. Meghan’s pizza was delivered from Domino’s and my penne with chicken was just a single chicken strip without any penne. We got the check and we were outrageously overcharged, but our only choice was to pay it. I did argue with the café owner, and he insisted that the way the Turkish make penne is actually by breading and deep frying chicken. In the end we unhappily paid and went to the bathhouse. The bathhouse was reserved for a special tour group, so we weren’t allowed in. We decided to walk to the another bathhouse that was recommended to us by a couple of friends. They said that it was located near one of the more famous bathhouses, so we asked for directions from a Turkish policeman (who had a giant rifle) and started on our way. We couldn’t find the one we were looking for, so a rug salesman offered to help us out. He started taking us to the bathhouse that was closed, and we told him we were looking for one in Sultanhamet. He insisted that it didn’t exist and told us that if we were going to get a Turkish bath that we should wait for the closed bathhouse because it was the best. It was pouring down rain so he offered to let us sit in his shop in Kapali Carsi for a little while until the bathhouse opened back up to the public again. This seemed kind of sketchy, but we figured that he would just show us a bunch of rugs and be disappointed when we didn’t buy them. What we got was so much more than that.

We got apple tea and lounged on the couch in the store for a while. One of sketchy rug salesman’s creepy friends came in and sat on the couch next to me, telling me what a nice girl he thought I was and that he wanted me to be his sweetie. I told him that I had a boyfriend, and he said that it was ok; he didn’t mind sharing. He started rubbing my forehead, and sketchy rug salesman made him leave. At this point you probably don’t understand why I am calling him sketchy rug salesman, but you will soon. He started hitting on Meghan because she told him she didn’t have a boyfriend because she couldn’t come up with a fake name for him. He kept inviting us out for the night, but we told him we were going to see the Whirling Dervishes. He said we should skip them because it’s boring or that I could go and Meghan should hang out with him. He escorted us to his other store on the same street as the bathhouse where we hung out for a little while and drank Turkish tea. At this point, we realized that we probably should find somewhere else to go, but wanted to be out of the rain and not be hassled by anyone else. At least in this shop we were being hit on, but not touched. It was a lesser of two evils choice. He told Meghan that he had a bed in the back and that if we wanted he would serve us wine after the our baths were over. He also told us that he would get us ice cream and take us out for hookah. When the time finally came, we went to the bathhouse only to find out that they only took cash. Neither of us had enough cash on us for a bath, so we decided to postpone it until the next day. We went back to the tram, which was extraordinarily crowded. The best way to describe it is that we were packed in like sardines. I’m not sure even that covers just how jam packed the tram actually was. You can imagine that a situation like this made it easy for sketchy Turkish men to grope any foreigner that they felt like, which they did. I was pretty thoroughly groped by up to 3 men when Meghan managed to snag a seat. I sat on her lap all the way back to the ship. Meghan and I were indescribably happy to see the ship when we got there. We decided to go across to the pizza place and use the wifi there.

This was one of those days that if it had been experienced with anyone else, anyone who was incapable of rolling with the punches, it would have been miserable. Meghan and I managed to find ways to laugh at how the day had gone horribly wrong. It was being able to laugh at how badly things had turned out that got us through the day.

November 11, 2007
“Cupcakes?” “They should just pick a side.”
Istanbul, Turkey

I met everyone for breakfast at 8, where we figured out the plans for the day. Meghan and I hadn’t given up on the Turkish bath idea, so we decided that we would leave before everyone else then meet them at the Blue Mosque at 11. We took the tram to Sultanhamet and walked to the bathhouse that we had tried so desperately to use the day before. When we got there, we were extraordinarily disappointed to see the sign on the door saying that the bathhouse was closed from 9-11 for a special tour group. We didn’t have time to wait for the bathhouse to reopen to the public, so we decided to walk to the other bathhouse listed in the guidebook.

On the way, we stumbled down an alleyway with a bathhouse that wasn’t listed in the guidebook. We decided to give it a shot. It was cheaper than the other 2 anyway. Meghan and I got a changing room to share, and then we were escorted into the female’s side of the bathhouse. My glasses fogged up immediately upon entrance, so the attendant took them away from me and I was basically completely blind the whole time. We were escorted into this little room with marble sinks and little bowls and told to hang out there for 20 minutes. The attendant never really explained what we were supposed to be doing; she just dumped a bowl of water on Meghan and left. I was really confused by the whole situation, but Meghan and I just figured that we were supposed to dump water on ourselves. We did that, and eventually we were joined by a Russian girl. Meghan got taken to her bath first, and I was second. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we both got private rooms. First, my whole body got exfoliated and then I got a bubble scrub and massage. When the whole thing was over, I was escorted back to the marble sink room to dump more water on myself. When Meghan was finished too, we got dry towels and went out into the lobby area. We got apple tea, and then went back to the changing rooms where we realized that it was a big mistake not to bring a hairbrush with us. When we walked out again we actually got our hair dried and brushed for us. We were running a little late, so we booked it to the Blue Mosque.

I think we both half expected that the group wouldn’t have waited for us because we were so late, but we were happy to see that they waited. The mosque was closed for prayer when we got there, so we went across the street to the Aya Sofia. The Aya Sofia was a church until it was converted into a mosque, and it is now a museum. The building was undergoing some renovations, so we got a nice view of scaffolding inside in the main area. I walked around in the upper gallery and took a few pictures without flash, but still got yelled at by a security officer for using flash. When we were done at the Aya Sofia, we went back to the Blue Mosque. The inside was gorgeous. We left and walked to lunch. We went over to a little street near the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia. All of the little cafes were really expensive, but we kept walking until we found a place cheaper. The café had 3 little kittens wondering around inside of it, and they were just so adorable! They really made me miss Monet. I had kofte one last time and then had a waffle with ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert, which I split with everyone because it was so huge. I asked for directions to a grocery store, and the waiter told me that there was one on the main street on the way to Cemberlitas. I found it with relative ease, and picked up some apple tea, a couple other types of teas, and a couple of snacks. Afterwards, the group decided to split. We got on the tram and those of us who felt we had spent enough money (that was me and 2 other people) went back to the ship and the other group took the ferry across to the Asian side of Istanbul. I was getting ogled on the tram to the point that it was making me really uncomfortable, so I kept moving closer and closer to the wall of the tram, remembering the groping I got the day before. One of the men who had a seat noticed what was going on and gave me his seat, which was most appreciated. While Meghan and Beth went back to the ship, I used the payphone in the ship terminal to call home. I had a hard time getting my phone card to work, but I finally did. Afterwards, I went back on the ship to get Meghan and Beth and we went over to the pizza place again to take advantage of the free wifi and get dinner. When we got back on the ship, we ran into Caitlin and Sarah, and then went to dinner with them primarily just to hang out.

Some Turkey pictures

2007-11-10T12:56:00.001-05:00

I think you should leave me comments. I really like them.

Egypt

2007-11-07T12:26:00.000-05:00

The short version: I loved Egypt. It was amazing. My blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin went over really well with the men there, and I ended up getting a lot of free stuff. I got to ride a camel, see the Pyramids, go to Luxor, take a felucca ride, and get closer than I realized to a crocodile.

A lot got cut from this one. I'll tell you about it when I get home.

Oct. 31, 2007
“Are we joining the camel caravan? No, we’re just riding the camel bully.”
Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt

I woke up kind of early to meet Ashley and watch us pull into port like I always do. I headed up to the 7th deck, but it was so foggy that there was no one up there. I spent a little while trying to find her. I found her in the dining room. We went ahead and had breakfast with Meghan and Laura. After breakfast, I packed for my trip and went to the Union. There was a bit of ambiguity in the time we were supposed to report, so I just relaxed up there until the trip leaders started taking attendance. There were 3 different leaders for the trip. I ended up on Dr. Mabbutt’s bus.

The bus ride to Cairo was around 3 hours, but I can’t be exactly sure because I slept most of the way. When I woke up we were at the Pyramids. Most of our group took a camel ride up to the Pyramids. It was an interesting experience. I had a very difficult time actually getting onto the camel, but in the end one of the workers gave me a boost. I shared a camel with Lindsey. Our camel took a pretty slow pace, which was good because there really wasn’t any place to hold onto. The little boy leading our camera took some pictures on my camera for us, but he wouldn’t give me my camera back until one of the other workers made him. We had been warned at preport that there was a chance we wouldn’t be able to get off our camel unless we had baksheesh for the camel “leader” but our tour guide had promised us that we definitely would not have to pay baksheesh here. The little boy in charge of our camel let us off, but then hounded us for baksheesh. We both gave him a little something, but not a whole lot.
When we actually got up to the Pyramids there was an SAS group for Cairo/Sharm El Sheikh already there, and I saw Donna for a few minutes. Meghan and I had decided to go into one of the Pyramids. Our tour guide (Mohammed) had told us that we would have to walk bent over, but that was a problem for me. When we actually got to the entrance, it was pretty apparent that bent over was not really an accurate description. If he had said, “You are going to have to walk curled up into a little ball,” that would have been an accurate description. My hip was really hurting from the camel ride, but I tried it anyway. After about 45 seconds of walking in “curled up ball” position, it was pretty apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to make it up the path on the way out without horrible amounts of pain, so I turned around and went back. I got my first marriage proposal while I was on my way back to the bus. I was offered 150 camels. Lots of Egyptian men said hi to me, and I was always called sweetie or beautiful or something like that. I actually got followed around by a group of little boys that wanted to get their pictures taken with me. After I took a picture with them, a group of teenage girls got their picture taken with me. After I was done posing for pictures with everyone who wanted them, I got back on the bus to head to the Sphinx.

The Sphinx was really, really crowded, and the vendors were just everywhere. One of the vendors took quite a liking to me, and followed me around trying to get me to buy scarves. I lost him and got to get a bit closer to the Sphinx and get my picture taken there. On the way out the scarf vendor found me again. I wasn’t really interested in buying any scarves because I have so many from India, but he just kept following me and his prices kept falling and the number of scarves included kept going up, so I bought some. As soon as he left me alone, a new vendor took his place. He started calling me Shakira. I tried my best to just ignore him and get to the bus, but you can imagine how much I laughed when he asked me if I was Shakira. I told him that I wasn’t, and he asked me, “Why not?” I laughed pretty hard at that too. I got to the bus and the ‘Shakira’ vendor had followed me to the bus, watched me board, and then gave me the thumbs up.

We finally got lunch at a hotel across the street from the Pyramids. It was one of the most amazing meals ever. I have never seen so many desserts in one place. Pretty much as soon as we were done eating we went back to the Pyramids for the Sound and Light show. It was pretty cheesy, but it was so much fun. There were excerpts from ancient Egyptian love letter that still crack me up (Seeing you is better than eating and drinking/I want to walk hand in hand with you through the fields). These might not seem so funny to you right now, but imagine a booming male voice saying that as lights danced across the Sphinx. Hilarious.
We checked in at the hotel. Lindsey was my roommate for the duration of the trip. The hotel we stayed at was super nice. We went to lunch, and Donna’s trip group was there, so I ate with Donna and Jenn in addition to some girls from my trip.

November 1, 2007
“We baksheeshed our whole way through this place. We’re out of baksheesh.”
Cairo and Luxor, Egypt

The morning started at 2:15 with a wake up call. Lindsey and I got ready and headed to the lobby where we got ready and checked out before finally figuring out where to meet the group. We got our breakfast boxes (mine had an amazing green apple juice in it) and got on the buses.
At the airport we learned that in Egypt your name on the ticket doesn’t actually have to match your name, so we all just got random tickets. I ended up being Beth Forman for the flight. The flight to Luxor was relatively uneventful. I would even go so far as to say that I don’t hate flying anymore. I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t sit on the plane terrified anymore either. When we got to Luxor our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. We got to get on these little glorified golf carts connected together to travel an easily walkable distance. While we were waiting on the group members that we straggling to the golf cart shuttle the vendors were already out and trying to rip us off. One of the LLLs bought some books for the vendors original offer. He thought that he was going to sell to me for that price as well, but there was just no way. He kept putting the books in my hand and saying, “Free,” and then he would whisper, “85 pounds,” like that wasn’t a rip off. I got him down to my price right as the little golf cart shuttle was leaving. We got to go into King Tut’s tomb plus three others of our choice. Mohammed suggested the three he thought that we should go to, and then let us loose. I went to Tut’s first, but I wasn’t really super impressed with it. It was cool to see, and when that was the only one that I had seen, it was pretty cool, but it just paled in comparison to the other 3 that I saw. I know it’s because his tomb wasn’t finished when he died; the finished tombs were incredible. I went into the tombs for Ramses III, IV, and IX. They were just unbelievable. We weren’t supposed to take any pictures in any of the tombs, but people were doing it anyway. A lot of people got their cameras taken away from them until they left. On the way out there were lots of vendors, and at this point you know how much I love buying from street vendors and haggling. I got the price on something lowered from $50 to $5, and then Lindsey took advantage of the price that I had negotiated, and got the same thing.

The next stop was the Temple for Queen Hatshepsut. This was one of the only places in Egypt that I was really uncomfortable with being so obviously not Egyptian. I got a few inappropriate comments from the vendors here that made me pretty mad [Oh, God check it out], but I just continued on my way to the little golf cartesque shuttles that we got to take again. I got teased a little by some of my friends who weren’t picking up that kind of attention, and looking back on it now, it was kind of funny. The temple was fabulous. There were Egyptian men all over the place trying to get baksheesh just for pointing out what they thought was a great spot for pictures, but I wasn’t too generous with my baksheeshing here. Afterwards we [Kara, Meghan, Kristy, Caitlin, Lindsey] got ice cream and I braved the vendors on the way to the bus. One started following me, so I sped up about as fast I could and still be walking, but he managed to catch up to me. He put a necklace around my neck and gave me a scarf for my hair, and just said, “Free gift for a beautiful lady,” and walked away. It was nice and all, but the other vendors here were still bothering me so I just got to the bus as quickly as possible.

We stopped briefly at the Colossi of Memnon; it was mostly just for us all to take some quick pictures and then get immediately back on the bus. We proceeded to Karnak Temple, which was the coolest place we went in Egypt by far in my opinion. Mohammed was giving a long talk about the temple, but I wasn’t information in listening to him talk; I wanted to see the temple. Meghan and I split off from the group and explored by ourselves. We weren’t able to get through the whole thing before we had to go back to the bus, but we got through more than the group that stayed with Mohammed did, plus we got to go to a section that was being restored/excavated that was closed to the public. We had to baksheesh to go, but it was so worth it. Meghan and I were the only 2 tourists in the section at the time, so it was so quiet, the complete opposite of the rest of the temple. We got asked by a lot of Egyptians what race we were, and they almost all took a guess at it. We got to be Russian, Australian, English, Norse, Canadian, and New Zealanders. On the way out of the temple, Meghan stopped at the bathroom. I didn’t go in with her, which is a decision I kind of regretted. There was a really creepy man lurking around outside of the bathroom. He started to make conversation with me and asked me where I was from. I told him Canada, and I feel like I said it very believably, but I guess he didn’t believe me, so he started asking me all sorts of questions about Canada that I couldn’t come up with the answers to under pressure (the capital of Saskatchewan, etc.) I was very glad to see Meghan come out of the bathroom and we got out of there quickly. She apparently hadn’t baksheeshed very much for the bathroom attendants, so we were both glad to leave that section. We headed back to the bus, but on the way we got stopped by a vendor who told us he wanted to give us free gifts… He pointed at one of his items and said, “I’ll give this to you for free if you give me something in return.” Neither Meghan nor I were interested in finding out what the something was, so we just booked it out of there and back to the bus. We were the last ones to make it back to the bus, but we got there right on time.

We went to the hotel for lunch and check in. The lunch here was amazing. Lindsey and I got our room key, got some rest, and then explored the hotel shops a little bit. I actually needed the smallest size one of the clothing stores carried, which was a nice change from SE Asia where I was told that I “exceeded maximum size.” The shirt probably fit a little tighter than the loose fit that it was designed for, but I wasn’t a fan of the loose fit. I didn’t end up buying it though. They only had bright pink. When it was time to meet for the trip to Luxor Temple we got on the bus and Meghan and I decided we were breaking off from the group again. The trip back to the bus was the only other time that I really was uncomfortable with how much I stood out. A ‘papyrus’ vendor was lurking around the bus area and he was trying desperately to rip Meghan and me off when another joined, and they both tried to rip us off. I had already bought some actual quality papyrus for much cheaper than they were selling theirs for, so I wasn’t interested in buying any. One of them grabbed me by the arm and pulled me around a little bit trying to get me to buy from him. Meghan bought from the other vendor after she got his price down, but I still didn’t want any. The vendor that was trying to sell to me followed us while we were trying to find our bus, and finally his price fell to what I thought was ridiculously low, even for fake papyrus. I bought a couple and then got on the bus.

Once we got back to the hotel some of us decided to look around at the shops outside of the hotel until dinner. I went into a clothing shop because I wasn’t satisfied with what I had found at the hotel shops. One of the salesmen in the shop took quite a liking to me and after my experience with vendors at Luxor Temple I wasn‘t really in the mood to get attention like that, so it made me really uncomfortable at first, so I was on my way out when he took my ‘papyrus’ out of my hands and wrapped it for me. At about this time an older British couple came in and started looking around. It made me feel a lot better to have other people in the shop, even though my group was just next door, so I looked around a little bit. The salesman that wrapped up my papyrus actually introduced himself and actually turned out to be a pretty nice guy (not to mention really, really cute). I’m not sure what it was about me, but he gave me whatever price for anything I asked for without any kind of bargaining and my offers weren’t generous. The British couple thought that I was just too stupid to bargain, and so they advised me that I needed to, but then I told them what I was actually paying and they couldn’t believe me. They couldn’t get any such deal from their salesman. Mine (Abrahem) invited me out for dinner later when he closed the shop, but I didn’t quite trust the offer, so I declined and went back to the hotel for dinner. I told my friends about my experiences in the shop and one of them asked if I got a picture of Abrahem. I hadn’t, and I decided that I really wanted one, so after dinner a couple of us walked back to the shop. I had a pretty good feeling that Abrahem wasn’t going to mind me taking his picture. I was right. He did ask for me to take a picture with him, which I guess I should have seen coming. He was actually kind of sweet about it; he asked before he put his arm around me for the picture. We exchanged email addresses, and he again asked me to have dinner with him, but I still declined. He gave me a beautiful purple perfume bottle as a gift, and told me that it was so I would never forget him because he would never forget me. It was actually kind of sweet.

After this I got repacked and went to bed for the early morning wake up call for our drive to Aswan.

November 2, 2007
“I think our horse might just plop down in the middle of the street and die at any moment.”
Luxor and Aswan, Egypt

I got up at 5 and got breakfast at the hotel. They had mashed potatoes, which I thought was an interesting choice, but they were actually real mashed potatoes compared to the instant that we get on the ship. We boarded the bus for the 4 hour drive to Aswan. I slept the whole way there. When we arrived it we went straight to Philae Temple. We had to take a motor boat out to the temple because it is on an island. There were vendors on the boat trying to sell necklaces, but it was impossible to haggle with them because one of the LLLs bought the necklaces without haggling so the vendors refused to budge on their prices anymore. Meghan and I seperated from the group again, and explored. The tourist police showed us what was supposed to be a very picturesque spot. They obviously expected baksheesh and since they were carrying giant rifles with them, I didn’t refuse. The temple was beautiful, especially because of it’s location of the Nile. After Meghan and I got through the temple we still had some time to kill, so we got ice cream and sat in the shade and soaked in as much Philae Temple as we could. We met the group for the boat ride back, and the got hounded by vendors on the way to the bus. At this point I was actually fed up with vendors. I really didn’t want anything to do with them. I think they must have been able to get that vibe from me, because they didn’t bother me.

We took a quick photo stop at the Aswan High Dam and went to the hotel. The hotel was actually on an island in the Nile, so we had to take a ferry across. When we got there it was lunch time. There was a lunch station that made pasta cooked to order, and a male SASer decided that he didn’t want to wait in line, so he cut in front of us (all female) and made his request. He of course got his first, and this really pissed me off. I guess I expected it from Egyptian men, but not someone who is supposedly trying to help watch out for the 70 women on the trip. After lunch we took a felucca ride down the Nile. It was beautiful, and we got to have a “felucca party.” Basically what happened was that workers on the boat played the drums and started chanting and dancing and most of us on the felucca joined them. When this was over, I browsed the shops at the hotel. I got measured for a skirt at the tailor shop and picked out a fabric and then met my group for a carriage ride around Aswan.

I shared a carriage with Meghan and Doc Linda (well, about half of the trip with Doc Linda). We were told 3 could fit in a carriage comfortably, but this wasn’t really true, so when we stopped and there was space in another carriage she switched out. Our carriages all stopped at this beautiful mosque. We were all allowed to go in and take pictures, and then we continued on our tour. Our horse was really pathetic looking. I think it might have been the most underfed animal I have ever seen. There were a few times where Meghan and I thought that the horse was just going to give out on us, but we made it back. The driver wanted baksheesh, and our tour guide had told us not to give more than $1.00. I gave a little more than that, and Meghan gave the same as I did, but he continued to hassle us for more. We went back to the ferry pretty quickly to try and avoid the hassle. We were late for the start of dinner. I ended up eating with some professors and the librarians. They are quite an interesting crowd. I had a great time. After dinner I went to check out the situation at the tailor shop. They told me to come back in an hour. When I did, my skirt was perfect. It was time for bed at this point, because we had another ridiculously early morning (4:15).

November 3, 2007
“Is this one pastry or three?”
Aswan and Abu Simbel, Egypt

Our wake up call was surprisingly pushed up to 4:00, so when it came we got ready and headed down to the lobby. We picked up our breakfast boxes (which were not good) and got on the ferry. We were running late to the airport, but we caught our plane just fine. The flew right over the Abu Simbel temples on our descent. They were spectacular to see from the air. When we landed, we took a shuttle that was run by Egypt Air straight to the temples. Meghan and I split off from the group yet again, and explored on our own. The temples were just amazing. When the Aswan High Dam was built, the Nile flooded the original site (as well as Philae and 28 other temples). The temples (the ones that could be preserved were moved to different locations. I can’t even begin to comprehend how something like that must have been done. Meghan and I got some ice cream after we finished touring the temples and then met the group on the shuttle to the airport. I got to be someone named Rubin for this flight.

A lot of people in my group decided they wanted to go shopping when we got back to Aswan, so Mohammed arranged for us to be able to go. We were of course taken to over priced shops where we couldn’t afford anything, but I guess it’s the thought that counts. While we were waiting to leave, a bunch of boys selling bookmarks started harassing us. A boy gave me a bookmark and just said, “gift” then grabbed my chest and ran away. Another one of the boys started stroking my arm. I moved quickly to stand next to Mohammed until I could get on the shuttle back to the hotel. We got lunch back at the hotel. Meghan, Kristy, Caitlin, and I decided to go to a different restaurant in the hotel than we had been going to. After lunch we all ended up taking naps.

