November 21, 2007

We are currently at 37 degrees latitude, zero degrees longitude, somewhere stopped on the east side of Spain for a medical emergency. My anthropology professor’s husband, who is one of the cutest old men I have ever met, and who comes to class everyday, is in a critical state, and we went at full speed today to reach this port so he could be brought to a hospital. After cultural pre-port I went outside because I noticed we were stopped and the lights and the mountains and huge rocks in the ocean were gorgeous under the clear night sky. I didn’t realize what was going on until I saw everyone peering over the edge of the 5th deck, so I went up to the 7th to see what was going on. A boat from Spain was on the side of our boat, and even though the waves looked like they were flat, the small boat looked like a little toy in the ocean. The Explorer had lowered their platform and was trying to get this small boat next to it, but it kept smashing up against it, and they couldn’t get it secured. The platform almost fell into the water a few times, with several of our crew on board. After about 15 minutes the boat left, and then came back from a different angle, and they tried to secure it more, but it went from smashing into the platform to being 5 feet away from it. They had no other choice. One of the nurses and her husband jumped on, and then Dr. Ruth, my professor, got on the boat safely. Everyone watching was so worried and was grateful that they were okay. The little old Jake in a wheelchair came out, and looked as calm as ever even though he is so sick, and was pulled onto the boat. We all cheered, and he waved goodbye and saluted. That just pushed me over the edge—and I just cried. I just can’t imagine how he and his wife are feeling right now. This must be one of the scariest, most stressful things ever, especially when you are in a critical state. I can’t imagine myself going through that if I was just a little sick—at my age. His courage and strength amaze me. It really put things into perspective for me. It was nice to see the whole shipboard community come together and support him and be concerned about him. It showed me that we have really bonded this semester and are a family. I hope he is okay.
More ship gossip—the Assistant Academic Dean—the Santa Claus that everyone likes and is the balance for the really strict/unfriendly Academic Dean—got fired in Croatia, and left the ship. If you recall, some people were supposed to get kicked off the ship in Egypt because of their behavior, but because of the fact that they have money and they threatened to sue SAS, they were all allowed to stay. The Assistant Dean did not agree with this, as did many other students, who had protests and delivered notes door to door stating that keeping these students on just shows us that if you have money you can break the rules, etc—and so he filed an honor code violation against these students. If you don’t know, UVA is big into the honor code. At their home institution, and therefore here, it rules all, and you have to write it on all assignments, tests, and it is expected you always do right in the community. Obviously, these students broke the code, and didn’t get punished, so he thought that he should punish them by filing a violation. Lots of pressure was put on him by the Dean and UVA and he was told to take the violations off record or he would be fired. He didn’t take them off, so he was fired. I think that this is a worthy move, and the right move, and I am proud of his boldness. I feel like that is the right thing to do and UVA is hypocritical if they do not agree. How do they expect us, as students, to follow this Honor Code if they, themselves, the rule-makers, don’t?
On a brighter note, its Thanksgiving tomorrow and I can’t wait. It doesn’t seem like it will be because we have classes and nothing special will be happening—even though I hope they have half-decent food. I have literally not eaten anything besides potatoes and fruit the past 3 days. I heard that the food gets awful at the end of the voyage—but I didn’t think they could just serve you that! I have been thinking a lot about home, and what I would be doing now if I was home. Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday and this is my first one away from home. I just love being with family, and the feeling of having a few days off from school, and seeing what is really important in life. I love sitting at home in my pajamas, watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, and eating those chocolate cookies from Trader Joes( I always remember the time right after I got my operation and sitting on the couch in my PJ’s next to grandpa eating nothing but those cookies and Jell-O). I love the smell of the cooking and the sound of family all around. I love cranberry sauce. And Pillsbury doe boy croissants. I love the fall. I can honestly say that I would rather be home right now than here—one of the first times I can say that—but just know everyone—family and friends alike, that I am thinking about you and am with you today. I am so thankful for this opportunity to travel the world and to experience new cultures and to meet and change the lives of as many people as I can on this great earth, but I am also so thankful for my family and friends and their support, love, emails, letters, and for always remembering me. I am the luckiest girl in the world.
