Bad Weather? Where?

So, I don’t know if you’ve heard or noticed on the website, but we got an extra day in Hawaii because of a typhoon somewhere between Hilo and San Diego.  So, on Monday night, instead of leaving Hilo towards San Diego, we went back to Honolulu.  Since Tuesday was scheduled to be a study day for our A-day exams (today) we were able to get off the ship and enjoy one last (they’re calling it a “gift” day) day in Honolulu.  I have no idea where the bad weather is though, so I’m going around saying that this is the best “snow” day I’ve had in my life.  Since I did actually have a good amount of work to get done yesterday, some friends and I went to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus and got some work done in their library.  After a sweet Indian food lunch on campus, we went to Waikiki beach for the evening and had a last dip in the Pacific.  It was a gorgeous, lucky day for us. 

Today won’t be as much fun.  I got up at 0745 and had breakfast and then got ready for the day.  I tutored Megan from 0900 to 1000 and I am quickly writing this blog post before my public speaking exam (which really should be a breeze) at 1045 to 1130.  At 1130, I’m meeting with my A-Team to finish up our project for Service Learning which will take up a huge portion of the day, but it will help me put the finishing touches on my portfolio which is due tomorrow afternoon.  So today I will be working only on my portfolio, and tomorrow I will finish up my write-ups for my music class.  I also need to pack.

I love the last week of the semester.  Although I’m trying to take this one in stride since it is the last finals week I’ll have to endure for at least a few years. 

Oh, and even though we got to stay in Hawaii longer than planned, I live on the fastest passenger ship in the whole wide world and so we’ll still be docking in San Diego on time.  I hope we CRUISE!  I’m talking like 27 knots (our usual average is around 14).  That would be awesome.  San Diego at 0800 hours on December 14, 2009.  This is the definition of bittersweet.

Wish me luck.

Miss you all and see you soon!

So..what is Semester at Sea?

Dear Friends and Family back home,

As we near American waters again, tensions and stress aboard the MV Explorer are high.  It’s almost a joke; a 4-day Hawaiian vacation awaits us – just kidding!  Finals are before and after Hawaii.  I have a monster pile of work to do, and a to-do list that is not exactly serving it’s purpose because it’s making me feel trapped since I can’t do a good portion of my to-dos (lack of internet, mostly).  Anyway, I’m not complaining- I just realized that I haven’t yet finished blog posts on India, Vietnam, and Japan and I have yet to tell you almost anything about what being at sea is like.  So, today, in the next 12 minutes before my public speaking class, I would like to tell you what a typical (ha) day at sea is like.

First of all, Semester at Sea is not for “creatures of habit” or people who have a hard time without a set schedule they can depend on.  That’s not to say anything bad about the program; it’s just the nature of the beast, as they say.  When we are at sea, the most regular schedule can happen, and every day is a class day.  Day of the week and date matter almost not at all; instead, days at sea are either an A or B day.  Classes are on either A or B day.  Global Studies, a class that the entire shipboard community is supposed to take is on both A and B day.  The same lecture gets done twice.  Conveniently, I am in the A-day section of Global and so, on the days that I don’t feel like going, I can just make it up the next day (the B-day people don’t have that luxury).  Global is a lecture class in the union where everyone collects.  The professor stands on the stage behind the podium (sometimes moves around) and talks to us about globalization.  “Globalization in the Post-Colonial Flat World” is the theme of global studies this semester.  The textbook for the class is “The World is Flat” by Thomas Freidman, which, if you’re interested, is actually pretty good.  Because there are so many people on the ship who are supposed to see/attend global, it is also broadcast to each classroom on the ship so you can watch it elsewhere if interested.  Also, on A-days, I have Public Speaking, which I am headed to now.

My Public Speaking class is great.  It’s very small, three really wonderful lifelong learners attend the class and our professor is incredible.  She is a professor somewhere in Pennsylvania and is wild!  No one else in the world can teach like her, I bet.  I’m not even sure how to describe it except that she has this thing about her that makes you want to do well and she will tell you (pretty explicitly) if you’ve disappointed her.  I’ve learned at LOT that way.  My first speech totally blew and she said “wow, kiddo.  Are you feeling well today?  Just say no, it’s a good excuse.  You are a smart kid.  What the hell was that?!”  You can believe I tried harder on my next speech, which was the one on autumn that I did do pretty well on.  She gave me much more constructive criticism after that one, and my last one (that I did two days ago) went beautifully.  I got an A.  The class was awesome too, because we never had any restrictions on what we were to talk about, so we learned a ton about things some of us had never heard of before.  Speaking classes are cool that way. 

After public speaking class on A days, I have lunch with whoever is around (a great thing about the ship – everyone is always around) and I work on my homework for B day classes.  Most of the time, I work outside on one of the decks or I take a nap on the fifth deck where it’s usually quiet.  When we’re at sea for an extended amount of time, it’s easy to feel like we’re stuck inside a snow-globe because that is really what it looks like.  There is the ship, and nothing but ocean, sky, and horizon.  It’s a huge half-circle, and we’re sitting on the horizontal.  Snow-globe.  Dinner is served everyday from 1730 to 1930 and since… Mauritius (I think), I get together with a group of great people on 5th deck aft and have a glass of wine, talk, and watch the sunset.  Sometimes we bring a guitar and various other instruments we’ve picked up around the world and play a little music.  We call ourselves the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Wine-Club Band.  It’s something I’m really going to miss about SAS:  Sunsets and great conversation…every night.  After dinner, Explorer Seminars start.  Explorer Seminars can be on anything, and taught by anyone and there are about four to chose from each night.  I’ve been to Explorer Seminars on things like “Hurricane Katrina – A Survivor’s Perspective” to “Japanese Playground Games” to “The Future of Journalism” to “African Textiles.”  After Explorer Seminars, there is usually some function in the Piano Bar area for socialization or something, and there are almost always movies showing in different classrooms for different classes.  At 2200 each night, there is a snack in the dining room that is pretty popular.  It’s funny writing about this because it’s an interesting task to think about what you actually do with your time.  Think about it:  what do you usually do at night?  Where does the time go between dinner and bedtime? 

On B days, I have two classes:  International Service Learning and Global Music.  Global Music could have been a really cool class (it was alright, it could have been spectacular) but we didn’t learn as much as I thought we might have.  A few of my experiences in port with that class were some of my best experiences, but I just wish we did more in class.  We are all now masters of playing Ghanaian drums, but we didn’t spend nearly as much time as we should have on Indian music, for example.  The professor was also always entirely too scattered to be a good professor.  He is a known jazz musician, but he has two-year old twin daughters on the ship, so he’s always just fried.  I did get some excellent music on my computer from the class though.  Service Learning, on the other hand, was absolutely the best class I’ve taken in my entire college career for many, many reasons.  I have the most work, the hardest work, and the most meaningful work for this class than I’ve ever had for a class and too much to tell about this class than I can write here.  This is one that I will have to talk about in person when I can show you the pictures and my portfolio and tell you the stories.  This is the class that we did the $100 Solution in.  In the beginning of the class, Dr. Strenecky said to us:  “You will get out of the class what you want to get out of it.  You are to take charge of your education.”   Not only did I learn what service learning actually is, but I participated (and took lots of leadership roles) in all of the countries we did $100 Solutions in (Ghana, India, Vietnam, and Hong Kong).  Even more, I designed, implemented, and finished my own $100 Solution separate from the others in Vietnam as my A-project for the course.  I get chills when I think about this class.  You’ll just have to wait to learn more until I get home and talk with you about.  Not only that, but the man who invented the $100 Solution, who is known around the world as the man who started the $100 Solution, and who writes textbooks on Service Learning was the guy we got to learn from, work with, live with, eat meals with, and travel with.  Semester at Sea has afforded me so much more than I ever thought it could have.  I am published on two different websites with the write-ups I did for the $100 Solution projects and the Global Nomad Group followed and interviewed me in India to make one of their documentaries about the $100 Solution.  It’s been an incredible journey.     

Sometimes at night, we have really great drum circles with the drums that MTV bought Semester at Sea when they did Real World in 2000 under the stars in the middle of the ocean on 7th deck aft.  You know…

Sometimes in the morning, I go to the same place in the aft and do morning yoga or meditate on the beautiful life I’ve found myself in. 

…I finished this about 4 days after I started writing it.  It’s now 0037 hours and we are docking in Honolulu, Hawaii at 0600.  I should be asleep, but I’m sitting out in the hallway finishing this up and feeling a little bit nostalgic about missing this place in less than two weeks.  That being said, here is a list of things I’ve been missing about home/Oneonta-home.