When Kristy woke up, I went down to the business center for a little while to use the internet. When Meghan woke up she joined me down there, but at that point I was pretty much done on with it, so I went outside and explored the hotel grounds a little bit. There was a “mini zoo” which translated into chickens, goats, and sheep. When I was down walking around, I found a bench and watched the sunset over the Nile. While I was just sitting, some of the birds on the river started freaking out. I assumed this had to mean that there was a crocodile around. It took me a little bit to find it, but I did. It was actually relatively close to where I was, separated from me only by a wall and a little bit of height. Meghan and I walked through the hotel shops again, and then we met Kristy for dinner. When we were done eating, we took our drinks out to the gazebo and just enjoyed the serenity of the whole situation. A British/Israeli couple came out too, and we talked to them for quite a while. They had lived in India for a while, and I talked to the man about Agra (how much I hated it) and Varanasi (how much I loved it), and he told me that he quite agreed that Agra was a wretched place and Varanasi was fabulous. We went into the hotel and got to watch a processional for an Egyptian wedding.

November 4, 2007
“It’s like being in someone’s basement.”
Aswan, Cairo, and Alexandria, Egypt

We had another wonderful early morning wake up call. I was a little slow getting it all together in the morning, but I got to the lobby on time. I skipped the breakfast boxes this time around. Lots of people were very late, but we boarded the ferry to take us across to Aswan mainland and waited for them. We were almost to the point that we were going to leave them behind. They finally showed up and we left. We got to the airport and through security in plenty of time. Like every other time, I got any random ticket. I got a Twix bar for the plane while I was waiting. By the time I got through the line it was time to board the plane. I got in line, like all of the orderly people, but there was a French tour group there that seemed to think they were much better than waiting in line. They cut in front of the whole SAS group. It really irritated me. I’ve found in my travels that French people are generally the most rude, inconsiderate people you’ll meet.

I got to sit next to Meghan on the flight. We had quite a good time and enjoyed a little bit of irony. We were discussing how we think it’s really rude to put your seats back on a plane, and then the people right in front of us reclined their seats. The person in front of Meghan asked her first if it was ok, but no one ever really says it’s not ok when they’re asked, even if it secretly makes them mad.

When we landed in Cairo, we asked Mohammed if on the way back to Alexandria we could reroute to see the Library at Alexandria. He gave us a flat out no. I was a little upset, but I wasn’t really relying on seeing it, so it wasn’t a major disappointment. When we left the airport, we went to the Egyptian Museum. We had major difficulties getting in because our tour guide bought the wrong priced tickets. We had to each take two of the tickets to be able to get inside. Once we got in, it was like walking into the most unorganized, overwhelming basement of Egypt. There wasn’t really any order to things, and it was like everything was piled on top of each other. Like always, Meghan and I split off from the tour group and explored on our own. Because of the unorganized nature of the whole place, Meghan and I had a few difficulties finding the main King Tut exhibit. We got there alright in the end. We decided to go to the Royal Mummies exhibit even though it cost extra. We paid the student rate for the ticket, even though we had been getting a hard time about using our SAS ids. The man taking tickets at the exhibit really obviously didn’t believe our ids were student ids, but didn’t actually care either. This was the coolest exhibit in the whole museum. It was also the only exhibit that was truly organized and had good information. We got to see the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut and King Ramses the II, as well as a few others. Ramses II had at least 13 sons, not to mention daughters and had arthritis in his hips.

We proceeded to lunch after the museum. It was at the same hotel as the first day lunch, and like before, it was fabulous. I had to use the bathroom, but I had no money for baksheesh (ok, I had baksheesh, but I didn’t feel like baksheeshing anymore). I was leaving the bathroom without giving money to the 2 bathroom attendants who didn’t actually do anything for me. They started talking to me in Arabic, and I just looked at them bewildered. They switched to English and were asking for baksheesh (no surprise). I pretended to speak Spanish and left. When we got on the bus back to Alexandria, Mohammed announced that our route through Alexandria had been changed, and we were going to pass by the library. I slept until we arrived in Alexandria and then woke up to make sure I got to see the library. We stopped alongside the road to be able to take pictures of the building from the bus and then back to the port. I did a little bit of final shopping at the port. I was burned out from haggling though, so I didn’t stay long. I said goodbye to Mohammed, which was accompanied by what I consider to be an inappropriate hug, and then went back to the ship. Security was so nice to me getting back on the ship. I had 3 large shopping bags and my backpack stuffed, but the lady working where we swiped our cards to get back on the ship was really nice about it and took my bags for me so I would have hands free to do what I needed to get on the ship.

Some afterthoughts on Egypt: It was an experience. I got to hear the muezzin make the call to prayer, and it became just part of the everyday. Trading my email in exchange for a scarf was actually more accepted than you would think. Baksheesh was the most annoying part of being there. It was like tipping people just because they were there. My blonde hair definitely got me noticed, but it wasn’t horrible. The attention was nice, and if I ever got uncomfortable with it, there was always an SAS guy nearby who was actually willing to help out (unlike India). My tour guide fell into the same category when it came to attention. He was constantly putting his arm around me and told me once that he loved me. Egypt was actually a nice boost in self esteem. Like most everywhere else that I’ve been, I want to go back.

Namaste and Good luck

2007-10-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

I think I will mention that this is the first blog where you get my actual journal without anything cut out. My reflections aren’t included here, but they never really are. I hope you enjoy what I saw in and of India.

India was by far the most intense, physically and mentally demanding experience of my life. It was dusty, beautiful, heartbreaking, filthy, spiritual, intriguing, infuriating, frustrating, terrifying, moving, humbling, inspiring, polluted, and so much more. Someone once told me that whatever you can say about India, the opposite is also true. I could never make sense of the statement before the last 5 days, but now it seems the only way to describe it. India both defeated me and built me up at the same time.

Some background information on India:
It has 3 times the population of the U.S. in an area 1/3 the size.
People are born into castes, which is to say they are born into their job, their life circumstance without any way to change it. If your father was a Dalit, you are a Dalit, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Chennai, where we made port, is the 4th largest city in India by population.
There are over 50 different languages spoken in India.
Hinduism is the most popular religion, practiced by over 80% of the population, followed by Islam and then Christianity.
Hinduism is one of the world’s most tolerant religions, but still follows the caste system, which discriminates against some of its own practitioners.

I loved experiencing India, but I was unbelievably glad when it was time to be able to get on the ship.

The 6 days between Thailand and India were filled with classes and midterms and papers. It was very uneventful. I spent way too much time studying, and was glad when the global studies exam was finally over, because it marked the end of midterm-palooza.

I also wanted to say hi to Megan’s parents, because she told me that you like to read my blog. So Hi Megan’s parents!

Oct. 15, 2007
“Uhhh, that guy with the gun. I’m gonna do what he says.”
Chennai, Delhi, and Agra, India

The morning started by getting up at 7 to the smell of burning tires in the hallways of the 4th deck. Welcome to India. I went up to the 7th deck to watch the ship pull in with Ashley and Tim. When Megan got there we went to breakfast. We were joined by the usuals. After breakfast I came back to my room to pack for my trip to Agra and Varanasi. I made plans to meet up with Ashley and Megan for lunch, but this actually never happened. When lunch rolled around the ship was cleared and we were allowed to pick up our passports. Ashley and Megan’s sea was called right as we were supposed to meet and then my sea was called next. They didn’t wait for Laura, Lindsey and me, so the lunch rendezvous didn’t actually happen, though Megan ate her dessert with us while we were eating our dinner.

I was going on a student organized trip to Agra and Varanasi that left at 2:45, so there wasn’t really a lot of time in between being cleared and meeting. I didn’t want to risk not being able to make it back to the ship, so I didn’t leave the port. I did want to meet Madu, the rickshaw driver that Megan had told me about, so I went out to the area where the drivers were lined up, but I couldn’t find him. I came back to the ship and waited for time to meet the group. While I was waiting, Lindsey, who was also waiting for her trip to leave, joined me in my room to watch a movie. When the time for me to leave rolled around and I hurried out to meet the group. I was so excited to be able to finally get India started. The instructions on where to meet were a little vague, but in the end the group all found each other.

We were supposed to have a bus waiting for us outside of the ship to take us to the airport, but it wasn’t there. One of the SAS buses shuttled us to the gate of the port where we were given a really hard time by port police. We were all told that we needed to sign some book to be able to leave and show our customs declaration form. About this time our bus showed up and the driver got out and got us all cleared to go through without the hassle, but as soon as the guys faded from view, all of the girls were given the same hard time. I escaped just behind the guys, but all the girls after me took forever to get through. We thought that we were really pushing it to make it to the airport on time, but we got there with no problem. We weren’t really surprised when the airport was full of SASers trying to get to Delhi. Going through security at the airport was an interesting for me. Women and men got split into separate lines. The check point that women went through was hidden behind these curtain type things to keep people from seeing security officers doing patdowns on women who set off the metal detector. The underwire in my bra set it off, and the officer waved the little wand sensor around me and it was just my chest area that was beeping. She acted like she couldn’t figure out what the problem was, so I got a pat down that would have qualified as sexual harassment in the U.S. After the security groping incident I found a place that sold the most amazing chocolate chip cookies, and then got on the plane to Delhi.

The plane was the first flight I’ve taken on this trip that wasn’t turbulent. I sat next to a man from Chennai who was going to Delhi on business and a Japanese man who was most likely schizophrenic. There was some interesting music playing before we actually took off and the man from Chennai laughed when he noticed I was tapping my foot to it. I smiled at him, and he pointed to his foot that he was tapping as well. The flight was 2.5 hours. I had started writing a couple of postcards on the flight, and I accidentally flipped my pen at the Indian man next to me. It just made him laugh a lot and he started talking to me. It made the flight go by so fast. We talked about everything from religion to war to movies. We talked a lot about the reasons the divorce rate is so high in the west and so low in India. He had some interesting thoughts and was actually pretty straightforward about what happens to an Indian women after the dissolution of a marriage. I enjoyed the conversation, but I was really happy to get to Delhi. We boarded our bus and found out that we were taking an overnight bus to Agra rather than taking the train. We were still waiting on people to get there from another flight, so Kristen and I went back into the airport to go to the bathroom and get some pizza. The security guy was hesitant to let us back in, but didn’t really put up much of a fight to keep us from going. He just bobbled his head.

The group decided they wanted to stop and get some food on the way to Agra since it was going to be 3 hours until we got there. The tour guide stopped in a very shady area of Delhi. About 6 girls (including myself) didn’t get off the bus, and everyone else followed the tour guide to a rest stop. After a very long time the group hadn’t made it back to the bus so one of the girls very stupidly decided that she would like to go look for them. This was ridiculously retarded because we had no idea where we were and we were in an area that in no way appeared to be anything even close to safe. The other 4 girls decided that they were going too, and I didn’t want to be the only person that stayed behind, so I went as well. One of the other girls and I decided that it was just too ridiculous for us to be out so we turned back and went to the bus. As we got back to the bus the rest of the group was getting back. We started to Agra, and the guide said it should be about 3 hours. It took 5. It was the bumpiest bus ride I have ever been on in my life. We finally got to Agra at 2 am and checked into our hotel. There were 2 beds in the room and then a mat on the floor. I got the mat on the floor and went to sleep so that I could be up for sunrise at the Taj the next day.

Oct. 16, 2007
“It’s your fault…they’re the illiterate masses.”
Agra, India/en route to Varanasi

We got up really early to get to the Taj, but a few people stayed back at the hotel to sleep because they knew we were going back to the Taj for sunset. While I was waiting for everyone in the lobby the tour guide for the day had shown up and was questioning me about where our “trip leader” was. There was no real trip leader, just the guy who organized the plans. He hadn’t shown up yet and I knew he was getting ready, but the tour guide was basically a prick and he was just generally not nice to me after I couldn’t tell him how to find Ray. When everyone who was going showed up, we boarded the bus. On the bus ride there, the tour guide informed us that admission fees were not included in the package that we had, even though we had been told that they were. Most, if not all, of us were going to be short on cash because of this. It cost 750 rupees just to get into the Taj. It was $20 none of us had planned on spending because we were told that it was covered. At this point, none of us were willing to pay the 750 rupees again at sunset, so we just paid up for sunrise. We had to take a bus from our bus to the Taj, and when it let us off there weren’t many street vendors out yet. The ones that were out were just selling postcards.

The Taj itself was beautiful. Pictures don’t do it justice. Our tour guide was still being pretty pompous and he was getting really frustrated that we were all taking pictures instead of listening to him, but we basically paid twice to be able to see it since it was supposed to be in the package and somehow wasn’t anymore, so since we paid twice, we did what we wanted. We weren’t on time; we didn’t really care to listen to him tell us things that we either already knew or didn’t care to hear to begin with. I got stopped a lot to take pictures with little kids. The people that stopped me here were really nice and appreciative that we were willing to stop and take pictures. On the way out there were a few things I needed to buy from street vendors, but the pompous tour guide yelled at me when I went to check it out. There really wasn’t a chance for me to get what I needed. It was really upsetting, but I couldn’t really argue with the tour guide successfully. He wasn’t very receptive of me to begin with.

We went back to the hotel for breakfast (which was not good). The part of the group that didn’t go to the Taj with us for sunrise joined us for breakfast. We left for some ‘sightseeing’ that included going to the tour company office to settle some payment issues, an overpriced carpet shop, and an overpriced marble shop. There was literally nothing in any of the shops that I could afford to buy. The prices were so inflated it was insane. For a magnet they wanted 300 rupees ($7.50), and this was after haggling. The street vendors found our bus outside of the shops. I was so excited that there were things that I was able to afford (and that I wanted to buy originally) that I went bargaining crazy. I had such a good time doing it. We went back to the hotel for lunch after what seemed to be a waste of a morning. The hotel lunch was equally as crappy as the breakfast was. The tour company operator showed up and announced that we all had to pay an extra fee of $45. Ray got it down to $40, but I’m still not sure what the extra fee was for. I’m not really sure that any of us do. I didn’t have a lot of cash left, so I asked if I could pay by credit card. The guy told me that I could, but that there would be a 3% charge on the 1700 rupees I needed to pay, and that the total would be 2700 rupees. I guess he thought I must have been a moron, but I’m actually able to figure out that 3% of 1700 doesn’t amount to 1000. I heard from someone on the trip that there was a place nearby where you could use your credit card to get money rather than an ATM, so I thought I’d check it out. I got money there with no problem.

The guys who missed the Taj in the morning went after they ate lunch and then met us at Agra Fort after they were done. The outside of the fort had one of the worst smells I have ever been able to sense. It smelled like a mixture of rotten eggs, feces, wet dog, and something that I can’t quite figure out. I was overjoyed when I found out that we got to wait there for the guys that went to the Taj. While we were waiting, a bunch of Indian people were taking our pictures and posing for pictures in front of us. The girls in my group, myself included, were getting really strange leering looks from most of the men who took our pictures, but we mostly ignored it. Once we finally got to go into the fort, the people taking our pictures persisted to the point that we were starting to sprint away from them. The Indian men had started grabbing the girls and basically groping anyone that they could get their hands on. We told our tour guide about it in an attempt to get him to do something about it, and he told us that it was our fault, just to deal with it. This pissed me off beyond ridiculous amounts. We started to stick really close together, and for this brief period it seemed like the guys in our group were doing a better job at keeping an eye out for us. We got to an area of the fort that was swarming with rabid monkeys. On the side where there were no monkeys, the same men that had been harassing us were waiting. It was a tough decision: rabid monkeys or men who went out of their way to grab whatever part of my/any other girl in my group’s body that they could. I had been immunized against rabies but not against asshole men, so I took the monkey route. I got through unharmed, which I am not sure would have been the case if I had gone the other way. On the way out one of the men who had been harassing me was mad at me for staying away from him, and told me that no one who would ever want to marry me because I was so fat. It was very nice of him to let me know so that I can whip myself into shape. Glad for the info. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not nearly as small as most of the Asian women I have seen are, but in the U.S., I’m not fat. I’m not even chubby. If I don’t get married, I’m sure that the reason won’t have anything to do with my size, but I do appreciate the opinion of Mr. Grabby, who seemed to enjoy grabbing my body despite the fact that I am ‘fat.’

Much to my delight, when we left there were more street vendors to bargain with. I got some more things, and then the whole group headed back to the hotel where we were dropped off until it was time to leave for the train. We were really near a Pizza Hut, so I went with 3 other girls. A significant portion of the group set off into Agra to find liquor for the train ride to Varanasi. I just enjoyed dinner. We got a really nice note from our waiter telling us how much he enjoyed taking care of us. When we boarded the bus to go to the train station, we found out that Ray still hadn’t worked out paying the tour company, and that he was at the official office to pay the tour operators. We went to the office to pick him up and we finally got the payment situation all sorted out. The train station in Agra was the first thing in the entire voyage that made me physically sick. There were so many people sleeping in the ‘lobby.’ The smell was just putrid. There were rats crawling everywhere and nasty dogs just roaming around. The tracks were piled with garbage. I was really worried about what our train was going to be like after seeing the station.

We were taking what was supposed to be an 11 hour overnight train ride to Varanasi. The train actually wasn’t bad, at least the first class cars that we were in. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in any of the other cars. We were in the same section of the car as this amazing family from Spain. We got to talk to them about where to go while we’re there. They sold me on the idea of going to Barcelona, but I’m not sure that I can afford it this time around. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to make it back. They did give me a list of things to do in Sevilla, Grenada, and Cordoba and recommended a few places to eat for tapas. They were so nice that they shared their food with all of the girls who were in the car with us and the next morning they let us each have a bindi to wear.

Oct. 17, 2007
“Camel bone. It’s the new elephant tusk.”
Varanasi, India

We were supposed to arrive in Varanasi around 8:30. I woke up early enough to ensure that I didn’t miss it. I ate the pop tarts that I had brought with me while I waited to get there, but we just kept stopping at stations that weren’t Varanasi. Finally, the tour guide that was with the Spanish family asked when we were actually going to get to Varanasi and he was told that it was going to be 11:00. This didn’t actually prove to be true. We arrived at noon. I had brought pop tarts with me, and when our train took as long as it did, I was very glad to have them. The tour guide on the bus told us that there were two very important things to see while we were in Varanasi. The first was Sarnath, which is the site where Buddha preached his first sermon. The second was an early morning boat ride on the Ganga. We thought that this meant these were included in our trip, but we were wrong to assume such. When Ray asked about it, we had to argue for the boat ride that was promised originally, but ended up getting that. We could have gone to Sarnath at an extra cost, but not a lot of people really wanted to. I was little disappointed, but by this point my expectations for India were really low, so it wasn’t a big deal.

We got to the hotel by bus, but caused a lot of traffic problems by doing so. Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world, and as such wasn’t designed for motor vehicles. Our giant tourist bus took up a lot of space on the roads. There is a point in the city where you aren’t allowed to have motor vehicles, but that was much closer to the Ganga than our hotel was. We got lunch at the hotel and then split up to do whatever we felt like for the afternoon. I joined Jenn, Kate, and Kat to go to a market near the cremation ghat. Jenn and I shared a rickshaw, and I was in for what was the most terrifying experience of my life. One of the cows that was laying the road decided to move and this disrupted traffic in a major way. Our rickshaw hit a banana cart and then immediately after we were hit by a motorbike and another rickshaw behind us. I have no idea how, but the girl that I was with and myself got out of the incident without a scratch. At this point Jenn and I really wanted to hold on to each other, but in India women aren’t really allowed to be seen showing any public signs of affection to other people, and this would have included holding onto Jenn.

I was so glad to finally get out of the rickshaw. We were let out at the beginning of the street, not quite at the market, but not very far away either. We had vendors following us the whole way to the market. They weren’t really the aggressive type we had seen in Agra; they were much more personable. I think it was just part of their sham to get people to buy from them. It’s not really a style that I like, and I think that it’s kind of the point. They’re so nice to you that it can make you feel bad to not buy or try to bargain really hard with them. The followed us down the street, and most of them weren’t actually trying to sell us anything; they just wanted us to go into their shops. They found as at the beginning of the street and walked with us until we passed their shop. We did find a really cool bead shop and I got bracelet made out of camel bone. There was a big festival going on in Varanasi, and the shopkeeper had a shrine set up in the shop, so you had to take your shoes off to go in. We found a little alleyway to wonder down that I think was the market we were trying to get to begin with. There were police with giant rifles sitting outside of the entrance to the market, but at this point we were used to the people walking around with giant rifles everywhere. The market was full of great shops and bargaining there was easy. Most of the shopkeepers said that it was close to the end of the festival and they hadn’t made nearly as much money as they usually did, so we got things pretty cheaply just because they wanted to sell to us. It might have been a lie just to get us to buy, but things were much cheaper here than anywhere else I had been in India, so I just kind of went with it. I got a really cool, huge batik of Ganesh for a little less than a dollar. The people in the shops were much nicer than most of the people that we had been dealing with for all of our time in India, so the four us were really enjoying just being able to shop without anyone harassing us in anyway. We were each actually blessed by a brahmin while we were shopping.

We decided to split up after the market because Kate and Kat wanted to go see an Indian movie and Jenn and I really didn’t want to. One of the vendors from the market told us that we were really close to the cremation ghat and that cremation ceremonies were going on if we wanted to watch them, that it was only a five minute walk away. Jenn and I wanted to go because, but we weren’t really sure if we wanted to let this guy lead us on a wild goose chase and end up getting ourselves in a bad situation. We decided to let him take us, but if it got sketchy to turn around and go back. I think there were a few moments when we were really regretting going, but we got to the ghat just fine. We went up to the rooftop of a building and there was someone up there who gave us information about what was going on and who was allowed to be cremated and why women weren’t allowed to be present at the cremation of a person and everything we wanted to know. At this point, we knew that while this was ‘free’ we were going to be asked for money. The guide told us that only men our allowed at the ceremonies because women cry and crying taints the soul of the person who died, and they can’t get into Heaven. There are 5 types of people who aren’t allowed to be cremated. The first are brahmins. They aren’t cremated because they are considered to be already pure, and they are allowed to be buried rather than burned. The second is children because they are innocent. Pregnant women can’t be cremated because they are carrying the innocent. Lepers aren’t cremated, but I’m not sure of the reason. Children, pregnant women, and lepers are allowed to be weighted down and have their body thrown into the river. The last type of person that can’t be cremated is a snake bite victim. If a person dies from a snake bite, they are poisoned and can’t be put into the river because they don’t want the poison to corrupt the holy river. The ceremony for a person to be cremated requires the body to be wrapped in gold or yellow fabric (if it‘s a man, I don‘t know what color a female‘s covering is), then the body is taken into the river for purification. The head of the person to be cremated must be shaved by a family member. If the father dies, the eldest son shaves the head. If it is a woman, her husband or youngest son shave her head. The body is put on the fire and burned for anywhere from an hour to three hours. Some parts of the body’s bones don’t burn. The ashes are put into the river. Dead cows are weighted down and put in the river, but Jenn and I actually saw one floating down the Ganga during one of the cremation ceremonies. It was a very interesting thing to see take place, and our the man giving the information was excellent, so I had planned to give him money anyway, but on our way out of the building there were two women trying to get money so that people who came to Varanasi to die but had no money for the cremation ceremony could afford to be cremated. The man who had given us all the information told us to be blessed by the women and then give them money. He was very adamant about it, so I had assumed that some of this money went to him also. Jenn and I each donated enough money for wood for one person’s cremation, but the man was very insistent about having more than that. Both of us really didn’t have much more we could afford to give, especially because I was without an ATM card and had to make what little I had left last for the rest of the time in India. Wood for two people was a pretty generous donation, at least I thought so, considering we were promised it was going to be free. When we left the man wanted money for himself, but again, we just didn’t have it to give him. He told us that it was going to give us bad karma if we didn’t give anything, and I asked him what type of karma it would give him to tell someone that they could have free information and then demand money from them. He left us alone and the vendor that brought us there in the first place took us back to the market, and we got a rickshaw back to the hotel. He too tried to guilt us into buying more from him, but I had actually planned to buy something he was selling anyway. We got him to reduce his price by a lot, and then got back to the hotel.

