Malaysia and a HAPPY B-DAY to ME!

April 6, 2007

FIRST OFF: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I’m 21 EVERYONE! And CAN NOT WAIT to be home with ALL of you to CELEBRATE!

Malaysia was amazing... strangely enough definitely the country I would love to go back to LIVE in (not necessarily just to visit but to live!) at least so far it is on the top of my list. Although so much of the country especially the city is by definition “Westernized”. In Kuala Lumpur three Starbucks were on the main road within one of the shopping districts, and yet there was so much culture, merging cultures even.

Alright before I go into what happened this past week or so, let me first share a small secret with you, though if you took a close look at the top picture in the last picture blog you may have seen it. I am hoping and praying to god my sister didn’t tell my mother because that was the whole point- to shock my mom! Lol and my dad, but my mom will tell my dad and he will be oblivious to it for a few months like he was with my belly ring J Anyways, during my last day in Mauritius, Juli, Liz and I went on a mission since we weren’t going to go to the beach and go snorkeling and so we went hunting for a place to get my nose pierced. Yes that’s right, pierced. Well we were told to try the local jewelry stores, which makes sense though I can’t imagine an upright jewelry store would pierce a nose in the middle of the states. Well we found this really really nice one and I made sure they sterilized everything. They used a regular earring gun on my nose and it hurt like you would not believe. My eyes naturally filled with tears and I was completely blown away that I had actually just did that (which by the way would be the daring thing I did while in Mauritius). After we walked around for awhile more we sat at the table and when we finally met up with the rest of our group it took the rest of the group and hour and a half to notice, and the only reason they did notice was because someone asked if anyone needed anything and I said rubbing alcohol. After the confused stares I explained that I got my nose pierced and then everyone broke out saying oh my god I didn’t notice it looks so good…. Etc. It was really funny. Most people haven’t actually noticed and only when prompted or told and everyone has pretty much agreed that it looked naturally despite the fact that the original stud was HUGE and was glittering right in everyone’s face. So while I was in India, everyone kept asking if I was married which I thought was really weird, so when I went to my home stay I asked if the nose piercing meant a girl was married and the reply was no, that usually a newborn baby girl gets her ears and nose pierced and her head is shaved. So we came to the conclusion that the people of Chennai that asked me if I was married assumed that I had chosen to be “reborn” in a sense as an Indian woman- shaved head, nose and ears pierced. I thought it was an incredibly funny and interesting and I was and still am incredibly amused by this. Alright… now my secret is out. I just hope I still get a surprise out of my mother!

So after I finished writing the last blog, I finally went to sleep really early in the morning. I chose to opt out of waking up really early to go and watch the ship pull into the port in order to catch up on the sleep that I lost copying my emails and uploading my blog. I slept until about 9am and by then Christina had left, ate breakfast and was on her way back. She soon left to go on her trip and then I soaked my toe and got ready for the day, I went to get my passport from the Faculty lounge. I ran into Kara who said that if I wanted to I could join her group of friends for the day so I ran to my room and showered and got all ready and then waited around for a really long time for them to get ready to go. By the time that they were ready half the day had passed which was a little disappointing because I really wanted to get going somewhat early since I had slept in, but I don’t feel like I really missed out on seeing anything. The point is that even though I was a little disappointed in the moment, now looking back I wouldn’t change a thing. Anyways, when we finally were all ready to leave we were tendered to the shore- for those of you unfamiliar with the term (which I was prior to this journey…) means that we take tiny boats (which ended up being our lifeboats) from the gangway and a floating walkway to the actual dock because the water is to shallow for the ship to make it to land. After our very exciting lifeboat ride we took a taxis to this food market which turned out to be closed, which was another disappointment. So we went to a seafood restaurant instead. I ordered some seafood noodle meal that I can’t pronounce, it wasn’t too bad! I ate with chopsticks and I must admit I think I just might be improving- I might be a “natural” by the time that I get back! After the amazing Chinese food our group decided to go to Penang Hill and take the Cable car to the top to walk around and check out the temple. The cable car ride was pretty slow and pretty freaky because there were times when it was pretty much going straight up. At the top the view was amazing, lots of pictures to show everyone back home! The temple was also pretty neat though it was pretty typical of the hindu temples we saw during our stay in India, though still really cool. On the ride back down I ended up in the same car as a group from the UK and they were asking general questions about the trip- what I was doing, why I was on this trip, where I was going, etc. and then we got on the subject of politics in the US and the conversation got increasingly interesting. They couldn’t wait to find out if “we” (the US) was going to vote for “the black guy” or the “white woman” and how Hilary Clinton knows more about the presidency and how she would do a hell of a job because she is already so equipped intellectually and how the other guy is really young but could be extremely promising. And then they started to let me know that Bill Clinton is one of the best leaders we have had in quite a few years and how all that business with his personal life was completely uncalled for. And then we naturally got onto the topic of George Bush and his policies and naturally the war on Iraq and how we don’t belong there. They naturally wanted to know what party I was a part of which was really interesting because in the US it is so “inappropriate” to discuss what party you are really from. And I said you can’t tell from my disgust about George Bush? I’m a democrat and also not a huge fan of the man. I’m from CT and we are a pretty blue state. One of the men laughed and said what are you talking about I love George Bush and proceeded to say how he loved him and should stay in office (I didn’t catch the sarcasm until the end!). One of the other ladies in the group said… yea love george bush… he is great entertainment, at least watching him attempt to make a speech is entertaining. I like to put him on the telly just to get a good laugh. Lol It made me laugh because it was so easy to talk to them about politics which is not such and easy thing to do in the states and when you do strike up a conversation about politics in the states, I usually get confused within two seconds because of the language used to describe the situation and thus makes the experience terrible. After we descended from the mountain and waved goodbye, the group of us took a taxis back to the ship where they dropped me off and then the proceeded to the airport to go to Borneo for a few days independently. I attempted to get on a tender so I could go back to the room and change but the trip leader wouldn’t let me and so I had to sit outside on land side waiting for an hour before the first tender made it over. I was not happy because I definitely could have gone over and changed completely and been much more comfortable than I was. Thankfully there was one other girl who had happened to have bought a pair of the tie pants and agreed to let me use them. I thanked her soo much because the skirt that I was wearing I continued to trip on and I was sweating to death in. After the first group crossed over, I had to wait for the second group to come over because the person that was supposed to have my ticket to go on the trip didn’t and I had to wait for the next trip leader to find out what to do. So at 8pm (2 hours after I was told I wasn’t allowed to cross back to the ship) our busses finally left the compound to go to the Welcome Reception. The shadow Puppet show was pretty neat though a little disappointing because they started integrating English words into the performance and changed it from the original folktale to explaining their college. It just really wasn’t what I thought it would be, though I commend the college students who put on the show since they were not the ones that were originally schedule to perform for us and were last minute replacements since their mentor, a genius at shadow puppetry got tremendously sick and was unable to make it. After the performance we were allowed to go on stage and check out the puppets and the musical instruments used to make the performance happen. It was really neat and I got lots of pictures of backstage. I was such a dork though because I kept checking out the lights and trying to figure out what they were (we- Lindsey another theatre geek and I, decided they were probably really really really really old zooms). After the show and Meet & greet we were invited outside for some traditional foods. Unfortunately my stomach was feeling quite delicate and it was all spicy foods so I didn’t end up eating too much. On the walk back to the bus afterwards I ended up falling into a hole. Well sort of – one of my feet fell into a hole and my leg immediately started bleeding and hurt like crazy. It also hurt my toe a million times more then it already was. So as soon as we finally got back to the ship Judy (directing professor) ran to get the nurse on duty. Brenda fixed up my leg and told me that I had to clean it and re-bandage it twice a day and that I was lucky I didn’t twist my ankle. She also let me know that I should be very careful in Kuala Lumpur and that I was lucky because she was actually going on the trip so if anything took a turn for the worse that I should immediately find her. She also took one look at my toe and told me that it looked absolutely terrible and that I should have come to visit much sooner and that she might have to poke and prod in order to attempt to get some of the pressure out of underneath my toe nail. So she gave me lots of medication that is supposed to help both my leg and my toe defeat all infections. I’m sure that will cost me an arm and a leg and I am only way too excited to find out how much that bill was. I heard it was somewhere between 5 and 10 dollars a pill and she prescribed 20 pills to me… that’s a lot of money. I had doctors orders that I had to come down at 7am the next morning so she could take a better look at my toe after the medication got a chance to get in my system and that I should ice my leg otherwise I would bruise. Lindsey offered to run and get me ice and Judy walked me back to the room and I got nice and comfy with my book and ice. That is until Juli walked in and she naturally wanted to talk and all I really wanted to do was read, but again one of those things that you just have to do. It was a nice conversation and definitely don’t regret it, it just wouldn’t be my first choice when I’m in a lot of pain or sickness. I finally kicked them out of my room at 12:30am because I needed to get some rest. I finished packing with Christina and we went to bed.