Family
Friends
Of course.
Good coffee that is not made with syrup
Will-dog
The comfy green chair
Having my cuddle muffin jump into my bed
Cooking
Building my kayak with Dad
Having Zanna’s house and people over to “study” Arabic or math and drink tea
Having my own place
The cow path
The local bus in Oneonta
Mittens, scarves, hats
Speakers so my music actually sounds good
Raking leaves with my bests while listening to The Decemberists from the roof
Real coffee (did I mention that?)
A kitchen
Rest

Passenger Terminal Immigration: Yokohama, Japan

So we arrived in Yokohama this morning, and man, I am not ready for another port yet.  Luckily I don’t have any real plans today and so I’m taking it easy until I get off the ship and then I’m still going to take it easy.  Tomorrow, I am traveling to Kobe with my friend, Gabriel, who is from California but lived in Kobe until he was 13.  I am going to stay with him at his family friends’ house until the ship gets to Kobe in a few days.  Then I have a FDP home-stay with university students for my public speaking class.  I am so exhausted; I have no idea how I plan on being a charming guest.  Since India, I feel like I haven’t had any time to stop and catch my breath of all this traveling.  In the past three weeks, we’ve done four different countries and had about 8 days of classes.  I’m dying.  I’m not complaining…this is just craziness.  I can’t wrap my head around all of this and more and more keeps coming.  So then, the natural inclination would be to think, “Well, we have a nine day stretch between Japan and Hawaii, that will be a good time to think it out.”  Yeah right.  Those nine days will be nine straight days of class with no break and the Global Studies final exam and my final speech and my portfolio will be due.  I am always the student who at the end of the semester just needs to shut down for about a day to slow my mind down enough to start to get to work on things, and that feeling of needing to shut down got into my head yesterday and since it was impeccably bad timing, I am feeling more frazzled than I ever have.  I hope that once I get off the ship, my mind will be in “Japan only” mode, and I’ll be happier.  Then when we get back on the ship I can just get to work.  I won’t be too good at that though because we’ll also be starting to say goodbye to everyone.  Holy moley.  I gotta get out of this funk. 

How about this immigration?  In Japan, foreigners (that’s us) have to go through a face-to-face inspection with an immigration officer, get fingerprints done, and a picture of your face taken.  None of this can be done on the ship.  We all have to get off the ship, go through a really long line to get this done, and no one is allowed to get back onto the ship until everyone has gotten through immigration.  So, I haven’t started to stand in the line yet.  I figured my time would be better spent relaxing in my room, and when the last few people are called to go through immigration, I’ll sneak out with them.  They called faculty, staff, and families first (if they wanted to get off the ship), then all the seas (they divide the floors by sea names – I’m in the Andaman Sea – we won Sea Olympics), and then they will call the rest of the faculty, staff, and families.  So, my sea was one of the first called but I didn’t go with them because I would have had to stay off the ship forever until everyone passed through immigration.  I’m just going to go out right before the second round of faculty and staff.  Also, a funny tidbit about immigration in China- they didn’t believe my passport picture was me because I’m not wearing glasses in my picture.  I was wearing glasses in real life because we were headed to a plane and I never wear my contacts while flying incase something happens.  She wasn’t going to let me through until I raised my eyebrows in a “are you serious” sort of face and took my glasses off.  It worked.  If that is all you have to do to get through Chinese immigration, I pretty sure anyone can get in with anyone else’s passport.

Me oh my, I don’t know what to do with myself.  I have no idea what I want to do in Japan.  I need to get myself to a temple and meditate out of the funk.  I also need to find fabric.  Interesting mix.  If you have any suggestions for Japan, leave a comment today and hopefully I’ll get it before I leave for Kobe tomorrow afternoon.

Be well everyone.   

Mauritius - delicious meal

Check out our fingers.  In Mauritius and India, I got really really good at eating with my hands.  There actually is a method, and it's awesome.  Eating rice without anything is the only way to do it.  Forks, spoons, chopsticks...nothing is as good as the fingers.  Plus, Indians believe that there are enzymes on your skin that aid in digestion.  Take that, Western manners!

I'm an artist!

This is me and my new job.  I am going to quit school and become a tree stump carver.  This is my mentor.  Don't worry, Mom and Dad, this is a rather affluent job.

Moon, this is for you.

On the beach in Mauritius dipping my toes into the Indian Ocean and munching on some fruit.  This one happens to be coconut - hard to crack, but sweet on the inside.

I GOT MAILLLL

Just look at how excited I get when I get mail.  Send on, baby!

Cooking Class in South Africa

This is me mixing the dough for the dosa at the cooking class in SA.  Look at the beautiful woman who was our teacher.  This was a really great day, and I loved finally being able to cook again.

Neptune Day part dos

Check out the vein in my forehead.  Oh yeah...

Neptune Day

Between Ghana and South Africa, we crossed the Equator.  Maritime Tradition is to hold a ceremony to honor the sea god, Neptune by getting fish guts poured on your heads and kissing a dead fish.  I did both and so am no longer considered a "pollywog."  When this was an actual US NAVY ceremony, the newbies were seriously hazed; our version was the college "hazing is illegal" version.

Bus Stop in Ghana

On our way back to the ship from the rainforest in Ghana, our bus broke down.  Luckily, our time was filled with school children who were walking home.  Alyse and I were making silly faces with these kids from the bus window until we decided we'd go meet them.  We took a silly faces picture to show the kids.  They just loved seeing themselves on camera.

Kakum National Park - Ghana

This is a sweet tree we found in the rainforest in Ghana.  I love the roots!

Check, Check, Check it out...

I figured out how to send pictures to my blog!

This, then, is a picture of me during a muster station drill that I promised you all.  Check out the orange.  :)

From the Window to the [Great] Wall

As per Erin’s request, I am going to start with my blog post from China, and I will work my way back to India.  I’m sorry to all of you who are missing reading my blog.  Things have been nuts lately.  I am having a hard time getting my schoolwork done and e-mailing and blogging is just so much more writing.  My apologies. 

I am sitting on the ship in Shanghai right now because I am still exhausted from my trip to Beijing, but we’ll get to that.  The ship was supposed to leave Shanghai tonight for Yokohama, Japan, but “due to inclement weather, we will be departing tomorrow at 1400 hours.”  This is interesting for a few reasons.  The first is that the weather outside is nothing but rain and a small amount of fog.  The second being that this ship has endured way crazier weather than that before, including a typhoon that broke all the windows on the bridge.  The third is that President Obama is in Shanghai today and tomorrow to work on Asian-American relations.  Could it be?  I don’t want to get my hopes up, but this ship has seen Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and other really important people as guest speakers before… and this weather situation is just too fishy.  Anyway, because of that I’m not sure if I want to leave the ship or not.  I, for sure, do not want to miss it if Obama gives the MV Explorer a small visit.  HOLY MOLEY.  But, I’m not getting my hopes up…

We arrived in Hong Kong on the 11th (Wednesday) in the morning.  We docked at the cruise ship terminal which is connected to a mall.  Right.  When we left the ship, before being outside, we had to walk through a horrible maze of ugly capitalism.  That is how I felt about Hong Kong in general though.  I didn’t really enjoy my time in Hong Kong because it was just way too busy, ostentatious, and flashy.  Luckily, I spent my day with a wonderful lady named Grace and we had the same sentiments about Hong Kong.  We went to the art museum which was cool (my favorite part was sculpture of a Buddha stealing a peach) and we had a great dinner that was sort of ironic.  We went to a Vietnamese restaurant even though we were in Vietnam just two days before that.   Pho is that good.  I went to bed fairly early that night because our flight to Beijing was at 11 am out of ShenZhen so we were leaving the ship at 0530 the next morning.

Our trip to Beijing was one of the best times of my entire life.  The stories are crazy and great.  I traveled with my friends Rebecca (who I met in Halifax in the airport and went to the hostel with), Alyse (who I met on the Morocco trip during the crazy rainstorm) and Cav (who is from Florida and a witty, hilarious character) and we met Lucas (Erin’s boyfriend) in Beijing where he has been studying since June.  The hardest part of the whole trip was getting ourselves from the port in Hong Kong to the airport in ShenZhen, but while I was trying to work out the route the day before, I ran into the Chinese history professor, Dr. Godfrey, in the hallway and out of whim I asked him to explain the best route since he has lived in China before.  He was explaining it to me and asked when our flight was at and as it turned out, we were on the same flight.  So he invited us to just tag along with his group, so long as we were not late meeting in the morning.  When I thanked him he told me not to worry about it because “if my kid was on this trip, I would hope someone would do this for him.”  So, Momma and Pops, thank professor Godfrey.  We had to take a train out of Hong Kong, go through the “exit” immigration, and then get on another train into Mainland China then to the “entrance” immigration.  After that, we had to take a bus to the airport, which we found in a totally random, deserted parking lot where no sign was in English.  So, without Professor Godfrey, I’m not sure we would have made it.  We did though, and after checking in at the counter, we took a little break, ate some granola and waited for our plane to board.  It was about 27 degrees in Hong Kong that morning, but when we boarded our plane, we were delayed for an hour because of bad weather in Beijing.  In Beijing, when we landed, there was snow all over the place and the high temperature for the day was supposed to be -3 degrees (all of these degrees are in Centigrade, dear readers).  So, upon landing, we immediately donned our warmest clothing, which made me SO happy.  I LOVE the cold weather, and should probably never move out of cold weather.  That being said, Alyse is from Colorado and I am from New York, but Cav is from Florida/Virginia and Rebecca is from Texas/SoCal, and so this weather was definitely the coldest they’d ever seen.  We didn’t have any checked bags, so as soon as we got out of the terminal, we went to the money exchange (Hong Kong money is not the same as Chinese money) and while we were waiting for each other, this kid came up behind us and said “Kalista?!”  It was Lucas!  This was the first time I met Lucas, except for in video chats with Erin, and so it was a little weird to be meeting my sister’s boyfriend without my sister, but we all introduced ourselves and started clicking pretty quick.  Lucas showed us out of the airport by the airport express train into the city and then we went to our hostel.  We checked in and put our bags away, then we sat down in the sweet common area of the hostel and consulted a map and made a list of what we wanted to see and do while in Beijing.  The hostel we stayed in, The Peking International Youth Hostel, has won “Top Ten Youth Hostels of the World” for the past five or so years, and that should give you an idea of just how incredible it was.  Remember how in Halifax I was worried that I was getting spoiled?  Then the hostel in Seville was also incredible?  Well, the hostel in Beijing certainly takes the cake.  This place was bomb.  The common area had great tables and chairs made out of heavy dark wood, and there were also a bunch of wicked comfortable couches.  There was free internet and computers we could use, they served a selection of American and Chinese food, and there was a bar.  We decided that instead of staying in a dorm room, we would pay the extra money and get two private rooms so that we could just throw our stuff down and not have to worry about it and those rooms were incredible.  We each had a huge, heavy down comforter on our beds, western toilets (with toilet paper!), and showers and towels.  I know that you might be thinking that doesn’t sound luxurious, but when you see the pictures, you might think otherwise.  Anyway, our hostel was the best.  After consulting the map and making a prioritized list of tourist places to visit, we went out to an excellent Peking dinner.  We had a bunch of different stuff, most notably was steamed brocolli with garlic and ginger, spicy shrimp, and Peking duck.  Oh yeah.  We also had a good amount of Chinese beer, and this crazy grain alcohol called “Baijo.”  We had a ton of fun in the restaurant because the staff got a kick out of talking with us and Lucas (he’s fluent in Mandarin) and watching us try to eat things the correct way.  They also took some Baijo shots with us and were very proud of us when we could say, “One, Two, Three, Down your Glass” in Mandarin.  We also spent some time at the table helping Lucas study for his Mandarin test the next day which was fun, and at the end of the night when we were leaving, we were invited to sit down at the owner of the restaurant’s table and chat with him for a while.  We got his card, and went on our merry way down the block and back to our cozy warm hostel where we made a snowman on the picnic tables in the courtyard and talked to Erin on Lucas’ cell phone.  Successful first day in Beijing, I’d say.

