US Tomorrow . . .

So, this is my last blog entry before I get back to the United States.  The last few days have been some of the most exciting and depressing days of my life.  The day after Guatemala was a study day, followed by a day of B day exams.  I didn’t have any B day exams and I was wanting to lay out for those days but they were cloudy, rainy, days, so I spent the time watching movies, relaxing, thinking, and reflecting.  The next day we went through the Panama Canal.  We reached the Canal at about 8am and Chris and I went to the front observation deck to watch us pull into the first part of the canal.  It is hard to describe the canal, but just know that it was really cool.  It took us a total of 9 hours to get through the Panama Canal.  That night was the Ambassador’s Ball.  We all started to get ready at around 4pm.  I wore my pink dress that I had made for me in Thailand.  There were two seatings for the dinner, at 5:30 and at 8pm.  My group of friends were at the first seating.  We all got together at 5 to take some prom pictures before dinner.  Dinner was great.  We got to choose our appetizer and main course.  I started with Brushetta, then French onion soup, then Caesar salad, then tuna steak.  After dinner everyone headed to their rooms while the second seating went on.  We all hung out with friends for one of the last times, and consumed the last of the contraband alcohol that had been collected over the course of the voyage (no worries mom, I didn’t sneak any on).  The ship was one huge party.  At 10pm there was desert on the 6^th floor outside of the union.  It was buffet style and there were so many yummy options, ymmmmm.  After desert there was a dance.  Chris and I went to that for a few hours and mingled with all of our friends. It was just an awesome night, but we all knew that it meant that the voyage is almost over.  The next day was just a relaxing day, and a sadness definitely fell over the ship.  You could feel it.  Today is so bittersweet . . . I get to go home tomorrow!!! But I am going to miss this voyage so much.  The day started at 10:30am with our convocation and a recognition of the graduating seniors who are aboard.  That lasted until about noon.  After that was baggage collection.  They called your sea (hall) and had specific times.  Chris and I laid outside in the sun (it was such a gorgeous day) until our halls were called, and then we laid out some more.  Dinner was a TACO NIGHT for cinco de mayo.  Taco Night only occurs three times on a voyage, and it is huge.  The line was at least a half hour long, but we got in the line early.  It is definitely worth it.  After dinner we had our final passport distribution.   Our passports look so cool now, all stamped and such.  The only countries that didn’t get stamped are Spain and Guatemala, and it stinks that they didn’t but we had no control over that.  Tonight will be full of tears and goodbyes.  I will wake up tomorrow at 6:30am and enjoy my last breakfast on the ship.  We will be able to see the port by 7:30, and will arrive in Fort Lauderdale around 8am.  We will wave to the parents and those there to greet us, and start to say our goodbyes.  The first off the ship are the staff and faculty, followed by the sea that won the sea Olympics, Chris’s sea.  My sea is sixth off so I most likely won’t get onto land until about 1pm.  My flight home is at 8pm.  Chris is going to try to meet me in my terminal where I will be checking in to help me with my bags since he will already be there.  We will probably hang out a little bit until his flight at 5:45pm, at which point I will most likely find coffee and a comfy place to sit, reflect, and possibly get onto the internet to upload the last of my pictures.  At 11:05pm I will touch down in Philly.  Wow.  This really is over.

 

I have been so many places, seen so many things, and everyone I have met along the way has given me a little more inspiration to live the best life I can.  Now it is my time to come home and pay it forward.  When I come home tomorrow I am not coming home as the same person who left a few months ago.  How can you come home the same after seeing the poor in India who have the kindness hearts, or the majesty of the Great Wall.  I will NEVER be the same.  And when all of the stories and incidents of the past few months begin to fade I will always have this feeling in my heart, a feeling of love for the world around me.  Never did I imagine the change inside of me, but I know that I am a better person, and I will be a better person.  We don’t realize how lucky we are . . . we really don’t . . .

 

I have seen the vastness of this world, with all of its complexities and nuances.  I have smelled the smell of human waste, of firewood of stoves, and of fields of flowers.  I have tasted worms, fresh mango, and pure chocolate.  I have touched the hand of a human unable to feed themselves, unable to provide even the basic needs essential for life that everyone has a right to; I have touched an elephants snout, and the warm comforting water of the Indian Ocean.  And I have heard the traffic in the crowded streets of India, the serenity of water lapping in a tropical paradise, and the laughter of children that pierced my soul and purified my heart, the laughter that still does and always will ring in my ears . . .  I will NEVER forget those smiles . . .

 

 

 

Check for an update in about a week.  I will let you know how my re-entry is going.

 

Guatemala, last port :-(

 

 Day 1

 

