Hey everyone,

 

 

Sorry its been a while since I updated my blog. Its so hard because the internet on the ship is TERRIBLE!!!! So CHINA was amazing. I had such a great time. Ill just give you a little snippet on what we did.

 

The first day we were in Hong Kong which is a beautiful city. I went to Disneyland Hong Kong!!! Shocker to all of you, I know. But we had such a great time. It was just like home though. It was ttinnnnny though. I had such a good time despite the lack of rides. the next day I headed off to my trip with the company the china guide. If you ever go on SAS or just go to China in general I suggest going through this company, it was SO much fun. We headed to Beijing and just went to the hotel that night and went to bed. The next day we went sight seeing and saw Tiananmen square and the forbidden city. That was cool and the place was huge. After that we went and had our first official Chinese cuisine. Nothing like in America haha. it was delicious though I have a feeling I will never like the Chinese back home after having the real deal. We later traveled went to a fake market which was awesome!! So much fake stuff for so cheap. I could have spent all day there.

 

After we went to the great wall. What a freaking sight. We hiked up to where we got to sleep which no one gets approved to sleep on the wall only this company gets to sleep not he great wall which is another bonus to travel with them. We got up and set up our beds and then just had fun dancing and hanging out with everyone. Not to mention that it was only about 5 degrees Celsius. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COLDDDDD. I thought I had frostbite. I seriously cant describe how cold it was sleeping outside with just a sleeping bag and nothing else on a mat on the great wall. We woke up at sunrise and just got to appreciate our surroundings which was so amazing. After that we hiked 4 miles on the wall. It was SOOOO hard. Some of the areas are at about an 8 or 85 degree incline too. mind you most of it is just broken cement or broken steps so you literally have to crawl up the wall. It was really scary. It was amazing to finish it though after such a hard hike!!!!

 

The next day was just spent in Beijing exploring going to the Olympic stadium, another market and a few more places to see. Its kind of hard thinking back on it I cant even remember what I did practically haha!! We went to Xian to see the terracotta war solders which were really cool. we got to meet the guy who discovered them too. They are still excavating them which we also got to see. It was really crazy. We also went to the city wall and just biked around there which me and my friend got a tandem bike. Hilarious to say the least. We spent 2 nights in a sleeper train too. One to Xian from Beijing and one from Xian to Shanghai. It wasn't that gross actually. The second night we met some guys from Holland who were soooo fun! They were in their 20s and thirties though but it was a blast. I talked to them about field hockey a lot which was interesting since that is the number 2 sport in Holland behind soccer of course.

 

Shanghai was also really really cool. I just spent the day shopping really but it was succcccch a beautiful city especially at night. the skyline was GORGEOUS.

 

We just left Taiwan. It actually was the worst port as far as activities go. I didn't get any souvenirs there because there was NONE. nowhere to buy any souvenirs. How annoying. I had so much fun though just traveling the country independently with some friends.

 

We are now headed back to America. Its crazy to think that ill be home in less than 20 days. I really wanted to be home but now its like wow... its almost over. Its really upsetting. yikessss!! Im so happy to see everyone that I miss so much back at home though. Ill let you know how these next 11 days at sea will be since I have SOOO much work to do during that time before finals. Ah! Miss everyone!!!

Vietnam!

Hey Everyone!!!

Vietnam is absolutely amazing. Its such an amazing city!!! I spent the first day exploring the town a little bit and some shops. I also went to a tailor to get a completely custom dress made!! We went to the Vietnam house restaurant which was really awesome. One thing about the way vietnam dining works is they usually do family style dining and just bring out a plate and share it with the people at your table.

The next day we went to Halong bay. I almost didnt get to get on the plane becuase the girls mom who bought my ticket was already through security and i didnt have her credit card information so i almost couldnt get on but they just let me go after 45 minutes of arguing. The plane was HUGE. I havent ever been on a plane that big in my entire life!! We arrived in Hanoi and then took a 3 hour bus ride to Halong bay. When we got there we got on our "junk" boat which is just a big boat that just hangs out in the bay and drives to some places where you can sleep and eat. Ours was really really nice. We enjoyed some lunch and then went to some caves which were really cool. That night we had karaoke night and just had a lot of fun together.

The next day we transferred over to our boat to go to our bungalow on our private beach. This island was really beautiful and we got to eat some lunch then head out on a kayak ride. For those of you who dont know what halong bay is, basically it is just a beautiful bay (even though the entire time i was there it was completely foggy and so hard to see anything at all and it was really cold out) but there are huge rocks that were formed. Google it, me explaining wont do it justice. We just spent the night hanging out on the island with everyone.
The next day we left and headed back for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Which everyone likes it better if you call it Saigon. When we got back we went out to dinner at a sushi restaurant. I even had a whole piece of sushi and it was delicious. I have no idea what kind it was but it was soooo good!!!!!! We then went to get my dress fitted, thank god i went because it was HUGE on me.

Today we spent the day just roaming around the city and shopping and such. I got my dress back and it fits nice. Im excited. It was completely custom tailored and only 50 dollars which is not bad in all actuality.

I had a lot of fun in Vietnam. I had a lot more that i wish i could have done. If i was able to spend one more day here or be only in Halong for 1 day instead of 3. I had such a great time though. I really recommend coming to Vietnam. We met so many cool people here and its just a great place!!!!

CHINA HERE I COMEEE!!! I am so excited for it i have a huge trip planned so i cant wait!!!!

Also, i cant remember if i said anything about this in my last email but we are obviously not going to Japan any more. We are now going to Taiwan which is really cool. I cant wait. As of tomorrow only 1 month until i am done. So crazy. I am really excited to see everyone from home though!!!
Love and miss you all!

