Voyage of Discovery

Wow.. long needed Update

2008-02-24T21:48:00.004-05:00

As disappointing as this is, I'm still not going to be filling you in about Japan and returning home. What I will do, is briefly fill you in on the last several months. Wow. its been 9 months. And it took me about .5 secs to bring me to tears just thinking about that. Of course, lately a lot of things bring me to tears that quickly, but I guess that just comes with the territory.

So I got home, and was called a lesbian for the first few weeks I was back, finally discovered a cute hairdo and my life turned upside down. I mean, I used to be hit on before, but damn it was at least 10 times as worse as before. Everyone loved the sassy do and loved to let me know. As much as I didn't want or need the attention, I can't lie I did enjoy it. I started up school again and no one recognized me, slowly people started realizing who I was again (I mean I did cut off 10 + inches of hair!) and it got to be pretty normal. I still get comments like "wow I didn't recognize you, your hair looks great" from random people who I just haven't seen in about a year at this point. About mid-semester Ryan was sent overseas and soon after his baby was born (Aaron Michael Sears). Things got rockier and crazier for me and they pretty much haven't stopped. I balance a fine line between really great and really bad, I guess that is what happens when you try to live your life to the absolute fullest. I didn't sleep much last semester, worked 2 jobs and had 18 credits, don't know how I did it, but I survived and even managed to pull straight A's. The highlight of my semester was probably talking to one of my professors about my trip culminating in an hour long presentation of Semester At Sea. It was amazing. At this point my friends are getting bored with it so I don't have many opportunities to talk about it, but lord there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of it. And on days where I have the time, and even days that I don't, I take that extra moment to soak it all in- remember how the ship used to rock- how funny it was to walk drunk down the hallway without even consuming alcohol, or how sick I would get if I didn't take my pill or eat at regular intervals. How we used to laugh at how terrible that food was and dreaming of what our first meal would be. The feeling I had when I shaved my head, or when I walked out of the ship into a brand new world. The amazing sensation it was to know and experience all walks of life. I'm running away from my self though...

the point is, just as I wouldn't have imagined a year before I went that I would have been embarking on the trip of a lifetime, I know a year ago I couldn't have imagined where my life has taken me and how difficult life would be in this moment. A year ago, I had planned on going for my education certification, would still have another year of undergrad and would be in this area for the rest of my life. And now? today? I'm preparing to visit grad schools for stage management. How out of this world! I contradict myself everyday about it- will I make it? Can I make it? Is this really what I want? When I'm in that rehearsal space (and not one that Greg is sitting in on) all I can think is yes! Yes! YES! This is all I want to do!!! But the minute I walk out of those doors, I question myself as always. Am i really prepared to break off and go half way across this country by myself? Do I really want it? Do I want to be a gypsy and travel the world? 6 months ago i did. 9 months ago I would have given my right arm to be back on that ship. Even today I would give that arm to be there in a world where EVERYTHING was YES YOU CAN DO IT! And now I'm back here at Eastern, where everything is in limbo land, where a straight answer can't be found. I'm back to be insecure and unstable. I'm a ruined girl. And how does one recover from this? I am uncertain.

Well, I guess that's all for today.

"I wanna go home"

2007-09-19T10:20:00.000-05:00

One day,... I promise I'll finish this post. But for now, I give you these lyrics to wrap up my feelings towards the end of the voyage.

"Home"

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

Gosh I just don't know where to begin, but hopefully I'll take care of this later on today.... Love you all!

~Jennifer

Qindao Pictures

2007-05-19T16:58:00.000-05:00

Here is Qindao, not too exciting, more of an Industrial Port so there aren't many "pretty" pictures, mainly just steal, coal and rock piles everywhere...

Communist Military Guards

Tower in Qindao

Sunrise on way to Qindao China

Beer Bench

One of the Students at Children's Palace

Practicing Karate

Practicing Ballet at Children's Palace

Hong Kong Pictures

2007-05-19T16:44:00.000-05:00

Bridesmaids of a wedding posing for a picture
Ship/ Hong Kong Skyline!

Gross fruit!- but isn't it interesting?
The market- yep thats right, veggies or underware- which will they choose?
Lester and his empty cup of Birds nest soup- not to my liking, very coconuty.
Natural Medicine Shop
One of the 5 wedding pictures we saw taken on our way to lunch

Hong Kong Skyline
More Hong Kong landscape
Better Hong Kong Skyline
Cultural Building? I'm not sure but it was neat
And because I'm a techie dork- the awesome moving light that is a part of the nightly light show!

Vietnam Pictures

2007-05-19T16:21:00.000-05:00

As with the Malaysia photos, here is the Vietnam! Now get off my back ;) Love you all and see you soon!

opera house at night
the girls and mom
mekong delta ride
mom and the disabled
Chris @ the disabled home
Me and my eccentric post card selling friend
History museum. Notice all of the wires- this looks tame
Jenn and Mom!

Workers in the rice paddies
At the temple
Cho Chi Tunnel
Can you find the air holes?
Mom and Chris going down the tunnel.

Vietnam Boat!
Beautiful morning pulling into Vietnam
Small boat in Vietnam

Can you find my mom and Chris??

Malaysia Pictures

2007-05-19T16:06:00.000-05:00

Alright, to make up for my... lack of blogging of my last 3 weeks on the ship. I decided to hide this by posting lots of pictures.. I might miss a country or two.. but for now here is Malaysia!

The Ship in Malaysia from the top of the mountain

Gorgeous Sky on our first night there

Cool Fountain in Kuala Lumpur (capital of Malaysia.) Its a war memorial for 3 of their wars

Supreme Court building through a tinted window.

The triangle building is the Parliment building

Christina, Myself and Katie at the Multi-Cultural dinner

Our shadow!

The three of us on the monorail!

Penang, Malaysia

The really cool street lights in Malaysia

Hong Kong and China

2007-05-12T13:14:00.000-05:00

well this brings my total up to two posts- so make sure you check them both out! Hopefully one more later on today! Love you all!

NEXT POSTING

First I just want to say this day is just not getting any better for me. I just did my nails and right after posting the Vietnam stuff, what do I do? Break a nail. Not just break, slaughter, right down to the skin. So now my nails and finger in general KILL and now my nail is ugly so now I’m mad at myself. I felt so pretty the past couple of days and now I’m back to being a ragamuffin. I just hate how much of a clutz I am. Arg. I’m annoyed. God it hurts so freakin much! Anyways, on with my tale…

So Day 1 at sea Pre-Hong Kong- KATIE’S 24th BIRTHDAY!
Directing was more showings which ended up ending early because the second scene didn’t show up which gave us all an extra 40 minutes to study for the 3rd Global Studies exam. As always, I was seasick while taking the exam and of course it was extremely difficult. I was not very happy with my exam after I took it, but I don’t know if studying more would have made it any better. After the exam I finished Critical Issues paper on Wild Swans. At class we handed them in and then discussed the book. At the end of class, I wanted to know if he thought the author’s next book would be available in Hong Kong and he basically said your guess is as good as mine. I think he was thrilled that I was asking… though I don’t think that helped my shots at a better grade.. oh well! After class I met Katie downstairs in my room for her clue. So a little while ago Christina and I thought up this brilliant idea to send Katie on a scavenger hunt for her birthday. So several times throughout the day she had to meet up with another friend to get another clue which would eventually send her to her party. It was so much fun. And then her gift was a tea set (her party was a tea party complete with pb&J triangle sandwiches and tea!). After her clue I took a shower and got ready. After the tea party we moved down to the 5th floor for dinner and then Alex joined us for cake. After her dinner, I met with my actor’s for my scene. Its going well J And then to reward myself I watched Sisterhood Of Traveling Pants and now I REALLY want to read all of the books now. And then my sea social was going on so I paused the movie, forgot my bracelet downstairs so I went back down to the room finished the movie and went back upstairs for the last few songs. At the end I went outside and spent some “jenn” time on the deck looking out on the water. Missing home, missing my friends, missing a lot of things. After I had a sufficient amount of time of thinking I went to bed. I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to the sea social and then because it was a passive kind of day, I wasn’t really in the mood to tolerate drunk people and wild dancing, so I didn’t really enjoy myself. I’m glad I went because I would have regretted it if I didn’t, but I just wish I had been in a better mood.

Day 2 on the Ship- DAY B

I woke up just in time for Global Studies and learned about ‘today’s china’. It was an alright class but my homesickness got the best of me. So after class I ran to the room, grabbed my computer and tried to get online to download some emails so I could at least hear about something and all I could get was Chris’s email telling me about my mom which just upset me even more and then the internet basically stopped functioning and I went to my room and just sobbed because all I wanted was to hear about what was going on back home. After I shook off my home sickness, I started studying for Energy exam which was going to be later on. I cried several times while taking the test that afternoon because I was just soo frustrated with the exam. I felt like I was taking the global exam all over again and was just not happy. After the exam I went back to the room to cry some more. One of my friends received a letter at lunch from their ‘extended families” written by a student and delivered to every faculty’s mailbox anonymously. It was interesting because it talked about being lost and afraid and feeling like the faculty doesn’t really care to know our names, which I can partially understand. Don’t get me wrong this trip has been amazing and faculty has been the crème of the crop especially compared to back at home university. But I know most of the faculty has no idea who I am and even the 3 of the 4 professors I have recognize me by face only and probably couldn’t tell you which class I am a part of. After reading and crying some more, my friends and I went to dinner and then I headed for another Family Party where we continued to discuss the letter in greater depth. At 8pm we had pre-port which was nothing too exciting with the promise that Japan would be 20 times better. Rumors flew that evening on the perks of staying behind. After a boring pre-port I soaked my toe which Chris called in the middle of to make sure that I got the email and then after that I continued to work on my outline for eventually typing this up until I went to bed.

DAY 1 in HONG KONG
At arrival, Christina and I woke up, she went to breakfast, I took a shower. An announcement went throughout the ship about the tragedy of Virgina Tech and that it would be discussed immediately in the union. So everyone gathered for and Marvel discussed the press releases made by the New York Times and then the Arch Bishop spoke about it and then there was a moment of silence. Also due to the tragedy our diplomatic briefing was cancelled. After the ship was cleared, Liz and I left to go get our rail passes, the process took too long (we went to the travel agency, then to the atm and then back) and so Liz ended up missing out on her trip, so we went to Starbucks for some lunch, crossed to Hong Kong and were interviewed by students. I was a little speechless because they were asking questions about their economy. We got a picture with him which is a neat scrapbook photo. After walking around and getting lost we found a bookstore that had Mao’s Biography which I was really excited about but I decided to wait to the end before purchasing (I didn’t end up finding it on the last day). After our brief stop at the book store, liz and I went on a bus search, when we finally found the right bus we headed to Stanley Market. Bought a few too many things and headed over a little later then originally planned, but it turned out to be okay. We met up with Juli and Christina in the room, liz quickly got ready while Christina jumped on the phone. In the mall area right outside of the Hong Kong port, we ran into Caitlyn who was sobbing because distant family member sort of lives near Virginia Tech and therefore she is directly connected to the situation back home and couldn’t stand hearing about any of it and didn’t know to know any of the updates from back home and ended up running away from Katie. Since Caitlyn (miss New York city girl) couldn’t cross the river and look for Katie by herself, Juli agreed to go over with her while Liz, Christina and I continued shopping. I bought some neat tea cups so I can make the tea that I bought in Mauritius. After making my purchases our group headed over to watch the light show. After the sweet light show, we decided to do some more shopping. I went to go take some more money to find out only that I don’t have my debit card. So I went back to the ship by myself (I wasn’t about to ruin anyone else’s night just because I’m an idiot) and unfortunately no luck. Though Dean Larry said he would stop at the travel agency to see if I left it there. So I scrapped my money together and spent the last of it on a phone card praying that it would allow me to get through to USAA. Called USAA, straightened out my internet card and recreated a new pin number for the internet for my cards. After they told me it was solved I went to go try my luck at the internet in the mall area and it unfortunately still didn’t work so I called USAA again and then tried the ATM and finally got my money situation all taken care of which made my night. I managed to move my money over and get more out and bought another phone card to call home. I downloaded all of my emails and got back on the ship to get ready for bed. When Christina got on we had a short story time before I passed out.

Day 2 in HONG KONG
I woke up extremely early (5 am) to call Deb to wish Madison a HAPPY Birthday, since it would have been 5pm back home on Madison’s b-day! And I called my house to talk to my dad and made a few other favorable phone calls that made my day followed by longer conversations on the internet in the mall area. After my computer died, I went back to the ship to take a shower, eat breakfast and go to Healthy Living Hong Kong Style. After our group met, we walked out to the Cultural Center a few blocks away which is right on the coast. On the Promenade we had a lesson in Qi Dong, the breathing exercises they do that are similar to yoga. It was really awesome. After a bathroom stop in the Art Museum (which was currently featuring Chinglish which is a mix of China and English art work combined). Then we had a city tour and stopped at a local Market. We saw ever food imaginable in its original form. Beef blood covered the side streets, fruits and vegetable covered the tables. It was unbelievable. After an explanation of what everyone was selling and doing, we went to the Jade Market and then to the bus. The tour continued to the “Bird’s Nest Soup” shop and we tried a healthy desert. It was an odd mixture of taste. It was a soup with a glass noodles that tasted like coconut. Then our tour headed to the medicinal shop where we were able to see all of the spices and concoctions that are natural ways of solving sickness. The bus brought us back to a restaurant on the Cultural building’s property. When we got off the bus though there were several wedding photos getting taken, it was pretty neat because I got to see all of their gorgeous dresses. Our meal was another interesting array of food. I didn’t eat a whole lot, but I tried everything they put in front of me. It just was too different for my taste buds. Leslie and I headed back to the ship together. Juli had left to go to the market with a friend and said she would be back around 3, seeing how I had a half hour I ran out to the travel agency to see if they had my debit card and thankfully they did so I that was a nice weight off of my shoulders. I headed back to the ship and got there at exactly 3pm. I fell asleep for a short nap until Juli finally showed up. The three of us headed out and Juli and I split off to find stamps, food, the bookstore to see if I could get Mao’s biography (which they didn’t have a nice copy of it so I was disappointed). With the extra money I went to starbucks and then called everyone back home again to say goodbye and love and miss them and went back on the ship. On the ship I went through all of my souvenirs. Juli and I took pictures of the city and then had dinner which had delicious apple crisp. In the middle of our dinner however we were interrupted by the muster call so the ship could find out how many people were joining us for the ship ride to Qindao. After they had a head count, the light show started and on the aft of the deck we were able to watch the show which was pretty awesome the second time around as well. We continued to take pictures of the scenery and then we went to bed.

DAY 1 on the SHIP
Juli and I decided to wake up at 8am, went to breakfast and then exchanged, went through all of our pictures. At which point I was going to settle down to write this blog when we put in Two can Play it that game and I was sucked into the movie. After the movie we went to lunch, but at our return Hector was cleaning my cabin so we went to Juli’s and went through all of her souvenirs. After about an hour and a half we went back to my room and watched Take the Lead and the Last Holiday. At which point we started to get ready for our sit-down dinner. I wore my cute sparkly dress from home and dinner was amazing. The food was actually good and nicely decorated and accessorized. We had a million pieces of silverware and everything it was really awesome. At the end of our meal one of the professors who stayed on sang a song and that was followed by a few crewmen. Overall it was pretty awesome night. After we were done with dinner I tried writing some more in this blog and stopped somewhere in Vietnam to go on the internet. After I got all my emails we watched Save the Last Dance until we fell asleep. Extremely relaxing day if you ask me J

Day 2 on the SHIP
Again we woke up at 8am to go to breakfast and after breakfast we tried to get onto the internet again and lost signal and thus wasted several minutes. The internet would remain off for the remainder of our private voyage which I was extremely angry about because here we finally had the opportunity to use fast internet and it wasn’t going to work. I was not a happy camper. After that we watched the Wedding Date, lunch followed by Dirty Dancing and Step Up. Again we got all dressed up, this time in Sarees and had another nice sit-down dancing complete with more sing-a-longs. It was another fantastic night. We got into comfy clothes, tried the internet and then watched another movie to go to bed to. Another relaxing day J

DAY 1 in QINDAO CHINA
At 8am we had breakfast and got ready to check out all that Qindao has to offer, which by the way is very little. We ported in an industrial port which was covered with steal and coal. It was all dirty and just extremely industrial. It took about 15 min to get to the outside of the port area and then a cab ride to get to the city part. We were dropped off at the Brewery but since Juli didn’t feel well we decided to walk around. The huge excitement was a huge shopping complex that was a full road of shops and malls which was pretty cool. I dropped a lot more money then I thought I would there. Despite spending more then I budgeted I was disappointed that it wasn’t very culturally significant in the sense there were no museums to be found or anything along those lines. We had a Chinese lunch which was alright though again very different from what we were expecting. I had to use the ladies room at Micky D’s which was a disappointing experience since we had our first lesson in Chinese etiquette- they don’t wait in lines. After our bathroom excursion, we continued shopping and made more purchases. For dinner we had Pizza Hut and then took a cab back to the ship. By then most of our friends had come back from Beijing so we showed them our purchases and let them know that Qindao was pretty lame though Chinese etiquette was pretty obvious everywhere you went. Children would pee in the middle of the street. Just the craziest things ever. Spitting- god it was like a communal thing where one person spits everyone else with in 50 feet has to do the same thing. It was astounding! Let me tell you, there may not have been any museums, but there CERTAINLY was educational phenomena’s to be found within the behavior of the people. After showing off, I went to bed ready for another day!

DAY 2 in CHINA
In the morning we headed to the Children’s palace where we all hoped we would be able to interact with the students. To our severe disappointment however we were only able to observe the classes going on and it was not quite as hands on as much as we all wished and hoped would be. After a brief tour of the outside, we went into the building to observe classes, it was a Sunday and therefore there were classes going on. We saw a karate performance as well as Ping Pong tournaments, ballet and more martial arts. We moved through a few of the buildings and even walked down to the nearby park to watch the classes. Overall it was an interesting trip and definitely worth wild. We headed back to the ship where we met up with everyone else and stopped to eat lunch since we wanted to save our money. Our first stop was at the bank where everyone took our more money. We headed to Wal-mart (I know I’m a disgrace but stuff was cheap!) I bought decorations for the Ambassador’s ball. After wal-mart we headed to the market where we split up. I bought a lot more things here. And after spending most of my money I yet again had dinner at Pizza Hut before buying a last minute jacket and the taxis ride back home. I tried out my new gel so I can actually have cute hair and then went to bed. Over all it was an Okay day that could have been better or worse with a lot of purchases that I’m excited about.

Alright more later :)

Vietnam.. I know late.

2007-05-12T05:08:00.000-05:00

Wow… it has been quite a while since I ended that last blog- WOW! You’ll have to bear with me because I don’t know if I’ll really be able to remember most of the griddy details. Its been CRAZY on this ship with very little time to do school work never mind working through all of the events we witness in each port. I hope some of you managed to catch up with my blog in the past few weeks, though I’m sorry to say this is another long one- it might just be easier to copy and paste into a word document J Overall I’m having a great time. I’m sure my family has been worried about me since I’m no longer on top of things, but life happens on this ship and things like school work unfortunately have top priority. Alright on with the griddy details.

Day B @ SEA – April 7th

Global Studies was mainly geered towards the business majors and discussed the different policies and other information for those that are interested in starting a partnership in Vietnam in the future. Kinda boring for those that are like myself, and are not focusing on business, though it was an educational experience as always. The rest of the day was pretty usual. I’m sure I napped and read more of Wild Swans. I don’t remember too much more about that day, but hopefully some stuff will come back to me

DAY A @ SEA/ EASTER SUNDAY!