The rickshaw driver kept turning around to talk to us, but I really didn’t want to encourage this, so I didn’t say much back to him. I just nodded, which I’m not sure he really understood. I still don’t understand the whole head bobbling thing. He asked me if I was English, and I just said “yeah” so he would turn back around and he started saying, “Oh, I love Englanders!” He was so happy just because he thought we were from England. When we got back to the hotel, Jenn had already gotten out of the rickshaw, and I was in the process, but before I could get out, the driver lifted up his pants/skirt thing that I don’t know what it’s called to show me his warts. He did it to get more money out of us, but it was really disgusting. He was telling me that he didn’t know what they were or how he got them, and he had to get them cut off, so please pay him extra. I thought about telling him where he got them from, but I didn’t really want to explain STDs to him, so we just paid him the original, agreed upon price and went back to the hotel.

One of my roommates had the key to my hotel room, and Jenn’s roommates had her key, so we went to the front desk to try to get them to let us in our rooms. Jenn was told someone would let her into her room with no problem, but I was told there was no possible way that I could get into my room. The guy at the front desk told us to go wait in front of Jenn’s room, and someone would be there to let us in shortly. While we were waiting up there the power got cut to the hotel. It was freaky because we didn’t know at this point that the power in Varanasi got cut for at least 5 hours everyday. The power to the hotel flipped back on after a few minutes, and then the guy arrived to let us into Jenn’s room. He had a master key, so I asked him to let me into my room, and he did with no problem. I got my first (and only) shower the entire time I was in India. You can imagine that I really needed one at this point. I got a quick one, because I knew that the water for the shower was most likely coming from the Ganga, and I had just been there and seen the dead bodies being washed in it and the dead cow floating in it, and I knew that was where the sewage goes. I couldn’t really enjoy my shower thinking about that. I met Jenn and we went to have a really late dinner with the rest of the group at the hotel. Dinner wasn’t all that great, but there was some good naan and masala. I went to bed after dinner because the power was out in parts of the city and we were leaving the hotel at 5:30 am the next morning for our boat ride on the Ganga.

October 18, 2007
“The most important thing is that we should all do as much good for our fellow humans as we can while we’re here. The rest isn’t really in our hands.”
Varanasi, Delhi, and Chennai, India

I got up at 5 to get ready for our boat ride on the river, and since I was awake, the girls in my room were also. We went down to the lobby and no one else was there. After a few minutes four more people showed up, but that was it. We asked the front desk if they had given people their wake up calls and they said they weren’t making calls until 5:30, which was when we were actually supposed to leave. We went around to all of the rooms and started waking everyone up, and got out of the hotel as quickly as we could. We walked to our bus, which was a little ways away and headed as close to the ghat as we were allowed to. We walked to the ghat and we were hounded by street vendors as we went. When we got to where we were able to board our boat, we saw the vendor that took us to the cremation ceremony the day before. He tried to sell Jenn and I more, but we really didn’t need or want anything else that he was selling.

Several children selling flowers and candles got onto the boat with us, trying to get us all to buy one to make a wish and put them on the river. They were only 5 rupees, so I got one. We were told the only that we weren’t allowed to take pictures of were the two cremation ghats. People were snapping a lot of pictures of the people bathing in the river, and you could see on their faces that it was making them very uncomfortable. I heard a guide on another boat tell the people in that boat not to take pictures of the people bathing because they thought it was rude. Some other people heard this and stopped taking pictures, but just as many continued snapping pictures whenever we felt like it. We got to the cremation ghats and we were told that we were absolutely not allowed to take pictures there, but people did it anyway, just to prove that they could. I thought it was really disrespectful. A guy on the boat was trying to get people to give him money to just jump into the Ganga. We weren’t next to the shore; we were out in the middle where they put the bodies they don’t cremate. I think jumping in the river just for the heck of it would have been stupid (the river is filled with garbage and untreated sewage, and people who died of leprosy and people that couldn’t afford to be cremated) and really disrespectful. I was really glad that he didn’t do it. The tour guide on the boat talked about the types of people who aren’t cremated, and he gave some different reasons than I had heard the night before. The reasons for the night before were much more believable. He said snake bite victims and pregnant women aren’t cremated because they believe there is a chance they will return to life and be able to come home. They are often weighted down with their addresses. A pregnant woman is hoped to give birth after death, and the infant return to its home. A sort of “market boat” floated up to us selling souvenirs, but no one was buying anything from him. He stayed for around 5 minutes and no one had bought a single thing. It’s a fact when you’re bargaining that if you wait a while and no one is buying, you can get some excellent prices, so I jumped at the opportunity. I spent a total of 200 rupees and got presents for 3 people, plus 3 things that I wanted. When I got things so cheap, other people were really interested in buying things, but since there was a lot of interest now, people couldn’t get things as cheap anymore. After the boat ride, we were continuously hassled all the way back to the bus by vendors. They were much more aggressive than any I had seen in Varanasi, and it made me really uncomfortable. One of the vendors started grabbing me like the men in Agra did, so I grabbed the guy in front of me, and he pretended to be my husband and got the man to leave me alone. There was a little girl begging that followed us all the way to the bus, but no one gave her any money because we had all been warned that parents maim their children on purpose to get money from tourists. None of us wanted to encourage that. After we had all gotten onto the bus, I saw the little girl get yelled at by her mother because she hadn’t gotten any money from us. The tour guide came onto the bus with all kinds of items from the vendors trying to help sell them. I wasn’t really surprised, but it was the first time that I had experienced a tour guide trying to help them sell to us.

After we got on the bus we were promised a city tour. I don’t think you can really call it that. What we really did was go to Banares Hindu University and see a Hindu Temple there. We went back to the hotel for breakfast, which was among the worst meals I’ve ever had. I would rank it lower than the ox tongue I ate in Cambodia. The only thing I even touched was toast that was so hard if you dropped it too roughly on your plate, it shattered. After breakfast, I went out into the city with Jenn and Kat, but there wasn’t a lot to do because the power was still out in most places. I ended up coming back to the hotel. My roommates weren’t there, and they had the key to the room, so I had to try the front desk again. This time I was easily given the spare key to the room. I got myself packed and took a short nap before our early lunch. Lunch, was again, not good. I just stuck to the naan.

After lunch we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Delhi. We ran into the Spanish family again. They were really happy to see us one last time, and want us to visit in Spain. They live in Barcelona, which isn’t really near port, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to go, but I wish that I could. The airport was very crowded. I couldn’t believe how many people were jammed into the tiny little room that the airport consisted of. Going through security here was the worst of anywhere. The Indian people and foreign men were in one line and foreign women were in the other. Whenever there was someone in the Indian/Men line, the women had to wait. When I was finally able to even enter to get to the x-ray machine, I had to wait while all the men passed me to have their bags x-rayed first. Security check for women was behind a curtain again, and I set off the metal detector again. When the woman was waving the little wand around me, my bra set it off again. I got what can only be described as felt up as she was searching me, and she noticed that there was something extra in my bra. I pulled out my passport and the money I was carrying there, and I guess this made her really suspicious of me, so anywhere the wand beeped got a thorough check. Because my pants had metal snaps and the zipper, I got the most thorough searching imaginable. It was a very miserable experience.

Our plane was delayed a lot, and we waited for a long time. I actually sat next to a different Spanish couple while we were waiting. They were from Madrid, and recommended Sevilla and Granada over Barcelona, so it made me feel better that I won’t be able to make it there. When we finally got to the airport in Delhi it was so late that nothing was going to be open, and there would have been nothing to do. 5 other girls and I decided to try and switch our flights from the next day to that night. We went to every flight counter and they all told us that it was not possible to get back to Chennai that night, that we had to wait until the next morning. We were very close to giving up when a man that worked for baggage clearing came up to us and asked us if we needed help. He pulled all kinds of strings and got us the last 6 seats on the 8:00 flight to Chennai. He walked us through security, and got us to the gate. We were all very happy to be going back to the ship. On the plane I sat next to this really nice man who told me that he was a classical Indian singer. Before our flight took off, he said a quick prayer, and so I asked him if he didn’t like flying. He told me that he didn’t, and I let him know that I really didn’t either. He was from Chennai and told me that with only one day there, the best thing I could do with my day was to go to Mahabalipuram. I had no plans, so I decided that if I could figure out a way to get there, I would definitely go. We talked a lot about everything. It seemed like there wasn’t anything off limits. It made the 2.5 hours go by very quickly. When we got off the plane, people started hounding him for his autograph. It was bizarre that I was sitting next to someone who was so famous, and I had no idea. After he had given out his signature to everyone that wanted it, he told me that he enjoyed meeting me. I thought about asking for his autograph too, but he seemed so exhausted from being hounded by people that I didn’t.

There was another SAS group on our plane, so after we got our bags we went over to the shuttle service and asked them to get us back to the port as fast as they could. The driver got us there so quickly I was just amazed. He dropped us off at the port gates, and then we had some trouble from the officers to let us in. We hadn’t signed out on the little book, so they didn’t want to let us in, but after one of us pulled out the magical landing card, they let us through. The port area is really sketchy, so we went through it as quick as possible. There was a group of men heckling us, and that just pushed us through even faster. We got onto the ship without any wait. I looked in the free ticket box to see if there were any tickets for the next day, but there weren’t. I did look at the trips for the next day and saw there was one going to Kancheepuram and Mahabalipuram leaving at 7, so I decided to just try and get on that one.

October, 19, 2007
“No, you’re bothering her because she’s a girl and you’re going to stop right now.”
Chennai, Kancheepuram, and Mahabalipuram, India

I got up at 5:30 to get ready, check my email, and get breakfast before trying to get onto the trip going to Kancheepuram and Mahabalipuram. I was one of only 2 people at breakfast. It opened early for everyone leaving on the 7:00 trip because we had to meet at the bus by 6:40. After breakfast I saw that I had some freak service on my cell phone, so I tried to call home. It didn’t work. I did get to send some texts to my family. I went to the bus, and there was a lot of space left on the trip plus all kinds of people that didn’t show up. I got on the trip with no problem. We started off with a bus ride to Kancheepuram that took a while. Well, I think it took a while. I slept almost the whole way there. I was awake long enough to see us pass by St. Thomas mound, but not much longer than that. We stopped once for us all to be able to use the restroom, but I just assumed continue sleeping.

Kancheepuram is one of the 7 holy cities in India, and is the only one of the cities that is located in southern India, When we got to Kancheepuram, we went to 3 different Hindu temples. Two were dedicated to Shiva and one was for Vishnu. The temples were all built during the reigns of the Pallava kings when Kancheepuram was the capital of the area. The first temple was still in use today. The doors to the temple were huge. They were designed so that elephants couldn’t bust through them to aid people in breaking in. The door was very tall and had spikes where the elephants’ heads would have been and rounded off bumps nearer to the ground where people would have used the doors. The temple was being visited by a bunch of Indian girls on what appeared to be a school field trip. Most of them were really smiley and waved to the group of us. I asked to take a picture of a couple groups of them, and all but one didn’t have a problem with it. There was one girl in a group who sneered at me and told me I could if I gave her 2,000 rupees. I didn’t. There were seven platforms in the temple and we were allowed up to the 3rd one. Non-Hindus aren’t allowed in the main sanctum sanctorum. The colors inside the temple were just beautiful. The vibrance of the colors was such a contrast to the dustiness and dirtiness of the area just outside of the temple. Most of us were blessed by a brahmin at this temple. We were give red dots on our forehead. Red is supposed to be the color of life and our tour guide told me that the red dot symbolized female power. It was very nice to hear that something actually stood for the power of the female after spending so much time in northern India being treated like a piece of meat and a second class citizen. When we left the temple, the videographer (who I should have mentioned was on our trip) asked to interview me about the temple. It was difficult because there was a woman begging me for money the whole time. The next temple in Kancheepuram had some extraordinarily ornate carvings. It was painted at one time, but the British were trying to preserve it and covered it in something that hid the color. I can’t even imagine what it would have looked like with colors. There were several carvings of the goddess of sleep at this temple. I didn’t see any carvings of her anywhere else, and I think she was only shown as an example of how not to live your life. Most of the Hindu sculptures feature very healthy bodies in some form of motion, and the goddess of sleep is always depicted as very overweight and just sitting idly. The last temple had been added onto since it was originally built. One of the carvings on the wall depicted the two temples we had been to right before it, which was pretty interesting.

When we were done with the temple viewing we were ahead of schedule, so we stopped for a silk weaving demonstration and at a silk shop. Kancheepuram is known for its silks. The shop we went to was a little pricey, but not overly so. It was a government shop which is supposed to guarantee that no child labor is used in the making of the products. I had a lot of rupees left to spend before I left India, so I got a few things that I liked. While I was waiting for everyone else to finish shopping I was talking to the trip leader about some of my experiences in northern India, and how nothing is ever what it seems to be in India. The trip leader told me that the stop at the silk shop wasn’t even what it seemed to be. The tour guide was hungry, so she dropped us off at a shop so that she could get food. After the shop we drove to Mahabalipuram, which I heard took a while, but again, I used the bus ride for sleep. We stopped at a hotel in Mahabalipuram for lunch. It was wonderful. It was the first time we were given food in India that I thought was excellent. The masala was wonderful. Everything was on the spicy (hot) side, but it was just amazing. After lunch one of the waiters asked me to take a picture of him on my camera. I don’t think he had ever seen a picture of himself because he liked looking at it so much. He got his picture taken with me, and I promised to email both pictures to the hotel so that he could have them. There was a payment fiasco with drinks. They overcharged us, and we were trying to sort it out. The whole ordeal caused us to be late, and our tour guide got fed up with it and told us all to just leave, that it was the hotel’s fault for mishandling the bill.

We stopped at the largest bas relief in the world. There was actually more than just that to see here. The vendors here took a liking to me, and followed me around a lot. I think it had a lot to do with my paleness and the blonde hair, but I can’t prove it. Some other men were jeering at the whole group of us while we were touring the monuments and the tour guide told them off. When we were trying to look at the bas relief she even slapped one of them. The vendors were still hassling me throughout this whole site, and finally the videographer stepped up and told them to leave me alone. They ignored him at first, but he got in their face and just let them have it. I was unbelievably happy to have a man finally stand up for me and give me the help I needed. When we got onto the bus there was a man selling elephant carvings and no one was buying from him, so I told him I would pay 100 rupees for one. He put it in my hand and said “200,” but I didn’t want to pay more than 100 for it, which was actually pretty unreasonable of me, but I just wasn’t feeling too generous with the street vendors at this site. I gave it back to him, and then he put it back in my hand and said, “170.” I gave it back to him and told him that I didn’t want it. I was actually stepping onto the bus and he put it back in my hand and told me “100.” The tour guide told me that she had never seen anyone get that particular item for less than 250 rupees, and she didn’t have any idea how I did it. I think mostly it was because no one was interested but me and I was so angry with the vendors for how they had been treating me that I just wasn’t willing to pay anything reasonable. We also toured the Five Rathas in Mahabalipuram. They were monolithic temples each created in a different style. The vendors here hassled me too, but not like before. I am not sure why, but one of the vendors actually got the others to leave me alone when I wasn’t buying anything. Maybe it was because he wanted me to buy from him when we left. I had 100 rupees left, so I did end up buying from him because I appreciated him getting the other vendors to leave me alone. I got 2 really cool fabric paintings. The last place we visited was the Shore Temple. We didn’t spend very long here because we had to make it back to the ship for onship time and we knew that traffic was going to be pretty bad. My mom was actually able to call me on the drive back to the ship, and I was able to talk to her for a little while. My dad called me after my mom. It made me happy to be able to talk to them for just a few minutes, because I hadn’t talked to them since Japan. When I got back to the ship, the first thing I did was get a shower. I think that I still smell like India a little bit, and that there’s a good chance that the smell will never quite come out of the clothes I wore while I was there.

~*I think wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow*~
-Anita Desai

They say that when you go to India, you either love it or you hate; you’re willing to take it all in or you fight it and wish for home. It may not be evident from my entry, but I fall in the loving India category. Hopefully I get to go back someday (though never again to Agra). India would probably defeat me again, but that is just part of its charm.

<3 India <3

2007-10-08T19:24:00.000-05:00

Short version: I rode an elephant, got up close and personal with tigers, and stayed in a hotel on the River Kwae. I got to wear someone else’s clothes throughout the Royal Palace.

Leave me comments, because I like them.

Oct. 2, 2007 A9
“Like Joey on Friends, I don’t share food.”
En route to Thailand

The morning started with my usual ship routine, but after breakfast, I went into the Union to study a little before global studies. I got a lot done for my midterm tomorrow, but I still don’t feel super prepared for it. While I was studying, Doc Nancy came in and asked me if I was interested in helping her with her Global presentation this morning. I was intrigued, as she wouldn’t tell me what I would be doing, but said yes. Her presentation was on HIV/AIDS. She did a demonstration of the immune system using students as cells, and I got to be a cell. Dr. Elliott spoke about the tsunami this morning and he really set the note with the way he started off the presentation. It was interesting, but it was hard to pay attention because I am still trying to recover from the last 5 days of travel.

After Global I studied for a while, still trying to get myself caught up/ready for the midterm-palooza I am going to have after Thailand. The current count for the stretch between Thailand and India: 3 midterms, 4 papers, and 1 presentation. I’m really not looking forward to it. I went to lunch with Lindsey. The menu looked decent, but it was another story once we actually got food. There was meatloaf, and I use that term loosely. There was meat wrapped around a hard boiled egg. It was one of the oddest things I’ve seen from ship food. I ended up sticking to the pasta.

Then I went to Oceanography where it was again interesting, but it was difficult to follow because of how exhausted I was. I went back to my room after that, and studied some more for my midterm. The studying didn‘t last long, as I quickly fell asleep. Lindsey stopped by during the middle of my nap and we ended up talking about our Thailand plans, which are interesting because at the current moment, we have no place to stay and no set plans except for the two days we are taking a Hellfire Pass tour.

I was supposed to have family dinner tonight, but I had to miss it because of a mandatory sea meeting. I get the point of the sea meetings, that we need to form a community and take care of each other, but I really needed to study for my midterm, so I was not too thrilled with being held up because people were behaving stupidly toward each other, in port, and toward the staff and ship. We each had to answer a question about a time someone did something nice for us to help build community or a time when we were not proud to be associated with SAS. The shipboard doctor stopped by to talk about how we were over our limit of infectious diarrhea and that if we didn’t improve within 2 days we might not be able to make port in Thailand and the CDC would board our ship.

I went to Cultural Preport immediately after that because it took an hour and a half, still not able to study for my midterm. We watched a portion of the King and I and listened to the Thai interport student speak. I left after the interport student was done speaking because I had to get some studying done before I went to sleep.

Oct. 3, 2007 B9
“If this wouldn’t fit you, I think we would all have noticed it by now.”
En route to Thailand

I had my art midterm today. It wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I think I did ok, at least up until the essay question. Logistical preport was the same as always. People didn’t pay attention while we were given valuable information about how not to behave, how to avoid injury, and how to properly care for ourselves. The ship doctor and the P.A. (I think she’s a P.A. anyway) gave a very entertaining speech/skit. The ‘voice’ announced that they expected the clearing process to be lengthy.

I was too busy to write a real entry this day.

Oct. 4, 2007
“Captain Jeremy is probably sitting there going, “D’oh! Why’d I give him control?”
Laem Chabang and Bangkok, Thailand

This was the first port where I didn’t get up to watch us pull in. I got up at the usual time that I get up for breakfast where I met Tim, Lindsey, Ashley, and Megan. Laura kind of joined in uninvited. Laura shared the details of her diarrhea she got from being stupid in Vietnam, which was gross because we were all eating breakfast. After breakfast I got packed and met Lindsey to wait to be cleared. We watched Saved and part of Love Actually. We ate lunch in between the two. The ship was finally cleared around 2 pm.

Lindsey and I were both registered for the bus to Bangkok, so we got to get our passports and leave in the first group. Today was the first time that they were actually checking tickets to make sure we were only in the lounge to get our passports if we belonged there. Faculty and LLLs were getting turned away if they didn’t have a bus ticket. The bus ride to Bangkok was about two and a half hours. The tour guide on the bus gave us advice on a cheap place to stay in the area, and then we were dropped off at a gigantic mall in the middle of downtown. Lindsey and I got dinner at a pizza place in the mall. It was super cheap and super amazing. After dinner we sought off to find the hotel, but ended up going the wrong way and found the aquarium, which was useful because we were planning that for the next day. We went back to Central World (the drop point) to reorient ourselves and see about getting a taxi to the hotel. The tour guide from the bus was still there and he gave us directions that actually went through the mall. We got to the hotel this time very easily.

We got a room without any problem. It was really cheap, but it was really, really nice. Dinner and breakfast were both included in the room. Lindsey and I went out to the 7/11 to get some water and snacks, and then returned to the hotel to use the internet. I tried for a while to post pictures, but it was to no avail. I couldn’t even get them attached to an email. When we got back to the hotel I got a shower and the water temperature was very inconsistent from scalding hot to icy. We watched CNN on a loop for a while, and got some information about what’s going on in Burma right now. It made me glad that we weren’t going there anymore. It was nice to finally get some news from the outside world. You would think that we would have knowledge of world events, but it’s very difficult to keep up with global events on a ship where internet is precious and there’s never enough time to get everything done. Lindsey and I mapped out plans for the next day and went to bed.

Oct. 5, 2007
“Basically to sum up America: Marilyn Monroe, Indians, and clowns.”
Bangkok, Thailand

Lindsey and I started off with breakfast at the hotel. I just had dry toast because the butter was in ice without any wrapper and the rest of the food seemed really questionable. They had mashed potatoes, baked beans, and really runny fried eggs. After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and tried to make reservations for the last night we would be in Bangkok because the hotel was in a safe neighborhood and the hostel we had booked was in a very questionable one. The lady at the front desk thought we were trying to reserve a room on the 7th floor rather than for the evening of the 7th, but we eventually worked it all out. We had the lady that worked at the transportation desk write some things out for us in Thai so we could give directions to taxi drivers to get to where we wanted.