DAY 2 in PENANG to KL

At 7am I woke up and went down the hospital, Judy was waiting for me to hold me hand or whatever I needed to do which I thought was incredibly sweet of her. Brenda the nurse from the night before took a look at it and said it looked much better (I don’t quite understand that, but I nodded my head). Dr. Matt came in to take a look and said in nicer words that I needed to suck it up and soak my toe twice a day to get it better. I was a little annoyed though because Brenda had made such a big deal about it the night before and I kept saying that Dr. Matt had already said there was nothing he could do and that I just needed to soak it. So after that I went to take a shower and got ready for KL. Christina and I had breakfast, grabbed our things and went up to meet Katie in the Union. It was quite exciting- Katie managed to switch into our bus, though that meant that we had to share our twin beds with her since her room was in the other hotel and not really near our hotel. But we didn’t mind. After the 6 hour bus ride of movies, reading, music and naps, we finally arrived in the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur. It was amazing and definitely hands down a city I could live in. We went to our room, squeezed the beds together to make one big one and then took a tour of our hotel. Not too much to look at but it was raining and we didn’t really want to head out in the rain. So we checked out the internet room (though it was about the same as the ship so I said forget it!) and enjoyed the view around us. At 7:30pm we met our group and left for the reception dinner. The dinner was… interesting. It was a wide variety of food and most of which I think is an “acquired” taste though I did manage to find enough food that I could fill my stomach. I also tried all sorts of Malaysian desserts which again were interesting in texture and taste. At the start of the show we were invited to go upstage and bless the new “couple”. I went up and as a parting gift I received a gold bag with a hard boiled egg. The egg is supposed to symbolize high levels of fertility in hopes of conceiving. (I also learned later on that Malaysian villages feel that if a woman has her left nostril pierced also has high levels of fertility) not that conception will even be a part of my near future, but I guess in 10 years it is good to know that I have high levels of fertility and will have no problem conceiving a child according to Malaysian tradition! They performed a variety of dances all of which were beautiful. At the end we were given the opportunity to take pictures with the dancers, which we did! By the time we reached the hotel, the three of us (Christina, Katie and myself) were so exhausted we barely made it under the covers before passing out.

DAY 3 in KUALA LUMPUR

I had to wake up bright and early to redress my wounds and soak my toe which was fun and then I woke up my “KL Roomies” and we got ready for the day. Breakfast was “normal” foods that we recognized. They gave us two options one buffet line of traditional food and one of waffles, omelets, cereals, etc. I opted for the omelets because I haven’t had them in a really long time and they were quite delicious. I was impressed. After breakfast we took a tour around the city. We stopped at the King’s Palace. The King is elected every 5 years and the current one was a Sultan of another part of Malaysia. The palace was huge though you couldn’t see too much. I’m sure its similar to going to the UK and trying to look at the palace from the outer gates. Then we drove by the Parliament building which is this triangular shaped building pretty cool I must say on our way to the Garden Lakes which had several monuments and statues. One monument to commemorate WW I and another was WWII and the last was for a war against communism. Malaysia is currently celebrating its 50th year as an independent country this year and there were signs everywhere hyping up the celebration. Then we drove by the biggest Mausk and the Islamic Art museum before stopping right outside of the Supreme Court building (which was gorgeous with its round staircases and towers) and stopped into the National Natural History Museum which explained the natural history of Malaysia starting in the Paleolithic Age. And we briefly looked in the KL Art Museum and then headed back to the bus. The green that was right outside our bus is used for drag queen performances and gatherings which was quite interesting. The KL Tower was next on our list. Built in order to get better telephone and satellite connection, the KL Tower was the tallest building for quite a while but now is beat by a few others. We had 45 minutes to get up to the top, use the computer to take a tour around the top and get down to go to the bus, which was nearly impossible. I was able to take my time and listen to the first 3 of 12 windows and then stopped because I knew I was going to run out of time. After taking the pictures I wanted and looking for interesting buildings Christina and I ran to the bus. We were the last ones to reach our bus but thankfully the other busses had quite a few stranglers. Then we headed to Chinatown for lunch which was superb. The food was amazing. And it was a Taiwanese Man’s birthday and so they sang to him in their language which was awesome to witness. He blew out his candles and made a short speech. It was cute. The best part was the ice cream we had for dessert. It was also amazing, though I think more from my self-deprivation of ice cream since I don’t want to spend money on the ships ice cream and instead would prefer to eat off the ship while I’m in port. It’s a gamble I guess! After lunch we dropped a few students off at the “twin towers” which is actually a huge shopping mall and headed back to the hotel. The girls and I had found an ad for this pewter museum that we really wanted to go to. It gives the history of pewter, you get to watch it being made and then you get to try it yourself. The museum part was free and making a bowl was pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately our tour guides wouldn’t help us try to make reservations, promising we would end up going. At the end they told us that it was impossible and not enough people wanted to go (they didn’t ask anyone else… so of course no one wanted to go). We ended up getting the front desk in our hotel to help us out. After finding out the free shuttle doesn’t leave until 10am and we needed to be back to the hotel for 11am, we decided to make reservations for 9am as soon as they opened and take a taxis for a slight charge. Brenda the nurse wanted to join us and so we made plans for the 4 of us to go in the morning. After solidifying our plans for the morning we headed out to do some shopping- and boy did we do damage to our wallets! I found a bunch of t-shirts that are really comfy and bought 5 – one in each color- because I haven’t managed to find shirts like these anywhere. Plus they are supposed to wisk away any sweat- pretty sweet huh? I also bought a scratch and sniff t-shirt that smells like strawberries. I did all of my shopping and nothing too exciting, well aside from me dancing to My Girl, the “shut up” song (you know “shut up, just shut up shut up” and Achy Breaky Heart in the middle of the mall. All of the locals were cracking up and watching me. Some of them joined me in dancing around. It was amazing. Katie and Christina kept looking at me like I was a psycho. Again- great time. After we burned big holes in our pockets we took the monorail to the Hard Rock Café- Another amazing experience. When we arrived there were some skanky girls barely dressed dancing around and trying to promote some beer. They kept playing games like ring toss (real ring toss ;) ) in order to win beer. At dinner we all ordered drinks in order to commemorate my 21st birthday since we all knew I wouldn’t have the opportunity the first day. I had a Pickled Tink which was amazing and the other two had Strawberry Daiquiris which were also amazing. After dinner we got back on the monorail where this guy was talking to us and asking us where we were from. One of the other people on the monorail turned out to be from Jersey which was kind of neat, though it was our stop and we needed to get off the monorail. I felt bad the entire day and especially at this point because there were so many stairs. My legs were incredibly sensitive the entire stay in KL and when going up and down stairs I have to take one stair at a time and that significantly slowed the group. But I think we did all the shopping we wanted to even though we didn’t have nearly enough time to go to the craft market, spend some actually open time in Chinatown and go to Starbucks. But its alright. At the hotel we dropped off all the bags and things we bought and headed out to Chinatown. 20 min and 3 direction stops later, we managed to make it- by then it was about 12:15 and Christina and Katie officially wished me a Happy Birthday! Chinatown was unfortunately closed and we were able to watch them clean up the streets- but it was nice to say we saw what it looked like. Later on we heard it wasn’t that impressive- a lot of knockoffs and not too much cultural stuff, at least not at prices that we can get during our stay in Hong Kong. After Chinatown we walked back to the hotel, showered and packed and went to bed. When I climbed into bed, I had a surprise- three packs of cinnamon gum and a b-day card from Christina (isn’t she so sweet!)!

DAY 4 in KL – Also known as my 21 ST BIRTHDAY!