So Christina and I woke up for Easter Sunday Mass in the Union with Archbishop presiding over the mass. It was an awesome (see Coreen- I can try to change up my vocab) and on a scale of 1-5 I mean it was about a 4 on the awesome rector scale. It would have been a 5 had most of the non-christian people not been there (they were a little disrespectful at times) and the words were posted a little better. Only the first few rows could actually see all of the words to the songs and everything so I missed out on a lot. I did however surprise myself with the amount that I actually remembered about Mass and all of the prayers since I was able to recite most of them pretty well. The mass was more of an Episcopalian than a Roman Catholic because it was modern day language instead of with all the thee’s and thou’s. Overall though I really enjoyed the mass and I was really glad that I was able to partake in it. After the mass they invited everyone to take a red carnation and follow the procession to the 4th aft deck to throw the flower into the water. It was another unbelievable experience. After throwing my flower in, I said goodbye to my friends and headed to class. Yes that’s right I had class on Easter. I guess we all have to make sacrifices and having class on my religious holiday is one of them. Then again its not like I had to go visit family. Directing was the first set of 2nd showings. It was a little nerve racking because it was quite good and definitely raised the bar for my actors. Global Studies was alright, lectured on Vietnam and current issues in Vietnam. Then I continued reading Wild Swans which has proven to be an eye opening book. I loved reading it and analyzing it. But anyways, In critical Issues we had a Q&A with the guest Lecturer for Vietnam. I was able to hear his stories about how the “American War” ruined his family since they were on both sides (much like our civil war). And his opinions on Mao and how no one talks bad about him, how the books that give any indication to a negative viewpoint is banned. It was just incredible to hear about his life growing up in this “Socialist” world. Again- incredible. After the Q & A I read more of Wild Swans which again is phenomenal and I recommend to anyone who wants to actually learn about the Culture Revolution and Communist China in general. After dinner was Ambassador’s ball meeting, which yet again no one bought anything new. So now we are running out of ports to buy things and not even the heads of the committee are leading by example. It makes me sad to know that this is supposed to be our “prom” and yet nothing is really organized. I mean I’m sure it will come out great, but the process to get to greatness is anything but organized. A few select people will rise above and actually make the ambassador’s ball a fun thing, or at least one can hope. More on this later on in the blog however… After the meeting we had Pre-Port both cultural and logistical for Vietnam. It was interesting.. if I remember correctly a few students stood up and did raps in order to tell us everything we needed to know. It was neat, a nice change and parts were pretty amusing. Of course the entire time I was just thinking about how in 12 hours I would be seeing Christine and my Mom and how I just couldn’t wait at all for it. After Pre-port, my “parents” had an egg hunt for all us kids. I only found 3 of the 29 eggs, but I didn’t mind because it was more the sport of it then anything- I knew my mom and sister were bringing me my own batch of easter candy and couldn’t wait! After my “brothers and sisters” left, I told my parents I would be right back with all my sleeping stuff. A while back they offered to let us sleep on their deck at night and I was taking advantage of it because I knew I wouldn’t get up in time if I wasn’t outside or at least in atmosphere where I can’t deny it. So Christina and I grabbed our blankets and headed upstairs and went to sleep outside, I was exhausted so I went right out but I kept waking up every hour because I was so anxious about seeing my family! (Awww I know…)

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!
My “parents” woke me up at 6:30 to watch the view. It was gorgeous, there were tons of these small boats that I would have sworn were seconds away from capsizing because they were a little too close to us. But thankfully nothing happened to any of them. I took tons of pictures of the rice paddies and all of the scenery. It was just like all of the Vietnam movies- very surreal and very nerve wracking for someone who was trying to be patient! After taking tons of pictures and the view not looking like it would change anytime soon, Christina and I grabbed out overnight stuff and went back to the room. We met Katie for breakfast and towards the end of breakfast we noticed the scenery was starting to change. So I went down to my room showered and got all ready for the day and then bolted upstairs where I was able to see the beginnings of Ho Chi Minh city come into view. It was again surreally beautiful, as if I stepped out onto a movie set. Much like every other port before it and like every port after it, it took my breath away. I waited patiently for the piers to appear and then I held my breath at every turn of the river in hopes that I would see the pier with all the “Americans” on it. And sure enough, since there were only a handful of us in the front, I was the first to see the “American” pier with a crowd of parents complete with tour busses. The busses really tipped us off and then with the zoom action of a friend’s camera we received confirmation that these people were indeed not a part of the indigenous people. Then came the search, as soon as the camera was able to start to distinguish people I went on a search to see if I could see my mom and Chris. One swipe through the crowd- no luck. I was ready to cry because I assumed they missed the bus (you know.. worse case scenario and really I wouldn’t have put it past them… the two of them together is usually a negative sign if you need them to be somewhere. Two words: New Haven. And if you don’t remember that- Yale. Bloomer. Newspaper. Getting lost for 4 hours on our way home- it was still in our state!) So either way, before I managed to lose it I convinced myself that I didn’t look hard enough and to try again. Sure enough, I had a glimpse of Christine. But I couldn’t figure out if it was just my mind wanting to see her or if it really was here. I took another look and decided it was definitely her and found my mom nearby. I was so excited. They found me and started waving and jumping up and down and that was when I lost it! I was so excited to see them, plus the emotion of this voyage in general, and then of course knowing that I was still going to be on this ship for another month without them just caught me off guard. The ship started to turn and so I ran over to the other side. My “auntie erin” was “saving my spot for me.” And I showed her where my family was waiting on the dock. My “parents” came over and with their binoculars I also pointed them out. My parents informed me they were extremely excited to meet my real mom and sister. I waited FOREVER on the deck until finally all of the parents were going back onto the buses (something about heat exhaustion, fainting, previous semester…) So I went back inside to wait to go through the line for my passport. Finally the Mediterrean Sea was called and I got in line. As always the 600 + line took forever to go through and in the midst of waiting in line they made another announcement about the parents, unfortunately I was surrounded by yelling and screaming, all from excitement, and didn’t catch the bulk of the message so I was really worried that I was going to miss out on something big. As soon as I was certified and Vietnam authority knew that I was in fact me and okay to get off in Vietnam I ran back out on to the 7th deck to see if my mom and sister were still there. They were and in fact they were just starting to formally get in line to board the ship. I waited for them to get into the gangway and ran down to the second deck (As I said, I was a little excited and filled with immense anticipation and joy). When they walked through the door I gave them both big hugs and then dragged them up to the 5th deck dining hall to make sure they didn’t need any other information. My “parents” were there so they were briefly able to meet each other. Christine and my mom of course kept introducing me to all of their new friends and their children (of which most I had never met and even now the only one I talk to is Logan and only when we get the chance!) Anyways, we sat down and had some lunch. It was probably in that moment that I realized how much I really wanted them both to be there and how much I really appreciated their efforts in getting there. And I also realized of course, how much I miss home. Not that I don’t LOVE it here, because this trip has been everything I wanted and so much more. I just wish that I could take a few breaks from ship life because life on here is very overwhelming ever minute of the day. Its non-stop and much more exhausting then my usual semester of 2 jobs, school full-time and stage managing. And I thought I didn’t have “me and relaxation time then”, pffft now is nothing. I don’t have privacy never mind “me time”. And gain. Not that I mind, this is an amazing sacrifice and privacy is a small price to pay but I can never really come to grips with anything that I’m doing or seeing because I don’t have any uninterrupted time to just sit, vedge, and think or write or even read.

Later on: It would be unfair to my writing to even attempt to figure out what wave length I was on, so now that at least a week has passed since I wrote in this thing, I thought I would start fresh since the last few sentences wasn’t actually referring to Vietnam in the least. After lunch, I gave the tour of the ship to my sister and my mom and the entire time all I could think was “Wow this is so cool that I get to show them the exact lifestyle I’ve been living in the past month and a half. And not just the ship, but also to experience Vietnam with them! And really when it comes down to it, I’m just SO glad to see them”. So we started the tour on the 7th deck, explored the pool area and then the dining areas, the pool bar and of course the classrooms. We ended in the my cabin room which was “not as small as we thought” which was exactly how I felt when I first saw my cabin and still feel that way today- 2 days before I actually get off this ship. I gave them their gifts that I had acquired thus far, my sister her necklace and my mom got her mug to take to work and all her Christmas ornaments. I hope they actually like them! I tried really hard to get things that they would like and enjoy… After awhile my mom informed us that she was going to fall asleep if she didn’t get some coffee so we trooped back to the dining hall to get some coffee, they had already closed up shop so we had to go up to the 7th deck, and then my mom wanted ice so I had to go up to the 6th deck and after getting her caffeine she was ready to go explore Vietnam. The entire day was pretty surreal because here I had my sister and my mom WITH me in a foreign country. This trip in general was pretty wild to think about, to see ocean on all four sides with no sign of land or life anywhere other than the people who are sharing this journey with me and the occasional dolphin or whales (yep that’s right!) So we took the shuttle out to town and after getting dropped off tried to find an atm, found one and after taking out some money started walking around Vietnam. We basically started wondering, telling stories, asking questions and pretty much meandering. I was HAPPY! I was so much in my glory, I can’t even tell you. It was so nice to have family there and it was just so nice to be able to share this with someone back home. We ended up stumbling on the Rex hotel which was where the American Military was located to strategize during the Vietnam War. The desk inside informed us that we had to go “out side” which later we realized she meant “other side” but because of the accent we didn’t get it. So we walked away disappointed and decided to look for some tailors. We walked a few blocks and saw a bunch but didn’t really go in but ended up at the big market so we went and walked around. The women working in the market were pretty rude and I’ve heard from a lot of my friends that they would scream “too big” to them and scare them off. Well when they said that to my mom I just about lost it. All I wanted to do was cry and sob and as funny as it sounds protect here. Here I had dragged my mother half way across the world just to see me and they were telling her that she was too big. She already doesn’t know, understand nor can she really fathom how SPECIAL she is and to just get all of this negative feedback from the twig people of Vietnam just got me so angry. And here a month and a half later I already have tears in my eyes just thinking about EXACTLY how I felt that day. I just wanted to yell at them so much! I just can’t even explain how much it hurt me to watch them hurt me. And I really think it was in that moment that I realized how much more I appreciate the kindness this world has to offer and how much I hate the people that try to bring down everyone else. After walking around the market we decided to head back to the shuttle which would hopefully take us back to the hotel, which as it turned out only returned to the ship. So since we now had a half hour to kill before the shuttle went back out, I ran inside and dropped off a few things and bought a few bottles of water since we all were dehydrated at this point. After getting dropped back off in the center of town we decided to find someplace to eat dinner and followed our map to get to the Lemongrass Restaurant where we ordered a bottle of wine to celebrate my big 21st birthday! The food was amazing, the wine was even better, overall a lovely experience which I am quite happy to say I was able to share with my family! After our awesome meal (on a scale of 1-10 it would be an awesome 9 by the way) we walked back to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and Chris and I decided to go walk around some more while my mom went to go listen to the band in the lobby. It was especially nice to spend some alone time with my sister, I was really excited about this since we don’t usually get a chance to chat since she is Guam and I live in CT, so overall I was happy. We checked a few of the tailors to find out if I could get capris made out of the material and then asked about dresses. On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at the Rex for some food. I had mac and cheese and it was SOOO freakin good. Gosh I can’t wait to go back to the states for some food! TO make my own meal at this point would be glorious. After hanging out at the rex for a while we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next morning, my sister and mom had breakfast in the lobby and stole a few treats for me to enjoy on the bus ride to get back to the ship to collect the students for the day’s trip. At the ship I got off to find out if I needed to do anything special and waited in the union for an answer and basically didn’t get one. So That moment just reassured the fact that the field office really doesn’t know anything more then they do and that their sole purpose is to keep things moving on port days. I rejoined my family on the “party bus” as it was fondly nicknamed by one of the other crazy parents on the trip. The drive to go visit the temple was an extremely long one, with lots of photo moments. Overall I just enjoyed the comforts of family the entire time, shared more stories, took a few naps, and overall was quite content. At the temple we walked through and then went to the second floor so the contingents could begin the service. A lot of people took pictures of the building and the people and I have to admit I felt really bad about participating, afterall these people are in their religious place trying to connect with their higher power and there are hundreds of people taking tons of pictures of them praying. After thinking about it I realized that this takes place everywhere you go. I still feel guilty about interrupting such a religious pastime, but now I take it with a grain of salt. After all how many of entered and watched a service in New York’s cathedral (St pats?) and lets face it I’m sure photography is second nature in the Vatican! So it made me feel a little better knowing that all religious sects were getting the same tourist attraction. I more so felt bad for the participants then the church itself. I don’t know how I would feel if someone was taking pictures of me in the middle of a mass. I don’t think I would be very happy or comfortable for that matter! It was interesting though to see the temple and the lunch that followed it wasn’t half bad either. Watermelon (if I remember correctly) was the desert and it was quite delicious. Not nearly as good of a meal as Lemongrass, but still a pretty good meal. After lunch we headed back to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Here it was amazing (probably an 8 on the scale of things, though more so a 9 for the historical importance) place. We watched an English version of a video that basically condemned the American Army for killing, abusing and torturing its civilians and soldiers and called their own army heroes. I found this extremely interesting since here in the U.S. we are guilty of the same propaganda. It was definitely one of those eye opening moments where you just can’t help but be amazed. After the video we started crawling down the tunnels which was also pretty interesting. The entire time, all I could think about was how these were real tunnels, once used in war to kill our uncles, fathers, their friends and cousins are now tourist attractions. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, after all the main way of showing and telling people of an important historical moment is showing them exactly where it happened. The preservation of places like Auschwitz is why people can’t deny the holocaust, and here is another historical lesson in the process of prevention. Guerilla Warfare isn’t pretty, but neither is entering a war that isn’t yours to fight. The tour took us through several tunnels and rooms as well as showing us certain key factors- the tiny air holes in rocks to allow them to breathe or the traps that were created to kill even more American soldiers. After the tour we walked to the monument that holds all of the names of the people who were killed during the Vietnam War. The pictures that decorated the outside were also eye opening because they were graphic pictures of American soldiers killing, torturing, abusing civilians and soldiers alike. Or they painted heroes defeating the enemy soldiers. After our return to the city, I unfortunately don’t remember too much. I believe the basics of it was going to the ship to pick up the souvenirs that I had laid aside for my mom to bring back to the states and then walking back to the hotel and passing out. This also may have been the night my sister and I headed out to find the tailor, but again its been a month so you will have to forgive me, the main ideas and most profound events I promise are included here in this blog J.

A leisurely breakfast was the main goal of the morning and we slowly made our way out the door around 11am. We had just enough time to make it to the Tailor of our choice. I explained my capris and then my sister and I ordered a similar dress in different colors and my sister also had one? Other dress made ( I don’t remember if it was one or two). After the tailor we went back to the ship for lunch (nothing like a free meal) And met up with the rest of the parents and students for the School for the deaf and handicap orphanage. We received little gifts to give out to the kids while we were at each destination and then headed to the busses to leave. First was the school for the deaf was a pretty neat place. We were split up into a bunch of different groups and then we had the ability to go play and chat with the kids. My family and I had a group of older children, around 12, I believe because I remember thinking “wow this around my niece’s age” which was something I found most striking because Jessica was much more… mature? Serious? Seemed older? Then these kids to. In fact this is a trait I found across the board in most of the countries we have been to which is another fascinating fact for me to delve into at my return to the states. The students sat giggling and whispering, they seemed vulnerable while asking us our ages, addresses and names. Explaining who we were “sister” “Mother” “friend”. It was another incredible experience that I would never have had. The school also makes tons of cards that they sell in order to have some sort of income to help with financial aid for students to come to their school. After the school of the deaf we went to an orphanage for the physically and mentally handicapped. This was heartbreaking. As we walked through the building into the rooms where 18 year old children have been bed ridden their whole lives, and then crossed into the rooms where there are more active children that occasionally can be removed from their crib-like beds. And continued on to the active children that can run and jump and sort of interact with people, it was heartbreaking to not know if grasping or stroking a child’s hand in hope of some response would make a difference. To look and them and seem so helpless. By all means I know that the U.S. has the exact same problems but if this just opens a few more eyes then just maybe a positive solution can evolve. And I don’t mean send all of your extra wages there in hopes of improving the situation, I mean other alternatives. Educating the masses, that sort of thing. After donating a few more items, we trooped back onto the bus to head out to the ship and then to the hotel. I believe we stopped at the hotel before heading over to the Vietnamese House for dinner which was another phenomenal meal (though I personally enjoyed the Lemongrass more…) Another bottle of wine later and the three of us left giggling to head back to the hotel. In my outline of this trip I have that Chris and I head back out, and I think this time we just walked a little ways around the area to look at a few shops and of course more conversation. We headed back to the hotel and got lost, though eventually found the hotel. Once at the hotel we checked out the pool which was the perfect oasis! It was beautiful though minutes away from closing. When we returned to the room my mom was passed out. So we showered and went to bed!

Thursday Morning
Another leisurely breakfast was in store for us as well as a day of shopping! We headed back towards the market and that’s where we spent most of our time (and money!). I checked out a lot of the prices of the things that I wanted. Towards the end of our time at the market, a man was selling postcards. He was the cutest thing ever and had the jolliest personality so we bought some postcards and got a picture with him which I’m really excited about! He was just, a fine example of a happy person which is always an uplifting moment. Then we headed over to the history museum- damn what a WALK! My legs were KILLING me and I was hot. Chris and I had to keep slowing down because my mom kept stopping to drink her water (she was a bit dehydrated). When we finally got to the history museum, we had about twenty minutes to kill before the next show so we checked out the exhibits. They were pretty neat, one room held a coffin and a dead preserved body in a glass case. And there were tons of Buddha’s and other religious artifacts. One room even specialized in Buddhism in several nearby countries and the history of Buddhism. We managed to make our way through the entire museum and then took a seat for the water puppet show which was REALLY neat. I know I definitely enjoyed it. There were some crazy things that the actors could do. The cat was able to jump really high and I at least didn’t notice any other noticeable ways of controlling the puppet aside from the pole. At the end of the show they all came out and bowed a few times and left. Unfortunately one of the puppets broke during our performance so I only hope they checked it and found the missing piece. After leaving we were debating on if we should check out the huge zoo that was next door or head back to town. We ended up taking a taxis to the Notre Dame cathedral took some quick pictures of inside- they had neon Mother Mary’s it was pretty cool. Another example of taking pictures in a religious place. I bought my postage from Vietnam (wow it was EXPENSIVE!) and then we took a few pictures of the statue in front of the Notre Dame as well as the school kids playing cricket- another really neat thing to see! We walked to the Rex Hotel and we found the right way to go in and had a few snacks on the top floor. It was gorgeous though pricier then the places below. We headed back to the hotel after we chatted and finished our snacks to shower and get ready for dinner. We stopped by the tailor shop only to find that my capris weren’t lined in the inside, so after arguing with them that they had said that it would be lined and I would not pay more money, they gave in and send my capris back upstairs informing us several times that they would see us the next day with our dresses and finished capris. I was extremely disappointed though thankful that I had another day for them to perfect my capris. We headed to the ship to meet up with my friends only to find none of them there. I can’t tell you how angry I was. I guess angry is the wrong way but it’s the easiest way to explain. I mean I had made these plans with them and they weren’t there. I loved having my family there but another important part for me was them meeting the friends that I had acquired on this trip. As it turned out, Caitlin had to bring her parents to the airport, Katie was too tired from Cambodia (understandable), Liz had just gotten back from her trip and Julie and Christina were stuck outside in a gigantic line. So around 8:45 we finally headed out after mass chaos of trying to figure everything out. I left feeling much better, (my first thought was my friends were blowing me off- I know pessimist in me, but I had made these friends sound great and now they didn’t show up—what was I to think?) and we headed to the Lemongrass since their food was awesome. Unfortunately they were too slammed and their kitchen was about to close. So we headed to the Vietnamese House which was open and willing to have us. We ordered tons of meals to share and at first it was kind of awkward but got dramatically better as the night went on. After dinner we decided to get massages, but the only place that was open was a foot massage and as it turns out my foot still wasn’t (isn’t) healed and I wasn’t about to openly allow pain on poor toe! I told them I wouldn’t mind hanging out while they got it done but the only packages the place ordered was for an hour and wouldn’t make it shorter. So we left and stood outside talked for a really long time. My friends were going to go head over to the night market. I felt bad but I was exhausted. I wanted my sister to go, but I kind of figured she wouldn’t go without me and that just made me feel worse. As it turned out they walked over just in time for the night market to close so they didn’t get to do much shopping. After splitting, chris, my mom and I headed to the hotel, showered and went to bed- It had been a LONG day!