When we left the hotel, Lindsey decided she wanted to walk to Siam Square before heading to the Royal Palace so that she would be able to find where we wanted to eat for lunch easily when we got there at lunchtime. We walked there and couldn’t find it, but we didn’t cross the street to Siam Square either. We just stayed on the side where the Siam Paragon was, which is another gigantic mall that houses the aquarium among all of its other offerings. There wasn’t a convenient spot to get a taxi so we walked back to Central World which wasn’t too far away and got a taxi. We showed the drive the directions and he pulled out but didn’t turn on the meter. Lindsey asked simply, “Meter?” in this really meek voice, which you can imagine didn’t get the meter turned on. It made me a little angry that we had to tell the driver to turn on the meter, but it also made me angrily demand he turn on the meter. This got results. He dropped us off outside of the palace, but not at the entrance, so that was a little confusing, but we worked it out in the end.

When we got into the Palace, we found out we were not properly dressed even though we were wearing capris, so we were given wrap skirts to put on. Dr. Pellegrinelli was in the changing room when we went in to put on our skirts, and she was the only SAS person that we ran into while we were there. The Palace was beautiful, much more so than the palace in Cambodia. Lindsey and I stumbled into the Temple of the Emerald Buddha without realizing it until after we left. We got to see what we think was the changing/deploying of the guard throughout the palace grounds and then went into the Thai Jewel and Coin Museum. We caught a taxi back to Siam Square, and again, I had to demand that the meter was turned on.

Lindsey and I found the Hard Rock Café and went there for lunch. On the way we were stopped by a Thai woman who was interested in helping us find whatever we were looking for. We were basically already there when she stopped us, but she talked to us for a while. I think she really just wanted to practice her english. When we got to the Hard Rock our bags were searched and then we were seated. The restaurant was full of old British and American men. In fact, Lindsey and I were the only 2 people there that weren’t businessmen. We actually had a waitress, but the entire male staff of the restaurant was giving Lindsey and I a lot of attention. From what we could gather, it was mostly because we were very pale and we were the only 2 women customers in the restaurant at the time. There was one waiter (whom Lindsey and I refer to as ‘Leery Waiter’ because he spent so much time leering) who sporadically gave us a song and dance show. He also gave us free stickers and window decals. When we left, pretty much everyone on staff in the restaurant told us goodbye.

The Siam Paragon was across the street from Siam Square so we walked over. We thought about going to see a movie, but we couldn’t agree on anything, so we just went ahead and went to the aquarium. We got free gifts here too. I have the most ridiculous bag ever, but it will come in handy in getting things off the ship. You had to walk through a security check point to actually enter any of the exhibits, and Lindsey and I both set off the alarms, but the security guard refused to check us. When Thai people set it off, they were definitely well searched. There was a really cool exhibit about the best way to survive in the oceans and the aquarium specialized in ‘Monsters of the Deep.’ There was supposedly an octopus in somewhere in one of the tanks and I looked for it for about 10 minutes but I couldn’t find it, which was pretty disappointing. In the middle of the aquarium there was a stand that was selling cotton candy. They had around 16 different flavors, and you picked one of the flavors from the mixes they had set up, and then they made it right there for you. It was pretty cool.

When we left the aquarium we saw a sign that said there was a USA Fair going on at the top floor of the mall, so we went up to check it out. I was amazed to find that I felt very out of place there. It was interesting to see the Thai perspective on the U.S. though. They had someone dressed up as Marilyn Monroe, a Native American, and 2 clowns wearing all red, white, and blue. We were given free maps of the U.S. just for attending. When we left, we were right next to the movie theater, so we tried to pick out a movie, which was really difficult because there wasn’t a lot to choose from: Stardust, Resident Evil, and Underdog. I pretty much refused to see Underdog and suggested that we split up and meet after the movies were over, but Lindsey didn’t want to split up so we both went to Stardust. The theater was probably the nicest I have ever been in and tickets were only $3.00. The seats were assigned, but we got to look at a map of vacant seats and pick out which ones we wanted. The movie was fabulous, and even though Lindsey didn’t want to see it to begin with, she ended up buying it from a street vendor before we left Thailand.

We decided to get ice cream before heading to the hostel, so we went to the Haagen Daz on the first floor of the mall. In Thailand Haagen Daz is a sit down restaurant. The ice cream was amazing, as was the service. We, again, got lots of attention from the male staff. After ice cream we caught the sky train out of the mall and it dropped us off right at the street we needed for our hostel for the night. The street was pretty sketchy and Lindsey and I were having a difficult time finding the hostel. A French woman actually overheard us, and helped us get there, as she was going to the same place. We got our room, which we were sharing with 6 other SASers going on the Tiger Temple tour. We were pleasantly surprised that we were sharing a room with Donna!

Oct 6, 2007
“If we could apparate, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”
Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We got up around 6:00 and got ready and met everyone else in the lobby of the hostel to wait for the bus to get there. I had some toast while we were waiting, and then we boarded the bus and headed off to the Floating Market. I slept basically the whole way. We had to pay 300 baht for a boat once we got there, but we set off through the market. On the way through the canals we noticed a baby crocodile sitting up on the edge of the ground, and as our boat passed, it leapt into the water and swam right toward us. The other girls in the boat freaked out, so our boat ‘driver’ got us out of there pretty quickly. I didn’t have a lot money, so I didn’t buy anything, but it was pretty amazing what you could actually find at there.

When we left the market we headed to Kanchanaburi, which was supposedly a long drive, but I didn’t really experience it, because I slept the whole way there. We went to the War Cemetery when we got there, which was kind of odd, because our tour guide didn’t really give us any history of what happened, so it was one of those cases where we knew we should feel sad, but we didn’t because we didn’t really know what happened. After the cemetery we went to lunch (I had some amazing Thai noodles) and then to the Tiger Temple. There were all kinds of animals free roaming through the area (mostly just pigs and horses). We went to see the tiger cubs first. They were absolutely adorable. One of them was playing/chewing on an empty water bottle while also posing for photos with tourists. After we had gotten our pictures taken, Lindsey, Donna, and I went to the Tiger Canyon section and got our pictures taken with the adult tigers. We were each given to a worker that walked us through the area. Most people were actually drug around by their wrist or their elbow, but the man that took me through held my hand, which was really awkward, just because no one else was doing it.

The next item on our agenda was elephant riding! Lindsey and I shared an elephant and we got to ride through the jungle and a little through the river. Each elephant was equipped with a sort of driver that steered the elephant the way it was supposed to go. When the elephant screwed up it got whacked really hard with a bamboo stick. The first time this happened it made Lindsey start laughing uncontrollably, which made me really uncomfortable. I was pretty disgusted at the way the elephants were controlled by pain, and Lindsey’s inappropriate laugher was just that: inappropriate. She laughed so much that the ‘driver’ stopped the elephant and turned around to make sure that everything was ok. It was really awkward.

The group wanted to go to the hot springs before going to the hotel, but our tour guide said there wasn’t time before it closed. Instead, we stopped at a 7/11 where I got some snacks to take back with us. The hotel was a ‘floating’ hotel on the River Kwae. The buildings were built on stilts in the river. The dinner at the hotel was almost completely American: fried chicken and french fries.

Donna, Lindsey, and I went back to our room to hang out, and other SASers joined us at various points throughout the night. During the midst of the gathering in our room a cricket jumped on my head. Lindsey freaked out and started screaming. I just went with it. Having a cricket on my head really wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, so I just let it hang out there.

Oct. 7, 2007
“I’m not putting my money to a cause like snakes.”
Kanchanaburi and Bangkok, Thailand

At breakfast the next morning I stuck with the dry toast plan I had been going with for all of Thailand. The group of us left on the bus to go to the hot springs, but when we got there so few people wanted to be there in the first place that those people felt like staying there would have held us up too much, so no one got out of the bus at all. We drove further to Hellfire Pass and the Hellfire Pass Museum.

We walked the path down through the pass, but we didn’t go the whole way. We got down to the memorial where there was information for us to read a little bit, but most of the rest of the group decided that they would rather take group pictures of us standing in an SAS formation instead, so of course, that idea won out. After the group picture taking, we went into the museum where I finally got to get some information about the Death Railway and Hellfire Pass. The museum was really small, but it was very informative.

The next stop of the day was this gorgeous waterfall where there were lots of Thai children and families swimming and just having a good time. A lot of SASers decided to take a dip, but they didn’t pay any attention to the attire of everyone swimming. All of the Thais were fully dressed in t-shirts and capris, but this was just too much for the SASers or they didn’t even care enough to notice, so they stripped down to their bikinis and dove in. They got a lot of nasty looks, but that didn’t really do anything. Going on these trips with big groups really helps to see what drives the stereotypes about Americans. It wasn’t a majority of the girls that behaved this way, but these are the people that were noticed.

We drove to the railway station where we got tickets for a ride on the Death Railway. We all got boxed lunches to take with us on the train ride. I had sweet and sour chicken that was good, but not as good as what I had in China. The scenery on the train ride was beautiful. The ride let us off right near a cave with a statue of a Buddha in it. You had to walk along the tracks to get to it, which made me pretty nervous, but there was another whole tourist group going, so I followed them in to take a peak. It was pretty cool. The cave served as a hospital during the war.

After the train ride and the cave, we went bamboo rafting at the same place we went elephant riding. There’s really not much to say about it, as it is pretty self explanatory; we went on a raft made out of bamboo. There was a really cool spider crawling along our raft, but I didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t want Lindsey to freak out, yet again, because of some bug. When we were done rafting we drove back into town to view the Bridge on the River Kwae before going back to Bangkok. Again, the drive was supposed to have taken a long time, but I slept through most of it. Lindsey slept through all of it, and during the time that I was awake, Donna and I planned out what we wanted to do with the rest of the night.

When we got back to the drop off point in Bangkok, we caught the Sky Train to the Sukhumvit Night Market. We decided before we did any shopping that we wanted to get something to eat, so we found a place called Gulliver’s Traveler’s Tavern and got dinner. After we got some food, we headed back out into the market and attempted some shopping. Most of the vendors were not willing to haggle at all, and when I tried with a movie vendor who was definitely ripping me off, he laughed hysterically at me. It made me really mad, so I went somewhere else, which was his loss, because we all know how I get with movies. I was able to haggle one of the movie vendors down quite a bit and he even threw in a few free ones for me. The prices were so steep at the market and it was so difficult to haggle that we decided just to go to the hotel. It was a bit away, so we took the Sky Train that dropped us off right next to it. Donna had decided to stay with us, so we got a room with 3 beds, which was $25 a person for the night. I thought that was a pretty good deal for such a nice hotel.

Oct. 8, 2007
“If you can’t catch a taxi by now, you have some serious issues.”
Bangkok and Laem Chabang, Thailand

We got breakfast at the little bakery attached to the hotel. I had a cream cheese type roll thing that was fabulous as well as a slice of chocolate cake, which was actually not all that good. We had decided that we wanted to try a different market today, so we found one on the map not far from our hotel, but when we got to the area that was supposed to be a market, there definitely was not one there. We chanced it, and looked at the map again for a new market in the area. We found on fairly easily, and we were pleasantly surprised when it actually existed. The whole market was basically for clothes and purses, which wasn’t really what we were looking for, but when we left the market we went on a side street that was full of handicrafts and that sort of thing. The listed prices here were much better than at Sukhumvit, and I was able to haggle a lot on top of that. I spent most of the rest of my baht on a few things that I had been wanting to get.

By the time we got out of the market we really just wanted to sit down because we were carrying our bags that were now full from everything we had bought over the previous 5 days, so we crossed the street into a mall and sat down to figure out what we wanted to do. We decided to go to Central World to get some food and then stay in the area until it was time to catch the bus. Lindsay and I had really wanted to go back to the pizza place from before, but when we got there the whole place was roped off because they were filming something in it. It was disappointing, but we found another place to eat where they served the weirdest combinations of food for meals. I had a meal consisting of spaghetti, corn dogs, broccoli, and potato chips. Donna went for the same thing.

We decided to go to the grocery store to get some food/toiletries to take back to the ship, and we couldn’t have decided at a better time because it just so happened that there was a grocery store on the level of the mall we were on. I got a bunch of stuff because a cashier told me that they took Mastercard, but when I actually checked out, it turned out that they didn’t. That was disappointing because it just so happens that my ATM card doesn’t work in Thailand, just like it doesn’t work anywhere else. Donna lent me some baht, and I got everything I needed.

We still had a few hours to kill after we left the grocery store, so we browsed around a lot. I found a bookstore, and I got a few books, but I did exercise some self restraint. We decided to get some Baskin Robbins and I had a brownie ice cream sundae. We were really out of things to do at this point, but it was still about 45 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave. We went to the bus area anyway, and there was actually one leaving back to the ship soon, so we got on it. By the time we got back to the ship it was nearly onship time anyway, so we just boarded.

The plan for the next several days: studying for and taking midterms, writing papers, and all that stuff that schoolwork requires. I also really wish that my sea had a laundry day today, but I have to wait ~4-5 days. That means I'll be handwashing everything because it all smells like sweat and elephants and like it's spent months in SE Asia, rather than just a few days.

2007-10-05T06:11:00.000-05:00

I don't have a real update but I am doing this because I have access to the internet and it doesn't use up my internet minutes!

And I have a great story about a leery waiter that you will get to read when I update for real.

2007-10-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

My ONU email still isn’t working. I have gotten comments on my note on Facebook, but I had tried all of those things before. My account is seriously nonfunctional. This means that if you want to get ahold of me, you can use the account I posted on Facebook (or ask my parents, because they have it [don’t leave out my middle initial!]). Otherwise, don’t expect to be able to contact me. If you’ve emailed me recently and I haven’t written you back, be patient. A reply will come during the stretch I have between Thailand and India.

If you leave me a comment, please leave me a name or let me know you’re a parent or alum or whatever. It’s nice to know that when I’m reading them.

Vietnam and Cambodia were intense for me, but I kept most of the reflection parts to myself. I learned a lot about myself in Cambodia, both good and bad. Somewhere in the midst of traveling throughout the world and living on a ship, I’ve managed to find my voice to stand up for myself and others, which if you know me, you know I never really had before. I fell in love with Cambodia despite the major SNAFUs in my trip. I really debated on what information to share with you from my journal. This was the first time that it has been so difficult to decide what it just too personal to be shared with strangers and what actually needs to be shared with strangers. I also debated what to share about the SNAFUs that occurred during the trip, especially because I know that people from SAS read these, but I shared everything in that regard.

Just some information on Cambodia:
The top 3 causes of death:
1. HIV
2. Motorbike accidents
3. Landmines

In 1991, when the removal of landmines began there were over 10 million. At the present, there are still over 4 million lurking throughout the country, severely injuring or killing the innocent.

When the Khmer Rouge was in power, they killed their own. They slaughtered people just because they were educated or wealthy. I wish I had more information to give you this. If you continue reading, you will understand why I can give you so little information on the genocide that devastated this beautiful country in the 1970s.

Sept. 25, 2007 (Tuesday?) Well, it’s A8. That’s what matters.
“It’ll be lifeboat Survivor, but we’ll just vote Creeper off.”
En route to Vietnam

The morning started the same as always. I went to the computer lab to check my email, but couldn’t because luminis was being retarded. I set up a new email account, and then I informed my parents. Hopefully they remembered that, because now, even 12 hours later, I still can’t get into luminis. I waited for Lindsey so we could go to breakfast together like we do every morning, but she never showed, so I went by myself. I didn’t go quite as all out as I usually do. I did start malaria medicine today. After breakfast I tried in vain to check my email again, because I wanted to see if my Dad had emailed me back about my ATM card. It was to no avail. I decided to go back to my room to work on readings for a while. I got myself caught up and ahead in oceanography. I read the ridiculously long China reading we have to do for Global Studies, not that it’s going to help when it comes to the exam.

I met Nicole and Bo for lunch. It was Taco Day! To top it off, they had chocolate mousse. I wanted to eat a ridiculous amount, but I didn’t have enough time before class, or so I thought. In oceanography the professor was late because he thought that class was at 12:30 rather than 12:15. The lecture was on the properties of water, which I’ve heard about a 1,000 times since I was a biology major and we learned it in chemistry and biology. It made it a long class for me, because it had been drilled into my head so many times already. After class I talked to the professor about the practica I have to do. I didn’t realize I was going to end up at Tai O, so I didn’t clear it with him ahead of time. He said we had to get his ok before we went, but I thought it was worth a shot. He told me it was fine, so that’s 1 down, 2 to go. I also got the Bangkok Aquarium cleared.

I came back to my room and my cabin steward hadn’t made it to my room yet, so I told him to just take the day off from our room. I got a lot more work done, and then when I was out of things to do, I decided to take a nap before the lifeboat drill. There was a lifeboat drill at 5:30, which cut off a lot of people for their regular dinner time. I went at 6:30 for family dinner. My ‘dad’ was seasick and left almost as soon as he got there. Others in our group were pretty seasick. Out of the nine of us, only 4 showed up and stayed. Dinner tonight was nothing impressive, but dessert was good. I talked to my ‘mom’ about getting to the market in HMC and about the trips I am planning on taking. She’s been on the trip to the Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple before and said that they it was definitely a trip worth doing.

The cultural preport tonight was very good. It was much more serious than any of the other cultural preports we have had. First the interport student spoke. He was interesting, but for me the good part was the panel discussion that they had afterwards. Four professors talked about the Vietnam War and how it compares to the war in Iraq. One professor spoke on his experiences being drafted into the Vietnam War. It was a heavy discussion. It gave me a lot more to think about than I expected to get from a cultural preport. One of the professors discussed the hidden motives behind the entry into a conflict in Vietnam and about the hidden motives behind the entry into the war in Iraq. It was really thought provoking. I’m not sure why we even entered into the war in Iraq. I know they said it was to find weapons of mass destruction, but it is obviously more than that. Oil? Probably. Other financial reasons? Probably. But I don’t know exactly. I’ve never thought about it before, but it bothers me now to think that I don’t really know the reasons we’re there. One of the professors spoke on the difference between a just and an unjust war defined in Biblical terms, and that the only wars we [America] lost were wars that did not qualify as just. My ship ‘dad’ spoke on the parallels of the wars. His perspective was very interesting, as he is from the Middle East. The panel was definitely anti-war in Iraq. I have been anti-war in Iraq because it seemed like the war was pointless, that it was just a losing battle. It never really occurred to me before tonight that there are actual real, concrete reasons to be against the war, among them that I don’t even know why we’re there. I’m not sure most Americans have any idea. Nicole, Kelsey, and I were talking about it after the preport and the only thing that we could really come up with was oil and weapons of mass destruction (that never appeared). If that’s it, if that’s the only reason for the loss of lives, then it’s not good enough. If there is a reason that makes this war worthwhile, why don’t we know what it is? Like I said, it was a heavy preport. It gave me a lot to think about.

Sept. 26, 2007 (Wednesday?) B8
“Ah, well, let’s move away from Chanel #5.”
En route to Vietnam

The usual routine today: check email (Luminis still isn’t working), have breakfast with Lindsey, work on readings before Global, go to Global. After Global I had Natural History. We talked about water today. The same lecture I got in Oceanography, the same one I have gotten about 15 before that. Needless to say, I was not surprised to hear about capillary action and that water is the universal solvent. If Doc Nancy had said that something extraordinarily bizarre had happened and water no longer had surface tension, then it would have been far more interesting. I ate lunch with Kelsey and Nicole. They had macaroni and cheese and french fries and brownies today! They are on a roll with lunch. Yesterday was Taco Day; today there were french fries. I’m sure that they aren’t going to make a habit of this, and I’ll be back to peanut butter sandwiches when we get back from Vietnam, but it was nice for now.

I had World Art in the afternoon. We have a quiz the next class. He said that it was going to be easy, but I couldn’t tell if he was serious. He was saying after class that we shouldn’t be on the ship studying while we’re in port; that being out in port and learning from our experiences there was far more important than studying for a test. I hope that he stays true to that. I have prepared for the quiz, but not as much as I would have if I were at ONU and studying in an environment more conducive to reading. But it’s hard to focus on work when you can watch for dolphins or planning out how to spend your first day in Vietnam.

Sept. 27, 2007
“The only time we almost died was the time we hesitated.”
Saigon, Vietnam

I woke up really early this morning to see the ship come through the river into Ho Chi Minh City. I watched it with Megan and Ashley, and eventually after watching boats for a couple of hours, we got breakfast. The ship was cleared by 8:30, so Lindsay and I caught the first shuttle and headed into the city. The shuttle stopped near a dress making shop, so Lindsey and I took a step in. I asked how much it was to have a dress made with the fabric that I wanted and it was only $45. It would have been less if I hadn’t picked the one of the most expensive fabrics. I picked out the style of dress I wanted; I wanted something exactly like what was on one of the mannequins. I paid half for my dress, and it will be ready tomorrow night. I’ll be in Cambodia tomorrow night, so Lindsey said she would go back and pick it up for me with hers.

From here we headed to the Ben Thanh Market. We walked around at first without buying anything just because we wanted to see what there was. They had almost everything you could think of at the market, from dried shrimps to Northface backpacks. I found a place that sold DVDs for a dollar, so I got a few (people who know me very well can interpret what a ‘few’ actually means). I got the complete series of the Simpsons for $10. I didn’t have a lot of money, mostly because I wasn’t planning on paying to have a dress made; I had decided originally that I didn’t want one. We ran into Kelsey, and we decided to get the shuttle back to the ship for lunch and to unload our things and get a little more money. When we got back into HCMC, it started storming, so we headed back into the market because it was covered. I got a few more things, but not many because everyone in the market had realized that SAS was in town, and the prices had shot up a ridiculous amount. It didn’t really seem like haggling helped very much. When we left the market it was still raining pretty hard. There was a hospital across the street from the market, and Kelsey and Lindsey needed to visit a health care facility for one of their classes. We walked over, and a doctor agreed to speak with us about Vietnamese health care straight away. We got input from several people. It was very interesting to see the hospital from the inside and hear the information they were willing to give us, compared with some of the information the citizens of Vietnam were willing to give. We stopped in a few shops on the way back to the shuttle. The prices there were much higher than earlier before, and I just wasn’t interested in paying that much for anything. Lindsey mentioned that she was a student, and the prices dropped back to the amounts from the morning. It was interesting. We came back to the ship by way of the shuttle, and I smacked my head pretty hard when I was climbing back onto the bus. By the time I got back to the ship I had a pretty bad migraine. I was feeling pretty miserably, so I didn’t go back out. I went up to the seventh deck and got a cookie, ate it with my Maxalt, and went to sleep.

