“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. “

-         Mark Twain ( Dean’s Memo November 12, 2007)

November 14, 2007

            Yesterday I realized how little time we had left on the ship and I began to worry. I took down the big picture in Molly and Jill’s room (where everyone rights messages on at the end of the semester) and I read. It had so much good advice: to see as many sunsets as possible. To get lost. To not worry about money and just do it. To explore and enjoy every minute of each country. To do things independently. To not worry about classes because it will all work out. I read through that and then decided I wanted to make the most out of my last 2 weeks here (whoa… that’s crazy). I saw the sunset over Italy (which we were passing by close to all day yesterday) I went to the pool bar and sat on the twirly stools and listened to music and talked to friends. I hung out in the piano lounge and played with the kids on board, and listened to piano music, and played “scattegories” with friends.  I hung out with friends. Molly was telling me about how her dad did not want her to go on this trip at all, and how he is all against it and they got in an argument one day and he’s like “what do you even know about Croatia “(but he pronounced it Crow-a-tea-a-), and it was not funny at the time I’m sure, but I thought it was hilarious. And then Karen was talking to Molly, who is from Bismarck, ND, and Karen was like “so, Molly, do you come to the United States a lot?” We had NO idea what Karen was talking about because she’s known Molly this whole time, but apparently Karen thought Bismarck was a country close to Germany. Oh man… my friends. I don’t want this journey to end. I am going to miss it so much.

            Today we arrived in Dubrovnik. I looked outside, and everything looks so quiet and quaint. We were told we were going to be cleared really early, but not before the Diplomatic briefing. I listened to that on my TV while washing my clothes, and he talked about what to do in Croatia and all the National Parks, which sounded awesome, but I don’t think I will be able to see most of them because they are far away and it’s the off season. Dalmatians get their name from the Dalmatia province in Croatia, where Dalmatians are thought to have originated. He was really helpful, and told us about the history of Croatia, and the war 10-12 years ago. We then got cleared, and we got off the ship, and had the most amazing view of this modern bridge crossing over these massive rock cliffs with water running through it. We got out of the port, after getting to stamp our own passports, and Christina and I began to walk to the Old Town, which is where all the tourists go. The diplomat said you “cannot” walk there, and you can either take a taxi for $12 or a bus, but I walked there and it only took 45 minutes. I don’t think they know who I am! We passed the bus station, where most people headed to look up schedules and exchange money. The first thing we hit was a market with fruits and veggies and fish. It was the perfect fall weather, and it was right on the water and all the architecture reminded me of Italy and it was just perfect. It reminded me of home and fall so much, and I just wanted to eat all the apples and taste Massachusetts. I noticed that there were a few larger sailboats that looked historical in the water, but most of them were little private fishing boats or motor boats. Lots of the people were keeping to themselves, and the whole area seemed silent. There weren’t that many cars, no honking, and there were people talking, but everything seemed muted, and it was a really nice relaxing change. Christina and I actually went through someone’s front gate and into their garden area because we thought it was a church, but we just played with the cats outside of the door, and then went back out onto the street to get to Old Town. We didn’t get lost at all on the way, which was a nice change. I did ask one man reading a newspaper if we were going in the right direction, and he understood, and told me exactly what I needed. It’s amazing how easy things are when people understand you and know where something is. It’s something you always can’t count on in a lot of countries. We walked to old town, and it was drizzly but the beach was beautiful. The coast looked a lot like Capri, with the rocky coast. We then got to the old town, which is surrounded by the city walls. They are supposedly among the most impressive structures of their kind in Europe. Some portions of the wall date back to the tenth century, but most of the original construction was undertaken in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. There are towers and bastions and other edifices. A lot of people walk on the walls, which we didn’t do today because of the weather, but we walked along them. We then went down the Stradun, which is the city’s main street and runs dead across old town. It is the favorite promenade walk of all Dubrovnik citizens, young and old, as well as tourists coming from all over the world. It was built after the earthquake of 1667, and all the houses and shops lining the street are from after that date. The beginning and end of the street had limestone fountains. We then saw a few of the churches in the old town, and sat in them and looked at the paintings and decorations. A man came up to us in one of the churches and tried to talk to us, but we didn’t understand, and we got it through to him that we were from the United States, and he began counting and saying “ avion” so I think he thought we flew here. We then went into the Franciscan monastery which has a huge library, but tourists aren’t allowed, and used to house the ancient Franciscan pharmacy whose founding dated back to 1317. It used to be only for the monastery, but then grew to provide the whole town. There is now a current pharmacy there now. We then saw Orlando’s column, which was outside of Crkva Sv Vlaha church. It is a morale-boosting monument for freedom. Orlando’s right arm was used for the standard of measurement of length in the 15^th century, and there is still a line at the base of the statue with that length. We then went into Sponza Palace, said to be the most beautiful building in Dubnrovnick. It was once a place of entrance and exit of all trading routes coming to the city, and also housed the state mint.  We went into a shop there which sold old maps and historical documents, and then we walked around the building on the outside, because the rest of it was closed, and went into a room that was a memorial for the people who died in the war in the 90’s. We saw the photos of the men who died, as well as the Croatian flag that had survived the bombings. I read the guest book, which I like doing to see where most people are from (Europe, the U.S., and Australia). We then wandered along the many side streets, which were very narrow and had lots of stairs and were overall very quaint. Its hard to get lost in the old town because its all walled in and there is only so far you can walk, so its fun to just wander. We ran across another museum of archeology, and the house of a famous author, Marina Drzica.We saw great views from the top of the city and all the red roofs and the water. We went into a supermarket, which was exciting because we haven’t seen supermarkets very much, and I bought some crackers, and Christina bought some pretzels, and we continue on our journey. Most of the streets looked similar—they were all very quiet and warm looking inside—the light was so inviting in the cold windy rain. We then went into a nice warm restaurant that was empty, but began playing music so it was enjoyable. Christina got some tea and a hot apple strudel and we looked at how to say key phrases in Croatian, which we thought would be helpful even though most people speak English. I found that if you attempt to speak the language of the country people will be more willing to help you or happy to help you. We then walked in the Rector’s Palace, the one time government seat and the house where the Rector lived during one month of his rule.  It then started to get dark, so we walked back to the ship which took about an hour. We stopped on the way to see the city wall light up- first green, then white, and enjoy the view of the city and the walls and the ocean. We saw some locals with their grocery bags walking in the streets, but overall it was very quiet. On the way back we stopped to see the ferry times to the islands so we can go in the next couple of days, and I stopped in the huge supermarket right next to the ship. I was so shocked walking in. I feel like I just get so used to poverty sometimes that going into supermarket is overwhelming and I just can’t believe all the choices. We got back to the ship, warmed up, and had one of the bets meals on the ship I have had- split pea soup, stir-fry with tofu, rosemary potatoes, and fudge brownie and tea!

November 15, 2007

            Today I slept in for the first time ever in a port because we thought it would continue to rain and we knew that there wasn’t enough to do in Dubrovnik to keep us busy all the time for 5 days, so we took it easy, and had lunch on the ship and then headed out.  We looked into ferry schedules to go to the islands, which was confusing. There are hundreds of islands around Croatia, and there are 3 near Dubrovnik, and then one, Mljet, which has a National Park on it, but the Lonely Planet books say its semi-shut down in the winter and there is only one ferry that leaves here at 2pm, and it gets there around 4pm, and its getting dark by then, and then you’d have to stay on the island, but you cant camp in the winter and the only hotel on the island is really upper class. We still wanted to go, so asked around, and supposedly there are ferries back and forth everyday, which we decided we will try on Sunday. We just want to make sure not to get stuck there. I noticed a lot when we were asking people at the port about this that a lot of people were not very friendly. It seemed like everyone was friendly yesterday, so maybe it’s just the people I ran into today, and I don’t want to generalize, but they were very abrupt and didn’t care to help at all. we did run into Doc Nancy at the ferry terminal and she was going to Mljet (of course, since she’s a park ranger), but she knew people to stay on the island with, so she was all set, but she told us of this woman she stayed with last night in the Old City, which Christina and I thought sounded fun. There are places all over the city that have signs that say “Sobe” with a picture of a person lying in a bed. These are usually old women’s houses in which they offer places to stay for a small fee (about $40 a night) to make extra money on the side. Christina and I thought that that would be a good cultural experience, so we headed to the old city to look for her. We got there, and Christina climbed the walls, which I decided to do in a few days, and I wandered around and found a phone to call home. We then met up and we went to the beach about a 10 minute walk away to see the sunset. It starts going down about 3:30pm and is dark by 4:30-4:45pm, so the days are really short. We went to the beach, and climbed down the rocks, and just sat on the edge of the rocks (but we were in no danger of falling) and just watched as the sun went down for an hour. The ocean just stretched out forever in front of us. To the right were cliffs with houses on them, and also a modern looking hotel that was built into the rock, which I didn’t really like the look of because it didn’t blend in with everything else, and didn’t have a red roof or anything. To the left there was no evidence of man, which I liked. There were just sheer cliffs and waves crashing and plants and even cacti. We just sat there in mostly silence watching the colors of the ocean and the clouds and the sky change. When it was beginning to get dark, we climbed back up, and walked back to the old city and found the woman, Kara, in her home. We got to the house, and there were 3 buttons to push to get in, with only last names, so we didn’t know which one to push, but I picked right! As soon as I pushed it a woman peered out her window from a few floors above, and we said her name and that we knew Doc Nancy, and she buzzed us in. She didn’t understand much English, but we explained we wanted to stay tomorrow night, and she said okay, and we told her we’d be there around 8pm, and then go to the concert in the church from 8:30-9:30pm and then be back. We began to leave and she realized I didn’t have an umbrella even though it was raining, so she gave me hers and told me to just bring it back tomorrow, which was really cute. She didn’t say much except “Bravo”. We then walked around the old town more, which had a very Parisian feel at night. Everything just glowed and people strolled with umbrellas in hand up and down allies with warm candles and a glow of light coming from the windows. We went into the main cathedral, and then began to walk back to the ship. I noticed that people didn’t charge to use the public restrooms here, which was a nice change to the rest of Europe (and Turkey). Everywhere I have ever gone in Europe you have to pay, but here it’s free. As we walked back to the ship talking about traveling and our families we had a view of the ocean and the sliver of a moon. A cloud went in front of the moon, and it was just lit up in the night sky and the ocean just sparkled in one area. There are sometimes things like that that you just can’t capture in a picture and that’s what this journey is all about.

November 16, 2007

      Today we went to Kolecep, which is the smallest inhabited island near Dubrovnik. Christina, Alex, and I walked down and got our ferry tickets and then sat on the boat for about 30 minutes before it left. I noticed that a lot of the sidewalks around the city either are only wide enough for one person, or just end, so one has to cross the road to get back onto any sidewalk. Most people walk, and take public transportation (4 out of 5 vehicles passing me was a bus). We wanted to be sure to leave enough time because buying tickets is confusing because there are 3-4 places to buy them and sometimes no one is at one booth, so you have to cross the street and go in another building to get to another booth, so we just wanted to be sure. We sat inside because it was drizzly and cold ( a local told us that is only rained 10 times a year, and its been raining all 3 days so far, so go figure…) We sat and played cards and I just looked around and watched the locals. Everyone else except to other SAS kids seemed to be locals, and were talking and drinking tea and coffee and some alcohol, which was all sold onboard, and lots of people were smoking. It seems to be a big part of the culture here to smoke, just like a lot of Europe. The boat ride only took about 25 minutes because Kolecep is the closest island. We passed some smaller islands on the way, but some looked uninhabited, and just full of trees, while others just looked like they had walls surrounding the island, while others looked like they had one building—presumably a church or a monastery on it. We got to the island, and we just decided to explore since there was nothing big to see, and no stores, and only one café, and no hotels. We walked on the paved part of the sidewalk/road (there are no cars on the island, which was nice as well—getting away from all the noise and traffic and pollution that I have been surrounded by most of this semester). We saw some old churches that were very tiny, and also some orange and pomegranate trees. We picked a lot of fruit throughout the day and lived off the land. We took lots of paths, and when we came to a fork in the road, just chose any direction and saw where that took us. We came to the ocean front at first, and climbed a lot of rocks, and then we came upon an abandoned house with no roof and a tree growing in the middle of it. It reminded us all of the “Secret Garden.” It really just seemed magical. We sat in the empty window frames and relaxed and ate some fruit from the trees. I decided that if I were to ever write a book I would want to write it right there. We found a tiny jar full of red liquid, which we were all very curious about—and reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland”, but we did not drink it! We then continued and saw more of the ocean front and countryside. Most of the houses seemed to be either abandoned and left or just being built. The population of the island is in the hundreds, and even smaller in the winter, when people go back to their main houses, so the whole day we only saw 7 people. We had the whole place to ourselves. We saw lots of orchards and also people’s gardens with everything from peppers, to tomatoes, to oranges, lettuce, pomegranates, and olives. Everyone seemed to be so self sufficient, and I could see myself living their easily. The change in the ecosystems also amazed me. There was ocean. Then there was forest—just hundreds of evergreen trees, then there were rocks—just boulders and limestone and cliffs. We saw such diverse nature. We basically walked around all day, and just enjoyed the beauty of the island—abandoned buildings, people’s houses, churches and graveyards ( which had lots of fresh flowers, and a quaint church with a bell that I rang with a rope), a soccer field overlooking a cliff and more islands in the distance, and woodpeckers in the forest. We then took the ferry back to Dubrovnik when it started getting dark around 4pm, and then ate dinner on the ship, which was another great dinner of eggplant; I don’t know why the food is getting so good—let’s hope its lasts, and headed out to Old Town for the concert in the church. We went to Kara’s house first, and dropped off our bags in our room, and then headed back out. we ended up getting to the church, which was lit by 2 large lanterns on either side of the door, but it costs a lot to get in, even though the sign the other day said it was free, so we decided not to go and just enjoy our time in the house of a Croatian and get the true cultural experience. We got back, and had to unlock three different doors. The outside door had a normal lock, and then we walked up a set of stairs to her apartment (there is her apartment and another person’s apartment right above her, but its not like an apartment building—only 2 families per house), and then once we got into her house, we had an old fashioned key to open up our room. The house had a little hallway with a bathroom with a toilet and sink in one room, and then a bathtub and sink in another room across the hall. There was a hot water heater in the bathtub room, and all the walls were white. There was then another room that had 2 twin beds, and another room with a King size bed and a lot of books, and a dresser and chest, which is the room we stayed in, and then there was another room, with Kara slept in, which looked more like a living room, with a TV, and more books, a desk, a bookshelf, and a couch which could double as a bed. I don’t know why she gave us the room she did (which kind of seemed like her normal room), but it worked out! We didn’t talk to much to her because there was a huge language barrier, but we tried to thank her a lot, and tell her where we were from, and we laughed a lot about us trying to figure out things like the bathtub and lights. We were looking out of the 2 windows in our room to the view of the little alleys and the other houses right on top of one another, and she came in our room to give us towels and started laughing because she must have thought the two of us peering out of windows on a cold rainy night was funny. Things like that were funny and we just communicated by laughing. She liked the word “Bravo” a lot, and used that in many situations. She then went to sleep, and I read some information about the Old City in the nice comfy chair in our room, and then read “Newsweek” in bed while listening to the rain. It was so perfect because one of the windows didn’t close all the way, which made the sound of the rain louder. The other window was new, and closed easily though. I miss hearing the weather outside, and having a window. It was nice to have a sense of daylight and the weather for a change. I went to sleep cozy in the bed listening to the weather outside and the sounds of Dubrovnik.

      November 17, 2007

      I woke up to the loudest thunderstorms during the night and absolutely loved it. I was saying to Christina how much I missed thunderstorms, and it was perfect to be lying in bed under warm blankets in a cute little house in Old Town, Dubrovnik, Croatia listening to the rain just pour down and the thunder all night. I eventually woke up at 10am, and laid in bed and read more “Newsweek” for about 2 hours. It was nice to just read something from American, even though the magazines I have are from the summer, so the news is old, but it was still really nice to read for pleasure. Kara came in and said she was going to visit her daughters, but we could stay. We told her we probably would stay until noon, but we paid her then just in case. I learned that she had 3 daughters and some grandchildren as well. I asked about the portrait of a woman in the room we were staying in and she said it was her grandmother. The other decorations were mostly Catholic ones—one of Jesus, one of Mary, and then a Santa Clause, and also many Dubrovnik painting and a calendar. I think it would be cool to have the Old City, your little town with your house, on many painting and calendars! We continued to just relax, and then she came back, and showed us the 2 phone cards to bought with the money we gave her, which was nice. We asked her about how long she has lived in the house we were in, and she said she lived there for 70 years (we were guessing she is about 80 now—but a healthy 80) and she has lived in Croatia all her life. We then went into the living room and she showed us a picture of her and her husband that was taken 50 years ago, and it was on the main street in the Old City. I assumer her husband has died because there wasn’t any evidence of him around, and we did not see him at all. We then talked about the books she had, and about the stuffed animals (Christina brought her teddy bear, named “bear” with her, so Kara showed us her collection of stuffed animals). We took pictures with her, and told her that we would send her letters so we traded addresses, and I asked her if she ever came to the United States. She said that she went to Washington D.C. a long time ago, and bought a sweater there. She took it out of her closet, and it was an Anne Klein sweater! She then gave us each a bookmark that she had made herself that says “Dubrovnik” on it, and showed us a Mickey Mouse cup that she had, and we explained about Disney world in Florida. A lot of the conversation was hard and sometimes I don’t think the information either of us were saying got through completely, but we did learn a little about each other, and we left really feeling like we had a friend. Kara said to come back anytime, and I said next time I am in Croatia I may be with my family, and she was really excited. We then left and headed over to the Synagogue, which we both really wanted to see, but closed at 1pm, so we weren’t able to see it any other day. We got there around noon, but it was closed anyways, and we didn’t know why. We then walked to a little art place that sold painting, and Christina went to the modern art museum while I went to walk the walls. I saw my extended family on the way, as well as a few of my friends out in the cold with their laptops because they found a hotspot. It was a pathetic site seeing them in the freezing cold with wind blowing in their facing sitting in a little alley with their laptops—now that is determination! I don’t like wasting my time in a country on the computer, but I understand at night when everything is shut down, or if you really have to figure out plans or classes for when you get home. I started walking on the walls, which kind of reminded me of the great wall, even though it was much smaller and the steps were not as steep at all. The city view from the wall was spectacular—you could see every house and church, and it was just all red from the rooftops. Inside the city there were still some ruins of houses and some evidence of holes in the sides of houses from the war, and then if you looked the other direction, to outside the city walls there was open ocean and cliffs and islands, and the sun rays were peeking out from the clouds. It stopped raining for about the hour I was on the wall, which was perfect. I asked a man to take a picture of me, since I was alone, and he started asking me about who I was and where I was from. Come to find out, he is from Split, and he knew Stuart, a Life Long Learner on the ship, and he was supposed to meet him in Dubrovnik and climb the walls with him, but couldn’t find him. I told him that I saw Stuart just a few minutes before down in the city. We ended up walking the rest of the wall together and I learned a lot about him and the culture. He is a History major, and now works in a museum, which he likes a lot, but doesn’t like the politics of. He met Stuart on an online educational group, and met him a few years earlier. This man never went to Dubrovnik, even though he lives 4 hours away. So Stuart said he must visit the city, and that’s why he came today. He asked about my major, and what I thought culture was. I told him that its so hard to define it, but I tried, and he said he is studying the culture of insects, and was telling me all about the many books he read on the subject—from ants to bees. He told me all about Split, and how Dubrovnik looked a lot different because it was right on the coast, but how most of the cities in general look fairly similar. He said that the country is very homogenous, with 88% of the people being Catholic. He also told me that Marco Polo was born on the island of Korcula.  He told me a lot about the war, and how the top of the hill was the base, and showed me the area in which people shot out of the wall. Ten thousand shells struck Dubrovnik in 1991-1992, hitting 68% of the Old Town’s 824 buildings. There are still many land mines all over Croatia, so when hiking one has to be careful of warning signs.  We climbed up to the top of the tower, and it started raining. We saw it coming in the distance, and then it hit. We talked to a woman for a few minutes selling some more bookmarks, and he got me another one, which was very nice. It started hailing, but we were almost at the end, so we finished up, and then walked down the main street to find Stuart. We ran into Christina, and then someone else said that Stuart was at the other gate, so he left, and Christina and I went to a Pizzeria because she was craving one. They serve pizza here like they do it Italy—they are thinner pizzas, and one size, and usually one person orders a whole pizza, and eats the whole thing. Christina ordered 3 cheese pizza, and almost ate it all, which I was very impressed with. We then walked back, and this time looped around the other direction around the ship, and walked to the point across from the ship, where we had a beautiful view of the orange and purple sunset over the water and the fishing boats with the MV Explorer and the bridge and the city in the background. It was really cold and windy still, and now dark, so we just headed back to the ship.

November 18, 2007

      Today I was thinking of staying on the boat because I saw a lot of the area and it was rainy and cold all week, and I was tired, but I woke up and there was not a cloud in the sky, so I couldn’t just waste away the day on the ship! I decided to go to Sipan, the third island, which is the largest island in the Elaphite Archipelago. We took the 9:30 am ferry (there is only one there and one back on Sundays). It took about an hour and a half to get to the island. It stopped at the other ones along the way, and a man on the ferry recognized me from a few days ago. The ferry was packed, and I was inside because it was cold, and there was a bunch of people dressed up in suits, and a person with a bow on her, so Christina and I assumed that there was a wedding going on Kolocep. The ride was really nice and there was only one other person on the ferry. I read some, and did some Sudoko, while enjoying the islands and the mountains with trees, and then the bear mountains. I think that some of the mountains are too tall to have trees grow on them, so they look like bear rock. The environment is so diverse and I never get sick of it. We finally got to Sipan, and even though it was the largest island, and we expected there to be lots of people and tourists and hotels, there was really nothing. We were the only non-locals, and there were no hotels or restaurants to be heard of, even though we did find the town center, which had a few little cafes, and a playground and a payphone! Christina wanted to go to church so we went up to the main one with the clock tower in the town (there are still churches everywhere in all these little ghost towns). There wasn’t any evidence of anyone, and there were no mass times posted, so we just decided to explore the island. We didn’t have a map, and weren’t sure what to see on the island, so we decided just to get lost. We walked along the water for a while until the sidewalk ended, and then we walked up a field. We saw a lot of olive trees with nets all around the base of the trees in order to collect the figs falling off the trees. We first thought they were fish nets drying (since there were lots of little fishing boats around the island), but after watching some farmers spraying their crops, and collecting olives, that we figured it out. We walked up to the top of a mountain, and had a nice view of all the islands. It looked like a painting, and reminded me of Hawaii on a map. I know that the island of Hawaii is far apart, but on a map they look so close, and the number and shape of the islands reminded me of that. We sat there for a while just taking in the view, and eating some fruit, and then we walked some more and saw lots of fields with goats, and farms with olive trees, more orange and pomegranate trees, and a lot more abandoned rock houses. I also noticed that there were so many old cars on the island. Every car I saw were at least 20 years old—I only saw about 5 being driven, since the whole island is quiet, but I saw many parked and even more that were just on the side of the road and seemed broken—either the windows were smashed or the car looked like it had been in a wreck, or it was dented). We walked down a road and 4 men were paving the road. We started to turn around because we didn’t want to ruin the road, and have our footprints in it, but they kept saying something to us in Croatian, and we just looked at them. They were probably saying something really simple like “you can keep walking” and we just kept looking at them in awe. We finally motioned and said “English” and we ended up walking along the edge, and getting past them. We saw another town in the distance—lots of red roofs—and we had 2 more hours, so we ventured down the one main road on the island—which was black top, and we went past lots of vineyards. Croatia is known for their wine, and this is where they grow it! We picked some grapes off the vine and ate some, which made me really happy because I love picking my own fruit. The whole area reminded me of Tuscany. We finally reached the “town” but it was a lot smaller than it had looked from a distance. There was a fork in the road, and about 4 houses and a huge church which was in the shape of a cross and was originally constructed as a shelter in 1577 after the Lepant battle to protect the local inhabitants from the pirates. It was the most interesting, run down, in- need-of-paint church I have ever seen. We had to turn around because we only had 1 hour until the ferry left at 4:30pm, and it was beginning to get dark. We wanted to hitch hike back, but only one car passed, and they didn’t stop. I just thought it would be fun to hitchhike on an island in Croatia, and it would be safe because I think if a murderer was on an island it would spread quickly. We made it back, and I had 15 minutes to spare, so I called home, and then ran to the ferry. It was the only ferry back to Dubrovnik, and the next one would be tomorrow, when the MV Explorer would be well on its way to Spain. We thought we had 2 minutes, but we turned the corner, and the ship was about to pull away. The walkway was up, and we ran, and the man working the ship put out his hand, and we ran and jumped onto the ship. A little to close for me. On the way back I watched my last Croatian sunset while relaxing and doing some more Sudoku and reading “Readers Digest”.

November 7, 2007

            We got to Turkey, and ported in the Bosphorus straight between the continents of Asia and Europe. Istanbul connects both worlds, and I was so excited to see all of it. I heard so much from other people and from the Diplomatic Briefing that there is so much to see in Istanbul. The diplomatic briefing was informative and told us about what to see, and how to act culturally appropriate, and talked about the current political situations in Turkey. They said it is safe to be in Turkey as an American, but just don’t go where the Kurd problem is (which no one was planning to) and to not flaunt you are an American or to talk politics. My friends and I, along with many other I heard, decided to tell everyone we were Canadian to avoid any conflict, and it worked for me. My friend, Molly, told someone at the Bazaar she was American, and was treated badly (her items were thrown into a bag and was told to pay right then by a man who was very friendly up to that point).  I was planning on wandering around to see the most famous sites—but Kelly and I both got free tickets to the city orientation, so we went on that. We drove to a mosque and on the way I noticed how European the country looked. First of all, everything had cobblestone streets, and I noticed how calm everything seemed. There was not honking constantly, like every other country I have been in the last month, and the traffic was not out of control. The weather was also fallfish. It was about 50 degrees, and the leaves were turning. I was so excited that the weather was changing (or more like changed 50 degrees over 2 days from Egypt to Turkey). We got off at our first Mosque, which was gorgeous. On the way we saw some shopping streets and people selling Turkish pretzels on the street. Istanbul has over 1,000 mosques—just in the city alone. We took off our shoes, went inside, and just looked at the carpets and the architecture and the detail. Every mosque is fairly similar—just like churches and temples—if you’ve seen one of them you’ve seen them all. We then went across the courtyard to an old restaurant which had a nice little garden in it and a huge tree that you could walk inside of. We then drove to the Blue Mosque, which is the most famous one in Istanbul. We walked through the Hippodrome, which means “horse grounds” in Turkish, which was the center of Byzantium’s life for 1,000 years and of the Ottoman life for another 400 years. It is now a park with a few columns and obelisks. . The blue mosque is called so because of the Iznik tiles which line the walls. We learned about the mosque, its architecture. It is the only mosque in Turkey with six minarets. We got a really awesome view from the outside, then put out shoes in plastic bags, and enjoyed the view from the inside.  We then walked across the street to Hagia Sophia, “Hagia” means “Divine” in Greek and “Sophia” means “wisdom”. It is attributed to Jesus. It served as a church at first, then in 1453 turned into a mosque for Islam, and all the mosaics were covered, and then 1935 it was turned into a museum. There are bigger domes and buildings, but this one has no modern construction materials to reinforce it.  We first sat outside in a café because lots of people were cold, so people drank tea and had cookies, and then we went inside. It looked really different because it was older and less restored. The paint was coming off, as well as some of the walls. Everything seemed much older and there were even mosaics that still existed. We walked up to the top through a cobblestone ramp, and learned about the materials used in construction, as well as the mosaics of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint John the Baptist. They were fixing the inside dome of the building, so a scaffold was filling most of the inside, but there were marks on the ground that showed you how big the dome is, so people from our group stood on each mark, so we could really visualize how grant eh dome was (because when its so far up its really hard to tell). There was also this whole in a column that people put their finger and twist it around, which is believed will give them good luck and their wishes to come true. We then went across the street to the cistern basilica. I didn’t know what a cistern was until then, but it was so interesting. It’s a place where water was stored. It is one of several underground cisterns. The cistern was supplied with water by aqueducts from the Belgrade Forest, and it turned into a water supply for the Great Palace and later Topkapi.We went down a few steps, and saw this big underground area with about 2 feet of water in it. There were columns and paths you could walk on. It reminded me of “The Phantom of the Opera”. Music was playing, and it was really dark, but there were some dim lights, and there were these old columns and fish in the water. It was eerie and creepy but also really gorgeous. There were also two faces of Medusa at the end—one was upside down and one was sideways, and no one really knows why. We then headed back to the ship, where I changed my flip flops for sneakers because my toes were frozen, and then I went out, saw more mosques, and then crossed the Galata Bridge to get to the Spice Bazaar. The sun was setting, and it was gorgeous over the city. The bridge was full of people fishing, and the smell filled the air. I then tried to cross the street to the Spice Market, and I didn’t realize that you had to go underground to cross the street. I went way out of my way, and finally got to the other side. I wandered around the spice market—which is full of candy, which you can sample, and apple tea, and spices and teas of all kinds. I then ran into Molly and Brit and Haley, and we walked around together, then back over the bridge at night (it got dark at about 5pm). The city just glows.  We walked back underground, where there are various shops. I noticed that there were a lot of gun shops, which was strange to me, but they must have very lenient gun laws here, and other electronic shops. Someone was selling bunnies as well, which I wanted to buy and sneak on the ship, but didn’t think that was a great idea! We got back to the ship, ate dinner, and then just hung out. Lots of people were going out to clubs and going to internet cafes, but we just hung out on the ship because it was cold and rainy and we had a busy day.

November 8, 2007

  Today I traveled with Meg, Christina, Brit, and Eida. I usually don’t like traveling with big groups, and I still don’t, just because with big groups too many people want to do too many different things, but the day ended up working out. We first walked to the Galata Tower. On the way we walked up some cute streets, with Christmas lights and fall leaves. Some of this area reminded me of Paris, or any other European city I have been to. The streets, shops, architecture, and the classy way people tend to dress all remind me of France. We went to Istiklal Cadessi, where there are lots of shops. We walked along there for a while. There was a mixture of expensive clothes stores, as well as food shops, cafes, and cheaper clothes stores down the side streets.  Everyone was shopping a lot, so I wandered off for a while and saw the big Lycee (school) which was in a plaza with a strange statue of something that looked like missiles that said 1923-1972. There were lots of payphones there, but you had to buy some card to use them. In a lot of countries you just can’t pay cash or use your calling card, you need to get a special card to use the phone at all. I then walked into a church which had a statue of Pope John Paul outside. I went in, and enjoyed the candles burning, which are always mesmerizing to me, and I just enjoyed the stained glass, and the quiet. I then met the group, and walked to Taksim Square, where there are some statues and open space for people to walk, as well as some buildings and hotels. They were all hungry, so they ate, and I wandered around for an hour. I saw a few parks, with great views. There was one with a ski lift that went about ¼ miles to the other side, but I decided not to go on. Instead I walked along the path under the ski lift, and wandered into the Ritz Carlton. I was hoping I could get a good view of the city from there. I went in, went through security, then went up to a high floor, but there were no windows in the hall. I then went back down, and outside, and found a staircase up to a pool/ overlook level, which had a great expansive view of the city. It’s so amazing to see all the mosques and houses and old buildings and towers and water, and 2 continents in one view. It’s so strange to be in Europe finally, and to not see poverty everywhere, and to see beautiful surroundings, even though I think there is a distinct beauty in every country I have been to. I then walked back to the restaurant, and saw people playing music on the way. There were young kids (about 12 years old) playing the accordion. That’s an instrument that I have always wanted to learn, or think would be really awesome to be able to play. I watched them and people walk buy, and people selling roasted chestnuts (which is huge here) for a while, then went into the restaurant everyone was eating at. They were just finishing up, so I just sat down and enjoyed the warmth, tried some apple tea (which everyone should try, because it tastes like hot apple cider), and enjoyed the view in the restaurant. It was old fashioned, and the walls and paintings on the walls were gorgeous. We then walked back down the street, went into the tower. Meg and I went in, but it was busy and 10 YTL to get in, so we decided to skip it, since we saw amazing views that day already. We walked past a school with children getting out, and then saw another church courtyard with graves in it in Italian. We crossed over the bridge, and then went to the train station, where we looked at the museum about trains, and then walked to a castle. It was closing, but we got on the grounds, and sat outside with amazing views of the whole area. Some of us ordered Turkish coffee, which came in a tiny cup and was the strongest coffee ever supposedly (I didn’t have any because I don’t drink coffee, but it’s the thickest coffee I have ever seen.)  We enjoyed the view, and the sunset, and then walked back down from the Palace through cute cobblestone trails. We then headed to the Spice Market again, had some more samples, and I saw a little bit of the other shops outside of the market, selling everything from jewelry to carpets to meat (which disgusted me because there were whole cow’s heads for sale). We walked back, taking the underground walkways. In the city a lot of times you have to go underground to cross the street, and there are numerous networks of underground passageways. This makes the traffic less congested, and the incidence of people getting hitless. People make use of the space underground (which is warm and safe from the weather as well) and they sell everything from guns (I don’t think they have much of a gun law here) to bunnies.