Friday- D-Day L (departure….)
Early breakfast, it was pretty good, though I thought we were going to miss the bus, I was scared. As it turned out there was a second bus gathering parents and we made that one. So we headed to the ship to pick up more students to go to the Mekong Delta for the day. It was a long drive over to the first temple which was a much smaller version of the one we saw on the way to the Cho Chi Tunnels. And then we went to the market where we made the smartest purchase ever- rice hats! Although we didn’t get a great deal on them… they were worth it because they really kept the sun off on the water. Our bus continued on the way to the Mekong Delta. We boarded these boats and headed to one island were we disembarked. After a short walk we were entertained by live music while enjoying fresh fruits. My mom bought a clapper which was pretty neat, I can’t wait to remember all of our purchases, mainly because they have SO many memories attached to them. Then we got into canoes and two natives paddled us a really long time through the canals to meet back up into our boats. It was crazy on the canoes because it looked JUST like the movies. Brown water, the water plants surrounding you, the curves. The smell the look, it was overwhelming. This was the first of many that about all I can say is rent a movie- its exactly what it looks like. So after boarding another boat we headed to another island where we had tea which was excellent and had samples of coconut taffy which my mom bought a lot of. I also convinced her to buy banana chips which I can’t wait to eat when I get back to the states. Another boat ride brought us to our lunch. Lunch was pretty insane- fish- still on the bone in its COMPLETE form (including the head, scales, everything) on a stick was one of our first courses. And how could we forget the octopus soup- yep octopus in its entirety these tiny legs sprouting everywhere. Lol gosh what a great time. On the walk to lunch I realized there was a fork in the road- one led to this nice paved bridge, and another was filled with rocks and pumps. Dirt and overall looking pretty shabby. I really hope that it came out because it has potential to be really cool. After lunch we took the boats back to the busses and headed back to the ship. We arrived late which I was really disappointed about. We headed straight to the market to get last minute items. I got all my souvenirs (umbrellas and fans for the kids, my two Vietnamese oufits, etc. ) and then headed over to the Tailor to take a look at the capris and dresses. My capris were ready and were excellent. I was extremely excited. By the way I have had TONS of compliments for them since then while wearing them on the ship and can’t wait to have the most original capris ever. And our dresses weren’t even started. Yep that’s right. No dress for Jenn. I was livid. I was so upset because I really wanted a dress. I know that I had acted like it was no big deal at the beginning but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was something that I really wanted. After demanding my money back and finalizing my sisters plans to get the dresses EARLY the next morning, we headed to the hotel to pick up my stuff to head to the ship. We stopped at Gloria Jeans for coffee and cheesecake which was amazing after having such a letdown. And then we headed to the ship to start saying goodbyes. The entire time I was in line, slowly inching myself closer to the ship and farther from my family the more I could feel the lump in my throat grow and the tears inch closer to crawling down my cheeks. I was heartbroken. I had just enjoyed this awesome week and wasn’t ready to say goodbye again. Add on severe disappointment, I wasn’t doing so well. At this point all I could think I have another month and half to go to see my mom which is long enough, but who knows when I’ll see my sister again. I was so upset. I just enjoyed having family with me and to now have them ripped once again away from me I just didn’t know what to do. I ran to my room, lost it, and when Christina came in I grabbed my landing card to go to pursers desk to drop it off and headed to the 7th deck. I stood there for a really long time, I tried to yell a few times, but my voice was pretty shot since at that point I was basically sobbing. I watched my family board the shuttle to head back to the city and I was just heartbroken wishing they would just look up and see me waving like crazy trying to get there attention, alas no luck. So I continued to stand at the railing for at least another 10 minutes until I got it through my head that they were not actually coming back for one more goodbye and they considered me gone. And then I sank down on the deck and just cried for another half hour or so because again I was quite upset of having my family leave. I just wanted to continue the trip and have them come along. After I managed to calm down, I headed back to my room and chatted with Christina for a little while and then passed out.

Saturday Morning
Since the parents were in Vietnam, the authorities decided we would stay until 9am before leaving so then the parents could say goodbye to us. At 8am I woke up and I could just not go back to sleep. So I finally decided to get ready for global studies. I put on my new capris and washed my face. I figured I would go up to the 7th deck to go and watch the other students say goodbye to the parents that actually showed up, knowing that my mom and my sister had joined the group going to the War Remnants museum. Well, at about the time I was about to grab my key card, the phone rang- it was Logan calling to say my family was waiting for me outside, they decided not to go out with the group because they were going to where we had gone on Thursday. The dresses my sister got fit like a glove and they had mine finished for half the price and were going to pick it up later on in the day. At 9:10am they started to pull the ship away and I pretty much got one more “I love you” “can’t wait to see you again” before they were a little too far away to hear. Thankfully it was just in time for Global Studies, otherwise I probably would have been glued to that pole for the rest of the day crying again, and instead had something to concentrate on which was an intro to china including communism and the Tiananmen Square Riots and a short clip from the movie “tank man”. After a profound Global Studies I returned to my room where I continued reading Wild Swans and began writing my paper. I couldn’t concentrate at all during Energy Technology and Society which we were informed there is a test next class. Quite disappointing! After class I began studying for Global Studies which was NOT fun at all. And then I eventually fell asleep while studying.

My reflection on Vietnam: It was amazing to see my family in another port. I think for the most part my reflections have been mixed in here, or at least my emotions should be pretty obvious at this point, so I won’t dwell too much on it. Needless to say though a few days later I wasted a lot of internet minutes trying to get online only to find out that my mom was robbed the night we said goodbye the first time. She is fine, but had to stay in Vietnam another 4 days in order to get a new passport and exit visa. This news of course just upset me even more then I already was about leaving home though I’m glad that I did hear about it because in Hong Kong I was confronted by a few other parent trip students to make sure my mom was doing okay and made it home alright. As for the culture, astounding, as with each port, I really will never be the same again, here it was for the historic value. A place where the Vietnam War was a crucial part of while our country once again finds itself in a war that shouldn’t have ever happened. More on my feelings of Iraq however when I get to Japan which would be one of the more amazing ports I have visited. Vietnam is definitely a place I would want to bring my children some day. Hopefully when peace has finally taken hold in our country. Well I guess I will post this entry for now. You will get more tomorrow afternoon when I wake up (Its about 2am here…) All I have left to do pack my last minute clothes and my computer and I am all set to go home! Plan for tomorrow- continue writing this blog, layout?, continue writing this blog, picture slideshow of entire trip and lastly bed. J 70 hours and I will be in SAN DIEGO! Amazing…

Also, I hope you can see that this entry was a little difficult to write, afterall my heart is pretty much poured out here, which is another reason why it took so long for me to post this. I hope you enjoyed it. I also think part of me wanted to deny that it already happened cuz then i didn't have too much to look forward to until my "reentry" to the states. Well hope life is great be home soon and this time i'll update sooner! Love you all

update...?

2007-05-08T18:47:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, just letting you know i'm alive, its been crazy on this ship!

I'll hopefully update later this week!

Love you all and see you soon!

Miss you,

Jennifer

Malaysia and a HAPPY B-DAY to ME!

2007-04-06T14:30:00.001-05:00

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

2007-04-01T13:28:00.001-05:00

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.

Indian Ocean Crossing

2007-03-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

Just one of the many sunsets at sea
In the captain's chair with his hat on in the Bridge

Me carrying 80 kilos at the Sugar Plantation Museum
Liz and I with the men at the market that sold us pretty fabric
The view after walking past all the coast guard and military boats
Liz and I dressed up in our new indian outfits :)
The view outside my window from the crossing to India

Lip Synching @ the Sea Olympics :) - If you zoom in you might find a surprise :)
Cape Winelands in South Africa- This is just one of the many gorgeous pictures
the goat tower at one of the winelands. Yes that is a real goat and yes it is supposed to be there.
Jenn all prepped up and ready to go skydiving with dive partner Mary

Cape Point or somewhere near that, taken from my cabin porthole after departing Cape Town!

Hello everyone!

Hope life in CT is great. Oh FYI! For those of you who choose to send me mail- please put on my room number 3024- It will make it easier for the mail people and therefore I will get my mail faster

Well this week has been much better health wise than last crossing, so that makes me feel much better, though I’m afraid emotional I think I may be getting even more vulnerable.

Monday didn’t start off so well- I felt like I was going to faint so I didn’t go to directing or Global Studies. So I missed three of my fellow director’s performances L and in Global studies I missed the Introduction to India which included the intro to the Indian Family we have on board during our stay. They also discussed how out of all the ports we visit, India is the one that effects the students the most. They read a portion of a former students blog that described how when he went through India he watched his fellow students complain about the dirt and the standard of living and how although he enjoyed himself for the most part, India didn’t truly affect him until 3 months after ending his term on Semester At Sea. So basically- watch out my next few blogs might be on the emotional side. Hell… this one will be… but first my week. I dragged myself up for lunch which was alright and Critical Issues which again- could have been better. Steffel is starting to remind me of my dad more and more with each time I see him. And then that just makes me want to cry in the middle of class because I miss my dad. A lot. Certainly much more then I would have even expected. And I hope if there is one thing that this trip could for me, it would be to let him know that. I mean of course I miss my mom, its my mom, my best friend in her own little way, but when I start to miss my mom I can think of her meeting me in Vietnam and how its not all that far away. But my dad… I still have quite a few weeks before I see him. The point, though, is that Steffel’s class is becoming more bearable because he reminds me of my dad. In the evening I met with my actors again and overall it went well. We started moving around and discussing the significance in the realm of the play.

Tuesday morning I went on the internet and posted the last blog. The internet is getting extremely slow. Rumor is this is the worst leg of the journey for internet. Plus with new technology a lot of students are using the internet as a phone, but it takes up a lot of bandwidth and since we don’t have a whole lot to begin with we aren’t able to use the internet. But after a extremely frustrating hour, I managed to get most of my emails off-line, post my blog and send out a few emails- though not nearly as many as I wanted to. Then I went back to my room and read half of my emails, had breakfast and read the other half. It made me miss home and yearn for my friends and family even more. However this was also even more eye awakening but I will get to that soon enough. Global Studies was a continuation of Indian history and lifestyle. It’s the largest democracy in the world (by the way!) and is the 3rd strongest economy and rising. After Global I took a beautiful nap and read Wild Swan on the 7th deck. Wild Swan is the newest book required for Steffel’s class. The book is quite amazing. I just can’t seem to put it down. And if it wasn’t for the fact that I want to post tomorrow morning and probably wont have time later on in the day to write this- I would probably continue reading it. The book takes place in Manchuria which is now a part of China. The premise is how 3 generations can create a completely different lifestyle. The Grandmother is part of the generation where girls feet are broken and wrapped in order to create the image of small feet. She is an incredibly attractive woman and at age 15 she becomes a concubine to a great general. Within a few days of their “marriage” ceremony he takes off and disappears for 6 years. He shows up for another week and leaves again. This time she ends up pregnant. She writes to him to let him know and he insists that she comes to him. She doesn’t really want to because if she goes that means she will become his wife’s property as well and basically will be treated as a lesser person. He ends up with a terminal illness and she visits. The wife takes the child and tells her she won’t ever see the child again. In the middle of the night she steals the child and goes back to her home. On the way she writes that the child has died (though not really) and the family stops bothering her. At his death within the year the wife kicks her out of the house. Eventually the grandmother remarries the town doctor but that in a sense disgraces his family and there is a big feud. After a lot of drama they move to another town to raise the mother. The mother is also a beautiful girl and continues to get proposals but the family life is slowly become more liberal- she actually has a choice in if the individual is the one she wants to marry. Meanwhile politically the war between the Japanese and Chang Kai-shek is raging and after the end of WWII the communists start fighting the Chinese Government. The mother ends up joining the Communist party and she meets and marries the father of the narrator. I’m at the point where the mother is starting to rethink the idea of communism. She isn’t really free. Everything she sees and hears she must report to the party. If she wants to take any action at all she has to write a request to the party. Everything is controlled and everything is monitored. She isn’t allowed to sleep with her husband and instead has to remain in the female quarters and is only allowed to see him at certain times of day. The PARTY comes before the individual so it’s a collectivist society. And that naturally got me thinking and I played right into the narrator’s story. Life was terrible in the society before and now it turned a complete 180 and is just as bad but in different ways. I’m anxious to read more- I’ve got plenty to go another 300 or so pages. (It’s a thick book). Anyways.. I got off subject. Tuesday after reading for awhile, I had my Energy class where we discussed the fundamentals- What IS energy? And approached it with a physics eye. After class I had a really long conversation with Juli- the girl from Mauritius- and we discovered we have similar families. It was a nice conversation. I also had a conversation with Christina and Liz involving our return home but I will get to that at the end of my week. Tuesday I met with my actors again after dinner. We discussed purpose and everything that sort of related. It was a great time and I felt extremely confident about the Weds morning performance.

Wednesday, I woke up fairly early and extremely excited about the performance. I was the 3rd and final scene of the day to go. The performance went well and then I got in the hot seat after my actors left. From then on I was near tears. Not that they bashed the performance or even my work, it just felt as if I was getting attacked. It was in that moment that I decided that Stage Managing was definitely the way I would want to go because I couldn’t stand being drilled about my work. After I was put on the spot and incorrectly or at least unclearly, answered, I started to quiet down and she yelled at me to be louder. I told her that its easier when I’m stage managing, which then led to what a stage manager does and whether or not I enjoy it. My response? Well Its more of a love and hate relationship. I love it when I’m not doing it. I miss it like crazy and wish I was doing it. But when I’m actually sitting at all the rehearsals? I hate it. And then she let me know that I need to journal about it. So before I put any conclusions about that discussion, I guess I should follow her advice and write it in my Director’s notebook. I’ll be sure to get back to you though J Global Studies was more India- environmental Issues, mainly. I’m pretty sure I did even more reading in Wild Swan on Weds to until I had my Critical Issues class. We watched a movie on Freedom in India- breaking from the major powers and fighting for freedom and equality. So naturally the main part was geared towards Gandhi and Nehru the pair that fought most prominently for India’s freedom. I don’t remember too much about the afternoon. I guess I should start carrying a notebook with me so I can write everything I do down. I know that at 7pm I had Ambassador’s Ball meeting and that left me angry. This is the moment where we all dress up in the dresses we had made in Vietnam and put on those strappy shoes and get all gussied up, basically our version of prom and they want to decorate the place with Construction Paper. It just makes me so mad. I really hope it turns alright, but I guess we will have to see. Juli came over to visit and we watched Monsoon Wedding (an Indian Film) while doing homework. It was a lot of fun. Katie and Caitlyn came to visit at some point, I feel like Christina and I have the party room, I feel so special J

Yesterday, Thursday was an alright day as well. I basically got nothing done, but aside from that it was good. Global Studies was interesting we discussed banking, primarily Mohammed Yunez. I wrote about him awhile ago, basically he is the guy that set up this big bank in Bangladesh and other poor countries in order to give poor women a chance. They give out loans. 99% of all loans are paid back with the year. And many of these women are given a fighting chance at surviving. The Movie was actually a clip of 60 Minutes and that made me sad because it reminded me of my parents. After the movie we discussed how this bank hasn’t solved all of their problems. Husbands have managed to manipulate the service by forcing their wives to get loans, the men spend it on whatever and the women are left trying to deal with the pressure of paying it back. After global, Christina and I went shopping at the school store. I bought a few more shirts- I probably shouldn’t have but I needed another long sleeve and my Polynesian Culture Center trip was cancelled because their wasn’t enough interest. I also bought some stickers for my scrapbook and I bought my mom a travel mug so she could have something semester at sea-ish to show off at work and I don’t know one’s sizes so I can’t buy anyone shirts or sweatshirts. I’m hoping my mom will help me pick something out for my dad. I was thinking a hat but I don’t know if he will wear it- plus he has so many! I’ll think about it. Anyways after getting all that I went to the pursers desk to find out if I could get on the Arizona Memorial Trip, so we will see if that goes through. Hopefully I’ll find out either later tonight or tomorrow. Then I took the most glorious shower ever. Starting 1pm yesterday we were given the official “okay we have to conserve water” and how “if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down” It was very girl-scouty and again made me smile and laugh. At Lunch after my last semi-long (15min) shower for the next week, I actually started telling stories about girl scouts and my gold award and all that stuff. I had to tell the story of my first campout with the terrible babysitters who through gorp at our tent and told us scary stories. I still remember my mom and Lou’s face when we peaked out of our tent- Those girls got a rashing! Onwards.. After Lunch Christina and I checked out if there were any more bridge tours. There were 3 more and two of which we had class during and the final one that gave us just enough time to run down to our rooms drop off our bags and grab our cameras. The Bridge tour was pretty cool. Fun facts for all of you to know: Our ship can go as fast as 29 knots which is approximately 30 miles per hour. Though we average about 20 knots, except when we have exceeded the half way point when they slow down to give us time to do our school work and we average 11 knots. It is also the fastest passenger ship of its size, with only its sister ship the MV Voyager as competition. They have 4 radio systems and one table that is devoted to safety. They have a wall of pictures with little lite-up bulbs so the captain can immediately see where there is a fire or the fire doors have been closed or to see what outdoor lights are on and everything. It was crazy. They also have a computer screen that shows the map of where we are and it is electronically programmed to follow the course. The ship is also maneuvered into port by one of the two side compartments. If you look back on one of my first blogs you will see the captain and a few crewman who were in a dock area that came out from the side of the ship. Well, that has a computer area where the ship can be directed and then there is one identical on the other side. There are also emergency systems on both sides that don’t require any electricity just in case the system fails and we need to figure out where to go. The captain’s favorite port is Hong Kong which is where he met his 3rd wife whom he married 6 months ago. She is about our age and is a model. She is incredibly sea sick and this is the first time she has been on a ship of this size. His least favorite port is Egypt though he didn’t get into too many details. His least favorite of our trip is India because it is so incredibly dirty. We also have to conserve water when we go to India because water is incredibly expensive because we have to buy mineral water from a nearby plant. The water is also supposed to be incredibly polluted by the shore. (Its against Maritime law to take in or get rid of water within 12 miles of any port) So most of the time they buy some water while we are in port but it is very expensive in India so we are conserving our water big time. When we are at sea we have our own water purifying system in order to create gray water. According to the captain the only port we will need to be tenured to the dock will be Malaysia (though I guess this is still debatable because the guy at the Field office said Vietnam… but more on that in a minute) Tenured basically means we take the lifeboats too and from the dock because the water is either too shallow or dock is too full. We also begin the voyage with the majority of the food supply that will be needed, with the exception of produce. After lots of pictures and questions I had to go to Energy Technology where we continued discussing the physics aspect of energy. 5:30pm Juli and I went to dinner- it was a bar-b-que and was DELICIOUS, what a nice change!! I was so excited. And we were also treated with ice cream which is another rare occasion and was even more so exciting! After that I had a family B-day party! My “mom” had her birthday and so we had chocolate cake which was delicious and then we sat around talking for awhile. I went back to my room to start my Critical Issues Paper on a few articles from Global Issues and one by one all of my friends came to our room. And they stayed until about 12:30am. Lol so much for doing homework last night. It was a nice conversation though and after all those will be the moments that I remember long after this trip is done.