Sept. 28, 2007
“I’ve lived there just long enough to pick up the accent.”
HCMC, Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I got up early to meet Ashley for breakfast, but she overslept, so I ate on my own. I noticed at the field office that it said my Cambodia trip was leaving at noon rather than 10:00, as the note I got on my door stated. I was already packed, so I thought I would send my parents an email. At around 9:25 I started to see people going into the Union, so I thought maybe I should go check to see what was going on. My group was meeting at 9:30, as I thought before I saw the sign posted at the field office. I sprinted back into my room to get my bag, tore it apart looking for my bug spray (I felt horrible leaving it like that, knowing that my cabin steward would be cleaning up after me). When I returned to the Union, I learned that the trip had been split into 2 groups because of flights, and the smaller of the two groups (mine) didn’t receive any recognition on the sign of postponed trips at all. We were told by Sarah, who works in the field office, that we would be joining the other group in Phnom Penh, that our itineraries were going to be the same once the later flight got in. This made me happy, as my friends were all in the larger part of the group, and I didn’t know anyone in my part of the group. We were given a copy of the itinerary, and went on our way to the airport. On the way to the airport, we were joined by the parents who were traveling with their kids on our trip. At the airport in Phnom Penh I found a Bank of Canada ATM machine which actually gave out US currency. I felt like I actually had a shot at being able to get money out, other than the $40 I had brought with me ($20 went to my visa and $10 went to water at meals because drinks weren’t included). Much like China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, my card was rejected. I really wasn’t surprised, though I was disappointed. Once we boarded the bus in Phnom Penh we were told we were going to the Royal Palace, which confused me, because according to the itinerary we weren’t supposed to be doing that until the next day. I got a new copy of the itinerary from a man I believed was a parent, because we were not told who he was. I was also under the impression that our trip leader was one of the RDs, but this was incorrect. I later learned that we had no trip leader at all on our bus. The itinerary looked like we were not going to be meeting up with the other group at all, except for dinner a few times. We were on separate flights to Siem Reap, and our schedules there were completely different. Not only that, we (the small group) were missing the Killing Fields. I was very disappointed, but we were still going to the Genocide Museum, according to the itinerary, which was really the reason I wanted to go on this particular trip.

The Royal Palace was beautiful, even in the rain. We then went to the National Museum, which was cool, but featured statues from Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples, so I wasn’t too busy paying a lot of attention because I was going to be there the next day. Outside of the National Museum was my first glance of a landmine victim. It really made my stomach turn a little bit, in this queasy “I can’t believe things like this actually happen” sort of way. It’s one thing to read about it or see a picture of it, but seeing it in real life just confirms in a completely concrete way that these things did and do happen. We then went on a cruise on the Mekong and then finally dinner, where I got to spend about an hour with my friends. I also ate ox tongue (it’s not good by the way).

On the bus ride back to the hotel, we were informed that there had been a change in our itinerary, that we were getting up earlier and going to the Killing Fields. I had assumed that meant we were going to go to both the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, but when I did the math in my head there was no way we could make it to both and still catch our 9:30 am flight, and everyone wanted to go to the Killing Fields. I asked the “overzealous parent” who I had learned was an ISE official if we were going to both, and he told me that we only had time for one, that this was what everyone wanted to do. I was devastated. The reason I paid $1000 for this trip was to go to the Genocide Museum, not the Royal Palace or the National Museum. I talked to the actual trip leader to see if I could switch to her group. As it happened, there was someone in her group that wanted to switch to mine, so it seemed perfect. The three tour guides all contacted the company to try to make this happen for both of us. The first time they got a ‘no’ answer, so they just kept trying. They made at least four different phone calls, and tried everything possible to get me on the trip I wanted (the trip I paid for), but it was to no avail. There was just no way I was going to get on that group. I was so disappointed, but there was nothing I could do. My group wanted to go to the Killing Fields (at least that was what I was told) and I wanted to go to the Genocide Museum. I was the odd man out.

Sept. 29, 2007
“What? You don’t want to see the skulls?”
Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia

I ate breakfast with some of the parents on the parent trip. It made me really miss my family. It was lonely to sit with a table of people who all had someone else that they knew, that they loved with them. As I was talking to them, I discovered that they too had wanted the Genocide Museum, so I couldn’t understand why the change had occurred. That was about half the group, including myself. The ISE official’s wife saw me and asked the question listed at my title for this entry when she learned I was upset that I was getting the reason I signed up for this trip, the reason EVERYONE who signed up for this trip did. Going to the Killing Fields without the Genocide Museum was like going to the Peace Park at Hiroshima without going to the Museum. This probably doesn’t really mean anything to anyone who’s never been to Hiroshima, but while you get some feeling of the tragedy at the Peace Park, it’s the Museum that provides you with the information as to what really happened. It doesn’t hold back; you get everything. It’s horrible to see, but it’s so important to learn about, and the best way to learn is to see. The tour guides were so wonderful to me. They brought me a bunch of information on the museum because they knew how disappointed I was, and I think that they believed the museum was the more important of the 2 sites as well. I was very grateful, but it wasn’t a substitute for the real thing, which was so close, but I had no way to get to it.

The Killing Fields were another stomach turning experience, but truthfully, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I knew that there was genocide somewhat recently in Cambodia, but not a lot of the details. I think most of us felt that way. We really needed the Museum to provide us with some kind of information about what really happened. I talked to more people who wanted the Genocide Museum and not the Killing Fields, so I really couldn’t figure out why we were there and not where the group obviously wanted to be. We proceeded to the airport, and I learned that the ISE official and his wife wanted to go to the Killing Fields so they requested the change from the tour guide without consulting the group of students and parents who each paid $1000 for the trip. I was livid. I’m not even sure livid begins to cover it. The Genocide Museum was supposed to be the highlight of the trip in Phnom Penh, and it was what all the students who paid for the trip wanted to see, so how dare 2 people that got a free trip be so selfish as to change the itinerary for people who not only wanted to see what they were promised, but needed to see for classes for practica! How dare they be so inconsiderate! To other people this probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to people who have taken this trip through SAS, you can understand how upset we were. That was what made this trip a must.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and went to the hotel for lunch and checked in. I was still seething with anger because of what happened. I knew that there was nothing I could do, but the Field Office and 2 horribly selfish individuals had really screwed my group. The 19 students and parents got no trip leader (meaning no one to talk to about the itinerary change when it occurred), were lied to from the beginning with the promise that we were joining the other group in Phnom Penh and following their schedule, depriving us of the knowledge we needed to make informed choices as a group so that we could see what we wanted since we had to leave something out (no one paid to see the Royal Palace; we all paid to see the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields and would have given up the Royal Palace and National Museum to see them, if we had been given any choice in the matter), and making arrogant choices incorrectly assuming everyone’s wishes. I was so mad that there are no words for it. As a group, the 19 of us were collectively screwed by the Field Office.

Anyway, still seething, I grabbed lunch and boarded the bus to go to Tonle Sap and see floating homes. They were nice to see, but it was not what I paid extra for. There was another trip that this was their schedule, and I paid extra money to go to Phnom Penh for the sole reason that I wanted to see the Genocide Museum. Back to the point: Tonle Sap was nice. While our boat was out, 2 little kids jumped onto our boat from another boat to sell us drinks. We continued going, and it happened again except this time a boat just pulled up next to us and the kids climbed onto the side. A little boy was selling bananas, but he wasn’t wearing any pants. The ISE official’s wife couldn’t get a good look to see if he was male or female so she asked. Everyone thought it was funny, and her husband deemed it necessary to take a picture, making sure to get the boy’s genitals in the picture. It was absolutely mortifying. How do you get to be older than 10 without realizing that taking picture like that are completely inappropriate without the parents’ permission, which he didn’t have. He just did what he wanted, which was a reoccurring theme.

From Tonle Sap, we went to Angkor Wat. It was amazing. I climbed up to the top of the main building fairly easily, but getting down was another story. There was a section with a handrail, but the wait to get down was almost 45 minutes, and I just didn’t want to wait that long. They say you should use the handrail because the steps are worn down, and if you slip because of the uneven steps, you’re going to be majorly hurting. I found a set of stairs that didn’t seem too bad, and I just walked down with no problems. I explored for a little while, just walking around. Every now and then I got stopped to take pictures with people. In China it was because I was blonde, but here I was with other blondes, and people didn’t want them in the picture. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but I went with it. After we got back on the bus I asked the tour guide about what it was that made me stand out like that. He told me that it was because I was so pale and pale is considered to be beautiful by many Cambodians. That was kind of cool and a complete reversal from the U.S. where I get laughed at for how colorless I am. When I went out to the buses, we got mobbed by kids selling postcards and bracelets. I wanted to get some bracelets for my pen pal classroom back at home. I asked one of the kids how much it would be to get 3 sets of 10, and he told me that it would be $5.00. I knew that everyone else who had bought bracelets were getting them at $1 per set of 10, so I found a different child to buy from, one that sold to me at the same rate as she did to everyone else. This made the first child start sobbing hysterically. He followed me around crying, so I just got on the bus, but he stood outside of my window and whimpered. When some more people started to get on the bus, the crying stopped and he tried to get the rest to buy from him. At this point I got back of the bus to look around a little more because we still had a few minutes and I wanted to get some postcards. The moment I stepped off I got the same routine everyone else had been getting, “Where are you from? [the U.S.], the capital is Washington, D.C. What state do you live in? [Ohio], the capital is Columbus, I am smart. You must buy from me.” If you bought from one child all the other children ended up trying to guilt you into buying from them. I really didn’t like it. I liked bargaining in China much better. The vendors are aggressive, but I can handle that much better than I can handle little children trying to make me feel so horrible that I buy from them.

After we left Angkor Wat, we went to dinner at a Cambodian sort of dinner theater. The food was really questionable. I have gotten pretty good at trying everything (in Cambodia, this means that I ate ox tongue), but the food was just not good, except for the 2 western dishes they had. It was really strange that their native food was no good, but the spaghetti was some of the best I’ve ever had. The show was alright, and probably better than anything I would have done on my own anyway, because I was running low on money due to the ATM machine not accepting my card. A lot of people went out that night, but I only had $8 left, so I just went back to the hotel and got some rest. We didn’t have an alarm clock in this room, so I set up a wake up call, but I had heard that they could be questionable, so my roommate let me use hers to set so I could be up for sunrise even though she was going to stay behind and sleep. My roommate for the trip was really cool about me being an early bird.

Sept. 30, 2007
“Just an FYI: the ants in Cambodia bite and it is not pleasant.”
Siem Reap, Cambodia and Saigon, Vietnam

I got up at 4 am to go to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. I was one of very few who did. The tour guide took the few of us that went to what he considered to be the best place to view the sunrise, but it was pretty evident from the clouds that we weren’t going to be able to see much. We did look at the reflecting pools and I had a little bit of time to explore for a while before going back to the hotel for breakfast. Breakfast was amazing. I had delicious Belgian waffles. After breakfast we headed back out and went to the Ta Prohm temple. This is the site where part of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. I don’t really care for the movie, but the site itself was amazing. Trees were growing all throughout the ruins, and there were tree roots that were holding up some of the buildings and tree roots that were knocking down some of the ruins. I wanted to buy a couple more bracelets, but once I bought from one, I got hounded by all of the rest. I had to run back to the bus to lose them. Next we went to Prah Khan, which was also amazing, before heading back to the hotel for lunch. The time at the temples was fun, but there were a few times where it was awkward for me as a part of my group. The group was mostly parents on the parent trip matched with their kids and then a handful of us that didn’t have them. The parent group and their kids had bonded very well, but the rest of us didn’t really integrate. When they wanted a group photo, it was just awkward.

I wasn’t really hungry at lunch and I also wasn’t feeling very well. I had forgotten to bring my allergy medicine with me, so you can imagine that being in the jungle without allergy relief was not very pleasant. I just rested before checking out of the hotel, and then it was to Angkor Thom. We went to Bayon Temple, Elephant Terrance, and the Terrace of the Leper King. I climbed up the terrace of the Leper King; I was one of 3 to do so. When I got up, there was a landmine victim sitting up there. He started a conversation with me, and we just talked for a little while. I went back down with a lumpy sort of feeling in my stomach. I had just met one of the nicest, happiest people, and he was these things in spite of so much that he had lost. The group then went to the market very nearby, but my mind was still racing with thoughts from the Terrace of the Leper King. How could I buy myself a meaningless souvenir when there was someone who could use the few dollars I had left for food or something else he needed. I knew I had time, so I got a bottle of water to give to him, and sprinted back to the Terrace. I gave them man the water and the $6 I had left. He took the water happily, but at first rejected the money. He wasn’t begging or asking tourists for money; he was just there to have some conversation and work on his English. I insisted, and he finally took the money, and I ran back to the bus to go to the airport.

There was a Dairy Queen at the airport and a sign saying that they took MasterCard, so I thought I was in luck. When I went to pay, they told me that their credit card machine was down, so I canceled my order. The guy behind me ordered me an ice cream and gave it to me, because he heard me cancel my order. I ate my ice cream before going to the gate and waiting. My art history professor who was on a different Cambodia trip was on the same flight back as me, so I asked him a few questions about what the midterm was going to be like on the next B day. He was very helpful. I also started reading the book I bought about S-21 (the Genocide Museum) since I didn’t get to go. The flight back was uneventful. It took a long time to get back to the ship because of traffic, and we missed dinner. I went up to the pool bar and bought a few cookies before grabbing a much needed shower. Since I still wasn’t feeling very well because of my own stupidity, I went to bed around 11.

Oct. 1, 2007 (Where did Sept. go?)
“I think the most important thing is that as humans we do the most good that we can.”
Saigon, Tay Ninh, and Cu Chi, Vietnam

I got up around 6:30 this morning so that I could get ready, email my mom and let her know that I got back from Cambodia safely, and eat breakfast before heading out for my trip at 7:30. I did remember to take my allergy medicine. The bus ride to Tay Ninh took about 2 and a half hours. We stopped there for lunch, which was pretty decent. The main attraction in Tay Ninh was the Cao Dai Temple, which is where we headed after lunch. We got to view the noon service. It was interesting, even though I didn’t really understand what was going on. The carvings in the temple were beautiful. The statue and painting of Victor Hugo really seemed like an oddity to have in a religious building, but I did know that he is considered to be a saint by Cao Daism. After the service, our tour guide told us more about the religion on the drive to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was very interesting; the Cao Dai worship the eye. The prayer they were saying in the service was for those who had given their lives for Cao Dai, for those who died in the war, and for those who were still alive to have a better life.

The Cu Chi tunnels were about an hour and a half away from the temple, so I took a much needed nap on the way there. We got to see some of the traps the Vietcong used against the U.S. soldiers. We were allowed to go through the tunnels that had been expanded for us, and I was planning on it, but once I got down there, I saw some bats. I’m not really a big fan of getting up close and personal with bats, so I opted not to crawl through the tunnels. After everyone got done getting through the tunnels, we got to watch a movie about the war and the function of the tunnel system. It was really interesting to see these things presented through the Vietnamese point of view rather than the American point of view. I remember going to listen to Vietnam veterans speak when I was in high school, and the picture I got in Vietnam was unfathomably different from that. It’s hard to mesh the two views together; they don’t really fit with each other.

I slept on the way back from the tunnels to Saigon. The distance between Saigon and Cu Chi is supposedly only 17 km, but it took nearly 2 hours to get back to the ship because of traffic. The traffic must have been really bad, but I missed it because I took a nice nap. When I got back on the ship I turned in my landing card, got a snack from the Piano Bar, and got my review images for my World Art midterm that I have the day after tomorrow. Lindsey stopped by after she got back from Cambodia and she brought me my dress. She had picked it up for me earlier. It didn’t turn out like what I asked for at all, which was surprising because I picked out a design from a mannequin in the shop. Maybe I can get my Grandma to alter it for me, as it doesn’t even fit right.

I’m not ready for another day of class, but it’s here anyway. Doc Nancy is talking today in Global, so that at least should be interesting.

China

2007-09-24T18:15:00.000-05:00

It’s the same deal as always. The posts are copied out of my journal with pieces deleted. I apologize for the poor grammar and the misspellings, but I was exhausted when I wrote this. I think it really shows by the last entry, which is incredibly short. I may post what I rewrite for myself, but don’t count on it.

For those who want the short version: China was amazing. I went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Terra Cotta Warriors among other things. I had my pocket picked (don’t worry mom and dad, they didn’t take money or ATM/credit cards. It’s kind of funny what they got, but you’ll have to read on to find out what it was). I ate duck flavored jello. I haggled A LOT and loved every minute of it.

The long version:

Sept. 17, 2007 A7
“My dad listens to Avril Lavigne. I don’t even know who she is.”
En route to Qingdao, China

It was back to classes today. I did the usual: took advantage of the internet when no one was using it early in the morning, got breakfast (which was not good today, though it did see the return of strawberry yogurt), and did some reading before Global. Dean Glatfelter taught today in Global Studies, which was fairly interesting. The second presentation was not very interesting, but it was quick and we got let out early, which is always a plus. I should have used this time for work, but I instead opted for a nap, which was amazing. By this point the rocking had eased a little bit, and when I got up to go to Oceanography, it wasn’t too bad at all. Dr. Elliott talked about our midterm today. It’s going to be A11, which seems like it should be close, because today was A7, but it’s not for almost another month, after China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Thailand.

I had dinner with my shipboard family tonight. We added a new member, the woman who works the registrar. It was so much fun, but we were only there for half an hour, because of the mandatory meeting for everyone who was going to Beijing. The meeting wasn’t really too informative, if you had the ability to think for yourself. It covered the size your carry on bag is allowed to be, which some people had ridiculous questions about. The stuff people were asking was just ridiculous… A professor sat behind me, and even she couldn’t restrain herself from making snide remarks about how stupid people were being. The preport was after that. Dr. Croizier spoke, and he is just the most adorable old man. I have him for class, and he was so much more interesting tonight than he usually is. I suppose it has something to do with the atmosphere. In class he has such a hard time getting people to be quiet so he can talk, and a lot of it has to do with his nature. I think he would be a great professor if he was teaching people who were actually interested in what he had to say, rather than people who showed up because they had to have 12 credit hours. I would really like to have a class with him in that sort of setting. Then one of the Chinese students on board gave a presentation called “Scary China,” which was completely hilarious. He was debunking myths portrayed by the American media. Then the Chinese interport student (who is actually from Hong Kong) gave a presentation.

Sept. 18, 2007 B7
“I think I see something! Oh, it’s just an empty water bottle.”
En route to China
*You’ll probably think this post is unusually short. I cut out a lot. Most of it wouldn’t have meant much to you anyway.*

This morning I did the usual: took advantage of the internet when there were less people on it and ate a massive breakfast.

Natural History was interesting; art history was not. I had lunch with Nicole and Bo today out on the deck. The ocean isn’t nearly as pretty now as it was before. It used to be a beautiful bright blue, but it has now turned to a murky gray. We had an observation on Deck 7 for Natural History today, which was mostly to teach us how to use binoculars. Most people didn’t even have a set with them, so it didn’t really do anyone much good. We saw no animal life, but instead 1 ship and a great deal of garbage. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. My idea of sea life isn’t really an empty water bottle and a floating crate.

Sept. 19th 2007 (Wednesday?)
“It’s jell-o with hunks of duck in it.”
Qingdao and Beijing, China

I got up at 5:30 to watch us pull into Qingdao with Ashley. I was up a little bit early, so I took advantage of the lack of people on the internet. I went to the faculty/staff lounge (it’s one of the rare occasions when we’re allowed in), and saw that it was pouring down rain outside. There were the few people that wanted to watch out in the rain, but I stayed inside. When Ashley got up there, we went out in the rain for a few minutes, but not very long. We got breakfast, and then I went back to bed, figuring that we weren’t going to be cleared for a while. Even if we were cleared early, it wasn’t really worth it to me to get off of the ship and then get right back on to meet in the Union for my Beijing/Xian trip.

Before the flight, Doc Nancy got some Oreos and shared with me while we were waiting to board. It’s weird, but kind of cool all at the same time to share Oreos with a professor while you both wait for your first trip to Beijing. To board the plane, we had to get on buses outside of the gate. The bus took us all of 10 feet to the nearest plane, where we boarded. On the flight I sat next to Creeper and one of the Life Long Learners (LLL). The LLL picked up on my dislike of flying when we hit some turbulence and was really nice about it. He talked about whatever he could get me to talk about in order to distract me from it, and before I knew it, we had landed in Beijing. It turns out that he is from Ohio and his daughter is an AXD, which is pretty cool.

From the airport we went to dinner, which was at a 5 story Peking Duck Restaurant. I wasn’t very hungry, but I did eat. Duck was in pretty much everything. The meal even started with this weird jell-o with chucks of duck in it. It wasn’t very good. I figured we were going to get some sort of weird dessert with duck in it, but we actually just got watermelon. My table went through beer pretty quickly, and eventually got cut off from the free stuff we were getting. From here we went to the hotel and checked in. I got my roommate, but my roommate went out pretty much immediately. She was hardly ever in the room. The hotel was actually the headquarters for the Peking Opera, and the whole hotel was ‘opera themed.’ It was very late when we checked in, and I just went to bed.

Sept. 20th 2007 (Thursday?)
“The only thing the French should host is an invasion.”
Beijing, China

The morning started for me with a trip to the ATM. I tried my card a couple of times with a few different options, but the Bank of China didn’t seem to like it and wouldn’t give me money. I converted what little money I had at the hotel, but figured that the converted money would be all I would have. I just assumed since my ATM card wouldn’t work that it had been cancelled by my bank, even though I told them I was going abroad, and wouldn’t be able to use it as a credit card.

On the bus ride, we were given the option of signing up for an optional acrobatic show or for the Opera in our hotel. The opera was nearly sold-out. The only thing that was left were the best seats in the house. They were only $60 in U.S. dollars, but I didn’t have that much, and I couldn’t use the ATM or my credit card to get tickets. It was yuan only. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t afford a ticket for the opera; it seemed like such a reasonable price compared to what you would get in the U.S. I signed up for the acrobatic show instead, and even then I knew that I was really going to have to carefully budget what little yuan I did have.

We got to the Great Wall fairly early. We were taken to the steepest section. This particular section was circular, and pretty much our whole group headed up the steep way, rather than going around the less steep route. It seemed silly to me, but I didn’t want to climb by myself, so I went with them. I got up to the top, but didn’t go the full circle. I got my pictures, and then I climbed down. I joined Audrey, an LLL, and we went around the less steep path. When I say it was less steep, I mean it was basically flat rather than nearly straight up. There were a few shops that we stopped in on the way. One of them was an official 2008 Olympic store. I considered buying a few things, but only got a shot glass for my sister because everything was so expensive. You could also climb down, and there were a few temples you could go in, so we went. In one of the temples you were not supposed to take pictures, but we didn’t see anyone enforcing this rule, so Audrey started snapping pictures. As soon as she did, a little man wandered out of the darkest corner. We pretended not to speak English and vacated the temple. We got back on the wall, and I was stopped by 2 Chinese women to have my photo taken with them. They didn’t speak any English so I interpreted their nonverbal communication to mean that they wanted me to take their photo for them, but we finally got it all figured out. I think I was stopped because of my blonde hair. Anyway, Audrey took a picture for me, and they each took pictures for each other. It was pretty entertaining for all of us, and it made me feel a little like a celebrity for just a few minutes. After all of that we still had a little time to kill before we needed to be back on the bus, so we had some ice cream and waited.