November 9, 2007

            Today we were going to take a boat up the Bosphorus and to the black sea, so we walked over the bridge to find it, but it was really crowded and we found out it was a 6 hour trip, with great scenery, but you only got off at an island for about 2-3 hours, and we wanted to walk around more and not just sit on a boat because we do a lot of that on the ship. We took the tram back over the bridge, and decided to go to the Prince’s Islands off of Istanbul instead. It is still considered Istanbul, so we didn’t need a visa, and it sounded like a great trip with more freedom to walk around. Because of all this confusion, we missed the ferry by 10 minutes, so we had about an hour to wait, so we walked over to a palace right next door, the Dolmabahce Palace which was built for Sultan Abdulmecid and is where Ataturk lived. He died at 9:05 am on November 10, and all the clocks in the castle are stopped at that time. There were lots of pictures of his funeral lining the pathway to the main gate where there are guards similar to the guards at the Buckingham Palace. They wouldn’t move and everyone took pictures with them. We didn’t have time to go inside the palace, which looked more gorgeous, that Versailles so we just look in the gate and saw some of the gardens. We sat along the river, had some pretzels and bread from a street vender, which tastes like normal bread (not sweet at all which I wasn’t expecting). We then got the boat to the islands. It was a nice ferry with an upstairs and downstairs, and wooden seats, and even seats outside. We stopped at 5 islands and saw tons of beautiful scenery on the way. The water was so clear, and the islands reminded me of the coast of Italy—and Capri especially. There were gingerbread houses lining the islands, and lots of trees and nature and cute streets. I was outside most of the time taking pictures of the view, and then we got of at what we thought was the last, and biggest island, but it was really the 4^th one. It was really cute, and didn’t have many tourists on it, which is what I like. We all got off, and everyone stopped to eat, and I just decided to wander for an hour. There were many stray dogs and cats, which is always the case in Istanbul, and 3 decided to follow me and be my friend. I saw lots of cute cafes and horse carriages (their taxis, since there are no cars on the island), and I walked up past some dilapidated buildings to a park. I was surprised to see so many old buildings. I couldn’t tell if poorer people lived on the island or not. There were some nice houses, but most of them were run down or completely abandoned. I would love to live on this island instead of the city, but I feel like a lot of poorer people can’t afford Istanbul, and the island is their only other option. I walked past a lot of fishing boats, and then wandered around the park which had the most amazing panoramic views. I walked down to the beach, and through trees, and up a tower which had a very rickety staircase. I just couldn’t believe the views. Sometimes I see something that I could just stare forever at. I try to open my eyes as wide as I can and take it all in, but it seems impossible. That’s what this was like. I wandered back, since it was getting close to the time I was supposed to meet everyone, and I saw 2 horses, one white and one black, on my way. I then met everyone, and we tried to find the clock tower (the first stop on my walking tour of the big island—which we thought we were on). We couldn’t find it, for obvious reasons now, so we just wandered and saw more amazing views, and then took a steep path up the island past a cemetery. We saw a large white building, which was school, and all the school children were getting out for the day.  The whole island basically looked the same—nature, cute, quaint houses, no traffic. It seemed like I stepped back in time.  We found an acorn and decided to try it, and it was really gross. It made my mouth instantly numb, but I always want to try everything! It was getting a little darker now, so we walked down the one main road with cafes, and walked into an amazing smelling bakery to try some Turkish cookies. We walked into a church, then watched the sunset from the dock, and had apple tea in the café where everyone ate lunch, but somehow the price of tea quadrupled since they had been there before.  We got the ferry back to the mainland (where we found out we were in fact on the “wrong” island the whole day). I sat Indian style on the seats, and a worker came up to me and told me to put them down. I sometimes forget how relaxed American society is about things like that. I remember in France once I put my feet on the back of a subway seat and they yelled at me and said “this is not NYC”. This person wasn’t as mean about it, but it reminded me how strict they are when it comes to that.  I just watched the lights of the city on the way back and relaxed. 

Nov 10, 2007

            Happy Birthday Christina! Today I went on a hike about an hour and a half outside Istanbul called the Ballikaya Hike. It was led by 2 expedited local hikers as well as our tour guide, who translated. It was supposed to be really intense, so I was a little nervous, but I knew I could do anything. We drove through a lot of the outskirts of the city, where there was mostly industry and gas stations and the area looked really run down. It was nice to see that part of Turkey because a lot of times when you just stay in the city you really don’t get a good view of the rest of the area, and just assume the whole country looks like the city you are in. we stopped at a monastery to go to the bathroom, and then we began to hike. It was raining on and off, but that made it all the more fun. We started walking up a steep dirt road, then through little paths, and then a paved road, and then we continued on paths. There are numerous paths all around, so our guide could choose which ones he wanted as we went. At first it was all through fields, where we saw orchards and sheep herders with their bells, and we saw lots of green and fall leaves. I slipped, and was our first casualty, because it was muddy, but by the end of the day everyone was filthy anyways! The terrain began to change, after we saw a mistletoe tree. We ascended down, and then there began to be rivers and streams, so we walked through rocks and then up to a waterfall and a water basin for lunch. Everyone ate, and I climbed the rock and just looked out at the view. The terrain changed so quickly, and it was all so beautiful. We all assumed we were just going to turn around and go back because the area after the waterfall looked treacherous, but we continued straight. It took about 30 minutes for our group of about 30 to pass the first set of rocks because they were slippery and steep and narrow. Everyone went slowly, and people landed hands, and we all made it. We had a dog that followed us, and he was having a hard time, and fell and got stuck, but we all rescued him. He was a trooper. We then continued for a couple more hours to walk in this canyon. We were in the bottom near the river bed and all you could see when you looked up were canyon walls. There were a lot of experienced hikers on our trip, and they all said no one in the U.S. would ever allow this to happen, because it is pretty dangerous, which made it more exciting for me. I felt safe because I knew these people knew what they were doing, and there was a little litter and cigarette butts on the trail, so I knew people had been there, and survived before. We ascended these huge cliffs and then descended them again. There was one point, after climbing a very steep rock that we were on the top of the canyon, and looked down onto another waterfall and it was so gorgeous. I felt so powerful for being able to scale the rocks and to see where we came from, but I felt tiny at the same time. It was getting a little late, it was around 2:30pm and we were supposed to be done at 1:30pm, so people began to get a little nervous because we were still in the middle of the canyon, and the adult leader on our trip was nervous and saying how this trail cannot be the normal route, which is seemed like, but in hindsight it was, and they knew what they were doing, and we ended up being fine. One girl fell in the water and broke her camera, but she didn’t mind because she was having so much fun. The attitude was just great and everyone bonded because we were all in the same position, and you bond faster when you are doing something physical like that, or scary. Sometimes our outsider’s views just aren’t correct. We just kept climbing and walking and all of a sudden the canyon tapered off and we reached the end—where there was a little café and bathrooms, and a lake with geese in it. It felt so good to be back and we all celebrated and congratulated our dog for making it. There were some point when we were in the canyon climbing these rocks that we had no idea how the dog would make it, and we were all nervous he would get stuck or be lost, but he ended up making it. We then got the bus back in the pouring rain, and we decided to head over to the Grand Bazaar because we were told not to miss it and it’s not open on Sundays, so it was our last chance to see it. We were going to take a tram there, but a man in a BMW inside the port who worked for a hotel and was bringing people back and forth from another cruise ship ported next to us, offered us a ride there because he was going in that direction. I tend not to trust anyone, but Meg and Kelly did, so we hopped in. Kelly’s roommate got a knife pulled on her last night when she was coming back in a taxi late at night with another guy from SAS, and she was robbed of her money. I don’t take taxis ever, because I like to walk and I feel like it’s easier to walk and you see more, and a lot of the time it’s quicker to walk because the traffic is so bad. Our driver was nice, and was talking about how he visited CA and NYC once, and told us about his life a little. I was nervous because it was cold and rainy, and the drivers aren’t the best in Istanbul and very impatient, and do things like drive on the tram tracks to bypass traffic, but we made it to the bazaar safe and sound. The bazaar is this huge underground area of every shop you can imagine. They started as individual outdoor shops, and then they put a roof over them so it is now enclosed. It is so easy to get lost as there are many paths, and all the stores look the same after a while. I didn’t need anything, so I just went with Kelly and Corey and Sheena and enjoyed window shopping. There was everything from leather jackets to jewelry to copper to carpets to gold. We walked around until it was about to close, then walked back through the streets to the spice bazaar. Everything outside was closing down. So the streets were deserted and there was lots of garbage anywhere, and it reminded me of India again, but then when we got onto a street that was still open with shops it looked totally different—busy, clean, cozy. We went in the Spice Bazaar (for the third time), tried more Turkish delight, and then walked back to the ship. When we were walking back a SAS girl got hit by a tram, which was scary, but she was okay. Kelly ran on the ship to get out nurse, but the girl walked away fine.  I walked across the street to a cozy café which had wireless, and spent sometime on there updating pictures and talking to people, but then the wireless cut out.

November 11, 2007

            Today everyone was planning on doing a lot of different things for their last day, so everyone split up. I wanted to go to the 5^th Prince’s Island since I never made it there. I wanted to catch the 9am ferry over, but I only had 15 minutes and I thought that that would be too rushed to walk over to the port, so I waited on the ship until about 10am to catch the 10:30 am. Kelly and Corey came along, but when we got there we found out that the ferries had been cancelled for the day because of high winds. I was wondering what would happen if someone lived on the island and needed to get to the mainland to go to work, but it was Sunday, so I thought maybe they can only cancel them on weekends if they need to, but I still didn’t understand how that worked. We decided to walk down the street further in that direction because we never had explored that area. We didn’t see much besides some more cafes and shops, but we walked the whole length of the Palace and saw 2 more of the guards, but this time they were standing in big plastic boxes because of the wind and rain, and I thought they looked like toys. We headed back the other direction after an hour or so, passing the ferry port again, where we ran into lots of other SAS people waiting around not knowing what to do because their plans had been changed as well. Two of the girls decided to play “would you rather” saying things like “would you rather go to the right or left” and figured out their plans that way. Two of the boys decided to go to burger king, and the other 2 boys decided to come with us. One of them was Graham, Ryan’s roommate, so I have seen him around but never spent any time with him. Him and his other friend don’t travel all that much and aren’t a fan of walking. They took a cab three blocks to the port, so I knew this would be interesting. I told them that I’m a walker, and I knew my way around, which they were very impressed with. I like getting to know my way around and being able to recognize a lot of streets by the time I leave a port. That is always one of my goals. We started walking to the bridge, because they wanted to eat and I told them there was this cool restaurant under the bridge. On the way a shoe shiner “dropped” his brush, and Corey picked it up and gave it back to him. He then walked away, but then came back and offered her a free shoe shine, which she didn’t take. Graham said that has happened a lot to people he knew, and they purposefully drop their brush and then do a “free” shoe shine and make people pay. We walked under the bridge, which took about 45 minutes and Graham said he was enjoying the walk so much and felt like he was really seeing things, which made me proud. We went to a restaurant which had bean bag chairs for chairs. There were tons of chairs outside, but we decided to go inside because it was warmer. We all sat down on these massive cushiony chairs, and the table was very close to the ground. I have always wanted to sit on the ground and eat off of a low table, which I almost did in Africa, but I never got to it. I didn’t feel good ( and still really don’t.. it may be because of all the peanut butter and jelly, so I am just going to drink tea and have fruits and veggies for the next little while—or at least 2 days until Croatia and see if I feel better. I am always really sore from the hike yesterday, but it sure feels good!)  I sat in the restaurant and enjoyed the view from the bridge, and then we left and ran into a few SAS kids fishing off the bridge. Tons of locals do that everyday and Corey and I were actually saying how we wanted to do it. These boys bought some string, a hook, and some shrimp, and were fishing without a pole. We stood there for about 5 minutes and they caught 3 fish, which was impressive! Everyone was cold after 5 feet so we hopped into another place and they all got apple tea. We then got over the bridge (finally) and the boys wanted to shop underground where you cross the road (mostly sneakers and shirts) and Kelly and Corey didn’t feel good, so they went back to the ship. I can’t go back to the ship while in port because I feel like I am wasting so much, so I began to wander. I know the area very well, so I just went down other streets and saw more of the area. I walked past lots of people selling corn on the street, which was really tempting to eat, but we aren’t supposed to eat any food from street venders and I wasn’t feeling good to begin with, so I decided against the idea. I walked along the old walls to a very nice gift shop, then into the Topaki Palace Park. The paths were all cobblestone and the breeze was perfect and all the leaves were falling. Every bench was taken up by a couple, and it was the cutest thing. I sat down and a cat sat on my lap and I just sat there for a while and relaxed. I then walked up the street to the Blue Mosque area, and saw that again from the outside, then went into an old Turkish bath. Turkish baths are baths in which people get bathed by another person. You can either go in and bring your own soap and towel and bathe yourself and pay something like 6 YTL or you can go in, and someone will bathe you and scrub you down, and you lie down on a stone slab and get a massage for about 40 YTL. This building used to be a bath, but is now a carpet store, so I went in and saw the architecture and all the rooms. I then went into a building where there were graves of numerous Sultans, and then walked through the Hippodrome, and then down another street with a gorgeous view of the blue mosque. A man then came up to me and wanted to have a beer with me which I said no to, and he knew I was from SAS because I feel like if 600 people descend on a city for 5 days, everyone knows. He asked where I was from and I said Canada—he said where in Canada, and I said Montreal, the first thing that popped into my head, and then he began speaking French. I thought that was humorous, and then he said “so you don’t go out for beer with people you meet... even cute guys” and I said no, and he got cranky and walked away. I then went across the street and saw another graveyard, and then decided to start back to the ship since it was getting dark. The sunset was amazing once again. I noticed that in Egypt and Turkey every night the sunset was so vivid. I heard it was because of the pollution—aww pretty pollution! I walked back to the ship, seeing lots more mosques on the way. On my way home I was observing lots of things about Turkey, which I usually do at the end of a trip because I want to take in everything. I noticed that “Bay” is “men” and “bayan” is woman for bathrooms (which you have to pay for). I also noticed that they spell a lot of words phonetically like Taksi and Polis. I also realized that gas is 2.59 YTL a liter, which is over $8.00 a gallon, but it seems like a lot of people still drive, even though there are buses and trams. I was going to go on the internet in the café across the street, but I got back on the ship and fell right asleep from 6-9pm, and then got up to have some tea and journal! Two more days until Croatia!

Just a side note—a lot of things have been going on on the ship that makes me question the politics of everything. A while ago, a couple of kids stole alcholol from the captain and some other kids got really drunk to the state that they had to be wheeled back to the ship in wheelchairs. Both of these actions, especially the first one, is defin ite ground for getting kicked of the ship, and they were supposed to leave in Egypt. It was Captain’s orders for the first 2—since he was directly involved, and the Dean’s orders for the other ones. They ended up staying because all of the kids parent’s hired lawyers and threatened to sure. This made me angry because 1. We signed a waiver, but supposedly that wouldn’t matter in court, which is ridiculous and 2. this shows that kids can do what they want and they in fact wont get kicked off the ship, which sends a bad message and 3. this shows that money can do anything. This makes me sad because this shows me that a lot of these kids haven’t learned a single thing on this trip. Don’t get me wrong, most of the people on this ship are amazing people who are here for the right reasons, but a lot of them are just on a booze cruise because their rich parents wanted them to experience the world because they probably realized that their kid is a mess. I don’t understand how these people can do this, and how they go to clubs every night in Turkey after this, and spend $50 on a cover charge and $400, yes $400 on a bottle of Tequila. Did they not go to India? Do they not realize that some people are dying because they cant find a meal… that $1 or a pack of pens can save their lives? I am a believer that you cant go on this voyage and come back the same… but I am losing hope. I wish the world was a little different sometimes.  

November 2, 2007

I woke up at 4:10am, after 3 hours of sleep to go to the pyramids to see the sun rise. We all got down to the lobby, and got our boxed breakfasts in gift wrapped boxes (I love the Hilton), and headed out in the pitch black. We saw the pyramids and I thought it was eerie at first since it was dark and you were just approaching these massive pyramids that have been around for 5,000 years. We all sat in the desert as it got brighter and brighter. The great pyramid was hidden my fog, but the sun began to rose, and was burning off the fog, and one by one the pyramids appeared. It was so surreal. There were lots of camel riders around wanting us to ride the camels (but we had already planned to ride certain ones through the tour so we didn’t have to worry about it). We watched the sun rise, and then at around 6:30am, we got to ride a camel. Meg and I rode one, I was in the front, and she was in the back. Even though the whole bus of SASers were doing the same thing, our guide asked what route we wanted to take, and said we had to pay more if we wanted to do the long one (they always try to rip you off, so that’s why we paid a little higher price, but that way it was settled through the tour company and we didn’t have to worry). We went from the edge of the desert to the base of the 3^rd pyramid and back. It was really fun and our camel guide took lots of photos. Our camel’s name was Moses and Meg said “Kait, I can’t believe we are in Egypt right now at 6:30am riding a camel named Moses” and we just laughed at how funny life is. The camel was a pretty smooth ride for me, but I heard the back was rough, and people’s legs really hurt. It was scary when the camel kneeled up and down because you felt like you were going to fall over its head. We then got on the bus and headed to the middle of pyramids 2 (the middle) and 3 (the Great). We walked around one side of the Great Pyramid (which can fit St. Peter’s Basilica inside), and I was just amazed at the size of it, and its individual rock sizes. I always saw pictures of the pyramids, but didn’t really see up-close pictures and didn’t know how it would look. I also saw the opening where people dug out some rocks to try to find the opening of the pyramid. We then ran into a man trying to sell things, and he put a turban on Meg’s head (who he called “Rose” because she was “like rose from the Titanic”) he kept saying “free free” and we didn’t believe him, but he insisted on putting it on. He then wanted to take a picture with her, and wanted her camera, but I said no, and he pointed to the “tourist police”, which I saw very little of, but we were told they were helpful, but I never knew who’s side they were on. He pointed to the man, and he flashed his gun, which made me more uneasy than ever, and we just said no. He then wanted money, but we just gave him his turban back, and walked away and ignored him. Lots of Egyptians we met along the way kept telling us to tell other Americans to come to Egypt and tell them that it’s safe and that Muslims aren’t bad, which meant a lot coming from them. Meg and I then put our cameras on the bus, and headed into the middle pyramid (which is 445 feet tall and is the only one that has some of the original limestone left on it—on the top).  I didn’t even know going inside was an option, but I was so excited when I heard you could get tickets to do that. The inside was really narrow and you had to climb up and down, and it was really hot. There were other stairs up further but they had long since broken, and there was another room but it was blocked off because it was being excavated. We then got into the room the coffin was in. it was a large room with writing on the wall of the person who discovered the coffin and the date (a French name). I decided to climb into the coffin. I just laid there and couldn’t believe I was laying in the coffin of the person the pyramid was built for. So many things were going through my head—so much time. So much history. No one knows who was buried there because when they discovered it was empty because grave diggers must have gotten there before. I was laying in the coffin, and some other SASers came by and looked in and jumped so much because they thought I was a mummy. It was pretty funny. I didn’t know if it was disrespectful or inappropriate to go in the coffin, but I wasn’t the only one, and I figured I should because I like to experience everything. Sherri, Meg’s roomie, then scared me and said “I bet there is a curse on it and everyone who lies in the coffin dies” I thanked her and then she climbed in! I then met up with Molly and V and Jill from the other trip and we took lots of fun pictures around the pyramids or us touching the point, and jumping, and all sorts of things. We then drove down to the sphinx. There is a temple right next to the sphinx which is in ruins in the front, but it decent shape to the side. We walked through that, taking “model” pictures along the way (we asked a kid from SAS to take pictures of our whole group, and he got carried away and it was funny), and then wandered around the sphinx, taking more classic pictures and enjoying the view. The sphinx is a mixture of a man’s head and a lion’s body supposedly there to guard the pyramids. There is controversy though as to which was first—the sphinx or the pyramid (chicken or the egg anyone?) because many people think the sphinx was made after the pyramids to guard them, but it is off center, which doesn’t seem to make sense. Its nose is blown off by Napoleon’s troops during firing squad practice. We then drove through Cairo to go to the Citadel. On the way we saw the City of the Dead, in which a lot of poor people live. It is a city full of graves that are above ground (like New Orleans) but people live amongst them, and it’s a small town with a mixture of graves and people. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It reminded me of Israel, even though I have never been there; it is just what I imagine it to look like.  We then got to the Citadel right before noon time prayer. The Muslims pray five times a day, and Friday, which is when we were there, is like their Sunday. One doesn’t have to go to the Mosque five times a day, but rather just prayer right where they are facing Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. We walked in, took off our shoes, and walked inside with ornate carpets inside. The ceilings were so high, and ornate, and there was a huge chandelier in the middle. We went into the courtyard, which was the original entrance, and there was a bell tower and very ornate gates over the windows. Our tour guide was so informative, and hardcore. Some locals were being loud and annoying some of us, and she went over and yelled at them in Arabic and then was like “so... anyways”. I liked her so much. We then saw Mohammad Ali’s grave (no, not the boxer), which was in the Citadel, and listed to a man praying, which was beautiful. We then had an hour of free time around the citadel so I wandered around alone, and saw the panoramic views of Cairo, with the pyramids in the distance, and then walked on the other side of the citadel where all the locals were gathering for the noon time prayer. I went and saw the area where two museums were, and then went into another courtyard where lots of school children (mostly 10-12 year olds) were gathered. Lots of them came up to me and took pictures with me and asked me my name and shook my hand and asked me about school. They spoke fairly good English (is that good English?) and I asked them about how they like Cairo, and if they like school, and they all said yes. One girl gave me a croissant with chocolate in it, which was sweet. One girl kept calling me “sugar” and she was so adorable.  A few of them followed me and kept saying bye and waving. They were so adorable. I felt like I got to get to know the locals the best when I was alone, and I really like being alone sometimes. I just can do what I want when I want, and I can think and take more stuff in. I then met my group, but only a few people were there, including my group leader, Meg (who is an RD—like an RA). We were all getting harassed by the older boys, so we decided to walk down to the buses. Come to find out, everyone else was on the bus, and we were supposed to meet there, and out leader just didn’t know—whoops! At least we didn’t get dock time ( time that you have to stay on the ship in a port for a certain amount of time for punishment for being late for your bus and holding up the whole group) because our leader was confused. We then went on a river cruise. We went on a huge boat, which reminded me of home here on ship. we had another amazing meal ( you can guess what I had—pita and hummus, and then a small banana like in India with Egyptian ice cream on top—which tastes like ice cream mixed with frosting, which is never a bad thing). I sat with some people I had never met, including a guy named Zach, who is really into photography, and they were really awesome. At first we listened to elevator music, but then there was live Egyptian music, and a belly dancer (who danced with students, and with Dr. Mac, our global studies professor, and a whirling dervish dancer (which is big in turkey, but also in Egypt on a smaller scale). This guy impressed me so much. He spun in circles for literally 10 minutes, and I didn’t get how he didn’t pass out. He has on a dress with flaps, and made shapes with his dress, and it was beautiful. I then went out on the front of the boat and watched as we cruised the Nile, and took it all in. Brit was sitting out there, and ended up falling asleep, and when she woke up she and another girl were the only ones on the deck and she was scared we left her for dead, and we all left. I really felt like our trip people really bonded and we all cared so much about each other, and everyone looked out for everyone else, and it was just really nice. We then headed to the large Bazaar. It was in an area with a huge mosque, and cute streets to walk down. I walked around the bazaar a while with Meg, then walked around on my own. I shopped a little, but then had 2 hours to just wander, so that’s what I did. I walked down side streets and saw how the locals lived. I saw sheep on roofs, on the street, old women with hunch backs and canes, which were picture perfect, and people selling fruit, and hookahs, and people walking with large bags and things on their heads. I had my head covered, and my wedding ring on, and I never felt safer and never got harassed. I feel like when I walk around with others, who are blonde for the most part, and don’t cover their head, I run into more problems than if I travel alone. I saw people selling vegetables on the street (literally) and out of truck beds with flies all over it. I know why you should never eat street food in countries like this. The whole area looked so ancient. I went into a spice store, and then ran into “Mike” who was supposedly from Ohio, but he hardly spoke English and was Egyptian looking. He wanted me to come into his shop, but I said no, and he said how he wanted to get a visa to go back to the U.S., but couldn’t, and wanted me to marry him. I continued to walk, but then had to turn around because I didn’t want to wander too far, and he got really excited and was like “did you change your mind!” Men are so bold in Egypt—you have to give them that! I was told numerous times that I looked Egyptian, which is hard to believe, but lots of SAS people didn’t even think I stuck out in a crowd because of my attire, which is a good thing. I walked down lots of narrow streets with large carts that almost hit you. You had to be careful and run over to the side of the street as these massive carts with people pushing them went by, or you would get run over. the streets are so narrow and there is so much going on. As I was walking back to the mosque, a man said the funniest pick up line ever. Someone bumped into me, and a man said “oops, you dropped something”, so I turned around, half walking still, and he said “my heart... will you take it”… I chucked and kept moving. Oh Egypt... how I love you. I saw the sunset, and saw lots of cats (which there are so many stray of) and walked around the mosque. All the men went in to pray, but the women couldn’t enter, and they all sat along the outside on carpets. A woman came up to me and asked if I was Egyptian or Muslim, and I said no, and she said that I was beautiful. She was so sweet, and talked to me for a few minutes. People in general were just so friendly and seemed to not be afraid to walk up to total strangers and tell them what they thought. On one hand it can get annoying but on the other hand, I think it’s a good thing. I’m all for telling people how you think and fell. I think we need more of that. We then went to the sound and light show at the pyramids, which remarkable.  It was dark out, and they have a show at the pyramids and sphinx. It’s narrated, and tells you about the history or the pyramid, and has voiced of the pharos, and sound affects of the happenings at the pyramid, and had music, and had lights that went along with it. It was so dramatic and made everything seem real. It made me realize, for the first time, how old these pyramids really are, and how many people have seen them. Napoleon. Pharos. Jesus. Everyone. Something was said in the narration which stuck out “Men fear time, but time fears the Pyramids”. Whoa. I didn’t want to leave when it was over, but we had to catch the bus back to Alexandria. We all got on the bus (after people stopped for a quick dinner) and we all slept on the way back for 3 hours because it had been a jam packed day. Meg got really sick on the way back, and my stomach ached that night, but I took Tums, and it went away. So many people for sick in Egypt from the food, which was surprising, but I didn’t get it too bad, which I'm thankful for.

            November 3, 2007

Today I traveled with Meg, Krista, and a girl I never met named Beth, who is from California and a really awesome person. I love how SAS allows you the opportunity to travel with so many different kinds of people.  I feel like I recognize most people on the ship, but don’t know a lot of them, and its great to be able to meet people and really get to know them when there is only a few weeks left of the journey. There are so many amazing people on this ship. we first wanted to walk to the catacombs, which Krista went to yesterday, and supposedly knew how to get there. She got a little lost though, and we asked numerous people how to get there, but we were going in circles. We asked for the catacombs and pointed to it on our map (it didn’t help that we had a map in German... the only language they had left) so much that Krista and I started signing a song with the word “catacomb”. We found Pompey’s Pillar, so we decided to go in there first. This is an area where a lot of ruins from the Roman times are. We walked around the area, and saw the pillar, which is the biggest in tact ruin, along with a lot of Sphinx’s and roman baths, and cellar holes. It was really interesting to compare those ruins to the ones I saw this summer in Rome. The ones in Rome were larger and vaster and more in tact, but these ones definitely had an Egyptian accent which I thought was interesting. We then walked up the street to the catacombs, which were a lot different from what I expected. The only catacombs I have ever been in was in Paris, in which you go underground and you walk through paths underground with literally thousands of skulls and human bones all around you. These catacombs had no bodies or bones, but rather empty shelves that bodies were. The catacombs were robbed a long time ago, so no one was left. They were actually discovered when a donkey fell through a whole in the area, and then the whole area was excavated and everything was discovered. We went underground via a spiral staircase, and just saw all the empty shells, the area where they lowered the bodies, and a case full of bones that looked like animal bones ( they were too large to be human). We then saw the main area where the catacomb owners, who were Roman, were buried. The stone was carved with dragons and beautiful scenes. There was a statue of the two people who owned the catacombs, and three coffins. We learned about the art work in and around the graves by another tour group’s guide that was there, and then we headed to the room where the families went to grieve when someone they knew died. This room had three long stone tables where people sat around and had a feast when someone died, and then every year on the anniversary of their death. We then went back above ground and saw more coffins there, and went into another area where there was another tomb that was painted. We then met Krista outside, who was talking to two men from Switzerland about China and its corruption and the controversy around the Olympics. I have heard a lot about this, and now, since I have been there, have my own opinions about China and they “government” (or as I like to call it, their “regime”). We then went to the Roman amphitheatre. We had trouble finding this because our map wasn’t that great. We asked someone in a car where it was, and they offered to drive us there, but we decided not to do that because of safety and you just don’t know who you can trust. We walked through a market where people were buying and selling food. This area looked like nothing else I had seen in Egypt so far. It was really crowded, and there were food scraps and flies and dead rats all over the place. It reminded me of India. We walked along that, and along the trolley tracks, which was a fun experience. Most people walked along the edge of the tracks because it was the only place you could walk, but trams kept coming, so you had to run to the side, and when you did you were in someone’s hut selling something because it was so tight. Sometimes trams came and you had to run into to people and duck to get out of the way. I thought it was a lot of fun of course! We then had 3 guys ask us where we were going, and they brought us to the amphitheatre, which was just 5 minutes away. Beth and I then went in and saw the amphitheatre, which was redone. It was found when people were digging ground for an important government building. Everything seems like it was found by accident! We got a guide who basically described the English sign explaining everything, and then we walked around. We walked down to the stage area, and stood on a certain spot where your voice echoes. It was like you were talking into a microphone, but you weren’t. When you were facing the audience, right at that spot, your voice was clearly audible, but if you turned around or got off the spot it was hard to hear. I thought it was amazing that people could figure this out so long ago—an old fashioned microphone. The amphitheatre was restored because it was in ruins when it was found, and now it looks perfect. There was also evidence of a school being very close to the amphitheatre because there were large rooms there with a slate that was used as a blackboard. We then walked around, saw more ruins, and then enjoyed the outdoor museum there. This was made up of lots of items found from dives in the Mediterranean from a city that is now underwater. There were lots of pictures of the city underwater and the dives and the process of raising the ruins and bringing g them down the street, and stabilizing them, and then putting them in the museum. It always amazes me that a lot of cities that were the center of living thousands of years ago are now underwater….but evidence of them still exisits. I really wanted to scuba diver around some ruins, but I ended up not being able to. We then headed to the ATM, and then walked along a road with all the embassy’s and a school for Russian, which we went into to get directions, but since we didn’t know Arabic or Russian, it didn’t help. We then went to the same restaurant we went to the first day over the boardwalk, and I had fata (a traditional Egyptian food with pita bread and rice and vinegar and garlic), and stuffed grape leaves. Meg and Krista then headed back to the boat at around 3pm because they didn’t feel good, and Beth and I decided to try to find the site where the old Alexandria lighthouse was. We walked to the library, and asked where the site was, but was told it was a half hour cab ride away, so we decided to just walk along the beach, which was really nice. we put our feet in the water, and looked for sea glass, then walked along the water, watching the sunset. We then got back to the ship, and Beth introduced me to Nasser, and man who had a shop right outside of the ship who Kelly told me all about the night before about how he was really nice and gave her good deals. He did cartouches (an Egyptian type of jewelry in which people have necklaces or rings with their names in it in hieroglyphics). I didn’t want another ring, so I asked if he could just put my initials in the ring I always wear (the big silver one with lots of room for engraving on it). I didn’t want to spend too much money, so I asked if he could do it, and he said he would do it for free. That’s how Nasser is. I went back to the ship because he said it would take a couple of hours, I journaled, had tea and ice cream (kind of like you daddy), and then bough Nasser a snickers bar and reeses because I heard he liked chocolate, and then went back to the shop with Kelly, who knew him from before. I got my rind, which is amazing, and Kelly and I just talked to him for about an hour. He told us about his wife, and how he travels to Italy a lot, and his son, and how he sets his own hours, and is going to take a vacation after the ship left because he was working for 5 days from early in the morning until all hours of the night. It was nice to sit down and just talk to someone from Egypt and get an incite into their life and culture.