Today I had directing, the last two directors presented and then we watched a short film created by the Brown Paper Studio in Cape Town. It was pretty good at least I was impressed. Global Studies was about Conflict and Peace. Rocky started the discussion though by talking about he was feeling a lot by visiting all of these countries and about how each one of us needs to start thinking about and answering the “what’s Next” question. Do you ignore what is going on around the world? Do you donate all of your money to one of these countries? Do you change your major to make life more “fulfilling” what can one do to help our fellow human beings? It was quite moving and I was tearing up by the end because naturally I already asked all of these questions to you back home. By the way- I still haven’t answered them. After Global Studies I worked on my paper for Critical Issues, around 1pm I helped a fellow theatre friend out by reading the stage directions in her play for her read-through and then finished my paper just in time for class. Desmond Tutu joined our Critical Issues class and he spoke about War and peace and different methods to achieving peace. It was quite interesting. After class I stopped by Field Office Desk to ask them a few questions and they knew nothing and couldn’t help me out at all and that just frustrated and pissed me off some more. So I decided to use my emotion to write this blog and let you know what was going on in my life.

Now some more Pennies for Thought:

Poverty and emotion. India. So from what I hear, this is the most drastic wake-up call if God ever created one. Its funny to think about how much knowledge and experience I’ve already gained and we have gone to some pretty tame environments. My “family” was telling me about their last trip and how there was a person who was hours from death who was purposely placed outside of restaurant to get tourists to give this person money. Though in reality the money wouldn’t have been used to pay for whatever care this person needed but instead put into someone else’s pocket. So much of me doesn’t want to think about any of this. I don’t want to think about how many people I am going to see who are near starving. I don’t want to think about how dirty it is going to be from the moment I arrive in India. But I know eventually I am going to have to think about it and I am going to have to accept it. I also know that I will probably want to do something about it, but what? It comes down to the age old question- what can one person possibly do? I don’t want to talk to much more about it because I don’t want to create this idea of what India is going to be like until I get there, just be prepared because the next blog might contain a whole lot of feedback on the world that I just stepped out of in order to step into a world that is so very different from my own.

Next I just want to elaborate on this Field Office. I can’t tell you how unhappy I am with them. So in the Dean’s memo it advertises a Cambodian Orphanage that is coming to dance for us. The cost is 10 dollars and it is supposed to happen prior to disembarkation in Vietnam. So naturally I have a ton of questions- is my family going to be allowed to come on to the ship for the show? Or do I have to wait around until after this show is finished before I can see my family? Or am I going to be able to leave right away from the ship? Well the guy doesn’t know has no idea and can’t answer anything. About all he can tell me is everything that is already on the dean’s memo. That’s not a help at all. Why would I buy a ticket that would prevent me from seeing my family right away? But if they are allowed to come on the ship will it be included for them? So I am extremely frustrated! Now just to make this worse, there is another sheet that is filled out for Parents that need to get on the ship. Basically it asks for information like passport number and all of this elaborate information- none of which I want to be seen through email which means there is no way for me to get anything. But if Chris and my mom got on this trip they needed to send in all of that information, so you would think access would be immediately granted. Nope. I have to fill it all out and write on it “parent Trip”. In addition I asked if other students were getting notified and his response is “Didn’t you get a paper with all the information as to what you need to do?.” I was like uhh NO! Obviously I didn’t otherwise I wouldn’t be asking all of these questions. So now I’m really irritated because he treated me like an idiot, he didn’t know anything and he couldn’t answer any of my questions or help me in any way shape or form and basically said come ask your questions in another week. So yet again college offices SUCK!

And my last point that I would like to make might hurt a few of you, and some may not understand it. But I’m half way through this trip; I’m half way around the world and I miss my home more than anything in the world and I can’t wait to see each and every one of you back home. But I’m not going to be the same person that stepped on that airport and headed on the journey of a lifetime. I was talking with some of my friends on here and I am starting to get to the point where I can’t imagine waking up and not having Christina lying on the other bed across from me. I can’t imagine not seeing all of these people that I have relied on and have seen everyday and I have spent countless hours with them in every port and in and out of classes. I realized the other night while talking to Christina and Liz that none of you will know these people that I have spent sooo much time with and each of us has changed, but we have changed together. We discussed the importance of physical change. Cassie said that I seemed to have “jumped off the deep end” because of how much I have changed in just what she has seen. And yet, I have not changed nearly as much as she has. At the beginning of this journey Cassie would sit with us and we would discuss politics, women’s rights- things that mattered. Things that we should feel passionate about since afterall we are traveling around the world. Well now when she sits with us, we listen to how fat she is and about how she needs to tan and workout some more so she can be “prettier”. This girl has been planning this trip since she was a freshman in high school and now that she is here she has lost sight of what this trip is all about. It just makes me so sad that when I see her she feels proud to let me know that she is “fasting” in order to lose weight and not for some religious purpose. And yet when you look at the two of us, it would be me who would be labeled as the one that changed the most- just because my change was physical and therefore more obvious. That in turn led to the discussion that many of us will return home and although the people waiting for us may expect change they probably won’t expect as big of a change as what has taken place. “she looks the same, so she must not have changed all that much” and I guess now I have even more appreciation to my new look because no matter what- I have changed. What breaks my heart the most though, is that I’ll go back home and although you may recognize the name, you won’t recognize the face nor will you recognize the impact that each of my friends here on this ship have made on me. I was telling Liz- I’m going to go back home and I know I’ll be in the middle of a story about her and someone will say “oh is that your roommate” and I will have to respond with no, that’s Christina. So Liz was who? The girl who lived down the hall.” I can’t imagine saying Goodbye these people in a little over a month. I know we have already made plans- and you all will have the opportunity to meet them, provided that my sister’s don’t mind helping me out a bit. Liz really wants to go to Boston so I figured, what the hell they can fly into Boston and we can tour Boston the rest of the day, stay at Patti’s overnight, spend another day in Boston and then go to Deb’s the 2nd night. Drive to Willimantic for a quick tour of Eastern before heading to my house to visit the awesome that is Mohegan Sun, spend a night there and then fly back home on the 4th day. Now the aim for this is the beginning of August so they wouldn’t be able to meet anyone from school L or at least not really at school. But at least we have an idea in our head. I also have to beg and plead with Patti or my parents to front the money to buy Boston-Yankees tickets (if that is still possible) for August. Or at least some baseball tickets- and naturally anyone who wants to join that party may do so J. And then the aim is to visit Christina in Georgia in the fall to go to one of her legendary football games, and then Liz in Chicago around Christmas time. Of course this is all provided that we manage to earn enough money to go to these places- though all of their behinds are making it to CT. I’m just glad to see there are hopes of future visits since all of these people are incredibly important to me!

Well I guess I should go eat dinner at this point- Working with my actors again at 7pm and then Cultural Pre-Port at 8pm and Wedding Crashers at 9pm. Then maybe a updating if anything exciting happens tonight at pre-port J

Dinner was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, yum. Worked with my actors for a little while. We went with the broad prospective of what the ultimate goal of the scenes were. It was interesting. We will have to see what happens. We will be meeting every B day from now until April 30th which is the date of our second performance.

After that was the cultural pre-port which was quite interesting, a LOT of Indian dancing which was awesome. I LOVE the dancing its amazing. And they gave us the location of the big shopping area called “Fab India”. They also did a skit on the “attack” of the taxi/rickshaw people. Afterwards I talked to Lindsey for a little while and now I’m watching Wedding Crashers in the union and it is amazing. I love this movie.

“true love is your souls recognition of its counterpoint in another”

Oh a few last minute notes I am now 10 and a half hours ahead of Eastern Time. Yes that’s right- half hour. India has decided that it wanted to create its own time zone so the entire country is in the same time zone.

Also we have had our third leak- that’s right three leaks, in our cabin which was utterly amazing. That was sarcasm. The first was in Brazil when our cabin light started leaking. The second was in South Africa when in the middle of the night I got a wonderful leak ON MY HEAD and then this past week we got another leak at the foot of my bed which quickly spread to the rest of the room. Again- it was amazing.

Love and miss you all and thank you for listening to me

~Jennifer XOXOXOXO

P.S. India = Welcome Reception Sunday

4 day trip to Erode for a homestay including a sleeper train!!

and LOTS of shopping :)

South Africa, Mauritius and crossings

2007-03-19T22:02:00.000-05:00

Well, It has been QUITE the week… more like a week of hell then anything else! But first I guess I should elaborate a little on what happened in my last few days of Cape Town, and I would like to apologize for the rushed entry. I can’t remember too well what I wrote in it and unfortunately I didn’t actually save it into a my word document so I can’t even reference it! So I’m just going to guess and as always- if there are any questions or you want more griddy details about anything let me know! J

Brown Paper Studio- Judy Alabili, who is also my directing professor, started this program in Cape Town at the University of Western Cape in order to encourage students to get involved with something other then drugs and crime. The students started working together, playing theatre games and activities and then they started playwriting, directing and acting. At the end of the semester they did a performance that they had written about the aftermath of apartheid. Well the next step was starting the program at high school level. So in Martin Plains (one of the most segregated and poor areas even today) they started this program and the college students occasionally help out. And this past year Brown Paper Studio joined Azod Youth Center, which is the only remaining building from District 6, in their program to give the public more choices. The point of the program the center puts on is to educate its members in hopes of future employment. Basically it’s a bridge to link the unemployed with the skills they need to become the employed so they offer cooking, metal work, now theatre and a ton of other programs. We visited these places backwards starting with the newest. It was really neat to talk to everyone and to find out their feelings and thoughts about Brown Paper Studio.

Skydiving- the part everyone has been waiting for J I met a group of SAS’ers at the Aquarium where we took a van to the launch site. I partnered up with a girl named Mary and when it was our turn they suited us up and then we headed to the tiny airplane. We flew up to 9000 feet and jumped Tandem. An older gentleman joined our flight and jumped out first- he was on vacation and I guess this is his little tradition to continually sky dive. Then Mary and her Tandem went out and I have a brief clip of that. And then My tandem and I move over to the door and jumped. It was CRAZY! The video clip is at first the scenery from my viewpoint so we were turning and upside down and it was just nuts- what a rush! And then at 4000 feet up he pulled the shute out and we started to gracefully descend at which point he gave me the layout of the land. And then Mary started to do her decline and land- she put her feet out and landed on her stomach. (if you listen to my video he tells me like 8 times that I need to keep my feet up and he will do the landing J) and then comes my descend so I didn’t get to fully capture her landing since I started my own. It was crazy! But such a good time and definitely a future must!

Alright so now onto the week from hell. After I ate my last minute sushi in Capetown and got back on the ship I tried to look for Marvel but unfortunately couldn’t find her for quite a while. I chatted with her for awhile when I finally found her. And then went to bed. We were detained at Cape Town for quite awhile, though when we woke up in the morning we were at the oil tanker refilling our tanks which means we had moved in the middle of the night. Around 5pm we finally left Cape Town and headed on our way. Now keep in mind this was my week of midterms so I had a test and a journal due Sunday, another test on Tuesday and a test on Wednesday. Plus all of the usual readings and everything. Now just to add on top of that we kept hitting rough seas- so I was sick the entire time and the Dramamine wasn’t helping or working. I couldn’t concentrate or focus on everything and spent most of this past week either struggling not to throw up or sleeping. So basically this week wasn’t a good week. Saturday we did have a day off from classes which was nice but again I spend most of it on my bed. My tests went alright. I had my history exam which was a written essay, I think I did okay on it but again wasn’t feeling well so I don’t know for sure and probably won’t until Monday. My Global Studies exam was TERRIBLE. I have to take my test in the Union which again is one of the worst places to try to do anything in because of the rocking. I somehow muddled through trying to focus and then passed out afterwards on the 7^th deck with the fresh air. I’m guessing that I got an 80 because they posted the answers and so I tried to remember what I had put. I’m quite disappointed because I know that I could have done so much better if I wasn’t focusing on not getting sea sick the whole time. And then my third test was Rocky’s Energy, Technology and Society which was okay. I got in there though and everything I had studied and reviewed went out of my brain, I was not a happy camper. So I also don’t think that I did well on that one either. I’ve decided that tests and I are just not going to agree with each other until I’ve hit solid land while taking it. Oh and on Monday I was supposed to give me scene presentation but on Sunday afternoon I received two phone calls from my actors both saying they had doctor’s orders- one not to talk and the other not to get out of bed! What a mess! But I managed to get a hold of my professor and we moved the date back to next Wednesday. So that relieved some of the stress of the week. And now we are currently docked at Port Louis, Mauritius and are patiently waiting to be told that the ship is cleared and we can get off!

The Cultural Pre-port was fun for this port; it was a lot of music and our inter-port lecturer’s top 7 locations on the island. The most excited thing that happened was Dean Mike- who is crazy to begin with- kept jumping with the rolling of the ship. It was one of those you had to be there or would need to see a video of it but he is a pretty eccentric individual. Logistical Pre-Port however was hysterical, and was able to be humorous only because Mauritius is such a touristy area and there were not nearly as many things to watch out for while in port. So First Doctor Matt came out and told us about the health concerns- no eating fresh foods or salads and don’t drink the water and then the children of the ship took over the Pre-port. That’s right we were educated about Mauritius by 9-16 year olds but even better- they all dressed up and mimicked the adults who usually do the pre-port. So we had a “Dean Larry”, “Dr. Matt”, “Dean Mike”, “The Voice”, “Beth” and “Field Office” as well as a few others. Everyone nearly pissed their pants. Each one is of course unique in their own ways and talks with a certain pace and inflection and these kids perfected making fun of them. It was Amazing. That’s the only way to put it and I can only HOPE that they got video footage of that because that would be AMAZING to watch when I got back home and got lonely for this trip. At the end of the skit that told us everything we need to know about Mauritius, They all came back out for a finale with the real Dr. Matt’s help and we received our 3^rd performance/song/remix on health concerns; the main one of course being Alcohol. After the pre-port my group met for our Lip-synching contest to decide what song and the dance moves. It was pretty interesting (we are doing Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend from Moulin Rouge), quite corny but I think we might be able to pull it off. The preparation is for the Sea Olympics which will take place the day after Mauritius.

It’s a bit of a disappointment though, we were supposed to arrive at 8am this morning and here is it almost 1pm and we are waiting to be cleared. Because of the crappy seas we were delayed. A lot of the morning trips were cancelled- fortunately I only have 2 trips this port- one tonight the Multi-cultural Dinner so it’s a gourmet mixed cuisine and the sugar plantation tomorrow which is an FDP (Faculty directed practica) for Steffel- the history teacher.

Continued:

In case you can’t guess, I stopped writing and now I’m picking it up again, however now its March 18^th and most of this news is now getting old. Mauritius was pretty cool though definitely not my favorite. The first day Christina, Katie, Caitlin, Liz and myself headed out to check out the scene and maybe go shopping, but Christina and Katie had to be back for 4pm and I had to be back for 7pm. So Christina and Katie hung out with us for a little while but then left because they wanted a chance to see everyone and we were pretty much stuck at the phones. Caitlin had to call her bank and try to get money because they were closing her account because someone in brazil was taking money from her account. And that took forever. And it was hot and everyone was tired and irritated because we hadn’t gotten off the ship until 2pm in the first place. After she sorted that out we went to McDonalds- I know I’m ashamed, but I was with Caitlin who has been sick in bed the past week and Liz who is a diabetic and none of us had really ate anything all day so we needed to get some sugar so milkshakes it was. After we finished we took a cab to Chinatown- which was disgustingly close and tried to find a restaurant but by that point it was 4:30pm and nothing was really open because it was no longer lunch and dinner hadn’t started yet. We finally found this place willing to serve us and we ordered. The food was delicious – Chinese of course. And then we headed back the ship when we were done because it was almost 6ish. We got back on the boat and tried to get on the “free” internet and it didn’t work. So I used the rest of my minutes given to me by the ship and unfortunately didn’t have time to post the above. Then I changed for the Multi-Cultural Evening and at 8pm we left. The Dinner was amazing. We got off the bus and were served Fruit Cocktails and spinach balls and chicken fritters while three dancers and three musicians performed Sega. After the performance we went inside where we had starters- salads of all sorts and rolls. The first performance during starters was more Sega (I think). Then the main course which was tons of meats and kabobs- again awesome food accompanied with African and then Indian. Dessert was Fruit Tarts, Coconut cake and caramel flan with Chinese dancing and then finally it was the Finale which segued into us dancing. (They pulled us all up and danced a song with us and then left us dancing to “our” music. Then we continued to dance for the next 2 hours or so. My only disappointment was that we kept doing that high school thing- you know when you get into a circle so the cool kids can do tricks to show off to everyone else while the other kids just stand and watch. Yep kept happening. If I’m “dancing”, I don’t want to watch other people dance and I definitely don’t want others to watch me. I don’t know just a minor annoyance with the whole ordeal but everything else was Amazing and well worth going to. By the time we got back it was about midnight and then Christina and I stayed up talking most of the night!

Friday was pretty crazy, Christina and I woke up really early to try and make phone calls and find internet access- neither was very successful. The free internet is still in the works and trial runs so it isn’t actually true and at the moment is just an aspiration. After being disappointed I got ready for Sugar Adventure which turned out to be really interesting and Steffel was actually cool to hang around with. Basically we went to an old mill that had been turned into a museum that still has the original parts of the process so I got to see how they make sugar and separate it from the Molasses which eventually is added to rum. What I thought was even more impressive was that the plant actually regenerated its own power because of the fact that when they crush the cane to get the juice, the left over material that is clearly not juice is then burned and turned into steam which then runs the entire plantation. And then when they strain the juice before it becomes a syrup the scum is used as fertilizer. After a walkthrough we were able to try 10 different sugars and a rum. They were amazing.. so I bought a thing of sugar which comes with a recipe book for Melanie and for myself (since Mel is a chef I thought she would appreciate it- though that means you own me some excellent desserts!) and a thing of sugar for my parents and tea and honey for myself. So I was VERY happy about those purchases. I was able to hang out with Liz the whole day and that was a lot of fun. After the trip the two of us headed back to the city part to do our shopping and what excitement that was- seriously!! But first I have to eat lunch so more this afternoon!

Alright- Lunch was alright- more on that later. So After the Sugar Plantation Liz and I headed to town, first to the post office for stamps to send a few more letters- I’ve sent the bulk of my mail at this point so I’m really excited because I’ve heard mail gets extremely slow from Mauritius to Vietnam. In the past mail that was sent from Japan was received before mail from India- Crazy huh? Then I ran errands for a few people- they also need stamps and phone cards and didn’t think they would have time to do it and since I’m a nice person I did it for them. Liz and I had lunch at this café and had some delicious food- I had a Panini and it was amazing. We headed over to this fabric store and we were the only white people there (later on we figured out we went shopping with the locals and that tourists don’t usually get things there because they go to the marketplace which is extremely expensive.) I bought my material for my quilt which was basically a sarong and one of those outfits- long shirts with no sleeves, pants and a scarf. Really really cute and pretty good price- I was very excited. The man that helped us LOVED talking to us and spent about an hour with us showing us fabric and everything. After we paid for our purchases he brought us to the market where he dressed us in sarees and took pictures. He gave us his card- he wants us to send him the picture. He also put bindi’s on our foreheads. We ended up walking around the market for a little while- I spent WAY too much on a doll and then we headed to the small shopping center at the crossing. We walked through the shops for awhile and made a few other purchases before heading back to the ship to meet up with the rest of our friends for dinner and internet. In order to get to the ship we either had to take the water taxi, walk a half hour or take an expensive regular taxi. We continued to opt for the water taxi though to be honest it was pretty sketchy. One of the boats we took over used a plastic soda bottle to boil some of its liquid- have no worries I have lots of pictures. It was pretty crazy! For dinner we went to a Chinese Restaurant, my meal was terrible, mainly because the chicken wasn’t really “Chinese” it was basically honey chicken complete with bones. So I think I’ll have to keep that in mind in case all Chinese turns out to be like that- though if it is, then I would be very disappointed because it was very American in taste. After dinner I attempted to get online, unfortunately the “free” internet wouldn’t let me get onto any websites so I spent an hour chatting on yahoo before my battery died. After my friends finished eating ice cream we headed back to the ship and Christina and I again stayed up quite late talking.