We arrived at our last port, Puerto Quetzal Guatemala at about 8am on Tuesday morning.  There was no face-to-face immigration procedure so it was fairly quick getting off of the ship.  After the diplomatic briefing my trip, as well as another trip that was supposed to leave early, were allowed to get off the ship.  My friends PJ, Nick, Julia, Jeff, Chris D, and Chris were all on my trip so it was nice to end my SAS adventures with a good number of friends.  We drove about a mile in a coach-style bus until we reached a gas station for our transfer to another bus that can drive down the narrow roads on our way to the Acatenango volcano.  The bus that we transferred to is called a “Chicken Bus” and they are all around Guatemala.  We were told multiple times to avoid chicken busses because so far this year 64 busses were robbed, and most of the time the driver is beheaded.  They are called chicken buses because they are buses stuffed full of people, like chickens.  They are converted School Buses, painted and done up.  Our chicken bus was independently contracted so we didn’t have to worry about anything but we still got our chicken bus experience (sort of).  We drove about an hour in this chicken bus through a small town to the Acatenango volcano.  We got off the bus in this private farm area, at 7,000ft elevation, where we began our hike.  There were 35 of us . . . 70 of us had signed up for this trip which was supposed to leave the second day we were in Guatemala, but because so many people signed up they asked some of us to change to the first day (which turns out to be the best decision because our third day in Guatemala was so stormy, it would have been miserable).  We had two police escorts, two tour guides, and about 4 people from the farm who were hiking up with us. The first third of the hike for the day was fairly easy.  We were taking a slow pace to try to stay together.  Also, the trail was grassy and not that steep.  After an hour and a half we stopped to have lunch.  Lunch was very good . . . a sandwich on amazing bread, fancy veggie chips, tea, and cookies.  After resting for about a half hour we started hiking again.  This hike was the hardest, most grueling hike that I have ever done.  The group split up as some people lagged behind.  I wasn’t in the back, but I wasn’t in the front of the pack either.  The path was extremely steep and the footing wasn’t stable so people were falling and slipping.  I felt as if my heart was pounding out of my chest, and it was so hard to breathe (the elevation didn’t help with this).  One girl couldn’t make it so the truck that was carrying all of our supplies up gave her a lift.  All of the rest of us made it to base camp at 10,000 ft at about 4pm.  We were greeted with chips and salsa, fresh guacamole, fresh pineapple, and tea.  We ate dinner at about 6pm, hamburgers and pasta salad, and then sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and talking.  It was very cold, but the fire helped a whole lot.  We had huge tents, two people per side with a huge middle section.  I got my own tent because some girls wanted to be three per tent for the body heat, and I didn’t really care, so I got to turn my sleeping bag long ways in the tent so that I wasn’t touching any side (which turned out to be awesome because then I didn’t get wet with the morning dew).  We all retired to our beds at about 7:30pm, and I fell asleep right away.  It was dark and I was exhausted, and I managed to stay warm and actually get overheated and sweaty at night.  I slept like a baby. 

 

Day 2

 

We were woken up at 4am for a light breakfast . . . fresh watermelon, papaya, yogurt, and granola.  As I emerged from my tent I was greeted with the most amazing view of the stars . . . it was beautiful.  We ate around the campfire, and began to hike again at 5am.  It was still dark when we left, but about an hour later the sun began to rise.  The cloud cover settles lower than our elevation, so we watched the sunrise over the top of the clouds.  It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  It was breathtaking, and my pictures can’t even being to capture it.  We soon emerged over the tree line, 10,500 feet.  We could see so many other volcanoes in the distance, it was unlike anything I have ever seen.  The hike was terribly difficult.  We eventually reached “The Saddle” the crevice between the two peaks of the volcano.  At this point the terrain was all ash, sand, and rock . . . there was no grass or trees.  We pushed out way up the rest of the volcano, everyone in so much pain . . . we all wanted to give up.  When we reached the top an amazing sense of accomplishment came over us all . . . we had reached the top of the 3^rd highest peak in Central America.  We could see Mexico and Honduras form the top of the mountain.  Another awesome view was that of the volcano named Fuego, and we could see it shooting smoke about ever few minutes.  There were a few steam holes in the top of the volcano, too, that when we put our hands in them we got a warm blast.  The crater at the top of the volcano wasn’t that big, and there were a few rocks that were arranged to say “Will you marry me?” in Germany.  We rearranged the rocks to say SAS’09.  We stayed up there for about 45minutes, and the more time that went by the colder and colder it got because our bodies were settling down from the hike.  After soaking in the rest of the amazing views, we started our way back down.  The tour guides wanted to take us a different route down . . . this is where the problems began.  As soon as we started down we realized that it wasn’t going to be easy.  We were literally on the side of cliff that was almost straight down with rocks as far as we could see, and we all had to hold on to rocks in order to keep our balance and keep from falling.  Some people that are scared of heights had some problems.  We then got to this extremely steep part that was soft black sand and rocks.  We were supposed to run down this very long, steep part of the volcano in order to get back down to “The Saddle.”  I had a panic attack, something that doesn’t occur to me that frequently.   I just had a bad feeling.  Chris tried to help me take it slow but I didn’t want to hold his hand because I thought that if I fell I didn’t want to take him down too.  As I started to go I started to pick up speed and soon I was going faster and faster and running faster and faster and I couldn’t stop.  I tried to fall backwards but I couldn’t.  I saw a rock in front of me and I knew that my face would smash into it if I didn’t do anything, so I lunged forwards and launched myself off of the rock to avoid it.  Evidentially I fell very far and was tumbling head over feet . . . the tour guide said it was one of the worst falls he has seen in a while.  The tour guide, Emmanuel caught me right before I hit a huge rock, thank goodness.  They made me lay on the ground for a while until they were sure that I was alright, and then I stood up and they cleaned up my back which was all scratched up.  We headed back down to base camp where we picked up the rest of the group who didn’t hike in the morning, and then we headed back down the rest of the mountain (which wasn’t easy either, many people fell and ended up with some scrapes and bruises).  When we got back down we boarded our chicken bus and headed into Antigua, a very touristy area, where we ate an awesome authentic lunch at a restaurant.  We had a few hours of free time and Chris and I wandered around and shopped a little before we boarded the bus back to the ship.  On the way back to the ship an amazing storm started.  There was awesome lightening and thunder, and I hadn’t seen an awesome storm in such a long time so it was refreshing.  I love storms.  Since Guatemala is so dangerous there was an 11pm curfew for getting back onto the ship at night so we just stayed on the ship and hung out and relaxed (because everyone was in so much pain).  At this point my ankle started to give me problems and I could barely walk on it . . . it was huge.  My back didn’t feel to bad and it wasn’t that bruised.  It wasn’t hard for me to fall asleep . . . at all.