            November 4, 2007

Today I did something that everyone says not to do—and I’m sorry parents—but I traveled alone, but I was very careful, and I have a good sense of whets safe and not, and it was amazing, and I’m not telling you until its done with, so you don’t have to worry now! I decided to sleep in until 9am, and skip breakfast because I had gotten little sleep the whole rest of the time. Christina had made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and put it on my bed side table which was such a nice surprise when I woke up. I didn’t really have a plan for the day because I had seen every big place to go to, so I was just going to wander and see where that left me. I was curious the whole time what the large building that looked like the U.S. Capitol building was across from the ship, so I decided to venture there first. I walked and walked, and there were no tourists anywhere, which was nice for a change. I saw where people lived, people with their children, and hanging up their laundry. I wanted to go to an orphanage, where lots of SAS people went on a trip, so I asked around but no one knew where it was. It was just as well because everyone who went said that there weren’t even any kids at the orphanage because they were all at school, so they just saw the facilities, and it was really disappointing. I ended up going past a school, so I walked in and wanted to wander around, but figured I should check in with someone first. no one seemed to care that a foreigner was in their school, no one even paid attention, but I asked the people at the front if it was okay to walk around and see the children. they said they only had older children there, and I wanted to see younger ones, so they said to go next door. The school next-door was an all boys school, and I thought that that would be overwhelming for me when I was alone, so I just continued to walk. I finally reached the building I was looking for, but it was blocked off. / it is a military building, and no one can get close to the building, or take close pictures of it. A man came up to me and was really nice and explained all this. I continued to walk, and saw where the President lives. I looked around the gardens a little (where the public is allowed). I then ran across the guard, who gave me a bouquet of flowers (it was the Egyptian Valentine’s Day, so maybe that’s why, or maybe he just liked me). It was funny because I was used to this treatment, but he was the guard to the President’s house, and as he was talking to me a taxi with a man in it flew right passed him and through the gate. The guard said “hold on” and ran after the taxi, and made them back up. I thought it was humorous that I distracted the President’s guard and a random taxi flew through the gate. I then walked up and down the beach which was gorgeous. I took my sandals off and walked in the water, which was a prefect temperature. There was a man in a scuba suite who was diving and fishing, and lots of other people along the water sitting in chairs and fishing. I walked in one direction but the man in the scuba uniform said not too because it was getting too close to the Presidents house, and I wasn’t allowed to.  The water was so clear, and it just was a nice change of pace from the city. Whenever I walk onto a beach in a city I feel like I can just take relax and unwind. The beach was fairly empty, and only a few fishers were there. there was some pollution, as well as lots of straw dogs, and a horse standing in the water, which was weird. As I walked along, I picked up lots of pieces of pottery with different designs and paint on them. I don’t know where it was all from, but the pieces were really pretty.  There were people making yachts out of wood along the beach as well. I had never seen ships being built, so I watched that for a while. Three of the stray dogs began to bark at me, and I got a little scared because of the dogs that almost bit me in South Africa, I turned around, which I learned one should do when being approached by dogs so they don’t feel like you are competing with them. A man came out and stopped them, and then asked me to sit down for tea, but I decided to keep on walking. I was just wandering, and ran across another school with hundreds of kids outside in the courtyard. I wanted to go in, but this school had security and you had to show ID and sign in to go in, so I figured I wouldn’t be allowed in. I then came across the Naval Museum, which is housed in this castle looking building right on the edge of the ocean. Come to find out, it is also the location of where the Lighthouse of Alexandria ( one of the original 7 wonders of the world) once stood ( not a 30 minute cab ride away after all—people tend to exaggerate I found out). I sat on a block near the water, and just relaxed and took it all in. Three school boys then talked to me and wanted to show me around. They showed me how to go in the museum, but I wasn’t that interested. I just wanted to find a place that I could snorkel, and also go to the largest mosque in Alexandria, which they said they would bring me to. These boys were younger, so I felt safe, and I trusted them. We first went to a small mosque right along the water with views of the water and the fishing boats outside of the windows. I decided that if you see one mosque, you’ve seen them all, but it was still interesting to see. We then got to the large mosque, which was a whole complex. There were fountains in the front, and it was on the Mediterranean, and was just gorgeous. They then brought me to the scuba place, but it was full for the day because of all the SAS kids who did it, and they didn’t offer snorkeling, so I couldn’t do it. Another time! The boys then left, and I ate a pear and had some water while sitting on the stones along the beach. I then walked to downtown, and walked along the middle of the street where there was a grassy area, and statues. I just went down all the roads, and saw stores, and people selling lots of books, and a bakery selling baklava and other amazing foods, and ran across a street completely full of every bank you could imagine. I passed the Opera House, and decided to go in. It was dark and empty, but no one said anything, so I walked in, and saw the inside, which was full of painting, and a schedule of events. They had festivals listed for November, and also a free viewing of “Babel”. I saw the seat and the stage, and then walked near Ramil Station. As I was trying to get to the mosque on the other side of the street (there was a train track in the middle of the road, and you couldn’t get around it), a man came up to me and wanted to be my friend. He said he was 21 and a University student, and wouldn’t leave me alone. I was trying to think how to get rid of him (he was harmless but just annoying) and he asked if I had a boyfriend, I flashed my trusty wedding ring, said I was married, and that was that. I realized that everyone respected that, which is good. I then finally made it across the street and went to a park with a bunch of busts of important people from Egyptian history. I then walked to the same restaurant (third time) and had some more fata while looking out onto the water for the last time. I just watched the traffic go by, the horse carriages, the water, and SAS people go by. I then walked along the boardwalk, to the bazaar, which wasn’t going on yet because it was only 4pm, and everything doesn’t start up until later, and then walked through another market with veggies and people selling live chickens to eat, and then went back to the port, and sat and saw the my last Egyptian sunset.

October 30, 2007

            We are almost in Egypt! The time on the ship has been going by so fast and I didn’t think it would. We haven’t been on land for 11 days and I didn’t even miss it that much—I am becoming a real good shipmate! I have been doing everything I have wanted to do the last 10 days—besides classes and work and 2 tests, I have been watching a lot of movies and house and sitting outside and journaling and going to talent shows, and doing yoga and Pilates. I went out on the deck a lot and just looked at his moon and meditated and met new people and listened to an amazing piano player ion the union. I usually don’t like piano music—I find it kind of boring, but this person is so good. He picks the most amazing songs, and seems to enjoy it so much.  Yesterday night after class we had the best meal ever. They prepared us a surprise barbeque on the 7^th deck and it was amazing. There were all sorts of hamburgers and hotdogs and ribs and veggie burgers, which they never ever have. They also had tons of corn and bread and deserts and ice cream and everything you could think of. They set up all three decks and had sculptures made out of fruit and chocolate and we all sat outside for 2 hours and just ate. I have not eaten that much in 2 months, but I figured I should eat when I can! Then Meg and I put our feet in the pool, and then went to cultural pre-port. We learned that Egypt has 2 seasons—hot and hotter. It’s going to be about 90 degrees during the day and about 70 at night, which is so nice! We have to cover up though—all the way down to the ankles, and long sleeves and not even any flip flops! They have tons of pita and hummus though, which I’m excited about. We learned how to count to 10 in Arabic and to NOT walk like an Egyptian! After pre port there was a Halloween party. Everyone got really excited about it, and people had amazing costumes. I worked the door for an hour, and stamped people coming in, and got to see all the costumes. It was in the Union—and people just kept pouring in. there were people in lots of different cultural uniforms, and Doc Nancy was a snake charmer, and there were people who dressed up like pepto bismol, and ketchup ( my favorite) and monopoly pieces, and everything. I joined the party after I was done stamping, and just danced and had lots of fun. I didn’t have a costume, ( I know lame) , but I had on a wig ( which people really liked and said I should get my hair like that—some people thought I just cut my hair—but I thought I looked like an Egyptian) and I wore orange and black. After it was over at midnight we all went up to the 7^th deck and slept out. We were not moving at that point because we docked in line to get into the Suez Canal that night, so we were just looking at some skyline of Port Suez, Egypt. We sat out there, talking and playing games, and semi trying to sleep until 4am, and then we decided to go in because it wasn’t too comfortable because the ground was hard even though we all had sleeping bags. I am going to try to sleep out another night when we are in the middle of the ocean, and take a yoga mat from the gym to sleep on. I definitely want to do that before I leave the ship! this morning, after 3 hours of sleep there were people drumming and screaming through the halls because it was SEA OLYMPICS where the different seas (the groups on the ship—kind of like buildings on a normal campus) all competing at different events all day and the winner gets to get off the ship first in Miami (which I don’t want to do.. I want to stay on here as much as possible!) After lots of noise and people banging on our doors, and announcements from the voice, I decided to get up with just 4 hours of sleep. I went outside and saw a sock wrestling match, then a toilet paper fashion show, limbo, slippery twister, big hair competition, synchronized swimming, which was really good, and then trivia and ping pong. Our sea is the Adriatic Sea, so I wore all white (our color) and out team name was the Adriatic Attackers. All day I was just outside enjoying all the fun and games, and enjoying the Suez Canal. It is really thing, and there are rarely passenger boats going through it, so people were waving to us along the edges. There are many boats in front of us and behind us, all carrying cargo. It amazed me that we were actually in Egypt. I stared at the desert all day long, and it never got boring. There were some tents and huts and towns and a sign that said welcome to Egypt. Most of the time it was just sand and sand dunes on one side, and then on the other side it was lush green and houses and resorts. It amazed me how diverse the ecosystems are, just a few hundred feet away. I even saw Egyptian billboards and a toll that looked like a mosque. It looks so different than anything I have ever seen, and I'm still trying to believe that I am in Egypt and people live in these little towns in the middle of the desert!

October 31, 2007

“Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect, it just means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections” - anonymous

            Halloween in Egypt. How amazing is that! I woke up at about 9am because I felt like sleep was more important that waking up early and having breakfast, and it was much needed. I wasn’t as excited to be ported in Egypt because we had seen lots of it through the Suez, so I didn’t have that urge to jump out of bed and run outside at the crack of dawn, which I had in all the other countries. I went to the Diplomatic Briefing, which talked about appropriate dress, customs, etc., which was just a review because we already went over it all in detail in the preports, then I went outside to look at Egypt. The port is the nicest one since Hong Kong, and it looked really clean and almost European looking. It was overcast (which is rare) but hot. There was a building across the water that looked like the capitol building—all white and was round and everything.  I was not expecting to see architecture like that in Egypt, and that was my first impression, but as I would see later, the architecture is so different, possibly the most different than I have ever seen anywhere. I looked around and just saw lots of apartment buildings with laundry hanging off of them. The ship was then cleared around 10:15 and I went with Meg and Krista to walk to the famous library of Alexandria. The original library burnt down and is under water, but this library is the new one, built near the old site. As we were walking out of the port, we saw a mosque and decided to stop. We took our shoes off (because people kneel and touch their lips to the carpet and they don’t think it’s hygienic to walk in with shoes, even though if you saw our feet you know it wouldn’t make that big of a difference anyways) and then we went inside. It was a fairly simple mosque, but there were oriental carpets on the ground, and a few people praying, and pictures on the walls. We then went back outside but realized someone had taken our shoes, and wanted money to get them back. We were warned that everyone would want “bakshish” or tips for everything. We thought this was funny since this was our first stop 2 minutes outside of the port and this was already happening to us. We ended up taking back our shoes, and not having to pay. We then were trying to find an ATM and walked up and down the same street a few times trying to find it. There were lots of stores with apartments above them along the street but a lot of places were closed, and sometimes the sign outside the store didn’t match the store, so it was hard to find. We then made it to the waterfront where there were lots of people fishing and there were nice views of the beach and the city and a beautiful castle looking building on the end of a jetty that is a Naval museum. We also walked past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where guards were standing by at attention with guns, like the one in Arlington National Cemetery. We then walked along the waterfront (which we would do a lot that day) to the library. There was a ball like the Epcot ball outside, which is a planetarium and a pool of water outside. It is a very interestingly shaped building, and looked very modern. There were some pyramid shaped structures on the building, along with windows along the whole ceiling. We first went into the conference center because we thought it was the library, but we looked around the mini-museum in the center, which consisted a lot of pictures of Egypt and all over the world. We then wanted to go in to the library, but you had to walk and get a ticket and check in your bags. We got a ticket, and the line for bags was so long. There was a line for boys and girls, and there were only 4 or 5 people in the male’s line. There were about 100 people in the line, and it went so slowly. We were told that we didn’t have to wait in line because we were foreigners, so a man brought us to the front on the woman’s line. I felt really bad because most of the women were students waiting to hand their purses over, and I felt bad just skipping all of them. It still took about 10 minutes to check in our bags, but we finally did, and we went inside the library. We got an English guide and she brought us around the library. It was so different from what I expected. At first, before I went, I expected an old library half under water, and then I read in our Global Studies book that half of the library was underwater, and visualized it actually being underwater, but they meant below sea level. The library was really well constructed, and had 5 of its floors underground, and had windows with “eyelids and eyebrows”, which helped with the rain water, and also made the room remain light during rain storms. We also saw all the old press machines, and then the state of the art machine for book printing, which is only one of 2 in the world (the other one is in D.C.). one just type in the title of any book in this machine, and it will print it and bind it right away—any book.  We then saw a few museums in the library which housed some of the original things from Egyptian movies, including the Mummy. There was also an online database which has many books from cover to cover in it, and you can search for any picture of word, and the text will come up as is, which is pretty awesome. You can even access it from home! Another cool thing was these fire curtains that came down and divided the library in half which would stop the fire from spreading. The thing I liked the most about the library was on the outside. There was this huge stone that went around the outside of part of the building with all different letters on it. They actually had no meaning, but were just different letters from various cultures around the world all coming together as one. After the library we walked to try to find some Egyptian food. It was interesting because it was hard to find. A lot of the places along the boardwalk had American food, or ice cream, but not things like fata or pita and hummus. We finally found a place, and we were brought upstairs, and had a nice view of the city. There were other SAS kids there, along with 3 Egyptians sitting and smoking hookah. We all ordered pita and hummus. They were playing American rap music and rock music, and we noticed that in a lot of places they played that music when we were in there. we figured that they think we will like that because that’s what we are used to, but what we really want is to listen to their cultures music. It’s nice to think that they want to play it to make us feel comfortable, but it was hard to find places that played Egyptian music. after that we walked along the street and went to lunch #2 because Krista and Meg were still hungry. I noticed that everyone was smoking hookah. I knew it was a big thing in Egypt, but didn’t realize how much so. people just sit outside of cafes and smoke it (and never take it out of their mouths) and people sell them everywhere, and it’s on the menus and everything. We then walked across the street from the library because there was a long jetty, but it was closed to the public. We decided to just hang out by the entrance and look out over the water. Some people came up to us, which was very frequent here. People are very friendly, and very flirty. Most people will say “welcome to Egypt” and say “hello” while others will follow you asking you questions about where you are from and if you have a boyfriend. I think all in all they are just trying to be nice, but as an outsider we have to be careful and weary of others, and that makes some of their behavior seem worse than it is. Something in particular that I noticed was that children are always so excited to see you, and unlike the older people a lot of times, don’t have any ulterior motives. They are just so excited to see someone that looks different from them. I thought about it and kids in the united states are told never to talk to strangers and they would never treat others the way they do. I think it’s better for them to explore. Anyways, we talked to some of the people by the fort, and bought some cotton candy in plastic bags because we were curious to see what it was because it looked strange and we didn’t think that they would have cotton candy in Egypt. Two guys then started to walk with us, as we saw the sunset along the boardwalk. We talked to them ( one Mohammad – like 90% of the male’s – we saw 4 boys outside of a mosque earlier in the day and they were all names Mohammad-- and the other guys  name that we were walking with I forgot). They brought us to Ramil Station, where I got stamps to send letters to some friends, and then walked around where there was lots of shopping and McDonalds, and the internet. We then headed back to the ship and realized that people stay up late in the Egyptian culture. the street we walked through that morning looked completely different. Everyone was out, and it was now a huge night bazaar. People eat dinner late here (9 pm-midnights) and people come out at night. It was nice to get a glimpse of the nightlife!

November 1, 2007

Happy November! I woke up this morning and was so excited to go to Cairo—it’s what I was really excited about in Egypt and I was ready for the adventures to begin. I got on bus #2 (the group was big, so we split into 2 groups). Our guide’s name was Manal (she said it’s easy to remember because its Canal with an “M”, she said just don’t call her Canal!) The first thing she said that this would not be a sleeping bus, which I was excited about. A lot of times people sleep the whole time on the bus because everyone is exhausted from everything, but I like when the tour guide talks a lot because I love learning about where I am. Manal told us all about the history of Egypt while we drove through the desert. The drive was about 3 hours, and I learned and saw a lot. There was a city center, which was a mall and a grocery store, and there were police checkpoints along the way. We learned that Egyptians have these pigeon houses, that look like elongated bird houses with lots of holes in them. They house them and then kill them and stuff them. Manal said they taste BETTER than chicken. We also learned that the pyramid shape of the pyramids represents the sunrays, Egypt is knows for its “3 golds”: white, which is cotton, black, which is oil, and yellow, which is gold. We also saw and learned about the houses for the farmers, which are the lower income houses. On the way I saw lots of donkeys and pita everywhere, which made me really crave pita. Manal also told us about things that we would see over the next two days. We learned about the dung beetle, which are self pollinating beetles, which roll their eggs in dung, and then they emerge from it. We also learned about the mummification process and how they threw out the brain because it was considered useless, and they took it out through the nose. They kept 5 organs—liver, intestines, lungs, stomach, heart—in canopic jars. They felt like the heart was the most important part of the body, hence the saying “follow your heart” and “brainless”. We also learned that King Tut was really a nobody—he was really young and didn’t really have that much power. It’s amazing to think that if he wasn’t important and had so many treasures, what must the important people have? I also learned that no one knows how he died, but some think he was assassinated because there is evidence that he had a skull and knee fracture. After Manal told us all this information we were almost in Cairo and got our first glimpse of the pyramids. They were in the distance and looked like shadows, and we all got so excited when we saw them towering out over the city in the distance. We then drove past them to go to our first stop—the Pyramids as Zoserat Sakkara and Masataba. This was the first pyramid ever built, and was called a step pyramid because it was made out of solid steps—the only solid pyramid there is. First we went into the Mastaba, which is a large tomb with painting and carvings in it. A lot of the carvings and paintings were still in tact, and represented daily life—like fishing. Manal also pointed out some old Egyptian humor in some of the carvings (one of the men was represented as a midget—yah, funny humor!) I was just so amazed and in awe that I was in the Egyptian desert. Everything around us was sand, and there was a guard on a camel, and I couldn’t believe it. I then went underground to another tomb, and then headed to the step pyramid. There were lots of SAS buses there, which was kind of annoying because threw are 500 people there at once, but that way I got to see all my friends which were nice. I walked around, and touched the pyramid. My first impression was that the stones were much larger than I thought. I climbed up and felt so small next to each individual stone. I looked up and couldn’t even begin to see the top of the pyramid, and this was not even the Pyramids that everyone knows—the bigger, more famous ones. We then walked around the area, and saw lots of camels and donkeys, and people wanting us to ride them. They will do anything to get you on an animal—they even picked my friend, Shiree, up and put her on one. You have to be careful because when you get on a camel, you negotiate a price, and they agree, but then they won’t let you off unless you pay them a lot, so you end up getting ripped off. We then headed to lunch—the best meal I've had in the last 2 months. We went into a hotel which overlooked the pyramids. We all walked in, and people war playing music for us. we then had a buffet—which was so large, but unfortunately I couldn’t eat most of the dishes because they contained meat—but what I had was plenty! I had tomato soup, pits and hummus, chickpeas, and some deserts. Everything was amazing and the variety was spectacular. I also tried some Egyptian prunes, which grow on the palm trees around Egypt (these are different from the coconut palm trees). We then headed to the famous Museum of Antiquities (Cairo Museum). On the way we saw the Cairo Tower, which was put up by Nasser, and now has some nice views of the city. It is now a symbol of pride. I also saw the opera house, which is not the original one, but a large, new one built on a different site. I also got my first glimpse of the Nile, which looked so different than what I thought. For some reason I imagined it to be this little brown river in the middle of the desert. It really looks like every other river though, and it blue and wide, and there are tons of buildings and hotels around it, and there are tons of boats on it—mostly dinner or lunch cruise boats. One I got that quick view from the bus, we got to the museum which is housed in a gorgeous red brick building. In the plaza outside the museum we saw this really interesting bird with a very long beak which was endangered, which a lot of biology people got excited about. We all got our tickets, and had to go through the turnstile. There were about 100 SAS students there, and they all got through no problem. Meg was ahead of me and they just said “hey, how are you?” and smiled, and then they wouldn’t let me through. They let every single other person through. Except me. They didn’t believe I was a student even though ever other person had a student ticket. They began harassing me and asked me for a student ID, which I did not have. I told other people to get our tour guide, and they tried, but she was too far ahead. Two other girls then helped me, and the guard showed my ticket to someone else, and after much arguing with us they let me in. I don’t know why that happened. I thought maybe because I had my head covered and no one else did, so maybe that made me look older, and I also had my wedding ring on... I don’t know though. We walked in and first saw a copy of the Rosetta stone, which I wasn’t impressed with just because I saw the real thing in the British Museum in England. It is so important though in Egyptian history, and was the keystone to uncovering what hieroglyphics was. We then saw  a statue of Caesar, which was strange because everything else in the museum was Egyptian and I didn’t understand the connection, but we learned that Caesar had an affair with Cleopatra, and she had a cesarean section, hence the name. I thought that was pretty interesting. Everyone else on my bus went and saw the mummies in the museum, which you had to pay a lot more for, but I decided not to see them since I saw plenty of them in my travels. They are very interesting though because you look at people with skin and hair still in tact from hundreds of years ago—sometimes thousands. The whole group was gone so I wandered a while by myself, and then I joined another tour group from SAS (since every group was there). I saw wedding clothes of people from thousands of years ago, jewelry, flowers that were put on a grave of a wife who was killed by her husband (yes, the original flowers), bows and arrows, and some mummies. I didn’t see the actually bodies, but I saw the wrappings. I also saw the sarcophagus of little infants and fetuses (which they buried at that time). It was really crazy to think that these are real Egyptian mummies. It’s just something you always hear about and never think you will actually ever see. I learned that the Romans painted the faces of the people who died on the mummy as the Egyptians either left the facial area blank, or molded gold around them to show the actual features of the person’s face. Every covering of a mummy always seemed similar to me, and distinct facial features weren’t apparent, so that was something interesting to look out for. I then went into King Tut’s room, which was air conditioned, which felt nice because of all the crowds. I noticed the lack of security in the whole museum, and especially in that room. I was looking at all these priceless things, and nothing separated me from them. Some items weren’t covered at all in the museum, and you could just touch them, even though there were signs saying not to, and some other things had glass around them, but were only locked up with a little padlock, and there weren’t many cameras present, which surprised me. King Tut was found in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, and most of the items found were brought to the museum. He is still in the Valley of the Kings though because his mummy was in such bad shape that they didn’t want to take the chance and move it to Cairo. I saw Tut’s mask, his coffins (1 and 2—as there are many layers of coffins for mummies, but they are all so ornate and completely gold), I saw the jewelry that was placed on the mummy, the toe and finger coverings (which I noticed that the toe coverings were just as long as the finger coverings and was wondering if their toes used to be longer, or if that is just how the coverings were made. I actually stood there and pondered this for a while, and couldn’t figure it out.) I also saw completely gold sandals, which I thought I needed a pair of. Outside of the room I saw huge cases in which some other coffins were found, along with a map of the Valley of the Kings which put everything into perspective. There were many rooms in the Valley—one with treasures, one in which Tut was found, and a room with furniture in it. Lots of people went to Luxor, but I decided not to because even though it was cheap to get there by train it took 8 hours, and I didn’t want to waste so much time traveling when I only had 5 days in Egypt. I then went into another room where all of King Ramsis items were. I found myself reading every detail of everything ( even though the sings were really short and non descriptive when you really think of the importance of what you are looking at, but then again its shortness probably is what attracted me to the idea of reading the explanations as at). The long beards on the masks represented when the mask was made. If the beard is straight it means that it was made when they were alive, and if it curled, it meant that it was made when they were dead. I saw more coffins and the canopic jars with his organs in it. I then went downstairs and saw some more statues and then went outside to meet my group at 5:40pm, and it was already dark. It was weird to get used to the sun setting so early. We then went to our Hotel—the Hilton, right on the Nile River. It was so fancy and I was so excited to be there because it was just so luxurious. We were assigned roommates, but lots of people wanted to change to people they knew or were friends with, which trip leaders usually don’t allow just because it makes things complicated. The person who I was paired up with wanted some other roommate, even though I never met her, and didn’t realize this, so things got really complicated and messed up, but to make a long story short, I got to be along in a huge double room, and I was the happiest girl on the planet. I was on the 22^nd floor, and had this massive room with 2 queen sized beds with lots of pillows, and a walk in closet, and a huge sofa and comfy chair, and a bathroom with a BATHTUB, a fridge, and a balcony overlooking the Nile. I could have stayed there all night. I just couldn’t believe I was in Egypt in my own room having such a wonderful view of the river and the whole city. It was so nice to be alone for a night because I have not had more than an hour alone for 2 months because everyone is always on the ship together and there is really no space to get away. I went out onto my balcony and just looked out on the city and heard the night prayer. The sounds of Cairo are mesmerizing. It’s just humming and music mixed with honking and people. I then went downstairs and met Meg in the lobby because we had an hour before dinner. We ended up walking along the Nile, and across the bridge and just looked out onto the water. Everyone was out at night, since it’s big in their culture to stay out late. We saw lots of people selling pita on the street, and meg bought some chips ( one bag of ketchup flavored ones just for me.) it was funny because she asked how much a bag was and the old man said 1 Egyptian pound, and the younger one said 2 at the same time.. so it’s obvious they just make it up, we thought that was funny). I looked for pomegranates, but they only sell them for drinks, but I was determined to find a whole one someone would sell me. We also saw lots of horse carriages, and lots of people saying “hi” to us, and being really excited. I noticed that Meg and I ignored every male that said “hi” which is just something you have to do eventually, but every girl that said “hi” or came up to us we were willing to talk to. I felt bad because that’s such discrimination, but I know that girls have no other ulterior motives, and they are on our side! We then crossed the road (with a little boy who was selling something and wouldn’t let us go) and walked through another Hilton. It was funny because every place has security and metal detectors, but they beep and no one cares, and only some entrances have them, so if you had something to hide, you would just go through those entrances, so I thought that was a little ironic. Security seems tight in a lot of places, but it really isn’t. But then again, is it really tight in the U.S., or does it just seems that way? I feel like if someone wants to do something anywhere they probably can. I didn’t feel unsafe at all in Egypt though, and even though I was always on guard I didn’t really think of terrorism. There was one point when a bunch of tour buses were all in a row driving to the same place that I realized how much we stuck out and how easy of a target we were. We saw the museum at night, and a square close to the American University of Cargo, and I saw a metro sign. I didn’t realize they had a metro, but I saw lots signs for it. I never took it though.  We then walked back through the hotel through a large section of road which seemed like it was acting like a bus station. They have larger buses, like our buses, but they also have vans that people jump in and out of. the buses and vans never really seemed to stop, but people just jumped one and off as they pleased while it was still moving. We made it back to the hotel, and had another amazing meal—all I had was pita and hummus and baklava and fruit with chocolate on it from a fondue fountain. I loved the pita and hummus (and all the other 25 dishes they had had meat in it). A lot of us then wanted to smoke hookah because we thought it was an Egyptian experience not to miss. We were told at our pre port to make sure its safe and clean because a lot of times on the street (where its 50 cents for a hookah or “shisha”) they don’t give everyone individual mouthpieces, and the water is dirty, so we decided to do it in the hotel and be safe. Ryan, Meg, and I got a strawberry one to share and Jeff and his brother got an apricot one. I didn’t know what I was doing, so Ryan took a hit of Jeff’s and coughed like crazy which wasn’t comforting since he smokes hookah a lot. We got ours though, and it was “softer” which was better. we ended up just all hanging out, and more people came by, and we just smoked and talked for 2 hours. I also tried a few sips of Ryan’s Stella Egyptian wine, and Jesse’s red rose wine, which both were surprisingly good, since I’ve never found alcohol that I enjoyed. We had fun blowing smoke, and filling bottles with it, and glasses, and just having fun. There was a wedding going on in the hotel, so we joined that for a while (we were told if we ever ran across a wedding in Egypt to check it out because they are amazing). The music was all live and was full of drums and very upbeat and the whole hotel was involved. I am officially in an Egyptian wedding video. The wedding dress and suite looked like any other American wedding dress, but it was still gorgeous. I was just expecting something different. We then listened to some live music in the lobby, and then I went up to my room, took an amazing bath ( one of the things I miss most about being home), watched CNN ( which I miss even more), some Egyptian Idol show, and watched the half moon over the most amazing view in the world.

October 24, 2007

            My time on the ship between India and Egypt is the longest stretch for the rest of the semester, which is scary. I am really enjoying the time to relax and contemplate. I went to the crew talent show, and started to do yoga and Pilates and weights (which was the most intimidating thing ever because only huge guys do weights on the ship). I have relaxed and watched some movies, and been doing a bunch of work. I came to the realization that after we hit Egypt, the semester is basically over because we are there for 5 days, then we have 2 days on the ship, then we are in Turkey for 5 days ( which there are some political things going on there, but as of now we are still going, and if not, we may go to Greece), then have 2 days on the ship, then Croatia for 5 days, then 4 days on the ship, then Spain for 5 days, then all the way to Miami. I want to do everything in this stretch—work out, watch movies, talk with friends, play ping pong, go to lectures, and everything that I have been putting off. I have lots of work and the tests never end, but I am trying to make the most of it. I miss fall and miss home and am missing the Red Sox in the World Series, and missing people at SMCM, but I am loving this trip so far. I feel like I have already grown so much not only because of the cultures I have experience, and the people I have met but also the love and loss I have encountered. Everything is a growing experience.  There was a lecture in Global Studies that I really liked for some reason, but a lot of people weren’t as affected by it as I was. but I decided to just post it anyways… feel free to read it if you want, maybe it wont mean anything to you, but maybe, just maybe, it will touch you like it touched me. Some things just can’t be explained….

The following seven elements of art come from contemporary theatre artist and director Anne Bogart. They pertain to all arts, from all cultures, and, I think, will enable us to better understand the cultures and people we will be visiting on this voyage

1 - Memory

Inside every good play lives a question.  A great play asks questions that endure through time.

The act of remembering connects us with the past.  It alters time.  We become living conduits of human memory.

The act of expressing what is remembered is actually, according to the philosopher Richard Rorty, an act of RE-DESCRIPTION.  In re-describing something, new truths are created.

What is culture?  It can be said that culture is shared experience.  And it is constantly shifting.

An important element for any culture’s art is the ability to remember, their past, their problems, their solutions.  In the retelling lies the possible answer to the questions that are in all good plays.

When studying a piece of art, or a piece of theater, ask ‘how is memory a part of this world.  How is it used?  What is it telling me?

2 - Violence

All art is violent.  Because good art is decisive.  To be decisive is to be violent.

In good art, it is necessary to be articulate in the face of limitations - that is where the violence sets in.  This decisiveness (violence) at first seems limiting but actually opens doors and options, allowing more freedom for the artistic expression.

There is always an element of risk in art, in plays.  Risk is a key element in the act of violence.

Part of the act of violence in art is the act of unedifying - Unedifying means removing the uncomfortable assumptions about an object, person, words, and narrative by putting it all back in question.  What is instantly definable is instantly forgettable.

A couple of quotes from Pablo Picasso...

Creativity is first of all an act of destruction.

Violence for a painter is the first brush-stroke on a canvas.  Everything after that, as Picasso says, is correcting that initial action...

When you begin a picture, you often make some pretty discoveries.  You must be on guard against these.  Destroy the thing, do it several times.  In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather transforms it, condenses it, makes it more substantial.  What comes out in the end is the result of the discarded finds.  Otherwise you become a connoisseur.  I sell myself nothing.

Violence doesn’t have to be a car crash or a murder.  It could be as benign as a goodbye or a compromise.

So ask, ‘to what degree is there violence in this piece?  Why is it there?  What struggle does it define?

3 - Eroticism

Musician Alfred Brendel...   There is a tension that goes all the way through a piece of music and never lets up.  A long silver chord that one pulls on.  There’s always a force irresistibly pulling it from the first chord to the last.  You’ve got to get the audience from the first note.

Eroticism and attraction are major elements of any theatrical event.  It isn’t necessarily a salacious thing.  In Japan, men play the female roles and the idea is to exemplify what is an ideal femininity.  The beauty of the performance is capturing the perfection of what it is to be a Japanese woman.  And, again, men do this.  But it is more than mere presentation.  We are attracted to certain roles in plays, just as we are attracted to certain people in life.  Great art and great plays, no matter the culture, recognize this and utilize this.  It speaks of the culture and how they view relationships and roles. 

It’s like a romantic relationship, broken down in 7 steps...

1 - something or someone stops you in your tracks.

            In THE PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, James Joyce differentiates between kinetic art and static art.  Kinetic art moves you, static art stops you.  Joyce values static art.  Advertising is kinetic art - it moves you to buy something.  Political art is kinetic art - it moves you to political action.  Static art stops you.  Great art doesn’t move you to act, push you to buy; it stops you dead in your tracks.  You can do nothing else but study it and drink it in.

2 - You feel drawn to it.

3 - You sense its energy and power

4 - It disorients you

A great theatre even is disorienting because the boundaries of who is giving and who is receiving is not distinct

5 - You make first contact, it responds

Theatre is interactive.  The actors respond to the energy of the audience and vice-versa.  Quantum physics teaches us that the act of observation alters the thing observed.  To observe is to disturb.  We observe as audience members.  We are connected to that performance.  We are living with it.  The power of your observation can literally affect an actor’s performance (think about that next time you’re in a classroom).

6 - You have a relationship

American Conservatory Theatre Artistic Director William Ball once wrote that he considers audiences to be heroic because they choose to spend two hours not thinking about themselves.  That’s what happens in the best relationships.  This is possible with great theatre.

7 - You are changed irrevocably

If you have that relationship experience in a play, it is you showing interest.  And interest cannot be faked. (Again, think about that in the classroom sometime).   All of our greatest journeys in life are fueled by our interest.  Great plays endure through time because they address critical human issues that are still vital to a culture.  When we reach out to a play, when we make contact, we create a relationship with those issues.  With our interest in the subject and the action, something happens that changes us.

So ask yourself, ‘what in this play stops me in my tracks?’ and Why?’  That alone will tell you chapters about a culture, or at least feed you more questions toward discovering more about the culture.

4 - Terror

The artist’s responsibility is to bring the potential, the mystery and terror, the trembling back.  James Baldwin wrote, ‘The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers.’  The artist attempts to undefined to present the moment, the word, and the gesture as new and full of uncontrolled potential.