We are bunkering at the Rock of Gibraltar tomorrow or the next day—I forget—but I am so excited. Ever since I got the 365 Days: Earth from Above book, and saw this rock, I have wanted to go there! I am so excited and will take lots of pictures!

November 23, 2007

Today I walked around Cadiz for the whole day. I started off with Ryan, but the tourist office didn’t have a map, so we decided to just wander since the city was small and there weren’t any major sights anyways, so we decided to see where the day would take us. We first saw a statue of remembrance and an eternal flame, and then walked along the coast, which reminded me a lot of Alexandria since there were lots of fishing boats in the water and a boardwalk wrapping all the way around the city. We went to a few of the old forts out on jetties going into the ocean. The path to the first one was a really nice walk. Lots of locals were fishing with incredibly long fishing poles, and others were just strolling along. Once we got to the end the gate was closed, so we couldn’t go into the fort, but we looked at the view of the city from the ocean and saw a lot of rock formations in which water made these large holes in the rock which looked like geysers when the waves came up. We ran into a couple SAS professors, and then on our way to the other fort saw a huge Banyan tree which Christopher Columbus supposedly brought over, which is now larger than a building, and we saw something that looked like the CN tower. We got to the second fort and climbed around the stairs and saw the outlook spots. There were also museums and art exhibits inside, but we decided not to look at those. We saw Kelly there and a few other SAS people who rented bikes for the day and bikes around the city, even though it was beginning to rain at that point, which made that difficult for them. We walked along the water and saw a nice little park with lots of flowers and statues and trees which looked like a French garden. Some of the trees were cut very strangely, it looked like they were only trimmed as far as someone could reach, and then they just stopped. It started to pour, so we walked through a cave that was in the park, and then we looped back around to the ship. We then realized that the city was smaller than we thought and even though we thought we were walking forever in the opposite direction of the ship we came up right at the beginning again. We headed into the bus station so I could check out the schedules to other cities and Ryan had some tapas, which is a very Spanish way to eat. Tapas are little servings of food which people have during lunch. They range from meat to bread sticks to beef to eggplant, but they are served by the scoop or on a little plate and people get a few for lunch. We then ran into Karen and Jill there, so they sat with us, and I ran back to the ship to get my umbrella, and then we walked around the inside of the city more, since we just went around it the first time. Karen and Jill stopped at the internet café, and Ryan and I went to a candy shop, and window shopped in all the cute stores lining all the streets. The city was so hard to get around in because all the streets looked the same and none of them had road signs and they just curved around and went in all directions. It was like a maze! We went to a market where people sold fruits and veggies and fish. It was all under a roof, but everyone had their own individual places to sell their items. I thought that that’s how people bought their food for the most part, except for small food stores, like a lot of Europe, but then I went around the corner and there was a large grocery store there. We then saw some more churches and lots of school children, and ran into lots of plazas with benches and people selling flowers, and lots of cafes and gelato shops. We then went to the New Cathedral, which is considered the last great cathedral built with colonial riches. It is decorated entirely in stone, with no gold or white in sight. There was also a tower attached to the church which one could go up in to see a view of all of Cadiz. Ryan went in, but I looked and it looked like a lot of churches I have been in, so I sat on the steps, and ran across my extended family parents and talked to them for a while, and then tried to call home, but the phones weren’t working that well. I noticed that everything in the city seemed so quiet and calm. I didn’t see many teenagers around, but more older or middle aged people, and young children. I saw a lot of older women with hunched backs and canes and some of the cutest and well dressed babies and children I have ever seen. There is also a siesta part of the culture. Most shops close down from 12-3pm and people take naps, and then come back to work until about 7pm or so, and then go out at night for dinner around 9-11pm, and then party late into the night. I heard that most of the clubs in Spain are from midnight-7am. I also noticed that everyone I came across was very friendly and cheery and really willing to help you with anything. I tried to speak some Spanish, because I feel like I should try to say some words in the local language and people tend to appreciate your effort, and I felt like I picked up a lot on Spanish, which was good. Karen is really good in the language, so she was very helpful to be with! We then looped around the city again, and then went into a tourist office that actually had