 

Day 3

 

I woke up hurting pretty badly.  My ankle felt a whole lot better but my shoulder and arm were starting to bruise a bit and my neck hurt pretty badly.  My butt and legs hurt from the actually hike . . .I was in pretty bad shape.  We decided to take the day easy, and that would be easy since there is nothing to do close to port anyway.  We took a taxi to a local town called San Jose.  San Jose was extremely shady.  There were no tourists there and children were screaming and waving at us from busses passing by.   We walked around a bit to get the feel for the town, found a grocery store to get some soda to bring back onto the ship, and then got some delicious cake at a local bakery.  Chris had been to Guatemala briefly a year ago and recommended that we buy some chocolate that is different from the chocolate at home and is great to shave off into hot milk to make hot chocolate.  We found such chocolate at this bakery, and I can’t wait to try it when I get home!  After we enjoyed our cake we took a taxi back to the ship where we relaxed for the rest of the day.  There were many people who didn’t even get off the ship that last day because there was not much to do in port. 

 

 

So, as the ship left Guatemala last night my last port left my sight . . . my voyage is almost complete.  Finals are over, I think I ended up with mostly B’s which for me is less than average but in the perspective of what I have done this semester I am completely satisfied with my performance.  Everyone is spending so much time outside lately, laying out, but there is this tone of looming sadness . . . .everyone knows that we soon go home.  The next few days bring more finals (for some), meetings about disembarkation, pictures with friends, the Ambassadors ball, and then home.  I just can’t believe everything I have seen and done.  I started packing tonight . . .getting breakables and clothes and stuff together, sorting out what I have bought.   Wow . . . just wow. 

 

A girls mom texted her and said: “A few days and you will be back to the real world.”

The girl replied: “Mom, I have seen the real world, I am in the real world.”

Hawaii!!!!

Hawaii, Day 1

We arrived to Honolulu Harbor very early on April 19, at about 6am.  They woke us up around that time, and face to face immigration checks started at 6:15am.  After the all of the students, faculty, and crew completed immigration the boat was cleared, just after 8am.  It took a while for the crew to get cleared because only two out of the hundred or so of them are from the United States, and we all know how hard it is to travel into our country.  Chris and I headed out to do what we do best, walk and wander.  We started walking in the direction of Waikiki Beach, famous for its mention in a Beach Boys song and for its surfing.  It had been 10, almost 11 years since I had been to Hawaii but I still remembered some of the area.  We saw so many ABC stores, convenience/tourist shops that have EVERYTHING you could ever possibly want or need.  We stopped to get some Starbucks and it was SO weird paying in American, green money.  And getting back quarters in change was just so weird.  We continued to walk through the Waikiki Beach area, past the resorts and hotels.  One thing that I didn’t remember was how upscale and expensive all of the restaurants and shops are!  It was like Coach, Juicy Couture, Fendi, MAC, Ralph Lauren, Gucci . . . on and on and on . . . so expensive!  Chris and I decided to climb Diamondhead Crater, the remains of an extinct volcano nestled at the end of Waikiki Beach.  After walking about 6.5/7 miles to get there, we started out way up.  The hike isn’t that bad, only about 45 minutes, except we had already walked pretty far to get there!  It was very hot at that point in the day, about 11:30, and the Hawaiian sun was definitely beating down.  When we made it to the top we watched a lady get rescued by helicopter.  There is actually a heliport on the top of the crater for that very reason.  After admiring the beautiful view for a while, we started heading down.  On a side note, Hawaii has the most gorgeous blue sky, and the water is this amazing teal color, it truly is a paradise.  About half way down the volcano we watched an older lady get rescued.  Since there was no place for a helicopter to land they rescued her by basket hanging off of the helicopter.  When we got back down the volcano we took a bus about a mile, and then walked the rest of the way back to Waikiki Beach.  We ate lunch at Chili’s, a restaurant that I had missed so much.  I got fries loaded with cheese, bacon, peppers, onion, and guacamole.  We spent about 2 hours on the beach, at which point it was about 4pm, so we began to wander our way back to the ship, stopping along the way to shop of course.  I got Cold Stone, and it was, hands down, the best combination that I had ever gotten: Macadamia nut ice cream, rainbow sprinkles, cookie dough, and macadamia nuts!  Chris also thought that it was the best ice cream that he had ever had.  We made it back to the ship at 7:15pm, took showers, and went out to dinner at 8pm.  The ship was docked next to Aloha Tower and a shopping center area, so we just ate dinner there since it was already getting late, and, being a Sunday, places weren’t open as late.  We shared a delicious pizza for dinner, served on a mini surf board.  It had thin crust, sweat tomato sauce, cheese, onions, mushrooms, and pepperoni.  I also put fresh grated parmesan cheese on mine, go figure!  After dinner we went back to the ship for the night.  Being 20, I couldn’t drink in Hawaii, so sleep was more valuable to me than wandering around when nothing was open anyway. 

 

Day 2

We woke up fairly early, took showers, met up at breakfast, and then started walking around downtown Honolulu to find a bus or a taxi to take us to Pearl Harbor.  We ran into my friends Laura and Matt who were going to Pearl Harbor as well, so we jumped on a bus with them.  Pearl Harbor was neat, I had been there before but I was too young to appreciate it.  It is one of those places where you should go once but you don’t want to linger there too long, it is depressing to say the least.  After Pearl Harbor we took a bus to Waikiki which took forever because the buses stop about once every minute.  It took about 75 minutes to get to Waikiki by bus.  When we got to Waikiki Laura, Matt, Chris, and I met up with Laura’s roommate and then found our friend Nick, so we all went to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.  Once again, it was a delicious meal.  After lunch we wandered around, shopped a little bit, and got more ice cream.  This time we got Macadamia Nut ice cream, double cookie dough, and yellow cake.  I think it may have been even better than the previous day’s, if that is even possible.  We NEED this ice cream at home, it is fantastic.  On ship time was 6pm so we took a cab back to the Aloha Tower, walked around the port area for a little and then went back onto the ship.  Hawaii was short lived . . . we definitely needed at least another day in Honolulu.  I would have loved to go back to the big island of Hawaii, and possibly Kauai, but we just didn’t have the time.  One more place to add to where I need to get back to.  Man, I am going to have to make a lot of money . . . .  