Watch for the terror in the films that are shown during this voyage, in the music that you listen to, in the performances in each country.  It may not be Hitchcock level terror, it can be very subtle.  But it is always present, always real and always very revealing to the character of the culture.  In the face of terror, beauty is created and, hence, grace.

Ask yourself, ‘how is terror used in this story, this piece of art.’  ‘What is the reaction to that terror?  What does it reveal?’  How is there beauty or grace in the reaction to the terror and what does that tell me about this culture?’

5 - Stereotype

Great theatre breaks stereotypes down, reinvents and recreates what it is to be human.  It is a direct reflection on whom and what a culture sees it as.  It presents it, and it tears it apart.  It lays assumptions bare.  The weakness and wrongness of those assumed stereotypes are broken open.  Great theater and great art uses stereotypes against itself. 

At the same time, great theater must recognize its own culture’s stereotypes so that it will know what to attack. 

All culture’s forms of theatre reach out and touch the past through literature, history and memory so that we might receive and relive significant and relevant human questions in the present and then pass them on to future generations.  Stereotype helps achieve this end.

Ask, ‘how does the presentation of a stereotype help break that assumption down and redefine it for me?’

6 - Embarrassment

Every creative act involves a leap into a void.  In the midst of that leap, there are no guarantees.  That leap can often cause embarrassment - which is perfectly normal and right.  If a performer does not find them embarrassed to some degree, then the audience will not be moved by their performance.

Stated simply, if you have the potential of embarrassment in your performance, you will give it your all and people will be moved by it.  They will sense, not that you are embarrassed, but that you are driven.  Watch the performances of the people you see in the theatres you attend.  The ones that move you the most are given by the actors who are the most worried and embarrassed.  Not afraid, that’s something else.  If the performance doesn’t potentially embarrass the performer, then the performance is not intimate or personal enough.

This is one reason why the professional performers work so hard to perfect their skills.  They are always, always combating embarrassment.

T.S. Eliot - Art serves us best precisely at that point where it can shift our sense of what is possible, when we know more that we knew before, when we feel we have - by some manner of a leap - encountered the truth.  That, by the logic of art, is always worth the pain.

Ask yourself, ‘was the performance easy or was there risk and daring.  Was the performer aware of the possibility of failure?  If so, how did it affect her or his performance?  What did that risk, daring, potential embarrassment reveal?’

7 - Resistance

Theatre is the act of resistance against all odds.  Art is a defiance of death.  It alters who we are.  A great play asks big questions and addresses critical human issues.  Why bother with a small play with minor themes?

Eventually, real freedom is the removal of resistance from your path.  That is the journey of the play.

Ask yourself, ‘how did the act of resistance in this piece lead me to the main idea of the peace, the revelation of the question that is always in a piece of art?  How do I answer that question?’

Every day in the dean’s memo there is a quote, and this one I really liked:

 “I think wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow” – Anita Desai

I am going to have a lot of new parts of me when I come home.

October 17, 2007

            Today I woke up and saw the fields we were sleeping near, and the chicken running around, and the sound of children talking and laughing in the distance. There were some SAS kids that woke up a little earlier (about 6am instead of 6:30am) and were playing with some kids in the field. One boy was climbing all the trees, and we were jokingly calling him monkey, and he kept saying “my name is not Monkey!” We then walked through the village again, and met more people, and saw the inside of their homes. They were all one room that was mostly empty; some of them had one chair in it. They all slept on the floor on mats. All the houses had a Hindu shrine as well. One house just had a whole in the wall where the shrine was and another house had a whole room for the shrine, which was larger than the rest of their house. The thing that surprised me the most was that some of these huts had TV’s. It was just so out of context and the cable wire was just strung through their thatched roof. I assume that they steal the cable because I don’t know how they would afford it, and how it would even work with billing out in the middle of a Dalit Village. We also saw a hut that was used for cooking, and a woman showed us where she stored the rice and she also had a tomato and an onion, which was a big deal for her. Lots of women were cleaning clothes and fetching water, and some of the men were lifting sand with buckets on their heads, and some of them were constructing a house. One of the SAS boys helped with that for a while, but then he got cut, and they made him stop. It was nice to see the whole village up and doing all their chores at 7am. I saw a few of my friends who I had met the night before, and they sung us a goodbye song. We then sung “take me out to the ballgame” because that’s the only song we all knew. On the way back to the bus I talked to a girl that was in our group who traveled a lot in Nicaragua and reminded me a lot of Meg. We then rode back to the ship—I had 4 veggie burgers because they never have them except when we are in port—sometimes, so I like to suck in all the protein I can get—and then I ran to the Union to meet up with my Child Labor overnight group. I walked into the Union with my orange tie pants and my orange LL Bean Backpack and my orange sleeping bag, and Judy, who was taking attendance, and was the one who sings a lot on the ship, said  “ hey orange , what’s your name” and it felt like day one again when everyone knew me as the orange girl.. Oh memories! We all boarded the bus, and went 2 hours outside of the city to Kanchipurim. We went to the headquarters to the RIDE (rural institute for the development of education) and the President spoke to us about Child Labor and what he does. He said it’s not just political, but also economic. He said most of the people we will see work in quarries, which are really dangerous and illegal, but it still goes on. We went out our room, which was across the street and beautiful compared to what we had the night before. We had our own beds (even though Lauren and I decided to cuddle in one bed because we’re insane like that) and we had fans and 2 bathrooms for 20 of us, which was amazing! Its funny how something like toilet paper or a bathroom seems amazing after you realize so many people don’t have things like that. We then went on a “10 minute ride” to a village to meet children who were laborers, which was really a 45 minute ride. We walked into the school area, where there were numerous buildings (a lot which were donated by SAS from past voyages) and garden, growing every kind of fruit (which past SAS students planted like mangoes and limes and a really weird looking vegetable called dragon cucumber) and a school building.  We went into the school and met a lot of the children. There were about 20 of them, and a few of them gave a little speech for a minute or so, and then we were introduced to the Indian teacher as well as a German teacher who was working there for a little while. She was very soft spoken, but very friendly, and said she got her bachelors degree in international relations, and her masters in art, so this had nothing to do with anything she studied. She didn’t know Tamil, and found it hard to communicate a lot, but she loved helping the children. She only ate one meal a day because that’s all the children ate, and she looked so fragile, but what she was doing was really inspiring. The children really seemed to like her, and she was making a difference in their lives. The children invited us inside, and were in a circle, and they all introduced themselves. They all stood up one by one, folded their arms, and said “I am ….” I couldn’t help but think of “The Sound of Music” because it seemed so regimented. Folding one’s arms is a form of respect, I later learned. All the children worked in the quarries except for 2 boys, who just went to school there. The school was a place for them to learn some basic skills and for them to just be children. I met with children who work 8 hours a day in the quarries, and then go to a RIDE school, which allows them to be children. They learn basics such as the English alphabet, and they learn how to read and write, but they don’t have a syllabus because the whole point of the school is to just allow them to learn a little and be children. Many families do not value education. The parents never were educated, and have worked in quarries all their lives, so they see no point in it. They need money and a way to get food and survive, so child labor then seems to be the only option. More hands mean more money.  Women and children are often confined to the home in Indian society and are highly susceptible to involvement in factory work. Girls are born, and as they grow they participate in the work of their mothers, going to work in many factories, and also becoming a mother themselves, and doing chores around the house.   They get used to family life and although educational opportunities are available, children historically did not take advantage of these opportunities because they felt most comfortable by their mother and within their home.  .)  I talked about this issue with the President of RIDE and he said that many women and girls work, and the men often work too, but not as much. He also said that many times the father of the household takes the money he wife and children make all day and spend it on drugs. As we were walking we saw hundreds of little plastic bags and he said that they were crack bags that males bought for 10 rupees each. This shocked me because these families are so poor, and the reason why the children have to work is to get enough money for food, but when the money goes into the hand of the male it is often used for drugs, not food. The need for men to be educated and not girls was true to some extent in the history of the United States as well. Men were seen as the ones who needed an education, and it was rare to see a woman in college setting. Over time though, this has changed in our country, and now girls outnumber boys in college education. My visit to the RIDE school showed me the importance of empowering women. The issues of child labor is not just a political one, but an economic one as well. The quarries that we saw that hundreds of children work in are illegal and dangerous, but nothing is done about them.  In order to alleviate this problem, there must be a focus on the importance of education, as well as empowering women. This is what RIDE does, as they help women become independent, and through micro-loans, help them set up their own business—from weaving to fishing. This way they can make more money, and may not have to depend on their child for money, and then stop the cycle of child labor, and give a brighter future to their children. I believe that there is hope for the future for the reduction of gender inequality, and for people to finally view women and men as equals, and for child labor to cease. One of the boys I met said he didn’t like working in the quarries because it was hard work, but he loved his family, and he was happy. It was hard to see these children working so hard in bad conditions, and honestly, I don’t think they know the other options available, or how others live, so they are still happy. One brave boy asked us where we were from and why we were in India, and we responded “to see you”, which made him happy. We then played games with them, threw balls, and drew. I talked to the President about the $100 solution, and he said we could sponsor a former child laborer through one year of school at the Bridge school, and pay for teaching aids or recreational equipment, or sponsor a village on hygiene awareness, or even pay for a toilet for one village family. He said he would love to build a jungle gym, but it would cost $4,000. While we were talking we walked over the garden and there were vegetables growing and he was so excited. He said he loves watching things grow, and that’s why he does the work he does. He grew up in a wealthy family, and just did this work because he felt like he should help others. When he first started the project he almost got killed because the people in charge of the quarries bribed their workers to kill him because the people in charge did not want to have to pay their workers more than they currently were. They ended up not killing him, but they tried, and then the President talked to them and is now friends with many of the workers, and they understand what he is doing and why. The strength and courage of this man was really astonishing. We then walked through the nearby village (where we could hear the humming of the equipment in the quarries), and we saw some of the micro loan books, and then we went back on the bus to the headquarters, had a nice Indian dinner of curry (which wasn’t too hot, so I could eat it) and rice and bread). We then had a Q+A session, where we learned that education is not necessarily preparing people to get jobs, but empowering people. In families it is hard to break the habit of child laborers and the lack of education, so that is what the bridge schools are trying to do. He said that these programs are only scratching the surface, and much more of child labor is in looms (95%) as opposed to quarries (5%), so all his work is only a tiny portion of all the work that needs to be done. He also said how religion has a lot to do with this problem as well because religion has no regard for women and children, and everyone worked, and Jesus worked, so it is all in the scriptures. After that Lauren and I saw an elephant when we were walking back to our house and we wandered over to it, and it was all painted because there was a wedding going on. We walked around the block, but it was pretty dark and all dirt roads, and we were really in the middle of nowhere. I saw lots of toads and dogs. I did try to make friends with a few cows along the way, but that didn’t work too well, so we ended up going to our room, and braiding hair, and chatting. I then called mom and dad in the President’s home because I could not find a pay phone anywhere, and then I went to sleep!

            October 18, 2007

            Today we woke up and the wife of the President made us a nice “American breakfast” of toast and bananas and peanut butter, jelly, and chocolate spread (kind of like nutella, but not really). I never really liked bananas all that much, or ate many of them, but I ate so many in India, and really grew to like them. They are really small ( about half the size of normal bananas in the United States, and I loved having those with peanut butter on top—they even had mango jelly, which made me really excited. We then drove to a Dalit Village where many women were part of RIDE, and had micro loans, and are now making a way for themselves. We drove through lots of rice patties again. I didn’t realize India had so many—it looked like Vietnam all over again. They welcomed us, gave us coconuts, and talked to us about the micro loans. They all had on saris that said RIDE on them, which I thought was adorable. We then walked around the village, and met some more of the people and saw how they lived. This was kind of a repeat for me since I went to the Dalit Village, but it was a new experience for a lot of the people involved. I saw how they compost and reuse materials in the village, which I was really interested in. India is full of pollution and garbage all over the streets, but they seemed to reuse a lot of items in the rural villages. There was cow dung drying and coconut shells for fuel, and they separated the plastic from the rest of the garbage, and the compost. They composted a lot of food items and used it for fertilizer, and they reused a lot of the plastic. I also went into a person’s house that just had a baby 3 days ago. The mother looked very happy and the father looked so proud. I asked them what the baby girls name was and he said that they don’t name their babies until after a month, and no photographs are allowed until that point as well because so many children die at a young age, and they don’t want to get too attached or have too many memories of them (as in pictures) until they are sure they are going to survive. I never heard of that before, and it was really saddening. I can’t imagine being the mother of a newborn and trying to put up a wall so I don’t get attached to them. I can’t imagine going through all that and not knowing if my baby was going to last the month. As I walked along the village I just watched people and tried to imagine what their everyday lives are like. When I am in places I try to take everything in and really understand everything, but it’s hard for me to imagine actually living their lives. These things that I was seeing and experiencing are their realities. and it was hard for me to understand that. I was thinking to myself “okay, so this would be me walking around Barre and this would be my life. I saw a lot of toothbrushes being stores in the thatched roofs of people’s houses. Oral hygiene seems to be a huge thing here, and I noticed a lot of children brushing their teeth for an hour our so as we walked around. I asked the President how often they have to change their roofs, as I couldn’t imagine that that would be a huge financial burden. He said that they have to replace the, every three years, and it costs $90.00. that doesn’t seem like a lot, but when people are taking out loans for $20.00 to start a business, that is a huge chunk of money. before we left the village we got bindis (big red velvety ones) and the girls all got flowers in their hair. We then walked down the street a little, and through the rice patties to see some of the beauty that was around us. I was really excited because I never had walked through rice patties, and the nature around us really was spectacular. In between the rice patties there are dirt paths which are about 1 foot wide and fairly deep. We were walking along them, and my foot slipped on the side of one (because the edges were muddy because they were touching the water in the paddy) I over-compensated for me slipping, and went to the left and fell in the rice patty. It was pretty funny at the time, and still is. I was just sitting in a rice patty in the middle of India. I got out and was completely soaked and muddy, and who knows what else was on me. .those patties are a breeding ground for all sorts of insects and animals! The people on my group were so nice, and asking me if I was okay ( which I was ) and one of the guys offered me his shirt, and another girl offered me a spare skirt. Everything was back on the bus, which was a long way away, so I just continued to walk in my soaking clothes. Five minutes later there was a stream with nice clean running water and 2 Indian women helped me rinse off, which was so nice. Lauren took some pictures without me knowing, and my face is priceless—only me, I know… only me! We finally got to the end of the rice patties and we had the most gorgeous view. There was green all around us… more patties, palm trees, cows grazing, white birds flying… its really hard to explain, but I can show you the pictures in December. We walked along there fore a while, and saw a site where people are building a little temple/shrine because that location was supposedly the birthplace of one of the many Hindu gods. As we were walking back we noticed hundreds of little tiny plastic bags all tied up and on the ground. That was surprising to us because there was no other litter around, so we asked the President what they were—and the answer shocked me. He said they were crack bags, which men get for 10 R (or about 25 cents each). He said that many times the women and children work all day, and if the men get a hold of the money, they don’t buy rice or food for their families, but rather crack. You can hear this and hear this, but it never will hit home until you are walking along the outskirts of a village that uses child labor, and women are working and dealing with micro loans and income, and then you see hundreds of crack bags lining the street. I feel like education or something must happen… but I don’t know how. even if they were educated, would it make a difference? We then went to a silk weaving village, and watched as some people (in their own homes because they bought their own loom and are making their own money and business) made saris. I didn’t realize how labor intensive making something from a loom was. It takes 2 weeks, 8 hours a day, to make a sari. I would never have the patience for such a thing. We saw a normal (less detailed) sari being made, and then a wedding sari, which had more design and colors.  We then went to RIDE for another Indian lunch full of things I did not recognize, but I knew it was vegetarian, so I ate it. We talked to some more women who had started their own business ranging from weaving to fishing. All these women seemed so proud of their accomplishments and really seemed empowered. It was nice to see what one person could really do, and how they could make a difference in these women’s lives. We then had an opportunity to buy some items from these women who were working independently, and I bought a wall hanging. We then left, and stopped in town for about a half hour to walk around the streets. Lauren and I just walked (which is an experience in itself). The traffic was so crazy—with cars and people, and on sidewalks, and buses, and bikes and everything you can imagine. We just looked at some shops from the street, and people selling fruits and vegetables. We then turned around to head back to the bus and there was a carriage being pulled by a water buffalo. There were about 15 people on the carriage and they were all waving and smiling at us, and telling us to come over. it was across the street, so that was a feat within itself to get close to it, but we eventually made it, and hopped on the moving carriage, and spent about 5 minutes just going down the street, trying to communicate with the people ( even though they spoke no English). It was really a fun experience and made me feel like less of a tourist (because on SAS trips you are always in big buses, etc. And I like experiencing life like the Indians do).  We then took the bus back to the ship, and another day in India was over.

            October 19, 2007

            It was our last day in India, and I couldn’t believe it. The time flew by, and I was not ready for this to be the last day at all. meg and I woke up early and decided to make the most of it. We both had a trip at 1pm with SAS, so we wanted to wander around Chennai on our own until then. We first took a rickshaw to the beach because I had seen some slums near there earlier and I wanted to go there again, because I feel the greatest when I am surrounded by poverty. I don’t know if that is the right choice of words, but I feel like I belong surrounded by poverty. I love helping people and meeting people, and I feel like the impoverished are some of the most amazing, vibrant, happy people around.   We sure found the right area—there were people washing their clothes on the sidewalk, which was full of women selling fish. There were hundreds of little fishing boats lining the beach. And this is their livelihood. Everyone goes out in the morning and fishes, and then they sell their catch all day long.  I don’t understand how they make any money because first of all, they are all selling the same things, second of all, they have so much fish, and I don’t know who could eat it all and number three, I don’t know who they were selling the fish too because there were definitely no tourists, and no other people from the city,. The only people around lived in the slums, and had little to no money. We walked along the very busy, dirty sidewalks and just waved to people, especially the children. There were some houses (little one room huts, and then buildings that people would have a room in) across the street, but on the beach side people were living in tents on the beach. We walked along the beach and really couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The beach was covered in garbage and feces and everything imaginable... this same beach, just a half a mile down from where people were flying kites and swimming in the ocean. We met numerous people—and I gave out a lot of power bars and cereal. These people were really hungry, and I know that I can’t change their lives, even though I want to, but I feel like helping them even for a moment is better than nothing. We then walked through one of the streets of this slum, and saw people’s everyday lives. It seemed like everyone was out, trying to sell things, and make their living, and just going about their daily activities. Meg and I were the only white people for miles around, and I loved it that way. People said “hi” and were friendly, and some asked us for food or money (which we ran out of at that point). It was just a really good experience to have and I really want to go back. It reminded me a lot of the townships in South Africa… except those were a lot cleaner. It’s the same idea though—the times when I am surrounded by people that are living with the absolute minimum is when I feel fulfilled. I feel like I can help people, and I like that feeling. Meg asked me if I thought that a lot of stealing went on in the village because people are so desperate and there is no security or locks or anything. I didn’t really know, but I said that I really didn’t think so because people all know each other, and are all so close, and they are all in the same situation. They probably understand that people have to work so hard for what they have and they wouldn’t steal from others, and if they did everyone would no and it would cause so much conflict within the community. What do you think?  We then took the rickshaw (which had been following us for most of the time even though we didn’t want him to) to the shopping area. I didn’t want to go in stores or a mall (which they had a type of indoor shopping type place) but a street market. We got dropped off, and it was exactly what I wanted. It was on one main road, and there were tents just lining the streets with shirts and skirts and flowers and jewelry.  We also went into a local convenient store which sold items from candles to rugs to shampoo… kind of like our dollar stores. There was a candle at the entrance, and there was so much smoke in the store from burning incense. It was so crowded and there were items all over the floor, but Meg was trying to find a mug and some Tupperware for the ship, which was quit a feat. When she was looking I went upstairs, which was full of Hindu shrines and statues and so much smoke that I literally could see what else was there. I decided to wait outside while Meg checked out. When I was standing outside a man came up to me who wanted to sell me drums, but I said no and then he continued to talk to me about SAS ( because everyone in the city knows that any white person who is fairly young is going to be from SAS). I told him our schedule, and all the countries we were going to, and he was really excited for me. He even knew the ship was leaving that night! Meg finally came out of the store about 15 minutes later because the checkout procedure was very complicated. You had to show your item to someone and get a receipt and leave your item at a counter. You then had to go to another counter to show them the receipt and pay for it, then you had to go back and show them another receipt that you paid for the item, then pick up the item, you then had to stand in another line to get a bag, but Meg decided to pass on that step, and just walked out with the item.  She then realized that she could have just walked out to begin with (which she would never have done) but just the point of the craziness of making sure you pay for it, and then you can just walk out with the item at the end…We shopped for a little while, and then we headed back to the ship for lunch before our socioeconomic trip with SAS. On our way back to the rickshaw a woman came up to we with her baby and we literally had nothing left, except a little bag of Captain Crunch which I gave her. We then took a rickshaw (with a meter, which was a miracle) back to the ship. Every rickshaw, by law, has to have a meter. But, in India, like everything else, law doesn’t really mean much. The meter is used for locals but as soon as a tourist walks in it is “broken” and they charge you 5-10 times more (which is still cheap for American standards, so usually people don’t realize how much they are getting ripped off). The meter was still on, so he could tell us it was broken, and we said “meter, meter”. He drove us a little bit, then stopped, and tried to tell us we had to pay more than the meter, which was expected, so we said okay. He drove us to the ship, and we paid him a little over what the meter said, and then went on our merry way. We were pretty proud of the fact we went in a metered rickshaw because that’s unheard of!  The 25 minute rickshaw ride metered was less than a dollar. Meg and I then ate in 10 minutes because we had to meet our group, but it was delayed for almost 2 hours because group A was stuck in traffic, and we were waiting on their bus. We just sat in Timitz Square and hung out and talked, and we finally left. This socioeconomic tour was supposed to bring us to “the worst slums in Chennai”. We already saw really bad slums, so Meg and I were thinking about not going, and just continuing to explore on our own, but we decided that we already spent the money, so mine as well go. The trip ended up not being anything really. We drove for 2 hours, because of the traffic, to a place that looked like a palace compared to what we had seen earlier in the day. On the way to this place we passed bad slums, but we didn’t stop there. I don’t know if they didn’t want to expose us to what I had seen, which would be the whole point, or if they couldn’t just unload a whole bus of people in the middle of the slums. I was actually happy they didn’t do this because that would be awful for a large tour bud to just go to a slum like Meg and I had gone to earlier in the day, and just take over basically. This place knew we were coming and wasn’t in bad shape at all. People lived in nice huts, and some of the women were learning how to sew for 10 R for 6 weeks, so they could be independent as well. We saw some more children, and walked along a dirt road with lots of people and cows and crowds… authentic India. I was thinking to myself a lot on this trip and I was wondering why a lot more poor people live in the city rather than the country. I would never like to be a homeless person in the city—I know they probably get more money that way, but you would be sleeping on a sidewalk and be surrounded by people and noise and traffic and pollution. I would much rather be in the middle of nature and just enjoy the beauty of it. And have nothing. I understand if people have nothing they couldn’t get to the rural areas, but I would just stay in the city to get enough money to get a bus or something to the country (which is fairly cheap) and then go from there. Who I am to speak though?  I also talked to someone about the trash situation, and they said that the city and the villages all had free trash pick up, but they didn’t use it.  He was one of our guides, but didn’t speak English very well, so I couldn’t understand why they didn’t use it. I guess it would be a bother for them to get bags and put the trash out on the correct day, etc. it’s easier to throw it in a huge pill eon the side of the road or in the bushes.  We then got back to the ship, and still had 3 hours until on ship time so Meg and I decided to walk around the port area—and let me tell you, we only spent about an hour, but I learned more in that hour than I learned in the socioeconomic SAS trip, or possibly my whole time in India. We first went to a store that had a “Welcome SAS” sign because we come every semester, where Meg bought some henna. We then went outside the gates, and Meg was trying to find an internet place because she had to do something for school that she couldn’t do on the ship computers. We walked along the sidewalks, passing people sleeping on the streets, and having only stumps for arms. There were hundreds of people on the sidewalk selling DVDs for really cheap. In Hong Kong we thought it was a good deal to get a DVD for $3, in Vietnam, we thought it was a good deal to get DVDs for $1, and in India, they sold 8 DVDs for $1. I really didn’t know what to buy, so I didn’t buy anything, but Meg bought some Bollywood films, as well as all the Harry Potter films. We asked someone where the internet place was, and they told us across the street. Right then 3 kids clamped onto my arms. At first I thought they were just like all the other Indian children I had met, just excited to see me, but then I realized that they wanted more. They would not let go. There was one older girl (about 9) and her 2 younger brothers. She kept asking me for money or food, and that her parents had left them, and they were all alone. I didn’t really know if I should believe them or not, because I heard that a lot of times parents send their children out to beg because they get more than adults do. I thought to myself as these 6 precious hands were tugging at me- does it really matter if they are lying to me? They obviously don’t want to be begging on the streets to total strangers. Even if they do have parents, this is their reality. I didn’t have anything for them—I literally had no more money left and no food, and it broke my heart trying to ignore them, because really, you can’t ignore that. I just looked at them and kept saying “sorry” and that I couldn’t help them.  We got to the internet place, but it was too busy, so we just turned around, bought 2 Chinese Apples, which I was really excited about, and then headed back to the ship. my last view of India, when I was being checked in at the gates to get into the port, was a woman coming up to the both of us. at this point—on the night of day 5, I was used to people asking for money and food, and I was fairly accustomed to dealing with that in my mind. This woman was different though, she didn’t want money or food, and she wanted a pen. A single pen. So her child could go to school. I was so angry at myself because I didn’t have one on me. I have 50 in my room, and I lose one everyday, and this is all the separates an Indian child from an education. This was my last memory of India—and basically my experience in a nutshell. I got back to the ship, and just sat in my room and thought and cried. Nothing really hit me all these 5 days because I was on the run all the time, and I didn’t really process anything. I was now back on the ship and knew I wasn’t leaving it again. That’s when it all hit me—all at once. I went back outside to get my last view of India. I wasn’t ready to leave at all. I felt like I should stay-- that I had a duty to stay. Why did I have the right to come into their country on these huge ship, spend 5 days looking at the poverty and spending money, and then leaving them and all the India is behind? I stood out on 7 forward, watched as the gangway came up, and we sailed away. I looked as the city lights faded into the distance, and India was gone.

This is a poem that an SAS student wrote…

            “Don’t give to the beggars, they said, so I didn’t, and my heart ached as I turned and walked away from a 4 year old starving child. Don’t give to the beggars they said, so I hid my money and walked away from a thin mother and her two children, carrying all my packages… Don’t give to the beggars they said, so I pushed away the little children. Don’t give to the beggars they said, so I laughed and nervously as a leaper clutched my friend, laughed because it was easier than to cry. Don’t give to the beggars they said, so I walked for blocks, trying to ignore the kids at my side, running away instead of staying to help. Don’t give to the beggars, they said. I thought I hadn’t but I was wrong. I did give, each and every time… a part of me, naïve to the pains of others, to the horror of the others. I gave them my innocence and they gave me their pain, and after India I will never be the same. “

-         Leah Charbonneau

October 15, 2007

            Today we arrived in India! I was so excited and really couldn’t believe I was finally there! I went outside as soon as I could and all of a sudden the smell of India hit me. I heard that lots of people don’t like the smell at first, but learn to love it, but from the very beginning I liked it. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a combination of incense, heat, humidity, and pollution and it should be copyrighted and sold. I find myself smelling everything I bought in India just wanting to get that feeling and smell of such an amazing country back. I looked out from the deck and saw lots of buildings with big circular roofs, which look like the stereotypical Indian buildings. There were a group of people at the gates playing instruments and looking really excited that we had arrived. SAS goes to Chennai every semester and everyone just waits for us to arrive. The port is mostly for shipping, and not very many passenger boats com along, so we are the main attraction when we do! I just stood on the seventh deck and took in the air and the sounds and watched people. There were some people putting up yellow fences around the gangway and they moved them time and time again. It was all done by hand, and they kept switching where to put all the gates. I also saw a white car pull up and some important looking people—probably people for the diplomatic briefing or to look at passports and visas came out. It was clear to me even after 5 minutes of observing that there was such a different in classes in India. There were people sitting on the street and then there were these people pulling up in cars. I then went inside to the Union to listen to the Diplomatic briefing, and they told us about India, and the culture, and do’s and don’ts of the culture. There was then a yoga demonstration, with an instructor in a sari and 2 students, who showed us a lot of yoga poses which I have never seen and probably could never do, such as the “crocodile pose” and some poses that you need to be very flexible for! The ship wasn’t cleared yet, so then I went to lunch, and ate with some friends and my Biology professor, Doc Nancy, and then they made an announcement around 11:30am, saying “ oh, by the way, the ship has been cleared for 30 minutes” – oops! Emily and I were going to wander around Chennai alone for the day, so we left right away. We got off and all of a sudden we were bombarded with people telling us they had a rickshaw ride. We had been warned not to turn right out of the gate because there was a demonstration earlier in the day, and they wanted us to be safe, so we just made a left and really didn’t know where we were going. The port was busy and dirty and there was a dirt road and a paved road, and all we knew was we needed to get to gate 7. A man came up to us and said he would take us around all day for 100 rupees, so we took him. I knew that that probably wasn’t really what was going to happen, but we confirmed it numerous times, and we got in. we got a bike rickshaw to the check point ( where armed men take down our passport number and customs sheet number by hand, and then let us go). We then took a motorized rickshaw and we were on our way! I had a map of things to see in Chennai, but it isn’t really a tourist city, so there wasn’t that much to see, so we just pointed to a temple. On the way we saw Marina Beach, supposedly the second longest beach in the world, a lot of Universities, which were in beautiful buildings, statues, and a building that our rickshaw driver said was “the white building” but it was just a white building and it was pretty funny. The traffic wasn’t that bad at first, and I was surprised, but it got to be more “Indian-like” later on, and I was excited. There is something about driving in a rickshaw and being close to death every 2 seconds…. almost hitting buses and people and other cars on the way. It is really invigorating! We finally got to the temple, and we took our shoes off, and a man showed us all around. There was supposed to be a festival going on, but nothing seemed to be happening, so I think it occurred later in the day or at night. We saw all the buildings, which were really colorful, and all open air. Our guide told us that lots of people break coconuts in the temple because the coconut represents the body—the shell is the outside, the meat is the heart, and milk is sin. That way when you crack the coconut open you are releasing the sin. There was also a place for refuge in the complex where poor people could sleep and eat for free. We then saw a part of the temple where people put ashes on their foreheads, and only people of the Hindu religion could go in, so we could not enter. We took some pictures, but they charged you 25 R for each camera, which was fine, but I was confused about. I never ran into that at any other temple and was wondering if they did that everywhere in India or just at that Temple—I hope the money goes to repairs or to help the people who stay there. Our tour guide asked me if I was married, and I said no, and asked him why he thought that. He said that in India toe rings (which I had 2 on) meant that you were married. I never heard that before, and was surprised, and told him that in America it was just for style. I remember Meg came back from India with two toe rings—did she get married in India and not tell anyone!? Ha-ha. I asked him about the meaning of nose rings and he said that was just for style in India. It’s interesting how jewelry can hold 2 totally different meanings depending on the culture. We then saw a holy tree, which was 300 years old and people put ribbons around it when they want to have a baby because they believe it is lucky. After that our guide, who we thought was for everyone and just being nice, asked us for $10, which is so ridiculous. We were like “10 R?” and he said no, so we just walked away. We realized that everyone wants to get money out of you, and they’ll try to suck you for all you have, but if you just say no and walk away, then you’re okay. This was all kind of overwhelming at first, but I was kind of used to it from other countries, and it was okay. We then went to pick up our shoes, and they tried to charge us for those as well... oh India! We then asked our guide to bring us to local markets. He brought us to numerous stores that every rickshaw driver brings their customers too because they get a cut of the money, or even a free t-shirt. This was okay at first, but he wasn’t honest about it, and it got annoying after a while after he wouldn’t bring us to where we really wanted to go. This happened for about 2 hours and all the shops were expensive and had things like huge statues and blankets that I would not be interested in. there was a point when we were driving that we saw some local markets selling clothes and we told him to just pull over, which we did, but we didn’t find anything of interest. We looked at some skirts and nightgowns, but we decided to wait. We then told him we wanted to go to a fort, the beach, and an orphanage and he said he would bring us. He then started driving, and then took us down a side street, and pulled over and said he would charge us 400 R an hour, and we said no, you said 100 R all day, so we told him to just take us back to the ship. so after 3 hours we ended up only seeing a temple and a bunch of shops we didn’t want to see for 100 R, but it wasn’t a big deal, and we decided to just make the most of it, and we got to see some of the city, and had the experience of riding in a rickshaw, and it was only $3.00 anyways. We then needed a little break, so we went back onto the ship and had lots of water, and then headed out to find the orphanage. It was in the dean’s memo that we could visit independently during visiting hours, and I was really interested in doing this. We got off the ship, and the Indian inter-port student was leaving with her parents. I said bye to her, and her dad asked where we were going, we told him the orphanage and he offered to take us there which was so nice of him. We had to stop at the gate with the scary “men at work” (they had a sign that said that and I thought It was humorous), but since they were Indian, they spoke to them and we got to go to the front of the line, while all the other SAS students were just staring at us wondering what just happened! They had a little car, and the interport student had her little brother and sister there plus her mom and dad. It was fun to be in a car in India, because that it fairly rare and I got to have a little insight on a normal Indian family’s life. They were all very friendly, and they were saying how the honking gets to them because it is constant. They pulled over a few times to try to find the place, and then we finally got to it! The nun was surprised we, and about 10 other SAS students, were there because supposedly they were expecting us the next day. I walked in and I saw an SAS student playing with and taking pictures with a little girl with some sort of disability. She had a clef fed lip, and some mental disability, but I am not sure what. All of the children left had disabilities that I didn’t really recognize as one thing or the other. I talked to a student there from Norway who was traveling alone and had been there for a week and she said that all the normal children get adopted really quickly, and the disabled ones are there for life. A lot of pregnant women (we saw 3) stay there as well until they have their baby, and then just leave them there. I had a backpack full of toys and crayons and pens and stickers, and I gave them all to the nun in charge, who would then distribute them. I knew not to give them out to the kids individually because that may cause jealousy and other problems. I know that all those toys will put smiles on their faces though, which made me happy! I then spent the next 2 hours playing with all the children. There were some smaller children in a room on a mat lying down, and some children in bean bag chairs, and some children in bed. There was one who was very happy, and laughing, and actually sat up and held my hand, which surprised me because I didn’t think he had the capability to sit up. Another girl was isolated in the back because she was sick, and I played with her, and told her necklace and dress was beautiful and she just smiled. I rubbed her back and talked to her and held her hand. I then went into the room with the small children and held a baby that had been severely burned. She only had one leg and one arm, and half of her was just incredible burned. I just held her in my arms, and the nun came up to me and said she liked me very much. She usually doesn’t like people, especially those holding her, but she was so content. Another boy started crying and no one could stop him, and, while holding the baby girl, I talked to the boy, and looked at him, and rubbed his stomach and held his hand, and he stopped crying. Everyone said that I am so good with children—I just really like kids I think and they can sense that. After a while I walked around more, and noticed that in the other rooms there were signs that had bios of all the children and what they like people to do (rub their back, hold their hand, etc). It was really cute. I wandered upstairs, where there were numerous SAS students, but I liked downstairs better because I was one of the only ones, and I don’t like being crowded. It was then dinner time and I helped feed a baby boy hot cereal. It took me a while, and I had to blow it off because it was hot, but it was fun to do. A woman who is an orphan and disabled as well was helping out feeding (when they get older they help around the orphanage if they can) and she took the food and the baby from me because apparently I was going to slow! She does this everyday and isn’t very gentle, and just shoved the food into his mouth, which I couldn’t do, but he ended up eating the whole bowl within 5 minutes, which was impressive! I talked to the Norwegian girl about the $100 solution for my Service Learning class, because I am just trying to get as many ideas as I can, and she said that they could use a wheelchair because the only one they have right now is made out of bicycle wheels. She also said they could use more bean bag chairs because sometimes when kids can’t sit up they lie on mats all day, and a bean bag chair would be more comfortable. I am going to try to work on that, and discuss the possibilities with my professor. We then left, and everyone waved “goodbye”. Right outside of the gate there was a woman who came up to me and asked me for food. I had my power bars with me, so I gave her 2 and she smiled the brightest smile I have ever seen. She touched my head, and bowed to me, and kept saying “thank you”. She was almost crying, and I had tears in my eyes. This was the first time I experienced this in India, and it really showed me the different between homeless people in the U.S. and India. A lot of times in the U.S. people just want money, and you really don’t know what they spend it on, but in India, they are so happy if you give them food because they really are starving. I went into a rickshaw with tears in my eyes, and we both just looked at each other and waved. Emily and I then went to Marina Beach. It was around 5pm now, and we didn’t want to get too far from the ship, and this was only 3 km away. We saw lots of statues and it didn’t seem like India at all. As soon as we walked into the beach/ walking area, it seemed like we could have been anywhere else. We looked around, and saw temples and churches, and something that looked like the Eiffel Tower. It was a nice break from the city. There was a group of about 100 school boys walking by us, and they paid no attention to us, and were just pointing at some birds. Then a group of about 100 school girls walked by, all with their uniforms and backpacks, and all of them waved and said “Hi” and were so enthusiastic! During our walk there were lots of people either string at us, or pointing at us, or saying “hi” to us. It was hard to tell if these stares and points were positive or negative, because lots of times parents would just get their kids, and point at us, but it seemed friendly. Maybe they were just showing their children someone from a different culture, which they don’t see that often. There were even people packed on crowded buses, hanging out the door, and they would al scream and wave at us... people are so excited and friendly! At the beach we saw a lot of men holding hands, which we were told is very normal in India society. Lots of men hold hands with each other but women don’t and women and men don’t. Two guys came up to us and asked us our names and where we were from—they said they were university students. We had a lot of really quick conversations with people like that because they wanted to talk to us, but their English was very limited. Emily and I felt like celebrities! We walked along the beach, which is everything but the normal American beach. They had a lot of tents where they were selling items, such as clothes, jewelry and food. There were also cardboard cut outs of American looking people, where people would take their pictures with them. There were so many people there we thought for a Monday night, but we thought that the population was just so large that every place was always busy. Lots of kids were flying kites, and just running in the water, or hanging out on the beach. It was very busy and much polluted. There was trash and animals and feces and everything you could imagine on the beach, and we were told not to go into the water. Most people were just on the beach in their saris and business suits, and some people, mostly children were in the water fully clothed. People were selling food, and cooking corn on open fires, and selling fish and having a good time. A group of 6 guys came up to us and wanted a picture with us, which we were getting used to by now. The sun was setting, so we decided to start walking back. We walked back, and went on the underground “subway” which was just a sidewalk underground because the streets are so busy (a lot of times tourists take rickshaws across the street because they cant cross it, but we were tough and just did it like the Indians did!) we saw a lot of Christmas lights, which just comfort me every time I see them, and then we walked (and saw lots and lots of rats as well as homeless people. I think that during the day you don’t realize that a lot of the people you pass are homeless, but at night it is clear when they have their blanket on the sidewalk, and are just lying down or sleeping), and took a rickshaw the rest of the way back to the ship. we showered, and had chic pea curry for dinner and headed to bed!