On Saturday we all woke up early to go over to the city do some last minute shopping, head to the beach and then eat dinner- at least that was the plan. Christina and Katie were not actually there when we arrived so we walked in and out of the shops there for awhile hoping they would come, after they didn’t at 10:30am we decided to get going on our day. Stopped at the post office again and then headed to a few other shops. After Liz and Julie were done with a few shops we headed back to the fabric store. Liz and I stopped to get some beads before that- I thought Jessica would appreciate some new beads for her collection- there aren’t too many but I wasn’t sure if she was still interested in it. At the fabric store I bought two sarees that are beautiful, and now I really can’t wait for India to come because I’m going to be able to get a whole bunch of them J! We continued shopping around and stopped at an Indian restaurant and the food was delicious- very exciting! After lunch we headed to the Waterfront area to do some more browsing and we spent quite a bit of time there before heading back to the crossing area to do more shopping and a snack. We sat at one of the outdoor cafes until 7 when we were supposed to meet Christina and Katie and Caitlin for dinner. We had pizza- I know kind of lame but considering the fact that I haven’t had pizza since way before I left- I enjoyed a little normalcy in my diet for once. Then we rushed to the water taxi and got back to the ship. Last night was pretty much recounting the past few days with everyone. All the crazy water taxi stories- like when I scrapped my leg because they docked next to a 3 foot wall that we had to climb onto, etc.

Today is the Sea Olympics- How exciting. So the morning started with a clip of the torch getting passed from sea to sea and then finally ending with it getting passed to Des. Tutu to finish it up. “Let the Games Begin” First we had the cheer contest, followed by Photo- scavenger hunt (they have to take pictures of things around the ship and are due by 6pm), Tug of War, Dodgeball, Slippery Twister, Juice Pong. I took a break from the festivities and wrote the first part of this entry and then lunch. After lunch was the Relay Races which were amazing- start with Flip Cup on the 4^th deck, then they tagged their team member for Water balloon tossing- here is the catch they had to toss from the 4^th to the 5^th, 5^th to the 6^th, 6^th to the 7^th! It was amazing. If the balloon popped though they had to walk quickly up the stairs to tag their partner. Then the balloon person on the top deck had to tag the starter of the orange pass- these members had to pass the orange using only their necks- no hands. After they circled the pool with the orange they had to drop the orange in a box and tag the another person in the basketball area. The last step was a free throw- as soon as they got it in they stop watch was stopped. Now this all might seem like its not that bad at all- but you have to think about the waves- and we have had some mighty big ones so everything is rocking back and forth and makes everything much more difficult and thus more amusing. After the relay was “synchronized swimming”- I put it in quotes because it wasn’t actually in the pool. Because the waves were too big (you thought I was kidding- shame on you!) we haven’t been allowed to have the pool at our disposal, and so they swimming performance was moved to the union. That was also amazing. I can’t remember all the songs but they were along these lines: Under the Sea, One in a million (yea the one from Miss Congeniality), a few remixes of like a Virgin, Sexy Back, Red Scare, Yellow something or other, Slow Boat to China was the lifetime learners and I’m coming out was the Kids. It was QUITE amusing- definitely a good laugh. I’m currently watching the Trivia show though I think as soon as I finish this I’m going to go practice for my event- Lip Synching!! Very exciting. Which reminds me, Christine- I was just reminded of you, the question was… don don don… Who discovered DNA? And in my head I said “I know, I know- My sister met him!! J Thought that would give you a smile. After Trivia is “Dean Mike Says” and the Limbo. Then dinner and at 6pm my group is practicing together, our music also has to be in by then. At 7pm we start the Lip Synching performance and we are the third to go. It will be very exciting and interesting.

Well my battery is about to die, but I hope to actually post this sometime soon for all of you at home, but like I said I’m trying to hold off until mid-week to do so. I love and miss you all- hope life is great. This week we are off to India! Though it is 7 days in the middle of the Indian Ocean and it isn’t going to be nearly as nice as it has been. I’m afraid it is going to be just as bed at the cross from Cape Town to Mauritius. I can’t wait for Vietnam though because my mom is meeting up with me- which reminds me that I need to continue on that to bring with her list so that I can no longer be deprived of things like M&M’s and granola bars. (If anyone wants to add to my collection with letters or other food-drop it off to my house!)

Alright Slight continuation of the blog: After the Trivia, Christina and I checked out the Ping Pong finals and Dean Mike Says and then I had dinner with my singing group. After that I handed my ipod in to the sound people to get the music and we used one of the other girl’s laptops to practice in the union. We decided to change a few things so we went down to the 3^rd deck in a small open area and worked on our dance a few times and then we changed into out “outfits” of all black, got make-up on and headed up to the Union for the show. Most of the groups did a mix of songs with a “theme” of sorts to it. One group did a bunch of songs that related to Sugar/candy. Another did 80’s, there was a lot hip hop and a lot of removing of men’s shirts. Our group went 3^rd and we were told we were excellent by our peers- we are all very supportive when the event is going on J. After all 10 seas performed we had a few minutes before the results were announced. And the Mediterranean (us) received 1^ST PLACE in Lip-Synching J So we were all thrilled and our sea screamed for about 10 min. This was one of 2 events that we actually placed, the other being Dean Mike Says and it was 2^nd place. So everyone was thrilled that we placed in SOMETHING! Afterwards my RD came up to me and she let me know that she was sooo proud of us and we did sooo good and that she was sooo excited for us and how everyone was screaming at the end when they announced it and everything. At which point Drew, another RD and one of the judges for the competition came up and let me know that the three judges went in the back and they were like okay so Med. Sea gets 1^st hands down, now with that out of the way lets talk about 2^nd and 3^rd. So that made my day even better because after all we were actually lip-synching and clearly knew the words for our entire song instead of dancing or miming most of it. Again- amazing experience and definitely a lot of fun. After the festivities of chatting with my group and watching one of the videos I went back to my cabin where I prepped for tomorrow and then at 9:30pm I met with my actors for my scene for directing. I’m really excited and definitely think things are going well. It was a nice first meeting we did a slight warm-up and then we talked about the play a little bit and then we read through the scene 4 or 5 times. Tomorrow we meet again at 8pm and then again the next night and then Wednesday is the performance at 8:50am in the morning. I’m just going to pray to god that we don’t have a time change!

Well now I’m going to go off and write some late emails and finish my sweet tooth list for my mother before heading to bed. I hope to wake up bright and early tomorrow to post this and hopefully with some pictures- Sorry that I haven’t put any up I seem to continue to get crappy internet service that goes extremely slow but hopefully 6am will be an alright time to go on and post. Love and miss you all dearly!

~Jennifer xoxoxo

P.S. Sorry no new pictures- Internet is getting even slower! Miss you all

Cape Town- Skydiving :)

2007-03-08T11:45:00.000-05:00

I WENT SKY DIVING!! IT WAS AMAZING.

Hi everyone, I don't have very long, but I wanted to let you get a brief insight to my week in capetown. I think i left off with Saturday but I can't really remember... So I guess I will start with Sunday.. and hopefully remember it all. I don't know if my pictures will actually end up working out, but I'm trying to upload them at the moment. If not you will have to wait for next time I have better internet access and more time.

Alright so Sunday: I woke up early if I remember correctly and walked around a bit, I was going to try to go to Robben Island but that didn't work out so I walked around the market some more and gave the tour to all of my friends at one point or another. I believe I stopped at the internet cafe a few times but overall it was a pretty relaxed day.

Monday was the Cape Winelands which were amazing. If I didn't have a budget for this trip and wasn't gongho about sticking to it I would have bought a bunch of bottles of wine and sent it home to be waiting for me when I get back. But just so you know J.C. LeRouix has AMAZING sparkling wine and goodness, we were all laughing by the end of it. And we had lunch which was bits of cheese, quiche and a salad and it was delicous! The wine had a strong taste and was very vibrant. It was also excellent, but i still like the sparkling wine better. We stopped at the African Language Museum and then to a Brandy and Chocolate tasting. I can say for sure now that I am NOT a brandy person though it was an excellent opportunity. That night I believe I gave a few tours around the market again.

Tuesday was Brown Paper Studio- that was a long and tiring day yet oddly amazing. We were able to work with other brown paper studio students and we had a great time watching performances playing theatre games, it was just excellent and it was nice to see that this program was helping all of the students in many different ways. That night I was pretty exhausted and I think again stayed around. We went to the Mexican place for a fish bowl and that was alright, nothing like the one from the first day though!

Wednesday was Tabletop Mountain with the mayor which we were unable to climb the mountain but we went around it instead and ended up in the Botanical Gardens which were gorgeous I wish I had more time to look at the flowers and everything! That night we went to the Green Mermaid for cheesecake which was SOOO good, I just can't even tell you I wish that I could have that everyday it was just amazing! I got to see Christina too so that was a nice surprise when I got back to my cabin. And then it was off to bed

This morning I woke up bright and early to talk to the doctor who told me I had to start stretching so I could start soaking my toes- amazing :) lol and then I walked around while Caitlin did her shopping and then went back to the ship to go sky diving. thats right SKY DIVING. and it was amazing SOO much fun- I got video footage off Caitlin's video camera so I just have to download it here and I have it to show everyone when I get home. :) :) :) Then we started out last minute shopping and I'm ultra excited got everything I needed and as soon as I finish this I go for sushi and then back to the ship and we are off!

Well its shorter in comparison but could be much longer. I'll go into greater detail later but for now this will have to do!

I love and miss you all back home!

The Sea, Pre-Cape Town and some of Cape Town

2007-03-03T12:22:00.000-05:00

**** A Team, I need someone's mailing address, please email me it jjsears_4@hotmail.com ASAP - preferably before Thurs

South Africa at 6am :)
Me on the deck with Tabletop Mountain behind me
One of the many seals that chill at our "jetty" They are one of the first things you see when you get off the boat.
Castle of Good Hope

The Advertisement that I saw that made me think of all of you
A big bowl of alcohol. literally. Its called the gulf of mexico and it has about 4 or 5 different types and a bit of juice. It was amazing. Though more then 3 definitely need to drink it

March 1^st

Goodness, things just get crazy on this ship! So I’m doing alright with the hair. I’m really glad that I did it, I won’t ever regret it, I just won’t be doing it ever again. I enjoy have something to clip up and I enjoy the pretty smell of my hair when I let it down. Its amazing though, how much you appreciate something you take for granted… like hair. Well I don’t know if I’ll change my ways and start spending 10 hours making it look perfect every day but I can at least say that when this head of hair grows back I will love it 10 time more then I did!

So hopefully by the time this gets posted, or not posted depending on my fate, I will have done what few dare to do: skydive. I’m really really nervous, but I figure- if not now then when? If not here then where? Its about 235 US dollars which is going over my allotted budget for south Africa, good thing I got a beautiful deposit since I’ve been on this ship. My reasoning: it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to skydive in South Africa. Not to mention I believe saying “go big or go home” was going to be my motto for this trip. So I’m going big by going skydiving! I’m also hoping to get the video that goes along with it so then I can share this memorable experience with all of those individuals who have issues with height and therefore won’t go themselves OR those of you who don’t believe me (though I don’t see that happening!- but you may want proof ;) ) But before I get into my big plans for South Africa, Let me tell you about my week!

Sunday: Day A

Nothing too exciting happened. I was planning on posting… but sleep was too tempting and I kept hitting the snooze button. Until suddenly it was time for classes J In directing we chose our scenes for the final project. And then Global Studies After writing my Critical Issues Journal (which was not fun) I met with Judy (my directing teacher) because she wants to keep in touch, make sure I’m doing alright all that. So we talked about a lot of stuff and towards the end I stared out into the ocean. It was so peacefully and nice. Other then just classes and hanging out on the 7^th deck which again, was beautiful. The water was so calm, other then the waves created by our ship, the water looked like it was virtually not moving. Oh gosh… I just wish I could have snapped a picture! But I’m a loser and didn’t! Again, the rest of the day was pretty boring

Monday Day B

Another typical day at sea, I woke up really early to post all of those beautiful photos and my last blog (hope you liked it!) and then went to bed for a little while before Global Studies- we discussed Aids, watched a few videos. It was a little scary and really sad L. Primarily focusing in on South Africa and Africa in general. We discussed how former President Mandela put Mbeki in charge of solving the Aid’s question. And then when Mbeki took over, aids continued to be under his watchful eye. However he denied the connection between HIV and AIDS and therefore refused to allow HIV treatment to individuals who had AIDS. He banned the medication in the hospitals and at the time condoms and other preventatives was not popular among the masses and so HIV continued to spread. A convention for AIDS was even held in South Africa and Mbeki continued to deny the connection. As you can see, this was an extremely powerful class. The end result was that the people sued the government for not giving them the choice if they wanted health care regarding AIDS and the people won. I took a nap during the day and did more homework. At night Christina and I watched the Constant Gardener. Damn. Now THAT was intense. I was on the edge of my bed the whole time. (the premise is this couple lives in Africa and the wife worked to discredit and make changes in the townships. Well she found out that the people were being used as guinea pigs for brand new drugs never before tested on people and hundreds were dying because of it. Well in order to quiet her, the government has her killed and so then her husband gets involved. Now her husband didn’t know what she did for a living and so he started investigating, at first he thought she was cheating on him and then he realized what she was really doing and so he kept hunting for why she was going where she went when she was killed. – still following? – Anyway, the whole point is the thing that she was protecting was then revealed to the public and so the public ended up finding out about the dirty dealing) I was freaked out!! But overall amazing movie. Again I cried throughout a lot of it. But more on that later.

Tuesday- Day A and Apartheid Day

So we moved our clocks forward one hour and I barely got up in time for my 8 am class! After Global Studies, which was a intro class on Apartheid and announcement was made throughout the entire ship that we were doing a simulation. Everyone who had shaved their heads would be a part of the privileged class and would be free to continue as we usually do in addition to using the Faculty and Staff lounge with the exception of the Aquamarine Dining Room (where I usually eat). Everyone else was not allowed on the 7^th Deck and they weren’t allowed to eat in the Garden Lounge (where I was forced to eat). Since I don’t usually see my friends on A day with the exception of Lunch time and a few spare moments between classes, I did my own thing anyways. Basically read my book in the Garden Lounge while I ate. One of the waiters dropped off a napkin that had the following quote written on it. “ Labour for learning before you grow old because learning is better than silver and gold. Silver and gold will vanish away but a good education will never decay. – Clive” It was a really sweet gesture, it just made me feel even worse about not having friends for the day- which he informed me that if they had hair they were my enemies for the day not my friends. Which naturally I understand (the ENTIRE ship board community was on boat for this simulation). And again although I hated it – I enjoyed the education aspect from it. I just felt extremely isolated because none of my friends were shaved heads and all of the shaved heads wanted to brag to all those who were not privileged and rub it in their faces which again was childish. Today (Thursday) we had a discussion in my directing class and I heard that a few years ago when they attempted to do this all of the privileged class gave up all their rights as a group as well and the simulation didn’t work. Interesting huh? After dinner (which there was a sit-in just before I went so I missed all the action) I had my first actor’s studio to find actors for my play. And then we had a gathering in my room- Christina, myself and liz and Katie stopped by for some good ole venting. I went up to the 7^th deck to get popcorn for them since I was the only “privileged one”. I also had my first alcoholic drink since getting on the boat. Usually the line is terrible and I don’t even want to waste my time in the line. But because all the frat and sorority girls weren’t allowed up because they didn’t shave their heads, there was no line and so I got myself a wine cooler which was quite good, though I had to drink it fast because I’m not allowed downstairs with drinks. And then I rejoined the party, and again not too much to tell just talked and went to bed.

Wednesday Day B

Global Studies was a nice treat- the Archbishop finally decided to get up in front of us and give a little bit of a speech. I have to admit he is the cutest old man ever. He was just so passionate and excited and emotional about everything he had to say and most of all he seemed happy- rejoiceful, that apartheid had come to an end instead of being bitter that it even occurred at all. It was quite the speech. This is one of my few encounters with him. He usually takes his meal in the Garden Lounge, and I usually eat in the Aquamarine. He isn’t as approachable or as out and about as all of the press and publications made it seem like. Anytime that I have seen him dining he is surrounded with members of the older community and he tends to shy away from talking to long with any group of students. I mean he will say hi and everything he just keeps himself at a distance. His wife will be joining us in South Africa and I hope that encourages him to reach out more because with all the fuss they made- I’m not going to lie- I’m REALLY disappointed. It took 3 days before I even saw him on the ship…. And the ship really isn’t THAT big! Anyways, day two of my actor studio, not really all that exciting. No one showed though I checked my email- sorry no update. I thought I would give you some time to recover from that last one. At 8pm we had our Cultural Pre-port meeting where we learned about South African music and the night life we should expect – things we should go see and things we should know. For example- Toasted Cheese is a grilled cheese sandwich. And that giving the peace sign backwards so your palm faces you is a VERY bad cuss word (in Brazil the okay sign with your fingers meant a really bad word too). Things like that, that just might be useful. After pre-port I went back to my room where I continued to read King Leopold’s Ghost and then watched Hotel Rwanda, Good Will Hunting and select scenes from Narnia. (All available on the campus network!) Hotel Rwanda made me cry. That was REALLY intense. The beginning and middle was phenomenal though the ending was very movie like. And because of Hotel Rwanda I have been on a on again/off again cry fits. But more on that later. I finally went to bed at 4am (we added another hour) after watching some happy things to clear my mind from Hotel Rwanda so I didn’t have bad dreams.

Thursday Day A

Directing was also VERY difficult to wake up for this morning. It was pretty harsh. We discussed the Apartheid and the Archbishop’s speech. It was a pretty good class. And in Global Studies we had a question/answer session with Desmond. But the questions were pre-chosen so the class could move quicker. Some questions were pretty good, others were less so. After Global Studies I finished King Leopold’s Ghost and again cried for a half hour, more on that below, I started my paper for it, had lunch and then finished my paper in time for class. Critical Issues was alright, a discussion about the book, but he gave us terrible news. The first A day after South Africa we had a major exam on everything and our journals are due and they are expected to be much better. I’m a little bitter, but I guess it’s to be expected. After class I wrote my South Africa letters to be sent out on the 7^th deck. It was nice and peaceful for the most part. Then dinner which was terrible followed by Logistical Pre-port. Now for Brazil’s logistics, the MD on board sang a song in order to teach us about the precautions of Brazil (see below). When Christina and I went to visit him we told him he needed to do an even better one. Well his wife and daughter came through and tonight’s was hysterical. Add on the fact that Desmond got really into and sang the first part and then danced the rest. Oh god it was great! Amazing even. Rocky my Energy professor was the other major singer with a group of background singers! Oh and tonight we received an important message that we need to tie everything down tonight because it is supposed to get REALLY rocky while we are getting into port. (all of the currents are converging right where we are porting J ) Oh and the fact that we got the okay sign to eat lettuce and veggies here in port. (Brazil we were not allowed to, well we could but the we would suffer from diarrhea!) Other then that pretty uneventful meeting. Afterwards Christina and I watched Breakfast Club while I started writing this. And now we have “Freedom of Resistance” on because Christina needs to watch it for a class. And soon we are off to bed.