 

 

Here is some food for thought . . .

 

Ask me now.  Ask me now, mommy.  Am I too late?  Ask me now, what I wanna do.  Ask me now, what I wanna do when I grow up.  Am I too late?  Cuz I think I finally figured it out.  I don’t wanna do for a living.  I wanna be for a living.  I wanna be life.  I wanna make things grow and move and breathe and reproduce and respond, I wanna make things respond and react and rejoice and relax and relate and release and receive and reform as soon as I recite.  When I grow up, I don’t wanna be like those other kids, mommy, that wanna be ballers and doctors and astronauts, I wanna be passion and heat and energy when I grow up.  I don’t wanna be the fireman, mommy, I wanna be, the fire.  I wanna be the explosion behind the soul’s big bang theory that leaves in its place desire.  I wanna be that burning within that gives life to the word aspire.  Let me, warm the cold souls of the despairing and heartless, let me, light the paths of those wandering in darkness, let me, fill the most primitive with wonder, and provide children with their first definition of “HOT”, and when the artists of the world have become so infatuated with ice that the whole world freezes over, let me be the poet that melts the icecaps, drowns the planets, and starts things over again two mc’s at a time like noah.  When I grow up, I don’t wanna be the astronaut mommy, I wanna be the space that he explores.  I don’t wanna be the doctor, mommy, I wanna be the cure.  I wanna be the prescription for a better life, the way through which the sick and the shut-in can find hope, health, happiness, and healing; I wanna be the pill of which they take two, and the call that is placed the next morning, I wanna be the white blood cells that strengthen the immune system, the clot that stops the bleeding, the antidote that counters the poison, I wanna speak antibiotic poetry that defeats your life’s viruses but ONLY if you take my words in three times a day until the entire bottle is gone.  I wanna be the shot that you are scared to receive but makes you feel so much better when I am inside you, I wanna be the therapy that you hate going to but you know you cannot be better without.  I wanna be the perspective of the world through the eyes of a child, an autistic child who is diagnosed with a sickness when in fact she merely sees the world with a clarity that the rest of us can only dream of having.  When I grow up, I don’t wanna be the preacher, mommy, I wanna be the word.  I don’t wanna be an artist, mommy, I wanna be the art.  not the painter, let me be the canvas.  Not the choreographer, let me be the dances, not the poet, let me be the stanzas, I don’t wanna be the singer mommy, I want to, be the sound! The song you sing the way you sing it when you think ain’t nobody else around.  When I grow up I don’t wanna be the lawyer mommy, I wanna be the justice.  I don’t wanna the philosopher daddy, I wanna be the philosophy that the brilliant minds try to follow or the brilliance in that mind, or rather let me be the elusive concepts that they cant quite figure out like hope, purpose, faith, and time, I wanna be, time!  So that the world will go to sleep every day feeling like they never have enough of me, and will panic when they feel me slipping away and so that when I am up, people will stress out, when they feel that they are running out of me, let me be time so that I will never again feel this depression I feel now for being abandoned by it, let me be time so that I will never miss myself, so that I will never be before myself, never be, out of myself, never be too late never be too early so that for once in this life of unfulfilled dreams that have left my cheeks streaked with saltwater erosion and my mouth perpetually coated with the bitter aftertaste of disappointment, for once I can be right on me.  When I grow up, I wanna be the antithesis of without, the contradiction of silence, the inverse of absence, the reverse of regression, the paradox to mortality, the antilogy to emptiness the illumination of shadows, the antonym of void, the opposite of darkness, I wanna be the opposite of darkness, let me be the opposite of darkness, so that when the greatest poet in existence recites the first line of the greatest poem ever written, let there be light, I can begin.

Update

It has been 5 days now since I have seen land.  Happy late Easter to all of you.  After Japan we have a total of 9 days before Hawaii, and we have class 4 of those days.  Today we have off, and our taking group/school pictures for the first half of the day.  School work is intense right now.  The past two days I had 4 papers due, a quiz, and a huge global studies exam.  Luckily I had the papers done ahead of time so I only had to study, but everyone has been freaking out.  Last night was our charity auction on the ship.  It was interesting to see how much some people would pay for stuff, like $300 to raise the flag when we get to Ft. Lauderdale, $1200 for a weekend in Yellowstone . . . guess thats what happens when you get this demographic population together.  I felt poor, but in the end all of the money goes to charity.  I spent about $20 on raffle tickets but didn't win anything.  It has been very gross at sea the past few days, but today it is looking better.  Yesterday and the day before we had really bad swells and waves and the ship was tossing and turning.  It was dark and rainy all day . . . makes it hard to study.  I also had two Easters which was neat.  We had our one Easter, April 12, and then crossed the International Date Line so the next day was April 12 as well, Easter number 2.  My friends mom bought her this huge ice cream cake for Easter, so we split that and it helped to make Easter a little bit more unique, since we did have class both days.  We are now behind the East Coast, whereas we kept on getting father ahead before.  Now we are trying to catch up, it is weird.  Today after dinner my friends and I are having a photo swap party and we bought ourselves a cookie platter as a little treat.  Man, I am going to miss them!  Alright, well I am going to get a little studying in before lunch.  Miss you all, and see you all before we know it!

Japan, Part 2

 

Day on Ship

Today was just a lazy, quiet day.  My estimate is that there were 200 students and faculty on the ship, probably about 50 faculty and 150 students.  Being exhausted from Kobe as well as our previous adventures in other ports, most everyone just slept all day.  They played the 3 Borne movies, and I caught a little of them but every time I tried to watch I just fell asleep.  I woke up at my normal time, went to breakfast, and then did a little bit of homework.  Chris and I watched movies most of the day, did odd jobs, and just moped around pretty much.  Most people stayed in their rooms all day.  Not a whole lot to say about the day, it was very uneventful.

