Elaine at Sea

on the boat again...

2008-11-30T19:05:00.000-05:00

For 9 days! Last stretch of school and finals before COSTA RICA! So excited.
Sidney Roche (Brooks Mom!)- I had a bite of one of the cookies you sent Brooks, they were delicious!!
Everyone's busy finishing papers and studying for finals, trying to get tan for Costa Rica.
We're renting a little house in Montezuma, Costa Rica- a little hippie town about 2 hours away from port.
Allison's birthday is the second day we're there so that should be a lot of fun. I'm so sad it's almost over!
I started packing last night, I packed most of my warm weather stuff, since I won't need it until I get home.

International Date Line

2008-11-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

Morning! Welcome to November 22nd. In half an hour I will no longer be 16 hours in the future, but 8 hours in the past!

Japan!

2008-11-19T19:35:00.000-05:00

Before Japan:
        I was so sick on the way from China to Japan. I think I had the flu in addition to seasickness. I ended up sleeping for almost 32 hours, just waking up when my friends came in to check on me. They were so great; they brought me tea and Ramen. So the crossing was uneventful, and I was nervous that I wouldn’t get better before Japan but I felt fine by the second day there.
Day 1: Kobe, Japan
        Disembarkation was ridiculous! We had to go through the faculty staff lounge and get our temperature taken, but they just made us walk past this camera type thing that captures body temperature. Then we had to wait in our rooms until our seas were called off the ship, where we had to do face-to-face passport checking, have our picture taken, and our fingerprints taken. Then we were free to go- but no one could get back on the ship until everyone was off. We left right away, Austin had a dentist appointment so we shared a cab with him just to see what was around- we found two Starbucks. We were in the Mottomachi area, so we walked through the shops and found WiFi. After that, we tried to get a little closer to port, found a post office with an ATM, and walked towards a ferris wheel. We found out that we were nowhere near port, after almost two hours of walking around we found our way back. You have to take a train from Kobe Station to the Port Terminal. We dropped our laptops off and went back out for a little bit, in the Sannomiya area. There was a lot of shopping and just a lot of people in general, Bill went back to the ship but Justin and I stayed out a little while longer, we had icecream and went into this crazy electronics store. It was like 8 floors, each floor had a different purpose- the first floor was TVs, second was computers, third was computer accessories, and so on… the top floor was for model trains and cars, so random. We went back to the ship and I packed for the rest of the week and went to bed early.
Day 2: Hiroshima, Japan
        We got tickets for Hiroshima and figured out where we had to go- the bullet train was crazy! It was so nice compared to India- the nicest train I’ve ever been on. It took a little over an hour to get to Hiroshima Station, from there we took a street car towards the Peace Park, and got off at a stop that looked like it had a lot of hotels. We were very lucky to find Hotel Active, at only $75 a night it was a really cool hotel. It was really modern, had free Internet access, coffee/hot chocolate on every floor, and free breakfast. We left our bags there and went over to the Peace Park. The first thing you see when you get off the street car is the building that was hit by the bomb but mostly survived. The whole top of the dome is gone, but the structure is still there. It was very eerie- the rubble is still all over the ground inside the fence. The park itself was beautiful, the river runs through it and there was even a flute concert going on. We walked to a few of the monuments, where they were draped in paper cranes (1,000 paper cranes is good luck- it’s also a sign of peace). We made our way to the museum and went through that. It’s a huge museum- by the end of it we were all really ancy to leave. It was lunchtime too, so we found a shopping plaza and had lunch there. No Japanese food- we had a mix of Italian and Chinese. We shopped a little then went back to the hotel to rest and get ready to go out. We went to a really nice Japanese restaurant for dinner- we ordered a bunch of random things and they were all really good- but we’re not sure exactly what we ordered because nothing was in English. We wandered around for a little bit, trying to find a bar or something but didn’t find anything. It was pouring out too, we bought these clear umbrellas that everyone seemed to carry, and eventually made our way back to the hotel. Esther used my computer to register for classes and we all hung out and made plans for the next day.
Day 3: Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo
        The day ended up like this: breakfast in Hiroshima, lunch in Kyoto, dinner in Tokyo. But that was not the plan. Originally, we decided we were going to go to Kyoto and stay there for the night. We got there around noon, and couldn’t find a vacant hotel under $200. We were all so tired and grumpy from carrying our heavy backpacks around all day that we settled for lunch at McDonalds and then decided to just go to Tokyo. Unfortunately, the only tickets to Tokyo were scattered in the Smokers car. We settled for that, Bill switched with a Japanese man so we sat next to each other- thank god because it was a three-hour train ride and if people on either side of me were smoking I would’ve died! After the longest train ride ever, we arrived in Tokyo, found our way to the street, and tah-dah! A big building that said “HOTEL” on it. We walked over there, and settled for $90/night rooms, the man said “Small doubles…” boy were they small! The boys had to duck in the hallways and under the doors- and I think the bathrooms were nicer than the rooms themselves. Oh well it was a place to sleep that was close to the train station. We got ready and went out, the weird thing was they took your key when you left because the hotel closes at 2am, so if you’re not back- tough luck. We wandered the streets of Tokyo, unfortunately it was late on a Sunday night so it wasn’t very alive. The lights were all on though- so much light pollution. Oh and! All of Japan is in full swing Christmas mode. All the stores are playing Christmas music, all the buildings have decorations, Starbucks already has their Christmas drinks and cups out- it’s great! So, we found a place to eat, had dinner, went to an arcade, and then had McDonalds ice cream for dessert. After a long day of traveling, we ended up back at the hotel and crashed.
Day 4: Tokyo, Yokohama
Bill and I decided we’d go back to Yokohama that night, and Justin and Esther were going to stay, so we checked out of one room, left all of our stuff in the other, and went out for the day. After traveling around the world- I still don’t know how to pack, my backpack was SO heavy! Anyway, we made our way to the Imperial Palace. It was cool how far back it was set in the middle of the city. We stayed there for a bit- which ended up working out really well because Austin and Allison were there too, what a coincidence! And we got to see the emperor ride by in a carriage. We walked for a little bit, then decided to split up. I went to Harajuku and Shibuya- and I’m so glad I did! Harajuku is so cool; it has all these little stores with the weirdest clothes. They’re big into boots, tights, and sweater/sweatshirt dresses. I wish I had more time/money to spend there! We wandered over to Shibuya without realizing it- SO MANY PEOPLE. The streets were so crowded. I went into Gap, which I’m pretty sure was a flagship store- they had an Icon Shop, which sold exclusive items in it. There winter line is really nice, I wonder how different it is from the US line? They have a ton of shops on this street, including an H&M that must’ve just opened because there was a line all the way down the street to get in and the cops were controlling crowds and only letting small groups of people in one at a time. It was insane. There were so many people there, and a lot of SAS kids with their huge backpacks so we made our way back to Tokyo station. We got a litttttle lost. Tokyo station is a massive confusing train station, with an underground mall, and a regular mall on top. It’s absolutely insane. We walked around in the underground mall for a bit- I found some cool souvenirs and a gift for my Secret Santa. Then we tried to find our hotel to get our backs, but we must’ve just turned the wrong way when we came out because we walked around the whole station before we found it. We grabbed our bags and went back to the train station, found our platform, and waited for our train. It was only a 15-minute ride to Yokohama, but then we walked the completely wrong direction from the port and had to get a taxi back. Once back at the boat, we talked with Andy about our Japan trip and he told us all about Tokyo, then Andy, Mackenzie, and I went out for dinner.
Day 5: Yokohama
        In preparation for the last leg of the voyage, we wanted to find a grocery store to stock up on snacks and whatever. I got lots of Cup of Noodle and Goldfish. It took us a while to find that grocery store, we wandered all over Yokohama, found a Starbucks, tried to find secret Santa gifts, and found Austin in the process. I wish I had gotten to see more of Yokohama, but from what I saw I really liked it. Now we’re back on the boat, 8 days until Hawaii!