a map, which was helpful. We realized we saw most of the sights, so we headed to the train station to get their schedule and prices to go to other cities as well so we could plan the rest of the week. We heard that there was flamenco that night for free, so we found the bar in the daylight and then went down another street and saw a theatre and the Town Hall, and then headed back to the ship to eat before we went out again. We headed to Flamenco about 10pm (after a crisis of Jill losing a bunch of money… but we made it through). It was a bar/restaurant, and you could just walk in, and it was a self-service place, and then there was a big stage with lots of chairs all around. We went up on the balcony because it was less crowded, and a woman told Karen that we could sit at her table because three chairs were empty. Karen and she were speaking Spanish to one another, and then Karen asked where she was from, and come to find out she was French and studying abroad in Spain, and has been in Cadiz for about a month. We talked to her and her friend, and then a couple more people came. They were so friendly, and gave us kisses, and we all tried to communicate. Between English and Spanish and French we got along pretty well. We watched the flamenco, which was so intense and passionate and it really made me feel like I was in Spain. I always thought the Spanish culture was so passionate and I liked to see that side of it. There was drums and guitar and a signer and lots of snapping and stomping, and then a male dancer as well, who was amazing. The only flamenco I have seen previously were girls dancing in long dresses, so it was nice to see a less touristy one, and I realized that its not always girls in dresses dancing. The last dance had a woman and a man dancing together, and the whole show was just really enjoyable. I loved the atmosphere of the place, and the inside lights looked so old fashioned, and there were lots of pictures of famous people on the wall, and one of them was a spitting image of Dean Glatfelter, which we thought was hilarious. After the show we walked back to the ship and enjoyed the calm night. The moon was full and it was shining in a way that it looked like an orb was around it. We got back to the ship, and got patted down, and then the security guard gave us 3 brownies—one for each of us, which was a nice end to our first day in Spain!


November 24, 2007

Today we went to Arcos de la Frontera at 9am. We didn’t know exactly when the buses were, but we got to the bus station at 8:58 and the next bus was at 9am, so it was perfect! We met Mike, another SASer on the bus, who was headed to Jerez, a wine and horse town about 45 minutes closer than Arcos. He was really friendly, but one of the kids who was supposed to get kicked off the ship for stealing alcohol, but because of his wealth he didn’t, but now has to be on the ship everyday by 8pm, so can’t go very far away from the port. He was a very friendly kid, and I realized that these kids aren’t bad people, they just have made bad decisions, and partly probably because how they were raised, think of their actions and consequences differently, but they are good people. On the way I saw lots of fields for cultivation. A lot of the landscape looked like Arizona (near the Mexico border). A lot of the time there were just open fields with mountains in the background, and other times there were modern cities and stores through the towns. A lot of what we went through didn’t look very traditional, and was a lot more moderns. It was really rainy, once again, but once we got there we walked to the old part of the city, and climbed up to the castle. There was an amazing view of the whole white town—there are many towns in Spain in which white is its predominant feature—and this area is one of the main ones. All the houses were white and once we got to the top of the hill it seemed like everything we were looking at was painted white. The view was gorgeous and reminded me of the last scene in “101 Dalmatians”. We went to the tourist office, and booked out hotel online from www.wotif.com for Sevilla the next night, and then went to St. Mary’s Church, which made me happy because it reminded me of school. The churches in this town were made out of older looking stone, which I liked the look of better than the normal marble and smooth stone. We walked around the little alleys with cobblestones and flowerpots hanging along the streets, and went into some shops which sold everything from tiles to dresses to mirrors to postcards. I noticed all the tiles in Spain, which were really nice. The details and colors were so amazing, and it really brightened up everything. I decided I liked tiles a lot. I noticed that a lot of people keep their front entrance open and it’s very welcoming. The front room is always decorated with tiles, and most people keep their shoes or umbrellas in the room. I know that in the United States most people close their doors and windows and have fences, and close their window shades, and have a very unwelcoming attitude. I know in Amsterdam most people have large picture windows that people can look into very easily, but that is their way of life. Spain seems very open like that, and I really like that openness. We saw another church, and another view of mountains, and a river and fields, and saw lots of birds—from parrots to parakeets, out on someone porch overlooking this