I SPY AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Yes, we are only a few miles off the shore of eastern Africa.  The captain heard my prayers from last night for calmer waters and he answered them.  Yesterday we were hit with huge swells all day.  I was able to distract myself from feeling sea sick by playing ping pong and volleyball for hours upon hours.  However, that was a bad idea because I wasn’t staying hydrated; and as soon as I stopped playing volleyball, I was struck with dehydration AND sea sickness and was bedridden. This brought flashbacks to the first 24 hours of being on the ship in January.   But luckily I didn’t have any plans so I bought water, Gatorade, and a power bar and called it a night.  I went to sleep at 6:30pm and woke up at 7:30 this morning. Thirteen hours, as well as an extra hour from the time change last night! It was a great night’s sleep with some really funny random dreams.  And then I woke to find great emails J

    Today is crew appreciation day.  Sally and I made our beds (for once) so that Shane wouldn’t have to today.  And tonight is the crew talent show which the entire ship is excited for.  I’m sure we’ll have to get there at least 2 hours early to get seats.  This is pretty much the only time that the crew is allowed to interact with the shipboard community and the only time we will be allowed to take pictures of them.  The crew on the ship is AMAZING!  They are so nice, so helpful, and so fun.  The ones who work in the dining halls are some of the favorites on the ship because we are able to talk with them while we eat. They always have the most positive attitude that brightens my day.  One man named Mezrum who has a thick Jamaican accent likes to walk around the cafeteria while singing.  I love it.

    Yesterday was South Africa Day.  Classes were canceled because there were seminars and performances all day long to learn more about South Africa.  One talk I went to was about sharks.  Dr. Abel focused mainly on Great Whites. I don’t know how good of an idea it was to attend this lecture since I’ll be swimming with Great Whites next week.  I am excited and now terrified as well.  I am mostly excited to take pictures with my underwater camera.  That will be cool!

    The day before that the water was so calm, it is funny how it changed overnight and yesterday it was a pain.  I saw my first dolphin that day.  It was easy to spot the dolphins because there were no white caps in the ocean for once so when we saw the splashes of water we could tell it was an animal.  Actually, by the end of the day, I saw two pods of dolphins. J

    This is to all of my volleyball girls from back home: I have a new form of volleyball…. I call it: “Ultimate Extreme Volleyball”.  Consider playing volleyball in these circumstances: outside in the sun, confined to a narrower yet longer sports court with nets, extremely windy, and 20 ft. swells.  It made for an interesting game, yet very fun.  We played where the nets and walls surrounding all four sides were playable.  On one side of the court the sun was in your eyes so you couldn’t see the ball until it was a few feet from your face.  The wind took nearly every ball.  And the best part was the rocking of the ship... you’d be running after a ball and it would either be a lot more difficult to run because you were going against the ship and running uphill or all of a sudden you would crash into a wall because you were running with the ship and it made you run a lot faster than you wanted.  Jumping was also interesting.  If you went up to hit or block, you would come down in a different spot depending on the boat rocking or rolling.  It made for a fun game.  I can’t imagine what it would be like if alcohol was involved…not safe that’s for sure.

    So today is a beautiful day.  I am feeling much better. All I want to do is lie out in the beautiful sun yet my two papers are calling my name.  I must discipline myself and get this done before the crew talent show.  Bye everyone! Talk to you later. Hopefully I can finish my Vietnam blog by tomorrow night before I get off the ship in Cape Town!

Paradise Island

Port #10: Port Louis, Mauritius

“Mauritius was made first, and then Heaven,

 and that Heaven was copied after Mauritius.”

      --Mark Twain

If Heaven looks like Mauritius, than I can die now and live in paradise with God….

What a gorgeous, magnificent place!  The island had everything to offer: mountains and forests, beaches with clear green waters, smaller islands offshore, a complete ring of coral reef surrounding Mauritius for great scuba diving, and much more.  Two days was not nearly enough time to experience it all.  Not even two days; we had only 32 hours in this port. Depressing. But I made sure to take full advantage of those 32 hours in one of the most beautiful places on the face of this Earth. 