After the Great Wall, we went to lunch. The restaurant was connected with a Cloisonné ‘factory’ and we got a tour of it before we actually ate in an attempt to lure us to shop after we finished lunch. Lunch was fairly decent, minus the fish head (which I tried). Afterwards I did go into the shop, and I looked at a jade tiger, and thought about buying it, but I knew I didn’t have enough yuan. I saw that they took Mastercard, but I still thought that my card had been cancelled. Since I really wanted the tiger, I thought I would try using my card and that the worst that would happen is that it would be rejected. I honestly thought that this was the most likely thing to happen, but I really hoped that luck would be on my side. It turned out that my card worked, which amazed me. I was excited to know that I would actually have a little money to spend (more than the ~ $20 I had left after I paid for the acrobat show).

We all boarded the buses and went to the Summer Palace where we got a very brief tour of a small portion of the grounds. We were running late, so we barely got to see anything, which was disappointing, because what we did see of the grounds was very gorgeous. We were in such a rush that when 3 girls didn’t show up to the buses on time they got left behind. We didn’t even wait more than a minute after time to meet. We just left. It was a little scary to know that you would get left behind that easily. We went straight to the Acrobat Show, which was amazing. I’ve seen “performances” before, but it was nothing like this. I was very pleased with my decision to use a significant portion of my cash to see it. I also bought some popcorn from the snack bar to eat during the show. It claimed it had an American taste, which I suppose it did if you eat kettle corn.

After the show it was getting pretty late, so I gave some thought to getting dinner, but in the end decided I would just assume go to the grocery store and get a snack rather than go out and hunt for a place that would take my credit card. A couple of the LLLs on the trip decided the same thing, so once we got back to the hotel we walked over to the grocery store together. I was having some difficulty with crossing the street since traffic in China doesn’t stop for pedestrians, so I when this Chinese guy crossed, I followed right behind him. The store was a little confusing. It was an electronics store/grocery store all in one, and it was a fairly large, so it took some time to navigate it. I found what I wanted, paid for it, and crossed the street the same way I did the first time, by tailing someone who knew how to get across. I got back to my room and watched some TV. There was a channel showing American movies, so I caught Mr. Deeds before getting to sleep.

Sept. 21st 2007 (Friday?)
“It’s okay. We’re on the runway; it’s just a little rough.”
Beijing and Xian, China
I got up and found breakfast, then headed out to the buses. Our first stop of the day was the Temple of Heaven, which was pretty cool for several reasons. The first is that a bunch of senior citizens were exercising in the park, which was interesting to see. They were practicing ballroom dancing, tai chi, ribbon dancing, badminton, and others. There was also this little old man that I think just liked attention, so whenever we passed he would start jumping up and down or counting in English really loudly. The temple itself was very beautiful. We weren’t given enough time here, but it was very cool to see. The next stop of the day was Tiananmen Square, which I was really looking forward to. It turned out that it wasn’t so much a stop on our itinerary as it was a path to rush across on the way to the Forbidden City. I was disappointed that we were barely even there, but I did get to haggle with street vendors on my way across. If you know me very well, you know that I absolutely LOVE to haggle, so this was a lot of fun. It’s a bit of an art form, and you really have to learn how to do it appropriately to not get ripped off. I have a knack for it, and I’m usually able to get things cheaper than other people, maybe just because I’d rather rip someone off than be ripped off. I got a Mao watch, but the vendor wouldn’t agree to my price. I wasn’t willing to pay anymore than my price, so I just handed him the wad of yuan (slightly less than $1.00, but all in 1 yuan bills) that I was willing to give him. He didn’t even count it and started hassling the next person in the group that looked remotely interested in the watches. I did this with a few of the vendors, and I made out pretty well. I spent around $4.00, but got presents for 4 people and the Mao watch for myself.

We went to the Forbidden City after this, and I was very excited for it, but once we got in it seemed like the whole thing was under construction. The main building was completely blocked off. I wandered through the parts that were open and found a place where I got an ice cream, then went to the back gate to meet everyone to board the buses. When we left, we were again hassled by street vendors, and I was ready for it. There was a man selling carved wooden dragons, and I really wanted one. I was willing to pay a lot more than my original offer for it, but I really wanted to see just how low I could get his offer. I actually finally got him to agree to my original offer, which I thought was a little ridiculous because of how low it actually was. I handed him my money and then he started demanding more money before he would give me the item. This pissed me off a lot; it was crossing the line to me. I ripped my money out of his hand and then walked away. He followed me, and kept saying he would give it to me for my original quote, because I was the only one interested out of 83 people, but I was so angry with him that I was completely unwilling to deal with him. The Beijing police were right there, and saw him hassling me, and made him stop. I’m not sure what happened to him after that, but he was nowhere to be seen.

We went to lunch and everything was really spicy (as in spicy hot) but it was very, very good. I think it was the second best meal of this trip. We rushed to the airport from here, but when we got there, our flight had been delayed 2 hours. I found these amazing chocolate and marshmallow cookies to snack on while we waited for our flight. While we were waiting I got to talk to our tour guide about some history of the Forbidden City and Chinese rulers. Some of the things she had to say were fascinating. Then we started talking about movies. I was excited that I had finally met someone who liked Hero as much as I did. Hero is a Chinese movie about the emperor trying to unify China and standardize the language. It is the possibly the most visually beautiful movie I’ve ever seen. She was telling me that she gives tours to the areas where it was filmed. I think it would be something spectacular to see. I hope the area retains its beauty until the time I am able to get to China again. The flight to Xian was pretty smooth compared to the one to Beijing, but I was still pretty happy when we were told we were going to land. We hit the runway, and it was a completely terrifying experience. It was the bumpiest, roughest runway imaginable. It was already 10 pm by the time we got out of the airport, so we were given the option of eating dinner or going straight to the hotel. I opted for going to the hotel. I was glad to get to sleep, but I was awoken several times during the night by the most annoying bird imaginable. My dad probably would have pulled out his binoculars and enjoyed it, but I was ready to break the stupid bird’s neck.

Sept. 22nd, 2007 (Saturday?)
“I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. I’m not going to watch some damn movie.”
Xian and Lintong County, China
I was hit with a severe case of buyer’s remorse here.

The day started with a trip to the Wild Goose Pagoda. We were given some free time to explore the area by ourselves, which I appreciated a lot. I paid extra to climb up to the top, and then went into the gift shop to look around a little bit. I was looking for something for my brother, so I asked for a price quote on something. I was given a price that was less than the listed price, and at 9 am my brain wasn’t functioning quite properly. I made a horrible long division mistake in my head, and thought that the price was cheaper than it actually was (though it was a fair price, because it was a friendship shop, so the items were guaranteed by the Chinese government). I figured since it was so cheap I’d just go ahead and get one for my sister as well. Once I got on the bus and did the math, I realized what a mistake I had made. All in all it wasn’t terrible; I just didn’t mean to spend that much money in one go. We proceeded to the Shanxi Provincial Museum, where I got to see some Chinese art and cultural relics. I enjoyed it, but it was very small. It was also under construction, so we weren’t allowed in the main hall here either. I was really ready for the main attraction of the day, so I was happy when we left.

We went to lunch at a restaurant connected to a silk making ‘factory.’ We got a tour that included a silk fashion show and conveniently let us out in a large silk shop, but proceeded to lunch with the instructions to come back after we ate. Lunch was amazing, but I ate quickly and went into the shop. I tried on a dress, and it was a little discouraging. I am a medium in the U.S. but in China I become a XXL. I didn’t get the dress for the sheer fact that I wasn’t willing to buy anything that said I was that large. I saw 2 gorgeous purses and decided I wanted them both, but then I remembered the horrible mistake I made during the morning. I debated about buying anything at all. I bought the cheaper of the two purses, but later wished that I had bought the other one. It was more expensive, but I think I liked it better. Rather it’s design was far more practical for use in the U.S. I talked to Audrey for a little while here, and found out that she’s an Alpha Xi! It was really cool to find a sister in the middle of a silk shop in Lintong County, China. After we left it was finally time for the Terra Cotta Warriors. When we got there, it seemed like the tour guides talked for ages giving information that I already knew. I wanted them to just tell us the time to meet at the bus and let me go. Doc Nancy was really feeling the same way. They tried to get us all to go see a movie that would likely have repeated the same information we had already received twice from the tour guides, so Doc Nancy and I skipped it and went straight to Pit 1. It was one of very few moments in my life that I have been completely filled with awe. It was just incredible. The warriors in front had been reconstructed from the shatter pieces that had been excavated. In the back you could see all the broken pieces in piles, and you could see a place where they were being reconstructed. We took our time strolling through this pit, and this is where I got my pocket picked. Earlier that day my camera batteries had died. I changed them, and put the dead ones in my pocket and just left them there without thinking about it. I felt the hand go into my pocket, and before I could think about it, 2 AA batteries had been taken. I found it very amusing. My credit card and money were all out of reach, so I shared a little laugh with Doc Nancy, and we went on our way to the gift shop.

The man who discovered the warriors actually has a job at the gift shop autographing books for all the tourists who come through. I bought a book and got it signed, and then looked at some of the figurines. They were all out of my price range, even the little tiny ones. I knew there were people wondering throughout the area selling figurines that were of horrible quality, but that I could get for $1.00 and that I could get myself a nice set at the hotel for much cheaper, so I didn’t buy any. I went into the other 2 pits, and passed a man selling boxes of cheaply made warriors. He hassled me to pay more than a $1.00, but there was absolutely no way I was going to pay more than that, so I started heading over to park security. It is completely illegal for them to be in the area selling those figurines, so he took my $1.00, gave me my set, and hid in the bushes very quickly. It was really kind of funny. I passed another one of these people later, and he had his shirt stuffed with boxes of figures and he yelled out at tourists as they passed the bushes where he was hiding.

On the bus back to the city we were given the option of going to the Forest of Stele the following morning or sleeping in an extra hour. The tour guide said that if a single person wanted to go we couldn’t cut it out because we had all paid for it. I was really looking forward to going and seeing the Analects of Confucius and the Canon of Filial Piety, but I was the only one. I was the lone student that wanted to go and deprived everyone of the extra hour of sleep the next day. We proceeded to a dinner theater, where the show was excellent but the food was not. We returned to the hotel after this and I bought a nice set of Terra Cotta Warriors for less than 1/5 of the asking price of the museum, then I head to bed, where I was again annoyed by the noises of the stupid bird outside all night long.

Sept 23, 2007 (Sunday?)
“It’s dirty. It’s filthy. It’s completely un-American. I love it.”
Xian, China and Hong Kong

The morning started off with the trip to the Forest of Stele. I am so happy that I spoke up, and got myself there. I got to see these ancient Confucian writings on giant stone tablets. It would be like seeing the tablets the Ten Commandments were written on. These tablets are a big deal in Confucianism. Then we went to a calligraphy lesson. I discovered that I am no good at calligraphy, but I had a wonderful time discovering this. We went to lunch after the lesson at a restaurant that was supposed to be revolving at the top of a hotel, but it wasn’t moving. The meal was mostly western food (French Fries, Spaghetti, ‘Fried Chicken’). It was an improvement over fish heads.

We proceeded to the Bell Tower. It wasn’t very interesting. It seemed like a waste of time to me, but maybe some people liked it. We were then given free time to shop at an outdoor market, which meant more haggling, but I only had 40 yuan left (roughly $5.00), so I had to bargain pretty hard if I wanted anything. I ended up getting 4 bracelets and still having 10 yuan left over. The bracelets are fakes, but they are gorgeous. I left the market and waited for the buses because I didn’t have much left to buy anything with. I enjoyed the people watching a lot. I got to talk to another SASer for a while about a lot of different things. It seemed like we talked about everything while we waited there. He was very down to earth and very unlike a lot of students on this voyage.

We headed to the airport, caught our flight to Hong Kong and got to the ship at about 1:00 am. I wanted to go out to a friend’s birthday party, but they had long since left, so I just went to bed, which was just as well, because I had to be up early for a trip to Lantau Island.

Sept 24, 2007 (Monday?)
“Pizza, brownies, Buddhist monks. It’s been a good day.”
Hong Kong and Lantau Island

I got up and got breakfast before going to the Union to report for my trip. The trip took us to Lantau Island where we went to a beach for all of 10 minutes. It’s good we didn’t stay long. The weather was really bad, and we couldn’t even walk on the beach. I got some really cool video of the waves though. Then we walked through Tai O, which is a little fishing village. I got to see houses on stilts in the river and a dried shark and a really neat Dao temple, before we headed to Po Lin Monastery, home of the largest bronze seated Buddha statue in the world. Because it was so windy and rainy, the monastery let us drive buses up to it, rather than climbing the 256 stairs up to it. After visiting the Buddha, we went to lunch at the monastery. They had this fried bread that was amazing. Then we had some free time to explore on our own, but no one really wanted to go outside because of the rain. I just zipped up my raincoat and went out and had a great time exploring and getting soaked. After we left I slept the whole way back to the terminal. When we got back Lindsey, Laura, and I found a California Pizza Kitchen and split a pizza. Then Lindsey and I decided to each order a dessert and then share them. We had an apple crisp and a hot fudge brownie sundae that definitely hit the spot after 4 days of fish heads and jellyfish and not enough of the good food to go around. Then I found a bookstore. This was a mistake. My parents would definitely tell you that it is a mistake for me to be left alone in a bookstore. I got a few (10) books that I’m really excited about. By this time, it was about time to board the ship, so we just went ahead and got on. We watched the light show from the 6th deck, and then listened to the former administrator of Hong Kong give a speech in the Union with Nicole (which was a pretty cool thing to see).

Now it’s back to 2 days of class and then Vietnam and Cambodia!
Also, I changed my email because luminis is never working. If you want it and you know my parents, ask them because they have it. If you are one of my friends I will email you with it tomorrow morning when I have a little more time (hopefully).

A few pictures

2007-09-17T19:21:00.000-05:00

I Loved Japan!

2007-09-16T17:24:00.000-05:00

For those of you who want the short version: Japan won my heart almost instantly. I'm definitely going back there, maybe moving there for a little while. For those who want the long version, it's all below.

These posts are extremely edited. I have it all in my journal, and will be more than happy to tell everyone I know back at home the edited out parts, but I don’t really feel like sharing some of my thoughts with complete strangers.

September 5, 2007 (Wednesday) A4
“This isn’t hurting you is it?” (as a side note, when you rip out someone’s hair, it generally does hurt. More on that later.)
Pacific Ocean, en route to Japan.
Theme Song: “You Wouldn’t Like Me” by Tegan and Sara

Yesterday was a pretty dull day, overall. I had class, as usual. Natural history was interesting, but World Art really wasn’t. I can never really figure out the point of what he tells us. He talks a lot, but none of it really seems to be significant. I ate dinner with the interport students from Japan and 7 other people last night. It was a really good time.

Now for today. I ate breakfast with Lindsay, and Sarah and Hannah were there, so we joined them. As usual, I ate a gigantic breakfast. I think if I keep it up I could gain a ton of weight from breakfast (Croissants, potatoes, eggs, French toast, and yogurt this morning). I decided I am dropping the class I added. I’m just going to be part time during winter quarter; it won’t affect my loans, so I would just rather do it that way. It’s not worth it to me. I had oceanography today, and we were supposed to have a quiz, but apparently people didn’t read the syllabus, so they were freaking out, and the professor postponed it. After oceanography, I got my haircut. Let me tell you, this was a mistake. I had debated about how much I wanted to cut, somewhere between 4-8 inches. I decided to go with just 4. I showed the woman how much I wanted cut, and she washed my hair. When she got ready to cut it, she didn’t comb out all of it--just the part she was going to cut at that particular moment. She twisted the rest of it on the top of my head, tangling it even more. I told her it was not a good idea to let it dry in tangles, but she just went on her merry way cutting. When she gets to the part that she let dry into knots, she just started ripping them out, and I do mean she literally just ripped them out of my head. One actually slipped out of her hand and I ended up getting punched in the side of the face. She also left my hair wet after it was cut, which I thought was really weird. They generally blow dry hair at salons (at least for women), and with what I paid for my haircut, I felt like it should have been included. It was the most painful haircut I have ever had. Then afterwards, she let me know that my hair was very unhealthy, and that was why it was so tangled. I needed to buy $40.00 hair product to treat it. I think the solution is brush it while it is wet, and not wrap it into tangles on purpose, but maybe that is just me.

September 9, 2007
“They want a target, not to die.”
Pacific Ocean, en route to Japan

We crossed the International Date Line a couple of days ago, and lost September 7. Not a whole has happened since then. I had a quiz yesterday in oceanography that I know did not go well. I at least know what to expect now, so I can be better prepared in the future. I went to a worship service on the ship and started going to a Bible Study. I am dropping the class I waited so long to add. It’s just not worth it to me. I can be part-time for a quarter, and it will be alright. I’m already overwhelmed with work, and in two days I am going to have only two days between ports for the next four ports, so it’s just going to get worse. The first global studies exam is in two days; I’m not really looking forward to it.

Marissa and I have been planning out Japan pretty well. We’re going to be hitting up Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Himeji, in addition to Yokohama and Kobe, though admittedly, there will be very little time in Yokohama and Himeji. I just want to get to Himeji to see the castle, and it’s only 20 minutes away from Kobe by bullet train. I’m getting really excited for Japan, as well as everywhere else. There was a meeting tonight for the Tiger Temple tour that I am planning on in Thailand. It’s going to be pretty cool, I think. We’re going to get to ride elephants, go to the Tiger Temple (which you should look up on the internet), and stay in a floating hotel.

The other night Sarah, Lindsay, and I decided to get a game from the student life desk, and we were intrigued by the title “Can You Beat Ken?” so it’s what we got. When we actually had it in our hands, we were surprised to find that it was actually not anything remotely interesting. It was trying to answer a bunch of difficult trivia questions that Ken Jennings couldn’t answer, but we had to play it because the student life desk worker had to go to the office (which is across the ship) to get it for us.

I went on a bridge tour today with Nicole and a few other girls from my sea, as well as Laura and Ashley, who are in my Bible Study group. I was very disappointed that Captain Jeremy wasn’t there. I am going to have to keep going on them until he actually is there.

Sept. 10, 2007 A6 (Sunday? Monday? It’s definitely one of those).
“Hi, I’m Dmitri. I’m from Hawaii.”
En route to Japan

We didn’t have Global Studies today so that we could study for the exam tomorrow. I’ve finally gotten through all the readings and read through my lecture notes. I feel like I am as prepared as I can be, so hopefully all goes well. I got my oceanography quiz back today, and I was surprised with the result. I actually did ok. It wasn’t great (I got a B…I‘m too much of a perfectionist sometimes), but it wasn’t nearly as horrible as I was expecting.

The cultural preport is tonight for Japan. I’m getting really excited about Japan. I’m traveling with Marissa. We’re going to Tokyo as soon as we get off the ship in Yokohama and can navigate our way to the train station. From there the plans take us to Kyoto, Hiroshima, Himeji, and finally Kobe, to meet the ship. Then it will be 2 days until China!

Classes are a bit dull for the most part, but I do love Natural History. There’s a good chance that it is going to be the best class I have ever taken.

There was a fabulous marble cheesecake for dessert tonight. The rest of dinner wasn’t so bad either. Edgar, who is a waiter and possibly my favorite person in the world, brought me two pieces of cheesecake and tried to give me a third.

Sept. 11, 2007 B6 (Tuesday? Regardless, the day before Japan)
“The Executive Dean will discuss what we learned in Honolulu.”
Pacific Ocean, en route to Japan (which is tomorrow!)

The cultural preport last night was pretty interesting. The interport students did a presentation and a few of the professors talked about their experiences in Japan. We finally hit the rough waters we were promised after Hawaii. A lot of people got sick, but fortunately, I wasn’t one of them. After the preport, I hung out with a few girls from my sea for a while before heading to bed.

I got up early this morning for breakfast. It was pancake day, so I helped myself to several and topped it off with cream of wheat, which I never really liked before, but has now become an indispensable part of my diet. Everyone was up early cramming for the Global exam, but I wasn’t really too worried about it. Two professors had a bet going for what the highest grade on the exam was going to be. One thought it would be a 41/50 and the other thought it would be a 44/50. I figured with only an hour to go before the test that there really wasn’t much that I could do to help myself out, so I took advantage of the lack of people on the internet. The exam itself didn’t seem too bad. It was about the same difficulty of a BIO 121 exam at ONU, which everyone always complained about, but I never really thought was that bad. I could have done better I think, but all in all, I could have done a lot worse.

Natural History was ok, and then I went to lunch with Nicole. They had this fabulous potato thing which I think I only liked because I love potatoes so much. I’m not so sure that everyone else on the ship was as keen on it as I was, but I loooooooooved it. During lunch, the noon announcements came on and they asked for a moment of silence in memory of the Sept. 11 attacks. This seemed like such a reasonable thing to me, but it was like no one else cared. Everyone just carried on talking and laughing like it wasn’t any big deal. It was disappointing that my peers, these people who are journeying around the world care so little for something that has had such a pronounced impact on our society.

I headed back to my room for a nap, which I didn’t get because my roommate and her friends were watching a movie in here. I did get a little bit of studying done. I am officially ahead in Natural History and Global Studies, right on track in Oceanography, and behind in World Art.

My Bible study group met for dinner tonight. It was a blast. We stayed until long after the dining room had closed, just talking and laughing. One of the girls in my group is going on the Beijing/Xian trip with me. I was glad to finally meet someone else going on it. I’m getting super excited for it, by the way. We talked a little about some of the social difficulties we were encountering, and it was nice to know that I was not alone.

I went to the logistical preport tonight with some girls from my sea. It was not nearly as much fun as the cultural preport was, but I guess that is to be expected. The Executive Dean talked about things that happened in Honolulu. People tried desperately (and some succeeded) to bring alcohol on the ship, which is against the rules. If they got caught (which a lot did), they got 24 hours of dock time. He talked about how inconsiderate of each other everyone was when they were getting back on the ship in Honolulu and how disappointing these things were. They really are, even to me. He lectured about everyone turning their independent travel forms in late (I got mine in on time), and how we needed to be respectful of these requirements because many of them are in place because of 9/11, which happens to be today, and we, as Americans, were so deeply affected. The doctor told us not to eat fugu. I wasn’t planning on it anyway. Fugu is blowfish, which if prepared incorrectly will kill you.

I’ve been watching a lot of the movies that are a part of the film series. Some of them have been surprising choices (Mulan) and some have been very, very good (The Last Emperor). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is on now. It’s weird because it is dubbed rather than subtitled.

Sept. 12, 2007 (Wednesday)
“It would be better if we could see it.”
Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan

I got up at 5:00 am to see the sunrise as we pulled into Yokohama harbor. I don’t have a window in my room so I was very surprised when I got to the fifth deck and it was pouring down the rain. I ran into Laura and Ashley and we went to the faculty/staff lounge to get a better view of what can only be described as a downpour as we came into the harbor. The rain finally died down and we got some good pictures. We headed for breakfast. I ate a massive one as usual. Lindsay joined us.