scene. Lots of people keep their pet birds in cages outside, which the animals probably enjoy, a lot more than being locked up in the house. Everyone started to get hungry, so we went in and out of cafes to find something to eat, but Jill is a picky eater, and wanted to find something she was used to, so we went to an Italian restaurant, but it was closed for another 30 minutes. Outside the restaurant we met a few kids who were studying abroad here. One of them was from Wooster College and said SMCM was his second choice school. How small is this world? It was funny because he was losing a lot of his English, and kept tripping over some words because he was immersed in Spanish for so long. He told us that there was a festival going on that day that lots of cafes were participating in, in which you can go to any of them and have tapas and a glass of wine for 2 euros. We went into a restaurant where everyone found something to eat, and then we played on jungle gyms—which they had a lot of in the parks around the town. It was fun to just relax and feel more like local kids playing around in the park instead of tourists. I like to get immersed in the culture instead of just seeing what the “outsiders” see. It was really freeing to just go from jungle gym to jungle gym and play around. There was a water fountain there and I got really excited because this is the first country we can drink that water in, so I ran up to it, and it was the most powerful thing ever, and sprayed me all over, and we all died laughing. Through the park I observed that there were just so many plants all in one area, which I thought all needed a different climate—cacti, orange trees, and coniferous trees all in one place. We then saw a bullfighting rind, and an abandoned building which we climbed around, and then headed back to Cadiz. When we were walking back to the ship we realized that it was one of the last times we would be returning to this ship at night. We had a nice relaxing dinner, and talked and exchanged jokes and quotes and games with Clive, one of my favorite waiters.
November 25, 2007

Today we took the 11am bus to Sevilla which was very simple to do, since the bus station is a 2 minute walk from the ship. We bought the ticket with no problem, and before we got on the bus I saw Carol, a LLL who I have traveled with so much this trip. She just happened to be on every one of the SAS trips I did, and she did things independently the same as well. She is really nice and we always think its funny how we like doing the same exact thing. On the way I saw most of the same things as I did on the way to Arcos, but this time I saw windmills as well, which instantly reminded me of the Netherlands. Spain seems very clean and environmentally friendly. There is no trash anywhere and they have little pollution, and large recycling containers on the streets as well. I know lots of European countries I have been to—especially Italy—the whole city seems so dirty and run down and there is spray paint everywhere, but Spain was a lot cleaner and safer feeling. I didn’t even feel like I had to worry about pickpockets or criminals of any kind. After we got to Sevilla we all went to the information center first, and got a very detailed map, which is always good, and we hung around with Carol for most of the day. We were in the cathedral area, but it didn’t open until 2pm on Sundays because of services, so we walked to the outside of the Alcazar, which is a palace-fortress complex with a mixture of Christina and Islamic decorative styles. It is allegedly the site where Fernando and Isabel welcomed Columbus back from America. We then walked along the alleys and little shops, and ate at an outside café. It was nice to just sit and take in Spain and people watch in the Square. Everyone got tapas of different kinds. I thought that a few items on the menu were interesting—one being beer, with the description “beer without alcohol”, whatever that is, and they also served a tapas of bull tail soup. Most of the items on the menu one could get either a tapas of it (a single, small, appetizer sized serving) or a plate of it. We sat there for a while, and then headed inside the Cathedral of Sevilla, which is the third largest in the world after St. Paul’s in London and St. Peter’s in Rome, so now I have seen the top three! It is the world’s largest Gothic edifice ever constructed, which took more than a century to build. The inside was a lot like the other places I have been—which doesn’t mean that it wasn’t spectacular. There was lots of gold and detail and paintings. Churches just don’t seem very welcoming to me. A lot of people think that these Cathedrals and amazing and beautiful. I think its astounding that people could build such buildings, and it blows my mind to imagine how much work, money, and time it takes to build all these churches, but personally, I think that most of these churches are gaudy and not beautiful. I feel like a place of worship should be welcoming and I feeling like these churches are just so overwhelming and geared towards material things and not people and nature. The Temples I saw in many countries that are small are much more my style. They are comfortable and you can spend more time there and I just feel more connected when I am in there. I feel like part of the building. Part of nature. Maybe part of the religion. When I am in these cathedrals I feel so small and