            October 16, 2007

                        Today I woke up and had breakfast, where I heard a group of girls talking about $100 solution, then went to the Dalit Village overnight. I was really excited about this, but didn’t know anyone else going on it, but the group was only 18 people, and we really ended up bonding, and it was a great time! We were told to bring all of our own water and food because the Dalits are poor and would not be able to offer us anything. I brought my nalgene as well as a huge bottle of water I bought on the ship and some power bars. I decided to drink tons of water at breakfast, not thinking that the ride would be too long, but I was wrong. Lesson #1: it is better to be dehydrated than have to go to the bathroom on bumpy Indian roads for over 2 hours.  I was sitting next to my “sister”( I have an extended family on the ship—with a mom and dad and 5 sisters, and she is one of them) and she was supporting me, but it wasn’t helping me! John, the DVD camera man, was on our trip, and he had to go to the bathroom as well, so they pulled over on the craziest street, and I was going to go to, but was told it would only be 20 more minutes, so I decided to wait! On our drive I saw a lot of the countryside, and beach area, and a lot of palm trees which I did not expect. We passed a lot of places that had numerous chickens in cages, which were ready to be eaten. I also saw lots of people washing their clothes, and eating on the streets. We were on the “beach scenic drive highway”, where there were lots of larger houses, and some small resorts. It still amazed me the difference in the rich and the poor in India. There is poverty in one place, and then right near buy a beach resort. There were lots of barricades in the road, and are bus would just quickly swerve around them, which made the ride seem even more like an adventure… when I go back to the Unites States road rules are going to seem so strict and the streets are going to seem amazingly under control.  When we got close to the Dalit Village, we went down a small dirt road that was not made for our large tour bus. The wires were really low, and we were too big for the road. We were the main attraction, once again, and everyone would stop and look t us as we went down the road. We hit a wire, and someone climbed up onto our bus roof, and held up the wires and tree branches the whole 15 minutes to the Village. We got to the Dalit Village University, where many Dalit women can pay $1,200 a year to learn how to be a nurse. We were welcomed with flowers and music and clapping and beautiful murals on the ground made out of flowers and grass and colorful sand. All the girls were infatuated with the boys (which there were only 4 of, but they never see that often, so it was funny to have them all surrounded!) They then gave us all coconuts (which I have tried numerous times but still don’t like) and then they put on a welcome show for us. In the room where the show was going on there was a large banner that said “Welcome Semester at Sea”. The show was 2 hours long and consisted of a lot of dances and songs. My favorite was the flag dance, where women held Indian flags and danced, and also one little girl was dancing, and her sari kept falling off, the adults put it back on while she continued to dance—nothing was going to stop her! There were lots of technical difficulties with music, and it was very hot and humid, but nothing put their spirits down, and it was a really nice welcome. We then all went into a classroom where the head of the Dalit Project spoke to us about the Dalits.  Dalits are out of the class system because they are so low. It is because of karma--- they are supposedly a low class because they did something sinful in their past life, and now they are paying for it. It is difficult because you cannot get out of being a Dalit, no matter what you do. The caste system is actually illegal in India, but like many things, the law doesn’t really mean anything. Caste is throughout India. The man showed us the classified part of the newspaper, and it was prevalent in there as well. Caste affects one’s whole life (by the way, SAS made the newspaper and there were lots of pictures of our ship and people helping out doing service projects around the city, which I thought was pretty amazing). Dalits cannot learn at normal universities, so this one was set up so they can get an education and make a living. Dalits are raped and murdered, and their houses are burned everyday. Someone asked that if that was bad karma for them, and they would come back as Dalits, but the man said it was kind of like Al Qaeda, they say they do it for G-d and they are given permission to do such things. I thought this program was very interesting, but I didn’t understand how these dalits could then go out in the city or anywhere and get a job being a nurse because their class would still affect them, but we didn’t get an answer to this question. It was interesting to see the treatment of the man who was lecturing us (the head of the organization—but still a Dalit). He seemed more like the Brahmins, or the upper class, and the other Dalits were waiting on him. Their relationship was very interesting. We then saw some of the practical rooms they use—with one dummy in it, and we spoke to some students. Two students couldn’t afford the $1,200 a year, so they are funded other ways, but most of the other people can afford it. They also talked about marriage, and how one of them was going to get married soon, which happens after graduation. I talked to other girls later, and most of the said they weren’t interested in getting married, but they all were going to after graduation, because that’s just how it worked. We then went to lunch, which we were not expecting. The University gave us a meal (which we paid for through our trip cost) and it was very good. There was a great vegetarian dish, and rice and curry, and the room was decorated with palm trees. We all ate everything with our hands, like the Indians do, which is very messy!  And I met a few more people—Kristy, Joey, and Chris.  We then walked along the Delta, which is a river that feeds into the ocean, and also stands for the organization (Dalit Education…..) We all took pictures and then talked to all the students. We all sat outside in blue chairs and I talked to 2 students. They were both in their second year and so friendly. We talked and sang songs (mostly about Jesus) and we sung Silent Night because that’s the only song all of us knew… I typed up an interview with one of the students for class… this will give you an idea of what I learned…

1. What year in school are you?

I am in the second year, and I have one year left, because this is a three year program.

2. What are you studying?

Nursing, I like it a lot and I am learning a lot

3. What made you want to study nursing?

I like helping people, and this school offers nursing.  It is one of the main things that people do here in the Dalit University.

4. What are your classes like?

I take classes everyday for 8 hours a day, and on some days we have practical in a room where there is a dummy to practice on.

5. What do you do when you are not in class?

I like to hang out with my friends, and I like to sing and dance.

6. Do you have any sisters or brothers?

I have one sister who is younger than me, and then one brother who is older than me, and I am in the middle. My sister goes to High School and my brother is working and he majored in business.

7. Do you see your family a lot?

I live about 2 hours away, so I don’t see them a lot. Some of the other people here live closer, so they get to see their families more often. I do get to see them on holidays though. My parents work, but they get the same holidays as we do, so it works well. We never go anywhere together, but it is nice just to see them again.

8. What do you like the most about India?

The Taj Mahan! I went there a few times, and I think it’s gorgeous.

9. What don’t you like about India?

I don’t like the caste system (she knew we were there to learn about the Dalits, and therefore talked to me about it). Dalits are said to be in a lower class because of karma from a past lifetime, so we cannot do anything in this lifetime to get out of the lowest caste, so it is hard to live with.  It is hard knowing that I am a Dalit and knowing that other people will treat me differently than others. I have fewer opportunities than other people, even though I work just as hard.

10. Are you happy with your life in general though, or does you caste affect you everyday?

I am pretty happy because I have this school, and my friends, and my family, and we all work together. My caste is always with me, but we try to make the most of it.

(I then wanted to lighten up the mood a little as I just met her and didn’t want to upset her or talk about anything that she may not be comfortable with).

11. That’s a beautiful sari you’re wearing. Do you make your own clothes?

Thanks, no I don’t, I buy them, but my mom knows how to sew and she makes some shirts.  I like your shirt a lot (she points at my shirt).

12. Thanks, have you ever been to the United States?

   No, I haven’t, but I really want to go sometime. Now I know you, so I can visit you when I come to the U.S.! I can meet you and your friends, and your husband (I then told her I did not have a husband and she explained that the toe rings I was wearing signified that I was married in the Indian culture and I said that in America is was just style.)

13. I see you are not married; do you want to get married?

(Laughs) No, I don’t want to get married, but I will when I graduate. Everyone goes through school, and then gets married. It just what happens.

Our group then had to go, but I took a picture of us together, and promised I would send her a copy when I got home. I felt like I got a little view inside the life of someone from India in about 35 minutes, and I felt like I made a new friend.

After we talked, we all went to play throw ball, which is played over volleyball net, but you just throw the ball, and someone on the other side catches it. Kristy and I decided to watch from the sidelines because we wanted to talk to some more girls instead. They told us that they played throw ball everyday for an hour, and they told us about their families, and classes, and they gave us bindis and one girl gave me two of her blue glass bangles which was really nice. We won the first game, and the Indian students won the second game. We then left the University and headed to the Dalit Village. We now had a small bus, which was 2 seats short, so two people sat on the floor. Lots of people ate what SAS packed for us for dinner while on the bus because when we were in the village we wouldn’t be able to eat because they don’t have any food. I didn’t eat anything because their “dinner” was a candy bar, a muffin, Oreos, chips, and juice. Wow… what a healthy meal! The ride took about a half hour, and I saw a beautiful sunset, as well as a lot of rice patties, which reminded me of Vietnam, lots of cows, and a woman running through an open field with 2 goats.. Which made me want to do that same exact thing right then! We reached the village, and they were all prepared for us. They had been looking forward to us coming for a long time, and the children were so excited. We didn’t take any of our luggage off the bus, but went with only our cameras in hand. The children were smiling and waving from outside the bus. We got off, and walked about 5 minutes to the center of the village, Nessapakam, where there were just hundreds of people—of all ages, waiting for us. They played music for us (after warming up the skin of the drum with fire to tune it), and gave us flower necklaces, and cheered. The children all ran up to us and pulled don us and held our hands. We then walked through the village, and people lit small flames with oil on a leaf, and then put it on the ground, and then poured blood on the sidewalk, and put some blood on people’s foreheads ( I was glad they didn’t do that to me because I would have been thoroughly grossed out). The sun was setting at this point, and we just dances and walked through the village with all the music. The number of people was overwhelming at first, but they were so excited we were there. They gave us Fanta and sugar cubes a (which is a huge deal for them since all they can afford is one bowl of rice a day). Everyone wanted to have their pictures taken, and I said “hi” and said my name to everyone. It was cute because they had a hard time pronouncing “Kait” and then they told me their names, which seemed very complicated to me, but it was probably the equivalent to “Bob” in English, and I had a hard time pronouncing their names, and they all chuckled.  After our walk through the whole village meeting every family and kid and taking pictures and dancing and holding hands we sat down to watch yet another welcome show. It was another 2 hours and had dancers and singers and people playing with fire. The main things were people on stilts with horse costumes around them, and people poured gasoline in their mouths several times, and then had a torch and spit out the gasoline, and the fire exploded. This shocked me that they even out gas in their mouths, and then had fire that close to their faces. I was thinking that this must have some health affect, but lots of people did it. The whole time I was watching the show I was holding hands with a girl who would not let go of me. She was older—probably a teenager, but she really liked me, and would not let go of me, which I thought was adorable. People just bonded with you so quickly and wanted to be my friend. I was thinking how this would be if it happened in the U.S. I feel like American kids would be wearier, especially if a bunch of people from a different country came to my village. I know kids all over the world are similar, but I feel like these ones were just so open to us and didn’t have a concern in the world—which is how it should be.  At the end they told the SAS kids to go up to the front and we all danced. I asked a little girl to dance with me, and we just jumped around together. We then headed to the school in the village—which was a one room schoolhouse with cement floors, which was our bed for the night. It was nicer than I expected—I thought we would be outside on the dirt floor. There was one fan in the room, which people just stood in front of for a long time, and there were drawings all over the room hanging from strings, and a picture of Mother Theresa.  We all hung out there for a while, and people ate some more junk food, and we all went into the woods to go to the bathroom, and then we all had meditation, which was the perfect way to end the day. We all sat in a circle, and each had a candle. There was a big candle in the middle, and a few people lit their flames, and then we all lit each others wicks. We then just sat there looking at the flames and thinking about the day, trying to process it all. I really could relax because the best way I meditate is with candles because there is just something so mesmerizing about them. I heard nature all around me—the crickets were all around us, and we were outside on a beautiful night in the middle of India. Some people spoke about the day, and one said “we are all humans, and if you just bring us all together—of all different shapes, sizes, and ethnicities, we can all make a difference in the world… and we should cast light, even if it is a little light like our candles, instead of casting darkness, because a lot of little lights can make a lot of light”. I tried to process everything, and the whole meditation was really inspiring. I really felt empowered, and that I could make a different. I didn’t realize what I was seeing then, and that whole day, and I still don’t know if I completely understand what I saw, but I know that I feel my best when I am surrounded by poverty and helping others. Our leader was leaving to go to Delhi tomorrow to talk about his project, so we all held hands around the circle and we were all connected. We then put all of our candles in the middle in a circle. I was looking at them and was just thinking that each of those candles represents one of us, and when you put them all together, they are all the same, and you can’t tell the difference between any of them. We all caste the same light and we can all work together to make something beautiful.

October 4, 2007

      Today we arrived in Bangkok, and we were prepared for a long wait to get off the ship, so we slept in, and I watched 2 episodes of “House” with Ryan, and then we finally got cleared at 2:30pm. As soon as we were cleared I got my passport, because anyone staying in hotels needs a passport, and then I got on a 3 hour bus ride to Bangkok. The area we docked, Laem Chabaeng (or pronounced by me “ Lame Shabang”) had nothing around it. It’s just a big port, and reminded me of Qingdao, China. We saw a lot of Thailand on the bus, and it was really pretty. There were mountains and lots of streams and little shacks, or people’s houses, right on the river. I didn’t really know what to expect in Thailand because I didn’t look into it much because it was the replacement of Myanmar a few months ago. Once we got to the city it was amazing to me first the differences between the city, which looked like any city in the world, and the outskirts of the city. No matter where in the world you are all cities virtually look the same—tall buildings, people, traffic, shops, and restaurants. Of course, there are some differences, but mostly they all looked he same, and I like to see the city and the main sites, but I love going out into nature the most, and really experiencing the culture. The other thing that surprised me was that there were shacks one block, which looked like townships in Africa, and then the next block would be this huge high-rise. I never saw something like that before and it really surprised me , even though I know that it existed, and the gap between rich and poor is very large and prevalent in society. Once we got off the bus, Molly and I, who wanted to travel in a small group because we didn’t like traveling in large groups, went to try to find a cheap tourist place like we found in Vietnam, and heard were all over Thailand. The man on our bus trip to Bangkok told us where to go, but it was really hard to find. We had everything for the next 5 days on our back, and we had a map, and started walking in a completely unfamiliar city. We made it to a hotel, and found some private tourist places, but none were really good, or cheap, so we decided to do everything independently ( and I had copies from Ryan’s lonely planet book), so we knew we could do it! It was getting late at this time ( because it took 3 hrs from the ship, so it  was now about 7pm, and beginning to get dark.) we were expecting to have the whole day in Bangkok, but that didn’t work out, and we decided we should find one of the places to stay that was in the book, because we were uncomfortable with waiting until much later to have a place to stay. We took a bus—which was 15 B, or less than 50 cents—which a woman collected in her tin-- to the area that the hostel was supposed to be ( a nice lady in a tourist place helped us out for about 20 minutes), but once we got there it was really dark, and not very touristy, and we needed to meet Meg, the third person in our awesome group, in an hour, so we just decided to turn around, go back onto the bus, and find the restaurant, on the other side of the city, to meet her. On the way we went near the big shopping area, and saw lots of people at outdoor shrines praying, and kneeling, and burning incense, and offering flowers to the shrine. It was really nice to calm down for a minute, and look at these people. Religion does cause a lot of problems in the word, but it also helps so many people out, and even people passing by and not really knowing the meaning behind the actions. Things like that were just really beautiful and comforting to me.  I was pretty worried at this point because finding out way around was really difficult, and it was dark, and we didn’t have a place to stay, but I just thought of it as a good learning experience, and moved on. We took the bus, and the sky tram ( a train above the roads, like at Disney, used to cut back on traffic) to the restaurant “ Cabbages and Condoms.” We had some trouble finding it because it was down an alley, but it was a really nice place and we met Meg there. We were so amazed that she found the place on time ( we were a little over  a half hour late) . Cabbages and Condoms is a restaurant serving traditional Thai food, but a lot of the proceeds goes to HIV/AIDS research and helps people with the condition. AIDS is very prevalent in Thailand, and it was a really good cause, and it sounded like a cool place to go. It was all lit up, and decorated with Christmas lights, and made me feel comfortable all of a sudden. It’s amazing what lights can do to a situation! They had lots of things on the menu ( all for less that $3.00), but I wasn’t that hungry at that point, so I got an ice cream ( something I have been deprived of for 7 weeks) , and Meg and Molly both got different curries ( which is huge in Thailand). There was a mixture of locals and tourists there ( lots of Australians). We noticed, about half way through dinner, that the decorations were all made out of condoms or birth control pills, or the like, we were pretty amazed! We also got a condom instead of an after dinner mint. They sure went all out! After dinner we decided to go on the internet there to see if we could find a cheap hostel nearby to stay for the night. We went on, and found a place called Hostel Thailand, and I checked my email, and got some horrible news that my grandma had died back home. I broke down right there, and literally couldn’t feel my arms or legs, and Molly and Meg were the best friends in the world. They comforted me, and got a taxi, and just went to the hostel. We relaxed for a bit, and talked, and then I called home and they went to sleep. Our dorm, room #41,  had 6 beds in it, an A/C, which was a must because it was 90 degrees and humid at 11pm, and a shared bathroom. There were only 2 other people in our room, who looked like they had been there for a while, they sure made themselves feel at home, and had their stuff all over the room. We slept ( I didn’t sleep much, because I was upset, and just couldn’t really deal with everything at the moment. It’s hard dealing with everything going on this semester, it really is quite the learning experience. Traveling, and seeing all these different cultures and people, and the problems in the world, and the beauty in the world, and then dealing with classes, and then family things. Things at home don’t seem real because I am so separated from it. I look at my computer clock right now and it says 1am, its 11am here, and I cant imagine it being dark and people sleeping back home—and people at school, and the world series going on—it all doesn’t seem real).  I saw V before I went to bed, and thought it was funny that we ran into each other at a random hostel in the middle of Thailand, I thought a lot that night, and tried to be prepared for the adventures ahead. I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Thailand as much as I possibly could, but I would try to enjoy it as much as I possibly could.

      October 5, 2007

      We woke up, and Molly and Meg asked if I still wanted to leave the city or walk around Bangkok, or just go back to the boat , but I told them I will stick it out, and try to make the best of everything. I wasn’t going to ruin their time in Thailand, and I felt like traveling and seeing new things would help me feel better as well. We had to find the bus station to take us 3 hours out of the city, to Kanchanaburi, which was an area that had lots of nature, and a national park near by, which sounded like it would be right up my alley! We made our way to the bus station, asking about 15 people for help on the way. We had a map and directions, but everything is so confusing, and nothing is labeled, and people rarely speak English, or can help you out, so it’s really difficult to get around. We finally made it, and bought a ticket for $3.00, hopped on the bus, and we were on our way! It was nice, after trying to find the bus station in the heat and carrying a big backpack for 2 hours, to just sit down and see the country side from a  bus. I liked the bus ride because we were the only tourists on it, besides one other couple, and it was nice to feel like a part of the culture and the people, rather than on a bus full of tourists. We got to Kanchanaburi, and we got an open taxi to our resort, which was under the budget section of the Lonely Planet Book. I never took an open taxi before, but it was lots of fun. I like having the air hit my face—it really makes me feel free, and gives me a sense that I am experiencing the outside more than in a car. We got to the Blue Star, and they had a triple room available, with A/C and a private bath, so we took it. This place was gorgeous. It was right on the water, with the biggest lily pads I have ever seen, with mountains in the background, and trees all around. All the cabins were log cabins, in the trees. The one we were in was called a tree house bungalow, room S14, and it seemed like we were sleeping in a tree house. It was expensive on Thailand standards ( 650 B, or $25, but split between the 3 of us, it wasn’t too bad—and I’m sure everyone back home thinks I’m crazy, but really, traveling where we have been makes you look at money a whole different way. When a cab ride it more than $3 you think its ridiculous, and when dinner is more that $4  its insane, and a hotel—more that $25—what!? )  I felt like I could finally take a deep breathe and enjoy Thailand. We were all really happy that we made it all on our own and we were all safe and sound!  We got all settled in a, and then walked around the street we were on. The street was the main inn area, and had lots of restaurant and bars and people selling fruit and goods on the street. It was really “ small town” like, and I fell in love with it. We went to Apple’s , an inn and restaurant for dinner, and I had the best meal I have had since I left the United States. They have a lot of vegetarian options in Thailand, and I was in heaven! I had vegetable stir fry with cashews, and then I had mango and sticky rice ( a traditional Thai desert), which was fantastic. Mangoes alone would make me the happiest person in the world, but with sticky rice—it can’t get any better than that! After dinner we went to the night market, which was a fun experience. It was different from the city  night markets, because this one I felt like people all knew each other, and it was a smaller version, and the people didn’t treat you like a tourist. I was getting tired of people pulling at you and constantly wanting you to buy something. This didn’t have that feeling, and people treated you like any other person, and just said hi, and didn’t pressure you into anything, which was nice. They had normal vendors selling food, clothes, and jewelry, but there were also rummage sales, or second hand sales, as well, which was fun! We all bought some things ( presents, clothes, etc) and then we headed back to the hotel for our massages! I noticed on the way back that we were walking in the pitch black in  a small town in the middle of Thailand and felt completely safe, which I did not expect. I was really worried about Thailand because of the whole sex trade thing, and people saying that people “ just disappear” in Thailand, but I felt so safe. No, I would never ever travel alone, but just 3 girls seemed safe, which was nice. People were so helpful, and were so excited when they understood you and could help you. It was amazing. We went back , and all three of us got 1 hour ling Thai massages in our rooms! We all just lay on our beds, and 3 women came in and gave us massages. I never had a Thai massage before, and it was really different. It’s more like stretching you, and all about flexibility, and some normal massage as well. I could hear the frogs and crickets from out tree house, and we were so relaxed, and I just couldn’t believe how awesome that moment was. I was the happiest person ever, and it really made me relax. I am the kind of person who usually is always on the go when I travel because I want to see as much as possible, but things like this are really fun and they slow you down so you can appreciate where you are and get to know what locals do, and get a feel for their life, so it was really nice to do. The massage put you into all these weird positions, and they cracked your fingers, toes, and back. An hour, and $4 later, we were done. Molly and Meg sat out on the porch and ate snacks and drank while I gave them a fashion show of what I had bought at the market. We did a midnight run to 7-11 ( yes, 7-11s and everywhere in these countries, which is surprising to me, because we don’t even have them in MA, or MD I think, for that matter). We got some Thai packages foods, went back to our room, and then went to sleep because we had planned a tour the next morning to the national park!