Lucas didn’t stay at our hostel with us the first night because he had class on Friday morning, so while he was at school, we went to the Forbidden City.  Since it was only a block away from our hostel, we didn’t have to deal with cabs or anything and we just walked there.  The Forbidden City was incredible.  The place is huge; it is about one kilometer from the South Gate to the North Gate and that is only in a straight line.  There are temples and buildings all over the place in the Forbidden City.  I think of all the buildings and temples inside the Forbidden City, our favorite was the Imperial Gardens.  I’m not even sure how to describe these places, but I promise you, once I get my pictures loaded up onto my computer, I will post them here.  I learned how to make the pictures small enough!  After the Forbidden City, we had lunch, then plans with Lucas to meet back at the hostel and then go to the Temple of Heaven, and so that is what we did right after we cozied ourselves into the couches with hot chocolate and cookies.  Our hostel was almost like a ski lodge, and since it was snowy and cold, we went with that idea and had lots and lots of hot chocolate and ginger tea.  Lucas met us and we headed over to the Temple of Heaven, which was also awesome.  To get to the temple, you walk through a park, and we ran into this lady selling a game sort of like badminton.  Cav played for a while with the lady while the rest of us played this hacky-sac like game.  I also got to hold Cav’s fancy camera and take pictures like the Paparazzi.  I’m a good Paparazzi too – look at the pictures (when I get them).  The Temple of Heaven was just as intricate and beautiful as all the temples and buildings inside the Forbidden City, and I’m not sure what I can say about them to do them justice.  It will have to be a picture thing.  After the Temple of Heaven, we took a LONG cab ride across the city to a theater where we bought tickets to a Chinese Acrobatics show.  We headed to dinner before the show where we had Sichuan Mongolian Hot Pot.  This was a crazy meal.  Hot Pot is sort of like fondue, where you cook raw meat in a pot of hot liquid, but it’s not cheese.  It’s this flavored broth that is crazy spicy with little devil peppercorns.  If you accidentally bite one of them, your whole mouth goes completely numb and it’s scary.  I actually thought that I might be having an allergic reaction to something and would need some Benedryl immediately.  Luckily, it would go away pretty quickly, but it was easily the scariest/craziest thing I’ve ever eaten.  That being said, it was delicious!  We had lots of different beef and we dipped it in different sauces (peanut, or one that tasted like pho) and had lettuce to eat it with.  We also had dumplings, which I just love.  After dinner, we hightailed it back to the theater for a wicked cool acrobatics show.  I have no idea how to describe to you what I saw, so I’ll just recap the craziest things.  At one point, there were 11 people all riding one bike.  We saw contortionists who just looked like they were defying gravity at every second.  There were men who did crazy backflips and jumped through hoops higher than they could stand, and Diablo (which is that game with two sticks you hold with a rope between them, and you spin something that looks like a bobbin from hand to hand), except that this Diablo was INSANE.  I think Cav got a few pictures of the performance and so I’ll try to get them to you soon.  It was wild.   We got to meet a few of Lucas’ friends in his program at the show too and that was neat.  After the show, we headed back to the hostel, had a drink, Skyped Erin (which was AMAZING – it was the first time I saw her since August), and went to bed early because we arranged a driver to pick us up at 6am to go to the Great Wall of China.

Lucas stayed with us at the hostel, but since he has been to the Great Wall about seven times, he decided to chill at the hostel until we got back.  Our driver picked us up right at our hostel at 6 am, and if I haven’t made it clear yet just how cold it was in Beijing, let me tell you what I wore to the Great Wall.  I wore poly pro long underwear tops and bottoms, wool/cotton blend pants, a wool sweater, a fleece sweater, my rain coat, poly pro socks, wool socks, trail runner shoes, and a wool hat with both hoods from my jackets on.  In the sun, I was toasty in that outfit, but otherwise, it was still quite chilly.  So, our driver took us to a portion of the Great Wall called Mutienyu, which is probably a really touristy area, but since it is winter and we got there so early in the morning, we HAD THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA TO OURSELVES!  It was awesome.  We took a chair lift up to the wall, hiked about a mile in each direction, took tons and tons of great pictures, sang the songs from Mulan, pretended we were a band and took album cover pictures, said “Holy crap we’re on the Great Wall of China” about a thousand times, and had a snowball fight.  It was absolutely incredible, and one of those moments where I just have to stop, look around, and recognize how “So Damn Lucky” I am.  I mean that I am amazingly fortunate to be able to do what I’m doing, and sometimes it takes my breath away.  I put “So Damn Lucky” in quotations because it is a Dave Matthews song that you all should listen to.  I remember when I was a little kid and I was learning about the Great Wall of China and how Dad was excited about learning about it too.  I don’t know if he was just being excited because I was excited about it, but I was thinking about you, Dad, while I was on the wall, and wishing you could have be seeing what I was seeing.  I took a lot of pictures for you.  We took a toboggan down the Great Wall (like the Alpine Slide and Jiminy Peak), which was a rush, and then we got some more hot chocolate and met Mr. Pay, our driver.  On the way back to the hostel, Mr. Pay stopped the van in this tiny little town and got himself a bag of street food snacks which actually turned out to be for us!  It was a wonderfully sweet gesture, and he looked so happy when we all liked the treat.  In China, pastries are often filled with a red bean paste, and some people really don’t like it.  But I think the sweet, salty combo is really great.  When we got back to the hostel, Lucas was eating breakfast, so we ordered our lunch and then went to the famous Silk Market of Beijing.  Also while we were eating lunch, we met a girl from Germany named Nina who was traveling alone, so we asked her if she wanted to tag along with us.  She did, so we all went to the market and set a meeting time.  I wandered around with Lucas and  got my fabric.  This time, since I was in China, I made sure to get silk, and I got raw silk because I actually liked the look of it better than the super shiny dragon stuff.  I got five meters in four different colors that make one heck of a bedroom color scheme.  I can’t wait to decorate some place that is mine in the next few years with all of this fabric I’ve picked up.  I also have no idea how I plan on getting all this stuff home.  No idea.  Anyway, after the market, we went back to the hostel and chilled out, showered, got dressed, and had dinner before going to a concert.  The rest of my Beijing story starting now is INSANE, ridiculous, hilarious, out of character, lucky, and a less than once in a lifetime experience.  It will probably be lost on the older members of my audience, but just go with it.  I will try and explain it as best as I can.