Hey Everyone,

So I will just let you know about Mauritius first. I literally just laid on the beach all day. It was really relaxing. Mauritius is a beautiful island I would love to go back to!

 

Now onto India:

 

India was jammmmm packed with adventures!

The first day was spent on a trip to a rehabilitation center for victims of natural disasters and people who are extremely poor. They allow them to live there for 250 rupees a month, which is about 6 bucks in the US and they teach them how to make their own money, and live on their own and be a good citizen. It was pretty cool to see but it was also really sad to see because it was so terrible to look at. After we went to the welcome reception where we got floral necklaces around us. (By the way, I literally felt like I was in Hawaii because everywhere I went I got a handmade fresh floral necklace with all types of flowers.) At the reception I got some henna done and ate traditional food and watched a performance and also got to buy an wear a sari it was really cool. I had so much fun there. I didn't go to bed until about 1 AM because we were having so much fun at the welcome reception we just stayed for a little longer.

 

The next morning I had to wake up at 3 am to go on my Taj Mahal trip. We took a flight to Delhi and looked around there for a little while which was cool and then went to take our train to Agra and it ended up being delayed so we just took a bus instead which took about 6 hours to get there which kind of sucked. When we got there we got to our AMAZING hotel. My roommate and I upgraded to a king size room for free because they didn't have enough doubles for us so whoever in the group was willing to upgrade got to and our room ended up being a suite. Legit suite. It had a dining room, a living room, flat screens and touch screen remotes, a automatic massage chair which was so freaking amazing. We had an amazing bathroom with a party shower and a tub and it was so big. The bed was also probably one of the most comfortable beds I had ever laid in my entire life.

 

The next morning we got up at 545 when we didn't go to sleep until almost 230. (another night with no sleep) and went and saw the Taj at sunrise. It was so beautiful. words cant describe the taj. It was breathtaking. After we had some breakfast then went and viewed the deserted city and saw this palace almost thing. I don't remember the name exactly because it was really crazy and long but it was soooo cool. It was huge and went on forever. you would walk through one building and it would keep going. it was all outside too and then there would be random rooms to walk through and we just kept going it was really cool. After that we got some lunch and then went to the Agra fort which was kind of cool, not as cool as the taj and the palace we went to. Finally we went and saw the Taj again at sunset which was really exciting. After we took a train to Delhi where weirdly I sat across from a girl who went on semester at sea in 2007 and is living in Mumbai right now. How crazy right? That night we got to the hotel which was also another amazing hotel, but no suites. and I got on my first rickshaw which was really fun and then came back and hung out with all the kids on the trip and other trips because there ended up being 3 trips all at the same hotel which was really fun.

 

The next morning we got up and viewed some temples and saw some cool things. it wasn't all that exciting what we did really. Just temples of different kinds and saw some monuments. I had no pictures from this day because we weren't even allowed to take any at the temples so there was no point. That night we took the flight back to Chennai and didn't get back on the ship until almost 2 o'clock. FYI: Indian flights are amazing. They aren't even international or really long flights and very chair has a TV, and realllly comfortable seating and every time you are on the plane you get a meal. not peanuts. it was really cool. and on the TV they had like TV shows and tons of music and stuff. It was really cool.

 

I skipped my service visit the next morning because I didn't get back until 2 and had to get up at 545 when each night on my trip I was only getting 3 hours of sleep a night so I just skipped it. I felt bad but I heard it was terrible when everyone came back because all he kids had lice so they couldn't even interact with them. Thank goodness I didn't go. I caught up on some sleep and then went shopping which was fun and I got a lot of stuff. That night we ended up going out which was really fun at this club at a hotel. I had such an amazing time that night because since I never go out I actually got to meet a lot of people that ive never met before on the ship.

 

The last day I also spent shopping because there was nothing to see in Chennai. I am so glad I did my taj trip instead of staying in Chennai. I wish I did a bigger trip but I am so happy I just got to see what I wanted to see.

 

India is so cool with the culture experiences I had and everything. However, one day while I was leaving the taj mahal I saw a little boy get beat by an adult with a stick. There were always children trying to sell you stuff and I don't know what happened but I watched the adult hit the kid in the face and kick him in the leg and I was so upset and he was just sitting on the ground crying and when I got on the bus the man came back and swung at the child with a stick and smashed it on his shin and the poor boy was bleeding from his leg and his mouth. I have never seen anything like that and I was SO distraught. I couldn't believe that someone would do something like that. I was so sick to my stomach and was crying because I couldn't do anything. that is the culture in India and there was nothing I could do. There were so many other Indians around just laughing while this was all happening just watching in a circle and ugh I just cant even think about it because it makes me so upset.

Besides his fact all the colors and the way women are embodied in India was so amazing. the only way I would ever live in India is if I could just wear a sari everyday and wear a bindi. which I did all the time haha.

 

Today we had Neptune day which is just a day to celebrate crossing the equator which we were supposed to have had a while ago but they had to postpone it. I got fish guts dumped on my head and I kissed a fish. it was so gross but cool. A ton of people shaved their heads today which is a tradition and its donated to locks of love. SO many girls shaved their heads too. it was crazyyyy! I couldn't imagine going back home with no hair, power to all the girls who did it.

 

On to Singapore next. Ill update you soon! Love and miss everyone!

Hey everyone!

Sorry that its taken me a few days to update about South Africa. The ships email has been TERRIBLE and every time I finish typing everything to email to my blog, it freezes and kicks me off. Gotta love it here. This is why I never use my minimal amount of internet time I have on the ship because its soooo slow its not even worth it. Anyways, about Cape town...