      October 6, 2007

      We got up at 7am, after feeling like we had just gone to sleep ( because we kind of just did), and got ready for our exciting day ahead! At night we heard lots of howls and roosters, which made me feel like I was back home, which was really nice. I didn’t understand why roosters would be making noise at 2 and 3am, so maybe they weren’t roosters, but they sure fooled me! We checked in down the road at “ The Jolly Frog” because we wanted to try out all different places on our trip, and this one looked really nice as well. First of all, the name reminded me of the “Jolly Hotel” that we stayed in Italy this summer, which I loved, and Meg, Molly, and I decided that anything with the word “ Jolly” in its name can’t be too bad! We got a double room, with a King size bed, and our room had an amazing view opening up to the mountains and the water. There was also a dock that you could walk out on, paths, and also hammocks, which was really nice! We checked in at 7:30am, put our bags down ( so we didn’t have to carry them around all day,) and then met our tour. We were the only people on it, so we took a jeep and we had a private guide the whole time, which was nice. The driver spoke no English, so we had a woman, Joy, who was 21, and she spoke to us most of the time. She didn’t give us much information the whole time, she was fairly quiet, but she answered questions that we asked. She wasn’t too personal able, but we tried to be friends with her!  The jeep had lots of Buddha stuff hanging from the rear view mirror, which I kind of liked. I usually don’t like things hanging from the mirror, and I don’t like how a bunch of crosses looks, but for some reason flowers and pictures of Buddha made me feel safe. The more I travel, the more I really like Buddhism ( sorry Dad and Meg for always making fun of you ! ) Joy stopped the van a few minutes in and ran into a store to get headphones, and listened to Thai music on her ipod the rest of the time! We all took in the sites and slept until we got to Era wan National Park. We learned on the way, that yellow represents the King, and Blue the Queen, and lots of Thai people have shirts with a symbol on the chest and are blue or yellow, and wear them on specific days ( Friday and Monday—I think….) the king is almost 80 years old , and this year they are going to have a huge party for him! We got to the National Park, and the mountains reminded me of Colorado at first. The entrance fee for tourists and locals was different, which I thought was interesting. I saw that a lot in Thailand—there will be “ Thai people” prices, and “ foreigners” price. This would never be allowed in the United States—would it? I thought it would be considered racism or something along those lines, but I don’t know. We first stopped at the waterfalls, which are the most visited part of the park. It is a 7 tiered waterfall, and you can walk up to each level, through paths and the jungle, and climb or swim in all the waterfalls. We had almost 3 hours there, but we ran  little late ( and we decided it didn’t matter than much because no one else was in our group and we could just eat lunch quicker). We walked through the paths, and then we were stopped at tier 3, for a checkpoint. In order to make sure that people don’t leave litter all around, they make you may 10B for each water bottle you have ( no food or anything else is allowed) and then when you climb back down you show them you still have your water bottle, and they give you your money back, which I thought was a really great idea. We didn’t want to waste our precious trekking time though, so we just guzzled water ( and Molly spilled her water all over my shirt—which was hilarious) and we left everything at the checkpoint. We decided to walk all the way up to 7, and then work our way down, and swim on our way down. Most of the time there were paths, either dirt, or rock, or some staircases that looked like they were about to collapse in 2 seconds, but some of the time you really could tell what the path was and what wasn’t, so it was an adventure. It was hot and humid, like always, so we were really looking forward to the swim. The jungle was really amazing though. We saw great views of all the mountains, and then we would turn around and have the greenest jungle every surrounding us, with waterfalls all around you. It was really diverse. All the waterfalls looked a little different. Some were bigger than others, some had natural slides, some had steps, some had pools, and some had caves. When we were almost at the top we decided to explore the 6^th tier, so we all climbed up, and Molly slipped ( she slipped  lots of times, and we started to keep track of how many people slipped—Meg and I always saved ourselves, but Molly wasn’t quite as skilled at that!). The 6^th fall had levels, and it was all white, and the water felt so nice on our feet! We swung on branches, and saw monkeys ( about 12 in the trees,) making noises, and running around, and playing with each other.  We watched them for about 10 minutes, and at that moment it really felt like I was somewhere different. I kept trying to remind myself that I was in  Thailand, and I knew I was, but I was trying to make it real , but the monkeys really did it for me. I never saw monkeys in the wild before, and I couldn’t believe they were all around me—I know my dad said that there were bunches on monkeys in India, and you have to be careful because they steal your stuff ( like glasses!), but these monkeys were in the jungle, so I felt like it was different. On our way up to the last tier we met a woman from the United States, but has been living in Australia for a couple of years, and just quit her job, and is traveling the world. I don’t know how she is doing it—but I kind of wished that I could do that, and then I realized that I will be okay whatever happens. I always worry about grades and the future and this and that, but I know that there will always be a place for me, and I will make a difference in the world, and everything will work out, because really, it always does. We swam in #7, then made our way back down. We were running out of time, but I slid down # 4, which was fun, and got bitten ( “ massaged” , as Joy put it), by lots of fish, and then swam and went in the cave in #3.  We met a guy on our way down from Long Island, and we told him what we were doing and about SAS, and like everyone who hears about it, are so jealous and amazed such  thing exists! We could have spent the whole day there, but we had to continue on our journey. We got back to the parking lot and had really amazing fried rice, pineapple, and watermelon. We then drove to the elephant village! I was really excited to ride an elephant, but didn’t know what to expect. I got my own elephant, and a man, who didn’t speak any English, was my guide. He sat on the elephants head, and out his feet on her ears, and I sat on a bench on the back of the elephant. It was really high off the ground, and the ride was really rough and rocky! We walked through the forest, up and down slopes, and in the water. It was quite the experience. The man talked o my elephant a lot, and she really seemed to understand him. It amazed me how smart she seemed, and followed all the things the man said, kind of like a horse. They really seemed to understand one another. The man stood on the elephants head, and picked some leaves, vines, and flowers from the tree. I didn’t know what he was going to do with them, but I assumed they were a nice treat for the elephant. I was enjoying my time, and looking out at nature and trying to enjoy every moment of my ride. My guide then looked back and me, and handed me a hand made hat out of leaves, which he “sewed” with the vines, and decorated with the flowers. I was so touched. This man, who doesn’t even know me went through all that trouble of picking the leaves for me, and making me such a nice hat. I wore it for the rest of the ride and was so excited! He then got off the elephant, and I got to ride on his head. It was scary at first because I felt like I was going to fall off ( and it’s a long way down) , but I got used to it. He showed me a ring he had made from the elephant’s tail hair, which I had seen before in Africa. The hair is so thick, and people make bracelets and rings out of it. My ride ended, and then we immediately got on a life jacket, and went down to the water to ride a bamboo raft! There was a mother and her 2 year old child, who was so adorable and playing with a dinosaur, wearing a shirt with Belle and Beauty on them. A motorized boat took our raft up the river, and then we went back down the river on our own. We just sat there for the ride as the woman steered with ores. I felt like I should help her, but that’s not how it worked. The ride was really peaceful and I got to see even more of nature! We then drove ( driving is scary here as well, they drive fast, and the lines for lanes is just a suggestion, and people swerve in and out), to the death railway. I had never heard of the Death Railway before, but it was used during WWII. We walked along the tracks, and went into a cave right on the railroad. The cave has a sad history—many people were held prisoner there, and died there, but now it is used as a temple. We walked in and there were some monks meditating, and lighting incense in front of this huge Buddha. We took off our shoes, and sat down, and just meditated for a few minutes. I usually can’t clear my mind, but sitting in that cave with the smell of increase and the image of Buddha in front of me really helped. We climbed to the back of the cave, but there was this really weird smell that made you feel like you couldn’t breathe, so then we decided to leave. Molly and Meg looked at the shops a little bit, and I looked at one where a man was making art out of buffalo skin. He poked designs in the skin one hole at a time, which took anywhere from 3 days to 5 weeks. I then went off on my own and just went down to the water, and watched people on the water and tried to relax some more. I was still trying to deal with all my emotions and stuff back at home, so that 30 minute alone time was really needed. I realized that since I have been on this ship I have never really been along because  you are around people constantly on the ship and really cant get away because there is only so far you can go when you are in the middle of the ocean, and then in the counties its not safe to be alone, so that was the only opportunity to do so, and it felt so nice!  We then took the death railway train, which was a really old fashioned train, for a nice ride through the country. They sold food on the train, and of course Meg ( who doesn’t stop eating) had to try it. She cracks me up so much—she is the kind of person who can’t go 30 minutes without eating and has 2 dinners a night and doesn’t weight more than 100 lbs—I love her so much! Ha-ha. During our train ride we saw Gumdrop Mountains, and fields of tapioca, sugar cane, and corn ( which actually are really big in Thailand). We then went to the bridge over the river Kwai, which was very close to our inn, we walked around, and marveled at how close we were to Myanmar ( about 15 miles). We went back to the Jolly Frog, and I sat on the hammock and watched the gorgeous sunset over the water and the mountains. Molly and Meg then ate at the Jolly Frog while I took a shower. The showers are really interesting in Thailand. It’s only a shower head, and no stall, so all the water just goes everywhere in the bathroom, and there is a drain in the floors. It’s hard at first, but then you get used to everything just being soaked. There also weren’t any towel, so I had to  dry off with a dirty shirt, and there was no shampoo either, so basically the shower was pretty pointless. After that  I joined them at the restaurant, and they were eating the most amazing looking thing out of a half of a pineapple, there were cashews and veggies, and chicken, so I couldn’t eat it, but it looked really pretty! The atmosphere wasn’t as nice because they were playing some violent English movie that I didn’t know, but everyone was watching it so intently, so it kind of ruined the nice peaceful country atmosphere. Tats when we decided that that night we should just wander around the street stopping at a bunch of different restaurants and just trying a bunch of interesting foods. Our next stop was the beer garden, which was totally empty at about 9pm on a Saturday night, which we thought was weird. We went in ( well, it was all outside, but you know what I mean), and we sat at a table near some emus, which we ended up feeding, and the waiter turned on some nice old country American ,music for us, and we just sat and looked at Thai magazines and the menu. The magazines were really interesting because there were tons of pictures of American celebrities, and everything was in Thai, but then there were random English words such as “ quiz” , which I thought was weird. Why would they have that? Do Thai people even understand those words? The whole atmosphere was a nice and I felt like I was at some beach resort in America or Mexico. We ordered a desert—fried banana with coconut and ice cream, met some nice Australians, who were talking to us about the emus ( or ostriches—I don’t know which one). We then continued on our journey,. And walked around all the shops. There was a massage place e literally every other shop, all offering the same types of massages ( Thai, foot, oil), I didn’t understand how they could possibly make any money because they charge about $5 an hour, and there is so much competition, and they have to pay rent and everything. I didn’t know that massages were such a big thing in Thailand, but they are! They are also open so late—until about midnight every night, and no one is ever in them. Who knows? We then went to Apples again, because we liked it o much the night before, and we had the same waitress. She talked to us, and told us how to say what we wanted in Thai, and how to say please and thank you. I felt bad because all the words, even simple ones, were really difficult for me to learn because they were long and hard to pronounce, but she was patient with us, and just seeing how happy she was for us to say a few words made it worth it! We ate some more mangoes and sticky rice, and then meg went to the night market again, Molly got an oil massage, and I went back to the Jolly Frog and went down to the dock and sat near the water and just thought and looked at the stars and the lights from the huts across the river. I could have spent the whole night out there, but I made myself go in after about an hour because I had the room key, and I figured the other 2 would be coming back soon. It was really relaxing and a nice way to end the day!

       October 7, 2007

      We woke up early today, to catch a bus back to Bangkok. We got a motor taxi ( one where there is a place for us to sit right next to the motorbike).  We saw the war cemetery on our way, and almost got in an accident once, but nothing major. We got to the bus station, and got on a bus back to Bangkok, but this time it was only $2.50. After we arrived, we took a local bus to the Grand Palace. It is a very big tourist attraction, and basically a huge complex where the royal family used to live. We walked around the outside and saw the gardens and the details of the buildings, but decided not to go in ( because it was expensive, but free for Thai, and I was bitter about that!) we all figured that we saw a lot of similar things in China at the Forbidden City, and all the temples, and we enjoyed the outside and got a little view of what it would be like. I got some stamps there to send out a card I wrote in Vietnam, and then we went across the street ( according to out walking tour from Lonely Planet). Molly had some things she wanted to give away ( her grandma gave her a whole suitcase full of stuff to give to people on the trip, and Molly didn’t start to give any away yet because she never could find the “ perfect moment” but I told her “ if you wait for the perfect moment the perfect moment will pass you buy” so we just walked around the park, and started giving things out. There weren’t really poor people there, but children were trying to sell us goods, so any children we saw we just gave them a gift ( ranging from stickers to stuffed animals, to clothes) and they were so thankful. They bowed a lot, which I thought was the cutest thing ( it’s called the “wai” in Thailand, and is part of a greeting, or to show thanks). Once we gave something out, lots of kids wanted more, so we gave everything out pretty quickly. A while later one of the parents with her child came up to us and wanted to get a picture with us on her throw away camera, and we took one with mine as well. It really made me feel like I was making a difference, and helping these children a little. I don’t like going to countries, and looking at the social problems, and then just saying “ oh, that’s sad,” and leaving, so doing this really helped me feel a little better about it. I am planning on doing the same thing in India as well./ they were watering the lawn at the park and it was really tempting to run throw it because it was so hot, and we had to wear long pants, and we were carrying our backpacks, but no one else was running through it, so I resisted. We then went to the city temple, which was another amazing spiritual journey. We walked into the complex, where there are 4 mini temples, and then gardens, and a place outside where people light incense and there were some people dancing. We watched them, mostly older women, but a  and people were waiting in line to pray to a Buddha stature. I noticed that Thailand is full of order. On the subways people line up to get in the door, and people just seem to like making lines. We also saw people putting gold on some of the statues. Everyone puts a little gold leaf on, and eventually, with a lot of people doing the same thing, the whole statue is gold. I thought that was a nice idea because that way the community

Feels like they made a difference in helping to complete the statue/ the whole thing was just really rejuvenating. We then walked to the Wat Pho, the home of the reclining Buddha. On the way we saw a clock tower, and a lot of homeless people on the street drying their clothes in the bushes, and sleeping on the sidewalk. This is the first time I saw homeless in Thailand, even though a lot of the people we see, well, most of them, are poor.  On our way to the reclining Buddha a motor bike driver told us that Wat Pho was closed, and he tried to convince us to get in his taxi and he would bring us to another tourist attraction. I didn’t believe him, and we continued walking to see what the story was, and it was in fact open. Lots of taxi drivers try to tell you a hotel is full or dirty, or something is closed, so they can get you in their taxi and get money out of you , but we didn’t fall for it! We got to Wat Pho, and there were lots of temples once again. The equivalent of Sunday school was going on—a bunch of kids were learning all about Buddhism in classrooms, and they were chanting, and there were also a few adults talking to monks. It looked like they were taking some test to become Buddhists or something, but I don’t really know, and I couldn’t ask because they were all very involved in what they were doing. There were also kids playing basketball, and they were so adorable. We saw the reclining Buddha, which was a huge reclining Buddha—kind of self explanatory. I have seen lots of big Buddha this trip, but this was the first one lying down! We then took a local boat up the river. Lots of people take boats because you can get from one place to another really quickly because the traffic in Bangkok is really bad, and the water is much easier. There were lots of locals on the boat, as well as monks. We saw lots of the sites on our way, and really got to experience another part of the culture. The water was really dirty, and the boat was packed ( at one stop they went and looked on the outside to make sure that we weren’t below the line on the outside of the boat). I was surprised to see a lot of people swimming in the water as well, but I guess they don’t see it as filthy, and they just enjoy it! We got off the boat, and saw the most fish we have ever seen in our lives. There were people throwing bread in the water and hundreds and hundreds of fish fought over the bread and splashed around. It was crazy! We then walked through the market and saw people selling all sorts of things for people to eat—frogs, lizards, turtles, etc. I thought they were for pets at first, because I coolant imagine people eating thee things, but there were scales, and it was obvious people were buying them to eat.  We had to get back to the place where the SAS bus stopped us off a few days earlier, the World Plaza, so we decided to take a bus. I had a business card that said “ please take me to the world plaza” in English and in Thai, so I found out what bus to take. We were waiting and waiting, and then saw it on the other side of the street, so we missed it, we then crossed the street and waited for 10 min and saw another one on the other side, so we ran across the street and hopped on, and realized it was going the wrong direction, so they let us off, and we waited some more, but the bus bypassed us and didn’t even stop, so we decided to take a motorcar. Lots of people didn’t want to drive us because it was a 10-15 minutes ride, and the traffic would make it longer than that, and I guess it wants worth it for them , but we found someone. We agreed on a price ahead of time, but he was a little sketchy, and was asking us where we were going, so we told him India, and we were trying to get to the airport, so he wouldn’t play any games with us. He stopped to get a cigarette from a random person on the street, and we finally made it to the World Plaza. This is a huge shopping area with a bunch of American stores and restaurants. I got some ice cream at Dairy Queen, and had all the dried fruit in the world—from cantaloupe to oranges, to cherries, to all the normal ones! We then went shopping at an outside market, and I gave 2 skirts to a homeless woman and her baby on the street, which I felt really good about, and then we went back to the ship. I read for class and looked out the window, and just relaxed. It was so nice to be back on the ship and shower!

      October 8, 2007

                  Today I woke up early, had breakfast, the first time I ate more than 200 calories at a meal, because in Thailand on my own it was kind of hard, and then headed through Pattaya ( which is a one road city, there are bunched of stores on one road, then nothing) to get to the Nong Nooch Cultural Village. I was expecting a normal village, and to just walk around, but this was a little different. I really ended up enjoying it because I had seen villages for the past couple of days, and this different. It was a resort/zoo/botanical garden. We walked around the gardens, and saw some weird pig statues on our “way”  to the mini zoo. Tyler was in charge of the map, and I trusted him, but he was totally going in the wrong direction, so I found us the zoo! It was interactive, and you could walk through a big area where there were birds, and they flew all around you, and also a butterfly  garden, where butterflies were on my finger! I also got to touch tigers and saw monkeys and parrots and all sorts of animals up close! We then went to a show, which ranged from dancing to Thai boxing, to sword fighting, to drumming, to elephant riding. There was a huge elephant show, where elephants danced, and bowled, and played basketball and soccer, and painted pictures with their trunks, hula hooped, and stepped over and held people. It was cute, and I didn’t think elephants could be trained that much, but it was also kind of sad because I was thinking to my elephant a few days before, and was thinking if the elephants didn’t like what they were doing. It just seemed so unnatural to me, and I felt bad that they were being forced to do something like this. If they were dogs or horses though, I wouldn’t feel as bad—so maybe it’s just that I’m not used to it? Maybe it’s a cultural thing? I don’t know. They looked healthy, and did get fed a lot ( people fed them dozens of bananas at once!). After the show I walked around on my own, which was so nice. I had the map in my hand, and wanted to see everything in the hour we had left, and I just went on my own, and I could leave when I wanted and do what I wanted. I saw a bridge, and a French garden, which was so gorgeous. I never saw something so gorgeous—even in France! I also saw 4 temples, a fake Stonehenge, a suspension bridge, bonsai trees, a nursery,. And sculptures made out of flowering pots. We then got back to the bus, where we got water, which was the best possible thing that could have happened then. We dropped some people off in Pattaya, at the world’s largest jewelry store, and then I got back to the ship, ate lunch, and studied!

      October 11, 2007

      I have been studying a lot on the ship, but it’s been going by so fast because I have been so busy and taking so many midterms! We stopped in Singapore to get gas ( did we not get gas at all since we left?) I don’t know if we usually get it in port, or if the gas tank is that big, but anyways we stopped in Singapore for the day to fill up. I was awoken at 7am because of load banging, and I was excited to see the skyline, a and didn’t realize we would be there until that night, so I got out of bed, and took some pictures from 7 forward. There were lots of islands, and we were in the middle of them all. There were boats and oil rigs, and I could see the city in the distance. I heard that Singapore is so strict—that you cant even chew gum on the streets, so that’s why we didn’t stop there!  After we left Singapore we went through the Strait of Malacca, the most dangerous part of the world. It is the most pirated place in the world, and we were warned about it. Our best defense is speed, so we were going really fast ( 25 knots) the whole time. I went outside and enjoyed the view of the glass like water ( we were also in the Bay of Bengal before so it was so calm,) and got some sun ( which was equator-strong sun , since we were 1 degree from the equator at that point), and studied a lot! There were lots of pirate ships around us, and one was following us for a while, and my professor, Doc Nancy, took a picture of it and blew it up, and there were canons on it. They didn’t deiced to mess with us though ( we have water canons to shoot people off the side of the boat), so we made it all safe and sound! Doesn’t this sound like quite the adventure? I can’t believe I am writing this! There was also a talent show, which was really nice to relax to. Most of it was signing, and there is a lot of talent on the ship, but there was also a tap dancer and a stand up comic, which was interesting to say the least! There was also an open mic night the other night because it was national coming out day, so people told their stories, and I got to experience that with Molly, who goes to a Catholic College, and therefore has never experienced something like that before. It was really nice to be there with her as she experienced something new like that. One night Judy Lunn—a person who works on IT on the ship ( computers), did a lecture/concert in memory of John Denver. She is an amazing singer, and made a tribute CD, and worked with John Denver’s band, and met his mom and all that. You should look for her CD if you are interested, she has a great voice! Yesterday when I was outside reading we passed the islands that were destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. We also saw some whales while we were in Biology , and dolphins in Anthro, and at lunch as well! Aww, the privileges of taking classes on a boat—who else can say “well, I was taking a midterm, and looked out the window, and there was a school of dolphins swimming by!”

October 1, 2007

      Today I woke up and had breakfast for the first time in a few days because I actually wasn’t off the ship before it started! I met someone on the shuttle to the town center and gave him my map because he was alone trying to find the war remnants museum, so I went to the Tourist center to get another one but they were out, they kindly offered me one for Hanoi though, which is a 2 hour flight away! I went online there, then across the street to the Rex Hotel to get a map—and it was even in English! Our first stop was Saigon Central Mosque, and we passed it three times because it was so hidden. It was on a little street and we knew it had to be there! It was very different from the temples, which are very detailed and ornate. This mosque was very plane—white and blue, had a pool in the front to bathe before you pray, and that was it. There were about 10 people around, just sitting or sleeping, or reading, there are not that many Muslims in HCMC, and even fewer mosques, so it was nice to see something a little less common. Jill and I then went to the botanical gardens and zoo, which we were both really excited about. We heard it was small, so we weren’t expecting much, but it turned out to be amazing. I noticed on the way that I saw a Pizza Hut and a KFC, the only two stores or restaurants that I recognized in the city. I was surprised there were no McDonalds, but I thought that that was a good sign. It’s nice to know that we don’t have a huge influence everywhere. English is still so important around the world and it amazes me that everyone is always looking for English speakers.  On the way to the zoo I saw a kindergarten and the cutest children, and then right next door was a middle/high school and all the kids were on their lunch break, and all out on the street buying lunch from the street vendors. We reached the zoo and gardens, paid our 50 cents, and spent the next three hours looking at all the animals. There were lots of Asian ones which I had never seen before, such as sun bears, and the animals were a lot closer than you can get in American zoos, so I got to feed the elephants and pet the monkeys, which was fun! Jill and I then ate out, and I got stir fried morning glories, which I was told to not miss, and they were okay. I was expecting pretty flowers to come out on my plate, but it was more the stems. I then looked it up on Wikipedia to see if what I ate was actually morning glories, and they were, and I also found out that they are a Noxious weed and illegal to sell, buy, or grow ( check it out on www.wikipedia.com) I thought that was strange because a lot of places sell them. After my illegal lunch we went to pick up Jill’s custom made dress, then wandered around, and then met on the ship for our Christmas day dinner (remember in Japan I was approached by a Jehovah’s witness, and found out Jesus was born on October 1, so I planned to go out to dinner with a bunch of my friends and do secret Santa.) We all went out to a restaurant I found, and had tons of fun, and then got back to the ship and song Christmas songs and did secret Santa and everyone loved it so much. They really appreciated make planning it all, and they decided we should do a secret Santa type thing at the end of every port and buy a gift for each other, and then get together the night we leave. We decided that was a nice way to end a country before the rush of work again, so I am really excited about that!

NOTE: SAS has a student website and it’s very far behind, but it has some cool info, and I am in the main picture, so if you want to check it out go to

http://www.sasfall07.com/shipboardlife.php

I am on the “Vicarous Voyage” puzzle piece, with an orange shirt. This was when we were leaving Mexico our first day and everyone was out on the aft of the ship J

September 23, 2007

Our last day in Beijing! I feel kind of bad that I didn’t like it too much, but there were a few great things, but it’s just not for me. I am so glad I saw it though, because I probably won’t go back and it was a good experience. Today we went to the Temple of Heaven before our plane. It was another really pretty Temple, and I remember I did a big report and poster on it in 9^th grade, but I don’t remember anything I learned about it. It was cool to see though since I remember doing some project on it before. All the temples look similar—very detailed, and very colorful, and lots of dragons (which symbolize emperors). There were lots of locals practicing tai chi, or sword fighting, or dancing in the park surrounding the temple. We watched them for a while, and then took a golf cart though the park to our last Chinese meal. I am getting very good at chop sticks, but the plastic ones they use at restaurants are harder because things slip. I think I am going to eat with chopsticks when I get home because it’s more of a challenge and slows you down.  We got to the airport, and barely made the plane. Its hard traveling with 80 people, and the leader had to get all our tickets, and we all had to go through customs and immigration and security, where they took away all my liquids and contact solution (even though we were told they didn’t have that rule in China—you just had to put the liquids in a clear plastic bag—but obviously that was wrong). I was in the dead last row in the center on the plane, and just slept and read for class for 3 hours to Hong Kong. The landing was pretty rough and scary, but it was okay and I knew we weren’t in Beijing anymore! I knew I would love Hong Kong just from the airport. It was clean. It looked like America. There were American stores and restaurants. There were western style toilets, with toilet paper. Even though Hong Kong was part of (or owned by, or leased by) Britain for the past 100 years I thought it would be more China like since it’s been in control by china for the past 10, but it was a breath of fresh air. It looked like Europe. The license plates were the same, they drove on the left, it was clean, and they had double Decker buses. Everything was so amazing. I was so happy to be in some place safe and familiar looking. Everyone was so happy to see Hong Kong, and the boat! We went over the longest suspension bridge in the world, and then went on the ship, changed, and went out with Lauren, Ryan, Alex, Tara, and Andy. We walked around, saw the gorgeous skyline, stores, and went out to eat. There was lots of shopping and it looked like a combination of 5^th ave and Times Square because of all the lights. We ate at a local restaurant and were in a booth, which reminded me of the 50s or 60s which was fun. I wasn’t hungry, but people ordered food that looked edible, and we had lots of fun. Tara lived in Hong Kong for a few years, and now lives in Malaysia, so it was easy to travel with her because she could help us order. She said when we walked in people said “ look white people” which shows me that even though there are lots of Americans and Europeans in Hong Kong the Chinese still are interested in us. We then went to a night market, got some souvenirs, and then walked back to the ship. On the way back I saw a man sitting on the sidewalk and eating from a trash bag. I have never seen that before and it kind of shocked me just because we were in such a nice city. It reminded me though that Hong Kong is a different place. Its rich, but its poor. It’s Europe, but its china. It’s really interesting. It’s “China’s Manhattan” but then you can drive for 20 minutes and you would swear you were in Hawaii. I love it. I went back to the dock area (which was a mall), called home, and went to sleep by 4:30am.

September 24, 2007

            I woke up at 7am, after a couple hours of sleep because we all were going to wander around Hong Kong together. It was raining again, and on the way to breakfast I decided to look in the free ticket box and the trip I wanted to go on was in there, so is as really excited! I ate breakfast, and met my group and had a great day! We first went to a beach, which was nice, but really rough because of all the rain. I walked along it for a few minutes, and just looked at all the little islands out in the ocean. They have tons of sharks in the water, so I would never swim there even if it was nice out, and they even had a shark net! We then drove up and down mountains which looked like Hawaii, and saw lots of waterfalls and water buffalo along the road. We ended up at a fishing village. They were right on the water, and people sold fish out of their boats, and lived in houses on stilts. It was really interesting to see and so gorgeous. We were away from the city, and these people were like hermits. They all just fished for their living, and all knew each other and lived right there. They were not allowed to be there originally, but they people convinced the government to allow them to be there. No one paid for their house, so they are living their for free, but they can’t sell or rent their houses, so they have to live their for their lives, or just give their houses away. We walked along the streets and saw lots of live fish, shrimp, crabs, and eels for sale, along with dried shark and other things that I couldn’t identify. It was a very open society and the houses we walked past were open and we could see into these people’s lives. I tried to put myself in their shoes, but it was hard to imagine that being my home. My life. We went into a temple, where people were told their fortune by throwing two pieces of wood, and seeing what side it landed on, and I lit some incense.  And saw a man building a bamboo scaffolding to start construction on a building, and just enjoyed the view and the culture of the fishing village. A lot of the people stared at us and were interested in us, but some people did not seem very happy we were there. They supposedly don’t mind tourists because we bring in money and help them but I can’t imagine that it would get annoying for groups of tourists to constantly walk through your village and stare at your houses. It would be hard for me to deal with because we are intruding on their lives. We then made our way to the biggest Buddha in the world. We learned that one of Buddha’s hand is up to symbolize peace and another one open to the world. The Buddha is facing china to symbolize Hong Kong’s openness and peaceful thoughts towards china. There was also a swastika looking symbol on the Buddha, which I had seen in Japan as well, which symbolizes peace. It interested me that that symbol was before the Nazis and then the Nazis took such a peaceful symbol, turned it around, and made it symbolize hate and war and killing. Now when people see that symbol they think of the swastika, but it really is a very peaceful symbol. The more I know about Buddhism the more I like it.  The view from the top was fantastic—you could see the mountains in one direction, the water and the islands in the water in another and a very cute town with bells ringing in another. The town was perfect and seemed fake. There were monks and houses and temples and bells ringing, and the nature all around was so peaceful. I could have spent the day there. Or my life. We went up in the Buddha, and then went to lunch in a monastery. It was a completely vegetarian lunch and was so amazing. It was the most I had eaten since I have been on the ship and I was such a happy camper!  We then went back down the hill, saw a yellow brick road they were building, which made me happy, and then we switched buses to go back to the island our ship was on. Hong Kong is made up of many islands, and you cannot take some cars not registered on a certain island to another because of traffic control, so we had to switch buses halfway through. We got back, got free wireless from the mall/port, then had dinner on the boat and then saw the light show, which happens every night at 8pm. The skyline is gorgeous without the show, but all the building lit up and there were lasers and different color lights. There was also music that went along with it, but since we were on the ship we didn’t hear it. I really enjoyed it though—there is something about cities at night, and beautiful skylines that makes me really happy. I then went to the union, where CH Tong was speaking, so I listened to him talk about his life, politics, and Hong Kong, and then I met him, shook his hand, and got a picture with him, and then watched the ship depart from Hong Kong. Off to Vietnam!

September 27, 2007

            Today I woke up at 7am to see the boat go through the river to Ho Chi Minh City. We actually reached the end of the ocean and the beginning of the river to reach HCMC at 4am, and some people got up then, but I decided to sleep in a little bit. I didn’t know what to expect. For some reason I have been looking forward to Vietnam so much, it actually was 1 of 3 of the countries I am looking forward to the most (besides India and Egypt). I had this vision in my head that the people would be amazing, and it would be safe, and it would be a small town feels with people in rice paddies and their hats and selling stuff, but I really had nothing to base it on. I went outside and I knew this country was amazing. We were in a river, which was cool to begin with, and on both sides were just marsh and trees. The first thing I thought about was the war. I’m not sure why—maybe because it has been discussed a lot in class and at the pre-port meetings, but maybe it was just because it looked like all the movies. I just stood there and looked and I could picture helicopters about. Noise. Screaming. Guns. After I thought about that I looked around some more and saw amazing thing. There were people in their individual boats going up and down the river with their Vietnam hats on ( you know those triangle ones I am talking about), there were villages with huts on the side of the water, there were families on larger boats, all looking up at this massive ship just waving. I was only on the deck for about 45 minutes and we were there! There was a group of Vietnamese women wearing the traditional dress all holding a sign saying “Welcome to Vietnam Semester at Sea.” I ate breakfast, and the ship was cleared by 10 min after 8am. Vietnam was looking better and better! I then realized that I lost my bag that had my ID in it, and I was looking all over for it, running up and down the boat, looking in lost and found, and tearing apart my room. I can’t get off the boat without my ID (because you swipe in and out so they always know where you are) and I didn’t want to spend $25 to get a new one if I didn’t want to, but I finally found it slipped between my friend’s bed and the wall! We got off the ship and took the free shuttle to the center of the city. SAS is providing the shuttle because they are doing some construction around the dock area so it’s difficult to walk with all the traffic, which is nice of them to do! I only had a couple of hours before my tour, so I just stayed close to the center of the city, and went to a big market. The first thing I noticed was that when they dropped us off that the city was very beautiful. It is the most westernized city in Vietnam because it is still very 3^rd world in all the other parts, and this is the city where the rich go, and is the most built up. Even with that, it is so completely different than the United States, but it feels safe and I like it a lot. They had the equivalent of a city hall right where they dropped us off which is a gorgeous building, and they had a tourist center with maps and currency exchange and computers. The second thing I noticed was the traffic. There are thousand of motorbikes. There are also some cars, and buses, but most often motorbikes and you have to be careful crossing the street! Most people do not have cars because they cost about $10,000-$15,000 for a 10 year old car because the government puts a 200% tax on them because they want to discourage the use of them because of the traffic. I could not imagine if everyone had a car, how the traffic would be. Think Holland Tunnel on every road! The first time we crossed the street we were just waiting for a clear in traffic (they don’t have lights or “walk” signals at most intersections) but then we realized a break would never happen. We noticed there was a police-looking man in all green, and he walked out in front of all the traffic and we just followed. When in Vietnam, do as the Vietnamese do. I found out that Vietnam has employed many of these people at most corners to help tourists cross and to help them with directions, etc. to try to encourage more tourists to come. It is so great! We have gotten pretty good at the whole walking across the street thing. All you do is walk, and keep a steady pace—do not run because then you will confuse people—and the drivers will judge when you will be where, and you will not get hit. You will be within inches of cars and buses and motorcycles and bikes, but you’ll be okay. I even videotaped us going across the street—it’s always an experience! We went to an indoor market with lots of souvenirs, shoes, fruits, flowers, and food. There was a mixture of locals and tourists (and a lot of Australians from another cruise ship) and it was a nice Vietnamese experience. Lots of people got fitted dresses for themselves for the Ambassadors Ball later in the semester, where they pick out the fabric, and draw a design, but I didn’t decide to do that. I did see a ready made dress I kind of liked, but I didn’t have enough money. The third thing I noticed was that I felt so safe and the people were so nice. I don’t know if it’s because we are here right after China, but I don’t think it is. People always smile, they help you out, they walk with you if you need to go somewhere, they are so interested in speaking English (to practice or just out of curiosity) and they never make you feel uncomfortable. The people selling items say “hello beautiful, would you like this…” and when you say “no thanks” they say “okay”, unlike China when they yell at you, pull at you, hit you, and do not let go. You just ignore people in China and push them aside, which I don’t like doing, but that’s how the culture is. The Vietnamese are much gentler. I then headed back to the bus to go on my tour to the school for the deaf and the orphanage. We first drove to the deaf school, which was about 20 min away. We went a little outside downtown, and I noticed how much the look of the place changed. We went over a little bridge and there were township looking places all around. It reminded me of South Africa. It surprised me that there were so many cardboard houses/poverty right there near the city and you would never know it. This was supposed to be the rich area. I really want to travel further out into Vietnam because I know HCMC is not what the rest of Vietnam is, but I am hoping to get a glimpse of that in the next few days. We first went to the school, and we got there just in time because the sky opened up. It is the rainy season, but I never saw it rain so quickly out of nowhere (even though it is 97 degrees and feels like 99% humidity) and so hard. The rain was deafening, but I loved it. We went into the school, and the head of the school told us that these children go to school there from 8am-4pm and they are of all ages ( looking to be about 3yrs-16years). They all had hearing aids because of the money they received previously, but more money is always needed, and they are hoping that in the future some of the students will be able to get their hearing fixed. We all went upstairs and they put on a dance show for us that they have been practicing for weeks, which was adorable. The girls did pretty dances with dresses and flowers and fans and the boys did a hip hop routine. We then all hung out, and split up with kids, and either played games with them, colored, or tried to communicate. The girl I was with had a notebook with English and Vietnamese words, and we would point to ask each other questions, and then write the answers with a crayon. We were trying to draw that we were all on a boat, and we were from the U.S., and our ages, and if we had siblings. It was hard to communicate not only because of the language barrier but because she couldn’t hear as well. At one point she pointed to the word doctor, and communicated that she wants to get money so she can go to a doctor because she wants to hear. It was really sad that we couldn’t really help her accomplish her wish. I hope one day we can. Before we left, I played with some younger children, who were really excited about my camera (they love seeing themselves on the screen) and then we headed to an orphanage. I knew that it would be hard to see an orphanage because 1. I love children 2. There are so many kids without parents in the world and 3. I could not imagine a world without parents. I didn’t realize it would be like it was though. To begin, this orphanage was for children (mostly with mental or physical disabilities) that were left on the street and totally abandoned by their parents. I cannot imagine doing something like that. I really tried to think about the situation and really try to put myself in the parent’s position, and I cant understand that it must be difficult to have a baby that has a disability, and they would require so much care, and I really tried, but I cannot imagine leaving a child, a human being, just out in the street. We walked in, and there were numerous rooms full of children of all ages. I had bubbles to interact with the kids, and man, was that a hit! I walked into the room and there were lots of metal beds. Some kids were in them unable to move. Some were tied up. Some were running around the room. Some were biting themselves. They all had a deformity. I just started to go up to some of them, make them comfortable, touch their hands, and blow bubbles. Most of them didn’t smile at first, and none of they could talk at all, but they all loved looking at the bubbles, and some even tried to blow some. Some were successful and laughed so much! There were some who could not physically blow so I pretended that the bubbles that came out were theirs, and some couldn’t hold the stick, so I just held it up to their mouths. I really felt like it was such a little thing that could communicate happiness through so many differences. I walked into other rooms, and they were all different. One room was on smaller children all in beds unable to move at all. Some were of children on mats. I sat down and held a baby boy and just held his hand, rubbed his head, held him tight. I cried, I think we all did, but we tried not to. We have to be happy for these kids. Every day they see their nurses and that’s all. The place is very nice and well decorated, but visitors must be so special for them, even if they cannot communicate that. I understand why Angelina Jolie goes to places, like Vietnam, and adopts children. You fall in love with them. I talked to the guide and he said that they get a lot of money, but they could always use more for food, or supplies, and medicine, but they have good facilities. I wish I could do something to help, but really, the only thing to make it all better is to get all these children parents. I am thinking that maybe in the future I will do something like that, but then I always think that that wont solve all the problems for all the other kids, there will always be orphans, and I hate that. I wish I could help everyone, but I can’t, but I can change the world one person at a time. On out way back, our tour guide told us that most people live in houses that look like apartments from the outside because families live together and each generation lives on different floors. The grandparents live on the bottom level, then parents, then kids. This way they save money and are all together. He also said that people who know English get better jobs and get paid a lot more, and that jobs have been paying a lot more in the past 5 years or so, so the economy is improving. We got back to the ship, had dinner, then went out and walked around and saw the city at night. I hadn’t been out much at night because in China it was like “oh, its getting dark, better head back” but its safer here. We walked around and shopped, and molly got measured for 2 traditional dresses/pants, and we got some chocolate, and had lots of fun. We walked past a taxi and he said “back to ship?” which we thought was funny because the locals know that if you are an American and young you must be on SAS.