At 7:30am I woke up and tended to my toe and bruises and went back to bed for a little bit because I got done much faster then I thought I would. Though I had another surprise- Christina had written down 21 reasons why she loved having me as a roommate and put it in my pile of clothes for the next day so when I got dressed, I found it and it made me tear up a little because she is just so sweet. At 8am I rolled out of bed and grabbed my bag for the day and with Christina and Katie headed to breakfast. We ate fast and met Brenda, grabbed a taxis and headed to the Pewter Factory. Pewter is made of Lots of Tin plus Copper and something else. Another fact- the Academy Awards are made of gold plated pewter! We were able to see the process, how most things are put into a mold and then they are shined and stained and battered and everything. It was the coolest thing every. After we talked to the guide about our reservations and we headed to the workshop. We were able to engrave stuff on our bowl- mine says “Happy 21 in Malaysia” in the center and on the outside rim reads “Semester – at – sea – MV – Explorer – 4/5/2007 – “ and the center bottom has my name. After we imprinted our message on the flat sheet of pewter we had to shape our bowl. We used a shallower bowl shape first to get the movement down and then we moved to a deeper one in order to finish shaping it. Overall they were amazing to come out. I took a catalog with all of the pieces and we were given brochures, the aprons we used when making it and certificates to say we “graduated” from our “apprenticeship”. It was really cute and really made my birthday- or at least it was a great start to a great birthday. After the other three made purchases we headed to the taxis and headed back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff, checked out and went on to the bus. We started our 6 hour journey back home, stopping twice- once for lunch at another mall- it was alright food, and then once for the bathroom. At our arrival, the line for tendering back to the ship was already really long. Christina and Katie offered to go and get the flowers to give to marvel to get on to the ship and I agreed to watch the luggage since my leg was killing me from the walking of the day before. Our group, had we stayed in line, the wait was about an hour to get on the tender, and another half hour before getting onto the boat and clocking in. As soon as the two got back we jumped in line. It took us from 7:15pm until 8:45 to get tendered, swiped in and handed our passports in. It was pretty nuts. When I reached my cabin- my door was decorated with more cinnamon gum and streamers with a big sign that said happy 21st! Again- made my night. Then at about 9:30, my “parents” stopped by and wished me a Happy Birthday- they checked out the room since they haven’t seen a student room on this ship before. They agreed that the room wasn’t too bad and definitely festive. I continued to organize my stuff and then Christina came in and said that she wanted to treat me to some ice cream so as soon as I could take a break she wanted to get up there. So I finished downloading my pictures and organizing my souvenirs and putting all my clothes away- meanwhile Christina is like “can’t you do that later”. We left the room and she told me she wanted to take the elevator which I thought was REALLY strange and that tipped me off that she was acting weird. So we walked through the 7th deck, ran into Dean Mike who wished me a happy B-day J and then headed out to the aft deck when Christina said, oh I think they are on the 6th deck. And so we headed down the stairs and lo and behold a party was waiting for me. Lol I was bright red and I had at least 15 people there including my “parents” and Judy which is was really sweet of them both to come. They sang happy birthday and I blew out my candle. I cut the cake and then the adults said they were going to pass on the cake and they had a meeting to go to so they left, but at least they were there for a little bit J After we finished eating the cake we gave a few pieces out to some passerbyers and started playing a game- guess Jen’s favorite. So that unleashed an interesting conversation of all of Jenn’s deepest secrets- the embarrassing moment with the Archbishop, Christina’s jump in the middle of the storm before Mauritius, favorite food, the movie Jenn watched 5 times in a row on this ship (Bend it Like Beckham), etc. lol it was quite the conversation and then everyone started to leave. We cleaned up and ran into Kara who I chatted with in the hallway for a little while. By the time I got back to the room, my friends had beat me there and decorated my walls with big bright letters that say Happy Birthday Jen! And then the proceeded to show me a DVD they had created for me with our favorite memories, messages to me and tons of pictures. If there was a time I was most likely to cry- it was in that moment. It was an unbelievable day and I couldn’t have found a better group of friends on this ship. They really made it so that I wasn’t painfully yearning to be home- taking my first shot with my mom and Melanie, wishing ryan was there to drink with on our special day. They made it possible to forget that I was half way around the world, away from everyone that I originally thought I would be celebrating that special day with. They also pulled out some sparkling grape juice since we aren’t allowed to bring alcohol on the ship and because we are in port- no pub-night so no alcohol for Jenn on her 21st b-day. But they helped make it so it didn’t matter and that it didn’t hurt as much to not have my best friend there or anyone from home for that matter. I mean, I still teared up a few times that day, don’t get me wrong. It just wasn’t nearly as painful as it could have or should have been. Again- I have an amazing group of friends and my only hope is that each and everyone of you can meet this awesome group of people. After everyone started going to bed, Christina and Juli surprised me with a gift- a nalgene filled with candy and stickers. It was again amazing- I can’t wait to use it. After the gift, I went to bed, exhausted from such an exciting day!
DAY A @ SEA

Today was an alright day, our first day of second showings. Boy have they risen the bar. I’m excited to work with my actors but I’m soo nervous. I need to work on my directing journal, maybe that will be my goal for tomorrow. On top of writing all of my letters for Vietnam and finishing the letters I owe my mom and Melanie… oh and updating Jeffery/Lester’s journal and making a cd of pictures that I wasn’t able to capture on the two disposables. Global Studies was pretty intense- History of Vietnam War starting with WW II and ending with the war followed by the American war veteran perspective and then a Vietnamese Perspective. The Interport Lecturer made it very clear that the people of Vietnam are still not comfortable with discussing the war. After global studies I went to my room and organized all of my souvenirs and grabbed some more things to pack away. Now all that is left to pack in the luggage for my mom to take is the doll collection, everything else I will be shipping home at the end of the voyage. I also changed my nose stud from the earring to the actual nose post- so now its much smaller, less noticeable and much prettier. Which by the way taking the earring out was a pain because of that ridge that all earrings have – not fun at all, but now it was worth it because I look cute, though I almost miss the big stud. I also took a shower, soaked my toe and re-bandaged my leg. At noon I had lunch with Christina and headed back to my room where I continued organizing and striking things off my to-do list. At 2:15 I headed to my class. I barely had the energy to focus- it was pretty bad! After class I stopped at the school store to see if I could get something for my dad but they didn’t have any non-hooded sweatshirts, so tomorrow I’m going back to look at the T-shirts. But I don’t know if I want to try to get him a medium and pray he fits or go for the extra-large which will definitely be to big because they don’t have larges and their sizes are kind of funny. It’s a hat and shirt combo. I wish I could talk to my mom, but alas she is Thailand having a ball with my sister! Gosh I can’t even tell you how much I can’t wait to see them. The day crawled by knowing that it would bring me one day closer to seeing them! I continued reading Wild Swans and then fell asleep until 6:15pm. Christina, Liz and I went to dinner- pasta with weak tomato sauce. At 6:40pm I ran to my “parents” room for my family party. I stayed there until about 9:40pm tonight and had an amazing conversation ranging from changing my nose ring, to Malaysia, to the atmosphere on the ship, our expectations of our journey in comparison to how we feel now, etc. Overall good company. We decided that we need to have a game night, A sleepover on the deck and family photos for the Ambassadors Ball. I’m very excited, as soon as my mom and sister are on board and see my room, I’m introducing them to the family, or at least my “parent’s” on board that are taking care of me and standing in for my family. After the party I started writing this blog, Katie and Juli came over and exchanged a few pictures and now Christina and I are working on our blogs and are about to fix the Easter decorations in preparation for Easter and my family!

Well I should probably go to bed considering its almost 2:30am here. I will probably post this at about 5:30/6am in the morning and I hope you all enjoy this. I love and miss each and every one of you!

Sorry no new pictures- the server is being really slow lately. I’m hoping there will be a quick stop in an internet café so I can upload my pictures and check out my banking and registration! So maybe next time!

India

India-

Wow. Well First let me say, India was amazing. Then again, every port is amazing. As a warning, this is without a doubt the longest entry ever. I still haven’t quite finished my entry (this is pre- reflection, so just the nitty gritty details are in this at the moment and I’m at about 16 pages single spaced in my word document. So grab a soda, get comfy and start reading… when you have time of course!)

Second let me say that, my big b-day is coming up soon this week. So if you feel the need to call, let me remind you that I am 12 hours a head of you, so switch the am for pm or visa versa. Next also please know that I probably won’t be on the ship, since it is my b-day and I am in Malaysia until on-ship time for departure which will be around 8pm. So if you really feel like giving me a call- just make sure its after 8pm. I won’t be there in the morning because I’m on an overnight trip to Kuala Lumpur on my birthday afternoon, so its pretty much nighttime or you miss my b-day ;) Now with this said- I’m not expecting anyone to give me a call since it is quite expensive to call the ship and you would only have about 5 min to give me a call. So if you missed out on sending me a b-day card and don’t want to give me a call (which again I’m cool with), I won’t blame you for it J after all how many American students can say they turn 21 in a dry country. That’s right but more on that later.

Third before I begin with my story- So since leaving India, there has been a number of cases of Leprosy on the boat and now we have to check each other’s ears in order to make sure that we (and our friends) are not infected with it. I don’t think its anything to fret about after all we do have doctor matt on the ship ready to step in and help us out.

Saturday was an alright kind of a day. Day B. I woke up early in the morning and posted my blog and got all of my emails out of my inbox. Then I went back to bed since I didn’t feel very well, ended up sleeping through the Question and Answer Global Studies class with our Interport Lecturers (come to find out… a lot of people did!). For the rest of the day I read more of Wild Swans and prepared for India. Energy class was alright, the interport lecturer came into the class to talk about energy to us all. I can’t think of anything too exciting- this is why I should write down everything I do each day because otherwise I miss out on telling you all of the intricate details of my day which usually are quite amusing. I guess I should get on about the Pre-Port Logistical meeting. That was… interesting. We discussed the art of bartering a little bit more and we enjoyed a skit performed by several of our eccentric professors who were just getting off the ship only to be bombarded by Rickshaw drivers and then the one they chose tried to bargain with them. The point of it was to show us how conniving and confusing it can be with the rickshaw drivers and how it was really important to 1) set a price, 2) make sure they know where you are going and that you are not interested in going to any shops that they want you to go to because they get commission 3) and whether or not you want them to wait for you while you do your shopping or whatever or if you want them to leave. Now looking back- the skit was fairly accurate. We also enjoyed the “Kama Sutra” explanation of how everything they know is written in these books. We have a young audience however and they didn’t actually get into details about the Kama Sutra, instead it was another skit presented by the R.D.s explaining how you need to put bug spray EVERYWHERE because Malaria is BIG in India, the proper way to “squat” and the art of taking pepto before every meal. It also concluded with the usual “dr. Matt’s song” though not nearly as funny as the others primarily because it was difficult to understand since it was more chanting- mimicking the Buddhist and the meditation. That night I packed for my Erode Homestay and prepared for the wonderful week of India.