 

Day 1:

    Today I did a trip through Semester at Sea called “Adventure Park and Beach”.  Didn’t really know what to expect at this Adventure Park but I signed up for it because 8 of my friends were doing it as well.  So… this adventure park wasn’t anything like what we would think of as “adventure parks” in USA with roller coasters and fun attractions.  This place was high up in the mountains in a forest and the “adventure” part was crossing wobbly bridges and participating in a rope obstacle course.  It was really fun but surprisingly difficult.  There were two rope courses.  The first course was made up of 7 wire bridges with wooden planks and you attach your carabineer as a precaution in case you fall off the bridge. All of the bridges had wire on either side to hold onto except for one.  Those bridges were fun because I was compelled to jump and shake the bridges and scare the other people on the bridges with me. (hm… I wonder where I got that evil spirit from… Poppy? Dad? Haha) But karma came back to get me because I still managed to slip and fall between the planks in one of the bridges.  Luckily I caught myself and luckily I was wearing the carabineer.  I scraped up my leg but there was so much mud from the rain that morning that the mud was a protector from the wood cutting my leg open enough to draw blood so all I have is a bruise. Then the second course was a lot harder. It was an obstacle course rather than only bridges. One was a rope wall that was really wobbly and flimsy that you had to crawl along. Another was similar to this but with two rope walls parallel to each other. Those were kind of tiring because they demanded mainly upper body strength.  And I have been lifting on the ship occasionally, so I applaud those who have no upper body strength and got through it. Another was a line of wooden cylinders, each separated by 2 feet and at different heights. You had to step from one to another, but it was hard because the blocks swung and it was so muddy people kept slipping off of them.  The last one was two parallel ropes below another set of parallel ropes above them: two for your feet and two for your hands. These were really wobbly because the ropes were so long. That was the last one and by far the hardest.  As soon as I lost my concentration I fell and caught myself on the lower ropes. I was just sitting there for awhile. So many people fell off of this one.  I actually videotaped my friend falling off and trying to get back up. I edited it and added with music so I am going to show it on a SeaTV production in a few nights, it will be funny.  This course also included a zip line which was really cool.  This entire course was pretty individual. Occasionally there was an instructor supervising.  So we attached our carabineers all by ourselves and then released ourselves.  The zip line was funny because at the bottom there was a huge blue pad which we had to run into to stop ourselves.  Kind of hurt.  And the pad was covered in mud from people’s feet so my white shirt was brown by the time I was done. All of it was really really fun.  A day full of physical activity and laughter…my favorite! The only negative to this fun outing we all the mosquitoes.  They warned us, but I think all of us underestimated how bad it was going to actually be. I eventually smeared mud all over my legs which I think helped.  I walked away with maybe 60 bites. Some girls had at least 100 on each leg.  And of course the doctor told us to stop our malaria medication for Mauritius. HA!  Hopefully those mosquitoes don’t carry malaria, or else… we are screwed.  After that we went to flic en flac, one of the famous beaches on the island. it was pretty. Becca, Sally, Toree and I went swimming together. The water was so clear!

      That night we got a van taxi to take 14 of us to our hotel on the other side of the island.   We got 2 hotel rooms for all of us. One room had one queen bed and the other room had 1 king and 2 twins.  Unfortunately, the floor was marble so the rest of us couldn’t even sleep there.  Well, the lady at the front desk caught on pretty quickly and patrolled the area to make sure we weren’t sneaking more than 4 people in to these 2 rooms we paid for.  Ha.  Well, Toree, Becca, Sally and I were able to make it to the smaller room fine without getting caught.  But I guess the lady caught all the others and only let two people go back to the 3-bed room which didn’t make much sense.  In order to allow one other person to sleep in the third bed in the room they had to pay $60 extra.  So…two hotel rooms; 14 people; ended up as 3 people in 3 beds in the larger room; Sally, Becca, Toree and I sharing the queen size bed, and the rest slept on the beach that night.  Luckily it is legal to sleep on the beaches in Mauritius.  Apparently that is what a lot of the semester at sea students ended up doing.  So that night ended interestingly.

Day 2:      

       The next morning we woke up early to find the catamaran place which wasn’t too far from our hotel. We got there really early and hung out with some of the locals working there. They were pretty cool.  When the catamaran came there were 18 students from Semester at Sea, a French couple, and another group of about 8 from France.  We were slightly hesitant at first how it would work with a bunch of us young kids sharing this 40 ft boat with group of adults from another country.  Boy were we wrong. It was a blast! They were very friendly and fun.  We had dance parties, went snorkeling together, had water fights…haha.  So, this catamaran took us three hours north along the eastern coast of Mauritius to an island.  Along the way we stopped to see a waterfall and snorkel.  For the waterfall we had to get off the catamaran and take 2 smaller motorboats to get closer to the fall.  This was where the French and Americans engaged in a water war.  I laugh just thinking about it.  I have a funny video of the boat with the French people on it trying to splash us with buckets of water (keep in mind, the adults started this water fight…haha).  And then for some reason my guy friends took on a pirate accent as they were trying to fight back and fill up buckets to sink their ship. It was hilarious.

       It was now 4pm as we neared Blue Bay shore on the southeastern side of Mauritius.  Two hours until on ship time.  A minute past 18:00 and we would get “dock time” for South Africa, something which none of us could afford because of our schedules.  We all knew that 2 hours would even be pushing it because it would take an hour to drive to the northwestern coast.  And here is where the race and adventure began…..