Japan!

2008-11-15T10:11:00.001-05:00

I love the camaraderie of SASers. If you see eachother out- even if you've never talked to them before, you always stop to chat. We were in the Peace Park today and ran into a few people and just stopped to see what they'd done, what they're doing. And just now I was on Facebook, and one of the random people I added before I came on the trip but haven't met on the boat imed me and we're comparing what we're doing in Japan- they're staying at a guesthouse where people are "passed out on the floor in robes!" and we're at Hotel Active, a really young hip hotel it seems, with free hot chocolate and internet.

A Week in China...

2008-11-11T03:41:00.000-05:00

Day 1: Hong Kong
       The first day and only day in Hong Kong was great. We pulled into port, which is a mall- and headed out. After wandering around the mall to find the exit, we took the ferry from Kowloon over to Hong Kong, then took a bus over to Aberdeen- a part of the city on the water. We walked around Aberdeen for a little, and most of the group went to have lunch on a floating restaurant. Being that we eat on a boat everyday, instead we went to go find Ocean Park. We had a quick lunch at KFC (a chicken sandwich with a side of…chicken?) and then took a taxi to Ocean Park- which is part zoo, part theme park. Mostly we went because Bill wanted to see the pandas- we never even made it to the amusement park part! The pandas were really cool though, and we watched this children’s show that we couldn’t understand a word of. It was interesting…after that everyone had gone off and we didn’t know where they were, so we went out to Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill for dinner- yay cheeseburgers and fries! It was refreshing to eat such American food and not question it. After dinner we shopped a little in the mall, I already ran out of makeup so that was important. Starbucks, of course- which was really cool because we caught the Hong Kong light show that only goes from 8-8:15, and we didn’t even know! So we watched that and then went back to the boat. I packed for Beijing and everyone talked about their day- they went to the top of Victoria’s Peak and saw the city from there.
Day 2: Beijing
       The morning started at 7am in the Union, where we got our name tags, arrival cards, and backpacks to give as presents to our Beijing students. We got tp the airport and ended up having a lot of time to kill. We had Burger King for breakfast and then walked through a few shops, grabbed Starbucks- used the wiFi! I got to iSight with Lauren for about two seconds, and then got on the plane. 3 hours later, we were in Beijing. Once there, we had to wait a while for the buses so we all used the ATM and got coffee etc. I tried calling Sean but the number he gave me was wrong, luckily we had already made plans just incase. We finally boarded the buses and headed over to the hotel. Esther and I switched roommates so we ended up rooming together- which was nice, it’s always nicer to have someone you actually know then to share a room with some random person. We went over to the university for dinner and games with the students. This was the only time we got to interact with them, and they had been required to be there for one of their classes- it wasn’t the greatest part of the trip. We had pizza, bananas, and yogurt for dinner…and then Bill, Esther, Emma, and I ended up leaving before the games (they played cards) and went over to the hotel to meet Sean. Seeing Sean was so great, I’m glad everyone got to meet him too. He took us over to Ho Hai, which is a river that’s lit up with restaurants and bars. We went to a place called Purple, where he goes sometimes because his friend plays piano there. It was a really quiet place; we each had a drink and split a fruit sculpture thing. After that, we walked back through Ho Hai- ran into one of my professors, and Sean directed him to an area of bars he might like- and then Sean got us a taxi back to our hotel.
Day 4: Beijing
       Breakfast at the hotel included rice, noodles in soy sauce, and bread that tasted like water…so that was our first and only breakfast. After breakfast we drove over an hour to the Great Wall. I had asked Sean and my professor what they thought of the Wall- they both said, “It’s…great.”At breakfast, someone had mentioned that they got a text from their parents, about an e-mail they received from SAS. Before rumors started, our trip leader- the academic dean, got on each bus and announced that one of our classmates had been hit by a drunk driver in Hong Kong and was killed. Everyone was shocked; it was kind of hard news to handle. I didn’t know him personally, but I do know who he is. Esther had seen him a few hours before the accident and had put him in a cab to go back to the ship; no one knows what happened after that. He was alone when it happened, so it took a while to identify him and notify the ship. All the trips were told, but most people were on independent trips- including the boy’s roommate. When we saw people on indy trips, they already knew what happened. I’m not sure how the next two days will go, I’m sure the general mood on the ship will be different- and I’m sure they’ll talk about it as soon as everyone is on the ship.
After the hour bus ride to the Wall, we were told where to go and where to meet up. Then we started climbing- it’s a pretty steep climb up to the wall, nothing like Table Mountain but it has legitimate stairs which was a little awkward. The Wall was…great! I think we came to Beijing at a great time, the colors reminded me of home! All the leaves were changing (it’s COLD in Beijing, by the way). We went from Tower 10 to Tower 6, taking a ton of pictures on the way. At Tower 6 you have the choice to take the chute down (slide) or the chairlift, two of us took the chairlift (me!) and the other two took the slide. We shopped on the way back down to the meeting spot, I got the “I climbed the Great Wall!”t-shirt. We got back on the buses and went to lunch; our tour guide said it was his favorite place- really good…we went to Big Pizza, essentially a Pizza Hut buffet. Most people were disappointed that it wasn’t Chinese food but everyone had a ton of food anyway. Beijing is all about the unlimited beer? Unlimited beer everywhere we went- with no charge, it’s included. So strange. After the pizza we went to the Silk Market- AMAZZZZINNNG!!!! Possibly my favorite part- why? SHOPPING. So much shopping! I know I spent too much money, but I got awesome knock offs, jeans, etc. I LOVE my new True Religion jeans! Bargaining at the Silk Market was fun, they start at such a high price, our tour guide said to go 20% of that price. Since it’s freezing, and will be colder in Japan- I got a cute pea coat- she wanted $2650, I got it down to $250. Then Bill made me bargain for his jacket haha, my lady was GRIPPING my wrist and would NOT let me go. They all hand you their calculator- so you can’t just walk away, because if you try to hand it to them they just won’t take it. It’s so funny. They all compare prices too- “How much you pay for jacket??”I think it’s like, a set rule that they regulate their prices even though everyone sells the same stuff. After the Silk Market we went to an acrobatic show. It was so cool, it was like Cirque de Sole, but different. They were SO flexible, we had a kid from Canada behind us and the whole time it was “They got no bones!!!”The acts included things like…a man holding a women upside down on her head with one hand, juggling and tap dancing with 9 balls, 12 people on a bike, hoop jumping, contortionists, umbrella juggling, etc etc. It was so cool- couldn’t take pictures though, but Greg the cameraman got a DVD and said he might use it in the Voyage DVD. It was awesome that we had Greg AND Brittany (the photographer) on our trip; watch the SAS page for the slideshow! After Acrobats they went out for dinner, but Bill and I skipped it because Sean and I had made tentative plans, but they fell through, we ended up walking to McDonalds.