When the ship was cleared at about 1:30 I sprinted up to get my passport, and the group of us left (Marissa, Kelly, Lindsay, Laura, and me) for the train station. When we got to the station, we thought that we were in Yokohama train station. This seemed logical because we were in Yokohama. Yokohama station was the one that Marissa and I needed to exchange our rail pass orders for an actual rail pass. There was a great deal of confusion, but somehow between the language barrier, someone was actually able to communicate to us what we needed to do to get to the actual Yokohama station, rather than just a station in Yokohama. We got our tickets, made it to the station, and then were utterly overwhelmed with the layout of the station. Those who weren’t getting a rail pass stayed behind while Marissa and I wondered off to the Travel Service Center. We couldn’t quite find it, and I guess we looked very confused, because a Japanese man came up and asked us if he could help us. He confirmed that we were at the right gate, but didn’t know where we actually needed to go. We eventually found the right place; it was swarming with SASers. We exchanged our passes and headed to Tokyo.

When we got to Tokyo, we went into the travel service center there and managed to get maps. Then we wondered into a post office, where I got a few stamps (so 3 people can expect postcards). I was a little short on yen at the time because I hadn’t found a good exchange yet, so I only got 3 stamps. Two postcards are going to people I know (or at least think) really read this, and one is going to the person who requested a postcard from every country. Hopefully they make it to you. We decided to just wonder around, with no place in particular to go. We went off in the direction of the Imperial Palace which we found after walking through a very pretty park. There was already a group of SASers there, talking to an older man. The group of us took pictures from outside of the gate, because we weren’t allowed in. When the other group of girls left, we decided to talk to the man the group of girls was talking to, but before we quite got there another group of SASers (all guys) stomped up to him and very impolitely asked where to get sushi. We were pretty hungry at this point, so we listened in. The group of guys left, but we stayed and talked to the man (Nishikawa-san). He learned English by listening to the radio. Nishikawa-san said that he had taken lessons in English, but the classes were really a joke because the guys just went to the class to meet women. He also told us that he was very happy to talk with us because the young people in Japan didn’t really want to have conversations with him because they had to pay so much in taxes to care for sick people, like him. He had (or has) pancreatic cancer. His English was amazing. We complimented him several times and he kept repeating “This is my best day. Thank you for talking to me.” He took a picture with me and then looked at the picture on my camera. He told me that he did not look sick in the picture because it was impossible to look bad next to such a beautiful woman. Talking with him was one of the best parts of Japan. By the time we were done talking to him, it was sunset, so we took more pictures of sunset at the Imperial Palace, which was gorgeous.

We went off in search of food, and accidentally ended up at the sushi bar Nishikawa-san had described to us. I ate some sushi, had this weird egg thing (I think it was egg, anyway), and tried some sake. Laura made a big deal about not eating anything uncooked, and ended up getting this noodle dish with an egg on it. There was something she didn’t like about it, and wouldn’t eat it, so I did. It was AMAZING. When I ordered sake, I had assumed that I was only going to be getting a little glass of it, but instead I got a big vial of it. I shared it with everyone, because I knew that one glass would be plenty for me. When we left, we found a sweet shop, and we all got our first taste of amazing Japanese sweets. We also stopped at a bookstore, where I got a few postcards. At this point, Laura, Lindsey, and Kelly decided to head back to Yokohama, so we accompanied them to Tokyo Station. Marissa and I got a taxi and started the journey to our hostel. Our taxi driver didn’t really understand where he was taking us, but started off anyway. He got lost, and asked for directions several times. The last time he stopped he asked a woman who got in the taxi and reprogrammed the GPS for him, and this finally got us to the hostel.

We checked in, and got our room. The other person who was supposed to be staying in the room never showed up, so Marissa and I had the room to ourselves. The room was basically just futon mats, which was pretty cool. You could hear everything in the other rooms though, including the coughing attack the girl had in the next room and her snoring when she got back to sleep.

September 13, 2007
“************** is a liar, liar pants on fire.”
Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan

When Marissa and I got up we got a map for the subway from our hostel and headed back to Tokyo Station, because I knew there was an international ATM in the post office there. What I didn’t account for is that Tokyo Station is HUGE and the gate we ended up at was nowhere near the post office, so we headed in search of currency conversion. Marissa and I got turned around a lot, and ended up backtracking several times through a stretch of the station where they were giving out free chocolate cookies. We each got several. We ended up in an international depot, which really had nothing to do with any sort of currency conversion. There was a convenience store there where we got breakfast. I ended up with an amazing pastry which had “mystery cream” in it, along with creams that I knew where vanilla and chocolate. I also got some juice, which I have to say is much better than American juice. Instead of drinking sugar in ‘juice’ form, it was like I was actually drinking an apple. It was soooo good. I was still in need of yen, so we continued to wonder around. We finally stopped in a Four Seasons hotel where we were directed to an underground mall that had a little place for currency conversion. I converted what little American money I had on me, but still hoped to find an international ATM later. We decided to go ahead and take our breakfast on the train to Kyoto. We just showed up at the ticket office, said ‘Kyoto’ and had bullet train tickets in our hands, with a departure time in the next 15 minutes. We boarded the Shinkansen, for the first of many times, and just relaxed on our way to Kyoto. The trip took about 2 hours.

When we got to Kyoto we went to the Travel Service Center because they had been serving us so well, but there was a giant sign plastered that said they didn’t give maps, to go to a different spot in the station. A very cute British guy had the same thought we did, and was turned away just the same as us. He walked with us to the Visitors Center, and I think that if I was any good at the whole flirting thing Marissa and I might have had a travel companion for the rest of the day. I didn’t really care though, because we were in a hurry to get to a few temples before they closed. We got our maps, found the bus we wanted, and headed to Kinkakuji Temple (the Golden Pavilion). The temple was beautiful, although we were not allowed in it. The grounds were equally as breathtaking. Marissa and I wondered around them for about an hour. I mastered the use of a squatter, and was very glad that I brought travel TP with me, because I didn’t have the 100 yen on me to purchase TP there. On the way out we were given some tea that we think had flecks of gold in it. It was really salty, but it was really good. We knew that Ryoan-ji was supposed to be nearby. My Lonely Planet said that it was about a 15 minute walk, so we headed off in that direction. The walk was a bit more than the book said it was going to be, but it was definitely worth it. This temple was a rock garden set in beautiful grounds. It was so gorgeous. When we left we were asked for directions by 2 separate French people. It was kind of weird, but also kind of cool to be in Japan and be asked in English by French people how to get to the Golden Temple and the Rock Garden. From here we decided to find our ryokan and check in. I think we both felt like changing clothes because we were so sweaty. Japan was very hot, and made me sweat more than I knew I was capable of.

It took a great deal of time to find our ryokan, but thanks to Marissa’s navigational abilities, we made it. We checked in, and got to our room and rested for a little while, then decided to find dinner. We navigated our way to the Gion district, but all the navigating ate up a lot of time, and by the time we had actually gotten to the Gion district, most things were closing. I didn’t really care where we ate, so long as I got food, because we hadn’t eaten since very early that morning. Most places we were passing were not Japanese, but rather Italian, Indian, etc. I didn’t care at all if we had pizza or rice or cod. I was just hungry, but Marissa insisted on finding Japanese, which you would have thought should have been easy, seeing as how we were in Japan, but it was not. We finally found a restaurant, but we literally could not find the door to get in. We looked and circled around several times but there was no entrance to be found. We continued in the quest for food, and found a Chinese place, which worked well enough for Marissa. I had a chicken dish which was fantastic. On the way back to the ryokan we stopped at a sweet shop, and I got a cupcake, which turned out to be filled with the same mystery cream that my breakfast pastry was filled with. When we got back to the ryokan, I needed a shower in a major way. There were two showers, one of which was just a shower. The other one was a shower/public bath. The plain shower was occupied, so I ended up in the shower/public bath, which actually wasn’t really a public bath at all. I guess it could have been, but it didn’t seem like anyone used it that way. I got my shower and got to bed on my futon mat.

September 14, 2007
“Peace, Love, Hiroshima.”
Hiroshima and Kyoto, Japan

Marissa and I caught a bus to Kyoto Station so that we could get Shinkansen tickets to Hiroshima, stopping first at a convenience store to pick up breakfast for the train ride. When we got to the station, I found out that there was an international ATM in Kyoto Tower Hotel, which was just across the street, so we stopped there, but it didn’t open until 10 am, so I made a note to stop there when we got back from Hiroshima. We got our tickets, but the train didn’t leave for an hour, so we decided to explore an underground mall while we waited. The mall had this amazing bread shop in it, where I got a few things that intrigued me. I got what I believe might be my new favorite thing in the world: a pastry with apples baked into it and custard in spots. It is so delicious. I also got a few other things, and managed to discover what the mystery cream is. It is a take on cream cheese, but a bit different. It showed up in a muffin that I knew what the muffin translated to in English, so it was definitely along the lines of cream cheese.

I had been going back on forth on going to Hiroshima after my experience at Pearl Harbor. I was still not convinced that it was ok for me to be there. When we finally got there, we got a map at a Budget Rent A Car, which was an experience in itself. They spoke no English and hide to mime that we needed a map. It was a little funny. We decided to get a taxi. I used my Lonely Planet and pointed to the Japanese characters for where we wanted to go (the A-Bomb Dome), and the taxi driver laughed, not at the fact that I had to point to something I couldn’t really read in a book to get to where I wanted, but because of where I wanted to go. It was a very strange feeling. He took us right to the A-Bomb Dome. The bomb was dropped over the dome, but somehow managed to survive, though in ruins. There were signs to read about the history of the dome, and one of them really got to me, though I am not sure why. The last sentence read “The ruins shall remain preserved forever.” It was the first of many things at this site that was unsettling and moving all at the same time. I continued to walk until I got to a Children’s Memorial, where I learned much more about who was directly killed by the A-Bomb. Children had been put into a workforce for the war, and many were working in the area where the bomb was dropped when it happened. I walked around the monument and listened to the recording that was provided about it. The monument was covered in paper cranes, and as I listened to the recording and looked at the cranes, a Japanese man came up to me and asked me if I was ok. I told him that I was, but he said, “No, no. You are crying. You are not ok.” It was not until that very moment that I had realized tears were running down my cheeks. I told him that it was just very heartbreaking to me. I continued to cry as I crossed the bridge to the Peace Memorial Park, where I was asked to sign a petition against nuclear weapons. With tears still falling, and my mind still trying to grasp the things I was seeing, I had no problem signing it immediately. The park was filled with more memorials, lots of paper cranes, and much to think about.

I traveled from the park to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Hall, which gave information on the bombing, and there was a room for reflection and prayer for the victims. There was also an exhibit featuring the names and faces of those who died, so many of them children. We went to the cenotaph and the Peace Museum. The museum was very graphic; someone else that went later said, “They weren’t shy about it [displaying the horrors of the bombing].” He was right. Pieces of it were very hard to stomach, such as the tricycle that belonged to a three year old boy who was killed. His father thought he was too young to be buried alone, and so buried him with the tricycle. Later, his body was moved and the tricycle was donated to the museum.

I have finally decided whether it was ok for me to go to Hiroshima, and it took me going to reach this decision. It was not ok for me to be there, not as a visitor to the A-Bomb dome, not as a visitor to the Peace Memorial Park. It was not ok that anyone was a visitor to the A-Bomb Dome. It was not ok that this place was even existed, that this horrible event had taken place. It is not ok that so many people died, and are still dying from this terrible tragedy. But I went, and it is so very important that I did. Hiroshima won my heart, my voice.

When we left the museum, we went to the International Exchange Lounge and got maps for Hiroshima. We decided to go to Shukkein Garden, and got a taxi there. We used the Lonely Planet guide to point to what we wanted, and were taken right there. The garden was huge and it was stunning. The water was filled with fish and turtles and the path just meandered through the garden. I could have stayed for hours, but Marissa and I needed to get back to Kyoto. We caught our train, and ended up in a car that was for women only during rush hour. I had gotten some Kit Kat sticks in a vending machine. The vending machine also had beer and wine, but I was alright with just the candy, which I ate on the way to Kyoto. Kit Kats are better in Japan too. They have a bit of a different texture and flavoring. I am a fan of both. We had to switch trains in Osaka, and we got a little lost in the train station. After arriving in Kyoto, we decided to stop in Kyoto Tower so I could get to the ATM. I finally got some money and did some shopping. I bought a gorgeous tea set, though I talked myself out of the one I really wanted because it was about $100, therefore very out of my price range. We went back to the underground mall we were in earlier that morning to find dinner. I accidentally ordered eel and noodles in ice water. I made the best of it though. Afterwards, I found another sweet shop and got something to take back to the ryokan with me.

Sept. 15, 2007
“It’s a tough decision; don‘t make the wrong one.”
Kyoto to Kobe, Japan

We got up at about 7:00 and checked out of the ryokan. We made our usual stop at a convenience store for breakfast, and then caught the bus to Ginkaku-ji temple (the Silver Pavilion). A Chinese man actually joined us on the way; he spoke really good English. We found the site together, between the three of us. The temple and grounds were absolutely breathtaking. The temple was supposed to be covered with silver leaf, but it never actually happened. It is still called the Silver Pavilion though. The ground wrapped around, and it was so soothing to just meander through the beauty of the place.

When we left, Marissa wanted to find a grocery store, and I wanted to find a 100 yen store. We had gotten a map from the ryokan that said there was a grocery store with a 100 yen store located right above it in downtown Kyoto, which was too good to be true, literally. We took the bus to where they were supposed to be located, but they weren’t there. In fact, nothing that was written on the map was in the right place. We took it into a Starbucks and a nice lady tried to help us, but she couldn’t make sense of the map, because nothing was drawn anywhere near where it was. We decided to give up and just head to Kobe, stopping first in the underground mall at Kyoto Station. I got another custardy apple pastry and cream cheeseish muffin. We also stopped at a place called 36 sticks, which was located right across from the bread place. It was kind of like the Baskin Robbins of cake. I got something that was kind of like an éclair in cake form, which was amazing. Amazing tended to be the trend with Japanese sweets.

We got on the train to Kobe and ate our breakfast there. When we got to Shin-Kobe station, it was still relatively early, so we wanted to make the most of our time, but drop off our stuff at the ship first. We got a taxi, but we were taken to the wrong place. We didn’t realize it until we asked for directions to the ship. We were told it was about a 15 minute walk away. We started walking and finally got to the point that we could see the ship, but we couldn’t get there by walking. After about 2 hours of walking and not finding the monorail station, we got some help in finding the station. At this point, we had been walking around for 2 hours and I was soaked in sweat, and I do mean soaked. My back hurt from carrying around 40 pounds on it. I was not in a good mood. When we finally got back to the ship, and I had an open bottle of water with me while I was going through security. She took it and said, “Empty,” as in a command, but I had heard, “Not empty,” as in a declaration. I just shrugged, indicating that she could just throw it away in the trash can behind her. This was the wrong thing to do. The other security guy threw it away, and to him it was no big deal, just a miscommunication, but to her it seemed like the final straw of a horrible day that just made her go off. She yelled at me for not doing it, then searched my things. I had bought a few things in Kyoto, and they wrapped them up for me very nicely. In fact, one of them was a present and I just planned on leaving it sealed up that way. She unwrapped everything: the tea set, the kimono, the handkerchief, and everything else, all in search of hidden alcohol that I didn’t have. She went through my Ziploc bag of dirty clothes. She took the food I was carrying on me (sealed granola bars) and threw them away, and then gave me my things back, in a giant jumble, but made me leave before I could put any of them back in my bag. Then Marissa, who was behind me, merely had her backpack opened, but nothing was searched, none of her wrapped packages, none of her food, not a single thing.

We decided to rest a little bit before heading back out into Kobe, but when we did leave, we decided to go to Sake brewery for a tour. It took us a little while to find it. Somehow we accidentally stumbled into a woman’s home before finding the brewery, but she was very, very nice about it, and got us to the right place. We thought we were going to be able to get a tour, but we just got to see a video about how sake was made. It was very informative, and it was pretty cool to see. After the video we got to try 3 different kinds of sake, all of them cold. The first one was kind of fruity; it was really good. The other two were a bit stronger, and not something I was a big fan of, but they were good to try just the once. We walked back to the train station, and decided to go to the Harbor area to see the Earthquake Memorial park. We stopped in the station near the harbor to get dinner. Dinner took much longer than expected, and at this point, it was dark, and I didn’t feel like going back to the harbor area while it was dark, so we came back to the ship, stopping at a convenience store on the way, so I could get some juice to bring back with me.

Sept. 16, 2007
“Whole set 1000 yen. Whole set.”
Himeji and Kobe, Japan

Marissa and I headed out early to get to Himeji to see the castle and gardens there. Of course, we did get breakfast at a convenience store on the way there. Once we got to Himeji station, getting to the castle was really easy. It was a straight walk there. The castle was amazing. We got to go through the whole thing and climb all the way to the top. The stairs were really steep, so it was a bit of a workout, but it was completely worth it. We went to the garden that was next to the grounds, and it, like all the other gardens I went to, was just gorgeous. It was actually part of reconstructed samurai quarters originally adjacent to Himeji Castle, so it was pretty neat to see. We stopped at a couple of souvenir shops on the way back to the station, and I found some pretty cool things that I probably don’t need, but bought just the same. Plus, I was having such a hard time finding a place to convert currency, that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to convert my yen, and I didn’t want to come back to the ship with 4500 unspent yen. I stopped at a little antique shop and found a plate that I loved. It was only 1000 yen, which is a bargain in Japan for most any souvenir, so I just picked up a plate off the stack. The man didn’t speak English, but was trying to tell me that I was doing something wrong. It took a long time to communicate to me, but he was telling me that it was the whole stack for 1000 yen, not just one plate. It was the best deal I had found in all of Japan, so I got the set of plates and also a vase which was equally cheap, and is totally gorgeous.

We caught a train back to Kobe and got on the bus to go to this shopping center that Marissa wanted to go to, but we got on one going the wrong direction, so we had to travel nearly the whole loop. The operator thought we were very confused tourists, even though we knew exactly where we were going. We took the bus to the train station, got dinner, and then stocked up on several things at a convenience store before coming back to the ship. I had a lot more stuff with me than I did the day before, but it was hardly searched at all. In fact, none of the wrapped things were opened. The only thing he checked was a box of cakes that I had bought at the train station.

On a sad note, I got my global studies test results back when I got back to the ship. It wasn’t horrible, but certainly not what I expected. I may end up arguing for a couple of points. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I am going to at least make my case.

On another note: the Internet is SLOW and expensive, so I don’t check my e-mail often, but when I do, it’s nice to have something there to read, which means that you should e-mail me. My replies are often short, but my internet time is limited. And if I send you an SAS e-mail postcard, DON’T send me one back. Just send a regular e-mail. They are free for me to send, but they are not free for me to receive, and they eat up many more internet minutes than just a regular e-mail.

I know you guys all want me to post pictures. Again note: the Internet is SLOW and expensive. At its best, it is slower than the slowest dial up. Uploading a picture takes about 20 minutes sometimes. I can’t really afford to do that. I am taking lots of pictures, and I will be more than happy to show them to you when I get home. I am carrying a couple with me on my flash drive when I am in port just in case I stumble upon an internet café, but if you just wait until December, I will have tons of pictures for you. I took 1,000 in Japan.

Upcoming news

2007-09-11T07:14:00.000-05:00

I got a nagging e-mail from mom telling me that I needed to update this. I don't currently have time to post a full update, but here is what you can expect after Japan:
"This isn't hurting you, is it?": the tale of the world's most painful haircut
"They want a target, not to die.": the quest for Capt. Jeremy on the bridge
"Wait, what happened to everyone?": we finally hit the rough water we were promised after Hawaii.
"Global Studies Exam": I feel this is self explanatory.
None of it is thoroughly exciting which is why I haven't really updated.

You can also hear about my fun filled time in Japan which starts in 12 hours!

Leave me comments, because let's face it, I like them.

2007-09-04T13:38:00.001-05:00

Again, this is edited out of my own journal. Sorry if it seems a little choppy.

August 31, 2007 (Friday) A2
“I know the answer to everything.”
Pacific Ocean
Theme Song: “Perfect Day” by Hoku

Classes yesterday were interesting. I think I am really going to love Natural History. The professor is so interesting. Being a former science major, a lot of what we are covering right now is review, but she’s so entertaining and engaging that she never loses my attention. It was primary a syllabus day in Art History, but I still think it is going to be very interesting.

Today was the first day of add/drop. I don’t really know what time the registrar opened at this morning, but I couldn’t sleep, so at 6:30 am I went to get in line. I mistakenly believed that the line would be relatively short at this point in the morning. People had pillows and had been there since 4. The line went from the registrar into the student union and wrapped around it. I decided to wait and come back later. They gave everyone a number so they could do things other than wait in line, but I went to breakfast with Lindsay instead of getting a number. When I got back at 7:45, I got number 206. I did some reading in the library and then went to Global Studies. The registrar shut down for Global, but there was hardly even a dent in the line by that time.

I knew I wasn’t close to being called, so after Global, I went to the library and did a little bit of planning for Japan. I came back to my time with the intent to do a little homework, but when you’re traveling on a ship, it can prove a little difficult to actually get any work done. After wasting some time, I went to Oceanography. It was a little dull today, but I don’t think it normally will be. I think it was just the content being covered today. At this point, the registrar hadn’t quite made it into triple digits yet, so I went back to my room. I did actually manage to get a little bit of work done this time, and was even so constructive as to go see Doc Nancy during her office hours.

Doc Nancy holds office hours in the piano lounge, and I talked a bit about the topic I want to use for my presentation, just to see if it was feasible. I had the intent to continue studying, but I ended up meeting new people instead. I think I’ve found a couple of people to travel in Japan with. Our ideas matched up pretty well, and one of the girls instantly got my sense of humor and sarcasm (which isn’t all that common for people to understand instantly). Instead of homework, I talked for hours. I eventually ate dinner, again with some new people. By this time the registrar had closed, and number 170 was being seen tomorrow morning.

I haven’t quite gotten used to eating on the ship. As soon as I am finished eating, my plate is cleared for me; my drinks are refilled for me. It’s so strange, because right now this ship is my home, and all of the people who work in the dining rooms call it home too. It is just so odd to be completely taken care of. When I get back to my room, my bed is made. My pajamas are folded if I didn’t put them away. This morning, I turned my alarm off, but I hit it again with something, and I think I turned it back on, so to keep it from going off while my roommate was sleeping, I just pulled a battery out of it. When I got back today, the battery was back in it, and the time was set.

Our first cultural pre-port was tonight for Hawaii. Three students who were from Hawaii and one who was born in Hawaii talked a little bit about Hawaii and answered questions. One of them did a Hawaiian dance, which was pretty cool. Then a professor gave a very interesting talk about the similarities between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. I came back to my room after that feeling pretty tired (as I still haven’t been able to adjust to the changing time, and we gain another hour tonight). No less than 4 minutes after I arrived, there was a knock at my door. When I answered it was a professor’s wife asking for me. She wanted to tell me that I was matched up to be part of her extended family. She gave me a little note letting me know when she and her husband want to have our first ‘family’ meal. It’s going to be the day after Hawaii.