India: In the morning we had to go to the Faculty Staff lounge twice- once to get our passports and to see the Immigration Officials and once to pick up our Immigration cards and Custom papers. It was a very long process and because of that the Diplomatic Briefing was cancelled. Most of my friends went on a rural farm visit or on the city orientation, so Caitlyn and I went by ourselves into Chennai to experience “India.” After eating lunch, we left the ship and went in search of a bank we recognized. We had heard there was an HSBC somewhere along the road. Well one of the rickshaw drivers decided he was going to follow us across this bridge and make short talk before telling us that he would direct us to the bank. We made it to the bank and I took out my allotted funds for my stay in India. The rickshaw driver then walked us back over, stopping at one point to buy us this really weird juice. I only had a few sips because I was pretty sure it was the sort of food we were told to watch out for because the cups weren’t really cleaned very well since it was a street vender. Caitlyn on the other hand was an idiot and drank the entire glass- but to each his own right? So after the rickshaw driver finished my glass we walked to his rickshaw and agreed that he would take us to T. Nagar for 100 rupees. Well he took us everywhere but. Every place he got commission that is where he went. And the entire time I had to hear from Caitlyn about how her mom had done this exact same thing when she was here and about how she wanted me to talk to him and do all the talking because now she didn’t feel well. (you should notice a pattern by the end of this blog by the way). Needless to say I was quite annoyed because I quite frankly didn’t care what her mom did when she was here because I wasn’t her mom and wanted to make my own adventure and not have to repeat someone else’s, not to mention the fact that when someone is sick almost every day whenever things aren’t going her way, gets even more annoying by the end of the day (never mind week ). We stopped at 4 handicraft shops- all of which were completely our of our budgets as well as a department store and a sari shop. We, or I should say I, finally yelled at him about how these weren’t T.Nagar and about how if he didn’t bring us there we weren’t going to pay him. And he wanted to know why we didn’t like the stores and I told him they were too expensive, so he tried somewhere else and I was like NO too expensive. Finally he brought us to a sari shop that wasn’t nearly as bad and actually turned out to be exactly what we looking at. Though the experience was essential, it was extremely annoying to not know exactly where one is and what these places look like in order to say this isn’t it, bring us to T. Nagar and know exactly what it looks like. Anyways at the Sari shop Caitlyn and I bought sarees and had the blouses fitted. We were told they would be ready in two days so it was agreed that Caitlyn would pick them up on that day since I would be in Erode. Then we went to this lunch restaurant. When we first walked in the placemats were these leaves. It was pretty cool and so we ordered god knows what and they came out and just started slapping sauces all over this leaf. Lol so I guess that was mind blowing- my placemat was their dish. Lol Overall lunch was pretty good and then we headed back to the ship to get ready for the Welcome Reception. When the rickshaw driver dropped us off he started giving us a hard time about the 100 rupees and how he had been with us all afternoon and deserved more and we were like you didn’t take us anywhere we wanted to go!!! It was really frustrating and what made it worse was that Caitlyn ended up handing him a 5 dollar bill which is the equivalent to about 215 rupees and he still continued to complain. And then just to make my headache worse from arguing with him, the entire walk back to the ship was filled with “when my mother was in India…” which again got old really fast. But after showering and getting the opportunity to get away from Caitlyn’s stories, my night got significantly better. The reception was pretty cool- I got henna on my hands and bought a few tubes of it to take home with me J so I’m really excited. Though as an afterthought it isn’t the best quality since it becomes an orange color instead of remaining brown, but its henna. Then we had dinner there and I was so stuffed from lunch that I barely ate any dinner. Plus it just wasn’t nearly as good as the restaurant. Then an Indian dancer started her show and performed a few pieces for us which was pretty cool. After I finished dinner I ended up looking at the tables they had set up and I bought a white blouse to match the sarees I already have. After the welcome reception a group ended up coming over to our room and we watched Step Up which was a cute movie. Definitely not one I would see more then once, but it was cute. And then I passed out.

Day 2 in India

By the time I woke up, Christina had left to go to the Taj. Rather unfortunately I was awakened by Caitlyn informing she decided not to go on the trip and that she wanted to join me for shopping at 6AM. I was so angry I can’t even begin to tell you. I was exhausted and already sick of her and her knocking at my door at 6am didn’t not put her in my favor at all. At 8am I met with Juli to eat breakfast and her friend Lydia ended up joining us, rather unfortunately due to my conscious I called Caitlyn praying that she would be at breakfast or at least out of her room, she was clearly waiting for my phone call and eagerly informed me that she could get ready in 5 min no problem. So we all met upstairs in Pursers Square at 9am and headed out. Juli handled the negotiating which I am eternally grateful for because it was nice not to have to do it and she didn’t seem to mind. Our rickshaw driver actually drove us to T. Nagar and we headed to Nalli’s silk shop which was supposed to be the best in town. It was also quite expensive and just to make my morning worse, Caitlyn feigned sick within 10 min of getting to the silk shop. So we told her to go sit and we would go continue to walk around and shop and if we moved to another level we would get her. We ended up going to the 4^th floor where the chuidars or the long shirt and pant sets were located and she joined us. After about 20 min of looking, Juli and Lydia found some they liked and went to go try them on and after they were finished Caitlyn informed them right before they were going to pay that she was feeling worse and needed to puke. And naturally because I was the only one that hadn’t really found anything that popped that I wanted to buy, I was the lucky one to bring her to the bathroom. The bathroom by the way was located outside of the store and was basically a toilet set into the ground. As soon as Caitlyn saw it she started gagging (which I did to quite frankly because they didn’t look too clean) I moved around the corner because if I had witnessed or even overheard her throwing up I would have thrown up all over her. So I tried to stay away. (which by the way has another story attached to it but that will be added at the end). After the initial disgust gagging subsided, she began to force her stomach to up heave which just made me even more angry because this would be the 3^rd port that she has feigned sick and forced everyone else to completely change their plans in order to escort her back to the ship. I had already decided that she wasn’t going to ruin this port for me as well and that if need be Juli and Lydia could escort her but I was definitely going to continue shopping because I will not have a bad taste in mouth about India. Anyways. After Juli and Lydia finished their purchasing, we found fabric in the basement so I ended up buying fabric for my quilt and fabric to make something out of. I’m hoping that in Vietnam they can make me a pair of capris because I think they would be cute! After that we started walking down the market street area, I bought a red long shirt, some bindi’s for myself, the nieces, Jeffery (my travel buddy)’s 4^th grade class and Mohegan Sun (to be put on after a concert of course! Though technically we would be all have it on…. J just kidding). They are pretty cool. We also stopped at another fabric store and I had an outfit made for Deb which I’m really really excited about and can’t wait to show her. I KNOW the pants will fit because they are very adjustable and I am 99% positive the shirt will fit, but I’m most excited because the design on it will match the saree that I bought in Mauritius so we will be twins in a way J I’m so excited! While they were making Deb’s outfit and one for Juli, we headed to a jewelry store because Lydia wanted to buy a ruby and a white diamond, which she did as well as a few bangles and Caitlyn also bought a few bangles and a stone. While they were checking all that out Juli and I decided to check out the other jewelry, we lingered at the diamond rings (found our dream rings, not that either of us will actually get it its about $1000) and then we told them that we were going to walk about outside a little more. We bought matching anklets and another box of henna- so now I have enough so my nieces can experience the joy of henna if their parents permit it! And then we met the girls back at the shop where we were picking up our outfits. Juli and I also bought matching blue skirts because they were too cute. When the outfits finally arrived the four of us walked over to the place I bought the green saree the day before. Lydia bought 3 sarees- one for her mom, best friend and herself. And then Juli bought a deep midnight blue with white embroidery and then I ended up buying another saree – also blue with bright blue and teal beading on it. We also had those fitted and decided to pick them up on the last day that we were in India. Caitlyn also pissed me off here because at this point she only occasionally remarked about how sick and tired she was and instead tried to impress her opinions on us. So after every one agreed that one of the sarees looked really pretty on me, and there was a mirror so I know it looked really good myself, she informed that it was ugly and how she hated it because it bleached out my skin. Then she continued with that for the next 45 min that we were there and just continued to get even more on my bad side. So needless to say just when I had gotten away from her and calmed down, she managed to infuriate me even more in a matter of a few comments. Then she started remarking about how she was too poor to buy another saree (mainly because she had bought all the jewelry in the last store) and about how a particular saree she really liked wouldn’t look right on her because she was too thin (which she is probably right since she looks anorexic, though we know she isn’t). I also purchased a petticoat (which I found out last night doesn’t have the strings to tighten it around my waste) and a silk scarf that is also pretty cute. After juli and Lydia were fitted we got another rickshaw and went to Spencers Plaza which is basically the mall area. We (I’m ashamed to admit) had domino’s for dinner- it was sooooo good though. I can’t even tell you. Just thinking about it makes me hungry. Then Juli and I headed to the bookstore to look at some books and then met the other two at FabIndia and the four of us took a brief look at some shoes before going out to get another rickshaw. This time it was a really big hassle, and finally we agreed on 80 rupees to get back to the ship. Lydia and I had about 15 min to shower and finish getting ready to go to the Homestay so we rushed through the line and through getting ready and ran up to the union to meet our group. We got onto the bus and as a group headed to the Train station. When we finally got onto the train we were with our bunk bed buddies but we didn’t know what numbers we were supposed to be on or anything so the guy in charge kept yelling at us and we were like we don’t know where we are supposed to go. He told me to sit down next to this Indian man and I was not happy because there was no reason for telling me to sit- there wasn’t anyone there that I was blocking, it clearly wasn’t one of our reserved beds since the man was sitting on it and I yet again got extremely close to losing my patience. I finally just sat down and as soon as he walked away got up because there was NO way in hell I was sleeping next to a man- white or Indian. I was definitely going to sleep in a group of beds that had girls in them, India is scary enough without having to consider rape as a potential problem. So needless to say the problem was sorted out, I got a top bed and stuffed my bags behind my pillow and before the lights were even out and the train had started moving- I was passed out from exhaustion and annoyance.