 

 

CAPE TOWN IS THE MOST AMAZING PLACE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!

I kept referring to it as Disney world. It is such a beautiful place with so much to see and do. I don't think for this post I will tell you what I did each day but rather just some highlights because I know most people are just curious as to what I did overall not all the annoying details that I love to put into my stories. If you really want more detail, email me at asflewelling@semesteratsea.net!!!!

 

So basically we were supposed to arrive into Cape town on Thursday however the winds were so bad, 50 knots and higher, that we couldn't dock. We spent the day on the ship literally watching movies allll dayyyy longggg. It was quite boring. The next day we finally got to dock at around 12. The sight of cape town with table mountain over looking the entire city was absolutely breathtaking. An image I cannot get out of my head. Mark my words, I am going back one day! Friday was spent just searching around the waterfront area, getting some food and such. We went to table mountain that night for the sunset. We had planned on hiking it but there was a U2 concert in Cape Town which held up traffic so bad we had to take the aerial car up instead just to make sunset.
Seeing the sunset on top of table mountain overlooking the harbor and the city... breathtaking. No, breathtaking cannot describe it. There were clouds literally getting stuck on the mountain as they passed and slowly draping down the mountain like a waterfall almost. It was incredible.

 

Some other things I did the next few days was mostly shopping around and exploring the city. I saw a lot of key things about south Africa such as Cape point, the cape of good hope, 2 wineries which were absolutely amazing. Now I really like wine when I absolutely hated it before. I went to boulders beach which was home to so many African jackass penguins. They were so cute!!!! I also got to visit an orphanage. We didn't get to play with the kids because they were all napping which was really a disappointment but one little boy, no older than 1 1/2 kept staring at me and I kept making a monkey face at him and he would giggle so cutely and try to do that face and he couldn't and he would just giggle some more. He was amazing, I just fell in love with him. After that we got to ride bikes through a township which was really cool. It was basically like the slums of South Africa which was really interesting to see not inside a bus. After we got to play soccer with the kids from the township which was so fun! Although I am absolutely terrible at soccer, I have to say I did really well. I even scored the winning goal for my team!!! (Anna Meyer, I know you'd be so proud) There was a little girl on my team who was about 8 or 9 who really attached to me and when I left she was like you're not leaving forever are you? and I was like unfortunately I am but I'll try to come back one day I promise and she cried telling me she didn't want me to leave. That was really upsetting. :/ Its hard when you attach to the kids in countries and you know you wont ever see them again.

 

Lastly, the most EXCITING THING I HAVE EVER DONE.... I rode elephants. Which most of you probably already see the pictures since ive already posted them but oh my gosh what a feeling. It was really so amazing. We got to this amazing almost resort where you can sleep above the pens where the elephants sleep at night which is just cool to even think about. They also do weddings and everything there and showed us all around the ceremonial buildings which was cool. We got to get up on the elephants and rode on them for about an hour where they just walked around grazing and such and we just did whatever they did. They even ran a little which was really interesting and really hard to stay on! After we got to feed them basically whole pineapple not even peeled so the pointy stuff and all. I got to hang out with little baby elephants and their moms. Holy big. It was so weird knowing they could literally crush you but they were so gentle at the same time. After that we went to Wild Cat Park. We got a tour around the facilities seeing animals and such and then the continuation of one of the greatest days of my life... I got to go into the adult cheetah pen and pet the cheetah. It was amazing. just feeling the cheetah purr was so crazy. (im starting to run out of words like crazy, exciting, indescribable. :P)  After we went into the white lion cub pen. Literally this was an out of body experience. They were ADORABLEEE!!! We got to go in and pet them but were annoyingly shooed out really quickly but they ended up bringing us back in because they didn't get good enough pictures of us so lexi and I were so excited. We got back in and they were so playful just biting my flip flops and nibbling at my ankles and fingers. OMG SOOOOO CUTE. One just put its huge paw on my foot which literally covered my whole foot even though it was so small and just looked at me and started licking me. (Mom, can we get oneeeeeee?) :D After we went into the cheetah cub pen and got to pet those too but they weren't as fun at the tigers but still adorable. After this incredible day we ended with local south African fast food. Wow so good. Their burgers had 1000 island dressing on one side of the bun and bbq sauce on the other side. and their French fries had an amazing seasoning on them... I am literally CRAVING this right now.

 

So basically South Africa was AMAZING. I wish I had 2 weeks, a month, a year there. I still don't think it would be enough. If you EVER get the chance to go there, please do. Its so beautiful and full of history and absolutely breathtaking with the views. Basically, I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA... even bought a sticker to prove it :D

 

I will be in Mauritius tomorrow for the day which I will only be laying on the beach all day soaking up the sun. If anything exciting happens I will post about it but most likely nothing will just sitting on the beach but we will see. After that is INDIA! yay!!!!!!

 

Missing everyone so much! Love ya all!

-Alicia

Just some pictures from South Africa!!!

So Far Away from NY! :(

Elephant Ridinggggg!!!!

Petting a Cheetah, No Big Deal

Annnndd some white tiger cubs

Table Mountain at night, gorgeous

Chapmen's Peak

Petting my new friend

Wine tasting in South Africa

Table Mountain at Sunset

Cape of Good Hope!

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I havent updated you all in a while. Ive been SO busy with school work.