MY REFLECTIONS

So the only thing that I really want to reflect upon all goes under the same theme- our (at an international level) inability to get along and live peacefully is quite… ignorant. First let it be said that my thoughts are stemming from a variety of resources, Hotel Rwanda, the AID’s Discussion, Constant Gardener and last but probably most important King Leopold’s Ghost. I guess I should start there. King Leopold’s Ghost isn’t a novel but it isn’t your typical non-fiction book. The premise of the book is Leopold II, King of Belgium and his need to conquer and obtain a colony. He is sly and corrupt and manages to make himself look angelic in everyone else’s eyes while in reality he is a hypocrite. After trying to buy a colony he decides to invest in the Congo. Well his representative starts using the natives as forced labor and this practice unfortunately continues for hundreds of years. The major points are basically they are known for their brutality. The soldiers capture other natives so they can join the work force. These natives are forced to collect rubber from the vines and if they don’t collect enough then they are beaten with a hippo skinned whip- by the sound of it MUCH worse then a whip you and I would think of) Thousands are murdered or worked to death and obviously rebellions start to crop up. With every person (man woman or child) that they kill they cut off the right arm to prove they have used the bullet to kill someone. By 1924, (so maybe 30 years) they downsized the native population by half. The woman were raped and taken as hostage and naturally other terrible things would happen none of which I really want to go into detail about. Well finally some journalist breaks through and convinces the dominant powers of the day that this is bad and so there is a wave of reform movements, though in reality nothing is done to stop or change the system in place. Not to mention this all occurring around the same time that the United States is causing bloodshed in the Philippines and Britain has South Africa. So I’ve been a little bit emotionally tender because I just don’t understand why no one does anything. But I guess that is phrased wrong, because after all its easier to criticize everyone else and not actually change the problem or act like you are completely oblivious. Well I won’t bore you with the details, just know that the combination of it all disturbed me to no end and I’m hoping to find some comfort at my arrival in Cape Town.

SCHEDULE for CAPE TOWN

Friday: Port at 6am. Skydiving at 2pm, Theatre (Everyone else is ****ing perfect) from 6pm-11:30pm and then SLEEP because I’ll be exhausted.

Saturday: Shopping and walking around downtown, hopefully lots of internet usage and hopefully when this will be posted online. And then out at night with Laura!

Sunday: Same as Saturday

Monday: Cape Wineland trip to 4 winelands and then out

Tuesday: Brown Paper Studio (theatre FDP) and then out

Wednesday: Hiking up Tabletop Mountain with Former Mayor and then out?

Thursday: Last minute shopping and internet. On ship by 8:30pm for the South African Chorus and departing at 11:30 for the fuel station where we will dock for the night and continue on our way to Mauritius!

This is turning into QUITE the trip! I hope everyone is enjoying hearing about it! I love and miss you all.

For my Mohegan Sunners out there. If you even managed to make it down to the end of this it will be a miracle. But Can someone leave some sort of mailing address that I could possibly send a postcard or other too? Thanks guys- I miss you and I hope your having a great time without me!

And LASTLY: The Brazilian Health Song- ENJOY!

Salvador Pre-Port Health Briefing – by Dr Matt et al

Listen along with the podcast thats in the folder. To share it with folks back home you can send them to the podcast section of my web/blogs at:

http://web.mac.com/matthandley/iWeb/Handleys%20go%20Global/Podcasts/Podcasts.html

Somewhere deep in the jungle

Mosquitoes fly

Those malaria carriers

Think you’re their blood supply

DEET – we recommend DEET

Malarone, Larium and doxy

Thwart those bugs defeat their Moxy

D-E-E-T combined with meds

No bug bites

All through lovely Brazil

There’s food to try

But danger lurks in the lettuce

Ice cubes and fruit you buy

Pepto – we’re talkin’ about Pepto

No diarrhea problems there

Nor Upset stomachs in despair

That’s P-E-P-T-O Bismol

Pepto bis-mol

In Rio De Janeiro town when carnival is allllll around you

The drinking dancing never stops

and sexual inhibition drops

But STDs surround you

Condoms, let talk about condoms

No unprotected sex out there No STDs for you to share

That’s C-O-N-D-O-M-S

That’s Con-doms

If you’re out in the sunshine

Or at the beach

And you’re under-protected

Blisters and burns compete

Sunscreen – Its all about sunscreen

Its slippery slimy goopy gunk

That helps avoid the post burn funk

That S-P-F more than 15

That’s Sun-screen

Friday March 2, 2007

Okay so, Here is the continuation of this blog. I unfortunately was unable to go skydiving today- I know VERY disappointing. But I will be going on Thursday morning instead- the deposit has been made and everything. I’m very excited about going- though to be honest I’m scared out of my mind- Overall though I think it will be an amazing experience.

Cape Town is Amazing. There is no other way to put it. Although I’ve mainly spent my time in the tourist and downtown area it was still amazing. Today Laura, Julie, Leslie and I went to the ATM and to the Robben Island Museum so they could be tickets for Weds. I Leslie and I stopped at this really cute store that has these ostrich egg look a likes that have cut outs of various images out of them with a light on the bottom and a stand for it. I fell in love with it, so provided that I don’t go too over my budget this week – at the end that will be a keepsake for me because it’s beautiful even though its 60 us dollars. Anyways, after the letdown about skydiving (the guy didn’t reserve us spots and sold them to someone else without telling us- we thought we were all set) we decided to make arrangements for later on in the week and then we started walking around. We took a mini-bus (cab) to the bus depot downtown and went to the Castle of hope or something along those lines. Not quite a castle a lot smaller than I would have thought but it was still really pretty. And then Julie, Laura and I went to the District 6 Museum. Basically during Apartheid the government suddenly decided that they wanted District 6 to be an all-white residential area so they cleared out all the old tenants (they were moved to extremely poor townships with less than habitual housing arrangements), knocked it down and then rebuilt the entire section of town for white or colored families. It was really sad, and yet the entire community is working to overcome all of the bitter memories in order to create a world that is a beautiful place for their children. It really was inspirational. After spending quite a bit of time there we walked through downtown, stopped at a grocery store for Julie to get supplies and then continued on our way to Long St (rumored to be the street that has the awesome clubs and pubs) for a drink and appetizers. Well we wanted to walk towards the waterfront so I’m pretty sure all the good places were farther up the street, oh well. We then decided to continue down to the waterfront because that had a lot of restaurants as well and ended up stopping at a Mexican restaurant. I had calamari and Julie got wings. The three of us split the Gulf of Mexico- that would be the picture of the punch bowl picture. It was really good and I was feeling great- it had been an overall nice relaxed afternoon and I was about to go to my favorite trip of the week: A Night of Theatre: Everybody else is ****ing Perfect. Unfortunately there was a bit of a line to get back into the ship. When I finally got to my room- my key wasn’t working so I had to go to the Purser’s desk to have it recoded. I get into my room threw on a change of clothes suitable for the theatre and ran out of the door up to the union. Then I realized I didn’t have my key- I let the trip leader know and ran back to Purser’s desk which had an extremely long line and I had to wait forever for it, got charged for needing to be let into my room and get into my room and grab my card. By the time that I get back outside my trip had left and I was out 55 dollars. I was very angry. The security guards for the docks were trying to figure out what theatre it might be at and were trying to be as helpful as possible, but unfortunately no luck. So I went back to my room and I just lost it. I was so angry about not being able to go on that trip and I know the field office won’t refund me because they had to pay for the ticket anyway and its my responsibility to be there on time which just makes it a million times worse. So after that, Leslie ended up finding me and we encouraged Kiera to come with us into the Waterfront to check out the night life. We ended up stopping to get some ice cream and walked around the mall and shop area. Then walked back to the ship at about 10:30ish. Christina finally came back around 11:30 and her day was just as disappointing as mine was, so we vented for awhile outside while she waited for her mom to get there. At around 12:30 we decided to go in and give her dad a call to find out what was going on. Her flight had been delayed by 3 hours from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Christina went back outside and I cleaned and prepped for tomorrow and then I started writing this. Christina’s mom finally got here a little after 1:30am and they stayed for about a half hour and then left to go to their hotel. So I watched a part of Wimbledon- the romance movie with Kirsten Dunst and fell asleep.

Saturday March 3, 2007

Day 2 of CAPE TOWN

I woke up and had breakfast with my friends around 8am. Then at 10 am we left to go to Robben Island to see about tickets. Today and tomorrow is sold out so I can’t do it which again I’m disappointed but I’m alright. I went shopping instead by myself around the Waterfront. I bought lots of cool stuff and actually buying the other half tomorrow. I also spent a good deal at an Internet café in the midst of the day and now I’m back finishing up the minutes that I bought. I’ll probably be back tomorrow too because all of my stuff is Mon, Tues and Weds. I feel pretty relaxed and pretty good. As soon as I’m done with this entry and my other internet things I’m going to be getting an ice cream and heading back to the ship for the night. So in case you didn’t notice the above plan is wrong, but not wanting to change the original works, I’m just going to readjust it below:

Fri- Walked around the Water Front, Castle of Good Hope, District 6 Museum, Tequilla Catina for Drinks, Ship, Walked around the market areas.

Sat- Shopping and internet all day

Sun- More Shopping and internet, possibly stopping at the Robben Island museum where the tickets are sold.

Mon- Cape Winelands, sundowners and then out?

Tues- Brown Paper Studio, Around town

Weds- Tabletop Mountain- Staying close to the ship because I’m going to be EXHAUSTED!

Thurs- Skydiving, and last minute shopping.

I still have to buy my doll and quilt material, but I fell in love with this ostrich egg that is sketched with the world on it. It doubles as a lamp- It is the coolest and most beautiful thing ever, But it’s a bit expensive. About 75 US dollars. I don’t know, we will see what I decide.

The culture here is amazing. You can really feel the community. In many of the stores the products they sold are made by people that are in the townships. I know they probably aren’t getting much for them, but at least their work is getting sold. A few stores even posted signs saying they wouldn’t bargain because the money goes to the individuals. The tags have the names of the township or at least the location of where they are created. There were these tin can angels. I think that might be my trinket for the kids from south Africa, the money goes to Aids campaign. I like contributing money to good causes. The local students made them too so it will be a neat little thing to have. And even if all you parents hate it then you can throw it out and it won’t hurt too many of my feelings- but I think its adorable.

Alright, well I guess that’s it for the day. I might try to squeeze a little bit of internet time in on my last day here so I can update you on the rest of Cape Town Trips. Well I hope you all are having a great time at home!

Love, Jennifer

Salvador/St. Neptune's, Life on the Ship :)

2007-02-26T01:44:00.000-05:00

Me steering the boat! just kidding...
me looking cute with my hair the morning of!
another last minute hair photo
the pony tail removed
And lastly, My hair getting removed! yea 10 inches!

The final result :) Its growing on me... not that I have a choice

February 23rd

Day 5 in SALVADOR continued…

Well I woke up bright and early for breakfast with Leslie and Emily and when we looked outside the window it was downpouring. Our hopes of last minute shopping were slightly dashed, so we agreed to regroup at 9:30 and see how the weather was at that point. Still raining. 10am- still raining. 10:30 raining and the crew was in the middle of drills in case of emergencies, so we weren’t allowed to leave. So finally at 11am we decided to get off the ship no matter what (as long as the crew was free to check us off the ship). Thankfully we were, and thankfully it stopped pouring and was only sprinkling. We hung out at the Mercado for a little while and then took the elevator to the upper level of the city (we weren’t allowed to walk up it because it is the 1st place robbers go to attack you) not that we would have wanted to- it was a very long walk! And the elevator makes you sick because it goes up really fast and then suddenly breaks and does the same thing when you go down. So its kind of like that ride at Six Flags, but less interesting and more grungy. Anyway, we walked over to Pelourhino Square to find an internet café and since almost all of the computers were in use we decided to split, Emily and I were going to shopping and Julie and Leslie were going to stay and use the internet. Emily and I left and did our shopping- I’ve been looking for Christmas Ornaments everywhere and despite the fact that Brazil is Christian, I guess they don’t manufacture ornaments because the closest thing I found was in Rio and I couldn’t find them ANYWHERE in Salvador and I was pissed. So At the last few moments I caved and bought “brazil” earrings that is a shell with the Brazilian flag and “brazil” painted on them. Very cheap and very disappointing I had my mind set on the ones I saw before. I bought Patti her Brazilian coffee (which smells amazing!) and I bought a dress to cut up and use for my quilt. I also bought my doll/statue which is also gorgeous and I love it, it has taken the place of the Puerto Rican doll on my night stand and now the PR doll is on the window shelf we have. We ate pizza for lunch and I went onto the internet to post my blog, I hoped to post pictures but if you couldn’t figure it out it didn’t work! The internet is slow so I’m going to hope for better luck at 4 am on the ship when this will hopefully be posted or South Africa. So after checking my email and getting more bad news I was ready to just go back to the ship where I could have my privacy. But first we stopped at the Mercado for Leslie and Emily and I ran into Christina who I was SOO happy to see. We only were able to talk for a few minutes (I was officially broke having used the rest of my money on my souvenirs and she was going to dinner at Pelourhino on the second level of the city.) So I went back to the ship with Leslie, Emily and Julie. I basically hung out in my room until dinner at 6:30pm and wrote in my directing journal. When I got done with my meal I happened to see my professor for directing and asked if I could meet to talk to her after she was done with her meal, she agreed to meet me. So I met with her for about 45 min and discussed everything- family, stage managing, the class, my other classes, the ports, everything that I’ve learned, how I’ve changed so far and I can’t even begin to fathom how much I’m going to continue to change during this journey… that sort of thing. When I returned to my cabin, Christina started to cry and told me that she was so sorry about everything going on with my family but that she was SOO happy to see me because she was so scared that I was going to leave and go back home and how she didn’t know what she was going to do for the rest of the trip without me. And one by one our friends joined in our room- I guess we have the party room because everyone comes to visit us here. Its kind of neat. So we had a big ole party in our room and just talked endlessly and then one by one they all left to do last minute homework and then we started talking and fell asleep.

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS
I figured, since I’ve broken down my days in port pretty specifically instead of doing an overall reflection of my trip which could be slightly more interesting, I would take the time to reflect on my experiences in both Salvador and Rio. As I’m really beginning to learn, I really am a part of a privileged society, and I hate to say it but I feel guilty for it. I feel guilty because I am having the time of my life visiting country after country. I think what makes it a million times worse is that instead of acting like adults and making our own beds, cleaning up after ourselves, we have housekeepers and waiters to take our plates when we are done. And then add on the fact that EVERY SINGLE one of them is minority and this ship contains primarily Upper Middle Class white people- it is just really starting to make me sick. Here we sit every single day in a classroom where they preach about how our society is stratified by race and wealth and yet they don’t answer the main question: How can we change it? Nor do they set an example by changing it on this boat- by forcing us as adults to clean up after ourselves- where is the empowerment and the responsibility on our parts? Especially if as a cumulative group we really are the future of our country, how can we find ways to get rid of this stratification, to improve our economy while saving our environment, while improving the nations around us and improving education systems everywhere? Since everything on this ship is playing right into the hierarchy our social system has set up and had for hundreds of years.

Plus, another pretty big issue- we as citizens of the US consistently complain about how if you are coming to live in our country- then YOU should learn OUR language. And even I must admit that I’ve thought it and probably said it at least a half dozen times, but now that I’ve experienced not understanding an entire country- it dawned on me. That is our ignorance getting in the way. I sat next to that French man on the plan and we both tried so hard to communicate on that ride down in hopes of making it go a little faster, but there is only so much one can do. He knew Portuguese, French, and English. And what did I have to bring to the table? Common Spanish words and English, in Europe and most other educated societies; their students are required to learn several languages at the exact same time. They aren’t ignorant to say if you want to do business with me then learn my language. By bowing down a little by learning another language won’t hurt you- you’ll have so many more networks, opportunities open up to you. It’s just aggravating to know that all around the world people are more educated then I am by the simple premise that they know and understand another language other then their native tongue.

And today in class we discussed a noble prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, started setting up organizations to help the poor. There was this woman with a new born begging in the streets in hopes of getting her next meal. He agreed to loan her some money on one condition- she had to use the money to buy something that she could sell on the streets and she had to attend a weekly support group meeting and she would need to pay him back. She agreed and bought some bangles and sold them on the streets. She considered not going to the meeting but figured why not. At the support group they taught her how to handle her money, about health care, they educated her and made her literate. Soon she decided to buy more bangles and go door to door. At one of the homes a women invited her in for tea and showed her the collection of bangles she already had. Well this woman traveled all the way to see this man speak and tugged on his shirt until finally she got his attention. “My son is at the university” He didn’t understand, so she tugged some more and said “My son is at the university. As a begger you passed by me and you made me agree to a few conditions and I want you to know that the baby in my arms who didn’t look like he would make it through the night, made it. And now he has a scholarship to the university.” And of course the man tells the story at almost every conference he goes to in order to strengthen his argument that in order to solve this global issue of “poverty” we need to money, education and birth control. I don’t really know how much I buy into being able to rely on the poor for empowering their own success, but I do think his strategies and theories have a point. In order for any government to be able to help the poor- there needs to be a diverse amount of approaches and a variety of ways to get them on their own feet. Not just throwing money at them or providing certain housing. I know there are several conditions to live in shelters here in the U.S. but what about everywhere else? I don’t know- just another thought to put out there, maybe one day we will get a solution or an answer to the problem. On another note- while driving to and from the airport in Rio, we drove by the favelas, basically the shacks- the thrown together at the last minute hope to last through the night kind of homes. And it was so disgusting to watch how they live. The upper levels barely had full ceilings or walls. Everything was rags and it was just terrible. Not that the US doesn’t have its own set of problems, its just even more shocking to see it in another country- a little more eye opening because you become numb to it in your own country.

Well, I’m sure there will be more of that to come, just thought I would break up the boring verbatim story of what I do all day with my thoughts and reflections on this trip. Hope you enjoyed my thoughts J

The STORIES

So not to scare you all, but 85% of the ships population is rumored to have had some degree of robbery of theft while in Salvador. Within 20 min of us porting in Salvador- one group of girls (there were 3 of them) one of the young ladies was held at rusty knife point for her video camera. Fortunately nothing permanent happened- just the loss of a camera, but scary nevertheless. And while I was in Rio, a few other groups of both men and women were also held up a few times. Fortunately there were zero events that occurred in Rio and I was again fortunately not one of the individuals who were robbed. My only loss was my night guard for grinding my teeth- I have a feeling that is going to be difficult to find too, oh well…! Also fortunately, Salvador is supposed to be the most dangerous of all of the ports, but we will have to see. Rio was definitely amazing and I would love to go back.