 

Yokohama, Day 1 (Japan Day 4)

Today I got up at my normal 0700 to watch the ship come into port.  The port was awesome . . . there is a port building right next to the ship and a hall connecting the building to the ship, just like at the airport.  The port building has a park with grass on the roof, so as we arrived there were many observers sitting up there.  There were also photographers and some artist who was drawing our ship for a good part of the day.  The ship was cleared fairly quickly, and we were able to get off around 0900.  Chris and I got off and walked around for a little to get acquainted with the city and port area.  We then walked to Landmark tower, the tallest building in Yokohama.  As we walked into the city we saw a Ferris wheel and small amusement park, right in the middle of the city.  I didn’t really understand the location, but they do weird things like that in Japan I guess.  We were both impressed by how pedestrian friendly Yokohama is.  There are pedestrian walkways everywhere that are extremely clean and convenient.  The whole city, in fact, is extremely clean and convenient.  After we found Landmark we walked down to the waterway and walked in the park on the edge of the water for a while.  We saw that there are tons of people with small dogs in Japan and they like to dress them up in clothes.  We walked around for a while, got Starbucks, found a mall, and found a Cold Stone.  The guy who worked there spoke very good English so I was able to communicate that I worked there.  They had some of the same flavors as China, like green tea, and they also had mango ice cream.  I sampled everything I had never had before and then got sweat cream and peanut butter, boring, but delicious.  They also had some drinks that looked like floats, but I am not quite sure.  Also, they were having a “bouquet” promotion where they put ice cream and mix ins in a waffle cone to make it look like a flower arrangement, I don’t really know, but it was something for spring.  Something else that was weird/different is that they had strawberry chocolate flavored dipped waffle cones and bowls, and green tea flavored chocolate dipped waffle cones and bowls.  The guy that served me was the best Cold Stone employee, ever.  He sang as he mixed my ice cream (a song specifically about mixing ice cream) and he flipped the ice cream, threw it, tossed it into the cup . . .  it was awesome, and has also inspired me to be a more interactive employee.  (Rich – I got a video of him doing this, you will want to hire him!)  After that we got sushi for lunch.  We got the sushi from the grocery store because it was cheap and still great.  I don’t know exactly what kind of sushi we got, but there were two different types of rolls in my pack of 12.  They were so good . . . I have really turned into a fan.  Also, sushi in Japan is supposed to be amazing compared to other countries so it was such a treat.  I hope that I like sushi at home now!  After we ate we had to head back to the ship because our Semester at Sea trip to the Yokohama baseball game met at 1600.  There were about 100 of us on the trip, and we all walked from the port to the stadium which was about 15 minutes away.  We got there very early, so we were allowed to do whatever until the game started.  A lot of people left the stadium to get food and/or drinks, but Chris and I just stayed in the stadium and hung out with a few other people who were there.  In addition to the 100 kids that went on the trip, many Semester at Sea kids went independently and managed to get seats in our section, we had quite a large section.  The home team was the Yokohama Baystars, and they got destroyed in a landslide loss.  The game was not too different from Baseball games at home.  The stadium was very small, smaller than a minor league stadium at home.  There weren’t a whole lot of people at the game, either, but there were a lot of people from the opposing team because it is one of the best teams here.  There were two large cheering sections for the Baystars, and in each section there was a drummer and a trumpeter.  There was a man on a stool with a whistle who stood between the sections (in front of our section) and started the cheers.  The crowd would do cheers for 10 minutes straight and then take a break for a while, but the cheering definitely occurred frequently.  The game was so much fun, just hanging out with everyone and meeting some new people.  After the game Chris and I walked around until we found a bar we wanted to go into.  As we walked we drank Sake, a Japanese alcohol that we bought from 711.  It tasted a little bit like the rice wine that I had tried in China, but it had a bad aftertaste and wasn’t my favorite.  We ended up in a tiny upstairs bar that had a group of about 10 other foreigners (I don’t know where the were from) stuffed into a tiny room.  It was an island themed place, and had food such as jerk chicken and served fruits.  The drinks were cheap and it was cute though so we stayed.  I ordered a margarita and they poured the following: one shot of tequila, one shot of Southern Comfort (we think), and lime juice.  I wasn’t anything like I was expecting and was quite gross actually.  After a while we headed back to the ship. 

 

Yokohama, Day 2

Today, after we were both up, Chris and I headed into the city.  We walked to Landmark Tower and went up to the highest observatory in Japan.  The elevator is also one of the fastest in the world, and you could definitely tell that it was going so fast.  My ears popped, and we went from the 1^st floor to the 80^th in less than a minute.  From the observatory we could see Mt Fuji and a great view of Yokohama.  It was an amazing day out and you could see so far . . . we couldn’t have gotten any luckier.  After we had soaked in enough of the amazing view we came back down and got lunch at the Hard Rock Café.  We had both been craving some greasy American food so we split the nachos, with extra cheese and guacamole.  It was a grossly large amount of nachos, and we practically licked the plate clean.  They were amazingly good.  It was the best $24 plate of nachos, ever, EVER!  After lunch we walked around some more, got Starbucks, and then headed back to the ship.  It was a good day.  Japan was fun, even though I didn’t do a whole lot of “cultural stuff.”  I feel like there isn’t that much “cultural stuff” in Japan to begin with, so just walking around and soaking in the culture is one of the best things to do.  The kids that went to Tokyo said that it was awesome but that it was just a city.   I am happy that I decided to stay on the ship and save some money.  The next few days on the ship are going to be crazy.  We haven’t been on the ship from more than 2 days at a time for the past month, and now we have 9 days in a row until Hawaii.  We have a global studies exam in a few days, I have a paper to write due in a few days, and there is so much reading to do.  I am caught up on all of my reading up until this point, but having class day after day is going to be rough.  We also have Easter in a few days, but we actually get two Easters because we cross the International Date Line on Easter.  They aren’t having an egg hunt on the ship but they are doing two church services and stuff.  I bought some jelly beans in port to make it feel at least a little bit like Easter.  Easter just will not be the same, though, without Reese’s eggs, Cadbury eggs, Chocolate Bunnies and Easter breakfast.  Hmmm, oh well, I can’t complain too much, I will be on my way to Hawaii after all!