       We had two taxi vans waiting for us at the dock in Blue Bay.  We jumped in and told our taxi driver that we would give him a large tip if he got us to the boat by 5:15.  Well, this man never spoke to us; he just followed behind the other taxi.  Sure enough, we got separated from the other driver and from that point on our driver was texting and smoking while driving.  We could tell he was lost so we kept showing him the address of the port and asking if he knew where to go; but still no reply from him.  Finally we made him pull over to ask for directions and the man helping us told him to turn around.  Our driver made a U-turn at the next intersection where a cop was directing the heavy traffic from rush-hour.  After we made the U-turn, we got pulled over.  So who knows if it was illegal or not… but the cop came up and grabbed our driver’s papers.  Now the 10 of us were freaking out and practically begging the cop to let the driver go so we could reach the ship in time because it was already 5.  The cop counted all of us and told us in broken English that our driver doesn’t have a license to drive us.  “WHAT?” We grabbed our money and got out of his car so quickly and literally, started running.  I knew which direction to go so I lead the procession of 10 young Americans running down the median of a very busy 4-lane road.  Everyone was staring if not yelling and laughing.  We ran about a mile and found another cop directing traffic to ask for directions to the ship. However, somehow this man didn’t know either.  Again we were pointed in the general direction so we continued running.  We eventually came across a sign for a water taxi which we figured would be able to take us close enough to our boat.  The man driving the boat refused to leave until we paid the money up front. So eager to get going, we over paid the man giving him all the money from the taxi ride.  And the man made that clear as we were sailing through the port because each time we said past a ship with people in it, this man would whistle and make a hand gesture and all the people would cheer for him. In other words, he was boasting at his huge profit.  Anyway, the story is not over yet.  This motor boat was the slowest motor boat I have ever seen in my entire life.  It was now 5:40…20 minutes to be through security and on the ship.  Our MV Explorer was finally in sight and boy it was a huge sigh of relief to see it.  However, when we got off the motor boat on the dock we saw a huge line of other students.  I thought we were doomed after all that work trying to get to the ship.  Then, as we were waiting in line, one of the taxi drivers found us at the dock and called us over.  He claimed that the students in the other taxi never paid him.  At this point our friends were already on the ship so we couldn’t ask them.  We paid the $40 for them but $10 flew into the water.  Things seemed to be so difficult for some reason.  We made it through security and I swiped my card to check in with 5 minutes to spare…phew!  Didn’t think it would be possible after such a struggle of just getting to the ship.  Now that I look back at it, if we didn’t run that mile or so, than we would not have made it back in time.  I seriously felt like I was on the Amazing Race: a show which I have always wanted to be on.  (Side not about The Amazing Race- a few seasons ago a team won who were both Semester at Sea alums! I thought that was cool!  Steven, we need to apply as soon as I graduate from college!)

    My 36 hours in Mauritius was jammed packed with all kinds of activities.  It felt great to be back on the ship after all that chaos of trying to make it back in time.  The best part was, I had a package from my family waiting for me when I got back.  I opened it and saw that it has plastic Easter eggs, candy, a card, and a gift.  I am saving the card and gift to open on Easter.  And I was SO excited about the eggs because that was one thing I was very sad I had forgotten to bring with me for an Easter egg hunt. Now I can with my friends around the ship! Haha that will be fun!  Happy (pre) Easter everyone!!!! Just one more week! And it is Steven’s 24^th birthday the same day so be sure to wish him a happy birthday!! J

         

invasion of the baldies

March 20, 2010: NEPTUNE DAY!

      No one had any idea what would take place on Neptune Day except for the opportunity to shave your head.  The administrators kept everything secret.  Rumors were going around the ship the day before as to what was going to happen.  I had heard that the crew was going to run around the ship at 4am waking everyone up.  Luckily, it wasn’t until 8am when we got a noisy wake-up call from some of the crew members.  As soon as I heard it I jumped out of bed and grabbed my video camera to record it.  I opened up my door just in time to see about 8 crew members dressed in white clothes with face paint and cardboard cutouts of spears and shields.  They were banging drums, chanting, and blowing a whistle.  (I tell you parents, that was the fastest I have ever woken up and jumped out of bed. And sadly, I don’t think it was because of the noise [so that won’t work for you next time you have to wake me up] but I wanted to film it so badly I had to make sure I didn’t miss it).  They paraded around the ship for an hour.  Now that I was awake I went up to breakfast with the girls.  Then, I heard the drumming and chanting once more.  I noticed they were coming in through the cafeteria, but this time with many more people.  I turned on the video camera to film the procession of people as they walked by; and I am glad I did because in that line of people were Dean Crabtree and his wife Monica, Dean White, Dr. Gogniat, and many other faculty and administrators all dressed up in costume as they headed to the top deck.  I ran up to get a good seat.  They had a ceremony in front of the pool.  Dean Crabtree was King Neptune and we were all his “pollywogs”.  In order to continue on with this voyage past the equator, we had to prove our loyalty to him.  In other words…we had to go through initiation. (My first time ever experiencing an initiation of hazing… surprisingly since I have been a part of so many teams.) This was the process: First, a crew member poured a pitcher full of green juice consisting of fish guts and other smelly things.  Then we jumped into the pool to “wash off”, which was pretty disgusting by the time I got in there.  After swimming across to the other side, you got out and had to kiss a [real, dead] fish on the lips, then proceed down the royal line to kiss Monica’s fake blue stone ring, then Dean Crabtree’s ring, and then Dr. Gogniat dubbed us as “shellbacks” with his fake sword.  To prove that I am now a shellback instead of a pollywog I am getting a certificate with my name on it. All of that for a piece of paper…haha. No it was worth the experience!