So, in my e-mail correspondence with Lucas, he mentioned that he could get tickets to a rap concert and was wondering if we’d be interested.  I didn’t mention it to Cav, Rebecca, or Alyse, and I just assumed that at least Cav and Rebecca would be interested.  So I told Lucas yes, and he responded with the name of the group.  The artists we were going to be seeing are called The Ying Yang Twins; I never heard of them, but I just went with it.  The morning we were headed to Beijing, I mentioned it to my travel buddies and both Cav and Rebecca just about died- they were so excited.  They started singing one of their songs, and it was then I realized what I had gotten myself into.  The Ying Yang Twins sing that dirty rap song that goes “To the windooowwww, to the waaalllllll.  All these females crawl, sweat drops down my balls, awww skeet skeet skeet mother effer, aww skeet skeet god damn...” Please excuse me; I’m just quoting my crazy life.  So, anyway, this is whom we were about to see in China.  Let me just say that, in real life, I would never see a rap concert (especially dirty southern rap), I would never see the Ying Yang Twins, and I certainly would never do either of these things in Beijing, China.  So already this story is crazy.  Just wait.  Earlier that day while we were in the market, Cav ran into the Ying Yang Twins while shopping.  He talked to them, got his picture taken with them, and got their manager’s card.  Here’s to the start of something crazy.  When we got to the club, Vick’s, where the concert was at, we gave the staff the card.  They were working on getting us a table when my friends Amanda, Liz, and Lauren already had a table.  When I say “a table,” I mean VIP fancy table with fruit and unlimited drinks because this place was a nightclub, NYC or LA style.  Insanity.  So we sit at this VIP table and start getting crazy when the Ying Yang Twins show up and sit down with us, because we were AT THEIR TABLE.  And it was fine.  It was crazy as hell, but it was fine.  We were dancing and having a great time and I went to go dance on the dance floor (stage) with some friends until the YYT started their performance.  We ended up moving tables over to a speaker on the main floor of the club where we met more of Lucas’ friends and had easier access to the stage for dancing.  After a while of the YYT, our group sort of split into smaller groups for making it back to the hostel and our hostel (another reason why it was awesome) had these small pieces of paper with a map and the words “please take me to the Peking International Youth Hostel” written in Mandarin to give to taxi drivers.  It was a fabulous system.  I made it back to the hostel with Alyse and Nina, Lucas made it back alone sometime later, as did Rebecca, and it turns out, Cav went to the YYT’s hotel room to continue the party.  Apparently, they gave him his own car and a driver to get back to the hostel so that he could be back there on time to catch the flight to Shanghai.  We (Alyse and I) woke everyone up at about 530 am to start our trek back to the airport.  We made it, and reached the ship at about 1230 when we all had lunch and then passed out for the next about 18 hours when I started this blog post.  Beijing was awesome. 

I haven’t decided if I liked Chennai or Beijing better yet.  I’ll take your votes after I write about both Chennai and Ho Chi Minh City, which I promise to do in the next week. Please remember that Japan will be thrown in there and then it will be back to the grind of schoolwork (and the first time we’ll have stopped since Chennai) so I will be crazy busy then too until after Hawaii.  It’s unfathomable how fast this trip went by.

Until next time, keep on keepin’ on, folks.          

A Penny for Your Thoughts - Pre India Style

It’s about ten until seven on the morning of our arrival in Chennai, India.  Usually, around this time getting into a port, you can find me up on the highest observation deck watching the land come closer and closer.  However, this morning, we can’t see a thing!  It is very densely foggy.  Good think Captain Jeremy is awesome, and our pilot boat should be running up along side us any minute now.  It’s sort of a bummer though, because seeing the port from a distance usually helps me acclimate myself a little bit better than just stepping off the boat and walking around.  I just looked out the window in the dining room that I’m typing this in, and we can see land sort-of.  It just looks like a VERY industrial strip of land.  Which, I’m being led to believe, Chennai is.  Apparently, the port in Chennai is one of the grossest, perhaps the most gross, port we will be docking in: the pollution in India is so bad that you actually bring in back on board the ship on your clothing and shoes, so they’ve covered all of the floors with cardboard and plastic wrap sort of stuff.  I wish I could cover my lungs the same way.  I am really trying so hard to be positive about India.  It was one of the ports I was looking most forward to, but after Casablanca, I’m feeling very apprehensive.

I think, for the next five days, I’m going to be on senses overload, and I don’t do well in that situation.  I shut down, which defeats the purpose of being in the situation in the first place.  I think that I will be completely over-stimulated until I get back onto the ship on Tuesday evening.  I need to make sure that I take care of myself in this port; be SUPER cautious of what I eat, while still trying everything; be unaffected in the moment by poverty, but still trying to do everything I can…  I don’t know, I’m stressing out.  Good thing this is India, and if I need to just stop doing whatever I am doing and concentrate on my breathing… no one will think I’m crazy.  Maybe I’m “borrowing trouble,” like mom would tell me.  I probably am.  I just want to be prepared, and not as shaken up as I was after Morocco. 

So I’m going to have my breakfast, and hopefully buy plane and train tickets for China this morning.  Also this morning, we have a diplomatic briefing, and then I’m signed up for a yoga demonstration, an orphanage visit, and the welcome reception tonight.  Tomorrow, I go on my home stay!  I will be spending three days and two nights with an Indian family in Chennai, and on the last day, I’m doing a school visit, and hopefully I’ll be able to join in on a few Global Nomad events.  It’s going to be crazy. 

I’ll be writing in a few days.  Until then, be well everyone. 

Ps. India smells a little bit.  Like grime.      

Mauritius - an educational party?

Mauritius: being here is slightly perplexing.  I’m sure you’ve google image-ed this place, and I’m sure you are seeing beautiful beaches a la the Caribbean… trust me, the partying happened (a lot – consider yourself warned. read on only if you want to), but there was also some educational value to this little island.  I believe that the number one reason Semester at Sea stops here is for cheap fuel between South Africa and India, but I also believe that the administrators of SAS have us stop here because it is a good transition between Africa and India.  The major religion of Mauritius is Hindu and the biggest ethnic group on the island is Indian, so I think it is sort of a “warm-up” to India- major.  I am totally thankful for that, too, because the more I think about it, the scarier India seems.  I’m glad that all of my days in India will be with Semester at Sea trips and familiar faces within the chaos.  Who knows?  I might love India.

So, Mauritius.  On the first day, as soon as the ship was cleared, I had an FDP to go on.  It was called Traditional vs. Modern Medicine in Mauritius.  First, we went to the China Town in Port Louis and visited a Chinese Herbal Medicine shop.  It was pretty neat; there were all sorts of dried everythings that are elements in crazy medicinal concoctions.  For instance, there was a shelf about 5 meters high just covered in various sized bags of various species of dried fungus.  It was incredible.  There was a 5lb bag of dried shiitakes.  Five pounds of dried mushrooms is HUGE.  After that, we went to the central market of Port Louis, which is apparently very famous, and we saw an Ayurvedic healer.  He was the fourth generation member of his family to take over their business of herbal remedy teas.  I have amazing pictures of his stand… he had a tea mix for EVERYthing including cellulite to rheumatoid arthritis to gas to aphrodisiacs.  He gave us a tiny free sample of a tea for “stress relief,” and, as far as I can tell by just reading the package it’s made from verbena.  I’ll try it soon and let you know if I feel de-stressed, perhaps I’ll have it after India.  After that, we had lunch at an incredible place.  I’m not even sure what it was.  I think it was a little bed and breakfast/restaurant thing.  Our table was set up for us outside among papaya and mango trees, beautiful birds, and one hell of a huge spider.  It was pretty awesome.  Our appetizer was samosas and chili bites (lentil balls with chili, deep fried) with a really hot green chili sauce.  Delicious.  More excitingly, our main course was served to us on a banana leaf and it consisted of about six different things.  There was a veggie curry, a pumpkin puree, a potato and leek cold salad, and a green paste-y thing that looked like spinach, but was a plant related to the lotus (this one was totally my favorite).  We also had the most delicious white fish I’ve ever had and it was served with a fried bread and rice to eat it all with.  The greatest thing about these sorts of meals we’ve been getting is analyzing how complete and balanced they always are.  Americans eat like crap, and I cannot wait to get back into the kitchen with my pictures and memories and start re-creating.  For dessert, we had a pastry sort of thing that was made from chickpea flower and raisins and tamarind marmalade.  I LOVE TAMARIND, I will find it at home – I WILL!  After lunch, we visited an Ayurvedic hospital where we were told about some traditional medicines and watched a massage demonstration (my friend Joanna got to be the model).  We learned that all health care in Mauritius is government funded, which is awesome, not only that, but citizens can CHOOSE between going to a modern hospital or an Ayurvedic hospital or both.  I’m telling you – America has some serious learning to do.  After that, we got to visit a modern hospital that just opened and is one of those new “resort hospitals” you have probably been hearing about.  Americans or Europeans who need some sort of surgery are now going to these tropical places to get their surgery done WHILE being pampered at a spa like place, for the same price that just the surgery would cost at home.  It’s really not a bad idea.  This hospital was opened in July – so it was sparkly new, and they were very proud to show off their machinery.  We saw all the “scan” machines (ct, cat, mammogram…), and they showed us their trauma/triage area.  It was pretty wild, and reinforced in my mind how I do not belong working in such a sterile environment.  I’m sure working in a hospital is probably exciting all the time, but I feel the need to be a little bit more messy than a hospital can be.  Wowie.  It was cool though.

So after we got back to the ship, I was able to call Daddy!  A friend of mine has an iPhone, so she let me use it.  It was great.  Then I had a little bit of ship dinner, and then I went out with some beautiful people for Indian food and wine.  I went out with Eric (he’s been in a few of these stories.  He’s from Arizona), Alex (he’s a wonderful guy – we do yoga every morning and talk a lot of philosophy and psychology.  He’s from NYC), Liz (she’s in my pictures from Morocco – she’s got the dreads, and is such a good soul.  She’s from Maryland), and Anjuli (who I just recently started hanging out with.  She’s from Venezuela/Boston, and quite a lovely lady).  This was an excellent dinner.  We talked about everything.  Each one of us is totally different, but completely open (open to new experiences and new ideas, but also open in talking about ourselves and our feelings).  We also housed two bottles of wine, while eating not much more than naan (whatever. Don’t judge - it was Mauritius).  We talked about everything from Alex Grey (an artist – check him out), to psilocybin, to homosexuality, to open relationships, to money, the state of the economy, poverty… everything.  After dinner, we went to another bar where we met up with another group of excellently cool people had some beers, and then went down the street to another bar.  When it was time to go, the 14 of us all piled into a water taxi (that’s right!!) back to our ship.  I filled up my water bottle upstairs and took a few laps around the ship before bedtime.  It was a pretty fun night.