So Ghana was AMAZING. I had such a wonderful time.

i started off my trip with a 3 day/2 night trip with a group that i independently set up. We went to the Tafi Atome monkey village which ended up being 8 or 9 hours away which really blew. We stopped on the way to get some lunch and i got Jollof and chicken. it was pretty good. We ended up arriving at the village around 830 i believe and got some dinner which was wicked spicy. It was...interesting. We got to have the village do a drumming and dancing ceremony for us which was really exciting. I went up and danced with them it was really fun. We ended up heading to our "apartments" which were really interesting. Pretty gross too but hey, i was in Ghana.. No complaining there. We woke up bright and early to feet MONKEYS! It was amazing, they came right up to you and peeled the banana right in your hands. It was really incredible to say the least. After we got breakfast which was just rice and water. agian... interesting. I put about 3 pounds of sugar in it to make it flavorful. After that we went to the school and i had to make a speech to all the children and then ended up finding out they didnt udnerstand a word i said. Most people in Ghana speak English but they had just started learning english so it was a big fail on my part. Oh well though. We went to the Wli waterfalls after that which was amazing. the site was incredible and the pressure from the falls was unbelievable. We left and headed to Accra and on the way we stopped at lake volta which is the largest man made lake in the world. It was pretty cool.

We arrived at Accra, which is the capital of Ghana. It was an incredible place. We got to head out on the town which was cool. We went to this bar/club and i had a great time. A few people decided to leave the group which i was extremely ticked off about but thats a whole other story. We headed back to our hostel which was the Salvation Army and we had 7 beds in one room. It was an adventure to say the least. We woke up bright and early and headed to the market which was AMAZING. it was so incredibly fun! I got a lot of exciting things. After that we headed back to Takoradi on a very long bus ride. When we arrived back at the ship Kristen and I decided to go to a internet cafe which was annoynig because the cab drivers here were incredibly pushy.

 

The next day we woke up and went to the Elmina slave castle. This was really hard to go to. They put us in a cell that the whites stayed in and then a cell that the black stayed in and they were so different it was really uncomfortable. I didnt get emotional until we went into the womens quarters which they were in for 2 to 3 months at a time. There were 150 women in this one room which you would have to see to understand how terrible it was. They went to the bathroom, #1 and #2 and had their menstrual cycle happen ont he floor with no clean up. For months. all these women. HOW DISTURBING IS THAT? i was on the verge of tears. And then the guide tells us how the women only used to get up to go into the square where the governor who ran the castle would point at a women and they would be brought upstairs to be raped. It was so disturbing and terrifying to me. We had a nice lunch and then headed back to takoradi where we just decided to hang out for the rest of the day/night.

The final day we woke up and went to get some stamps and money and headed to lunch. We had our cab driver take us and he said he woiuld stay with us for the day so we were like oh okay thanks! and we went to this EXTREMELY expensive restaurant. He decided to orders omethig and didnt tell us and it was the most expensive thing on the menu. When we got the bill we were like huh? and they ended up bringing out his food in a bag and we were so shocked. We were like um excuse me you need to pay and he wouldnt. He tried telling us we had to pay for his meal and give him 60 cedis.. the exchange rate was about 1.44 so you do the math. Rediculous amounts of money when we ALSO had to pay for his like 25 dollar meal in us money. oh and did i mention we all only had 10 dolalrs each on us, just enoguh to go back to the port. After 45 minutes of arguing, our tour guide ended up just paying the guy off. You do not understand how thankful we all were for him. We just got droped off back at the port and ended up doing a little shopping and left Ghana.

 

So thats whats been goign on. Nothign to much! Miss everyone! were almost in Cape Town!!!! Update you soon!

Feb 2^nd, 2011

The past few days have been really boring, just straight class. I didn’t end up having to work today because a teacher needs me to help email all his students their grades and he didn’t have them fnished so they asked me to work tomorrow instead even though on the day of the sea Olympics we aren’t supposed to work. But tonight was our sea Olympics opening ceremony. For those of you who don’t know what the sea Olympics is it is basically the Olympics on the boat. We are divided into seas based on where we live by room number and place on the ship. I am in the Baltic Sea and light blue is our color. I decided to be part of our cheering committee and helped design the cheer for our team. We used the song Pump It by the black eyed peas. It was a really awesome remix to include stuff about our sea and the other seas and it went so so so so wrong. I was one of 4 standing in front of everyone on stage to lead the team in the cheer however the rest of my team couldn’t hear the music where they were and it got completely messed up… soooooo bad. I was so embarrassed hahahaha. It would have been such a good cheer too. We had to also make banners for our team and ours was seriously the best. We tied for first with the yellow sea which we soooo should have one. I was really upset all night about the whole cheer thing though. I am so competitive that it was so annoying that it was messed up because no one cared to listen to the ones who made it about how it went.  Oh well. Tomorrow is the actual Olympics and I am so excited! Too bad I have to get up and work before!

Feb 3^rd, 2011

SEA OLYMPICS!!!!! So last night the people next to us, who are ALWAYS so loud and these walls are soooooo paper thin decided to stay up all night long and scream and laugh. We called security on them twice because it got that annoying. So not only did we not get to sleep until 2, the clocks advanced another hour ahead last night. Needless to say when the alarm clock went off at 830 I was sooooo tired. I went to go work with my professor and he told me that he actually just did it all himself so I didn’t even end up having to work and ended up going back to bed for an hour before the Olympics started. We got all decked out just like the night before. I cut my shirt into a muscle shirt and put eye liner on my face as war paint…. I looked fierce as always. The day was fulllll of events, I wont go into them all. I have a lot of videos to post when I get back home. We have synchronized swimming which was so much more funny than I had expected. Our team was full of boys in crazy crazy outfits doing such funny things but we ended up getting disqualified because we went over time when everyone said we should have won which sucks. We ended up doing really well in a lot of other events though. We actually got jipped in a lot of events. We lost by 2 points in trivia. Our team bet 1998 dollars and if they bet 2000 we would have tied. Omg it was so sad, and so intense. We also technically won the highest card house which was SO huge but they deducted points for us ripping the cards even though they said we could do whatever we wanted. A lot more happened but I know no one wants to hear about every single event! :P We had a barbeque tonight. It was the first time I have had a hot dog or a hamburger in SOOOOOOOO Long. Even corn on the cob, ugh so good. Back to pasta, potatoes and salad every single day. We had the closing ceremonies tonight where they announced the actual places. We all expected to do terrible and all the sudden they mentioned third place, the third to get off the boat and… BALTIC SEA GOT IT. We were so freaking excited!!!! It was totally unexpected since we got jipped all day. The first place team was also a big shock and completely unexpected. Well I am off to try to get some sleep tonight since I was so deprived last night. Miss everyone!!!!