Day 3 in India

Throughout the entire night I continued to wake up because I was so scared about getting robbed, so at 7am when the lights were turned on marking the end of our train ride. After splitting into 3 busses (2 of which went to the Farmhouse and one which went to the townhouse) we left the train station to go to our new temporary homes. I was on the “party” bus that went to the Farmhouse. The reason it was the “party” bus was because the lights were all different colors and the night we returned to the train station we found out they blinked all of the different colors- It was a crazy bus! Lol After a 45 min drive, we arrived at the Farmhouse which was simply amazing. It was made of a concrete material and there were a few different walls separating different parts- the parking area versus the barn area where the bulls and cows were kept versus the garden area. It was really cool. At our arrival, the daughter in laws greeted us and showed us to our rooms. The room that I stayed in was part of the guest house that was just off the side of the house and had 5 cots laying on the floor. There was also a bathroom- the toilet was much more similar to what we are used to, though toilet paper isn’t used by the natives and we had to throw any used into a garbage can. Their showers consisted of a bucket of water with a cup and you used it right inside the bathroom – there was a drain in the corner of the room. After freshening up, we met in the main house where the family had set up about 25 plastic chairs so we could gather in the same area. The inside was really neat because they had 4 small courtyards with a plus sign passage way. On one of the straight lines led from the kitchen and wash type room to the side door that was the old entrance (it had a car port and everything) and the other led from the other guest room to the back of the house where the family lived. Also in the passage way area was the dining room table and a swing chair. Overall the architecture was amazing. We met the family- the parents were retired but owned the house and their sons had married the two girls who would be showing us around. They were in their mid 30’s and also had a few children. After introductions we had breakfast. I wish I could say that breakfast is like ours in the states- waffles, syrup all of that, but instead it was quite the cultural change to some different sorts of carbs (I don’t want to say bread because its not really “bread”) that is dipped into an array of really spicy sauces. Overall it was absolutely amazing and definitely a once in a lifetime experience. After we finished breakfast we took a walk around the farm. We got to watch one of the farm hands climb a coconut tree and throw down a few coconuts and then we even got to try (which I did and have pictures of by the way!) We also tasted coconut water- which I had also tried at Itaparicha Island in Brazil, but of course its always worth the experience- after all we don’t have coconuts in Connecticut. They also showed us the silk pods. They look like bananas but when they are ripe and burst open it is actually these fine threads of silk, because they are so fine though the farmers can’t use them to weave or sew and instead they are used as stuffing for pillows and cots. I was also the guinea pig for holding a bunch of seeds. The seeds looked like smaller and thinner pea pods and when you sprinkle water on them they pop and the actual seeds come out. This is a protective mechanism so the seeds don’t get dried up waiting for the rain. Instead when the monsoons come the rain water will allow the seeds to pop and thus grow into more trees. We also saw a few nutmeg trees- I thought that was kind of interesting because isn’t Connecticut the “nutmeg state”. It made me smile and think of everyone back home. We also had the opportunity to take a look at the well that is used to irrigate the farm. The farm, by the way, wasn’t really a farm that I know would be my first thought. It was more of like a tree farm since coconuts and I think sugar cane are the two things that are produced and sold. After our walk around the farm we jumped on the busses and went to a sugar factory. It was extremely similar to my sugar adventure in Mauritius, though at a crasser scale. The machinery was much simpler and probably less efficient. We saw the bundles of sugar cane getting fed into one machine that cracked the sugar cane in order to get all of the juice out and smashed it into little pieces, then those pieces fell on the other side of the machine and were eventually dried and used as wood for the fires that separated and cooked the sugar cane juice. The sugar cane juice collected in the first machine was piped into the big pots that were over a fire. The men working these machines would sprinkle a powder and stir the liquid until crystallization took place on the top and then the top layer was scooped out and put in another bucket. At the sugar plantation we also met some of the children. The girls were sent to the local schools but for some reason many of the boys stayed behind. Purni- one of the daughter – in- laws tried to explain that although their family tries to convince the workers to send their children to school, some value the boys work over his education. Although Purni’s family doesn’t actually own these factories, they are by far the wealthiest in the area and therefore have significant weight in the local government as well as a lot of respect from the workers. The factory was also extremely hot and I was sweating as soon as I got off the bus and being near the boiling water definitely didn’t help. I really don’t understand how people can manage to work like that, although I’m sure most of them probably are not exposed to air conditioning and therefore don’t know anything else but the sweltering heat and the downpour rains of the monsoons. After the sugar cane visit we went to the local coconut factory and we saw how they managed to use all of this as well. The coconuts are first cracked in half and the juice is sold as coconut milk. The shell is then split into two, the inner layer which is used as coconut and the outer layer which is then chopped up into even smaller pieces and then separated. The chips of the outer coconut are used in the fire to generate electricity and the coconut hair is then put into a spinner which is then bundled, separated and finally packaged into cubes of hair. The room for the final step was covered in dust and everyone’s pictures have these sparkling circles in it because there were just too many particles flying through the air. After the coconut factory we went to the local school. The school is split into two parts based on age. The students sit on the floor and have chalkboards for practicing their handwriting and writing down their answers. The only piece of furniture was the teachers desk and chair. The chalkboards had the English alphabet with its counterpart picture (a = apple) as well as some paragraphs and phrases that were in their local language. Everything was in cursive. Some of my fellow SAS’ers had brought stickers and such to share with the students and we were soon bombarded by kids saying “I want…” It was crazy. I let some of the students use my camera to take pictures but I had to keep deleting them so my memory card didn’t get too full too fast. Right before I left I took a picture with the kids and Lester for Jeffery. The kids all wanted to take him home but I had to keep saying that he was mine. After visiting the school we took a walk around the village. We went to the “tea markets” which is where the people gather in the morning to drink tea and coffee- It looked more like a vendor shop. And then to a carpet weaver’s house. We watched him make part of a carpet while his wife was spinning thread onto the spools he used. They also had the craziest chickens that kept attacking us. It was nuts. After the carpet weavers, one of the husbands pointed out the latest movie advertisement. I took a picture of it, because it was very amusing since it looked NOTHING like our recent movies to have come out. Then we went to a silk weavers house. They were in this room that was filled with the silk stuffing and they had baskets that they used to take out the silk stuffing and throw it into the pile. Then we visited a townhouse which was much smaller with even less furniture as Purni’s mother in law’s house. It was at this moment that I realized that none of the buildings here at a full set of 4 walls and a ceiling. If the room had a ceiling, there was no 4^th wall. It was a wild realization because I definitely take for granted my four walls around me with a roof over my head. However, one must keep in mind that in their culture the idea of being completely surrounded would be insane because it is so incredibly hot all year round with the exception being the one month they actually have rain. We continued our walk around the village and saw the communal well as well as the communal grinder (mort and pestle- pestle being a huge rock). And then we waved goodbye- they were outside, I’m assuming chanting the motto or something, though it could have been religious, but I’m assuming they wouldn’t have waved back if it was one of those things. We went back the house where we rested and chatted, had watermelon and had the privilege of looking at their wedding Albums. The usual wedding has about… 5 thousand people. Yes that’s right 5 thousand. And that’s average. We were blown away and couldn’t imagine knowing 5 thousand people to invite never mind 5 thousand that would actually want to come to our weddings. But weddings are big celebrations that the entire village and everyone who is slightly related to is invited to come. Purni only had 3 thousand and the other one only had about 1 thousand, but still! The men and the women are always separated at any ceremony and the men where all white while the women are brightly colored in their fancy sarees. The sarees that the mother used at her wedding and at her revow ceremony were at least a thousand if not several thousand U.S. dollars each. It was insane how much money was devoted to a wedding. Usually the husbands family also received a dowry, however in both daughter-in-law cases the husbands family didn’t receive any dowry. Also weddings are arranged, though free choice is slowly catching on in the bigger cities. The weddings are arranged by the parents and it is usually to someone the family doesn’t know very well in hopes of strengthening the relationship between families. After learning a lot about their customs for weddings, certain ceremonies- for example most of the wedding is based on ice breakers since families don’t usually know each other very well and they have friendly competitions between the new husband and the brother of the bride and other games like that. We also learned about retirement and how it was the moment in time where the elderly give up their material goods to the younger generations so they can spend their time preparing for their next life. After a nice long talk and discussion, we had lunch- sitting down in the serving room. It was crazy. Again the leaves were brought out and sauces were poured on and we were given bread like things to dip into the sauces. Again extremely spicy but very good. After Lunch was finished we all went to go take naps. Because it is the hottest time of the day, the family takes a nap or at least rests everyday right after lunch until about 4pm. So I took a much needed nap for a few hours and it was beautiful although extremely hot. The electricity on the farm is also shut off for several hours and the fan in our room as well as all of our lights shut off instantly. Though one of the blond girls in the group was playing with the lights and so we told her she had broken the fuse and she should go fix it. And then come to find out it was only the electricity getting turned off. After naptime, we had some tea (which was amazing) and then we headed out to go to the market. Boy were we celebrities since we were probably some of the few white people they have ever seen. They just kept staring at us and they all wanted out business (naturally) and kept trying to talk to us in their native language and smiling. It was really an interesting experience. I felt like a fish in the middle of a strange fishbowl. At the market I bought a blanket and a few canvas bags for gifts. I wanted to get some bangles but they were the cheap plastic kind that hurt when you put them on so I was like… uh no thanks! After about an hour and a beautiful start of a sunset later, we headed back to the farm house for a tour of the house. We were able to see the cows and bulls and the garden area where they had massive amounts of coconut, banana and other kinds of trees that they sell to other farmers. We also stood by the well where all of the manure goes which generates electricity and also fertilizer. After removing our shoes (we had our shoes off for most of the day because every time you enter a house you have to remove your shoes to show respect.) At least its definitely not for cleanliness because there is so much dirt already in the house. They showed us their living quarters and the storage room as well as their temple. They also explained Hinduism to us. Basically it’s a monotheistic religion that believes in one god, however this one god takes different forms so for example, Purni and the family believe in Jesus, Shiva (the destroyer) Burma (the creator) and others believe in allah and budha because in their religion they are all the same god. They had pictures of Jesus as well as the other gods in their temple area. They also put the bindi’s on us as well as the ash and explained those purposes. The bindi is used to focus the mind and spirit and the ash that is used is to remind the other hindu’s you see on the street that we are all made of ash (“ashes to ashes”). It was really nice because they allowed us to really pick their brains. They showed us their drying room, it was a courtyard that was devoted to laying out certain foods and nuts that needed to be dried before they can be used. We also tried a few of the foods and my, were they tart! Then they showed the kitchen- which I got wonderful pictures of for Melanie J I thought she might want to see what other kitchens around the world look like. And then we had dinner- the same style as breakfast on tin pans. After dinner, the local delites or untouchables came to the farm to do a performance. We had to walk to the end of the drive. As much as the girls are against the caste system, it very much so runs their lives. Some one asked me why erode was known as anti-Brahmans. At first my conclusion was that the caste system wasn’t as largely ruled in this area. But from this night time experience and a few stories I heard from the first group that came as well as the information that Purni and the family gave me, I have changed my answer. When asked how many other farms were like theirs, the answer was there are no other homes of this nature in their village. Which means no one else can afford to live in a home similar to this, which would bring me to the logical conclusion that if anyone was on the top of the caste system it would be Purni and the family. However when asked if they were in fact Brahman, they replied not quite. So the logical answer would be that the Erode area would be with out the Brahman, but since most of this is more based on the evidence then fact itself, I also come to the conclusion that more research is necessary. Anyways, the performance was pretty cool. There were about 6 drummers and 3 helpers (they heated and softened the drum so when struck, made the right pitch). I got up and danced with a few other girls including Kara a couple of times though since it was so dark the steps were sloppy on our part. I wish I could have recorded and brought the music home to show everyone at home the dance- it was pretty neat! After the performance we went back up the house and a bunch of us stayed up and talked. Vince, Kara and I stayed up with Purni and her sister in law until about 2am. I don’t think they minded because they loved answering the questions. We learned about sex, the importance of a girls virginity, homosexuality, family life and so much more. It was quite amazing. Oh and another interesting fact unrelated to India- Did you know that Hawaii imports sand? Yep that’s right, Vince’s dad imports sand (they live in Hawaii) and all 4 girls were completely dumbstruck- I mean really- why would Hawaii need more sand? But they do! After staying up really late and almost falling asleep talking, we went to bed. Of course no sooner had I laid in bed did I get these sharp pains from one side of my stomach to the other. I was up yet again for the majority of the night tossing and turning and wishing the pain would go away!