BACK ON THE SHIP
So I’ve had 2 days of classes, my first was an A day- Elements of Directing at 8am which was interesting. We did our fun-filled warm-ups today. At least I’ll be comfortable with doing them for when and if I decide to stage manage (or at least we can hope that all of this being wild and silly will help me get comfortable with it) and then we viewed the final 4 projects. That was interesting though- nothing too crazy that you would care about, but interesting nevertheless. Global Studies was alright. I had to run back to my room to take my sea sickness and a Brazilian breakfast bar thing. More lectures on Brazil and the stratification of wealth- the richest 20% have 62% of the national income whereas the poorest 20% have 3% of the income. And this 20% rich is mostly white and the 20% poor is mostly African descendents. Right before Brazil our professor ended a lecture with a crass comment “If you took out all of the African Americans in the USA data for the HDI (Human Development Index) the USA would rank # 1 instead of #8, which means if we get rid of all the blacks we will be number 1” and so most (including myself) took it very offensively as if he was agreeing that blacks were in fact inertly inferior. Yesterday he explained that he had adopted a black child and now he has beautiful grandchildren and all this other stuff and that all he was trying to do was prove to us that even the USA is stratified in how the wealth is distributed according to race. Though not quite apologetically, more matter of factly. I don’t think he personally regretted what he said or that he said it or even the manner that he said it. I think the response from the audience, the students, was exactly was he was looking and going for. I took a nap in between Global Studies and Critical Issues. Critical Issues wasn’t too exciting either. I went back to my room and tried reading for the class. Dinner at 6:30 with “the gang” and at 7 we headed up to the 7th deck where they were doing “rock the hawk” and a bunch of people were pre-shaving their head so they had Mohawks. I decided to wait until St. Neptune Day which would be tomorrow. We actually crossed the Equator last week on Valentine’s day and so because we didn’t “stop to pay homage to him, we will be paying for it tomorrow- so make sure you get plenty of rest”. In other words they will be taking pots and pans and clanging them up and down the hallways at 6 am (supposedly!). Anyways, back to the topic at hand- after watching the Mohawks for a little while I went back to my room and tried to read King Leopold’s Ghost for my Critical Issues class. I put on Casablanca (it was the adult entertainment movie of the night- on the ship we had 6 channels- one that posts and automatically updates our changing position latitude/longitude, one that contains our Dean’s Memo of the day which includes the events and meetings of the day as well as special information. And the other 4 are used starting at 6pm they show 4 movies- two are educational, one is adult entertainment and then one is family entertainment (since the professors brought their families with them) Usually the educational ones are about the places we are going to or coming from. Last night was a movie on Mandela the former president of South Africa. Tonight Beethoven is on the Kids channel. Tomorrow night “around the world in 80 days” is on the adult channel. Anyways.. yea, I ended up passing out during the second showing of Casablanca.

DAY B on the Ship
Today was an alright day. I a lot of interesting stories I guess. Slept in and then started reading for Global Studies. Global Studies was alright, we discussed as I said above the Noble Peace winner and poverty and then the Savanna Desert Climate. This much older lady came over to Christina and I and wanted to know if we already had extended families because we looked like smart girls and she wanted to adopt us if we hadn’t. We told her that we actually already did and then she talked our ears off anyways. She was the cutest thing ever though and we both left with big smiles on our faces. I showered and took some last minute pictures of the hair. Then we had lunch with the group and then headed to the 7th deck to do homework and I started to write this blog but my battery died so I had to plug it in my cabin. I had Energy Technology and Society and it was a pretty interesting class, we played this game “win as much as you can” and there were 4 groups with one spokesman and we had to try to win as much as we could. Well our girl didn’t listen to us at all and made every move in order to screw over all of the other groups instead of working together as a team so we all could win. At the end of the demonstration, the professor let us know that he had planted her and had told her to always do the opposite so not everyone could get points. So the girl and essentially our group looked like the United States and everyone else was the poor countries- neat huh? After class I headed to my room and cleaned up my stuff while chatting with Liz and Christina. I checked at the Shrink’s office to see if she was there, she takes the morning shift though and because of St. Neptune’s Day the other shrink didn’t know if the hours would be the same. Then I stopped at the Purser’s Desk to find out about Locks of Love. The general feeling is that I might be able to do it- but that means I have to do it in the early morning. So I told all my friends- 8am for breakfast, 8:30 I’ll shave my head. Don’t worry lots of pictures, since I’ll probably be posting this after the fact. So I’m very excited. There has also been talk of sleeping out on the deck tonight- we will have to see! Oh and today I booked my hostiles for Japan- I’m being Daring and doing Japan indie (independently) with a huge group of people. I know 8 people already going and I heard there is another 12 that are also doing it- I just don’t actually know them. But basically we arrive in Kobe Japan and go to Hiroshima for a day and a night and then to Nara for the day and Kyoto for two nights and two days and late on the last night we take the bullet train back to Kobe and our last day in port is in Kobe. I’m very excited. And instead of paying 200 dollars for a 10 hour bus ride (5 each way) to Hiroshima and another couple hours to Kyoto, I’m spending about 300 for 3 overnights and a bullet train pass. Not bad right? As I said- uber excited!

Well I’m sure I’ll update more of this tomorrow after St. Neptune’s Day and try to post all of the pictures at 5 am when no one is actually using the internet. Well I love and miss you all. Hope life back home is great/getting better! I think about you all back home all the time!

PART II
ST NEPTUNE’S DAY on the Ship!
Wow… Its 1pm here on the ship and its about 9am back at home! I can’t even believe it! And tonight we move our clocks forward ANOTHER hour and we still have 2 more to go before we hit South Africa! Last night was interesting. Liz called right as I was finishing yesterday and told me to get over to Kaitlyn and Katie’s room, we listened to music from our childhood- and I ended up falling asleep on one of the beds for a little while before finally going to bed. Christina and I talked when we got into our room and then a note was slipped under the door- Deb was trying to contact me, so I went to the purser’s desk and bought a phone card and gave her a call. It was nice to hear her voice, though it just makes me miss home even more. I love being here, but I miss everything that was familiar to me! So I guess you don’t have any worries about whether or not I’m coming home! At 3:30am Christina and I finally fell asleep. My alarm went off at 7am, though I didn’t get out of bed until quarter of. We made our way to breakfast and everyone took last minute pictures of me with my hair. It was crazy. Some boys Leslie and Laura knew didn’t believe I was really going to do it. Well, my head is successfully shaven so I guess they were wrong. I made sure to leave a little bit of fuzz because I wouldn’t want to get sunburned there! There are actually quite a few other ladies that shaved as well, some decided on my final length and others went hardcore bald. I donated 10 inches to Locks of Love- VERY Exciting J So not only did I do what no one thought I would do, but I helped other people in the process J After donating my clean hair I had fish guts dumped on my head and then I had to wade through a very salty pool to kiss two fish and then finally kiss the ring of King Neptune (the captain of the ship). It was a lot of fun, then there were lots of pictures and finally I got in line to get the rest of my hair not donated cut off and finally shaved. I’ve been told it looks pretty good, at the moment its just really weird. I took a beautiful shower and that made my hair feel even weirder because I’ve always had longish hair. Though the towel dry and its ready to go was kind of nice J Christina and I were hoping to each lunch with the gang, but by the time we got there they were finishing up and we were asked to join the Captain instead. So that was pretty cool. And now I’m lounging on the end of the 4th deck, Christina is reading and Liz, Cassie and Kaitlin are sun bathing. I’m in the shade of course J complete with a long sleeve shirt J Well I should get going again. Maybe I’ll write a footnote of the rest of the day. I’m hoping to go online at 4am to post all my pictures and this blog J I hope life at home is improving or is great! I miss and love you all!

~Jennifer

P.S. Everyone who sent me mail in Brazil- because of Carnival, the post office was closed until our day of departure. Rumor has it the person to go get the mail was “too lazy” but either way we didn’t get our mail. They claim they are going to ship it to South Africa so we will get twice as much mail there! So just to let you know in case any of you were wondering if I got your mail- unfortunately it will have to wait until South Africa! But that’s okay because then I’ll have lots to read on my 8 days in Cape Town since I’m not going on a safari.

Lots of Pictures

2007-02-26T01:14:00.000-05:00

My rio Roommate- Becky!
The native boys playing futball on the beach
Jenn, Leslie and Emily drinking "agua de coco" coconut milk!
I love the blue... I had to post :)
My ship :)

At the restaurant in Salvador
Me eating some cheese thing-
my savvy group of friends in the market at salvador
The bathroom filled with rocks and pebbles
Can't go to Rio without posting the Christ Reedemer

Equator- Can you see the big green line???
Spotlight dance/Sea socials- Me and Cassie
V-Day with the Captain- Me, Christina and Cassie
Salvador at 6am!
One of the most beautiful sights of Salvador- can't tell its dangerous!

Sorry this snuck in here so far up- the middle stage of removing my hair :) He is cutting with scissors to make it short
The final stages- the razor :)
And me- looking gorgeous with a trimmed head- and you didn't think I'd go through with it- SHAME ON YOU!
Most of the baldies after a day of celebration!

Most of the Girl Baldies- There are 33 in this picture :)

My extremely supportive friends prior to the chopping of one's hair
One last shot of a full head of hair
The supportive friends after donating 10 inches to Locks of Love
My extended Family for the voyage (my parents, with the fish we had to kiss)
St Neptune and his wife- (the captain and Larry the executive Dean)

Salvador Brazil!

2007-02-21T11:26:00.000-05:00

Feb 20th, 2007

**Beginning note, I hope you have a lot of time on your hands because this blog is about 8 pages long in Word… Sorry… I just have a lot to tell all of you! 7 days is a LONG time!***

Wow.. well hello everyone! Sorry about my 7 day hiatus ! I’ve been a VERY busy girl on the ship and then in Brazil! Things are of course AMAZING here! I am definitely feeling myself as it changes, though I don’t know how exactly I am changing, but I can feel my perspective getting altered. I don’t know if that makes sense- but I’m surprised at how different I already feel, I can’t imagine after all 11 ports! Well I guess I should go through my week since I’m sure that’s what you are DYING to hear about J

V-Day! Valentines was quite interesting on the ship. First Christina and I woke up at 6am so we could both post on our blogs without getting interrupted or slowed down by the rush of people who usually are utilizing the internet. After quickly getting online, we went back to bed and naturally woke up JUST in time for Global Studies! In global studies by professor for Energy/Technology (Rocky) started doing Magic in order to capture our attention and it definitely worked. He is an excellent teacher- definitely one of my favorites. Anyways, we were discussing the environmental issues going on in Brazil. For example it is the leader of “saving the planet” It already has switched all new vehicles to flexi gas- meaning it can take oil (like we do) or it can take alcohol (which is produced in its Sugar cane plantations or some can even take natural gas. Oh, not only is methanol (the alcohol for you non-science people) saving the planet because it doesn’t produce have the C2 that oil does, but it is also way cheaper! Imagine that? Its also cheaper in the US- but it is not widely available at the moment and so people like my professor buy straight from the manufacturers. Anyways, after Global Studies I went back to the room and showered and changed into my cute outfit for v-day (the red outfit above) and then went to lunch with Christina. After lunch I hung around the deck- reading for my classes, etc. Then I had energy, technology and society which was another amazing class. Rocky is definitely a bit dramatic but he sets the scene and tells the “story” really well. Very entertaining and eye opening. I guess this experience was one of the first. He took his blow up earth and started with “if you had just happened to pass this by on the side of the road and you stopped to take a look at it, just think- you would be amazed. Here is this round sphere that keeps spinning.” And went through this big speech about how we should treat it as such and then of course when he was done he asked who actually looked at the earth and thought that. Note: I had no idea. And of course it was pretty obvious: Every astronaut who has gone to the moon or have had the opportunity to look at earth in the big picture and especially Armstrong. Then he took the apple and his knife and started breaking down the earth for us. ¾ water, ¼ land. Of which we can only use about 1/3 of that for living on. And of that 1/3 we can only use ¼ of it to actually farm and produce goods through the land. And then started talking about how precious this land was and how all things needed one another and for example, without the rain forest, our climate will be messed up and tons of animals will go extinct. Needless to say the class was amazing and I walked away full of new perspective on our planet earth! After class I went to meet my roommate, we started to watch beat girls which was one of the girl carnival acts and fell asleep. We woke up just in time to sneak up to dinner at 7pmish. After dinner I watched the Corpse Bride and parts of City of God which attempting to write a paper. At about 9:30, we decided to head up to the party to go check it out. The back of the ship was packed with people- all drinking. The party itself was pretty disappointing. It was supposed to be an alternative activity for those who chose not to drink but there weren’t a whole lot of people there and the music was pretty lame. As I said, disappointing. So instead we got invited to go crash the Agean Sea social in the teacher’s lounge. So we went and that was a pretty good time. Hung out up there until 11:30 and headed to the back deck to see if that was still a “hopping place”. It was, but after awhile it was kind of boring watching all the people trying to hookup with each other. So the group of us: Kacy, Christina and myself decided to walk around. So we checked out all the different decks and we saw a massive amount of lights on the starboard side. We decided we must have been near Brazil’s coastline. Well the next day we found out it was just A LOT of fishing boats- how disappointing! After wandering I went to bed. Overall it was an okay Valentine’s Day- after all it could have been much worse.

Thursday, geez. What a terrible day. I woke up and went to Elements of Directing where we were doing 3 presentations. We go to the first girl’s and she has a scrapbook and all that and so the question of who was in the pictures came up. They are pictures of her and her identical twin sister doing everything together. And my response was of course “no way, I am one too!” and then the class started asking the obvious questions- where is she, etc. After they were done with her presentation by the computer lab we were moving to the piano lounge when the teacher asked me where my twin was. Now while listening to her talk about her twin, it just reminded me of ryan and so I tried to explain that he was in training for the Army and I lost it, my eyes got all red and watery. In the middle of class I just had tears running down my face and- damn. I don’t ever think I could miss that boy so much. And so my director said anytime I wanted to talk she was there and then suggested using that emotion to look at the play and even reflect on it in my journal for her class. I managed to compose my self. The class ended and I went to the union for Global Studies. Barely paid attention because my head was just swirling! After global studies I wrote a 4 page paper on the book Child of the Dark which was interesting. I hope I did well! At noon, I met the student I will be working with in planning the auditions for all of our classes. And then went to lunch and then to study. After studying for a bit I went to Critical Issues and handed in my paper. My professor was in a mood and criticized a few of the students for their view points and opinions on the favelas and the state of the poor in both brazil and the U.S. It was really disappointing because as a historian I would think he would be able to accept that not all view points are shared among everyone. After that class I went back up the deck where I started writing in my journal for directing and again cried- this time a little harder because I just want to protect Ryan and I can’t and that makes me angry, helpless and sad. I was in the middle of writing and I just happened to look up and realized that I was late to meet my extended family. Professor Weil and his wife have adopted me for the voyage as well as 7 other students. So we will be having dinner on the 25th of Feb and then definitely celebrating everyone’s birthdays and hopefully a few other family activities. After that I went to my vicarious voyager packing party and handed in my first Vicarious Voyager packet to my pre-chosen school. I’m really disappointed in that- I have 10-12th graders at a high school in Connecticut. I really wanted the middle schoolers, but what can you do? I guess its good that I don’t have to worry about content as much- age appropriate, etc. Then I went back to the room and told Christina about my terrible day and was in the middle of lamenting about it when we got a knock on our door. A woman is standing there and introduces herself as the ship’s shrink and lets me know that my mother is trying to get a hold of me because my grandfather has taken a turn for the worse. We set up a time to meet at 7:30pm so I could talk to her. When I closed the door, I almost lost it I was just like “Can anything worse happen today” Well of course it did- later on that night I got back to the room to use the bathroom and found out that “that time of the month” had come and I had completely stained my brand new khaki pants. Anyways. I had dinner and then at 7:30 I met her at Purser’s square and I got to talk to my mom. It was really hard to communicate because the line kept going out but most of all because I was trying SO hard not to cry and make it so she couldn’t understand me. As soon as I got off that phone I lost it and then explained to the executive dean and the shrink what a terrible day I had had. They explained that with my permission they would notify my RD and my Rio trip advisors just in case they needed to get in contact with me so these individuals would understand and be at my assistance. She also let me know that she was going to continue to check up on me and my roommate since we are so close that way if my behavior patterns or habits were changing she would be able to notify her just in case it was a sign of depression or anything else. Then I went to the Culture meeting in the union. It was interesting, though again most of it is a blur. Afterwards I took a shower, the shrink came to check up on me and I went to bed!

Friday I had my first Global Studies exam which by the way I did TERRIBLE on. I was a little distracted while I studied and my nerves weren’t very good. I’ll probably find out the actual grade on Thursday. After the test that kicked my butt, I went back to my room to talk to my roommate about the test and compare answers. We both had similar answers. At 11:30am we had lunch and then went to the 7th deck so I could write my letters for home which I will hopefully be sending out tomorrow. Then to Energy- again a super class with lots of eye opening facts, and once again to the deck where Christina and I talked for a good 2 hours straight and then went to dinner. During dinner, they convinced me to join their independent trip in Japan. Basically we go to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara and possibly Tokyo. The cost for the rooms should be about 100 dollars and then a railroad pass is about 240 in the US but supposedly cheaper in Vietnam and China. Then it was the Logistical Pre-port was a bunch of repetitive advice- don’t go out by yourself. Its dangerous, etc. Basically scared the crap out of everyone. Then the Rio trip was meeting, at the end of that I introduced myself to the trip leaders so they would know who to find incase they got the phone call. After that I went down to Katie and Kaitlynn’s room to hang out. As soon as everyone met there we headed to the 7th deck and I splurged and got cheesecake. It was soo good! Nothing to exciting, just a lot of talking about Brazil and after leaving the deck, I packed my stuff for Rio and talked with Christina for a very long time.

EL SALVADOR and RIO DE JANERIO!

Day 1 in SALVADOR- Saturday- Woke up at 5:30am to get ready for the big day of Salvador. Took a shower and all that and at 6:30 I took pictures of the port. A little grungy, and much different then I imagine. Then breakfast and back to the room to hang for a little while. When they called our sea we made our way to the Faculty Lounge to meet with Immigration, they stamped my passport and instead of giving it back as I usually would, I had to hold on to it because I was going to RIO! Then I headed down to the Union and took a seat. The US Consulate came and talked to us about Brazil- the strengths and negatives about it and how exciting it was to have SAS be here during Carnival. Then we were released and our group met on the 7th deck. After a while we decided to head to the 5th deck so we could get out and explore. The line was HUGE, but we waited anyways. When we finally go out around 11am, we headed over to the big Mercado and the elevator that would bring us to the upper level. The market was pretty neat. I hope to go back tomorrow (which would be Weds. since I’m writing this in prep of the internet café) to get a few things. Christina and a few others headed back to the ship because they had field trips for 1:30, but the rest of us went up the elevator and went towards Pelourino Square. I have a ton of pictures of the decorations and all the other crazy stuff going on. I bought ryan’s St Teresinha which I’m hoping is the Portuguese version of St Teresa, I will be double checking that tomorrow when I get online! And I bought a bunch of ribbons for bracelets. Tradition says you tie 3 knots in a ribbon on your wrist while making 3 wishes. When the bracelet wears off and finally falls off in about 3 to 4 months, your three wishes will come true. Around 2pm we went on a scavenger hunt for food. We couldn’t find a restaurant in our price range at all, so we finally were forced to stop at a Pizzaria (how disappointing) to eat because one person’s blood sugar was running pretty low and everyone was starving! I had my first Brazilian Beer- I took the paper sticker from the bottle for my scrapbook- it was EXCELLENT- I’m not a big beer person but it was pretty awesome. After finishing 2 pizzas that we didn’t actually order (we don’t think they had the ingredients for the ones we asked for) we continued to walk around. I found some Brazillian coffee (though I need to go back to buy it) and my doll for Brazil- I was hoping to find better of both in Rio. At around 4:15 we headed back to the ship because I needed to eat dinner at 5:15 to meet up with my Rio group at 6pm. At 6pm we met in the union and left for the airport. On the plane ride I sat next to an old French man and we attempted to make conversation despite the language barrier (he knew a little English, I know ZERO French) and it was awkward at times, but I’m really glad I did it. He was really nice and was there visiting a Brazilian Family for Carnival. It was pretty neat. The descending though was TERRIBLE, my head was in soo much pain it was terrible and really made me sad. Once I got to the hotel and unpacked a bit, I passed out I was exhausted!