September 2, 2007 (Sunday, I know because my computer tells me)
“We all bleed red…we should all live together in peace.”
Honolulu, Hawaii

I got up this morning at 5:00 am to get ready for my first day in port. Since I was one of the first two trips leaving the ship today, I knew that I was going to be going through immigration first. I wanted to watch the sunrise as we pulled into the harbor, so I was outside at 5:30. I called my parents too, since I had cell phone service (but it was a reasonable hour to them). When the dining hall opened at 6:30, I rushed in for breakfast because I was starving. As has become my usual fashion, I piled on the food: scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, pancakes, yogurt, and orange juice. No sooner than 5 minutes after I get through the line and sit down, the Voice announced that immigration had arrived early and that it was time for people on the trips to Pearl Harbor to get cleared. I shoveled down my breakfast as fast as humanly possible, and headed to deck 7 where I got my passport and went through immigration. The whole process took less than five minutes (maybe because I was in the first group).

Lindsay and I both came back to my room to wait for the rest of the ship to be cleared, because no one could leave until everyone had gone through immigration. It took about 2 hours to get everyone through, but I actually think it went fast. Lindsay and I were among the first people to get to leave, since we were on an early trip. We boarded our bus for Pearl Harbor, and I sat next to a girl from Japan. On the way we were talking about what I should do while I am there. She told me I should go to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.

When we arrived at the Arizona Memorial, we had to wait about an hour and a half to actually board our boat out to the memorial in the water. I walked through the museum, and while I was there, I noticed a Japanese man taking a photo next to the picture of the person who planned the attack. I felt a little strange about it. It was a feeling that I will never forget, yet it is impossible to put into words. The memorial was filled with Japanese people; I know it’s a piece of their history, but it is a piece of their history in a very different way than it is to Americans. The feelings I experienced were not experienced by me alone. I know that a few others felt the same way about it. This brought about a thought about Hiroshima. The girl on the bus told me to go. She’s from Hiroshima, and said that I shouldn’t miss it. But it really made me wonder how Japanese people feel when Americans show up to their memorial and take pictures of the only building that was left standing after we dropped an atomic bomb there. Is it really ok for me to visit Hiroshima? How can someone be so encouraging about having Americans go to a memorial for those killed by Americans? I realize it is a piece of American history, but like Pearl Harbor, the significance is different to me than it would be to someone from Japan. How would I feel if 50 years from now I’m sitting at Ground Zero in New York, and the children of Al Qaeda are taking photographs of a memorial there? Would I feel that it was acceptable for them to be there? I don’t know. How is possible to know the answer to that question? At the same time, how is it possible for me to ignore how I felt today when I saw the smiling Japanese men having their pictures taken next to the portrait of the attack planner? I didn’t expect to get this particular emotion, and I’m not sure that there is a way to explain it; I’m not even entirely sure what it is.

We went into the theater and watched the video about the attack on Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it. It was very moving. The park ranger reminded us before the film that around 1,000 men were entombed in the USS Arizona and to be respectful of that, to stay quiet and reflect while you were actually at the memorial above the Arizona. When got to the memorial, two guys from the ship were talking about getting wasted when they were the only people in the bar and just how cool it was, and a couple of girls were talking about what they were going to be wearing to the beach. It made me very angry. Of all the things to think about while you’re standing above the tombs of 1,000 men that died young, in a surprise attack against the U.S., all you’ve got is bathing suit styles and liquor? You can’t think of anything better than that? Why bother even going when all you can think about are inane things at a place where there is something much more substantial to contemplate? It still makes me angry to think about. It was one of the most blatantly disrespectful things I had ever seen.

After my group left the memorial, we boarded a bus to take us on a tour of Honolulu. We went past Iolani Palace, the State Capitol, and Punchbowl National Cemetery. When we arrived back at the ship, Lindsay and I boarded a free shuttle to Wal-Mart. I picked up a few things I needed, and I got some snacks since the only meal I really eat on the ship is breakfast. We brought our things from Wal-Mart back to the ship and then went in search of lunch. I got distracted and did a little bit of shopping on the way. I bought a gorgeous Hawaiian dress. It is absolutely beautiful. We found a place for burgers and fries, which I have been craving for a while. It seemed silly to be in Hawaii and just want a cheeseburger, but it’s what I wanted, so it’s what I ate. Then Lindsay and I decided that it would be a good idea to change into our new dresses, so we did. Then we walked around downtown Honolulu. We ran into my oceanography professor, who gave me some information about some of the plants and things around where we were, which was pretty neat. His wife pointed out a great place to see fish in the harbor, so we took her advice for that too.

Lindsay and I walked back toward the ship to look for smoothies before we boarded. In the end, she got one, but I just had a diet coke, which to tell you the truth, is really what I wanted. We went back through security at the dock. One of the workers asked me how my day was, to which I replied, “It was amazing. How can you have a bad day in Hawaii?” We joked around a little bit, and then he x-rayed my bag. He opened it and pulled out my hairbrush and told me that I couldn’t take it back on the ship. I started freaking out because it was the only one I brought with me, and where in the world am I going to get another hairbrush in the middle of the Pacific? After a few minutes, he gave it back to me and said, “Ha, ha. It was just a joke. Have a great evening. Aloha.”

That was my day in Hawaii. We are heading out into the Pacific again soon, and the water is supposed to be ten times rougher than it was when we left Mexico. I have to admit that I am not looking forward to it. I guess I should also note that I was seen for add/drop after roughly 24 hours of waiting for my number to be called. Of course, there was an overnight break, and I ended up getting the class that I wanted, so no worries.

~*Life, or its eternal evidence, is everywhere.*~
Ansel Adams

You miss out on a lot of news on the ship. My little sister is now a licensed driver and repeat captain of the volleyball team, and I had no idea.

September 3, 2007
“What are you, the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce?”
Pacific Ocean

Today seems so uneventful after spending a day in beautiful Hawaii. I went to my new class (Explorers, Missionaries, and Traders) for the first time today, at 8 am. The professor is really interesting, though he only talked for about 15 minutes, because he showed a movie for the rest of the class. I’m not sure what was so important about what he said today though. It was weird. None of it really seemed like it was noteworthy. The movie was interesting. It was about this Chinese explorer who some think circumnavigated the globe long before Magellan’s crew did.

Global Studies was not exciting at all today. I’m not sure there was a point to it. The first speaker was supposed to talk about the similarities of countries in Southeast Asia. The second was talking about the Philippines. The first speaker really didn’t seem to talk all that much about the similarities, though she did name a few. She mostly rambled on about one time when she lived in a village and her ankles were showing. I think it was to make some kind of point, or at least I think it should have, but I must have missed it. I probably did, as I was exhausted because I didn’t sleep well last night and was up early this morning. The second stayed pretty well on the point. I don’t think the presentation was as good as the one he had given previously on the history of the hula, but it wasn’t terrible. I think that there are some professors that can handle teaching in the Global Studies environment and some that can’t. I wish they would stick to just the first group. The actual official professor for Global is very good. I enjoy him every time he teaches, but it seems that is rare. The assistant Global director is also very good, but it seems her teaching is even more infrequent than Dr. Mack’s.

I was worried about how oceanography was going after the last class, but I think that after today I feel much better about it. It was far more interesting today. Pearl Harbor actually counts as an FDP for that class. I’m not sure what to write for the paper that I have to turn in, how exactly I am going to apply oceanography to Pearl Harbor, but I have until the class before Japan to figure it out.

I had my first extended family dinner tonight. My ‘dad’ (he said we can call him that) is hilarious! He and his wife adopted 6 of us, all girls. One of the girls is from Akron.

7 days until Japan!

I send you all my love.

2007-08-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

The following is just copied and edited from my travel journal, with a few notes at the bottom.

August 25, 2007 (Sat.)

“Like Phyllis Diller, she’s had a little work done”
Ohio/San Diego
Theme Song: More Bounce (In California) by Soul Kid #1

Dad and I left Cardington today right about 7 am (Eastern time). Our flight left from Port Columbus at 9:40 am. All of the passengers board the plane, and as we’re taxi-ing down the runway, the captain announces that we’re going back because someone boarded the wrong plane. It was an older lady who thought she was boarding for Oakland, CA rather than San Diego, CA. One of the flight attendants asked (with moderate sarcasm) if anyone else on the plane did not want to go to San Diego, that now was the time to exit the plane. It was kind of humorous. The pilot announced that we were going to hit turbulence in 2 spots long before we actually hit them. The first spot was not so bad. In fact, I didn’t mind it at all. The second spot was not fun. The plane lurched sideways before I had realized that it was the second spot in which we were going to be a little bumpy and pretty much terrified me. I had to keep reminding myself that airplanes like to be in the air; that’s where they were designed to be. All in all, I was very glad to get to San Diego.

After Dad and I got our luggage, the rental car, and got checked into our hotel, we decided to take a two hour harbor tour. When we got to the pier, I got to see the MV Explorer (the ship for SAS) for the first time. Dad and I boarded the boat for our tour and got primo seats on the top of the boat with excellent views that would be great for taking pictures. But little did we know, that instead of taking available seats on the boat, people were going to just stand at the railing and block the view of everyone who was sitting down. I was a little annoyed, but then decided that if you can’t beat them, join them. So I became one of the rude people blocking everyone’s view, but then most everyone else did too.

By the time the tour was over, I was so hungry I felt like my stomach was eating itself. The last thing that I had eaten was a Twix bar on the plane many hours before, and it was 6:00 pm (Pacific time). We ended up going to the first restaurant we passed on the way back to the hotel that we both liked: Olive Garden. It was delicious. Then we went back to the hotel for the night. While it was still pretty early Pacific time, Dad and I felt like it was actually 10 pm, and I had been up since 5 am.

August 26, 2007 (Sunday)
“What makes the anteater the healthiest animal in the world?… The amount of ant-ibodies!”
San Diego

This morning Dad couldn’t sleep past 5:30 Pacific time, and that woke me up, but I didn’t roll out of bed until 6:30. We got ready kind of slowly and headed to Denny’s for breakfast. We then came back to the hotel for Dad to get his camera. In the car, I accidentally popped the lens cap off my camera and it bounced off at just the right angle that it went into the front of the car in an impossible to reach location (underneath the gear shift). We had to take part of the inside of the car apart, and we still couldn’t get to it. We headed to the zoo with the intend to purchase a new lens cap after we left the zoo. Dad and I went through the whole zoo, which I think really wore my Dad out. I got a little sun and a LOT of new freckles.

When we left, we searched in vain for a new lens cap; we used the navigator in the car to search for camera stores and went to Circuit City and Best Buy, but it was all in vain. There must not be 46mm lens caps in San Diego. I did get a few extra passport pictures taken because mine had gotten wet in my luggage on the flight to San Diego. Then Dad and I came back to the hotel to rest a little before dinner. We ate at the hotel restaurant, and then we went to the harbor and took a couple of pictures of the ship. When we got back to the hotel, my dad repacked my things so that they fit into 2 suitcases.

August 27, 2007 (Monday)
“It’s in case of an unexpected ice age”
San Diego/Ensenada/Pacific Ocean

Dad and I got up, loaded the car, checked out of the hotel, and went to breakfast all by 7:30 this morning. Then we went to the hotel where the shuttles left from and waited for my boarding time. When I was finally able to get my luggage tags, Dad left for the airport and I waited to board my bus. I sat with a girl named Lindsay on the bus who goes to OSU. My carry on bag was searched at every point possible because of the mirror that I was carrying in it. Then I waited in the long line to finish the check in progress. Almost everything was cool. I sent Dad an e-mail with the one major snag. I had a little bit of trouble with the medical station. I had cardiac clearance from a cardiologist, but no EKG. Quite frankly, I still think it’s a little ridiculous that I was only informed 10 days before sailing that I would require cardiac clearance from a cardiologist. And I wasn’t even informed, just the medical director of the clinic I go to. After that was sorted out, I went to my room and one of my suitcases was already there, so I unpacked it and waited for the other one. After about 3 hours, my other bag arrived, along with my roommate Lauren, who is from California.

We had a lifeboat drill today and it required that everyone be dressed in long pants and long sleeves--in Mexico, in the afternoon. It was ridiculously hot, and it lasted for what seemed like forever. Almost everyone was sweating insane amounts. Just as the lifeboat drill was over, the Captain (I think) came over the loudspeaker and announced that there was a Code Blue and that it was not a drill. Someone had passed out from the heat and having to be dressed for winter. Shortly after, we departed out of Mexico. I had my first meal on the ship today, and I wasn’t really impressed.

August 28, 2007 (Tuesday?)
“We’re just like a plane, except if the engine dies, we don’t fall out of the sky.”
Pacific Ocean

There are 634 (or maybe 633 or 635) students sailing on this voyage. It depends on who makes the announcement as to the actual numerical quote you get.

It’s been meetings all day today, and they all run together. The faculty were all introduced today, and then there was a session where you could meet and talk to your professors or talk to a professor about adding his or her class. I talked to one of the history professors, and I decided that I really want to get his World at War class, but as of now it is full. I’m not giving up though; there’s hope that someone will drop it. If they don’t, one of his other classes has some openings, probably because it’s at 8:00 in the morning, but I’m thinking about taking it regardless. I met my Natural History professor, and she seems like she’s going to be very interesting.

We got to listen to a 45 minute lecture on the Honor Code. I feel like it was a little bit of a waste, as we all had to read and sign an Honor Code form. I suppose the administration probably feels (and probably rightly so) that people don’t always pay attention to what they are signing. We also got to listen to the Global Studies professor talk about his subject for quite a while. I got the impression that it’s going to be interesting; I hope that I am not wrong.

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to mom letting her know that I was not seasick. I spoke too soon. This ship is nothing like the one when I cruised with Uncle Jr. and Aunt Pat. It seems like it is constantly pitching and rolling--you are always aware that you are on a ship. I got really bad sick today right around lunch time, and didn’t eat. I took a nap instead, and it seemed to help. I’m feeling a lot better now.

On another note, the air conditioning in our room wasn’t working and like me, Lauren likes to be cold. She told the purser’s desk, and I think it’s working better now. It’s still maybe not as great as in other rooms, but we don’t feel like we’re boiling anymore.

I’m having a bit of a difficult time with the meeting new people thing. As I’m pretty shy and introverted, it’s been a bit of a challenge. I have, though, met a few cool people. I’ve actually spent a lot of time with the girl that I sat next to on the shuttle and with a girl named Sarah. I think that after classes and clubs and things get started that it’s going to be a little easier, but meeting new people and becoming instant friends has never been something that I am particularly good at.

Classes start tomorrow. I’m kind of excited for that. I’ve got Global Studies and Oceanography tomorrow, and then later in the evening, there’s an activity fair to sign up for the activities you’re interested in. I guess I should probably add that I am in the Bering Sea (it’s kind of like my ’wing’ of the ship) and my cabin number is 4087. My cabin number is very useful for sending me mail (which you should!).

August 29, 2007 (Wednesday? I think…) A1
“We retard our clocks one hour tonight.”
Pacific Ocean
Theme Song: Live and Learn by the Cardigans

It’s just 3 days into this, and the days have already run together. It’s very hard to keep up with something like the days of the week, when really all that seems to matter right now is that today is A day, meaning that I go to my A day classes, and tomorrow I go to my B day classes. I had Global Studies this morning. It was pretty much all review of other classes that I’ve had, but there were a few new things. The professor did a pretty good job of keeping my attention, and I think it might turn out to be fairly interesting. I also had Oceanography today. It was ok. We really just went over the syllabus and the field requirements for the class, so it’s hard to get a good impression off of Syllabus Day.

Last night I hung out with Lindsay outside on one of the decks, and also a girl named Julie. They’re both pretty cool. I had breakfast with Lindsay this morning, and we’re both going on the trip to Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. We’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do with the rest of our time after the trip is over.

There’s a lot of down time at this point and I am not really sure what to do with it. I know it’s going to pick up, especially with the extra class that I add, but right now it’s a little strange. I think I am going to take a history class called Explorers, Missionaries, and Traders. It’s open and it seems to fit in well with my schedule now. It’s early in the morning (8 am) but I’d rather be in a class that was early that I liked than in a class that was in the afternoon that I didn’t really like.

I went to the involvement fair tonight and signed up for a few things, and then I watched Spirited Away in one of the classrooms. The film professor on the ship is showing movies on most nights from the countries we’re going to be in. Spirited Away was for Japan, and tomorrow night is Taboo, which is also a Japanese film. The movie tonight was really good. I almost didn’t go, but the professor actually lives just a couple doors down the hall from me, so on my way back to my room I almost bumped into him, and so I asked him where the movie was tonight. He was on his way up there, so I just followed him.

And since the internet is so expensive, I’m just going to add a few shout outs at the bottom:

To Karen: Thanks for your gift! It really meant a lot. I am going to be sending you a postcard once we hit land, but it is still a few days away.
To a certain RC (the one that wants to be a shark): I miss you a bunch! And I am in open water where I guess the sharks are (at least where you would be if you were one).
Little: I miss you a bunch too! Enjoy the whole chemistry TA thing.
Katy: Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurve. It goes without saying that I miss you.
Mom and Dad: Thanks soooooooo much for helping me get here. It’s already a great experience and I am sure it is going to get much better. There are no words to express my gratitude. Love you.
Ben: I hope you’re enjoying your break before fall quarter.
Emily: Make sure to chortle a lot this year.
Erin Millar: I am going to be back in time to have Lost dates since it doesn’t start until January or something like that!
Miss Bak: You’re being weird and you should stop. (I know you are, even though I’m not around).
To my other AXDs: I miss you guys! Good luck with recruitment!

I can't believe I forgot this one!! BIG I miss you and I hope you're having a great time in Austria!

2007-08-29T20:19:00.001-05:00

I’m actually on the ship, and I’m alive and well. I will be updating tomorrow morning (well, tomorrow morning to me). It’ll be massive, as it includes everything from San Diego until now.

The Itinerary and how to send me mail

2007-08-23T08:08:00.000-05:00

Depart Ensenada, Mexico on August 27 (that's Monday)
Honolulu, Hawaii on September 2
Yokohama, Japan from Sept. 12-13
Kobe, Japan from Sept. 15-16
Qingdao, China from Sept. 19-20
Hong Kong from Sept. 23-24
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from Sept. 27-Oct. 1
Bangkok, Thailand from Oct. 4-8
Chennai, India from Oct. 15-19
Alexandria, Egypt from Oct. 31-Nov. 4
Istanbul, Turkey from Nov. 7-11
Dubrovnik, Croatia from Nov. 14-18
Cadiz, Spain from Nov. 23-27
Miami, Florida on Dec. 7

To send me mail (which I would really like) address the envelope as follows:

Jessica Short
C/O: Explorer
Arrival Date
Port Agent Address

The link where you can find the address of the port agent is below. It also tells you the day you need to mail it by for me to recieve it.
http://www.semesteratsea.com/voyages/fall2007/fa2007_communicatewship.html

I have one suitcase packed. I have one more to go, and I still have to pack my carryon. I fly out on Saturday morning.

Just some quotes I like

2007-08-08T18:24:00.000-05:00

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.~*Maya Angelou*~

The World is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.~*St. Augustine*~

He who does not travel does not know the value of men.~*Moorish proverb*~

Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of food, your closet full of clothes - with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.~*Michael Crichton*~

A little bit nervous, a lot excited

2007-08-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

It's a bit strange to know that in just less than a month, my time at Panera will be over, and I'll be stepping on a plane to San Diego, and then boarding a shuttle to Mexico to board the MV Explorer. It's odd that as all of my friends and sisters are making their plans to return to school, I am making my plans to sail around the world. I've bought my books, and sent in my trip request form to SAS. I registered for 3, a trip to Pearl Harbor for one of my classes, Beijing/Xian in China, and Phnom Phen/Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I'm planning on traveling the rest of the time indy (for relatives that are worrying, that just means independent of SAS, not by myself).

Visas and Field Programs

2007-07-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

I got my visas in the mail today. It's a little weird. The most exotic stamp I've ever had in my passport was for Mexico, and now there are stickers for India and China. I also got the field program book from SAS, and they're all ridiculously expensive. I was going to do 4 big SAS trips... at least I was planning on it, but now I think I'm just going to take 2 (Cambodia and Beijing), and do everything else indy except for maybe a few day trips.

Everything seems to be falling into place for this. My bank account isn't quite where I had hoped it would be, but I'm kind of hoping for that to fall into place as well. I can't believe it's just over a month away.

Itinerary changes.

2007-06-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

The itinerary for my voyage of Semester at Sea has been changed. At first I was really disappointed. I wanted to go to Burma, and I'm still upset that I'm going to miss it. The previous voyagers who have been there speak about it with such passion that it makes me wonder what it's actually like to experience it and how it would have affected me. The replacement port is in Thailand! I'm very excited that Burma was replaced with Thailand. I thought it might be Malaysia since that's where the last voyage went since they didn't go to Burma, but I'm so much happier with it being Thailand.

2007-05-30T10:52:00.001-05:00

I just bought mine and my parents' plane tickets to San Diego!

This actually beginning to seem real.

Classes

2007-05-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

I registered for classes yesterday. I got all of my first choices, so I am very excited about that. I still have to register for one more once I get to the ship so that I can stay a full time student at ONU, so hopefully there will still be something open that I think is interesting and that is approved by ONU when that time comes.

I'm taking:
Global Studies, which is mandatory for everyone. Most alums have said it was boring/awful when they took it, but I am holding out hope that it is interesting. It should be, if it is taught correctly.
Natural History of the Earth. This class has more presentations than I would like, but I need to get over my fear of public speaking sometime, so I might as well do it taking a class about something that I am interested in.
Oceanography. I'm kind of excited about this one.
World Art: Traditions and Interactions. Truth be told, I'm excited about this one too. I took a course in Eastern Art at OSU when I was in high school. I'm hoping I like this one just as much.

I hope to add Geology, Art and Revolution, Archaeology of Hierarchy, Politics of the Past, or Science and Religion. I have approval for a couple other ones, but I'm not really interested in taking them. Hopefully, things work out so that I get one of my top alternate choices.

I'm already missing my Alpha Xis.

Little by Little

2007-05-08T09:18:00.000-05:00

The school year has flown by in an unbelievable fashion. I have one week left at ONU before I'm out for the summer. I have 2 job interviews this week, one with Panera Bread and one for night stock at Kroger's. Hopefully, I get them both. I need them both so that I can have some traveling money for SAS. It seems like it was just the end of November when I applied to go, but now the time has come to start filling out visa applications, get my last set of immunizations, and figure out which courses will transfer back to ONU and which ones won't.

I got my financial aid package from SAS yesterday. I got a $2000 grant. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but I am extremely grateful that I recieved it. From what I can tell, there are several people who got less than that or nothing at all. I'm enrolled in the tuition payment plan, through help from my parents. In just getting ready for this experience, I've realized how truly blessed I am that I have the parents that I do. None of this would have been possible without them. Not everyone has parents that give their children nearly as much help chasing their dreams as I have gotten from mine.

As far as picking out classes goes, I think I have what I want to take narrowed down, provided I can get into those particular classes. I have approval from every department but the biology department, and I'm working on getting that this week. Little by little everything seems to be falling into place.