The next morning, I had a trip to an orphanage.  It was called the “Terre de Paix Children’s Center.”  “Earth of Peace.”  This place is home to just a few kids, while the rest of the kids who go to school there live with foster families.  It’s a pretty neat, grassroots organization.  They have a preschool as well as a school for kids between the ages of 6 and 18.  The kids take classes like art and music, as well as sex ed.  Most of the kids who go to school there or live there do so either because the government removed them from their parents who were doing drugs or involved in prostitution or because they were doing so poorly in the mainstream schools.  Partly the reason these kids were doing poorly in the mainstream schools was because school is taught in English, and these kids don’t speak English.  They don’t speak English at home with their families, or they don’t even have families.  So, Terre de Paix teaches mostly in Creole (the language everyone speaks) or French.  I was able to attend the sex ed, music, preschool, creativity, and sculpting classes that day.  It was pretty excellent.  And… a boy picked me flowers.  One of the students saw me taking pictures of some of the neat flowers, and also saw me admiring the mango trees, and a little bit later I felt a tap on my shoulder, and this kid who couldn’t have been older than 13, handed me a tiny little bouquet of mango tree flowers.  aw.  I totally got a picture of him with me.  It was cute.  This was only a half-day visit, and so we said our goodbyes and went back to the ship.

After lunch on the ship, I went with some magnificent ladies to the beach!  But first, we went to the central market to grab us some tropical fruits to munch on the beach.  We got papaya and lime, tamarind, coconut, pineapple, and some grapes (I know, not tropical), and we also went to a supermarket to pick up some beverages.  We took the local buses to the beach for a whopping 60 American cents (awesome!), and then had a party on the beach!  It may or may not have included some dancing, some [topless] swimming in the INDIAN Ocean, and lots of snacking.  We also met some really awesome locals, but that is a story for real life, not typed in a blog.  Remind me when I see you, you will love this story.  When it suddenly got dark (how did that happen?!), our new friends called us a cab and gave us the local price for the ride all the way back to the port.  It was an incredible cab ride…oh man.  That’s a story for real life, too.  So, when we made it back to the waterfront safely, we went out to one more bar before heading in for the night.

The next and last day in Mauritius, I slept in until about 9, and then Kirra, Katie and I wandered around the town.  We went to the central market for a fruit breakfast, and then we pretty much just wandered.  I found my fabric and a wonderful outfit that I can wear in India.  And we also found one hell of a street vendor sandwich.  It was this chicken that is roasted on a stick (kind of a like Greek gyro meat), but it had this red, spicy marinade, and sliced really thin and then chopped in with some cabbage, carrots, onions, and pineapple.  It’s all loaded into a toasted baguette with green chili sauce.  We got one, and devoured it, and had to go back for seconds.  This is something I WILL spend the rest of my life re-creating.  After lunch, we made our way back to the ship so that we could get there with plenty of time to rest and relax before on-ship time.

So, Mauritius was quite the party, but it was nice to have the break and crazy fun before crunch time.  We will be in India for five days in two days, then we have about five days on the ship, then five days in Vietnam, then about three days on the ship before China, and same between China and Japan.  It’s going to be insane.  I really thought it would be easy going between port and classes, but it is NOT.  After ports, I could really sleep for about 3 days straight.  But instead of sleeping, there are classes, and real college work.  Some of the classes I’m taking on Semester at Sea require much more work than some that I took at SUCO.  That’s alright though.  Knowledge is power.

Now would be a great time to tell you all more about ship life, except that today was Sea Olympics (I know, you have no idea what that is), and tonight there is a BBQ for dinner – which is in about fifteen minutes.  I hope life back in the States is good for all of you.  I gave a commemorative speech in my public speaking class yesterday on autumn.  I hope you are all enjoying it.  I really, really miss it.      

NGOs, Baha'is, and Video Conferences - times in South Africa: part II

Alright, I am back to finish writing about South Africa.  I regret that I tend to be so bad at updating this quickly after port.  Here I am, finally finishing my post on South Africa, and we will be docking in Mauritius tomorrow at eight am.  I mean, I wish I was more diligent about this for my sake too because I want to make sure that I remember everything the way I want to.  I also need to remember to write more about being on the ship.  Even though, at this point, the novelty of the boat has sort of worn off.  It’s still exhilarating to walk to class and see nothing but ocean, but on the other hand, I find myself, when I’m doing school work in the “study hall,” which is really just a dining room, thinking something like “I JUST WANT TO BE STILL!”  The boat rocking definitely gets to you.  It’s hard to write a paper when you are rolling in your seat.  Anyway, I’m not complaining.  There is a life long learner on the ship, Gretchen, who, when she catches anyone complaining, puts her arms up over her head in a circle shape to signify “we’re going around the world, morons.  Why are you complaining?”  She’s totally right.  So what I’m saying here is that I will try to do my best to update more often.

The fourth day in South Africa, I was free to do what I wanted, meaning, I didn’t have any pre-planned SAS trips.  I got up really early with Kirra and we went to breakfast at this cute little café in the mall with a couple other girls and our friend, Eric.  Kirra, Laurel, and Katie each had things they were leaving for pretty early, so after breakfast, Eric and I set out to find some adventure.  We started by going back to the ship.  Ha.  We wanted to get our computers and find some internet so that we could find something great to do.  While we were leaving the ship, we ran into the Global Nomads who invited us to go with them for the day.  So, this requires a back-story:

The Global Nomads Group is an NGO based out of NYC and their mission is to connect students around the world through video conferencing.  I’m sure you can imagine what a videoconference is, but for those of you who may be less familiar with it, a videoconference is essentially a phone call, but through the computer or a satellite with video and audio.  So the kids get to talk to and see each other and ask each other questions about their countries, their lives…really about whatever they want to know about.  The GNG consists of six people total, and four of them are on our voyage right now.  Tonya, Johanna, Kim, and Jon.  I heard about the GNG and knew what their mission was, but I didn’t really get it until after I got to see one.

So, back to my story:  Eric and I hopped in the Global Nomads taxi and we took it to a conference center where we met a group of South African high school students.  The school they were from, Pinewoods, is one of the first schools to fully integrate after apartheid and they base their student population on the population of the Western Cape.  Western Cape is the province that Cape Town in is.  So that means the majority of their students are black and there are more colored students than there are white students.  When the students got to the conference center, Tonya, a Global Nomad explained to the students what was going to happen, and they had a chance to brainstorm what they wanted to ask the students in America.  Eric and I also had an opportunity to meet the students and get to know them a little bit.  We spoke with three different, high school classes in the US that day: one in New Jersey (about 15 minutes from NYC), one in Miami, and one in San Antonio.  It was fun to see and hear about the differences in cultures just between the students in the states.  The videoconference theme was on Globalization, how it affects the high school students and what evidence exists to back up various theories on globalization.  The students asked amazingly thoughtful questions about politics (Bush vs. Obama, or Apartheid and it’s legacy), about teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, about sports and the World Cup, and about music.  Jani and Megan also attended this videoconference, and at the end, the South African students were able to ask Eric, Megan, and me whatever questions they had left.  One student asked us about mac&cheese.  She said that she heard mac&cheese gets eaten in the states ALL THE TIME because it’s really cheap and that college kids eat a ton of it, but in SA, mac&cheese is special, because the ingredients are expensive, and it’s like a “Christmas meal.”  A lot of the questions, while being funny, actually expose a certain insight about the differences (or similarities – I explained how we also have a “Christmas” mac) between the cultures.  When it was time to leave, the students specifically asked Eric and me to return on Thursday (this was Tuesday) when they were having the wrap-up to their video conference.  My heart melted a little bit, and so I decided I’d sell my ticket that I had for Thursday and go back to the videoconference.