Weds Jan 26

We woke up early to do our service visit with children with cancer. The children ended up not being able to do the visit to the zoo with us because the doctor did not clear them to leave so we ended up taking children with special needs instead. Our guide took us to the facility to show us around. It was really amazing what this woman did for these kids. We saw a baby whose mother tried to abort it numerous times with drugs and hangers and other terrible terrible tactics. He had no hands and his arms and legs were so so so so skinny. He even had a mustache from all the hormonal imbalances from the drugs his mother had taken. Something special about this place was that all the children were abandoned so it was even more special than just a special needs facility. After touring the facility we ended up going to the zoo where they had a clown, hot dogs and french fries since it was "american" haha. the kids got off the bus and i had to choke back some tears it was such a happy moment. None of them had ever been to the zoo before and they were so so so so happy. We gave them balloons and smiled at them since that was really the only way we could communicate. We looked at only a couple animals before they had to leave because they got tired so quick. we sang a song about love and friendship and all shed a little tears after they left. It was really special. After that we went shopping with some friends and i got a brazilian bikini. EEK! and a new simple dress. I also bought a really awesome maraca. we went to a pizza place and got a smirdnoff type drink which was really good and a chocolate dessert pizza with strawberries on top. YUMMMMMM  we came back for dinner and were going to go samba agian and ended up talking with new friends for 4 hours and then continued our talk upstairs by the pool. we went to bed and i slept in so late!

Thursday jan 27th

 

We woke up and walked to the pizza place agian to get lunch. I got to skype with spencer for a little which was really nice and talked to my mom. Its really hard hearing their voice and seeing their faces knowing that its still so long until i can be with them when i tlak to them whenever i want i home. After pizza we headed back to the boat. currently i am sitting on the pool deck while its raining waiting for us to pull out of the port. We have 9 days in a row on the ship until we reach Ghana. Wish me luck, it iwlll be torture. 9 days of class in a row with no breaks. AHH!!!!!

Miss and love everyone!

Greetings from Brazil.

 

We arrived Sunday (whatever date that was, when your on the ship you just know whether its an A day or B day) In Manaus, Brazil. A few of us got off to venture to a mall to find me a camera. We spent 20 reals for a taxi there and it ended up being closed. We had to take one back which was hard to find a taxi there and they do not speak any english what so ever so its hard to communicate where you want to go, thank goodness i had a map. When we got back near the port there was a festival type thing going on where they had blocked the streets and had many little stores set up in the middle of the road. It was really interesting. it didnt seem like any of it was for tourists at all. It was all clothes, or soaps, or something you would see at the Larac(at home) or Oh fest(at school). We returend to the ship to grab somel unch and meet up with some more people. After a while we went to a mall when it was finally opened. (There are 3 actual malls in the city of Manaus) The first mall we went into was very expensive. The workers in each store had suites on basically and were very classy. Not to mention the prices were outrageous. We decided to l eave and venture to another mall right down the street from the mall we were currently at. We ended up finding a plaza which was also extremely expensive and very... different. Finally we made it to a pretty good mall. Looked a lot like Crossgates in Albany. I found a camera there. We looked in so many stores and finally i found one that looked a little cheaper than the rest and the guy spoke very minimal amounts of english. One thing about the price tags in Brazil is that they say either 899 Reals or say 10 times 89.90. He began to try to ask me how many times i wanted it? I was extreeeeemely confused. Kristen and i thought it was maybe like a warranty so i said no. then he shook his head and started counting on his fingers, so i just said 1. I have NO idea what i did. I could have bought a dolphin and had no idea. I was so relieved to have my camera that we just looked around some stores. I was going to buy a brazilian bikini, but if you have ever seen those... they cover. NOTHING. I gave up on that one real quick. We returned to the ship for some dinner and then went to a festival that they had for us where they blocked off a street to Samba. They had over 150 insturmentalist playing drums and other things and put on a show, at the end they allowed us to go dance with them which was SO fun. I seriously had a blast. We decided to leave when i got groped by some guys which is really scary here. On the sheet we were given about safety in Manaus, it says that they will touch you and rub you and grab your hair and you have to just keep walking on because if you confront them they will seriously hurt you... pretty scary. So after that i was so mad and found some adults to go back to the ship with because the crime here is really high and i didnt want to go back just with a couple of girls.