                While this was going on, four staff members were lined up with chairs giving people haircuts.  There was a chair for cutting and three chairs for shaving.  I was front and center watching because I tried to film everybody who got their head shaved.  It hurt me to watch as Rebecca (staff member) cut ponytails off of the girls with beautiful long hair.  I was proud of those who did it because I knew I couldn’t.  The thought crossed my mind to shave my head, but my dad’s email “DON’T SHAVE YOUR HEAD!” ran through my mind and also the thought of playing volleyball in a few months with my hair at that  difficult length where I couldn’t tie it up.  But then again, Jackie Hamilton rocks that hairdo when she plays…haha.  Anyway, so many people shaved their heads.  And I was especially stunned with how many girls did it! I’d say at least 30.  Some of the girls who did it look gorgeous! Bald and beautiful.  Some girls can just pull it off.  Seeing them made me want to shave my head. But then again, I probably wouldn’t be so lucky and have a lumpy head.

                Along with shaving, people cut their hair to donate to Locks of Love.  This I was considering, more so than shaving my head.  There is one girl who is very quiet and shy on the ship.  I met her once when I sat with her at dinner.  But anyway, she had really really long hair.  Reminded me of mine once upon a time.  Her hair was down to her butt and she always kept it tied back.  So when she sat down in the chair everyone assumed she was shaving her head and gasped.   Rebecca took huge scissors and cut the braid off.  Her hair is so thick Rebecca was struggling to cut through it all. I am so proud of this girl, she must have donated around 2 feet.  The lucky person who gets her hair as a wig!

       During the day a lot of us hung out by the pool since we had no classes.  It was awesome! …Perfect weather, good music, and fun company.  Gave the illusion that we were on spring break; except for the fact that we all had a global studies midterm the next evening which obviously none of us were studying for while in the pool.  It is so easy to get distracted here.  There is ALWAYS something going on, someone to hang out with or beautiful sunshine calling your name.  The ship is the ultimate distraction because if it’s not one of the 1000 people on board, than something as simple as the ocean can be so distracting and mesmerizing.  

         That evening we had a BBQ for dinner….a treat for special occasions here.  It was so delicious: BBQ chicken, steak, corn, macaroni…all were delicious, unlike the ordinary dry pastas, dry boney chicken, and potatoes we usually get.  And then for dessert!... ICE CREAM!!!!!! J at the top deck bar they sell soft serve ice cream, but it kind of tastes funky.  So when I saw this dessert, I got really excited. I didn’t know our ship had real ice cream.  They must be hiding tubs of it down in the secret quarters for special occasions.

        To end the night there was a talent show.  Wow, our ship has talent!!!!  There were 30 acts… long night, but all very good.  There were a lot of dancers and musical performances.  I filmed most of the performers until my battery died.  I am predicting some of my peers will be famous in a few years.  Some are such talented singers/song writers/and musicians!  Makes me jealous.

March 19, 2010

     Today was a very cool and exciting day.  First of all, at 2:45am we crossed the equator.  I thought that we weren’t going to cross it until tomorrow during Neptune Day, or else I would have stayed up and watched as we sailed past that imaginary line in the Indian Ocean.  We have now sailed in all four hemispheres of the world.  How exciting!  How many people can say that they have sailed through all four hemispheres during one trip?  SO COOL!

     The sun was directly over us at noon today.  Well, we were told that technically only twice a year the sun will be directly overhead. It occurs on the equator at noon.  One of the dates is March 21^st, the first day of spring, so unfortunately we just missed it by 2 days.