Day 5: Beijing
       We started this day out at ____ Square. We saw Mao’s memorial, it was so weird! They just keep his real body there, they only bring it out 2 times a day, but there were SO many people seeing it. All the Chinese people bought flowers and placed them at his memorial. After the memorial, we went over to the Forbidden City- that was cool. We had the little boxes with headphones that are supposed to narrate you through it- mine didn’t work. No one’s seemed to work that well, we gave up on them eventually. Oh! Before we went into the city we got chocolate chip cookies, but they were more like crackers with chocolate chips, they were SO GOOD- I hope I can find them in the states…anyway, the Forbidden City is HUGE. A lot of it you can’t even see- just through a door way, and the pushing and shoving to get to that doorway is ridiculous, we didn’t even bother after a while. It took a long time to walk through, but it was worth it. After that we took the buses to the Temple of Heaven where we had lunch and then walked through the three temples. It was interesting, but I’m kind of over visiting all the temples. A temple is a temple no matter which country you’re in. After the temples we went to _____ street, the street that they rebuilt for the Olympics. It was so creepy; it looked like a movie set because there are no tenants yet. It’s a replication of the old street, but everything’s a little more intricate. After walking that street, we went back to the Silk Market for an hour. A little more shopping, then back to the hotel. People went out for dinner but I wasn’t hungry so I stayed in and tried to watch TV- no such luck, EVERYTHING is in Mandarin, unlike India where it was all English. Everyone got back to the hotel and we wandered a bit, two boys were getting suits custom made in their room by a tailor so we checked that out for a bit, then we packed all of our stuff into a HUGE suitcase that Bill bought. 5 people completely filled the suitcase, and it’s so big Esther could fit in it and zip it up- and there was STILL room!
38.71SUM($A$1:$A$7)to wake up early and go to McDonalds for breakfast but no one did, well after we got on the buses and headed to the Summer Palace- there was a McDonalds across the street! Our guides told us we had 10 minutes- assuming a handful of us would go- we ALL went. They finally dragged us out and we went into the Summer Palace, it was really pretty. When we first walked in, a group of older Chinese people were line dancing- it was funny to watch. Some of them were really good! The Summer Palace is HUGE, there are two parts, separated by a lake, which you cross on neat little boats. The Palace itself is built up on a mountain, so there are a lot of rocks to climb around but it’s really cool because you can see the city all around it.
       After the Summer Palace we got lunch at an AMAZING buffet, it was so big! The food just kept going and going into all different rooms, and once you sat down they kept bringing skewers of meat over to the table to carve, it was ridiculouuuus. After the buffet, we went to the Olympic Venues…we decided to fork out a little less than 10USD to go inside the Birds Nest- well worth it! It was smaller than I imagined but just as cool. We took tons of pictures inside and walked around, they had four areas of costumes on mannequins- the costumes from the opening and closing ceremonies. It took us a while in the Nest because we went to the gift shop too. It was crazy, on the way to the gift shop these men stopped me and I couldn’t understand what one was saying to me and his friend goes, “He said it’s nice to finally meet you!”He started looking through pictures on his camera so I went to walk away and he said “No, no no!”And then he showed me a picture he took of me like, half an hour before? SO WEIRD! But that was apparently common, everyone has been taking pictures of us the whole time here. It was just weird for them to come up and show me? After the gift shop we walked over to the Water Cube, but didn’t go in. Apparently there wasn’t water in the pool anyway. Our group met, well…most of them. Some people showed up 15 minutes late and ended up getting dock time because we were getting on the buses to go to the airport. We all made it to the airport, got all of our bags checked (SO many people bought SO MUCH stuff!) and made it to the gate. I started not to feel well at the Olympic Venues; by the time we were at the airport I had a migraine and a bit of a fever. Someone gave me Advil and I got some coffee and I feel fine now, it was weird though because pretty much everyone had a headache. Anyway, I’m currently on the plane writing this and we’re flying over Shanghai, I think we’re landing soon.
Day 7: Shang Hai
             After traveling for four days straight, I was exhausted last night! I woke up and went out with Allison, Austin, and Bill to find the post office and an internet café. We found the post office, but never found the internet. We’re pretty sure that you just can’t go on it if you’re not from China. We did find McDonalds, however getting back to the ship was a little more difficult. This is the worst language barrier we’ve experienced- even in Hong Kong and Beijing most people understood a little English, here? Nothing. The address of port was written on our Green sheets in English- no one knew what it meant, apparently most of those words don’t even exist in Chinese because when we found someone who spoke pretty decent English, they didn’t know what “pier”meant. We eventually got in a cab, but it only brought us a few miles but it was enough to point us in the right direction. We got back on the ship to figure out what to do about Japan, and then headed out to buy our rail passes. We had a map in Mandarin this time, and the taxi driver appeared to know where he was going. 20 minutes later he leaves us at this construction site, saying this is the building. There was a man across the street- in the construction zone that kept looking at us and smiling, we went over to him and showed him our map. He ended up walking us about 15 minutes away from where we were dropped off, and went as far as to put us in the elevator to where we needed to buy the passes- he was so nice! We came back to the ship- they had the address written in mandarin available for us by now, and it’s definitely time for a nap.

Go Obama!

2008-11-05T05:06:00.000-05:00

Obama won, yay! It was an interesting day on the ship. Global studies was pushed back, and most classes ended up being delayed, cancelled, or just about the election. We had it streaming into the union as well as on the closed circuit TV.