Kobe, Japan

 

Day 1

We arrived in Yokohama at our normal time, 0800 and were all given quarantine cards.  We had been warned the night before that Japanese customs takes a while and is a much harder process than any of our previous countries, so we knew not to expect to get off the ship in any timely manner.  Around 0830 we started the process by filing through the faculty/staff lounge and walking past an infrared camera that took our temperatures.  If we passed, which we all did, they took our quarantine cards.  Next we had our diplomatic briefing while they continued to clear the ship.  They slowly began calling the ship by our seas (hallways).  When they did we had to get off the ship and go into a building next to the ship, pick up our passports and customs cards, and get in an extremely long line of students.  When you finally got to the front of the line they scanned your passport and then took you picture and your fingerprints!  Even though this was so annoying it was kind of neat having your fingerprints taken.  I was planning to hang out with Chris and Stephanie, so they waited until my sea was called to leave the ship, since my sea was one of the last ones called.  Once we were off and cleared customs we headed into the city.  You can either walk into the city, which takes about a half hour, or take the $2 train into Sannoymia station, the main station in the city.  From the train station we walked about a half hour to Mt. Rokko, the main mountain in Kobe.  A lot of student hiked the mountain that day (and some got lost), but we took the cable car up.  We had such great views of Kobe, and could even see our ship from the top.  After taking some pictures and enjoying the view, we headed down.  It was a sunny day but there was a slight haze that made the pictures not come out nearly as clear as it really was to the eye.  After headed back down we walked back to Sannoymia station and then we walked to Kobe City Hall.  Kobe City Hall was not impressive at all, in fact it just looked like a normal skyscraper.  There was a flower clock right next to it which was cool – the flowers displayed the image of a music note.  Also, the clock and the City Hall building are solar powered which is pretty neat for such a large structure.  At this point Stephanie had to head back to the ship for a trip she was doing, so after Chris and I made sure she got on the train ok we headed out to explore on our own.  Kobe is known for its sweets and pastries, so we found this awesome pastry shop to pick up some snacks.  I got some sort of giant cream puff that not only had cream but some sort of custard in the middle.  After we got these we decided we should probably actually eat something of substance, and one of the cheapest places we could find was a pasta and salad place.  Chris got pasta, and I got a “Japanese Salad” that had extremely thin sliced dry fish on top (which was alright), dried black seaweed (which was gross), and some kind of great ginger dressing.  After we ate, we headed back to the ship.  We also ate out pastries when we got back to the ship, since they were not factory sealed we couldn’t take them back onto the ship.  Back on the ship we got ready to out for the night.  Stephanie knocked on my door when we was done her thing, and said that some guys invited her to go out, so our group joined a group of about 15 guys and girls to go out.  We went to this bar that had been handing out flyers next to the ship when we got off, $15 to enter for girls, $20 for guys, unlimited drinks.  We took the train into that main station again, and then had to walk about a half hour to get to the club.  When we got there we quickly realized that it was a very small bar, but luckily we were the only few people there at the time so it was easy to get drinks and we took advantage of that knowing that as it got busier with more SAS kids it would be harder to get our free drinks.  My favorite drink was called Yougi Pineapple, and it was this yogurt flavored liquor (only 15%).  Mixed with pineapple juice it tasted like those drinkable smoothies that Dannon makes, it was so good!  As is started to get more crowded and more crowded it got hotter and hotter in this small club, so Chris and I decided to leave.  There was a club next-door called Philadelphia, so I wanted to check that out, but it was nothing so we decided to grab a beer from 711 and head back to the ship.  The trains close at 12 and we made it to the station in time to make the last train, but the ticket machine that we went to wasn’t in English and we didn’t end up making the train because we couldn’t figure out how to buy a ticket.  Nothing here is in English, and no one here really speaks English, and it isn’t easy to get around at all.  We started walking, following what we thought was the right train line.  We walked for a while, a few hours actually before we realized that we were way off.  We really had no clue where we were and we should have made it back to the ship by then.  There was nothing open around us to ask for directions in.  Luckily, Japan is very safe and feels very safe so we never felt threatened that way.  About 15 minutes later we found a lonely gas station.  I was happy because I needed to use the bathroom.  It was the coolest self-sanitizing, music playing, water squirting, air blowing toilet ever!  Just press the button on the side of the toilet and all of these amenities are at your fingertips!  There were also taxis resting here, so we knew this was out option to get home.  It took us about half hour to communicate through pictures and motions where we needed to go, and finally it clicked with one of the taxi drivers who then took us back to the ship!  We got back at about 3am!  We said it was a good thing that neither of us was too intoxicated or else we would have never made it back!  On the ship I went to bed ASAP.

 