    Secondly, the ocean and sky looked ridiculously amazing today!  The ocean was so calm! It was like glass.  (Even more still than Shaver Lake! I wanted to water ski on it!) The water was so memorizing, I could sit there and watch it for hours.  And the sky… I don’t know if it is because we are near the equator, but the clouds were so close to the water and they went on forever and ever.  And way off in the distance the clouds were a different shade, a vibrant white.  These clouds sat right on top of the horizon.  I have never seen the clouds and ocean like this before.  Oh and not to mention the sunsets lately….Oh My God!  Beautiful!

    Lastly, tomorrow is Tina’s birthday.  She is my mom on the trip.  My father planned a surprise party for her with their two extended families, some students, and faculty.  However, that was canceled because of Neptune Day.  So I sent my father an email saying how sad I am that it was canceled because I was looking forward to it.  Couple hours later when I was working out on the top deck, I see him and run over to tell him how sad I was to hear that it was canceled.  He said that he got my email and replied back right away with another offer. Then he called my room and I wasn’t there so he went on a ship wide search to tell me in person.  And that’s when he found me on the top deck working out.  Turns out I was exclusively invited to a “special occasion dinner” (which is a HUGE deal on the ship…you dress up really fancy, its amazing food, 5 course meal, glass of Champaign…SO nice!) . Only 30 people could be invited so he invited 24 faculty members and five students.  I was so honored. And among the faculty members was the dean, my philosophy professor, the librarian Warner, and some other fun professors I know pretty well.  Basically, it was so cool ‘hanging out’, having a super nice dinner on the ship with all of these important professors and administrators.  After our delicious meal, Lee surprised Tina with a necklace which Tina was eyeing at the jewelry store we went to in Jaipur.  She loved it.  And then, another surprise…he made a slide show of Tina and their family with pictures since 45 years ago…they were so cute and sooo funny. Tina had a different hair style in every picture! Haha. And it was nice because I finally got to see their daughter Kara Lee who they always talk about to me because of our same pronounced names.   Basically, I had a great great time!  I am so honored he asked me to join and so happy I accepted! 

two important things i forgot to mention in my blog....

 

Stargazing!

Last night they ship turned off the lights on the top deck so we could look at the stars.  A lot of us lied down on the deck staring up at the sky while Dr. Riedinger, a physicist professor on the ship (and also my on ship mother), talked about the constellations and planets with her super powerful (and illegal in the US) laser pointer.  The stars looked so big and bright and the sky went on forever and ever.  Mars looked especially red and bright, and I saw Orion’s Belt just like you asked mother.   But soon we will not be able to see these constellations as we sail into the southern hemisphere.  I love looking at stars, just as much as I love sunsets.

 

“Toothbrush Friend”

            Yesterday in our global studies class after the people gave their stories about the people who have impacted their life’s, our teacher passed around a blank piece of paper for all of us to write about someone who has impacted our life in one of the places we’ve visited.  It was nice because that assignment counted as a “pop quiz”. Easiest pop quiz ever.  So we wrote a letter about this special person and how we met them.  Then we folded the paper up and wrote our addressed on the outside and turned them in to our teacher.  He is going to read them and then in a year mail all of them back to us.  Dr. Gogniat considers these people as our “toothbrush friends” because every time we brush our teach we are supposed to remember them.  I have had a lot of people who have influenced my life in the past 2 months, yet I chose Thyonne, the generous lady who I got a ride from and hung out with her and her pets for a few hours the first day in Hilo.  She had such a kind spirit that I’ll never forget.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to receive this letter a year from now.  It will come at the perfect time during the stress and chaos of finishing the last few weeks of my college career for me to stop and reflect on my beautiful life.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

March 17...St. Patty's Day! I had no idea until I walked into class today and someone announced it. Kind of sad how I never have any concept of the day or date anymore. Our schedules revolve around A days and B days for classes so we don't need to know which day of the week it is. It is weird not having a repetitive schedule to follow.

(ps- Happy Birthday Billy!)

 

So I am back on the ship now after 6 days of traveling throughout India.  What an experience!  The first day I spent in a slum in Chennai which is in NE India.  Second day I flew to northern India and traveled around New and Old Delhi.  The third day I took a 2hour train to Agra and saw the Taj Mahal :) and the fourth day we drove 5 hours by bus to Jaipur, "the pink city" where I got to ride an elephant up a hill to a huge fort.  Then the fifth day I took two flights from Jaipur to Cochin where I came back to the ship. Five days of living in India was the perfect length of time. I got a feel for the culture and experienced the ins and outs of India.  But it was so nice seeing the ship again and it felt good to be home in a comfortable setting with drinkable water.  I was told that there comes a time during our voyage when the ship becomes our home. Not just as a living quarter, but a place in which we call our home and miss when we are away.  And I felt this after being away from the ship for 5 days in India.  I think most of us feel the same way after being in a culturally different place for a period of time. It is a nice feeling of coming back home. But don't get me wrong, as different and difficult as it was at times, I loved India. Especially because of the people I encountered along the way. I enjoyed it so much I would actually consider coming back and living in India for a few months to teach English.  I don’t really see that in my “life plan” for teaching as of right now, but that is something I would keep in the back of my mind to consider.  I visited an elementary school my first day in India.  They were learning English when I arrived.  All of the children were so excited to see us and very welcoming.  It was saddening to see their learning environment though.  Each classroom consisted of four walls, a roof, and the floor: basically, a bare, cement room. They sat on the ground and used their practically broken backpacks as ‘desks’.  It would be a dream to go back to California and fundraise enough money to give to this school to provide them with tables and chairs.  I don’t know if that is too farfetched, but I want to at least try.