Malaysia

2008-10-28T02:43:00.000-04:00

Malaysia!
Day 1: I’m so glad I made the decision to skip my business FDP and go on the Island Orientation- I’m not sure why I booked both but good thing I did! All I heard about was how awful the FDP ended up being; they went to a rice museum…3 hours away! Our orientation was good, we started at the Khoo Kongsi temple, went to the Butterfly Farm, saw the Kek Lok Si temple, and the Botanical Gardens as well. The Kek Lok Si temple was AMAZING. It was so incredible, you walk up these stairs, and they just keep going. But throughout the stairways are just vendors, selling all kinds of souvenirs. There are all these stores in the temple, and all different parts of the temple, I couldn’t really piece it together. The garden was really cool too, there were just dozens of monkeys running around- one got mad and jumped on a light post and tried to shake it down. We headed over to Starbucks after orientation; it was DELICIOUS, of course. The mall was different; it wasn’t really a western mall even though it did have Starbucks and McDonalds. There were so many shoe stores- and to go with that, sock stores. We went to 7-11 too, I bought hot chocolate, and it’s been so nice to have packs of hot chocolate on the boat! We tried to walk back to the ship, but got stuck in Little India- you think we would be able to skip that part, but we walked through it and it was like the clean and calm version of India. It was brightly light with colored lights and everyone was just walking around- but it wasn’t over crowded.
Day 2: We thought we’d find some good markets, but we ended up in a cab that didn’t really take us where we wanted to go. We started at a flea market, which was interesting to see. So many cell phones and cell phone accessories! The flea market sold a lot of toiletries and things like watches and sunglasses- but not really knock offs that you’d expect to find. Someone was playing Hannah Montana music at their stall, it was funny. My friend Austin ate some of this huge stinky fruit that he ended up being allergic to, luckily Allison had benedryl on her. Our cab driver took us to Starbucks, then to what was supposed to be a craft market but only had one table of crafts and then the weirdest selection of clothes I’d ever seen. The men’s section was okay, they had random MTV t-shirts and things like that, but the women’s department was either traditional clothes or lingerie! We didn’t stay there very long, so we went across the street to a coffee/chocolate shop. It was great! The second we walked in we were handed free samples of all different kinds of coffee and hot chocolate, and later candy. Next-door was a place where they do Batik so our cab driver showed that to us too. We asked to be dropped back off near the mall, had lunch at Pizza Hut (it’s the same!) and walked around for a bit. I got an Abercrombie sweatshirt for…15USD at a random store. We went back to the ship and just relaxed the rest of the night.
Day 3: Allison and Bill had an FDP all morning so I slept in and then woke Andy up (Andy is roommates with Bill/Austin/and Justin) and we went out near the mall with Matt (Matt’s one of the professors son’s, he’s 17 and a senior in high school- we went on the Taj trip together). Andy wanted to get his lip pierced- apparently a lot of people did that in Malaysia. So we went to the place his friends told him about and this guy named “Fun”pierced his lip. Then we shopped a little bit, and met up with Bill, Allison, and Austin- we all had our laptops so we went to Starbucks to take advantage of the free WiFi, unfortunately Flickr was being really slow so I could only get a few pictures up but there are there some now! http://flickr.com/photos/emmyrz should be the address. Unfortunately I couldn’t label them or anything because nothing would really work and I didn’t want to sit at Starbucks all night. We shopped a bit and headed back to Starbucks to meet up with everyone, Mackenzie was there too, and there was TORENTIAL downpour! Some girl had her backpack stolen with her laptop and several cameras in it, we decided it was a good time to leave…but we couldn’t really leave the mall because we had one backpack with 2 laptops and 2 cameras in it- with the rain, so we had dinner at Pizza Hut again and went to the grocery store to pick up some dry packaged food for the boat. We also found a DVD store…I got the whole Sex and the City set for 20USD, Allison got 2 seasons of Heroes for around 15USD, Bill got West Wing- I think that’s all we got that night. Eventually we made it back to the ship.
Day 4: Allison and I went on an Arts &Crafts FDP, it was really fun. Our guide was really funny. We got to make our own Batik cloths; we dripped wax on the clothes to make the design and then painted them. It was really hard, so Allison and I ended up convincing them to let us do the one where you just paint the ones they already wax for you…so we ended up with two pieces. We waited around for a long time at the end before we had lunch. We ate and then went back to do coconut crafts but it was really rushed so I didn’t get anything or do any of it. It was still fun though, we met the boys outside the pier- that’s another thing about Malaysia, the port wasn’t finished so we had to float in the middle of the harbor and drop lifeboats and tender to the pier! It was SO awful. The weather was so hot and humid; it was hard to breathe in the lifeboats. And it was scheduled, so the lifeboats left the boat on the hour, and the pier on the half hour- if you missed it- oh well. Anyway, the boys met us there and we split up. Bill and I went to the more Western mall because he needs a computer charger and there’s a Forever21 there. I got a few things at Forever21 and looked around Gap- I just wondered what was in stores in the US and if it was the same in Malaysia and if the windows were the same and stuff. It was the nicest Forever21 I’ve ever seen! It was really big, spread out, the music wasn’t loud, and there weren’t many younger girls in there. We got more Starbucks and went back to the boat. Everyone got ready and we went out to the night market. After confusion with the taxi (it was 50 ringget, not 15)- we got there, but no one was really in the mood for it- plus we’ll be seeing most of it in Vietnam. It was all knock offs and DVDs, silly toys and American things. We ended up only staying for a bit, going into a hotel bar, then finding a taxi and going to McDonalds. It was SO GOOD. It was the highlight of the night haha. Andy, Bill, and I went- we got SO much food. This was the breakdown of our order: 3 supersized value meals, 5 “items (dollar menu), 2 desserts- less than 20USD. It was delicious. We ate it while waiting for the tender boat since we missed it by 2 minutes, but it was good nonetheless.
Day 5: Last day in Penang! Allison and I went out to find this market that only happens on the last Sunday of every month, which we just happened to be there for. It was nice- definitely more crafts than we had seen so far! There were really nice things there but we were both so tired and hot that we just spent what we had left. We stayed less than an hour and caught the next tender back. Spending the last day in port on the boat is really relaxing; everyone just hangs out and catches up. It’s a good time to get organized. Dinner was amazing too, mac and cheese!
Now we’re on our way to VIETNAM!!!! So excited. We’ve been bunkered in Singapore all day for fuel- I woke up and I can see the tug right outside my window haha. We get to Vietnam on the 30th- I think that morning we’re all running out and getting fitted for dresses, then I have my Nike FDP- 200 people signed up and only 40 got it, there’s no missing that one! I have stuff every other day, so the second day I think we’ll go to the War Remnants Museum and other sight seeing things, the third day is the Chu Chi tunnels, fourth day market, fifth day zoo, sixth day…who know.