Day 2

I got up at about 0800 for breakfast, got ready for the day, and went to get Chris to go out.  We decided to go to the Arima hot springs.  We took the train to Sannoymia station, and then needed to get onto a bus to go to Arima.  The bus wasn’t supposed to come for another hour, so we got Starbucks and Chris got another pastry from the same shop that we went to the day before.  We sat by the station and relaxed for the hour.  When we got onto the ship we were so confused about how to pay for the ride, but we had no way of asking so we just said we would figure it out later.  Realizing that the bus stops were not labeled in any language that we could recognize, we asked the guy behind us to tell us when to get off by pointing at a map.  A few stops later he tapped us on the shoulder, and figuring that this was our stop we followed him off of the bus.  Well, turns out he was just being polite and telling us bye, because that was not our stop.  Luckily there was a train station right there and a women who spoke some English, so we gave her money and she bought us tickets to get to Arima.  We got on the next train 5 minutes later.  A few stops later we had to get off the train and get onto another train.  I don’t know how we ever figured that one out, but we finally got to Arima.  It was a cute, European looking town built on a mountain, the back of Mt. Rokko.  Our plan was to just wander around, and that is what we did.  We just walked around aimlessly check out the sites.  I bought this giant, delicious apple at one shop.  There was also a drinking fountain that was fresh spring water, and is supposed to be good for digestion.  There were two cups on strings next to the fountain, and after watching a few people take a cup and fill it with water we realized that they were communal cups and decided to dive right in.  The water was Luke-warm and slightly salty, but wasn’t bad or anything.  We found this cute park and hiked for a few minutes up a stream to find some small waterfall.  The water was freezing here, but it felt nice against the warm sun.  Nothing better than being able to wear jeans and tank top!  The weather was gorgeous.  We then went back down the mountain to the train station where we bought return tickets home.  We were a little nervous about it, but since Arima is more touristy there was directions about how to purchase tickets and which trains to take, so Chris took a picture of the directions and a map for further reference as to how to make it home in case we needed to ask somebody by pointing to a location.   Surprisingly, I don’t know how we did it, but after 2 train changes we painlessly made it back to Sannoymia station!  Hurray for us, we finally found our way directly with no detours and not getting lost.  We decided to walk to this place call Harbor Land, a little mall area next to another outdoor mall called Mosaic.  We started off by following a map, but then got distracted by these huge blocks of outdoor malls, shop after shop after shop, so we wandered through them.  We eventually came to the Kobe Chinatown, which was actually really neat and reminded us of where we had just come from.  One of the gates was called Xian Gate, and Chris and I were like “we were just there!”  We continued to wander and eventually found out way to where we wanted to go.  It was probably a 7km walk, and I was again surprised that we found it so easily after our bad luck with directions before.  There we walked around for a little, admired the view, and went to a huge grocery store where we got some snacks and picked up dinner, sushi!  It is so much cheaper to get your meals from convenience and grocery stores than it is to go out in Japan, so we were happy to save some money.  I normally don’t eat sushi, so I was very nervous, but I have been eating tons of fish on Semester at Sea both in port and on the ship and love it now, so I decided I should try some.  I got some rolls that had rice, crab, tuna, cucumber and egg . . . I am pretty sure that they were California rolls, or their equivalent to them.  They were AWESOME.  I can’t wait until Yokohama now so that I can have more!  After we ate by the water we walked back to the ship which was a few miles away, and surprisingly we found our away again without getting lost.  We were proud of ourselves for turning our bad “getting lost” luck around.  The ship sailed at 11pm to head for Yokohama.  In the day in between I will probably do some homework, watch movies, and hang out with friends!

CHINA!

 

Day 3: Beijing to Xian (pronounced Ghi-on)

Yesterday was such a great day.  We woke up at 6:30am, ate breakfast, and headed out for touring at 8am.  We started the day off by going to the world famous Tiananmen Square, the largest public square in the world.  It is here that Mao is preserved, preserved well evidentially, although I didn’t venture into that building.  It was freezing cold, and there were a ton of tourists, a ton!  I think we were the only people from the States, and most of the tourists there were Asian and doing typical Asian touristy things . . . it amused us.  We had about a half hour to walk around, which was neat, but it was only a square, you know?  After walking around there we walked across the street to The Forbidden City, a huge mansion complex where the general public was not allowed for many years.  This place was huge.  There are 9,999 rooms!  We had an hour to walk through with a headset tour, making that the most touristy thing I think I have done on Semester at Sea as of now.  It was really cool, and the architecture was neat, but it was huge and repetitive as you filed through building after building.  After that we went to lunch, which was more of the same of what we have been eating . . . another tourist trap of sorts.  After lunch we headed to the Temple of Heaven, a structure that is made with no nails.  When we arrived there a whole bunch of people were dancing/exercising in the public area, evidentially a common thing in China.  People here are always out dancing and exercising in groups, as we have come to find out.  The Temple of Heaven was pretty, but once again, the same thing but different.  We played hacky sack, and then left.  We then headed to the airport for our flight to Xian.  After checking in we had to run to the gate because we were running late.  We walked right on our flight.  You could tell that SAS booked the flight late because us SAS kids had all of the bad seats, and were intermingled with the Chinese throughout the plane.  It was funny, we couldn’t communicate at all!  We hit some turbulence on our two hour flight, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the flight to Beijing.  When we arrived in Xian we headed to dinner.  We went to a famous dumpling house, where we were served about 15 different types of dumplings in addition to all of the pork and chicken and rice dishes that we were given.  It was insane, I ate so much!  After dinner we checked into our amazing hotel, the Tianyu Gloria Hotel.  It is in such a cool area.  Xian is the oldest city in China, 3000 years old, and there is 16m thick city wall that is near out hotel.  After checking in a few guys and I walked to the wall, got some coffee, and then went to a local street that had a lot of relaxed bars.  We went into one, where we were greeted with open arms.  They loved us.  In extremely broken English some men greeted us and bought us all a beer.  We hung there for a few hours and just relaxed.  It was fun.  Around 1:30am we headed back to the hotel for the night.  Xian is an awesome city, and I am excited to spend a few days here.  We are the only SAS group to come here, so that makes our particular trip amazing.  It isn’t as cold here as Beijing, but it is always overcast this time of year.  The city is a mix of old and new, with bright lights and flash at night that are covered in the morning to reveal a beautiful ancient city!  I love it here even more than Beijing!