 

Today in our global studies class four fellow students and one teacher spoke about a person who has impacted their life so far on this voyage.  Most of them lectured to us about their special person but my friend Toby showed a video he made about his experience in Viet Nam with some people he encountered. It was SUCH a great video. I saw him later and asked him if I could have a copy of it to bring home and show all of you because his video is the essence of Semester at Sea.  We go to these countries not only to learn everything about them and to sight see, but to form relationships with people and hopefully connect nations to build a more peaceful world.  

 

Our global studies teacher pointed out that we are now sailing home.  crazy!  We have reached the furthest point from the US and will now get closer and closer to home.  I left for this trip 2 months ago today and I have exactly 7 weeks until I arrive in Fort Lauderdale!!  49 days until I see my family again, 50 days until I am back in Torrance, and hopefully 51 or 52 days until I visit Thousand Oaks.

 

In a few days we have “Neptune Day” where we get the day off from classes and celebrate the fact that we are crossing the equator.  Apparently they make everyone ‘do something’ for crossing the equator as a ritual or initiation.  Mrs. Anunson told me that when she did Semester at Sea they filled up the swimming pool with garbage and made them walk through it.  (did I get that right Mrs. A?) and I have heard some other rumors on the ship of what may happen.  Including that, there is a tradition that happens every voyage on Neptune Day where people shave their head.  I don’t know why this is a tradition, but it is. I have to ask Ashley this because she went on the last voyage in the fall, but word is on the ship that 50 girls shaved their heads on Neptune Day in the fall. That-is-CRAZY!  I know a girl on this voyage that has already committed to doing it.  I’ll write a blog afterword to tell you all about Neptune Day.

 

Next country: Mauritius. We are currently around 1,800 nautical miles from Mauritius. It is 84 degrees outside and the water temperature is also 84 degrees Fahrenheit.  Lovely. J  and tonight we set our clocks back again 30 minutes, so now we are exactly 12 hours ahead of you. Weird and so cool.

 

My blog for Cambodia and Viet Nam is almost done.  I am so far behind on it!!! Ah!  And then I have to do the India blog before Mauritius. 

The rest of my schedule in relation to today...

Tomorrow morning, in just a few hours, I will be in Chennai, India!!!

-One week from today I will be leaving India and sailing to Mauritius.

-Two weeks from today I will be spending my last of two days in Mauritius.

-Three weeks from today I will be in arriving in South Africa where I will spend 5 days, including a 3 day safari!

-Four weeks from today I will be sailing in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa on my way to Ghana.

-Five weeks from today I will be spending my last day in Ghana after 4 days there.

-Six weeks from today I will be arriving in Salvador, Brazil and doing a service project the first day and an Amazon riverboat adventure for 4 days.

-Seven weeks from today I will be taking my Global Studies final exam.

-Eight weeks from today I will be disembarking the ship for good and reuniting with my family in Fort Lauderdale!

Im half way done with this 4 month adventure. time is flying by faster and faster as this trip goes on. and i am loving every second of it!