In Malaysia!

2008-10-24T04:26:00.000-04:00

We're in Malaysia! At Starbucks, with free Wi-Fi, it's great! The coffee is delicious.

India

2008-10-19T08:13:00.000-04:00

Day 1: Chennai, Working Women’s Forum.
       When we got to India, you could smell it in the boat. We ate breakfast and hung out until we absolutely had to leave, everyone was much more hesitant in this port than the others to get off the boat. I left for an FDP for my women’s studies class where we visited an NGO, the Working Women’s Forum, in Chennai. It’s a really big organization with over a million members in 14 branches throughout India. I got the impression that they mainly help women set up bank accounts in their own name and they give loans to them as well. It was interesting, but not as interesting as I had hoped. I stayed on the boat the rest of the evening, packing for the Taj and just hanging out.
Day 2: Travelling
       I woke up around 5:30, and was in the Union around 6 to leave for the Taj. Our bus was infested with nats and mosquitoes, but we made it to the airport okay. The flight to Delhi wasn’t bad; I slept most of the way. After our flight we went and had lunch, saw Ghandi’s eternal flame, and headed to the train station to go to Agra. It was supposed to be a 2 or 3 hour-long train ride in air-conditioned cars. I think the AC was broken, there were cockroaches and bugs everywhere, the seats were broken, there was even a broken window (but not so broken that air came through)…and it was twice as long as expected due to “delays”(we were stopped more than we were moving)…it was awful! An adventure, but awful. No one wanted to sleep for fear of bugs crawling on them. Eventually we got to the hotel, had dinner, and went to bed. The hotel was nice, they were very friendly and accommodating. They even had shirts with the Taj on the front and “Welcome Semester at Sea”on the back.
Day 3: Taj
       The next morning we woke up really early to be at the Taj for sunrise. We missed the sunrise, but it was nice that it was quiet and there weren’t a lot of people there. It was surprising how dirty and uncontrolled the entrance leading to the Taj Mahal is. There are people (mostly children) trying to sell you things, and it’s really dirty. There are tons of bugs outside- but oddly almost none when you’re near the Taj. They have two separate lines to go through security before you enter, one for men one for women…it didn’t seem to secure, I don’t think the metal detectors actually did anything. The Taj was amazing; it’s just so weird to see in person and up close. We stayed there for a bit and then headed back for breakfast, then out to an abandoned city- it was really cool; I have lots of great pictures. We had lunch and went to the Agra Fort (also really pretty, lots of pictures). And then back to the Taj for sunset. Everyone was”Taj-ed out”at this point and we were all exhausted. But we kept going- to a place where the descendants of those who worked on the Taj made things out of marble, and to a government run market. Then to the train station, where we were on a NICE train for only TWO hours. Thank goodness! We arrived in Delhi and went to an AMAZING hotel. It’s the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen. Flat screen TVs, rain shower, down comforters…I had the best nights sleep ever.
Day 4: Traveling
       Slept in! The hotel had an amazing breakfast, and then we went on a bus tour of Delhi. Everyone was still exhausted, and most of us slept on and off throughout the tour. We stopped and got out at the Gateway monument. We had lunch and met up with a few other SAS Taj groups, and all headed over to the airport…there were so many of us, we took up almost the whole plane! We made it back to the boat, and I waited in line for an hour at gangway security because everyone had to get their bags checked. Then we waited an hour for pizza at the Piano Lounge because no one had eaten dinner yet- it was crazy up there! We played cards and had pizza, caught up on what everyone did over the past few days, and made plans for the next day.
Day 5: Chennai
       SHOPPING!! We woke up fairly early, but when we went to leave it was POURING out. It’s monsoon season! It finally stopped and we took a taxi to an outdoor market, it was an interesting experience. The streets were really dirty because of the rain, the puddles were sometimes so deep you couldn’t walk over them or through them- but locals did. I got a lot of great things at the market- but when we went to leave we had to wait for a bit and we got cornered by a begger and her baby who almost threw up on us. We left shortly after. We went to an indoor mall, which was a mix of tourist shops that all sold the same thing, and regular stores. Once we were almost out of money, we took a taxi back to the port. Once in the port, it’s still a long walk to the boat so we got a rickshaw- a little cart that a bike pulls, it was an experience! It was just me and Bill, and all of our souvenirs but that had to be like…400 pounds, pulled by this little man on a BIKE (some of them have motors…ours didn’t). Originally he had said, 50 rupies…okay, fine. We get in, the cover is down, and it starts POURING, he gets out, puts the cover up, and runs away. A few minutes later he comes back and starts peddling, it stopped raining…we’re going…so….slow. Other bikes are passing us, and the driver said “No motor yet, only 35 rupies.”Bill was like, we’ll still give him 50 rupies, and whatever we have nothing else to buy. We FINALLY get to the boat, and he wanted 200 rupies! We left the 50 on his bike and left. Back on the boat, everyone sorted through their souvenirs and washed India off of them, and took NAPS. We were all so exhausted.

I think India was the least Americanized place we’ve been so far, and it was a good experience for a lot of people- I hope. Even though Brazil was a really poor country it was still pretty clean and easy to get around. There was no way to get around Chennai; there are NO traffic laws- you just push your way through. There seem to be no regulations period. Now off to Malaysia! It’s going to get really crazy, and there are only 4 laundry days left in the entire trip- yikes! There’s very little time to plan between each country now, and even less time to do school work. I’m definitely looking forward to Malaysia/Vietnam/China/Japan though!

Waking up to the smell of...

2008-10-14T07:14:00.000-04:00

India!
Burning rubber and natural gas, just the kind of thing that makes you want to get out of bed. We made it though, and so far so good! I had an FDP this morning and the small glimpse I've seen isn't half as bad as everyone warned about. I think they try to scare us, so we have really low expectations.

Almost over!

2008-10-12T03:40:00.000-04:00

Midterms are half over for me, and tonight starts pre-port for India! After this there's no big breaks until after Japan, where we spend 19 days at sea- with ONE DAY off in Hawaii. Yikes! Between every other country until Japan, there's only 2 or 3 day breaks, it's going to be crazy.

I heard the rumor that they're going to give us a free hour of internet to register for classes is true, so that's good... that's right after Vietnam for me. There's a talent show tonight, after pre-port I think. Should be good! A nice break from midterm madness.

Midterms!

2008-10-11T02:20:00.000-04:00

What a busy few days! Midterms started today, and leading up to midterms we had... sea olympics, gods and goddesses dance, sea meetings, all ship picture, study groups, group meetings, and our sea's social in the faculty lounge! Needless to say I'm exhausted and am going to sleep in tomorrow on my "day off." In about an hour I'll be half way through with midterms, I took one this morning already- and have one more. Tomorrow I'll finish writing a midterm essay, and on my next class day I'll pass that in and take one more midterm exam... which should be easy because I get a little preview today as I have the same professor for two classes- they should be similar.