September 28, 2007

            Today we did a walking tour of the city from Ryan’s lonely planet book.  We saw a park with a statue in it, the backpackers area, where there are tons of restaurants (and vegetarian ones that I want to go to in the next few days,) and lots of shops. We went by a church, and walked in. It looked like any church, but they aren’t very prevalent in Southeast Asia, so we decided to check it out. There was a spiral staircase and I decided to see where it went, so I went all the way up and there was a room with ashes of lots of people in jars and their pictures on the jar, and then there was a view of the inside of the church below us. I met a man in there, and he was interested in me and I asked him a bunch of questions, and he ended up walking us to a place where Jill and I could buy tickets for the Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta (which we decided not to do through SAS to save money and to get away from SAS kids). We thought it would be nice to do it Indy (or independently) but both these places are a few hours outside the city, so we decided to take local tours, which worked out! We got the tickets, and then continued on the walking tour. It was pouring again, so we ducked under an overhang and I met another woman. I just say “hi” and they are so talkative and so interested in English. I spoke to her about the United States, and she wanted to go there sometime, and she had relatives in California (like the man in the church). She talked to me about SAS and the weather, the rainy season, and then the government. I told her we were going to the war remnants museum and she said she didn’t like it that much because it was very one-sided and the government controls it, so she didn’t think it was all 100% accurate. It was interesting to see her view of this because I would think that maybe Americans would not like it because it was one-sided, but honestly that’s why I was excited about it. I’m not a big museum person but I knew that this was an important one and it would be interesting to see Vietnam’s perspective on the “American war”. She also said how she didn’t like the government because they controlled everything, and she would rather have a democracy like the United States. She said she reads a lot and watched the news, but she doesn’t know what the government controls or not. It was really interesting to hear what a local thinks of their situation, because that’s what traveling is all about! We continued to walk, saw the opera house then went to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was really pretty, and then we went to a park. The thing about HCMC is that it doesn’t have that big city feel. The people are friendly and there are trees and parks everywhere. The one we went to was so pretty. There were fountains and flowers and cactus gardens and elephant looking shrubs, and pagodas, statues, and all sorts of things! Jill and I had lots of fun, and then we headed to the war museum. The museum was really well done. At first we just thought they had one building, and we were about to leave, but it was down pouring (and we forgot our jackets and umbrellas on the ship of course, and refused to spend $1 on a poncho, so we just got soaked). Honestly, I love running through the rain, and being soaking wet. I think it’s so fun to just be wet, it makes me feel free. Anyways, the museum was amazing. The buildings were mostly pictures with descriptions and some artifacts. In the front they had planes and tanks, but the rest of the artifacts were bombs, clothes of victims, or guns. The pictures were what hit home, and really showed you what war was like. They talked a lot about Agent Orange, and before and after pictures of the land, which showed how it whipped out everything, so it was easier to see the victims. They showed pictures of people affected by Agent Orange still, because caner, disabilities, etc get passed on. The thing that hit me the most was that there were actual dead babies in formaldehyde. They both had deformities and died because of Agent Orange. The other thing that made the most impact was a certain picture, it was of a family of about 4 or 5, and the caption read “The photographer saw this family and said ‘wait’ and snapped the photo, he then turned around, and heard shots, and he saw bodies fall out of the corner of his eye, but couldn’t turn around to look.” All the pictures just put a face and a story to the numbers. Other buildings included info about protests in the united states and the world against the war, and an exhibit on Vietnam today, and prisoner of war conditions ( which really freaked us out , it was raining and thundering and lighting, and they had replicas of the cells and had manikins and it was really scary.) I could not imagine being someone in a camp (like John McCain). There was also a room full of paintings that children made of peace, and it was a nice way to end the museum. After that we walked to the imperial palace, which used to be the place of residence and meetings of the president, so a White House and Congress combined. We had a tour of the building, and saw all the rooms and bomb shelters of the building. We then went out to eat, which was great. I really wanted some egg rolls like the ones I got in the Vietnamese Restaurant in Worcester, MA, but I decided on grilled veggies, which were good. The restaurant we went too was very nice, and fairly fancy, but it was still so cheap. We got my plate of veggies and rice, Jill got Filet Mignon and salad, she got 2 Pepsis, I got 3 cups of tea, she got  chocolate ice cream, and I got a traditional Vietnamese dessert, which was coconut milk and tapioca and jelly and weird looking things, which was.. Interesting, all for $6. It was amazing. Out waiter was so nice as well. He asked me where I was from, and drew a map of the united stated and asked me where Boston was, and then he pointed out Miami and California and then asked about Michigan and Texas. We were then going to go to a water puppet show but we didn’t have enough money, so we are going to go another night because it’s a special Vietnamese show, and sounded great! We walked back, and noticed lots of shrines everywhere. They are in the street and in a lot of stores. They are little shrines with incense and Buddha statues and fruit and I really liked it. Everything seems so peaceful. We walked around some more because we didn’t want to go back to the ship, but it was still raining, and we decided to come back fairly early (8pm) so we could shower and watch movies and journal J

September 29, 2007

            Happy Wedding Erin! I was thinking about you all day long J Today was an amazing day, kind of like every day in Vietnam. Kelly, Jill, and I all woke up bright and early to walk to the tourist place that we got our tour from. SAS was doing tours, but I wanted to get away from all the SAS tours, because you are just traveling with a bunch of people you know, and I thought even if we went on an organized tour at least it would be with other people touring the country, or maybe even locals. Plus, it was a whole lot cheaper. We decided to walk because it was only about 45 min away and we didn’t want to deal with taxis possibly ripping us off (if they don’t have meters, or mess with the meters) or motorbikes because we wanted to live for another day! We got on the bus, and the tour guide told us all about the history of HCMC and then we stopped at a place called “ Handicapped Handicrafts” which were crafts all made by agent orange victims. It was really inspiring to see people affected by this to try to help themselves instead of just feeling bad for themselves, and blaming others. It is such a misfortunate thing to have and if I had it I probably would be very angry at the Americans, but they seemed to just be dealing with it, and trying to make the best of it. We went through the room and saw everything being made by hand. There were some vases and jewelry boxes that had pieces of shells that made designs or egg shells. It was incredible to see them painstakingly make something so amazing. I would never have the patience for such a thing. I noticed how happy most people are to see Americans. Children run up to you and say a great big “Hello” and even older people, who were around during the war are always happy to see us and willing to help. I found out that it was because they are Buddhist. I was told that they believe in forgiving and forgetting, and that yes, war is awful, but it was in the past, and now its over. I really thought that was amazing to hear. Bad things do happen, and sometimes there may not be a point, but things can get better if you just let them, and maybe, just maybe, people will be able to get along one day. I have seen the beginnings of hope here in beautiful country. We then continued to drive for about 2 more hours to the Cao Temple. We saw so much of what the rest of Vietnam is like along the way, which I really enjoyed. I wanted to get away from the city, and see the “real” Vietnam and I did. It is gorgeous. I saw miles and miles of rice paddies, the greenest green you can imagine. People were working in them, and we saw lots of water buffalo and cows everywhere. There were dirt roads, kids running everywhere, little houses (more like shacks) and people selling things along the road. Even though I have never been to India, it looked like what India should look like. I guess we will see. I not only saw trees and paddies and flat-ness, but also a mountain, which was surprising to see. It’s called Black Widow Mountain, and there is a story behind it, but I kind of forget! I was paying attention to the driving because I thought it was a very interesting cultural experience. See, there are sides to the road, but no one really cares about it, the bus kept going on the other side to bypass cars or motorbikes, and would just honk and didn’t care if anything was coming towards us. If it was a motorbike coming towards us, they just went along the edge, but sometimes it was a truck, so that was interesting. About 45 people die a day in Vietnam in car accidents, 14 in HCMC, which didn’t sound like that much to me, so I guess they know what they are doing. We then finally got to the Cao Temple, which is really inexplicable. Yes, it’s a temple, but for me it represents so much more. This was the second time this trip that I just cried because of the beauty of something, and this time, the hope that there will be peace in the world. The temple is designed with 3 different religious models. There are 2 steeples in the front, standing for Catholicism, and then the middle was Buddhism, and the end a Muslim style. Three religions together represented in one place of worship. The building was colorful and so cheerful, which I really liked, since I find many places of worship to be very dark or not welcoming. There were many dragons, which stand for Buddhism, and lotus flowers, which stand for the foundation of Buddhism.  There were all different color robes for the different religions. We walked around the temple, first taking off our shoes, which I really liked because I love bare feet, and took it all in, I ascended 9 stairs to the focal point of the Temple, which was a globe with one eyeball on it, and there were lots of incense and flowers all around. It was almost noon, so I went up to the balcony to watch the 12 o’clock service, (they have one at midnight, 6am, and noon). First, all the people wearing their robes all walked in while humming ( about 200 of them) then all knelt, and kissed the ground, then sat on the floor while singing in Vietnamese and chanting. Even though I did not know a single word that was spoken I felt the power of people coming together. I just looked around and was really inspired to see all these different people, all with smiles on their faces while looking at me, and all different emotions on their faces while praying. I watched the lived band with singers, and just felt uplifted. We then went to a local restaurant, where I ordered veggie spring rolls, which were a lot different from the ones I saw in the U.S., but the woman couldn’t speak a word of English, so I didn’t find out much about them. We sat with a woman that looks to be about 25, who was from Japan originally, but now England. She said she is taking a break from work, and is traveling the world for 4 months on her own. She told us all about Thailand, and Laos, and was really excited for our journey. Then it was on to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We first went to see a movie about the Tunnels, and learned about the war. The Vietnamese were under ground a long time, sometimes for up to 2 mths, hiding from the Americans right above them, and they had no idea. There is a network of 2,000 miles of tunnels, which was all hand picked. They planned everything out down to the escape and the smoke. There was an escape that went into the Mekong Delta, so people went to that end, and would use bamboo for air while they skimmed the surface of the water. They also had a kitchen in the tunnels, but they made sequences of chimneys, so when the smoke escapes it would not be in the location of the kitchen, and the smoke would rise close to the ground, so it would be less noticeable. This way if the Americans saw smoke they would have no idea where the kitchen was located. I could never imagine having to live in a network of tunnels where you can’t even kneel, never mind stand, for months as a time. While I was walking through the forests I could just imagine what the war was like. I thought a lot about Arthur and Jeff, and what they must have experienced, along with the thousands of others. I couldn’t comprehend that the war was here—the bombs were here—the death was here. It looked exactly like what you see in the movies, so it seemed fake—I couldn’t really be right in a war zone, could I be? We saw a lot of weapons they used in the war—including the guns, an American Tank, booby traps of all kinds, which are horrific and I cannot imagine them being used, and we saw the tunnels. The original ones are too small for tourists, so they widened the ones we went in by a little, but let me tell you were they still small! I could not imagine them being small. I could squat and walk the whole time, but others had to walk on their knees and got soaked and all muddy. We were only in the tunnels for about 2 minutes, and I was the leader. It was really dark and I couldn’t see much, and I was so hot and dirty. We saw manikins that moved (there is something about manikins in this country that freak me out), and bomb holes from bombs that were dropped by Americans. We then had a chance to shoot a gun. I have always wanted to shoot a gun, even though I am a peaceful person and against war and violence, but I want to experience everything in life, so I figured I would take the opportunity. The thought went through my head that the gun I was going to shoot was used to shoots Americans in the war, and that that could have moral dilemmas attached to it, but I just thought that Americans were shooting at them, and none of it was right, but it just happened, and me shooting the gun wouldn’t change the past or anything. I had the choice between and AK47 or M16, and I chose the AK47. I was scared at first, and saw Kelly shoot 3 bullets first. That freaked me out even more because it was so loud and there was quite the backfire. I held the gun, put on my ear protection, aimed, and shot. I don’t really know what I was thinking, I think I was just scared, because I don’t even remember what I was aiming at and where my bullet ended up. I did it once more, held on, shot the gun, and my shoulder took most of the backfire, which was good. I thought a lot about how my little finger pulling a trigger could cause so much to happen. I could never ever imagine having to shoot that gun. At someone. I think it was a great experience, and I liked it, but didn’t really enjoy it because of all the things that happened in that past.  We then ate raw tapioca, right off of the tree, dipped in a nut/candy tasting mix, and tea. I was really excited because I love tapioca pudding, but raw tapioca doesn’t taste like anything. I had one piece, and dipped it lots in the nut mix. It supposedly will keep you full for hours so they ate it a lot during the war.  We then headed back, and I saw more scenery and HCMC at night, which I love a lot. I like looking at all the lights and the headlights and the people. I also noticed for the first time the wiring system. It looks like India, once again. There are hundreds of wires all over, very low, and attached to one pole. It seems like a hazard, but it works for them, I guess.  I was thinking about how often they had blackouts or anything, and then it happened. We found a vegetarian restaurant from the Lonely Planet Book, which was a whole in the wall run by strict Buddhists. We looked at the menu, and the waiter came over, took out his pencil and everything turned black. The whole street was out. They just took out a bunch of candles, and they cook by gas, so everything was fine. It was really cozy and a fun experience. I got some spring roles (this time looking like the ones from Worcester) and some tofu with orange chopsticks, which were good, but too much soy cause. I don’t mind the food here, but I don’t like it too much either. I was just craving a big salad, which you can’t have because its raw veggies and you have to be careful. We then walked to the water puppet show theatre, which is a big Vietnamese tradition. There is a puppet show, except the bottoms of the puppets are in a pool of water, so you can’t see any strings. The narration was in Vietnamese, but there was live music, and just watching the puppets (from people in fields, to kids chasing frogs, to dragons). It amazed me that people were controlling all the puppets because it looks mechanical. At the end the puppeteers came out from behind the set (a big temple) and it really showed me that they were in fact puppets. I just couldn’t believe the talent they must have to perfectly move everything all at the same time in accordance with the story and the music. It then started to rain (first time today!) so we walked back to the shopping area, met up with a few of our friends there. I noticed a few more things that I didn’t notice before. People don’t park on the road, which makes sense because trying to dodge parked cars along with everything else would be hard. I don’t know where the cars park (there are very few of them) but the motorbikes either park on the sidewalk (they also drive on the sidewalk, sometimes without headlights at night), or in the stores. I saw a lot of people drive right into their store and keep their vehicle there, or sometimes they park in a garage which is basically an empty store. I also noticed that I saw some loudspeakers on my trip, and asked about them. I was told that a lot of people in the villages have no means to get news—either by T.V., radio, or the newspaper, so news is broadcast over the loudspeaker. It is all controlled by the communist government, so that may not always be good, as propaganda is sometimes played, but I thought it was good that the people are kept up to date on some news. I was told that during the outbreak of the bird flu people were constantly told not to eat poultry over the loudspeaker because the people in the villages didn’t understand because that is their livelihood, and they couldn’t get it into their heads that it wasn’t safe to eat. I thought of 1984 when I heard about this, but I think that it’s a good thing for people to stay connected, but it all depends on what the government wants you to know.   The world is so interesting. 

September 30, 2007

      Today I woke up again after 6 hours of sleep, and walked to the tour place (in a record 35 minutes) and started off our Mekong Delta tour! The tour today was full of a bunch of Vietnamese people, and some Australians and Americans, but not many people understood English, so the guide spoke in both languages all day. I slept most of the way there, and awoke to the Delta! The area we were in was another village, and we took a 10 minutes motorized boat ride around the floating market. The boat fit about 25 people, but looked like it was falling apart, but that it was everyone used around there, and it was fine. I thought it was fun to take an older boat around because that is what is genuine. I was imagining the floating market to be like something in Venice, where people are selling good from their boats, but along a pier or the canal, so the people buying goods would be on land walking. This was different though, even though we didn’t see many people shopping, because everyone does it in the morning to get their daily food, people went up in their boats to other boats, and bought all the necessary items off of it. There were people sleeping in hammocks on the boat just waiting for customers, or eating, or talking, or playing games. We then got off at a candy making factory, which everything was done by hand. This was part of the village, which was a much laid back, very old fashioned way of live. It really slowed me down and made me realize what is important in life, and what you really need in life, and all the things that I have—Americans have, that are not necessary. We saw a woman making rice paper by hand ( with milk/rice liquid, then steaming it,) people making coconut candy by hand ( from picking the coconut to peeling it, to cooking it, to cutting it, to hand wrapping it in rice paper ( which you eat and helps keep the candy longer, and then in paper). I tried it, and it was like taffy, and so good!  I sat down to have some tea and samples of all the different candy (coconut. Peanut brittle, banana candy, and ginger) and met a very nice couple. I told him why I was in Vietnam, and about SAS, and he was really excited about it. He and his wife are from New York, but he is a contractor for an American consulate, and transferred to HCMC 2 months ago, and now lives here. He said he had the choice between here and Russia and didn’t think twice about it (the more I hear about Russia, the worse it sounds!) I told him how I truly love this place and want to come back or work here or do some peace corps work here, and he said there will always be opportunities! We continued on our tour, and saw people making rice crackers, and then popped rice, which is like the little pieces of rice in rice cakes, our looks like kashi. It made me realize how much I missed popcorn—kettle corn when I come home please! They do not waste anything in the process. They use nut shells to make the fire, and crushed shells to help separate the rice. They then put oil in the big pot and rice, and mix it around (kind of like kettle corn) and then they sift it out and keep the shells, and then eat the popcorn. They add caramel and other ingredients to it, and make it into a bar. We tried some of that, and the woman we just met bought Jill and I a coconut, which lots of people drink here, so I drank coconut milk directly from a coconut ( which I don’t really like that much I decided) but it was a Vietnamese experience! We then went back on the boat for an hour ride to our restaurant (after we were full from samples). I just looked at all the trees and plants and people’s houses along the river, and people taking part in their daily activities. I couldn’t get over how serene and simple everything was. People just live there, and are self sufficient, and don’t need anything else. It put things into perspective and gave me hope that there will always be Vietnam if something doesn’t work out in the United States. I always worry about grades and school and a good job, but this showed me that I always have a place to go, and there will always be opportunities for me to help others.  I ate a little at the restaurant, and then spent some time walking around the area. I walked up and down paths, which were lines with plants and flowers and lots of water, and I just took it all in. I was all alone, and I just loved it. I noticed that I am never really alone, which I am not used to since I am home a lot during the summer alone, even if for a few hours, and in school last year because I have a single, but I have not had a moment to myself since I left, and it was just nice to walk around in nature alone for 10 minutes. I saw a lot of houses, and villagers, and even a huge snake in a cage, which I wanted to hold, but I couldn’t L I then watched some farmers and fishers playing traditional Vietnamese music, and saw the most adorable 2 little girls playing and licking their bowls which were once filled with rice. We then took the boat back, saw a ferry full of people on their motorbikes, walked around a market some more, where we saw lots of food, and eggs of every kind and raw meat (some with skin and fur still on it) which smelled in the heat ant freaked me out. I wonder how they don’t get sick from it... it must not be good for you, but I guess they are just used to it. I was looking at prices, and saw a salon, and a haircut and styling for women was $3.00. We then headed back to HCMC—a 3.5 hour drive, stopping at the most beautiful rest stop with water and bridges and cabanas and banana tress on the way back! J Another beautiful day in Vietnam!

September 21, 2007

            Today I went to breakfast to see what it was like, and there was a bunch of rice and other lunch food, peanuts, which I was excited about, a and tons of pastries with strange things in it ( bean paste?) and fried doe. I had some tea and peanuts, and decided that I wouldn’t be eating breakfast anymore. We drove to a factory where pots were made, and we got a tour of the whole place. It was really interesting to see the pots at different stages, and seeing everything done by hand. The designs are first thought up, the put on a pot with glue, and then it is pasted on the pot, and then there were 6 coats of paint which took weeks to finish on some pieces. It just is incredible what talent some people have and what patience! We looked in the store, which had thousand of pieces, from pots to jewelry to Christmas ornaments. Lauren still didn’t have any Chinese money, so she tried to exchange her Japanese money there, and they would take it because it had a tiny rip at the corner of one. We thought it was the strangest thing. We exchanged money plenty of times and it never happened, and they were giving out ripped Chinese money, and another person in front of us gave them really worn and ripped American money and they took it. We thought that was really strange, and the lady was not very nice about it. That’s when I realized how the Chinese treat each other and tourists. They just don’t care. They want what they want and you are just a number or a money sign. After that we went to the Ming Tombs where emperors and empresses were buried. We walked up to the underground tomb, and the view was gorgeous. There was a nice stone path and all you could see was mountains and temples and I felt like I had space and could breathe. We then went underground and saw a lot of the graves, but not all of them were original. A lot of people throw money on them—some bills equivalent to $100, for luck. There were just piles of money everywhere. We saw the diamond door, which was the shape of the place where the tombs were discovered. One thing I will never get used to in China is the toilets. They are filthy, and many times I just walked out. Many of them don’t have toilet paper, but some of them just have a big roll near the sinks, but not in the stalls, which doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. I was wondering what the point of that would be—maybe it saves paper or something, but I never did find out. I will never get used to them! We walked back to the bus, and got bombarded by tons of people trying to sell things. They are very pushy and run up to you and grab you, and try to bargain. Lots of people got shirts and umbrellas and one person got the most amazing looking peaches which I wanted so badly, but we weren’t supposed to eat fruit because they were grown with the filthy water, so I didn’t eat any. We had lunch—which was another interesting meal. Every meal has a big lazy Susan in the middle of the table, and about 10 people sit around, and just pick out what they want from about 10-12 plates that are served. I didn’t have any of it again because of the meat, and also some of the dishes just scared me (like rotten eggs). The thing that got tome the most was that so much food was wasted. It wasn’t just us, it was from everyone, because they serve so much, and none of the 10-12 plates are empty, and most of them are barely touched, and the waiters and waitresses just throw all the food into a big bowl and throw it out. It bothered me that they served that much and wasted so much when there are starving people all around… in China. We were told that it was a good sign to have a lot of food left over because it means you had enough, but still, it seems like such a big waste. Then we drove to the Great Wall. Driving—what a crazy thing to do! First of all, there are really no rules. Yes, there are stop lights and lines on the road, but they are just mere suggestions. People swerve in and out, don’t stop, and do anything they want, and just honk to let people know what they are doing. Our bus honked 30 times in 10 minutes, someone counted and had a bet going on. We cut people off and went on the wrong side of the road, and every time just honked, and that supposedly made everything better. We saw 4 accidents, and we actually hit a car. There are not just cars, but people, and bikes. I think that it is kind of an introduction to India, from what I hear.  It was insane.  We got to the Great Wall and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe I was there and I still can’t. It wasn’t in the city, which is as happy about, but the part we went to was about an hour outside, and we just saw mountains and the wall going on forever. It is the only man made object that can be seen from space, and I was on it! I didn’t expect there to be so many steps. I just imagined it to be semi-slat, and you just walked along it, but at least the part we were at had so many steps. I walked all the way up to the top—all 1,692 steps. Not all the steps were uniform. Some were very tall and some short, and they were all worn from the millions of people over the years walking on it. It was so great to accomplish something like that. The Chinese say that “those who get to the top are heroes” so I guess we had a bus full of heroes. I just stood on the wall and looked out and I cried. I have been to lots of places around the world, but have never cried. For some reason I just thought it was the most amazing thing ever and it really touched me. I couldn’t believe I was there. I was happy to be there. I was away from the city. I was on the Great Wall with mountains all around me. I felt so small, but so powerful at the same time. We walked all the way down, and my legs were shaking, kind of like this summer in Capri, Italy. After that and shopping some more at the bottom, we went to dinner. I sat with lots of awesome people, and we (or they) had Peking duck. They had about 10 plates before the duck, so I ate some rice and the crepes with rice and sugar that Peking duck was served on. I couldn’t stop thinking about “The Christmas Story” and the duck with the head on it on New Years Eve. Fortunately, ours didn’t have a head, but it was whole, and then the chef cut it. It was a fun experience. I was told it tasted like oily turkey, so I just imagined it.  After that we went back to Peking University to have a party with the students. We all played limbo, and the knot game, and eating a banana game, mission impossible (with ropes), pigtail making, and a musical “find someone” game. It was really nice to play games with the students and to teach them some of our games and to share our culture with them. We then exchanged gifts—they got an SAS bag, and we got a Peking University pin, and then we said goodbye. We went back to the hotel, and I hung out in Lauren’s room—which had a distinctive moldy smell, peeling walls, no flushing toilet, no working T.V., and toilet paper without the cardboard in the middle. I saw this few places in China as well, which I don’t understand. Are they trying to save cardboard? I went to sleep and had some muscle spasms in the middle of the night from the long walk on the wall, but it was a really satisfying pain!

September 22, 07

            We went into downtown Beijing today. More smog. There was tons of construction for the Olympics. There are huge buildings going up everywhere, new highways being built, and we saw the opening ceremony stadium and the swimming stadium. We went to Tiananmen Square, which was a big square with an important building on all four sides. Some people went to the Silk Market, a really big place to bargain and get cheap clothes and items, but I decided to walk around the square with some people because I thought I could go see all the buildings. We saw the Great Hall of People, but it was too crowded to get in, and then we wandered around the rest of the square, but we couldn’t really get into anything. Mao’s mausoleum had over a thousand people in line, and it would take about 2 hours to get in. I thought it would be cool to see, but we just didn’t have much time. The roads were confusing too because to cross the street you had to go in underground tunnels because the traffic was so bad, so that took a little getting used to. There were just so many people in the square, and people trying to sell you kits and postcards and watches, and it was overwhelming. We were standing there trying to figure out what to do when a couple came up to us. They were in their 20’s and started talking to us in English. I could tell they weren’t trying to sell us anything, so I talked to them and they just graduated and majored in English. They both wanted to volunteer for the Olympics as well, and wanted to practice more English. They lived in china, but were eon vacation in Beijing, and we talked about movies and the United States, and politics. They asked us if we wanted to go to the shopping street, and we said sure. They brought us to a local street, and we saw lots of stores and a tea shop, then we went and had a Chinese tea ceremony, where we tried 6 different kinds of teas, and had some green tea peanuts and Ginger and Green Tea pumpkin seeds, which was nice. We then had to go because we had to meet out group to go into the Forbidden City. We walked back and saw one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen in my life. I have traveled a lot in my lifetime, but nothing is really comparable to China. I have seen people. I have seen crowds. I have dealt with pickpocket. Bargainers. Traffic. Pollution, but nothing prepared me for China. I was prepared for a lot, but not what I saw on Tiananmen Square, and numerous other places around Beijing. I saw awful treatment of children, which is something that I cannot seem to face. Even writing this and reliving the event brings tears to my eyes. I was walking from Mao’s mausoleum, past a nice arrangement of flowers, and in the direction of the Forbidden City. There were lots of tourists, but also a lot of Chinese, who may have been locals, or may have been on vacation. Most of them were in their own worlds, looking around, and taking pictures. I was watching a little girl, who looked to be about 6 years old, because I love children, and like to see how different children act and behave in different countries. This girl was near someone who looked to be about 40 years old, and I presumed to be her mother. The mother wanted to take a picture of the girl, and there was some disagreement, which I could not understand because of the language, and the mother kicked the girl as hard as she could in the shins. As soon as I saw this I gasped in disbelief, and looked around. I expected someone to come running to the rescue. Someone to say “stop”. Someone to react, but no one did. I didn’t know what to do. If I was in America I would act, call the police, get someone, or even run towards the child, but since I was in an unfamiliar country I didn’t know what was culturally appropriate. I noticed that a lot of the white people—presumably all tourists, were walking by slowly, looking with disgust, or stopped and just looked at each other, but the other Chinese paid no attention. Is this a cultural thing? I thought about it and I felt like no one cared about me or others in China. That we didn’t matter in this world. That we were just a number. Just a money sign. Is this how people think of others, or even their children? I thought of the one child policy law as well, which I would think would cause parents to spoil their children, and worship them, but maybe girls are sometimes unwanted and are treated badly. I looked at this girl, with tears in her eyes, and tears in mine (hidden by sunglasses) and just wanted to hug her. She had a little no sleeve dress on with high heels and could see all her bruises. Was she dressed up to go somewhere special? After he mother kicked her, another woman (with them—about 70 years old) came up to the child to try to comfort her or protect her. The mother continued to give the child horrible looks, and grabbed her again. I was watching closely, and the mother noticed, so she didn’t kick her again, but I knew this was not the end. After this event I noticed the treatment of other children. I noticed a lot of children, some even younger than this girl, being treated harshly—being pulled, or hit on the head, or kicked as well. Most of the ones I saw being treated this were girls, even though I saw one boy.  Most of the other ones seemed less out of anger, and possibly just the Chinese version of a spank, or just the way children are reared, but I keep thinking back to this one particular incident and the lack of care that onlookers had. In hindsight I feel like I should have, or could have done something. I think back to that famous saying about people coming for others of all different races and religions, and not doing anything , but then they came for you and no one was there to stand up for you. I felt like I let that child down, and I am trying to deal with that. This was certainly an unusual event that I saw in China, and even though the severity of it may have been isolated, I definitely saw patterns in this behavior and it haunts me that children are being treated this way.  After that we walked to the Forbidden City to meet our group. I met up with Lauren and just hugged her and cried. I just saw a lot in the past few days and didn’t really have time to think about everything and really understand it. We got our auto guide, which was a GPS system, and was supposed to sense where you were and talk about what you were seeing instead of typing in a number, but it didn’t really work and it talked about things that I had no idea what it was. There were 2 Chinese teenagers who didn’t speak English and seemed like they wanted me to take a picture of them, so I nodded, and then one of the guys came up to us, and he took a picture with us, and then his other friend did the same thing. Lauren and I thought it was funny. The Chinese, at least the younger ones, are fascinated with Americans, or white people in general and just want to take pictures of you. I was thinking that Americans would never do that because we would think it would be rude or insensitive, to go up to someone in the U.S. who looked different, or Asian, and take a picture with them just because of that. That would never happen. I guess we are so used to being the melting pot, and are so used to other cultures and people.  We wandered around the Forbidden City, but the main building was under construction (because they want it to be done for the Olympics). The complex was just so huge and overwhelming and we got kind of lost, but all the building was amazing. After a while they all just blended together and we didn’t really know what we were looking at, but it was nice to see. The crowds were crazy and we were a little overwhelmed, and many people in our group saw a man get stabbed, and he was bleeding all over the place, and he was brought out on a stretcher, so that tainted our view of it as well. At that point I was just sick of China and wanted to leave. At the end of the city there was a little garden with strange rock formations and odd looking trees, so I just sat there and did nothing until it was time to go. I saw a child with his dad and a stuffed animal panda in his hand and took a picture of him. I love children so much, and I always take pictures of them (while pretending to take pictures of something else). They are just so precious! We then walked across the street, out of the Forbidden City, to Jingshan Park. We walked up some more steps to the top of the mountain, where there was a view of the city. We barely could make out the Forbidden City from the top, and we were almost on top of it, but the smog was so bad! There were 2 pavilions, one with a Buddha, and one where there was a Buddha but it was stolen in the 1900s. We lost out group, so we found some people, and wandered down, and saw tons of trees and the greenest grass ever, and a great group of people singing opera. We all sat around and enjoyed that, which relaxed me a little more. We then went to an edible dinner—our tour guides favorite place. They had veggies in a yummy sauce and watermelon and tea, and I didn’t even need pepto bismol! I met an SAS girl from Japan, who was really nice, and Vittoria, my neighbor who I didn’t know was my neighbor. She is really sweet, but she got sick and had to go to the hospital and missed out on a whole day of touring. She couldn’t swallow and her throat hurt, and she had to get liquid drained from her throat. I felt so bad, but she was being really positive from it. I was scared I got something from her because she was at our table, and you serve yourself from the lazy Susan with your chopsticks, which would seem like germs would spread, but I'm still healthy… so far J we then went to the most amazing Chinese acrobat show. It was like Cirque du Solei. People did things I didn’t think were possible. It blew my mind. My mouth was open the whole time. I took lots of pictures and my friend Eric, who I met on that trip, taped the whole thing, so I’ll try to get that, but it was incredible and made the whole trip worth it. They were so flexible and moved like I saw no one move before, and jumped through tubes, and had 15 people on one bicycle in a gorgeous formation. Two cultural things that I noticed were that Chinese people do not clap—for anything, even at then end, and they talk a lot through performances because it is a social activity. Thankfully we were all near SAS kids, so the talking didn’t affect me, but I thought it was interesting how different we act.  I then went back to the hotel, checked my email since it was 50 cents for a half hour, and then went to bed!