that money rules everything—and things just have to be bigger and better. I know that lots of people are buried in these churches, and I was thinking when I was in there that I would never want to be buried there. In nature under a nice tree is more my style. Karen said I should read parts of Walden. I think I will. My favorite two parts of the Cathedral was the coffin of Christopher Columbus, which not actually is, and the tower. The Coffin was thought to have his remains in it, but it was discovered that it was actually his son, and Columbus is buried in the Dominican Republic. The tower was 37 levels, and had an expansive view of the city from the top. There were ramps up, rather than stairs, which made it easy. I saw lots of SAS people, including Alexis, the registrar, and one of my extended “sisters” there too. Once we got to the top the bells rang and I had the urge to ring one, but we decided that that would be a bad idea. We then walked along the plazas, which there were many of, with fountains, and horse drawn carriages. It seemed like the whole culture was very relaxed and old fashioned, except people tended to walk very fast, and always seemed like they had a place to go—and quickly! Carol then left because she was only in Sevilla for the day, and we all walked to the river and everyone had churros, which is basically fried doe, and then we sat along the river and enjoyed nature. There were numerous bridges, and lots of locals were rock climbing on the old stone bridge, which Karen tried unsuccessfully to climb, and we just laid down in the grass and took in the view. There were lots of couples all around us, and it was really romantic. It was getting dark, so we decided to make our way to the hotel. We tried to find the bus stop to catch the number 27 bus, and came across an old train station that has been transformed into a mall and restaurant area. We asked someone how to get to the bus stop, and they confused us because they were confused themselves, but we got the right direction to go to. We walked through mostly residential areas, and lots of Christmas decorations and things that said “Feliz Navidad”, which prompted us to sing and get songs stuck in our head! Everything seemed so safe, but then we saw a teenage girl with blood running down her hands and arms and she looked scared and an old man was helping her and we got a little freaked out. We continued walking, and we just assumed the best (maybe she just cut herself somehow), but we walked a little faster. We found the bus station, after asking a bus driver because there were signs for every other bus number except ours, but I used the Spanish Karen taught me and we found it! The bus ride was about 10 minutes, because our hotel was in the business district. We weren’t exactly sure what stop to get off at and it was dark at this point so Karen asked the woman across from us very quietly in Spanish. She literally whispered the question, and all of a sudden the whole bus was helping us! They were all so friendly and willing to help us! We got to our hotel, and checked in, and the man was not very friendly. We got our hotel on wotif, so this hotel is usually 400 euros a night, or about $600, but we got it for 49 euros, which is $13 split between the four of us, which was awesome. The man who checked us in wasn’t very friendly though, and made us wait and kept helping other people first even though we were there, and kept answering the phone. Sometimes I feel that some people feel like they can treat two younger women like that and they won’t care, which I don’t like. Anyways, we got our room, which wasn’t anything special, but it was nice. I forgot how European rooms are usually very small, so this one was a normal hotel size in the U.S., which was considered big, but we were expecting something spectacular. We then went to the mall to eat. Everyone got something very American—from pizza to chicken stir- fry to Caesar Salad. The picture on the placemat is what made me choose the restaurant (no one else in the group can make a decision, so I am always the one who makes them). The picture was of a city, which we think is NYC even though it doesn’t really look like it, but the road has wheat growing in it. It reminds me of one of my favorite pictures of the inside of a church, and the isle is a street with traffic and lights. We had a nice dinner there, and then went back outside. There was a bungee jumping thing outside that Karen wanted to go, but it was closing down (it was around 10:30pm), so she couldn’t do it. We walked past McDonalds on the way, and it was the most insane thing I have ever seen. There was a drive through, but the line was all the way around the parking lot, out in the street, and the there was a line of about 30 cars down the street. People who work at the restaurant would run out to the cars out in the street (people were just pulled over in the emergency lane so there wasn’t a traffic jam) and take orders with a blackberry type device, and then run back and forth with the food. I didn’t understand why so many people wanted to go to McDonalds, but apparently it’s a popular place. We then got back to our hotel—walking in two by two (Karen and I walked around the block)—and watched CNN in English, and the Discovery Channel in Spanish. Ryan slept on the couch and the three girls slept sideways on the bed and we just talked and laughed and had a great night.