Only two more days of classes after this until we're in Chennai, that's CRAZY! I thought for sure we'd all get cabin fever and go nuts on the 11 day crossing but I feel like I could spend another week on the boat at this point. It doesn't feel like it's been that long at all. We're currently trying to conserve water for Chennai, because the ship can't suck up water once we start nearing India because it's just so polluted, so we have to use what we've already sucked up and then buy in port which is really expensive. Some people are taking it seriously (one kid is really excited that he was told it was acceptable not to shower) and some people have been heard not taking it seriously at all... I guess if we don't conserve enough water they'll have to start shutting it off at certain times of day, probably morning and night- to force people to stop using it. Uh oh! I've been trying to take shorter showers but I can't go without showering!

Midterms!

2008-10-11T00:21:00.000-04:00

I have half of my midterms today, two in a row this morning!
And these are all the ship events over the past TWO days: sea olympics (on our one "day off"), gods and goddesses dance, mandatory sea meetings, all ship photo, and my sea's social in the faculty lounge. It's been a very busy few days before midterms, our sea social wasn't everything it should've been last night. Other sea's have been getting really dressed up and supposedly the lounge has been packed... I saw people from our sea in sweats and I think there were only 30 people, it was the night before a big midterm though so what can you expect? We only stayed for about 15 minutes, then went back to studying and playing SceneIt anyway.

Only an hour until the Global Studies midterm!

Look, giraffes!

2008-10-05T02:50:00.003-04:00

Cape Town!

2008-10-03T06:49:00.000-04:00

I'm doing anything to avoid reading right now! I went through all 400+ of my pictures from Cape Town and sorted them, I even got them ready to upload to Flikr if I ever find the time to get to an internet cafe in port. We're in rough seas, last night was awful. Right after we pulled out of port they made an announcement to secure all items in your cabin, so we immediately took sea sickness medicine and secured things. About 15 minutes later the boat was rocking and things were flying, doors were slamming. It was awful! Things fell all night, but this morning was a little more calm. Calm enough that I can walk around without getting sick.

Cape Town was amazing, I want to come back ASAP! I love it there. The first 4 days I spent in Cape Town, and the last 3 I spent further north at the Pilanesburg Game Reserve on a safari. The very first day in Cape Town, the first thing we did was head to the mall which was only 5 minutes from port. We found a Gloria Jean's and had coffee, exchanged money, etc. We spent most of the morning just walking around the mall and then I got a ticket for city orientation, because most of the people I've been hanging out with were already going. I'm really glad I went. We went to the Castle of Good Hope, to the city gardens, had tea, and then went to a museum. It was really informative, I really like the city orientations because you get a good overview of the city and the layout outside of port. After city orientation four of us went to a restaurant/bar near the boat, Quay Four- which is where we ended up spending most nights if we went out. We met an Australian couple and a British couple- they loved us and were so jealous of our trip.

The next day I had breakfast with Esther and Allison, and then we walked around the port some more outside of the mall. After that I had another FDP visiting the District Six museum and a township. The history of District Six is interesting, but the museum itself wasn't that interesting. The first stop in the township was at a community center where the kids danced, sang, and played music for us- then we went further into a real township and saw a hostel where 16 families live. They only have one kitchen (with no modern appliances that I saw), one toilet, and one tap for all of them. There are several families in each bedroom, and it's really overcrowded. They're happy though, I don't think shelter is their main priority like it is in the US, although there were over 40 people in this little house, some of the younger kids had cell phones and they were all dressed really nicely. After the hostel we just stood on the street and all of these kids came out from no where- you couldn't ignore them because they were literally climbing on us. They'd grab your hand and pull you down to their level, they wanted their pictures taken so they could see them on the screens of the cameras. While I was crouching down to show one girl her picture- another kid jumped on my back, and then he followed me all the way back to the bus (about a 15 minute walk). I have no idea where there parents were or how big their "neighborhood" was but I thought it was really weird that they just followed us all the way out there. We drove through a few of the shanty towns and saw Amy Beihl's memorial etc. By the end of it I was exhausted!

But the next morning there was an early wake up call because we had planned to climb Table Mountain. I don't know what made me think I could climb it? I guess I expected more of a dirt path or something but it was legitimately mountain climbing. I barely made it up! It took us about 2 hours, which is what it took most other groups I talked too. At the top we stopped for lunch and then took the cable car back down. The cable car was cool- the floor spins so you get all the views!

On Monday I slept really late and then had breakfast with Bill and we walked around the mall, it was really rainy and windy outside so there wasn't much to do. We took a cab to Long Street (downtown) and walked around down there for a while but since it was raining it wasn't that fun. We went back to the ship and everyone just hung out until later on. We went to run a few last minute errands, since it was my last night in Cape Town and we have an 11 voyage before India, and we also stopped at the breakfast place for luxury hot chocolate (SO GOOD).

I hung out with the boys from the quad down the hall for a while at the piano bar on the boat, we got pizzas and talked to the crew about the election and the bailout because it had failed that day. After that I went to bed because I had to be in the union at 4:30AM for my trip.

Our flight was around 6am, a 2 hour flight, then a 3 hour bus ride to the reserve. It was such a long trip! The lodge was gorgeous though, it was a 5 star resort- which no one was expecting. We were served lunch immediately, and everyone decided it was 1,000x better than ship food. We went on our first drive, from about 5-9pm. It's really cool doing the drives at night, we saw a lot of animals on the first drive alone.

Our rooms were amazing, each room was a little cabin, complete with an indoor sitting area, an outdoor sitting area, a really big tub, and an outdoor shower... which was cool when I had to shower before 5am the second morning and could see stars while I showered! We left for our morning drive around 5:30 and got back around 9:30- lots of animals, including lions! It was so hot out, I'd say almost 100 degrees. Which was very different than Cape Town because it was freezing there. Anyway, after our morning drive we had a great breakfast, then we hung out by the pool and took naps, had lunch, and got ready for another night drive. On that drive, an elephant came RIGHT UP to our car- you could've touched it but no one wanted it to charge us. It was so crazy. We came back for dinner, went to bed early, and woke up for another early morning drive- tried to find the last of the big five, but never found the leopard. We got back and had breakfast, then got ready to leave. Another really long trip back... and back on the boat to the beginning of this blog entry!