After the videoconference, Tonya, Johanna, Jani, Megan, Eric and I were trying to figure out cab situations to get back to the waterfront when Tonya’s phone rang.  She sounded wicked excited and when she got off the phone she told us “My friend, Pamela, just called me.  I haven’t seen her since I was fifteen years old at a summer camp up in Maine, and she lives here now.  She’s going to pick me up and we’re going to go to a devotional service.  Do any of you want to come?”  --Aunt Cara and Grandma Smith, this is for you.--  So I asked what sort of devotional service she meant and she explained to me that she and Pamela are both practicing Baha’is, and they were going to go to a Baha’i gathering in a township, “did I want to go?”  Um, let me think… YES!  And then I got to thinking… they met at a summer camp in Maine and they are Baha’i, was it Green Acre?  YES, it was, and so I launched into this story about how I really don’t know all that much about the Baha’i Faith, but that my Aunt is Baha’i and my grandmother was Baha’i, and my aunt got married at Green Acre and everything.  So Tonya was thrilled to take me along with her.  Jani and Megan decided to tag along as well.  When Pamela got to the conference center to pick us up, we all piled into her car (which was a five person car and was filled up with Pamela and her three wonderful kids), so Tonya and Pamela sat in the front, and Jani, Me, and Megan all sat in the back with the kids on our laps.  We wore seat belts – not that that makes it much safer, but…When in Rome… Anyway, these kids were amazing.  The kids were all born in Rochester, New York, and they moved to two different places in California before finally moving to Cape Town about a year and a half ago, and they already speak Afrikaans and Ktosa, two of eleven of South Africa’s official languages.  Ktosa is one of the African languages with clicks in it, and so for most of the car ride, we practiced our clicks.  Also during the car ride, we listened to the kids tell us their “South African Adventure” stories, which most of the time included big animals like elephants and whales.  The kids were 10, 8, and 6 years old...and just wonderful little beings.  Our first stop on our way to the devotional service was the Kayaletcha Township.  This is one of the most famous townships outside of Cape Town, (I’m not sure why), but we were there to drop off a pair of shoes.  Pamela’s family was allowing a student from the Kayaletcha Township stay with them because he attends the school that her kids do, and he has to commute a long distance each day.  He was living with them to decide if it was worth moving from the Township.  Anyway, this boy, who is also 10, was in the 8 year old class with Pamela’s son, and so they are best friends.  When we got out of the car in this township, we were inundated with hugs.  It was wonderful.  The family of the boy with the shoes was so thankful that Pamela would go out of her way to drop off the shoes, that they were almost in tears.  It was a cool moment to be in.  Then, this boy’s whole family, introduced themselves to us, one by one, and gave us the South African hug, which is three hugs in one.  We talked for a little bit, and then we had to be on our way.  On our way to the devotional service, we stopped by a stand to pick up a township treat.  Pamela and her kids were raving about this bread, and so she stopped and bought us all one.  It was the same “fat cook” (I really regret that I can’t remember the Ktosa word for it) that I had at the Habitat house.  Me oh my, that stuff is good.  So, after a short car ride to another township called Delb (I think), we got out to a train of kids running after our car because we were carrying the drums.  When we got there, it wasn’t time for the devotional service to start, so we played a MASSIVE, and I mean huge, game of soccer in the township.  Also, a cool moment that I don’t want to forget…  I have been collecting sand in each port, but this day in South Africa, I didn’t have a zip lock bag with me, and just as soon as I asked Jani if she had a bag (which she didn’t), a littered bread bag blew in the wind right to my feet.  Jani said, “Well, there’s one.  It’s just for you. Use it.”  I was skeptical at first, but I decided that I really wanted this township sand, so I picked it up, and the brand of the bread was “Albany.”  Not that I really believe in superstition or divine happenings, but that was pretty cool.  As I was filling the bag, more and more little hands were helping me fill my bread bag of sand, one of them being Fatiema, who became my best friend for the rest of the time we were visiting.  So when it was time for the devotional to start, we all piled into a township house.  There were the five of us, Pamela’s husband, Daft, and two other college-aged kids, and then about 50 children all under the age of 13.  Pamela started this devotional service, but then, it was ENTIRERLY run by the kids.  Pamela made prayer cards that the kids pass around and read from (in at least two different languages) and the kids played drums and sang many different devotional songs.  Fatiema basically walked me through each part, as well.  She was tap on my shoulder, and then whisper to me what we were going to be reciting or singing next.  I actually recognized some of the songs!  At the end, they sang the South African national anthem, which I was able to really sing along with, and they were so surprised that I knew it (Thank you, Paul Simon.)!  After the service, which was awesome, though I didn’t get too much of the religion aspect because it was run by kids (☺), the kids of the township performed a dance for us while I talked with the college students.  They were both students at the University of Cape Town, and both declared their Baha’i membership (?) at fifteen and teach religion classes in this township with the kids on Saturdays.  I got their e-mails so that we could stay in touch.  Pamela’s kids went home with their dad, Daft, and Pamela drove us back to the waterfront where our ship was.  We talked a lot on the way home about moving to another country, about the dangers of living in South Africa, about the Baha’i faith, about Green Acre, and about Pamela’s wonderful kids.  I also got Pamela’s e-mail address so that I can stay in touch with her family as well.  We said a meaningful goodbye, and then Jani, Megan, Tonya and I went out for a traditional South African dinner. 

That night, and since then, I’ve been doing as much wikipedia (it’s one of our only free websites, so I can’t get any real information) research as I can on the Baha’i religion.  While it is probably the only monotheistic religion that has an appeal to me (equality among men and women, familial importance, education, meetings in homes rather than huge, scary “mega churches”…), it is still a religion and I just can’t agree with some things.  For instance, even though the Baha’is, as all religions, ban homosexuality because “marriage” is for a “man and woman,” tend to be most supportive if a member of the Baha’i community does come out as homosexual; but I just can’t get behind the idea of asking someone to “fix” themselves when they are not doing anything wrong.  I, while I don’t need to drink, don’t like it when something or someone forbids me of anything.  That being said, I got all of my information from wikipedia, and would love to discuss the issues with a person – Aunt Cara, I’m hoping.  There are a few questions I have about the faith as well.  For instance, I know that one of the tenants is that the Baha’i community calls for an auxiliary language in addition to one’s mother tongue.  What language?  Arabic? Persian?  The Bab is an Arabic word for the Gate, I assume he named himself that because he was seeing himself as the gate between the new and the old, the good and the bad…also, the “holy” books of the Baha’i faith are called Al Kitab [whichever], which means book of [whichever] in Arabic.  I wonder about the auxiliary language.  I also like how the Baha’i faith seems to have taken all the best bits from the Islamic religion and made it better.  Anyway, it is a good conversation.  I’m glad I had the opportunity to seize the day and visit that township with such wonderful company.

The next day, I joined the Global Nomad Group again for another videoconference with a NGO located in South Africa called LoveLife.  This again, needs a back-story.  One of the greatest parts of Semester at Sea is our Interport Student program.  In each port, we pick up one or two students that live in the next port, and for the time we’re at sea, we learn from each other.  In Ghana, we picked up two interport students, and I was lucky enough to make good friends with our student named Bulelani (Boo-Lay-LAni).  Lani works for the LoveLife program.  Like I said, LoveLife is a NGO, and they work exclusively with South African youth between the ages of 12 and 17 on how to prevent HIV/Aids.  They have centers called “Y-Centers” (Youth Centers) where the kids can go to socialize with other kids, use computers and the internet, play football or rugby indoors or outdoors, make PSAs for radio stations, and where there are free clinics and counseling.  The rates of HIV in South Africa among women between the ages of 18-25 is 1 in 3, so this type of information and this sort of environment is invaluable for these kids.  LoveLife partners with Kaiser, Int. as well, so LoveLife gets a pretty substantial amount of funding to make public advertisements and campaigns.   So, Global Nomads and Lani hooked up and set up a videoconference between some students at LoveLife and two US high school classrooms, and I tagged along to see what a satellite conference was like and to check out B’s work.  We got there at about 10 am, and the conference wasn’t scheduled until 3pm, so we got a tour of the facility, got to meet the staff, learn about their newest campaign which is “Make a Move,” and it’s tied in with the World Cup that will be in SA in 2010.  We also took a walk around the township, Langa, that this particular Y-Center was located in.  We got lunch, and then the kids arrived.  This particular videoconference’s theme was on HIV/Aids, and so we prepped the kids on what sort of questions they wanted to ask the US students and what they wanted to know about life in America.  These kids were particularly interested in the rate of teen pregnancy in the US (it’s very high in SA), and what crime rates in US neighborhoods are like (the students in SA explained that they are most often scared to walk around in the neighborhoods because of the chance of being mugged or raped…in their OWN neighborhoods).  I think the American students were surprised and upset to hear the rates on rape and about feeling unsafe in their own communities, and I think the South African students were equally surprised to hear that teen pregnancy is just as big a problem in the US as it is SA.  The students, of course, wanted to talk about pop music and sports, and dating too, but that is why these videoconferences are SO IMPORTANT.  Students from all over the WORLD get connected and learn that while their cultures are so different, people all over the world are exactly the same.

If there are only two things that I’ve learned so far on this trip, they are that 1) this world is seriously f-ed up, and 2) people all over the world are the SAME.  Everyone suffers, and yet everyone perseveres and cries the same, laughs the same, and most importantly, loves the same.

So, after a meaningful discussion with the staff and the students at LoveLife after the conference, e-mails were exchanged, and B and I had a pretty sad goodbye.  I’ve decided though, that goodbyes are not that bad if you say “I’ll see you soon,” and truly mean it – even if you mean after death; life and everything about this earth is totally impermanent. 

That night when I got back to the ship, I went out with SASers for Alyse’s birthday.  We went to a great seafood restaurant on the waterfront and then we got gelato and crepes and went back to the ship for a movie night.  It was a pretty great birthday party.  I try my best to make sure that people with birthdays on the ship have a good day, because I think that while having your birthday on Semester at Sea would be a wicked story, I also think that it would be one of my worst homesick days.  So, after the movie, Alyse and I stayed up really late just talking about everything and having lots of hot tea.  It was a nice night.

The next day, Alyse and I went out for a WONDERFUL breakfast that included the fanciest eggs benedict that probably exists, and really wonderful granola, and I met up with the Global Nomads for one last videoconference.  This one was the same school, Pinewoods, from Tuesday (this was now Thursday – our last day in port).  The students videoconference-ed with the same three schools from the States, but this time it was a little bit more casual.  Instead of talking about only globalization and sticking to the topics that they prepped, they spoke a lot more about teenage life in their respective countries.  They even each performed their national anthem for each other.  These videoconferences are powerful stuff.  Also during this videoconference, another NGO joined us.  They are Grassroots Soccer.  Look them up.  If I don’t get the Nature’s Classroom job I’m hoping for, I will apply to intern with this group.  They’re awesome.  Two “team members,” Alan and Elise, from Grassroots Soccer were at the videoconference, at after the conference was over, I got to go with them and Tonya to their office in downtown Cape Town.  It was another really lucky situation I found myself in Cape Town thanks to the Global Nomads, and what an excellent time I had.  Alan just graduated from Middlebury College in VT and is interning in SA for six months, and Elyse went to Dartmouth and she works for Grassroots Soccer and lives in SA all the time.  I got their e-mails to stay in touch too.  After a quick tour of the office, we brainstormed ways that GNG and GRS could work together in the future, and then we had to book it out of there to make it back to the ship before on-ship time.  Alan and Elyse drove us back to the ship, but we got stuck in some serious traffic so we had more time to visit, and they were even able to get out of the car when we got to the ship and take a little “outside tour” of the ship.  It’s pretty nice digs. 