November 26, 2007

Today we got up, and checked out, and I had the first amazing non-mealy apple in 3 months from the check-out desk. We took the bus back to the main part of the city, and a nice man was commenting on how good the apple was. People would just start conversations and were the nicest people. Our first stop was a local café because everyone else wanted breakfast. It was a really local place that was really busy. They had a traditional Spanish breakfast—the breakfast of Champions—churros and hot chocolate—in which everyone felt sick afterward—which was no surprise! I just sat and enjoyed the café and the tile decorations and watched the people walking down the little alley it was near and looked in the shop next-door while I was still sitting in the café, because the buildings are that close! We walked into another church where we saw a few more SASers and then we split with Ryan because he wanted to shop. The three of us then crossed over the bridge to the other side of Sevilla, which we hadn’t explored yet. Karen and I really wanted to know what this huge circular building was that we saw from the tower of the Cathedral the day before. On the other side there were a lot of homeless people and the area was definitely less touristy and pretty. It’s good to explore though, so you know that all of Sevilla, or any city for that matter, is not just what people usually see. We walked all around the round building, and didn’t exactly figure out what it was (even though we decided that it wasn’t a water tower, which Karen was convinced of). It was a very secure looking office building. We then headed back over the bridge, and sat in the park again, since Jill was dragging, and they both didn’t feel too well from breakfast. We then thought about paddle boating, but decided to continue to explore. We saw a castle looking lighthouse, then went to the Teatro de la Maestranza, which had a stature of Mozart on the outside, and were selling tickets to dances and plays. There was a little garden outside which we explored, and then we went back to the area of the Cathedral and took pictures in the square. We ended up just sitting on the ground on the plaza and then we went gift shopping for a while—and they got things from postcards to shirts to olive oil. Karen and Jill then decided they were going to head back early because they had work to do and wanted to make it back to the ship for dinner, so we headed in the direction of the bus station. We then went to a garden—Jardins de Catalina de Ribera. Again, like all gardens, there were beautiful statues, tiles work, and flowers. We all sat in a really comfortable banyan tree and then I walked them to the station. After then left I walked across the street and went to a park that had lots of benches lining a long water fountain, and I sat and ate a power bar, and then headed over to the Plaza de Espana. I ran across some guards at one of the buildings, and didn’t understand them, so I decided I probably shouldn’t go in, but I looped around and reached the plaza. I was not expecting it to be so beautiful. It was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. It was a large half-circle of a building with a fountain in the middle. The building was full of offices and the outside has benches made of tiles and had cities and towns from all over Spain represented on all the benches. The tiles spelled out the town or city name and there was a detailed map and painting in tile of that area. I walked around and saw every one of them, and then walked over the bridges, and lay out in the sun on the tile benches. The detail was just amazing. There was a bunch of school children playing around and I was just imagining being a child in Spain, and having this gorgeous plaza to go to everyday. I am sure they think nothing of it, because they are used to it and see it everyday, but it was so gorgeous. I then went to the largest park, Parque Maria Luisa, where I saw more of the same amazing things. This one had a man-made waterfall though, and lots of white pigeons to feed, and the Museo Artes y Costumbres Populares and the Museo Arquelogico in the park. I then walked back along the water and saw the sunset. I went into a dance studio to go to the bano, and walked by the Placio de San Telmo, a big palace, but it was closed at that point. I then went to the bullfighting ring—Plaza de Toras de la Maestranza—and saw the outside of it. I walked in to the gift shop area, and saw a little bit of the inside, but I had seen it the day before from the view from the top of the Cathedral. It’s basically a circle with sand in the middle and a bunch of seats. I walked around the outside though, and then walked along the windy streets to see the