September 19, 2007

            Today we arrived in Qingdao, China, and man is it different from Japan. I am so glad that I got to go to both Japan and China because I thought both countries were exactly the same, and they cannot be more different. Qingdao is a port city, so it’s so industrial and everything around us is really crazy and dirty and loud. I woke up and looked outside and it was rainy and I jus saw lots of ships being loaded with supplies and cars and trucks going everywhere. I was 4 minutes late for breakfast and everything was all packed up, but the head chef noticed, and told me to sit down and got me a little something to eat after a while, which was really nice. I was going to wander around with Kelly and Candy (who I met last night) but then after the ship was cleared at around 10am (so awesome!) I just went with a group of other people. We didn’t really know where we were going because we weren’t even docked in a place with a port, and just left the boat and were in the middle of commotion. There were people loading and unloading other ships and traffic everywhere. It was a nice intro to China. Ha-ha. We wandered around and asked lots of people for directions to anywhere (in English, in Chinese, and pointing to characters in our Lonely Planet book) but nothing worked. We saw lots of electronic shops, and people were trying to get money out of ATMS but nothing worked. We then went into a hotel, and they called someone over who understood some English, so the lady pointed us in the kind of right direction. The whole time I was just thinking that everything looked like a big China town—kind of like in NYC, but just everywhere. The pollution wasn’t that bad here, but you couldn’t see very far because of the fog. There was a lot more garbage on the street than Japan, but there were lots more garbage cans (and I even saw a few recycling containers, which surprised me.) Even China has them and the U.S. doesn’t, it makes me wonder why. The traffic though is a nice little introduction to Indian traffic I think. There are road rules, but no one really follows them, and red lights are just a suggestion. We had to basically all walk in packs, and follow a Chinese person crossing the road when we wanted to cross (even on “walk” signals). Everything just seemed a lot dirtier though—big dirty puddles, garbage and food on the street, lots of construction, etc. I noticed that a lot of people had food in little plastic bags hanging on doors. We went by lots of places with baggies full of food—stuff looking like veggies, or wontons, or soup, or even beer. I also noticed that a lot of the people were not as friendly. We go a lot of looks because maybe China does not get as many American visitors, but they just stared. Some people were friendly, and just smiled and said “hello”, the children were adorable, and came up to us, and took pictures of us, and one even counted us in English. We saw a big outdoor market with lots of odds and ends, but nothing really of interest. I am hoping that when I go to Beijing tomorrow they will have better things at the markets—I am so ready to barter! Anyways, after going down an art street, we came across the famous brewery, and then ran into the first SAS kids all day. They pointed us in the direction of the main shopping area. All the stores were walk-in stores, so it wasn’t as fun, but we went into Wal*Mart, which was so different. They had a food section with so many different things, and all sorts of random stuff. It was two floors, and they had a people mover going up so you can put the cart up and down. We stayed in there for a while, and then went out to eat. It was a local place, and we were the only tourists in there, so we pointed to the foods we wanted. I didn’t get any food because they all looked like they had meat in it, and we can only eat things that are cooked, and still hot, and no water! We all got tea, which was okay to drink because it was boiled, and then everyone got something to share. I had a few bites of something we don’t know what it is- but it was like sugared potatoes or something. The whole bill—for drinks, and all the food was $10.00.  We then wanted to try to find the old district, and we could not communicate well, so then one of the waiters told us that he would just bring us. It was so nice of him, and we really couldn’t communicate, but we pointed at some phrases in our book, and got his name, and said thank you, and stuff like that. He brought us to the church, which was supposed to be the center, took a picture with us ( he was pretty excited to be around all those American girls and kept saying “ beautiful”), then wrote down his name in characters, and left. There wasn’t much there ( I still don’t know if that was old town or not—it is so hard to get around with nothing in English and no good map), but we just wandered around some more. We then went through some markets selling food ( all over the street and vendors and stuff that I would never imagine eating.) it did look like NYC, but they also had live chickens in cages, and really showed me why you have to be careful eating stuff in China. I just stopped and thought for a second, while looking at all this, and people getting food, and going back to their homes, that people actually live here. This is someone’s life. I could never imagine—it’s just so different. I feel like when I travel I see all the sites and do try to see the non-touristy areas too, and I try to understand the culture as much as I can , but its still so hard to imagine that what you are seeing is what people see all their lives—and its just another day. By this point it was 5pm, and we only had an hour until sunset. When we were crossing an overhead crosswalk( because apparently the roads were too crazy to have normal crosswalks with the traffic, so you had to climb stares, then go over a little pedestrian bridge to the other side), we saw a mountain with a temple on top. We decided to find our way up—and we did! We climbed through the trees, and the stairs, and we reached the top. On the way I saw a factory and looked inside and there were tons of people in a conveyer line making some sort of item, kind of what you see people working in sweat shops on TV. I don’t know what it was exactly, the building had no writing on it, but I was really curious to know what it was. I really wanted to see a factory and the conditions because I think that would be important to see, but I heard the public is never allowed. I imagined China to be full of them, which it is, but I expected to see more, since everything is made in China. When we got to the top of the mountain there was no visibility, but there was a cool temple thing, and we all took awesome pictures. It was my favorite part of the day because I got to see nature and I felt like we saw something semi-touristy. We then were “walking back to the ship” according to Ryan’s compass, but we decided just o make sure. We went into an uber fancy hotel ( with all of our hair and clothes completely soaked—just wait for the pictures—and we realized we were not ported on the Yellow Sea side, whoops! So our only option at this point ( since it was dark and still pouring out and we were wet and hungry and cranky) was to take a taxi. A.taxi.in.China. We were walking along the road and hailed a cab, and were just trying to figure out for about 10 seconds, who would go in that one and who would go in the second ( since we had 7 people) and the guy just drove away. We got another one, pointed at our green sheet ( the sheet that SAS gives us with vital numbers to the ship, hospital, and useful tips and “ Please bring me back to the ship , docked at ____” in the local language. We point, he nods, we get in, and of course I get the death seat ( the front passenger seat). Scariest ride of my life. First of all I could not see a single thing from the windshield. It was pouring, it was completely fogged over, and there were people and cars and buses all over the place. We passed numerous cars on a two way street with cars coming towards us, and a bus was 2 inches from us, and yeah, ill spare you the details. We got back though ( after about 10 minutes) and it was 8 Yuan, or $1.00, which was awesome. The ship looked sooo nice! we went up the crazy steep/slippery gangway, and onto the ship, took a hot shower, and had the best meal ever! They had veggies in tomato sauce, which I always eat at home and made me so happy. I had lots of that and then some hot tea, and was the happiest person ever! I then packed for my big long trip to Beijing tomorrow, which I am so excited about, and then watched “ Little Mermaid.” I feel like this was quit the shock from Japan, but I kind of knew what to expect. I think Beijing will give me  a better view of what China is really like. I just hope the pollution isn’t too bad!

September 20, 2007

            Today I woke up at 5:45am to meet in the Union to leave for Beijing. When I got there was a group doing Ti Chi with a Chinese man—it was an SAS trip, and they were supposed to go to a park, but it was pouring rain ( even worse than yesterday) so they just had to do it in the union. It looked interesting, but nothing extraordinary and I recognized some of the moves. It’s a cross between Tae-Bo and yoga. We left Qinghai, and drove about an hour to the airport and saw lots and lots of flooding. It was pouring, but I didn’t realize how much, and they had no means to drain the rain, so the streets were completely flooded and it looked like a hurricane hit. It was pretty crazy. I can’t imagine when a typhoon does hit, how bad it would be. I would think they would have the means to put in some drains, but I guess they don’t. We got to the airport and our flight was delayed for an hour because of the storm, so I slept. Another group from SAS, which got to leave an hour later from the ship, showed up and flew away before us, making lots of people jealous, but I figured I could catch up on some sleep, so it was okay!  We flew China West, which Lauren decided to tell me was the airline with the highest rate of crashes—so I thanked her for telling me. I was a little scared because the plane was old and the weather was bad, and the girl next to me was really nervous and was shaking and had to use the air sickness bag a few times, but it ended up being fine. We flew in, and I couldn’t see anything from the air. I was on the isle, but when I looked out the window it looked like we were still high in the sky in clouds, but we were really low, and the smog just covered the city. At least the weather in Beijing was great—sunny and in the 80’s, so that was a positive aspect! Once we got to the airport tons of people tried to get money from the ATM, and only one person out of 25 succeeded. I am glad I got the money packets because a lot of people are having trouble getting any money, and it would be hard to travel without anything. We got on a bus that was owned by Peking University, the University that was hosting us, and they first drove us to our hotel. I thought we were going to stay with the students, but we stayed near the university instead, which disappointed me, because I wanted to interact with the students more, but it ended up working out. They assigned roommates by last name, so Lauren, who I am good friends with, and I, were not roomies, but I ended up rooming with Alex, who is amazing, and we became good friends, and we found out we lived across the hall from each other on the ship J  I don’t know who some of my neighbors are still because the doors slam shut so you cant keep them open and people are barely in their room. I got to know her, and her boyfriend, Andy, a lot which was nice. We had room 420 in the hotel, and my ship’s room is 4020, so I thought that was strange.  We ate lunch in the hotel, which was my first taste of Chinese food. It sure is not American Chinese food, which I love. I remember being told that it would be a lot different, but I didn’t think it would be that different. I didn’t recognize anything on the buffet line except rice and some fruit, so I stuck with that. We were told not to have any water or fruit or veggies that were raw but I had some watermelon, and took some pepto bismol and was fine. We then went to the Summer Palace. We walked around, and saw all the gorgeous architecture of the buildings and palace and it amazed me how much detail was in the painting. Everything was so detailed and the colors were so vibrant. The palace was on the water, which admittedly was my favorite part.  We were walking among many buildings in the complex, and then it just opened up to water and lily pads, and mountains and it was just gorgeous. The DVD guy (who was on our trip and got so much footage of me) talked to me there, and videoed me, and it was great. We continued to walk, and saw a granite boat, a bamboo forest, and then we got to take a boat ride. The boats were dragons and we went from one end of the palace complex to the other and the view from the boat was amazing. It showed me how big the palace was. It really seemed like I was in someplace different for the first time. The boat and people and architecture and scenery were so different. We could kind of see the skyline from the boat, but it was in a fog because of the pollution. It makes me sad how bad the air is. It used to be worse before they won’t he Olympic bid, which I can’t imagine, but it’s just indescribable. You can’t see anything from a distance, and it constantly seems like it is an overcast dreary day even though it is sunny and clear. People constantly cough and spit because of it, and I felt awful, my throat hurt, and I broke out, and I was only there for a day so far. There are so many people in the city, and most of the drive, even though some do bike, and take the bus, but the subway only has 3 lines and should be more extensive than that. 1,000 new cars go on the road a day and that contributes to the pollution a lot. Also, the factories add to it. We then drove to Peking University, which is the Harvard of China. We met the students, and 4 SAS kids were paired with one student. I imagined it to be a more one on one thing, and I could get more time with the students, but this worked out well. Our student’s name was Chon Ching (that’s how you pronounce it anyways) and he gave us a tour of the school and told us all about school like in China. He found it easy to remember my name because “Kait” or more likely “Kate” is used in a lot of English books that he learns from.  The school has 40,000 students, and he showed us the library and the dorms, the gym, and the garden areas. Ping pong is a huge sport in China, and we walked into the gym and there were about 20 tables set up and everyone was playing like you see on TV. They were so great! The university is going to be the place where ping pong takes place at the Olympics, so I am going to try to watch on TV to see if I recognize anything. Chon Ching said he is going to volunteer, but he may not get it because so many people want to volunteer. I think that would be such a fun experience. He was a law major, and he said that he had 9-12 classes a semester, and the entrance to the college depended on one exam ( kind of like the SATs) but that’s all they based his entrance on—not grades, extracurricular, etc., so the whole time they prepare for that test, which I would not like at all. I feel bad for people who are not good test takers. I don’t like how someone’s future can depend on one test; at least in the U.S. there are other variables. He also said that you have to decide you’re major before you enter college, which is lots of pressure, and you can change your mind, but you would be behind and would graduate late. I can’t imagine deciding my future when I was 17 or 18. That’s a lot of pressure! We walked through the gardens and lake area and then we went to dinner, which consisted of small shrimp with eyes, a whole fish, and worm looking pasta. I had some rice and broccoli that was cooked, and a pepto bismol, which was the best part. I knew that I would not like the food at this point, but I decided it was a good experience to see what others ate around the world. It was hard to not eat any meat because everything had it, but I refuse to do so, so I survived by eating rice and some veggies, which worked out! The Chinese food did make me appreciate the ship food more, which is good! The bus left without us to go back to the hotel, so we were deciding what to do. Some of the SAS kids and Japanese kids were going to go to a local pub, but Lauren and I decided to just walk around campus, since it was safe, and then just walk back to the hotel, which was about a 15 minute walk. We wandered around, bought some Peking university t-shirts, and went in the campus stores, then found our way back to the hotel. I missed wondering around because on our bus tours you don’t have much time for that, so that was fun!

September 15, 2007

            Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. About 125 people or so were on the ship, so it seemed like we had the whole thing to ourselves, which was really nice.  I got up the latest I have since I have been here (10:40am) and ate lunch outside with everyone because there were free tables for once. I wrote some postcards, and checked my email and wrote to lots of people, and just relaxed. The trip from Yokohama to Kobe was supposed to be “ a gorgeous trip through Japan’s inside passage” and I heard we were supposed to see a lot but all we saw was ocean and more boats ( yes, it was nice to see signs of life, but I was expecting more.) I just hung out with everyone, and Ryan (my neighbor) and some others were at the pool and I met another kid, Jeff, with dreads, which reminded me of SMCM. We did get a nice surprise though—since very few people were on board we were served a 5 course sit down fancy dinner which usually costs $25.00 on the ship if you don’t feel like eating in the included cafeterias. We all got dressed up and ate dinner for a little over 3 hours. It was nice to just relax and have a good meal! I had 1. a fruit cup 2. a salad 3. a bowl of soup 4. Veggie quiche and 5. a lemon bar. It was so nice and we got to eat off of nice plates and drink tea out of nice cups! We talked a lot and we all learned each other’s last names since I brought up how I thought it was weird how we all know each other so well it seems but have no idea what each others last names were. They all thought Gruber was hysterical though J 

September 16, 2007

            Today I woke up bright and early because our bus to Hiroshima was supposed to leave “on arrival” and we were supposed to dock at 7am. I woke up at 6:40, got dressed, then realized we were still moving, so I went outside and watched us come in to the port which was nice. The guy making the SAS DVD asked me to announce where we were coming in to, so that was fun! I hope I made the final cut J I then ate breakfast, which I am learning to like, but only eat during port days because otherwise I like to sleep in 30 minutes later, and then we headed out! Meg and Erin were on the trip, and Kelly from Tokyo was too! She had traveled independently to Kobe like most of the others, and told me all about how there is a huge Chinese festival going on so many SAS kids could not find a place to stay last night and ended up either sleeping in a park, or a bench, or just wandered around all night. When I was going out to head to the bus hundreds of kids were coming back and just looked so exhausted and not too happy. I am really glad I got back on the ship!  Our tour guide was so adorable, and she taught us so much the whole way there. The bus ride was so long ( 5 hrs each way) and I was disappointed because we only spent about 2.5 hours in Hiroshima, which was no time at all, so I felt rushed and didn’t feel like I saw everything I wanted too, but it is a lot to do in one day. On the way there she taught us how to say 1-10 in Japanese, how to write them, the history of Japan, how its not really called “ Japan” but another name I cant remember by the Japanese ( kind of like how Florence in Florenzia to Italians, and Rome Roma). I don’t understand why names change. I always thought they stayed the same, but apparently not, I just don’t get why they change the names of cities and countries, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. Anyways, what was good about the ride was that I got to see so much of the countryside and the surrounding areas. I missed nature a lot because I feel like I have just been seeing ocean and cities so far, so seeing mountains and trees and water and rice patty fields was really nice. We stopped at a few rest stops along the way to “wash our hands” ( how they say “go to the bathroom” in Japanese) and one of them was in a famous region where they grew really good fruit. Our tour guide told us that the fruit was expensive, but I didn’t think it would be that bad, and I was excited to try some fruit because we all know all I need to be happy is some fruit! I went there and looked around at all their food ( which 99% is unrecognizable, but I am always so intrigued) and I realized that a pound of these grapes was 1,700 yen, to $17.00, and a peach was about $6.00, so I decided not to get them. We finally got to Hiroshima and went to the Peace Memorial Park. The park is a huge area that consists of lots of monuments and one of the buildings that survived the bomb ( the only one left standing, because others that survived the attack were later demolished because of structural/health/safety reasons. ) There was a lot of controversy around this building because some wanted it to be knocked down because it was a constant reminder of that day, but others wanted to preserve it for the same reason. I walked around the building, and just took it in. It looks like a building after a bad earthquake, and actually reminded me a lot of New Orleans. I saw lots of building in New Orleans that just had the frame left and rubble completely surrounding it, but I kept reminding myself that this is 40 years old, and this happened instantly. There was an area where people put peace cranes, and I noticed how peaceful the whole place was. There was music playing, people singing quietly, and a bell was ringing every so often and it just had a nice feeling about it even though we were surrounded by the thought of a nuclear bomb. It was a really different feel to it. The whole park could have been easily made into something less peace- related, or maybe something negative against the U.S. or something bitter, or just something else, but it was one of the most well put together, peaceful, friendly, “ lets just make sure this doesn’t happen again” type of thing. From there we walked over a bridge ( just feet away from where the atomic bomb was exploded overhead) and saw the children’s memorial. This was made because of a girl who survived the bomb, but later died because of Leukemia that she got because of the side-effects of the bomb. There was a big statue with a child on it, and peace cranes, and people from all over the country and the world made hundreds of thousands of paper cranes, and they were all around in glass containers surrounding the memorial. I was separate from the group at this time because I felt like just seeing this part for myself and a Japanese woman came up to me ( yes, they always find me.) She spoke really good English ( is that even correct English?) and she asked where I was from, what I was doing there, who I came with, if I liked Japan, the memorial, and if I thought peace was possible. Whoa, what a loaded question. I told her I hope it is, and I think there are lots of good people in the world, but there is also a lot of bad, but for some reason, despite what is going on in the world everyday, I really think that the good will overcome the bad eventually. She then took out her Bible, and told me to read  a passage, and then gave me a booklet and told me to read it. I told her I would, so then of course I did on the bus—more on that later.  We then walked through the garden area, and saw the eternal flame and then went into the Museum, which we spent the rest of our time. The museum was one of the best museums I have seen, because usually I don’t like museums. It may have been the fact that I had an audio guide, but I don’t know. The museum told us the history of what happened that day, showed us videos of it, aerial photos of before and after the attack which were so shocking, the aftermath of the attack, nuclear weapons today, life ( human and plant life) after the attack, and then the remains. One thing that I thought was so amazing was that no one thought anything would grow there for 70 years, but just a few years after the bomb hit plants started growing. I think that is so inspiring and really is how I feel about life. I see plants growing from the most hard and usually places ( like the middle of cracks in a road—Katie, I know this is probably making you smile so much—remember the flower that was growing through the bricks in LQ?) and if that little thing can grow through something so hard, then man, we have some potential. The thing that was really powerful was all the remains. There were numerous clocks just stopped at 8:15am, the moment the bomb hit, there was clothing, hair, nails, shoes, lunchboxes, so much from the people who lost their lives. There was even a tricycle which was buried with a little boy hat had perished, and then his family decided a few years ago to dig him and his tricycle up ( they buried them together) and to give him a proper burial, so that tricycle was in the museum. Just so many remains were there and it really put a person to all the numbers. Over one hundred thousand people died in an instant. That’s something I can’t even understand. That number is too big. After the museum Meg and I went to see the one tree that survived the attack, and then got some Green Tea ice cream, which is a big thing here ( Hagan- Daz even packages it) and I didn’t like it at all, so Meg ate mine, and I had the cone! I had to try it though because it was so different. We then just drove all the way back to the ship, but on the way back we did Japanese sing along with out guide, and I met 3 new people, Andrea, Erica, and another person who I don’t remember her name, and I entertained them all with my “yes or no” stories! I also read that booklet the woman gave me, and I learned a lot. I really want to learn all about different religions on this trip because I honestly don’t know who believes what and why and I want to know and where I fall into everything, so that booklet was interesting. I talked to Erin and Meg about some of the stuff too that I was confused about and they tried to explain it, which was good. One thing was that Jesus wasn’t even born on Dec. 25, he was born on Oct. 1. The three of us decided that we are going to celebrate Christmas on Oct. 1 in Vietnam. Seriously. I’m so excited. I decided that I would never want to be Catholic for reasons including that it seems like everything you do isn’t good enough, the thought that they think that anyone that isn’t catholic is bad and will go to hell, and the fact that they don’t accept gays or accept blood transfusions. Some of thing supposedly is not true of every Catholic, but it gave me an overview. I really hope some more people come up to me and want me to read about their religion! After the bus ride back ( and stopping for dinner on the way—out of a vending machine type thing—you choose your meal and pay in the machine, and then you go up to the counter and get the food—I didn’t have anything because everything had meat in it. Our guide was so cute, she went through the whole menu and asked if there were any vegetarians on board, and I raised my hand, and she just said “ I’m sorry, there is nothing for you” in her cute accented English and it was the funniest thing for some reason.. so anyways…) Erica and Meg and Erin and I decided to wander around Kobe since we did not feel like getting on the ship at 10pm. We wandered around and first found a part with memorials for the earthquake in Kobe. There were lots of people hanging out and playing music, and playing with fire around. Then we went into this open mall area, which was all shut down, but tons of kids were all practicing to dance, which was weird. I couldn’t tell if this was the ghetto of Kobe or what because who else just dances in a shut down mall, but there were at least 50 people individually practicing doing their own thing, which was funny to see. We then wandered around and saw lots of casinos, and they all got beer out of the vending machine ( which is everywhere ) and then we went into a kids arcade and took pictures in a photo booth. The area we were in was basically the Times Square of Japan. It was so busy and so many lights and it was really cool. It really felt like I was in Japan, even though it still hasn’t hit me , because everything around just seemed so foreign. It was nice to not see SAS kids everywhere. We then headed back and laughed at some English translations of things on maps ( instead of “ you are here” they had  “ the place that there is now” ) and got back onto the ship! the waiter who helped me the first day with seasickness and who has been so nice to me since was out on the streets and was talking to me for a few minutes. The people who work here are all so nice and friendly, but I always wonder if they are happy. They seem like the most cheerful people, but it must be so hard to work on a ship for so long and not see your family, and just be able to talk to them when you are in port, and just send them what you earn every month. They really are remarkable people.  Our last day of Japan is tomorrow L

September 16, 2007

I am currently on the 7^th forward deck outside watching Kobe fade into the distance.  I just want to suck in as much Japan as I can get because it is almost gone. These past two days have been filled with adventures, and I have had so much fun, but I want to see more. I feel like this trip is going to give me a nice overview of the culture and the area, and I will hit the highlights, but there is always more to see. That’s what makes life interesting. The lights right now in front of me are gorgeous. Japan’s skyline is really colorful, and not only is the buildings lit, but also the Ferris wheels (which are in every city we have seen) and the mountains are lit up with an anchor and a symbol of Kobe. There are so many city lights and the darkness and then there are a few glimmering lights higher up, on top of the mountain. If those were not there I would think the darkness was just the night sky, not a mountain.  Today Meg and I woke up early, and decided to go see the Great Buddha, and then the waterfall, then I was going to go to my home stay, and head back to the ship. We had 3 different maps, but none of them were detailed and each map had the location of the things we wanted to see in different places which proved to be very unfortunate. The Buddha looked to be about a 30 minute walk from the ship, or about a quarter of an inch, so we started walking. We saw lots along the way. We saw the Ferris wheel and amusement park, the whole harbor land, and the Kobe Earthquake memorial. This consisted of a big area that was left untouched since the earthquake, and it acts as a monument that speaks for itself.  The main focal points are the sidewalk and the street lamps that are in the water and cracked. It really showed me what the city must have looked like at the end of the earthquake (it had to be completely rebuilt since). I have obviously never experienced an earthquake or really seen the after effects of one, but that showed me. Again, something else that reminded me of New Orleans. We also saw the supporting park of the highway overpass that gave out and collapsed, which was also very powerful. After that we continued to try to find the Buddha, and got so lost... for over 4 hours. It was about 90 degrees and humid out and we were going in circles. We asked numerous people, but no one spoke English, but was trying to help to no avail. Every person we asked was happy to help. I asked anyone and everyone, and even people who did not seem too friendly (because they were very serious looking and were keeping to themselves) were very helpful and always went out of their way with a smile on their face. We literally went in circles, and wound up at the train station because we figured there would be an information booth there, or at least people who spoke English. Well, we asked someone at a tourist place, and he told us, in broken English and hand motions, how to go. I then wanted to make sure, so I asked another woman, working at a shop, and she told me the opposite direction, so then we were just confused, and almost on the verge of giving up. Meg and I are good traveling partners though, and kept ourselves entertained, and laughed about it, and just talked, and kept on hoping’ and wishing’. We decided to go the way the tourist guy told us to go, through some poorer looking areas, and then I asked another man what way, who spoke no English, but he drew a map for us, and we headed on our way again. We found one temple, so that gave us some more hope, and then Meg said “ man, can you imagine how great it would be if Buddha just appeared right here” and then we look simultaneously to the right and the biggest Buddha you have ever seen was staring us in the face. Meg was so shocked she couldn’t speak because after no one knew what we were talking about for 4 hours we thought this great Buddha may not be so great. It was 13 meters tall, and so powerful. We just walked around it, pretended to hold it, got some water from the vending machines they have all over Japan ( they are everywhere, no matter where you are, if you are thirsty, there will be relief within 10 feet). We walked around the temple, and the gardens, and it was really great. We then realized that I better head back to the ship to meet my family, so we headed back, stopping at a pet shop on the way. It was kind of sad to see all the cats and dogs in the small cages, and Meg fell in love with a kitten and was thinking of smuggling it back on the ship, but I convinced her not to.  We then came across a big Chinese festival with dancing, and we sat and watched 3 dances, which were really different. First of all, I thought it was funny they were having such a big Chinese festival in Japan (that is why lots of the hotels were booked) and second of all, they are so different from the Japanese (which I didn’t realize at all—and this trip has already taught me so much about those differences—in attitude, in looks, in philosophies, in everything). The dancing was really well choreographed, and the groups were perfectly together (like River dance together) and they were so loud! I wish I could have stayed longer but we had to keep trekking to make it back to the boat in time. With the stops, we got back to the boat within an hour since we got so lost the way there. I ran into the ship, got my present for the family, and didn’t even have time to change or clean up at all. My family did not meet me in the port, so SAS gave me directions on how to take the subway to her house. There were two other guys, Brian and Ray, and Christina with me going to the same family, which was a surprise. For some reasons I had this vision in my head that it would be just me, but the company was good. It would have been nice to experience it on my own as well, but this was good too! Someone else was supposed to show up to, and didn’t so Meg tagged along, which was great because it would be a good experience for her and that way we didn’t have to figure out where to meet up after wards so we could wander around Kobe some more. We took two subways to the station, and that was an adventure within itself. I was excited because is ante dot experience a subway in Japan. I heard in Tokyo during rush hour that it is so packed, and at the same time so silent. No one talks, and the Americans stick out because of our looks and we are the only ones ever talking. A girl I met told me that she was on the subway in Tokyo, and they were packed in, and she had a big backpack on her back, and her ticket was slipping from her hand, but she couldn’t move, and she dropped it. In order to get out, you need your ticket, so she was trying to figure out what to do., she tried to get it with her foot, and bring it over to her, but it didn’t work. She was looking around to see what to do and she realized she had gum in her mouth. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, and a lady was, but she wanted until she looked away, and took out her gum. The ticket was directly under her, so all she had to do was drop it, so it stuck on the ticket, then she could step on it, and then when she got off the train get it from under her shoe. She dropped her gum and it went right on a man’s nice dress shoes (everyone, absolutely everyone, is wearing a suit, or nice clothes and high heels). She freaked out, and her and her friend started laughing and trying to hold it in because the train was so quiet and they didn’t want to seem like rude Americans not respecting the culture. She had to wait until the train stopped to get the ticket, so when it finally did, she bent down quickly before people ran her down, and got off the train! Anyways, it was Sunday and in the middle of the afternoon, so it was no busy at all, but I noticed that no one did talk, and there was a sign that said no cell phones, so everyone just texts so as not to disturb everyone else in the train. I like how everyone always respected each other here. Switching trains was confusing, but we made it, and our host mother met us at the station that we finally got to. Her name was Kaiko, and she was so excited to see us. she only had room for 5 in her car, so we had to squish Meg in, and duck when the police came because it was illegal to do so. We all said “konichewa” which means “ good afternoon” , not “ Hello” , which we were told earlier (and then realized why people smiled oddly when we said it at all times of the day and night—but honestly, I think most of them thought it was cute and appreciated that we tried.” When we got into the car, Keiko opened the door for Brian, and he said “Konichiwa” and we all cracked up. He meant “ aragato” which means that you, but said “ good afternoon instead”. We drove for about 5 minutes up to her house up steep hills that reminded me of San Francisco and saw a gorgeous view of Kobe. Her house was on the mountains of Kobe, and it was so cute. We all went in, and went up to the dining room upstairs, which was a low table with pillows around it. Downstairs there was a kitchen and living room, then a steep staircase, and then the dining room and a room that looked like a bedroom/storage room. Lots of Japanese people do not have beds, and just sleep on futon mattresses on the floor ( even hotels don’t have beds in them, just mattresses). The two guys stayed upstairs and Keiko asked us to come to the kitchen. She was told by SAS that I was a vegetarian so she prepared a whole vegetarian meal for us, which made me so happy. She had sticky rice and veggie curry ( Japanese curry is big here because it is a simple/healthy thing to make), salad, and then we got to make vegetable tempura. I put on an apron, dipped veggies ( eggplant, carrots, and potatoes) in flour and water, and then fried them. It was so exciting to actually cook it because I didn’t know how it was made, and I hadn’t cooked in a while and I really miss it. We then all ate with our chopsticks while talking about traveling, Bush, Japanese culture, American culture, and her job. She said that she worked in NYC for pan am for some years, and has been to Oregon and Boston once before. She now teaches English in Japan, and gave us a learning book to keep as a souvenir. The books open from right to left like Hebrew books, which I didn’t know. She said how Japanese like Americans a lot ( actually they think any white person is American, when they could be European) but they really like us and are fascinated by us, but they don’t treat other Japanese or black people the same way, which surprised me a little bit. I didn’t run across a single mean Japanese person though, and some people just walking by said “ hello” to us because they loved speaking some English, even if that is all they knew. We then all gave her our gifts ( mine was a fall potpourri bag and a fall/pumpkin towel and I told her it was from Meg and I – because Meg wasn’t prepared to do the home stay, and we told her how its fall in MA and NY). She really liked everything, then we exchanged numbers and addresses, took some pictures, and left. I could have spent more time there but the boys wanted to get back and were really tired, and Meg and I wanted to site-see more, so we took the train back. Meg and I then went to the waterfall( which wasn’t too hard to find because Keiko wrote out detailed instructions, plus how to ask to get to the waterfall in Japanese, which really helped) so we only turned around twice and asked 3 people along the way how to get there! We saw a man with a cage along the way and of course I stopped to see what was in it, and it was empty and there was a sick/dying looking chipmunk beside it. I said “konichewa” but he spoke no English and  he was rattling off Japanese, and I had no idea what was going on. I thought he was trying to save it, but Meg was a little freaked out. Anyways, the waterfall was directly behind another train station, which seemed weird because we had to walk through the back of the station to get to it. The water was low, so there wasn’t much of a waterfall, but we walked over some rocks, put our feet in, and watched some dogs play in the water, then walked up the mountain, and saw an amazing view from the top. We looked at and saw our boat very far away, and we decided we should head back. On ship time was 20:00 which, judging by Hawaii we should be there at 18:00 and it was already 17:00. we could have taken the subway back but we wanted to suck in as much Japan as we could, so we walked all the way back ( without getting lost because when I walk somewhere I can always get back by site). We had some extra yen to spend, so we went into a shop and bought some crazy food that we had no idea what it was, and headed back to the ship. it was 18:40, and there was only a 15 minute line. Everything went really smoothly, we got back on the ship, ate dinner ( split pea soup and tea, which made me happy, ) and then went to the Union to hear what other shad done in Japan. Every night after we leave a port anyone can go up and tell us of any experience they want to share, so it was fun to hear everything people did, but it also reminded me how much more there is to see. Mega and I decided that we really want to find a monastery to stay in this trip and meditate with the monks and everything ( which a guy did in Japan.) There was an announcement today that we loaded the ship in almost record time. I feel like people are already calming down, and I have met so many more amazing people, which is great. We were told to secure all of our belongings tonight because the sees will be rough and will knock everything over. there is still a typhoon out there, but I hope it goes away . Off to China!

September 17, 2007

            Today I played with Ellie, one of the kids on board ( a  2 year old of a professor) . I love kids so much and it was fun to play with her. We drew a lot on the whiteboard and played “red light green light”. I love how kids just see me and smile and how they stare at me. We also had a pre port cultural meeting where the interport student from China talked, along with a student on the ship from China. He was funny and told us common thoughts about China – like how it is scary, communists, bad products come from there, and people eat dogs and kill babies. He said how his parents are communists, and they are just people. He also said how some people eat dogs, but its like saying that Americans like dog fights when only a few ( and that famous football player guy)  do. We were told by the executive dean that there are two tsunamis near China, but right now they are not a threat to us and wont disrupt our course. I would be so sad if we couldn’t go to some countries that we are planning on going to. One year, because of SARS, SAS was docked in China but couldn’t get out or leave for 2 weeks, can you imagine!? Right now he said we are right in between those two tsunamis, which is kind of a scary mental image, but that’s okay!  We learned some key Chinese phrases, and we are ready to go!