So, I know this is a little rushed at the end, but I just wanted to get it all out.  All in all, I learned SO MUCH, so so so much, and met really incredible people in South Africa that I plan on staying in touch with more a long time.  I will return to SA one day.

--Stay tuned for the update on Mauritius; my goal is by the end of the day.

NGOs, Baha'is, and Video Conferences - times in South Africa: part I

Oh man, Cape Town.  The wake of Apartheid remains and raises ships unequally and unevenly still through what we know now as “Economic Apartheid.”  The governmental structure has changed, but economic apartheid is evident in all other areas of life.  It is confusing and entirely evident everywhere.  It is evident in schools, in neighborhoods, in traffic, in conversation, on billboards, in new political doctrine, and to try and write this out is a limitation on expression because the words don’t exist or I just don’t know them.  The way I can write this out so is dry, but the emotional experience is where the “bulk” resides.  Feel me?  But anyway, what did I do?!  Let me just preface this by saying that most of what I did was totally spontaneous and from now on, that is how I will try to travel.  The best times are the good times that aren’t planned.

So, you already know what I did on the first day.  It was a great day.  Now Jani has officially “adopted” Kirra and me and because of that… I am able to get a “Mom hug” every day!  It’s wonderful.  It’s also great because I tutor Megan, and she is just SO smart.  All I have to do is check over her work, which is most often perfect, then go over the new concepts with her.  It’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, on the second day in South Africa, I took a cooking class in Cape Malay.  Cape Malay is the Islamic area of Cape Town and it is beautiful.  The houses line the streets going uphill right onto the side of Table Mountain, and almost every house is painted a different bright color.  I took a lot of pictures of this, but we’re back to the grind here in being able to post said pictures…I’ll see what I can do.  So we did a small walking tour of the area and then we went to our cooking class.  This class was held in our instructor’s kitchen and her two assistants were her daughters and her apprentice assistant  - her granddaughter.  There were only six SAS students on this tour, so it was amazingly cozy and homey.  Our instructor, Faldela, was great!  She was wild!  There was no room to be timid in her kitchen, and she wanted us to jump at jobs.  So while another girl in our group worked on the basis of our chicken curry, I started making the dough for the roti.  Roti is the bread that curry is eaten with.  I mean, my hand were COVERED in dough, it was wonderful to be cooking again.  The vestibular and tactile stimulation of cooking, I think, really keeps me sane.  That is why I love to cook so much:  because it is de-stressing and it is the only creative outlet I excel at.  After the roti, we learned how to make a sambal, which is that delicious “salsa” that accompanies Indian food; she even told us her secret ingredient.  Not only that, but my favorite part of the class was the “spices quiz.”  Faldela put out a beautiful tray of spices and we were supposed to sniff them and take a guess as to what they were.  Oh man.  I kicked butt, to be humble. ☺ Why were we cooking Indian food, you are wondering?  Well, Cape Malay is the most diverse neighborhood in Cape Town, and remained so even during Apartheid.  There is a huge Muslim population, but they were Muslims who immigrated from Indian in the early 19th century due to persecution.  So, the food is South African with a decidedly Indian touch.  It’s wonderful too, instead of red curry; it’s a delicious yellow curry.  In case your wondering, Thai food is where you are most likely to find green curries.  Okay, so after the sambal, we made samosas.  Faldela had already rolled out the dough for the samosas, so our job was to carefully separate the pieces, make the filling, and then roll them up!  The process of folding the samosa quite similar to folding the American flag: Corner to corner.  I’ll show you this one day at home if you want; because you better believe that I will make this meal again!  Anyway, after our meal was cooked, we all sat down and ate together like a family.  And… I want you all to practice something until I get home.  Whenever you eat something that is “finger food” or something that you can eat with your hands, do so with ONLY your right hand.  It will be good Islamic practice for you for when we eat this meal.  It’s surprisingly hard.  Why do Muslims eat only with their right hand?  “Because the left hand is for impure actions not to be discussed at the dinner table.”  Also, monetary transactions can never be completed with the left hand either.  Interesting, no? 

So after the Cape Malay cooking tour, I returned to the ship, walked around the mall on the waterfront with my friend Lila, who goes to Berkley, and then I took a nap.  Kirra returned from whatever trip she was on and then we went to find the elusive, not at all superfluous internet.  On our way down the hallway to the gangway…whom did we find, but our lovely cabin steward Rene carrying MAIL?!  That day… cabin 3155 received 7, count them, 7 (!!) pieces of mail.  I got four and Kirra got three.  Not only that, but some of the mail that I received was forwarded from Ghana.  Amazing. I felt so loved.  In total now, I have received two pieces of mail from Scuttle, two pieces of mail from Andrew, and one card from my Mommy and Daddy.  It was great.  So, if you are wondering, the way to find my snail mail address is on www.semesteratsea.org.  Go to the website and click on “map and itinerary” of the Fall 2009 voyage.   Then, on the left side of the new page, there is a link that says, “staying in touch.”  Click on that and on that page there is a list of addresses of the ports we will be in as well as the way to address the mail.  Make sure you don’t forget my name.  If possible, somewhere on the envelope, write “cabin 3155,” but don’t put that in the actual address.  Also, make sure you write the name of the country after the address.  I know it seems daunting, I promise it’s not that bad.  There is also a suggested date to mail.  Make sure you mail it before that date, otherwise I probably won’t get it and not all ports will be as nice as Ghana and forward mail.  So, that night after uploading pictures, reading my mail, and having delicious rooibos tea, I went to bed early to meet my bus in the morning at 6 am. 

The next morning, I got up nice and early to work on a Habitat for Humanity house.  After having breakfast on the ship, we picked up our box lunches and boarded our bus.  I sat up in the front because I’ve decided that is the best way to learn on the SAS sponsored trips, and so far it’s not proven me wrong.  I’ve also decided that a lot of South Africans are rather prophetic and poetic in the way they speak and what they speak about.  Our bus driver was a colored man (in SA, that means “mixed race” and is not politically incorrect to say) and he was talking about…well, everything, but what he said that resonated with me most was “Putting money into a society to try and fix all of the problems is like putting water into a colander.  Only a little bit gets to each area and it’s just not enough that way.  We need to put our money into schools and clinics and other areas that can spread the messages effectively.”  He was a smart, and well-informed guy.  It was neat talking to him.  So we drove into a township called Mfuleni where Habitat for Humanity has a headquarters and where in the past ONE year, has put up 360 houses.  During the 4 days that SAS was in South Africa and working with Habitat for Humanity, we put up one whole house.  I went on the first day and when we got there, all that was done was the floor.  Our job was to mix cement, and put up the cinder block walls.  We finished each of the four walls up to where the windows were going to be put in.  We also unloaded a truck that came during the day that was full of the concrete roof top pieces and the pieces of concrete that go on top of the windows and doors.  I had a lot of fun, but I was also really, really sore at the end of the day.  Some interesting things about Habitat for Humanity:  They are an international NGO and the day that we were working on this house was World Habitat Day.  Because of that, lots of Cape Town press came out to the site and took pictures and interviewed us, and…the next day, we were in THREE papers.  I have the front pages saved on my computer, so you all can see me in the South African newspapers when I get home.  Also, the way Habitat works is like this:  To be eligible to become a Habitat for Humanity homeowner, you must make less than a certain amount of money per year, and usually, you must have another circumstance.  The sustainable part of the organization is that before work begins on your house, you must put in more than 50 hours working on other Habitat for Humanity houses.  Reciprocity remains because the percentage of Habitat for Humanity homeowners that continue to work on future homes is about 85%.  It’s a pretty awesome NGO.  So, after about 3 hours of work on the house in the morning, our homeowners, who are both deaf, brought us out tea, coffee, and this delicious bread/donut thing called “fat cook.”  After another two hours of work, we had lunch (which most of us donated to the kids in the township), and got back to work for the rest of the day.  At the end of the day, we took a walk around the township, which was a good opportunity.  White people, especially tourists, are not recommended to visit townships because they are generally very unsafe.  We walked around this township with our job Forman and just about every child in the neighborhood; it was like a parade.  When a child noticed us and the other kids, he would join in our walk.  At one point, I was carrying a little girl who told me she was three, and each of my hands was being held by at least one child.  It is like a race for these kids to be touched by us.  It was the same in Ghana when we were there, and was that way in each of the townships I visited.  They compete for everything; even love.  It’s a bittersweet tendency.  After lots and lots of hugs, we got back on our bus and traveled back to our ship.  That night, I went out for South African wine with some girls from SAS.  It was nice, we had a cheese plate a couple glasses of wine, and shared a dessert.  That’s my kind of dinner.  Cheese and flambéed crepes.  ☺

Wowie, that’s a long one, and I’m only halfway done with SA.  I need to take a break because my mid-term portfolio evaluation for my Service Learning class is right now.  I promise to finish this though later today because I’m pretty much free until the pre-port this evening.  Global Studies mid-terms don’t scare me!