Cathedral for one last time—at night. I saw under a statue and had a pear for dinner and watched people walk by. It surprised me how quiet it was. It was only about 7pm bit hardly anyone was out—but I feel like lots of people go home after work, and then they go out again around 10pm or so. I then went into a University Bookstore and looked at all the books and CDs in Spanish. I spent about an hour in there just because it was really cozy. I didn’t know what any of the books were about, so I was totally judging them all by their covers! I then headed to the bus station, where I saw Alex and Andy and a few other people, including Melissa, who works at the Purser’s desk. I took the 8:15pm bus back to Cadiz. Sevilla is a great representation so Southern Spain and it was just absolutely gorgeous. I had some hot chocolate in the garden lounge, and attempted to journal, but people were walking through, and I ended up talking to Emily and Joey for a while, and then headed to bed. I can’t believe tomorrow is out last day. This semester has flown by and I don’t think its going to hit me that this adventure of a life time is coming to an end until its over—if it even hits me then.

November 27, 2007
Today Karen and I just wandered around Cadiz because there weren’t any areas right around here that seemed particularly interesting, so we decided to just relax even though we had seen the whole city already. We slept in, she registered for classes, we had lunch on the ship (which was horrible by the way—I heard that the food gets really bad the last stretch—so we’ll see about that. I know we are going to have at least two good meals though—one for the ambassador’s ball, which is December 1st, and one from the auction—we had an auction to raise money for a lot of organizations in countries that we have visited and auctioned off vacations and things like a coffee delivered to your room from the Dean, and a “choose your own menu for one meal”, which someone bought, so we will have one good meal then too!). Anyways, we wandered around the streets for most of the day. We got stamps, which Karen needed, and I wanted to have some Sangria since it’s a very Spanish thing. We went to the grocery store and bought some, and we were behind a woman who spent over 500 euros on food. She had three carts full, and we couldn’t figure out what she was doing. She either was preparing a big Christmas dinner or shops once a year. It took about 20 minutes in line (yes, even in Spain, I always choose the wrong line), so I took that time to observe what she was getting and the everyday culture of Spain, because, hey, why not? She bought lots of oil and milk and bread and potatoes, and that’s about it. Then she thought she paid the cashier an extra fifty, but she counted wrong, and they disagreed, and she thought she was losing her mind (I had Karen to translate). We got my sangria, and then I poured it in my nalgene full of ice and put a Clementine in it. I felt so sketchy, but it was funny, and it worked out. It was really good, which surprised me because I don’t like any alcohol ever, but it was more like fruit juice. After a quarter of my nalgene I was done, and gave the rest to some kid from SAS I didn’t know who was so excited. I think I made his day  Karen then got gelato, and we laid in the square in the sun for a long time, and then headed to the beach. Even though we always see ocean, we rarely go on the beach, and we can never walk through the sand with no shoes because of sanitation issues in most of these countries, so it was so freeing to do that. We sat and reflected on the semester since it was the last day in port—ever. We talked and buried our feet in the sand and did cartwheels, and then watched the sunset. We walked back to the ship for the last time ever, and swiped in. Everyone was really emotional, and even the camera guy was outside taping people. It’s just so weird to think that this was the last time ever that I was going to walk up that gangway. The last time every to have security check my bag. To swipe in. Things that just became a part of my life at sea. We had dinner, and then watched as we left land for the last time. It’s hard to believe that the next time we will see land will be the U.S. in 9 days. This semester has flown by. I remember leaving Egypt and thinking that even though all the countries I was very excited about were over we still had three countries to go—well those three countries have come and gone, and it seems like we just left Egypt. I am still meeting amazing people everyday and it makes me sad that I can’t get to know them more. That I can’t just travel around the world again. It’s so bittersweet, but I am going to try to make the most of these last 9 days at sea.