DAY 4 In ERODE INDIA

So after my little to no sleep, I woke up and got sick. So I took some Imodium hoping that would help and it did, it just didn’t help stop the pain. I decided that I was dehydrated and started drinking water like crazy but every 15 min or so I would have the big gashing pain from one side to the other. The group met at the meeting place and we gave the mom all of our gifts and then we went outside for group pictures of the family and then us with the family and then individual pictures with family members. After we unfortunately had to say goodbye (we were all very sad to leave after only staying for about 24 hours!) we had a 45 min drive back to Erode. We met the townhouse group at the local school which we later found out was founded by Purni’s uncle who now holds the title of Chairman. At the school everyone else had a big breakfast, but due to my stomach I opted for the watermelon alternative instead. I was also swarmed by school kids after returning from the bathroom. They wanted to know where I was staying and how I liked Erode and when I was going home. I explained that I was going back to Chennai that night and they wanted to know when I was going back home home. I told them I wouldn’t be home home until the middle of May and that first I had to go to Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Japan. The adult asked if I was flying and I said no a ship. He looked really confused but after a while I think they understood me. It was really an interesting experience that makes me smile! After breakfast we went to go visit the temples. The first one we visited was right outside of town and was a small one devoted to a god that sends a horse out to get rid of bad spirits. Families come to pray at the temples and after the miracle has occurred they come back with offerings and so on the outside there was a line of people statues that was supposed to represent the grateful people and then several statues of the god. Both Lester and I were blessed with the ashes, so that was a neat picture of Lester. (Lester is my travel buddy who is a ty baby cheetah). Then we got into the bus again and went to another much larger temple. We again were not allowed to wear shoes and the pavement was quite hot but most of the walk fortunately had a canvas carpet laid out. We walked the length of the temple grounds- again big courtyards with smaller buildings that housed certain forms of the god. This temple was pretty decent in size because all large temples, including this one, sit on a river that either splits or converges from 3 other rivers. They believe in a creator (catholic God), destroyer (catholic Holy Spirit) and observer (catholic Jesus). Each of these gods also have a goddess that coincides though unfortunately I can’t remember what the goddesses represented. Hopefully I’ll remember later on. The water is also extremely polluted and disgusting from the silicon plants that are nearby, but that doesn’t stop people from bathing or washing their clothes in the holy river. There was also an area of water that was devoted to sending off the ashes of a cremated body (the preferred method) which doubled as a bathing pool. Here we were also stared at and many people came begging hoping to get money out of us. We went through the temples and were able to receive the ashes and the red bindi paint which was neat. We also learned that at the entrance of a temple or holy room there was a large step that when you enter you have to step over. The large step is there to ward off any bad spirits and it is believed that if you step on it your bad spirits will enter the room. The higher the man in command the higher the step needed to be to protect the priest or whoever even more. There was also an elephant in the temple so I got to see a real elephant- very exciting J And another story was about the British Consular who was basically either saved by or helped out a small child who looked remarkably like one of the hindu gods. Upon realizing who the child was, he asked the locals if he could go to the temple to pray and give gratitude. Unfortunately because he was a foreigner he was not allowed to enter so instead they took 3 bricks out of the wall so he could peer in and see the god and pray and take part in his religious beliefs. Foreigners are now allowed in the temple, by the way! After the temples we went to a carpet weaver and I had the opportunity to help make a few stitches into the carpet- very exciting. I also bought placemats and a mat for the floor. Again very exciting purchases J When we left Purni’s they had given us a bunch of bananas and since one woman was being particularly annoying Kara just gave her a bunch of these bananas that were gradually getting black. Then we went to a disabled orphanage where they did this official welcome ceremony which was awesome. Our trip leaders were presented with flower necklaces and each student was given a string of flowers for their hair. Then the students performed for us, a few English songs and then there was an Indian dance and then karate. We then performed Hokey Pokey and then started talking to the kids, more pictures and again more SAS’ers gave out stickers and such to the students. Then we went back to the school for more lunch- I ate a good banana and a bread butter and jam sandwich and then I took a nap until 4pm hoping to get rid of the chronic pain in my stomach to no avail. At 4pm, 9 dancers performed and Indian dance and invited us to join. I had decided long before this trip that even if I wasn’t feeling well that I would force myself to do the things I would regret- trying to dance was one of them. So I got up there and did my best to follow along, trying not to focus on my stomach though in my head I knew it was just going to get worse. After the dance they handed out “Youth of India” books. I’ll let you know how it is when I get a chance to read it, though my first impression is slight brainwashing- one of the chapter titles is “how India will conquer the world” so it should prove to be educational of sorts. Then a group of students started playing basketball with the girls team. It was pretty clear that we were extremely out of shape and they were extremely good. I was personally impressed by their basketball skills. I also thought of Purni because she had mentioned playing basketball in her youth and how she related to Bend it Like Beckham because her parents also didn’t understand and forced her to stop playing basketball and get married. After basketball we went to a local medicine factory. I went into the first room that was filled with spices and had to walk back out. The smell was way too much for my stomach. I tried going into a few other rooms but again the smell was too much and I ended up sitting outside each building with the wife of our trip leader (she was exhausted) After the tour they company brought us to their canteen and gave us snacks and then led us up to the child care center they have for their employees, I however did not join my group in interacting with the screaming children and opted for the peaceful meditation room where I could relax my stomach and hopefully get rid of the pain that way. The other students eventually joined me and everyone participated in meditation which was very relaxing. Then we got on to the bus and headed back to the school to eat dinner. I again, couldn’t stand the smell of the food and opted out, drinking water and I tasted the ice cream instead. At the end of our dinner the chairman of the school, Purni’s Uncle, came and explained who he was and his affiliation with the school. The meeting was rushed though because we were late for the train so we trooped on to the bus and headed to the station. At this point my head was pounding, my stomach empty with thrashing pains and my entire body was exhausted from the hectic days of India. I finally was given a bed, another top bunk and I secured my belongings, climbed up and passed out.