Walvis Bay/Swakopmund, Namibia

2008-09-24T06:34:00.000-04:00

Namibia was great! Two days until Cape Town, then the dreaded 11-day voyage to India. I think everyone was sad to leave Namibia, I’ve only heard one or two bad things that happened, and one was something they totally told us to be careful about and it happened to a professor! Oh well, I thought Namibia was great- I’d definitely come back- even though it was cold! Someone said what they’ve been told about Africa their whole lives is a lie- they were always told that Africa had a largely black population, and that it was hot. We saw a lot of white people (Namibia is heavily populated with German’s) and it was cold. All the locals were really friendly and wanted to talk to us about where we’re from and what we’re doing, a lot of the younger people we talked to seemed really interested in it and were so excited to meet so many Americans! The first day in Namibia we stayed in Walvis Bay and walked around the whole city, it’s so small! That night we asked a cab driver to take us out to a certain bar and he said “No! All your friends are at The Raft!” So we went to The Raft and it was PACKED with SAS kids (and professors)! I guess they even started running out of beer and glasses. The next morning we left for Swakopmund, a more touristy German town about 25 minutes away. The drive there was beautiful, one side was all desert, and the other was all ocean! We saw evidence of the skeleton coast, a place where ships get lost in the fog and end grounded- so you’re looking at the shore and a few yards out is just an old rusty ship sticking out of the ocean! It was really cool. We got to the bungalows in Swakop, it was less than $10USD per person/per night! You’d never find something like that in America, of course there wasn’t heat or hot water but we didn’t care. We spent most of the three days we were there walking around town and eating amazing food. I tried a bite of zebra! People had zebra, oryx, and crocodile. There’s really nothing negative to say about Namibia, I had a great time with the people I was with (Allison, Esther, Allison, Jen, Brooks, Austin, Bill, & Justin- hi Justin and Brooks’ mom’s! I hear you read the blogs!)- can’t wait until Cape Town! I have a few days to spend exploring before my safari. So far I’ve heard people suggesting the Table Mountain, shark cage diving, and skydiving...

One day away from Namibia!

2008-09-18T07:15:00.000-04:00

We're less than 24 hours away from Namibia, finally! It's been a long week, pretty much everyone on the ship has a cold/cough/or flu. Everyone's super tired from the 6 hour time change, and of course they took attendance at Global Studies this morning! It took 4 days to get our laundry back this week! I'm really excited about Namibia though, the same group of kids I hung out with in Brazil is getting a bungalow outside of Walvis Bay in Swakpomund, Namibia. It's a 6 person bungalow- for only $10 a night! I think they were talking about going sandboarding, I'd like to go kayaking too since I'm selling my SAS kayaking trip... and the independent trips are a lot cheaper anyway. Tonight is the So You Think You Can Dance competition, it should be good. We put it together in less than a week so it'll be interesting to see how well it comes together. We'll only have two days on the ship between Namibia and Cape Town, then after Cape Town there are 11 days- including midterms. They're saying the bombings in New Dehli won't effect any of our trips to the Taj Mahal, as long as it stays relatively peaceful.

In the middle of the ocean!

2008-09-12T13:03:00.000-04:00

Again for a week, we're out at sea. Except this time we cross 6 time zones, so everyone will be even more confused as to what time it is back home. Everyone is exhausted, and there's a lot of work to do for classes. Brazil was great though, I spent all week in Salvador and don't regret not going to the Amazon or Rio at all. We explored the lower and upper cities, shopped the markets and squares, went to the mall, had lunch by the beach, saw the light house, went to a local bar, watched the futbol game- it was all great! I hung out with all new people, no one I had previously hung out with on the ship, but I think that made it a more interesting and unique experience.

The first day, Mackenzie and I were in the first group off the ship, and were able to get a little feel of Salvador before we really experienced it. That afternoon I had the Panoramic City Orientation which was so great. There were a lot of faculty and staff, but that must be a good thing? It was a great trip, we took buses all around the upper city, around places we wouldn't see normally on foot or might not catch in a taxi. It was all narrated by a tour guide and we got out in a few places. One stop was at a nice coastal area where there were a lot of boats docked, and we went into a shop where a man painted tile. Then we went to the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, these Bonfim bracelets were ALL OVER Brazil. I think I have about 20 in my Brazil-bag (I'm keeping ziplocs for each country). But people in the street come up and tie these bracelets around your wrist, and tie them in three knots. One for peace, love, and happiness... then they try to sell you things. But at Bonfim they are tied to the fences and all over the place- it was crazy. There are so many things in Brazil that are based off of the phrase on the bracelets, scarves, tapestries, bags, and jewelry.

After the orientation, Mackenzie and I went out again in search of food. We went to the upper city- because that's where they actually have street food. I tried some Acarajé which is "It is made from black-eyed peas formed into a ball and then deep-fried in dendê (palm oil). It is served split in half and then stuffed with vatapá and caruru - spicy pastes made from shrimp, peanuts, palm oil and other ingredients. A vegetarian version is typically served with hot peppers and green tomatoes." I only ate a few bites- it was so spicy!!

After that! I had the Welcome Reception. It was highly recommended and I almost didn't go, I'm so glad I went! There were free drinks and snacks, and I did try a lot of the little snacks, most of which were very good and not very spicy. They did a lot of circus performances for us, including some amazing Capoeria. Then they turned the circus into a night club and we danced (to American music) until we had to go back to the buses.

On Monday I went with a few people to the upper city square, we ended up splitting up and finding each other all day. It's just a square with so many roads off of it, and when you walk up and down the roads you end up in one of two squares, it's really easy to find your way around. All the stores seemed geared towards tourists, we found some really awesome souvenirs. That day I got a musical instrument called a berimbau, a hand carved painting, and a canvas painting. We had amazing ice cream- I tried a few of the Brazilian fruit flavored ice creams but settled for chocolate, it was still amazing. We all had dinner, and tried Brazil's national cocktail, Caipirinha. It's made with cachaça, sugar, and lime... lots and lots of lime. It was too lime-y for my tastes but I was glad I tried it! The food that night wasn't too authentic but it was good anyway!

The next day we spent the day sight seeing by ourselves, we went into a lot of churches and historic buildings, which offered great views of the city. We also went to the Afro-Brazilian Culture Museum, where we were attacked by a class of Brazilian school kids. It was so funny, only a few of them spoke English but they were all giggling when we walked in the building and were so excited when we wanted to take pictures with them. We headed back to take naps, and had planned on observing a Capoeria school that night. When we got there, we found out that it wasn't free to observe and it was 15 rais (about 8USD) and we decided it wasn't worth it and we could just watch Capoeria in the square for free. We did that instead, and we also watched the beginning of a street concert. We left fairly early because we were exhausted and the group of guys we found wanted to stay really late, and it's not safe to walk back at night just a group of girls in that area.