 

Day 4

I woke up at 7:30am this morning to have breakfast at the hotel’s buffet, before leaving for our touring of the day.  The buffet was great, and my favorite was how they had banana chips to put on the cereal.  Such a great idea, and so good!  First we went to the Lesser Wild Goose Pagoda.  There were tons of people there doing Ti Chi and their morning exercise.  There we walked through a museum that explained the history of Xian.  It was boring, and my new friend Chris and I decided that the most exciting thing there was the massive amount of fire extinguishers that they had next to every door, probably about 10 per every doorway.  The most interesting thing of the trip to the Lesser Goose Pagoda was being able to climb to the top of the Pagoda.  It revealed an awesome view of Xian.  We then drove an hour to the Qinjitang Restaurant where we ate lunch.  There was a silk factory there so a lot of people picked up a few souvenirs, but I didn’t because it was extremely overpriced.  Lunch was very good, and we had unlimited homemade thick noodles that were delicious.  After lunch we proceeded to the highlight of the whole trip, the reason why we all went on our trip, and the part that makes every other SASer jealous . . .  the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum.  Discovered about 30 years ago, this is the greatest archeological discovery in the 21^st century. It was discovered by a few farmers digging a well.  One of these men is still alive and signs autographs in one of the stores there.  The warriors are amazing.  There are so many of them.  In one of the buildings there was a display of one of each type of warrior, ie. the kneeling archer, the standing archer, ect.  In another building there were replicas of the chariots, which no longer exist because they were made of wood and rotted in time.  In the largest building there were rows and rows of these warriors amongst ongoing excavation sites.  It was so cool.  Have you ever seen something older than Jesus? . . . because I have.   We did a tea tasting in a tea room at the Museam.  I normally don’t like tea, but the tea was excellent.  We watched them steep it in front of us, and tried a green, black, white, and flower tea.  We all took our time here, as it was the main attraction of the trip, and when we were all ready we left for our hotel.  After refreshing for a while we headed to dinner and a show of the Tang Dynasty.  It was a mix of dancing and singing, and was quite entertaining at times.  After dinner about 20 of us had a few drinks in the hotel before piling into cabs to take us to Club Salsa.  Club Salsa was so much fun.  We were the only tourists there, and this packed club was full of Chinese people.  They loved us there; they treated us like celebrities, and bought us girls and even the guys drinks all night.  Chinese people do not know how to dance, though.  I met this older man originally from Pakistan but then from the Ukraine (probably about 35 years old) who was currently living in Xian.  He was a good dancer, and his friend was too, so me and my friend Julia proceeded to be the center of attention by dancing on the elevated stage they had, surrounded by a bar.  It was so much fun, and wasn’t alcohol induced; I figured heck, I am in China, I might as well.  After a great night there we walked to McDonalds to get a late night snack, and then got back to the hotel at about 2:00am. 

 

Day 5

Once again I got up early to have breakfast before our schedule meeting time at 9am.  After checking out at our hotel we headed to a Confucius Temple that is the largest stone slab museum.  It was, uh, educational.  We only spent a half hour there before heading to a local school for a Calligraphy lesson.  The lesson was about an hour, and then we had some time to try to write 6 characters.  There are 350,000 characters that master calligraphers know, and 3.500 are used in everyday language.  It is insane.  In China calligraphy is an art form, however.  Great calligraphers have to master 5 different styles of the language, as well.  I loved the lesson, and wished that we could have spent more time there.  We had lunch on the 20^th floor of a restaurant, and it was buffet style which was nice because we could choose what we wanted to eat instead of having a family style meal.  After lunch we went to the Bell Tower, in the center of Xian.  I had already seen it by driving past it on the way to Club Salsa, so we just walked around and had free time for about two hours.  There were many of shops and a mall there, but we just enjoyed our Starbucks and took in the scenery and gorgeous views.  Next we headed to the Yang Tomes of the Han Dynasty, a museum similar to that of the Terra Cotta Warriors except the warriors were much smaller, about 1/12 of the size if that, because after the Terra Cotta Warriors there wasn’t enough money to make such a lavish tomb for the Han Dynasty.  After this museum we had an early boxed dinner on the way to the airport.  We had about an hour at the airport before our plane took off.  Our plane was extremely new and nice, and there were cup holders on the underside of the tray tables!  It was probably the smoothest two hour flight I have ever had; it made up for our flight from Hong Kong to Beijing.  We also got another mean, spicy beef with noodles, pineapple, roll, peanuts, soda, salad . . . it was a good meal!  We arrived in Shanghai and drove about 45 minutes to the ship.  We were all so exited to get home, but we knew that we had been on the best trip ever.  I met so many new, great, people on the trip, I think that it was my favorite trip so far!  The view from the ship is amazing, and you will have to look at my pictures to get a sense of Shanghai.  There are skyscrapers, and the modern looking space-shuttle looking building right outside my window!  I am exhausted, warn out, but totally ready for one more day in China.  I knew that China would be great, but it has exceeded all of my expectations!

 

Day 6

Today was such a relaxing day.  It was much needed.  I woke up at about 8:30am and met up with my friend Chris (who I had met on my Beijing/Xian trip) at about 9:30 am.  We walked around for the whole day, with no plan, just wandering for fun.  We found a bridge to cross the river, about 2 miles away from the ship, and then we needed to take a water taxi to get to the center city where all of the cool buildings are.  After we crossed we walked to a mall and got coffee, and then got Starbucks right after.  Both Chris and I love coffee, and made it our goal on our Beijing trip to find it everywhere we went, so this made us happy.  My favorite thing of the day was finding a Cold Stone!  I seriously freaked out.  They had flavors like green tea, red bean, and tiramisu.  I got tiramisu with lady fingers, chocolate sauce, and chocolate powder on top.  Chris got red bean with white chocolate chips.  I tipped them, and they sang (I videotaped it).  We wandered around all day, shopping a little bit.  We walked around the waterfront for a while too and admired how awesome Shanghai is.  Chris loves peanut butter as much as I did, so we made that our mission.  We succeeded, and were extremely happy when we found some Skippy!  We walked through some back market areas where there were live fish flopping in bins, blood from freshly cut meat, and some mystery pastry that we bought.  It was cheap and delicious.  After that we headed back to the ship and got there at about 5pm.  It was a nice, relaxing day with lots of walking and fresh air.