 

Monday, Kristen and I did a Semester at sea planned trip to swim with dolphins. We got on this boat that ended up being a 2 1/2 hour boat ride which was REDICULOUS to the Rio Negro (aka black river). We got into the water which was literally black, you could not see your hand in the water at all. They had guides who were feeding the dolphins and we got to just pet them which was really dissapointing because that is not how they described the trip. Needless to say though i got to swim with Pink river dolphins... amazing. I think i was the one who touched them the most. It was really hard to get pictures though because they would come out of the water for like 5 seconds and then go back under so you had to be ready at all times. After that we went to a village for food which was nice and we met this little girl there who had a plastic snake. I latched onto her and she latched onto me. I kept playing with her and everytime she put the snake on me or acted like it bit me i would go ooo owww ands he would die laughing. It was hard because she kept trying to talk to me but i couldnt understand her at all. After lunch we got a tour of the village who supposedly extreme home makeover came to and redid the place which i think was really insane because it didnt look very nice at all. We then learned how they made rubber here which was really cool. Finallyyyyy we hoped back on the boat. we were supposed to be back tot he ship at 4 and didnt end up geting back until 530. We also didnt do all the stuff we were supposed to on our itinerary so i was really dissapointed with that. I did have fun though. After that we went to find out hotel which ended up being a very very sketchy hostel. The cab drivers wouldnt even take us there because they had never heard of it before. It was on this sketchy street inside a random spot along the street and we had to go up to the 7th floor just to find where we were supposed to check in. We eneded up walking around the unlit hallways hearing children screaming and crying and everything. We found the guys apartment and had to like knock on his door and finally we got the key to our room which was hotter in there than it was outside and it smelt, there were bugs. it was awful. We basicaly told him we werent going to stay and went to find a different hotel (thanks mom) and it ended up being heaven to us. the clerk spoke english and our room was air conditioned and we had free wifi inside our room so we didnt have to go anywhere to get it. We all spent the night catching up with our friends and family.

 

Tuesday (today...i think :P) Our friends Kelsey and Lexi ended up leaving very early for a trip they had while Kristen and I stayed at the hotel. We continued to talk with friends and family and decided to leave to go back to the ship for lunch. After lunch we decided to walk around the town to find a few shops and the Opera house. (Basically when you ask a local what to do in town they say go to the opera house and the fish market... sounds like a great place to visit right?) We walked all the way to a store and found a couple souveniers and continues to find the post office to get stamps which was so hard. After that we searched the city for a brazilian flag. it was NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. The thing about Manaus is there are little street shops lined up on the side walk side to side along the streeets for so long but thet things they sell are rediculous. they sell remotes, kids toys, hats, fake jewelry, notebooks. Such random things. there are absolutely no souvenier shops in Manaus, i think we came across like 4 tops and 2 of them had literally nothing in them they were just kind of like exhibits and were really overpriced.  we decided to head back to the ship only to find that the store we pass by inside the port terminal had a brazilian flag. Awesome! We have just been back on the boat relaxing and we are probably going to go to bed extremely early tonight to catch up on some sleep before we go to the zoo tomorrow.

Did you know that Cynthia Nixon, the actress who plays Miranda on Sex and the City is an alumni from the Spring 1986 voyage? CRAZY HUH!

Currently heading down the Amazon, almost at Manaus!!! Update a lot when we get there and everything. Missing everyone!

Hey everyone!

So the past 2 days on the ship have been very rough and rocky. Especially during work because the office i work in is very tiny and experiences a lot of the up and down movements on the ship. Its basically been a combination between the Tower of Terror at Disney and a rocking horse. so basically gettting the "up and down" feeling from front to back and top to bottom. Not too fun. We just were informed that we are about to enter the AMAZON RIVER, but that we will be in very shallow water and that we might roll considerably... I am a little worried to find out what 1. rolling consists of and 2. how bad "considerably" is. He said we had to secure everything in our cabins by 1030. so we will see what happens. Is it wierd that i really want to be outside when i happens and see how bad we are "rolling"? Must be the blonde within me... But anyways just thought id give everyone a heads up at where I am at. Hopefully i dont end up in Kristen's lap tongiht while i sleep! Wish me luck...and probably her to if i end up on her lap! Adiosssss!!!

Hey everyone, Sorry its been a while since i have updated my blog, clearly. So here is a little catch up! p.s. its really long so i apologize. I am going to try to keep up with it as much as I can, only with the really exciting stuff!

 

Bahamas-

Bahamas was pretty fun. We stayed at the wyndham along with the rest of the sas students even though we didn’t try to really meet anyone, Kristen and I were still pretty nervous. Kristen, my mom and I all went to this powerboat adventure which was really fun but too long. We fed sharks and sting rays which was really scary.  It was fun though. We went to Senior Frogs one night for dinner and then the night after the powerboat adventure Kristen and I went there to try to meet SAS people. I was forced to go on stage which was SO embarrassing. I actually did it twice haha. But we met some pretty cool people there. The next day we got up early to go into Nassau and shop before I had to go on the boat.

 

Day 1 Jan 11, 2011 On ship-

I had to board the boat earlier than everyone else because I was work study. I am an administrative assistant so I work with the assistant dean. Pretty scary. It was pretty fun being on the ship a day early because I got to meet a few people and everything which was nice. My mom got to come on the ship that night so I could show her around and everything which was really cool. I ended up going to Senior Frogs again that night with some people I had met and I had a pretty good time but I had to get up at 6 the next morning because work study students had to help with registration for the rest of the students.

 

Day 2 Jan 12, 2011

I worked from 7-2 with no breakfast or lunch. Insaneeeeeeeeee. After that I found Kristen out by the pool and met up with some other cool people. We went to dinner and everything and got acquainted with the ship some more. We were supposed to leave at 5 but because of the big storms, they decided to put off the disembarkation until 8 pm. My mom decided to go to the dock to wave goodbye, it was one of the hardest moments I had to deal with, along with saying goodbye to Spencer. We had meetings right after that up until 10 or 11 pm which was terrible because I was SO tired.