DAY 5 IN INDIA

In the morning my stomach felt much better though the occasional dull pain resounded and my head and body felt slightly better. After finally returning to the ship and waiting in line to get back on the ship, I took a nice beautiful shower. However, it wasn’t nearly as long as I wanted it to be because we are conserving water so that ISE doesn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for water and water removal in India. When I felt refreshed I settled down, unpacked and repacked all of my souvenirs, which again, I didn’t think my things would take up so much room, but I guess they do. At 8am I met up with Juli, Caitlyn and Katie for breakfast. I am horrified to tell this story, but I’m pretty sure that everyone back home will have a kick out of this. Just promise me that you won’t bring this up to my face EVER! So Juli, Caitlyn and Katie managed to score a table with Desmund Tutu and his wife. And as proven in many of the ports that we go to- Desmund is quite the celebrity. He often appears in the newspaper with an article strictly devoted to his arrival. Well when I finally saw my friends I ran over and they asked me about my trip and I was like well it was really great until my stomach started KILLING me and I started to explain about how my stomach felt like it was being cut open from one side to the other and how terrible it was. My friends mouths dropped and then the archbishop turns to his wife and mumbles something. I DIED – didn’t even SEE him there. Couldn’t believe that I had just done that so I was like alright I’m going to go get some food and I’ll meet up with you later. And I haven’t lived down that moment since. Anyways, Since Caitlyn was going on a trip for the day, the rest of us decided to meet Lydia at 9am to leave. We left the ship a little after because we had to look for the address of the saree shop we needed to go to in order to pick up our outfits. Then there was the hassle with the rickshaw driver. We weren’t allowed to go with him for some reason so we had to find another one. Thank god Juli was with us because she handled the entire situation. We got to the sari shop and tried on our sarees- both of mine were BEAUTIFUL and I am extremely excited to show you all what they look like. I’m going to attempt to post pictures as always but it is all dependent on the internet service. Katie caved and bought a saree, though unfortunately we didn’t have time to get her top fitted and made. After picking up our sarees we went to Nalli so Katie could take a look, she bought a few scarves and some fabric and Lydia returned one of her sarees. After Nalli we went to Spencers Plaza and started shopping a bit, we started looking at shoes and Then we went to Landmark which was there version of regular Walmart without the clothes and shoes, but they had luggage, jewelry, books, childrens toys, perfumes, houseware goods, etc. I bought an India Barbie doll there- I hadn’t seen a doll anywhere and I really wanted/needed one for my collection- at least it is actually made in India…and I picked up some more postcards and Juli found the CUTEST book ever. Its called “Excuse me, Is this India” and is a book about how this child’s aunt goes to India and brings back a quilt and a bunch of pictures. That night the child dreams he goes to India and meets all of the people the aunt had met and how one day they will go visit. It is the cutest thing ever. Juli bought two one for each of her sisters kids and at the moment I have 1 copy (they only had 3). So I am going to start hunting for it in other countries and if nothing else I will pay 3 times as much to buy at least one other copy. The copy I have right now is definitely going to Andrew though. The goal was to get small stuff whenever I could- the bracelets in Bahamas and Brazil and the bindi’s in India and get at least one bigger gift- umbrella, fan and shirt for the young nieces in Hong Kong, Jessica got a purse and then I was going to get something for Andrew in India, so I’ll give him the book and he got a t-shirt in Bahamas. But its definitely something I want Morgan and Madison to have because it is just too cute of a book!! So Deb, you should check it out! Excuse me Is this India by Anita Leutwiler and Anushka Ravishankar. After the bookstore we went to go eat- Domino’s again. My stomach was entirely way to delicate for Indian spicy food. After Lunch we went back to the rickshaws who took us to the ship. At the ship we found out that Caitlyn and Liz had already left and had not waited for us like they had agreed. Thankfully Christina was still there and decided not to go to the orphanage and instead would join us in shopping making the money we spent to come back to the ship worthwhile. Either way this event created even more tension between Caitlyn and myself. Christina, and two other girls also joined and we tried to get to a government shop which was supposed to be a cheap jewelry store and instead it was one of the expensive shops that we were taken to on the first day here. Then we went back to spencers into Pantaloons (their H&M) and Caitlyn was in there, still feeling a little perturbed by being ditched after spending money to get back, Juli and I left to go shopping on our own. So we went looking for shoes- we both bought the same pair which matches all of my sarees which I’m really excited about. And then I purchased my 2^nd Christmas ornament and a few pillowcases. I had a few extra rupees so Juli and I got portraits done in Landmark and used the rest to get cookies. And then we got into rickshaws and went back to the ship. At which point we were swarmed by beggars and our rickshaw driver kept getting mad at the price (which we had already agreed upon) and was just a crappy end to the stay at India. After waiting in line and getting onto the ship I took a shower and started showing Christina my souvenirs and eventually just passed out on my bed.

NO Classes AT Sea

We have heard many rumors as to why we got this day off, some include the fact that since so many of us get the “delhi belly” and are extremely sick anyways, they just don’t bother with classes. Another was that since India is such a powerful country to go visit we have the day off and then another was something about cleaning the ship because its so dirty or something. I don’t know, but we got a day off and it was amazing. Christina and I slept until noon, went to lunch which was alright and then went back to the room and I started recounting my story of India, Juli kept popping in and hanging out with us. I tried on my Sarees and took pictures, hopefully I’ll have time to post the pictures because I think that I look great in them and I have gotten quite a few compliments! At 6:20pm I got a phone call from my “dad” on the ship. He was asking me to bring my favorite item that I bought in India to the B-day Party. I quickly ate dinner, went back to my room and changed into my green saree and went upstairs to my “parents” room. Everyone loved the saree and I told them about the blue one that I would probably wear to the Ambassadors ball and they asked me to bring it the next time. We exchanged stories about India and talked until about 8pm. I headed back to my room and sure enough our group of friends was hanging out on our beds. I’m really really happy that our room is the “meeting room” and the “cool place to hang out” but sometimes I just want to pass out on my bed and having 3 people already on my bed just doesn’t help. I don’t remember too many other details of the night aside from staying up really late talking until I finally just passed out.