-*Spring 2010 Sea Olympics*-

Sea Olympics: March 7, 2010

After weeks of planning and anticipation, the day had finally arrived: the Sea Olympics!!  There are 586 students on board living on 3 decks of the ship.  Each wing of a hall is given a name of a sea around the world.  My hall is the Bering Sea and was given the color black, which was rather convenient because everyone owns black.  (although with 90 degree weather and half of the competitions outdoors, it got rather hot!)  The students were divided up into 9 seas: Adriatic Sea (white), Red Sea, Aegean Sea (light blue), Mediterranean Sea (green), Yellow Sea, Caribbean Sea (purple), Baltic Sea (orange) and Arabian Sea (dark blue). The Staff, children, and lifelong learners made up a team which they named themselves as The Salty Sea Monkeys and the color pink.  They were so cute.  From 9:30am to 9pm were games and activities of all types of competitions from dodge ball and tug of war to lipsync and synchronized swimming.  I was our sea’s captain along with my friend Chris.  We were the two representatives for the Bering Sea.  So we attended meetings with other captains, organized and lead meetings in our sea, and then made sure out team signed up and showed up to all their events.  It was a lot of work but totally worth it. It was so much fun.  I was also on the Olympic planning committee to plan all of the activities for the day.  But specifically I was planning the trivia game.  So unfortunately, because I was leading the trivia game, I couldn’t watch the synchronized swimming which apparently was really funny.  Our synchronized swimming team consisted of 4 boys…haha.  I competed in Sea Feud, which is like the game show Family Feud.  The people on the Olympic Planning Committee went around the ship and surveyed 100 people and got the most popular answers of certain questions.  One of the questions was really funny: “Which staff member would you like to serenade you?” and then the top answers were Don Gogniat (our global studies prof), Mark White (our academic dean), Lauren Crabtree (our executive dean)- those were all obvious answers- the others were…Mrs. Medora (a professor from India who is so cute and hilarious!) and “the IT guy” (who is a young, pretty attractive guy who works in the computer lab.  The funny thing is, no one really knows his name. so when the girl during the game wanted to say him for her answer, she said “the IT guy”. And the exact answer on the board was…”the IT guy” because that is how the other people out of 100 surveyed. Haha) I also competed in the Lipsync.  That was a lot of fun.  Each team was given a song out of a hat. So our sea got Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.  Some of the other songs were Bohemian Rhapsody, Yellow Submarine, Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid), Say You’ll be There (Spice Girls), Celebration, Thriller, Don’t Stop Believing, Beat It, and Eye of the Tiger.  A lot of them were good. I videotaped all of them except for Under the Sea because they went first and my group went second so I wanted to make sure I had enough space on my memory to record ours.  We spent so long practicing our dance.  We had legit choreography and everything.  AND we had a secret weapon!.. an asian boy in our sea played Lady Gaga. But I think the problem was, he was so good and looked exactly like Lady Gaga that people didn’t know he was a boy. Haha. I bought a wig for him in Viet Nam and he wore our clothes and make-up.  I am telling you, he pulled it off soo well! There were us 8 girls as dancers and then he was Lady Gaga.  A lot of people said they liked ours. But…. We didn’t place in the top 3.  I am not going to tell you which teams won because when I get home I will show you the video and see which ones you like.  If you can’t tell, I am still a little bitter about the whole thing. Its been 2 days since then so I am slowly letting it go.  The competitions were Extreme Musical Chairs, World Cup of Crab Soccer, “Hula” Hoop, “Asian” Cube Scramble, Sea Sponge Scramble, Salty Whistle, Limbo, Pirate Pull (tug of war), The Singing SAS’ers (lipsync), Nail the Sailors (dodge ball), Synchronized Swimming, Adventure”ers” Trivia Bowl, Dean White Says, Dress Your LLC, The “Gun” Show, and The “Explorer” Relay.

                Extreme musical chairs was pretty intense.  I saw a video of it.  As the representatives from each team were walking around the chairs, the little kids were throwing wads of paper “snowballs” at them.  And then of course, like any musical chairs, people were pushing and shoving each other to get a seat.  I don’t remember how my team ended up doing in that but I think we made it to the final three.  Then for Crab Soccer we got third.  It was four on four from each team and you played with a soccer ball but on your hands and feet in the “crab position” with your butt towards the ground.  The ground was so hot and rough that people who weren’t wearing gloves got blisters which broke open and got infected….I feel so bad for them! Luckily mom I had my ace bandage because it has come in handy for someone.  The Asian Cube Scramble: two people from each team had plastic chopsticks and had to fill a cup up with ice cubes which were scattered on a table.  The team who filled it up first won.  I have no idea how we did in that, but we obviously had students who were experienced chopstick users (not me) compete.  The Limbo we did really well in. We took second.  We have Kelly who is very flexible, it was really impressive.  The tug of war was embarrassing.  Practically every other team except the faculty/children’s team had 300lb linebackers as their anchors.  We went up against the Red team in the first round and as soon as the whistle buzzed, we got demolished.  The Red team ended up beating everyone, so I guess its alright if we lost to the strongest.  Speaking of strong though… The “Gun” Show was to see which person/team could do the most pull-ups, and then the number of pull-ups your teammate did would be added to your score.  Our Global Studies instructor is very fit and he was the representative for the faculty, and he (as a 60ish year old man) whipped out 13 pull-ups.  But Jon from my team tied for first with 30.  Jon lives across from me and I just found out a few weeks ago that he went to PV High, my rival high school and where my dad works. We know a lot of the same people.  Oh and Meemee, he rented an apartment last summer off of Samuel.  Crazy, huh!?  Then the Trivia we took third with three guy representative from our team.  It was just like the Jeopardy game show but with the topics of Geography, Oceanography, Sustainability, Semester at Sea, and Potpourri- all topics to do with our voyage, well except for potpourri.  Dean White Says is “simon says” and Kate from our sea took first.   Nail the Sailors was dodge ball with 2 guys and 2 girls from each team.  I wanted to compete in this but I did lipsync which was at the same time. But its ok because I just signed up for dodge ball intramurals.  We ended up getting second in this.  And lastly, the explorer relay was funny.  It went throughout the entire top two decks of the ship with multiple people doing multiple legs of the race.  I actually “ran” behind each teammate trying to video tape it as they were doing their part.  The video is really funny but the parts in between are bad because of running.  It was pretty tiring from all that running back and forth following each person. I wont go through each part of the relay, but the one thing I have to mention because it is so funny is…flip cup.  The coordinators decided to add flip cup as part of the relay, but of course with water instead of alcohol.  So 4 people from each team had to chug a full cup of water and then flip it onto the table. Let me tell you how funny it was to watch the students teach the lifelong learners and faculty how to do it.  There was a 70 year old man learning.  And let me tell you, they got pretty good at it.  I wish I filmed it!