Day 2 Jan 13, 2011-

We had orientation ALL DAY LONG.  I slept through half of it since I was so sleep deprived. Whoops. They gave us an hour and 15 minute lunch break and Kristen and I went and took a nap during it then it was back to more orientation. It was sooooo long but they actually tell you really important things so you really have to listen so hopefully I didn’t miss too much while I was napping :P  I also signed up to be an instructor for a work out class, doing insanity for everyone which so many people were really into. We basically went straight to bed after all the meetings.

Day 3- Jan 14, 2011

First day of classes! I was up at about 7 to get ready and have time to get breakfast before my first class that day which was Global Studies… going to be a very difficult class for me. After that I went immediately to international business which shouldn’t be too bad. After that I had enough time to grab a quick sandwich and then I had to work from 12:30-2:30. While I am at sea, not in port at all, I have to work 2 hours a day for my job. Basically my job consists of making copies for professors and doing random odd jobs. The first day wasn’t bad except the woman who writes the Dean’s Memo was sick so I had to write it. Scary scary scary. It was nerve racking working with the assistant dean and also the “voice” of the ship. Basically whenever there is an announcement my boss comes on and grabs everyone’s attention. Right after work I headed to Stress relief and management. That course should be so fun. The first day we started learning Tai Chi, a form of moving meditation. It should be really fun. After that I had dinner and then finally got to sit down for once. We ended up stopping in Puerto Rico for some gas and we all got internet service The rest of the night I just did homework and ended up going to bed early.

Day 4- Jan 15, 2011

B day of classes, aka I have one class at 12 which means I got to sleep in. I got like 11 hours of sleep which I really needed. I went to consumer behavior which my teacher is pretty wacky. After that I went to work which I had to make a lifesize calendar, literally it was bigger than me. Over 6 feet big and I had to hand draw the whole thing with one tiny little ruler. Very annoying. After that I went back to my room and took a mini cat nap and ended up going to dinner shortly after. The food on here surprisingly isn’t that bad but it is very repetitive already. We had our first pre-departure meeting which was both boring and hilarious. Basically they try to scare you so you stay safe but I am not dumb, I know what not to do. But the doctors did this really funny skit. They made a full body condom to protect us, hilarious. They also did posters that said “Don’t get bit” (aka by any dogs or anything like that because of rabies) “Don’t get Hit” (since they drive on the other side of the road and DO NOT WATCH OUT FOR ANYONE) “Don’t to IT” (To clearly not have sex with locals) “Don’t get Lit” (To not “become a part of the local drug trade”) and “Don’t eat shit” (because most times when you get dysentery its because the water you drink actually has poop in it. Really yummy huh?) After that there was a lot of stay safe things and we got into what to do and see and stuff. It was really informative. I ended up going to bed right after that

Day 5- Jan 16, 2011

Welcome to Dominicaaaaa! Which I found out is pronounced Dom-in-ee-kah which I’ve been saying it all wrong this whole time. We got off the boat at about 9 and headed for our trip. We began by going to the ti tou gorge which is like a freshwater cave with a waterfall and everything. It was really awesome, and cold. I jumped off the waterfall which was really hard to get up because the current was so strong because dominica is basically a rain forest. After we went to Trafalgar falls which is beautiful. Here there are two waterfalls that are monstrous. One is the mama and one is the papa. We hiked to them and went into the natural hot springs which were literally a hot tub, it was soooo nice. We went to go to the base of the falls but the guide of the other group said it was extremely slippery and told us we were not allowed to go because getting to this is literally climbing over boulders that are wet and mossy, and I was in flip flops. It really sucked because you could just tell it was one of the most beautiful sites to see. After that we went to Champagne Reef to grab a bite to eat and snorkel. They call it champagne reef because there are bubbles coming out of holes in the coral that actually look like champagne, although it wasn’t what it was cracked out to be. We snorkeled for a while and here is where the best part comes in… my underwater digital camera that cost 300 bucks, breaks. Never really been used either because I was so afraid to break it before this trip. The lens stopped shutting and is stuck and the LCD doesn’t work at all anymore. So that was pretty upsetting so I just got out of the water and decided to go try to rinse it off which didn’t work. We headed back to the ship when our tour guide Levi who was absolutely amazing decided to take us for a bird’s eye view of Roseau. The image was absolutely breathtaking. And pictures could not describe it, if I had any. After going back to the ship we got some dinner and got ready before going out to a local club. I decided to bring my backup camera which everyone though I was crazy for bringing two cameras but when I went to Peru in high school my camera broke the first 2 days and I had no personal pictures of the country. We ended up leaving to the club which played all sorts of reggae music and it was amazing. The guys here are just as creepy as in the Bahamas except they actually ask you if they can dance with you instead of just coming up. I continued to say no sorry I’m dancing with my friends or no sorry I have a boyfriend and they would get really mad. The place had no ceiling so when it rained it just was all over the dance floor which was cool. Apparently the rum here is amazing so we decided to all get a rum and coke, yea one sip of that and I handed it off. It was more like rum and some more rum. Especially when you’re not the drinking type, straight rum is not a good thing to have. I just danced the night away and I took one picture. After that this one guy told me he loved me and then the DJ called me over to his booth to tell me I was beautiful, after that we decided it got wayyyyy to sketchy and decided to leave. We went to where the rest of Semester at Sea kids were called Krazy Coconuts. This was seriously one of the cooooolest clubs I have ever seen. It was 2 floors with one floor as the VIP section and they had an outside huge room for fresh air without having to leave, and then there was a massive dance floor with a stage. While the rest of my friends were drinking I was dancing and trying to have a good time but being around intoxicated people is not the most fun. Then the guy from the last club that told me he was in love with me found me at krazy coconuts and begged me to dance with him and let him hug me. After Kristen and I decided we had to leave because this place also got really creepy and we went back to the ship. While on the way back to the ship, I tried to turn on my camera that has lasted forever and took one picture on that night and it was BROKEN. Needless to say I broke 2 cameras in 1 day in the span of 7 hours. Bad luck is not even a correct term for what happened to me.