DAY A at SEA

8am directing class was an alright class, we joined with a spirituality class to do some improvisational exercises and warm ups. It was an interesting class to say the least. I stayed in the Union, front seats actually, for Global Studies which was okay. I found out Caitlyn thinks I’m depressed from everything that happened to me because I was being short with her the past few days in India… but after ditching us… I don’t really feel all that bad. Its not like the money was a big deal it equated to about 5 u.s. dollars, its more the principle of it. Anyways, we started learning about Malaysia- Oh what fun! So respect is a BIG issue in Malaysia/ Muslim countries. Anytime a younger person greets an older one they kiss their older persons hand as a sign of respect. The entire group is also an extremely reserved community. Boys and Girls are always separated and even husbands and wives can not show affection towards each other in public. HOWEVER, we were warned that it is extremely common to find same sex individuals holding hands and looking intimate because it is their culture (homosexuality is not really popular and I don’t think its allowed though I could be wrong). So needless to say our time in Malaysia will be quite interesting. Add on the fact that alcohol is not widely used so therefore is not widely found disappointed many of my peers. I honestly would not care at all, but it IS my 21^st birthday my last day there and I can’t even take a shot to celebrate it! Oh well, that just means Mom and Chris are taking me out the first night in Vietnam! After global studies I came back to my room and wrote my Critical Issues paper on Mauritius and India, had lunch, and then finished my paper. The printer however was going extremely slow and I have severe issues and it took my paper an hour and a half to print which made me a half hour late for class. I wasn’t very happy! In critical Issues we continued talking about decolonization and are slowly turning to China as the focus. After Critical Issues I went with Liz up to the 7^th deck to get her some cookies and then we went back to the room. I think I ended up reading more of Wild Swans. Around 6ish we had dinner followed by Ambassador’s Ball Committee meeting. Yet again Christina and I left the room feeling extremely peeved about the entire process. So we set up these committees right? And Ideally these committees would brainstorm and even narrow down the choices or even make the final decisions about certain things. Well I don’t think a single one of them has met yet. Every time I get a flyer for “food committee” it turns out a regular meeting is taking place in the same room at the same time. Well no one has purchased any decorations with the exception of some balloons and string to make an arch. So finally at this meeting the board members were like “okay we need to get some ideas going because Malaysia and Vietnam are the last two ports we can really buy everything” (which is what Christina and I have been saying since day one- we need to plan out what will be in each room before we are just turned loose in a foreign country) So the decorations committee split the rooms among themselves. Christina and I decided we wanted at least one room to look good so we volunteered despite not actually being a part of the decorations committee. Our choice: China and Japan. First I should back up and say that our theme for the ball is “Oh the places we have gone” which is really cute, but very unoriginal since we are going around the world but also strangely fitting. I have mixed feelings though I think it would be more fun if we had a more specific theme. The 5^th floor dining room will be at our disposal. It will be a sit down dinner and we will be served by the crew (instead of buffet style). The meal will consist of appetizers, salad and a main meal. Then on the 6^th floor the classrooms are getting transformed into a selection of countries we have visited – Puerto Rico/Brazil = Latin America, South Africa/Mauritius = Africa, India, Malaysia/Vietnam = South East Asia, China/Japan. And then the Union will be a mix of everywhere and that is where the dancing will take place. Dessert will be served on the 7^th deck and from what we have heard it should be amazing. One of the more unfortunate parts is that our advisor for this was a student a few years ago and the first few meetings bragged about her voyage donated 9,000 dollars to Students of Service which dispersed the money to all of the service places we went to throughout the semester. Our voyage at the moment might have 1500 if we are really lucky. Her voyage only used several hundred dollars for decorations and everything else that attributed to the ball. Unfortunately if we do that we would be reduced to construction paper and souvenirs people will actually allow us to borrow, and basically it is unlikely that we will manage to do that same goal. The point of telling you that was just because it was a supreme letdown. As a student on this ship I want to donate as much as I can to these organizations, but if I’m paying 25 dollars a ticket in order to go I want it to look good. Its just like going to a really crappy prom. Its just not a good time if everything is cheesy and little thought or preparation went into it. So my personal goal is to make at least one room look good. So Christina and I piled a list of things that we could decorate the room with from China that we wouldn’t mind saving as souvenirs afterwards, that way we aren’t using up the ball budget but we are getting things that are pretty neat. As promised to Katelee, I will be picking up some Chinese fans, as well as maybe some Chinese shirts and sun umbrellas. In Japan I hope to get a second hand Kimono because that would be amazing, but I’ve heard they are really expensive L. If nothing else I’ll get the summer one which is a little less expensive. We also are going to make a Great Wall of China out of construction paper with a marker so students can write their favorite memory of either country. Christina also wants some Chinese lanterns for her classroom so we would use them first to decorate the room. We also want to find someone (we know there are several!) who knows origami to make about 5 big cranes for table decorations or even hanging from the ceiling. And of course who could celebrate a country without the flag! As a committee the hope is that each room will also have some activities to go along with the country so the kids, adults and students can participate. Since we are assuming that fortune cookies- although not an actual pastime of china, can be found in china and hopefully for very cheap, we are going to get a lot of them to be put in the room. And as a game we want to have a chop stick race- two people get ten grains of rice and who ever picks them each up and puts it in the bowl on the opposite side of the table wins. After our meeting we had Cultural Pre-port. It was also quite interesting, though not nearly as good as the past few pre-ports have been. There was a slide show of Malaysia and there was something really funny but we can’t seem to remember… so I guess it wasn’t all that amusing…. After Pre-port Christina and I went back to our room in hopes of continuing our homework. Juli ended up coming in and I passed out quite early.

DAY B at SEA

Today was an alright day. Christina and I were late to Global Studies again, neither of us really like the class and we always wait for the other one to finish getting ready and so… we are always late. We found out we have to memorize all 48 countries of Europe for our next test- that was fun. Also the comment above… you know the one about the leprosy… April Fools J It was the joke Dr. Matt played on the entire campus first thing in the morning! Other then that Global Studies was boring at first until the Q and A with the interport lecturer. That was pretty neat because we were able to learn about their values and way of life. After Global, I went back to my room to clean up my room a bit. Soon after was lunch time which was an okay lunch. After lunch I went back down to my room and continued on my blog until I had to go to Energy Technology and Society. Energy class was alright. We talked about the amount of energy sources used around the world- how much coal, oil, natural gas, etc. It was alright. After class I headed back to my room where Juli and Christina were hanging out and continued to write a few more sentences in my blog. At 6pm I had to go to dinner, 6:30pm was another family B-day party. I brought my saree to show my family- they loved it and a few said they would come just to see me in it. And the suggestion came up that we should have a photo shoot like you did at your parent’s house right before prom in our “parent’s” cabin. I had a good time and LOVE my family. I can’t wait for my mom and Christine to meet my “mom and dad” on the ship! J At 7pm I had another ambassador’s decoration meeting to give our ideas up. Again nothing was accomplished. I let them know that Christina and I were going to take care of everything for our room. And that brought us straight to Logistical Pre-Port, again not as funny as other pre-ports have been. But I give them props for changing it up. This time we had a shadow puppet performance that gave us all of the information we needed. It was really amusing, though at times it was repetitive. Overall I would rate it as a solid B letter grade. After Logistical Pre-port, I talked to Marvel who said as long as I found a florist, she would stop by and pick up 5 flowers for Christina, Juli and I. I don’t know if I explained this before but when leaving a person passes away on a ship, they usually toss the body over in a coffin and then the ship turns in a circle and the everyone throws a flower into the sea. So after Malaysia, provided that we manage to get the flowers, the three of us will have a mini memorial service for all of the people we have missed wakes and funerals for. And just to make it that much more meaningful, it will be on my birthday since that is the day we will be departing Malaysia. So I just have to leave her a note by Tuesday morning with the address and information and she said she would take care of it. And now I’m sitting in my room finishing this blog while “the gang” is up on the 7^th deck chowing down some food. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Penny For My Thoughts J

My favorite part, reflection… will unfortunately have to wait until next blog because I’m getting exhausted and really want to post this before Malaysia!

My hope is to post this early tomorrow morning and then take pictures of Malaysia. I don’t know if it will happen, but a girl can dream! So my plans for Malaysia:

April 2^nd- Day- by myself unless I can find someone to hang with. Night- Welcome Reception with the gang

April 3^rd- Morning- leave for Kuala Lumpur.

April 4^th- More KL

April 5^th- Happy Birthday to me!!! Free morning in KL and then bus back to Penang, then to ship. Night time memorial.

April 6^th – my family b-day party for me (Day A)

April 7^th – Working with my Actors, Cultural Pre-port for Vietnam (Day B)

April 8^th – Sunrise Easter service with Tutu, Logistical Pre-port for Vietnam (Day A)

April 9^th – Arrive in Vietnam at 10am, Chris and my mother SHOULD be at the pier waiting for our arrival J and free day with them.

April 10^th – Chu Chi Tunnels and Temple

April 11^th – Free day?

April 12^th – Orphanage?

April 13^th – Mekong Delta Day Trip

April 14^th – Leave Vietnam at 6am to continue on our journey. working with Actors (Day B)

April 15^th- Global Studies Exam- Yeah! (not really!) Cultural Pre-Port for Hong Kong (Day A)

So that’s the scoop! Hope you enjoy! I hope life is great back home. I miss you all like crazy and I appreciate all of the letters I got in India!! J Enjoy the blog and hopefully I’ll be able to post a lot of pictures to go along with this blog for you! I miss you and love you all, Have a great time.