                During the Olympics the crew preformed a ‘man overboard drill’. We were outside for the tug of war contest and a few of us realized that we were turning drastically and then noticed that something large was floating in the water behind us.  We thought that something fell overboard and we had to turn around to get it.  I’ve hear that every time the ship has to turn around, it costs $20,000. So that’s a reason not to fall overboard. You’d owe the ship 20 grand.  After the drill we stayed there for 3 or so hours just floating in the Andaman Sea so that we could see the Nicobar Islands at 7am the next morning.  Sally and I woke up at 7 to get breakfast and see the islands AND sunrise as we ate.  It was cool even though we didn’t get that close to the islands.  Well, we got close enough that we could see a ship wreck off the coast of one of the islands.  We learned later that day in global studies about the islands.  They are owned by India, and only Indian citizens are allowed to go there. So good thing we weren’t ship wrecked, or else we’d be in a lot of trouble with the local tribes!

After the Olympics were over, we had a BBQ on the top deck.  It was awesome! Perfect weather, beautiful sunset, good food for once… it was an awesome end to a great day.  After dinner a few students went crazy and jumped in the pool with their clothes on and before you knew it, there were 50 people in the pool screaming that they wanted more people to jump in.  I stayed out and took pictures and videotaped for awhile.  They convinced Cindy, our Dean of Students to get in. Her and another administrator jumped in! God I love this school.  So eventually I jumped in as well and I was stupid because I jumped in on the deep end.  It was too congested I couldn’t even trend water so all the girls had to bond together and then hold on to the tall people who could touch. For those of you who have seen the size of the pool (mom and steven) you would NOT believe me when I say that we managed to fit 150 people in that pool.  I was even shocked.  I was always convinced that that pool could only hold 20 at most. Haha.

                So, it was a good 24 hours.  Although I have been very dehydrated and now sick.  Hopefully I can take care of myself before we arrive in India in two days. J I have to wake up at 3am on Friday to leave for my Taj trip. Goodness gracious. Oh and tonight we are setting our clocks back again, but this time 30 minutes. If you look at India, it is located in a strange time zone.  So we will set our clocks back 30 minutes tonight and then 30 minutes back in a few days.  This now makes me 13 ½ hours ahead of California. And only two days until I have reached my halfway mark on this trip. Crazy! I knew it would fly by!  And I bet the second half will fly by faster than the first half.   

                I am going to try and have my Cambodia/Viet Nam blog posted by tomorrow night because I want it done by the time I get to India!

Update!

Hi Everyone! I know I have not blogged in a long time, but I am in the process of the Cambodia blog.  But here are a few fun updates...

 

-Two days ago we docked in the Singapore harbor to refuel. 

-It is really hot here because we are really close to the equator. And I was stupid and laid out in the sun for 3 hours with spf4 sunscreen when we were only 1 degree North of the equator...oops. surprisingly I didn't get too burnt. And I have a nice tan going on right now, I might be black by the time I come home.

-Last night I got extremely dehydrated. It was bad.

-Today is the Sea Olympics! Classes are canceled for the entire day of activities.  I am really surprised how much people are getting into it.  I knew I would, that's why I became our sea's captain, but the entire ship is getting really competitive. there are 10 different teams. 9 made of students and 1 team made up of the faculty/life long learners and children.  I am having a blast! there are all kinds of competitions going on. I am participating in the Sea Feud and Lip-sync. I feel very confident with the lip-sync because of all my experience with the CLU volleyball team! haha. Ok I should go now and get back to the competition.

I'll post my Cambodia blog tomorrow. bye :)