We had planned on going to this island the next day, but as soon as we got off the boat and to the taxis, it started raining and the skies looked really dark. We decided it wasn't a good beach day but that this would be a good opportunity to check out the mall and try to find a grocery store. The mall is just like any other mall, really. The food court even had American places (McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, and Pizza Hut). We went to Lojas Americanas, which is the equivalent of WalMart, and picked up some dry packaged food to bring back to the ship. I found Cheetos, Nature Valley bars, and Club crackers. When it was time to leave, the skies were a little brighter and we realized we were near the beach so we headed down there for lunch. We had amazing food. We had carne-de-sol (heavily salted beef, which is exposed to the sun for one or two days to cure), grilled chicken with vegetables, and pizza which was more like fried cheese with sauce (a BBQ/pizza sauce almost) and tomato, it was all served with this amazing salsa, veggies, and rice. It was really good.

We walked the beach and walked over the a lighthouse, then took a taxi back to the boat.
We went to a local bar, Caranga's to watch the futbol game that night, it was Brazil vs. Bolivia. We were the only ones in yellow and green! Natalia, our inter-port student who was on the ship from the Bahamas to Salvador was there and said we looked so American. It was a good time though, one guy we were with met up with this guy he met on the plane back from Rio. It turned out that the guys girlfriend is actually the daughter of Brazil's "Whitney Houston" (meaning, her mom is REALLY famous) and that he was a drummer in her mom's band. He has his own band now that is extremely popular, and we got a copy of that CD. It was a really good last night in Brazil, I was really glad I went out.

The next day everyone was really tired, I still woke up early and went to the lower market to spend the last of my rais! All in all, I spent $101 USD in Brazil, that includes souvenirs, food, taxis, drinks, etc. I think I did REALLY well- I know some people who spent almost $700! The BBQ we had on board after on-ship time was great, the food while we were in port was so good. Everyone's really exhausted now, and I can't imagine the time change we have to go through- 6 time zones in the next 7 days! We'll see how that goes...

Bahia!

2008-09-07T07:27:00.000-04:00

We're FINALLY docked in Brazil! We woke up this morning to our cell phones buzzing to change the country code, but that was way before we docked. Now the view outside our window is the port, which... isn't much to look at. We won't be let out of the ship for another 3 or 4 hours. We have to learn to go through customs first. I guess this is one of the longer customs that we'll go through. They have to do a face-to-passport check of everyone on the ship. So they're going to call us up alphabetically by seas (wouldn't you know, my sea is second to last) and even then we can't get off. We have to go to a diplomatic briefing. And THEN we can get off. A lot of people were saying they booked flights for this morning assuming that when it said we docked in Salvador at 0700 it meant, we could get off at 0700. Oops!

I only have SAS things planned today, with a little break in between where I assume a few of us will just get lunch and maybe go to the market which is supposedly right outside port- if it's open... it's Brazil's Independence Day, of course.

I finally stopped feeling sea sick yesterday! A physical therapist on board said you get sea sick because you're visually dependent, and you'll probably still feel the boat long after you're on land. Fabulous.

Email Me!

2008-08-31T12:29:00.000-04:00

Oh duh, e-mail me at ereszenski@semesteratsea.net - we get free email!

At Sea!

2008-08-31T09:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm here! And not doing so well, I've felt so sick the past few days. I missed a lot of orientation because I just had to sleep. Hopefully I get my sea legs soon and it'll be better. The Bahamas were great- I definitely recommend going down early because you get to know people and it's nice to see familiar faces on the ship. It took about an hour and a half to wait in line and check luggage and all of that on Friday morning, it was so hot out, everyone was drenched with sweat. And then once we all felt better, we had a lifeboat drill in long sleeves/long pants/closed toed shoes, and everyone was sweaty again.

I guess we're pulling into Puerto Rico now to refuel, but no one can get off the ship. Today is the first day of classes, but I don't have any until tomorrow so I'm just going to lay low and hope I feel better.

E-Mail Posting

2008-08-22T16:55:00.001-04:00

Does it work? Does it work?!

5 Days!

2008-08-22T16:50:00.003-04:00

Less than a week until I leave!
I thought I was well prepared, but there are so many last minute things... like that Flip Video camera.

Test

2008-08-22T16:49:00.000-04:00

Testing the e-mail posting function :)

Packing Lists

2008-07-21T09:13:00.003-04:00

I compiled a bunch of lists and customized them to what I think I will want. This is what I came up with, and so far it's going very well.
Having a list like that, that I can check off once- and then again, will be helpful. Especially since my stuff is currently in two places at once (my apartment and my parents house) and then it'll be squished into a little room! Those last weeks of August are going to be so chaotic!

FDPs!

2008-06-29T21:37:00.002-04:00

It's time to register for trips! There are all pre-sale trips for Brazil, Namibia, and Cape Town, and then only big trips for the rest of the ports are pre-sale. I picked out what I want to do- I tried to plan something for everyday in Brazil, just because I'm scared I won't know enough people to go out and explore without SAS. But I think by Africa I'll feel a little more comfortable.
Things I know I want to do:
Taj Mahal
Safari in Cape Town
Great Wall in Beijing
Kayaking in Namibia

Registered for classes!

2008-05-29T09:04:00.002-04:00

I just woke up and registered for classes!

PLIR 100Z : The Rise of New Great Powers (Global Studies B) one of two classes to choose form that everyone has to take
COMM 451Z : International Marketing I need to talk to UMass about approving this because they said it will only be approved for a management course if I take it with financing- which isn't allowed.
COMM 384Z : Foundations of International Business
SWAG 372Z : Women Working in the Global Economy

Yay!

100 Days!

2008-05-22T08:15:00.000-04:00

100 days until August 29th! The day we leave the Bahamas!
So exciting. Today I have a doctors appointment to fill out my medical forms, which means I can send in all my paperwork!
I'm almost all done my Visa applications too.
Almost ready!

I got luggage!

2008-04-21T19:14:00.001-04:00

A large and medium sized rolling duffle, Timberland, from Marshalls, JUST what I was looking for! I also grabbed a matching backpack as well. I'm so happy with it.
I also got a passport protector today, "Let the shopping begin!"

Packages!

2008-04-06T10:34:00.000-04:00

I heard that a lot of people received "the big package" in the mail this weekend. The one weekend I'm in Plymouth- it'd be delivered to Dorchester!

Map of Route

2008-03-16T16:41:00.000-04:00

Nassau, Bahamas

Salvador, Brazil

Walvis Bay, Namibia

Cape Town, South Africa

Chennai, India

Penang, Malaysia

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Hong Kong / Shanghai, China

Kobe / Yokohama, Japan

Honolulu, Hawaii

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Miami, Florida

And so it begins...

2008-03-10T17:40:00.000-04:00

Dear Elaine,

Congratulations on your academic admission to Semester at Sea. In the
coming days, you will be receiving additional information from us about
your admission and how to reserve your space on the MV Explorer for
your voyage.
...

Cheers,
...

Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid
Institute for Shipboard Education