Day 6 Jan 17, 2011

We woke up early this morning to see if my cameras worked…epic fail, and grab some breakfast. After that we headed off the ship to do some shopping. We ended up going to an electronics store to see if they had any cameras for me to buy. There is NO real electronics store in Dominica so if you ever come here and break a camera or anything like that, sucks to be you. So I found this store that sold 5 digital cameras, all but one that took actual batteries (so old). So I start to look through them and realize the prices they were set at, because in Dominica they take US dollars just like they do Eastern Caribbean dollars. The cameras were set at about 833 EC = 330-350 US. (the exchange rate is not used universally in every store so it can vary). We decided to go try to find another store and we miserably failed, so after a phone call to my mom, or two, we went back to the store to purchase a camera. I got this waterproof camera, straight out of the 1800s basically that was the only one that took a chargeable camera battery and got a memory card to go with it and left… 300 dollars later because they gave me a discount. After some walking around we tried finding some food we found a couple restaurants which one was a buffet that cost 20 dollars American money and was straight up crap. We went to another that they had huge menu but only served 2 things for lunch and it was curry chicken or fruity pork… not the greatest soundings of things. We thennnn found another restaurant that said on their menu “chicken, goat, ham, beef, vegetarian” but didn’t actually describe what it was and when we asked and were shown what the food really was we decided to peace right out of there. We ended up at a….Chinese restaurant. How hilarious, didn’t even try Dominican cuisine. The Chinese here isn’t all that great either and its not like back at home where its take out and go. I got sweet and sour chicken and they cooked dark meat which I hate in the red sauce served on a platter, it was really odd. But oh well we actually got to eat. While at the restaurant I started looking at the camera and noticed that the memory card they gave me wasn’t the right memory card and talked to my mom one more time (sorry mom if your reading this for all my trouble today) and we decided I should just return it because it was literally refurbished from 2008, probably Olympus’ first underwater camera, you should have seen this thing. It also was only 10 megapixel which really isn’t great. It also was really annoying because it was a hugeeee rip off. So we ventured back across the town to the store and I went in and said I need to return this and they were totally confused. Which they speak English here, it is their native language besides Creole. So I made up a story that my mom had gotten me a camera and now I didn’t want this one because I didn’t realize she bought it (yea sorry mom again, I guess its pay back for the Disney incident :P) So I ended up getting extremely upset and shed some tears because they told me I couldn’t return it because I paid with credit card, apparently they aren’t up to speed with credit card usage here so they sent me to the manager or something named Blanch, let’s just say I HATE this name now. I went upstairs to her office and explained to her the situation and she was like okay and when she asked for the receipt apparently I had gotten a discount on the camera, coulda fooled be since it cost 300 bucks. And she told me I couldn’t return it so I attempted to tell her that I was never informed that it was a discounted product and I can’t return it and things got a little heated after that. We began arguing back and forth until she tried cutting me off by saying excuse me 5 times in a row when I stopped talking after the first time she said it. She tells me that she is doing me a favor and was going to do it but she wasn’t going to any more, mind you my mom is on the phone the whole time so I start talking to my mom and the lady is literally just standing there staring at me and then back at Kristen like she wanted me to get down on my knees and beg her or something and then 5 minutes later she calls the headquarters apparently from this tiny shop in Dominica, prolly her husband or something. She asks for the card which is a travel visa and almost tells me I can’t use that which would have made me even more upset. Finally she’s like welllllllll I can refund you but for a 20% charge aka you have to pay me 70 dollars for this because she also wouldn’t return my memory card because it was open already so now I have a memory card for 30 bucks that I’ll never use. So after losing 70 dollars, I just said okay thanks and walked out with 200 dollars back on my account. Basically the worst experience ever. However, things looked up because we ended up going to the post office to buy some stamps and found an internet café and a beautiful site to take pictures of our ship! So we ran back on to the ship quick to grab the computer and went to the internet café which I got to skype with Spencer for a little which was nice because I can’t on the ship but we had to go immediately after that so I couldn’t try to talk to anyone else, plus no one else was on. We arrived back on the boat before the dock time which if you are 15 minutes your late for dock time you have to stay on the boat for 3 hours at the next port which is really crappy especially if you have a trip right from when you get off the boat. But we got on nice and early and got to eat and relax. We currently have JUST left Dominica and unfortunately to say I am happy. This first stop has not been the greatest but I am hoping it will be better.

Reflection on Dominica- Dominica is a really beautiful place that is extremely green and lush. There are beautiful waterfalls and black sand beaches. There is less tourism there but they get all their money through tourism so there is a little market with lots of shops that really over price a lot of things. The whole accepting of two currency things is really hard to understand especially because they will say 4 dollars or 10 EC which can sometimes get confusing so it’s a lot harder to barter with the locals then in other countries. It is really crazy how much they over price things especially with that camera. 300 Dollars in US for the most basic camera? Even the locals get such a rip off its insane. I just expected everything to be relatively cheap in most of the countries but I was very very wrong here in Dominica. Even with breaking of two cameras and all the shenanigans that I encountered on the last day, I still thought the place was beautiful and really nice. Most of the locals were very friendly. Except there was this poor dog kept following us around and waited outside for us every time we went into a shop so that was really sad too. It really stinks that I feel that I don’t ever want to return here because I had such a sad time. But I do recommend traveling here to other people because of the gorgeous views of Roseau.