Jazz and Stellenbash Reds

Jazz and Stellenbash Reds

Wow, how lucky am I? Cape Town is… well I don’t really know because I’ve technically only seen the waterfront and hiked a mountain, and I have not seen the townships so far, but Cape Town is great. Today was one heck of a day. I got up early to watch the sun rise as we saw the first glimpse of land in 6 days. It rose right over this wonderful mountain range as we watched seals play around in the only area of the world where the Atlantic Ocean meats the Indian Ocean. This is also the first place I’ve been in the entire world that is not humid. I climbed a mountain in no humidity for the first time in my entire life. I ate dried ostrich today. I took a wicked fast “gondola” today down 1,033 meters while my ears popped worse than they ever did under 60 feet of water pressure or in an airplane. I spent the day in really wonderful company.

First thing I did when we were able to get off the ship was do a little dance on land. As I’ve mentioned, the trip between Ghana and South Africa was the roughest we’ve seen it so far, and it was really good to be planted with two feet right on Terra Firma. Anyway, Alyse and I went with some other girls around the waterfront. The Cape Town Waterfront is wicked touristy, and you know what? I like it. It is really refreshing to be able to let my guard down just a little bit. It’s also nice to be able to walk right off the ship into an area that has something in it. We were able to do that in Spain, but in both Casablanca and Tema, we had to arrange transportation to anything, and being able to skip that step is pretty great. It’s a good break. I recognize though that things can change really quickly when walking around Cape Town. The distance between the touristy waterfront to a township is small, and we might end up there on a surprise and it’s likely that they do NOT want us there. I understand the risks and the statistics we were told about. Anyway, we just did some walking around and checked a bunch of stuff out. We went to grocery store, which is great because I ran out of granola bars and got some new ones today. I had lunch on the ship and then Kirra and I were going to find a way to Table Mountain (Google it). On the way to the gangway, we ran into Jani and Megan who decided to come with us. Megan is a ‘dependant child’ on the ship. She is 15 and a high school junior; I tutor Megan in AP Calculus when we are at sea. Her mom, Jani, is the physician’s assistant on the ship. We shared a cab to the trail head (sort-of) to Table Mountain, and then we took the cable car up to the top and once we got to the top we did about three hours of hiking around. The views were INCREDIBLE. Really, you should google image it. Jani worked for Outward Bound and so we were a great group, and we had a really great, great time. Jani has basically adoped Kirra and me as her other daughters and we had a much needed family day. After a picnic of tea, lattes, and cheese at the summit, we took the gondala back down and another taxi back to the waterfront. Jani and Megan had a SAS trip tonight, so Kirra and I had dinner on the ship, and then we met up with Kyle and Alyse and a couple other people and we went out to a jazz bar. Yep. A jazz bar. Again, wonderful. We had a glass of wine from the Stellenbach region of South Africa which is very close to here, watched a great set and got to know each other a little bit better. Then we shared a wicked awesome piece of cheesecake (this bar was PRICY and the quality of the food was worth it. It was pretty awesome to be at.) and had another glass of wine all while watching jazz. It was like The Great Gatsby was transported to South Africa. It was a wonderful night. Now, here I am, at 0:34, writing this blog.

Tomorrow morning, I am taking a SAS sponsored trip to Cape Malay, which is the Islamic area of Cape Town to visit a mosque and take a cooking class. A COOKING CLASS. Do you know how much I have been missing cooking? SO MUCH. I am really hoping that this is a good SAS trip. I think it will be, but I don’t want to be disappointed. By tomorrow night, I should be able to make a traditional samosa. I CANNOT WAIT. I love samosas. Watch out, Samosa Mon in the Burlington, VT farmer’s market. I am going to learn your secrets.

Be well everyone!

Ghana? Seems so long ago?

I really loved Ghana, but I got the e-coli disease on the last day we were there. We only had four days in Ghana, and so I really only got three, but man… it was a great place. Compared to Casablanca, Accra was “African.” When I say that I mean it was distinctly African versus North African and Arab. The port of Tema, which is where we docked because our ship is just so huge was a really, really industrial port. Tema, as I read on signs, is the “Industrial Capital of Ghana.” Tema is one of two of Ghana’s seaports and most of their imports and exports go through the port of Tema, so the security at the port was higher than any of the ports we’ve been to so far. No “unauthorized” vehicles or people were able to meet our ship. The port itself was huge, so to get just to the port gate, a shuttle was set up for us and ran every 15 minutes, and to get to Accra, the capital of Ghana and the main city, we had to take a bus. Accra was about 20km away, but generally the trip took about an hour. Yeah. Infrastructure in Ghana was… well, under colonization, many African countries, South Africa for example, under Dutch rule was built up considerably more than countries under English rule like Ghana. The roadways while there, were most of the time barely paved, and over packed. In the past ten years or so, Ghanaians have been making more money and most people in the major cities (Tema and Accra) are able to afford a car. The roads just can’t handle all of the volume, and so traffic is unavoidable. As in grid locked just about always. This, as I’m sure you can imagine, really put a damper on our Field Office programs, but man…it was interesting. It was like a drive-thru everywhere! People, mostly ladies, would walk around with baskets of things on their heads that you could buy… bread, sugar cane, nuts, dates, toys, and crafts are just some of the stuff. During one particularly bad traffic jam one night when we were trying to get back to the ship after a trip, we bought some sugar cane out of the window of the back of the bus. The transaction itself was sort of surreal for me. But then we ate the sugar cane. We didn’t really know how so we asked our guide, and basically you take the little bit of sugar cane (which sort of looks about the size of a wine bottle cork), and bite the thing length-wise. All of the water in the sugar cane juices out, and it’s the most delicious sweetness ever. I felt a little like a bee.

So on the first day in port, I went with my music professor and his wife to the city of Tema. DeVeaux, the professor, spent many years back in the 70s in Ghana, and so he met up with a friend of his from then and we all walked around Tema looking for fabric. The plan was that Kujo (DeVeaux’s friend) was going to take us to the best places for fabric and then he was going to set us up with his favorite tailor so we could all get dresses or shirts made. An important piece of information on Ghana: “You are not ON time, you are IN time.” And so, getting anything done, was sort of impossible because we were all on our Western imposed time schedules. Anyway, we ran out of time to get to the tailor, and so we tried to set it up so that the tailor could come by the ship to get our measurements before we all had to leave for the “welcome reception” scheduled for later that night. Remember the security at the port? Anyway, I didn’t get a dress made which is a pretty big bummer, but I do have a wonderful piece of fabric now hanging on my wall. If you didn’t know, I am collecting fabric in each port we visit so that when I get home I can make a Semester at Sea quilt, and with the extra, I’m just going to make … I don’t know, anything. Shower curtains, widow curtains, pillows, table cloths, maybe a skirt. So even though we didn’t get our clothing made, walking around Tema was pretty awesome. The people are just so warm. We had a great day of walking and talking with the locals and learning the secret Ghanaian handshake and looking at shops. Shops in Ghana are nothing like the shops in Morocco by the way. Shops in Tema are dispersed between houses, and so it’s like walking through a neighborhood and sometimes getting to shop. In Morocco, the area known as the shops is nothing but shops, and the shop owners are aggressive. Now, I didn’t get to go to the markets in Accra, but I heard that it was more like Morocco there. The shop owners were more like Morocco with “hello pretty, come into my shop, I’ll give you good price…” sort of thing, the like I said, the people in Ghana are just so warm. If you declined going into one of these shops, you didn’t get sworn at, and if you did go in but didn’t buy anything, the shop owners were still your friends. Everyone in Ghana called each other “brother” and “sister” which I just loved. So, after we got back to the ship that evening, we got ready and then went out to the Welcome Reception. Which is something Semester at Sea sets up in some of the cities we visit with their local university. We get to visit the university and meet and talk with other university students. It’s pretty cool. So I got to meet a few Ghanaian students and I spoke with the principal of a K-9 school and the Chancellor of Education of Ghana. YEAH! It was very neat. It was after this night that I wrote the short little blog post about how I loved Ghana, and it was because of the welcome reception that I decided that America has a lot to learn from Ghana and not the other way around.

The next day, I went to the rainforest! We walked on a canopy walkway that was 40 meters above the forest floor. It was pretty rad. And after we were done, we had the lunch that I’m pretty sure got me sick (ha) and then we got to see a bamboo orchestra. It was amazing! I’m being quick in how I’m describing these things because (I know you probably don’t belive me) I am planning on posting some pictures tomorrow.

The day after that, I went to a village in Ewe Land where we took a drumming and dance workshop. Also incredible. I will explain about that later too.

The next day, I did nothing because I was incredibly dependant on having a bathroom near by, so I stayed on the ship. It was okay though because I had an amazingly wonderful time in Ghana.

Jeez, I’m sorry, everyone, that this blog entry is so bad. I just wanted to get it out there in rough outline form before I go to South Africa, which is tomorrow. Eh. My goal tomorrow is to get to an internet café so I can put up pictures and write a little bit more about Ghana and then I hope each night in South Africa, I’ll put up quick little posts about each day. I think that will be easier, and better for you guys. So, that’s my goal. We’ll see.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Kalista