Day 2 in RIO

Oh my God- Rio is AMAZING. Definitely an awesome place to go- It was very urban and touristy and the part that I liked best was that no one was harmed or robbed that we know of while being there in our group. So Becky (my Rio Roommate) and I woke up at 7:30 and ate breakfast at 8am with the group. Everyone’s basic feeling was to go to Ipanema Beach (as in “The girl from Ipanema”) which would have been a 15 min walk from the hotel, but because we didn’t have a lot of time- we took a cab- cost 15 reals which would be 7.50 US for all 4 of us. (actually there were 8 – but we were in 2 cabs). Ipanema was beautiful! Hilary (another new friend) and I decided we didn’t want to hang out at the beach and took off for the “ipanema fair” which is basically like a market or bazaar. We left the group around 10 and agreed to be back at quarter to 12. When we found it we went nuts! It was awesome. Of course I didn’t buy everything that I would have loved to buy- there were these gorgeous paintings of good size- I’m pretty sure that would be difficult to bring home. I ended up stopping at an atm and took out lots of money J and headed back. I bought a handmade bowl about the size of a candy dish and it has a ring of pictures- a church, a hammock all very brazillian images. I also bought 3 necklaces made of glass. They are also homemade and gorgeous. I’m very excited about getting the opportunity to wear them! And the I also found the Santa Teresinha pendant for a necklace for Ryan which I’m also VERY excited about. I just hope that it is what I’m looking for which I really don’t think it is but that would mean I have no shot of getting it. And then we quickly ran back to the beach. The beach by then was CROWDED- all we saw were the umbrellas for miles. I had no idea where we were going to find all of our friends. By pure luck we ended up finding them because they had moved to the top area. So we took taxis back to the hotel, this time it cost 10 reals. I put on more sunscreen and waited for Becky to be done showering; I readjusted my budget for Rio. The entire group met downstairs in the lobby and were bussed to this really great restaurant. I don’t have the name of it near me but it was the COOLEST place everywhere because of its eclectic decoration and the food was just awesome. The room we ate in had wooden things that looked like boots hanging everywhere from the ceiling. There was the “Last Supper” hanging on the wall and the walls were painted bright green and blue. It was just wild. The other rooms had other things hanging like lobster cages and just wild stuff. The main source of food was from a buffet which was clearly upscale, delicious and most likely expensive (we had already paid as a part of coming, the only thing we paid for was our drinks- which I had another beer which was again- excellent). So after everyone is settling in and digging away at their buffet meals, the waiters start coming around with slabs of meat to shave off and give to you. It was delicious, I don’t remember everything I ate- but it was all delicious. At the end of the meal I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and then of course germ x them and I found the coolest bathroom ever! The bathroom didn’t have tiles or wooden floors- no it had ROCKS, tiny pebbles covered the entire floor, the sinks, the top of the stalls had these candle things. I didn’t actually get to take pictures because the ladies room was soo packed, but I convinced a guy to take pictures, he included one of the men’s urinals for good measure. Regardless though- the best bathroom I think in this world. Just simply amazing. Dessert was mango pudding or something along those lines. It was pretty good but I was so stuffed I didn’t eat a whole lot of the pudding. Then back to the busses for some good ole carnival in the streets of Rio! We went to the bloco party which was pure chaos. Basically this truck with a stage on top SLOWLY makes its way down the street while thousands of people dance around it. A group of us actually made it to the front so in a strange way we were leading this crazy parade for a little while. Then since we finished early we jumped in the Ipanema water which was again- amazing. We took turns watching each other’s stuff. Becky even convinced me to go to the deep side and “ride the waves” it was crazy but good fun! We started to dry off and then we had to head back to the bus. We ran into parts of our groups, some wanted to stay at the beach and others had gotten ice cream instead of swimming. Back onto the bus and back to the hotel. Hilary and I decided we were going to find a grocery store but first I had to let Becky into our room and Hilary needed to find information out on the Samba parade. Since I was in my room I figured I would rinse my feet off so it got rid of the sand. Well I guess I was trying to get too much water out of the bottom and the shower head turned on and I was SOAKED, so I had to change and then I met her downstairs. The samba parade was 200 US dollars to get in for an okay seat. Basically it is the carnival crazy version of the ending point in the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. They have stands that everyone sits on and the parade goes through. I passed on it because I didn’t want to ruin my budget this early in my trip- Though it would have been a cool experience, I had just as good of a time walking around Rio. The grocery store was crappy, so we decided to try again the next day and headed back. Becky and a bunch of people were going to the ATM and since I didn’t need to I stayed back. When they got back a bunch of us went to the market- I bought a bracelet and a bag to carry all of my souvenirs back to Salvador. Then we met up with more SAS people who didn’t go to the Samba and we went to some restaurant for dinner. It was terrible service, the food was okay but they gave me a plate that already had remnants of someone else’s food on it. I was disgusted. After leaving there I went to the hotel and had some milk and baileys- very disappointing but in a strange way it hit the spot. Terone, Becky and I decided to head up to our rooms and then to the pool. Becky came back to me and told me it was closed. So instead we got ready to go to bed. Terone calls and asks if we want to hang out in his room and that there were a couple people already there. I quickly took a shower, becky decided not to come and so I went down. They were drunk, maybe not wasted but definitely drunk and they were going to go out and I told them I didn’t have any money and so I couldn’t go out. They woke Becky’s butt up and told her to come down to go out too. So there was a group of 6 of us that went out. We started walking along the main street and stopped at a bar- one of the boys got me a can of beer. I think most of the rest of the night is probably another story for another day because it was just that interesting of a night. But the bottom line was that we danced a lot, drank a little (at least I only had 2 drinks! The rest of them were trashed) and 4 of them went swimming in their boxers and underwear. (I was not one of those individuals) I was watching our stuff and making sure it didn’t get wet or stolen by the half a dozen poor people laying on the beach or the prostitutes who were clearly working it. I had one of the boys walk me back to my room at 4 am. The rest stayed out until 5:30 and then crashed for 45 min before having to be up.

Day 3 in RIO
Woke up, went to breakfast for 8am and had to meet the group downstairs at 8:20. We got into our jeeps to head up to the Christ Redeemer statue. It was pretty amazing. The ride itself was a neat experience and then to see this massive statue was really awesome too. The statue is the equivalent to our Statue of Liberty and it was pretty neat. Other then seeing it, I can’t remember anything anyone else would care to know. That and I’m getting rushed on time. Anyways, back to the jeeps and back to the hotel to check out and then a big group of us headed to some restaurant. Lunch was alright. Not exactly great- another buffet- pay according to weight. After that I headed to the grocery store with Hilary and another Jennifer. I bought a lot of stuff, oh and Bob- if you are reading this- I found you your first Pez- written in Portuguese! It has the coolest pez candy wrappings ever! Hilary and I decided to stop at the bazaar outside the hotel to pick up some Rio postcards. As a group we went to Sugar Loaf mountain which was pretty neat. We had to take cable cars up the mountain which was scary! But the mountain itself was neat. For all of you Football lovers Tony Gonzalez (I have no idea who this is but all the guys knew) and his girl were there, about to take a helicopter ride. After this exciting adventure the bus voted to go to the local mall- which turned out to be a bad idea because its Carnival and everything was closed but the food court. After sitting around for an hour and a half we headed to the airport. I tried to sleep on the ride back but I just couldn’t do it. When I got back to the ship- I had another disaster to deal with. My light was leaking in my cabin. I let purser’s desk know and they sent someone to fix it. It took 2 hours. After it was finally fixed around 1:30am I had to unpack and shower and get to bed which took another hour and a half. I was EXHAUSTED- happy and thankful, but very tired. J

Day 4 in SALVADOR/ITAPARICA ISLAND.

I woke up at 7:34 and had to be upstairs in the union for ten of 8. I RUSHED through getting dressed, grabbed a breakfast bar and headed up. We had to walk along the pier to get to our boat that was going to take us to 2 islands. I don’t actually know the first island’s name, but it was a secluded beach, the only people there had private boats, lived on the island or were selling stuff- bracelets, etc. Leslie and I set up our towels and sat down and this native guy comes up and starts telling me about how I’m beautiful and that he loves my green eyes and so he loves me. He spoke very little English, but we managed to communicate through English, Spanish and a little bit of Portuguese. He gave Leslie and I bracelets and rings because he liked us. The gist of the conversation was that he wanted to come home with me and I laughed and said no and he wanted to know why and I started listing the reasons and he didn’t understand me so I had to simplify it. I drew a ship in the sand and a world and tried to say I wasn’t going home that I was going around the world and he wasn’t allowed to come. Then he asked if I was married and had a ring and I tried to explain although I wasn’t married I had a boy I was interested in back home and he didn’t understand that, and so I told him it was complicated and he didn’t understand that so I gave up. And he kept letting me know that he could carry me into the water and I was like.. uh no thanks! It was…well... interesting to say the least. Leslie was laughing the entire time. And she took pictures so she could show our friends back on the ship what a catch he was. lol and so then I could show all my Mohegan Sun friends so then they can make fun of me some more J its alright, I love you guys anyways! He finally went away and so I moved to sit in a chair while Emily and Leslie went into the water. The Capoeria dancers came to perform for us, and of course asked for money. I went into the water and then we packed up and left. Another 2 hour ride and we were at the Itaparica Island where we had a buffet lunch that was surprisingly good. I tried the coconut dessert and the banana dessert. Neither looked appetizing and after eating it I decided they were definitely acquired tastes and that I would need to be force fed it for awhile before I would willing eat a bunch of it. Then Leslie, Emily and I walked around the historical area- I have pictures of the “fountain of youth” and some really cool buildings and fences and then we completed our walk with some “agua de coco” or coconut water. That was again an acquired taste, and definitely worth the 50 cents (US) that I paid for it because I can at least say I drank some of it and took pictures with it. Then we headed for the boat to take us back. Another 2 hour boat ride to get back but this time the water was gorgeous it was this turquoise color. It was in that moment that I realized that designing for the stage completely changed how I look at things. Not only do I appreciate things for their beauty but I’ve been taking a lot of architecture and detailed photos of things I like- the fish gate or the star window cutouts as well as interesting layouts and now I had the opportunity to take a picture of a beautiful color. And so that is included in this blog as well. So Bob- as if my email didn’t say it enough, here is proof that the theatre classes have changed my life J Another fact I probably wouldn’t have known if I didn’t go on this trip. Towards the end of the boat ride I took some pictures of our ship, as you can see since they are included in this as well. The night was pretty boring- just dinner, cleaned up my room and started writing this and finally went to bed around 10:15pm. I decided against going out because I was already exhausted from the past few days and judging from what last week of classes was like, I probably won’t have time to catch up and so I chose sleep over one last night in Carnival. I got sunburned really bad on my left shoulder/back area despite putting on sunscreen several time- I must have missed that area at some point? I just don’t understand how it managed to get as bad as it did. But I didn’t feel it until after I had showered which was really weird. So I put on a pound of aloe last night and kept reapplying while writing this.

Day 5 in SALVADOR

So let me just say this, last night was the worst night ever. I woke up several times in the night- 11:30, 1:30, and at around 2:30/3am the drunk people that had gone out for Carnival came back and were running and banging on EVERY door in my hall and scared the shit out of me. They continued for a good 15 min before my exhaustion took over and I fell back asleep. At 4 am I woke up and I couldn’t move. Not like I was paralyzed, like I must have gotten really hot while sleeping and my aloe fused my skin to the sheets. I was hysterical- Christina is in Rio so I have no one in my room with me, I couldn’t move and peeling my skin off hurt so much. I finally (somehow) managed to get myself free and went into the bathroom. It looked terrible. I sobbed (because of course I’m exhausted beyond belief and add on the pain- it just wasn’t a good combination). I put more aloe on because I thought more moisture might be what my skin needed. And then I went to bed on my stomach and then I had a fitful sleep because I constantly woke up in fear that I was fused to my bed again (only slightly once) but I had to keep making sure I was on my stomach. When I woke up this morning it looked like my burn had gone away I was shocked. But then I rinsed off because it was all peely looking and the red instantly came back. So I’ve already put aloe on twice this morning and I’m about to do it a third time, exciting right? I already had breakfast and now I’m about to save this to my flash drive and Leslie, Emily and I are heading into town to do some last minute shopping, go to an internet café and pick up a few phone cards because I’m dying to talk to Ryan and let him know that I love him and miss him dearly. And since I doubt he reads this- please let him know that I dedicated almost this entire entry to him and I don’t like this not being able to hear from him or know what he is doing. And last but not least I hate the fact that I am extremely helpless in the middle of the ocean and not being able to help him. And then hopefully come back for lunch and pick up Christina (I’m dying to tell her about my amazing few days! And tell her about how she isn’t allowed to leave me again because when she is gone I have the wackiest experiences!) And heading back out for a few more hours until we get back onto the ship and we leave for Cape Town South Africa!! Very exciting J

I hope life back home is pretty interesting and exciting and I hope it is going well. I love and miss each one of you! But as you can tell I’m having quite the experience! I hope you enjoyed the blog and it wasn’t too detailed or planned out, I wish I could make it more story-like or thought provoking but I’m usually rushed when I’m doing this and I can’t make them eloquent!

I’ll save all of the bad stories for my next blog that way you don’t worry about me for the rest of the day! Enjoy!!

~Jennifer

Feb 14th- Happy V-Day, Pre-port Brazil

2007-02-14T03:12:00.000-05:00

More Puerto Rico
Pictures that the prisoners of San Cristobal drew during their stay
A really cool Lizard

February 13, 2007

Hello Everyone! Just thought I would post this on Valentine’s Day- I hope everyone has a magnificent day!! I love and miss you all! Life on the ship is going alright, though my seasickness has definitely made a turn for the worse. The sea isn’t as calm because now we actually have ocean and let me tell you- it is rocking!! (Before we were naturally in the Caribbean and the water was calm and smooth) Now not only do we rock, but we jump! In my cabin we are constantly hearing the bottom of the boat smack into the water. Its like a roller coaster 24/7 and is definitely getting to my stomach. I can only imagine what it is going to be like when we cross the Atlantic next week to get to South Africa! So in order to protect myself from that, I’m saving the Dramamine for when we cross the big waters and I’m taking the free pills the pursers office have. So far it is okay, I still don’t feel very well, but I’ve been sitting on the top deck by the pool ( I know- how tragic) and I’ve managed to be quite productive. I put on my I-pod and listen to my music and drown out all the rowdy sun tanners. I’m glad I get to enjoy this beautiful atmosphere. I’ll try and take a picture of me relaxing with the pool to the right and the ocean to the left, but we will have to see!

Lets see, I think I last updated on the morning of the Kayaking experience. Kayaking was great. I met another Jennifer who is also signed up to go on the first Rio de Janerio trip to carnival. I actually met her through the friend Ashley, whom I will unfortunately go into more detail in later. We were on the bus ride to the Kayaking beach and I sat next to this girl and we started talking interests, stage managing, etc and Jennifer was like “Oh so you’re the famous stage manager” and I said “what” and then she started telling me about how the professor talked about me in her two other classes and all that. So I thought that would be interesting to share. Kayaking was fun, though Ashley drove me nuts the entire time. I’ve lost entire respect for the girl for several reasons. 1.) We went to the dragonfly our last night and they told us 30 min wait, we said that’s fine lets go for a walk. Walked around and came back they said no one had left, its looking more like another 30 min wait. So we decided to stand there for a bit. Well time is passing, Ashley starts to complain about she is hungry. At first it was just to Christina and I but then she starts to get louder and soon she is complaining to the hostess. After 30 min, the hostess, sick of listening to Ashley sends us inside to find the other hostess. The other hostess shows us the table with two older ladies who are finishing their desserts and lets us know that as soon as the ladies are finished, we will be seated there. Ashley hovers at their table and informs them that as soon as they are done we will be getting their table. I don’t think I have EVER been that mortified in my entire life. And you WONDER where Americans get such horrible names!?!?! 2.) On our way back that night she proceeds to inform us that because all of the girls are going back out in sundresses and flip flops that Americans are going to get the reputation of being loose and that this attire is unacceptable in other countries. My response? None- I had NO words. I would rather be loose then arrogant- at least your likable in someone’s eyes. Not to mention she had no right to make that observation when she was making a spectacle and an embarrassment out of the rest of us. 3.) After writing in the blog last Thursday ?- days seem to mix up with one another, we agreed to be in starbucks for about an hour before leaving to go do errands and to wal-greens. She stays and extra 40 min at Starbucks and of course I can’t ditch her because then I would be walking Old San Juan by myself. That meant we had 20 min left in the city to walk to the other side and do shopping plus go to the post office (so she could send a t-shirt and key ring to her boyfriend- as if she couldn’t wait to get back to the U.S. to do that?) and the bank. We finally make it to Wal-greens when we should have been leaving Old San Juan to walk back to the ship. She rushes me through all of my errands and then when we go to leave Wal-Greens, loudly announces that yet again we are stuck on the slow side of the sidewalk. Everyone in front moved over to the side in order to let her (us) pass by. Again- MORTIFIED. So needless to say, I have learned my lesson and no longer associate myself with her. She continues to knock and call our room but most of the time we tell her we are busy or have plans. I’m hoping to have the opportunity to let her know (in a gentle-ish way) that she is an embarrassment and that I would prefer not to be looked at as a “rude” American. Well I have to go to class so I will probably write more later!

Well Back from class, I can’t say it was really all that enjoyable.. and I just noticed- not a lot of battery left in the computer, so I only have like 20 min to work on this… then I’ll have to start on the mound of homework… well mostly reading, though now I have a 4-5 page paper due on Thursday for the class I was just in. Hense why class wasn’t all that great. Oh and we lose another hour tonight which puts us 3 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zoners (is that better then my broad statement the last time??) I can’t do the math for the rest of you- hell I can barely keep the time, day of the week for me, never mind the rest of you! Speaking of which, so the other day we moved the clocks forward, but my roommate and I were so tired that we completely forgot. 8:27am I turn to my roommate and I asked if Breakfast ends at 8:30am and she answered yes, so I asked if she thought I had time to run up and get a box of cereal to sneak out and she kind of just shrugged and then it dawned on me and I was like shit. No, actually we are 10 min late for Global Studies. We jump out of bed grab our crap, change shirts and run upstairs. Thankfully they usually wait until 9:30am to start the lecture otherwise we would have been screwed. All we missed was the professor saying that our sample test was now available on the intranet and that it would not occur during out class time. And another occurrence was yesterday when I thought my class started at 2:15 (which is today’s) and went to the other side of the ship to get my stuff, almost hurled from the rocking of the stairs and realized I went down to the room for nothing because I had an hour and a half before my class. So I gave up and went back to the pool area and continued reading.

Anyways, on with what I’ve been doing. Kayaking was cool, we went to the seven seas beach which is called the seven seas because there are seven ecosystems surviving there- coral reefs, lagoon, rocky mountain, palms, seaweed, sand, and the organisms that do the bioluminescence, which by the way was the number one trip to go on according to the “sea feud” we had in the union on Sunday. So we kayaked out, though unfortunately I was partnered with Ashley who couldn’t row for the life of her. And then we went to the beach for a little while and then our science lesson. Oh and we are the first tourists to visit the beach, it’s a secret for the natives. After we returned from our trip I hung around the ship, other people went out to the bars for one last drink- but considering its still US territory- I chose not to bother. Nothing all that special, chatted with my roomie about what a terrible experience Ashley is and all that. Saturday of course we had classes, first set of B classes, so my new class was Energy Technology and Society. It seems like it will be okay, a lot will be over my head but the professor seems really nice- a little dorky but still really nice. At night we had the activities fair, so we signed up for clubs we would be interested in. I signed up for Ambassador’s Club, Pilates and Extended Family. Again, very relaxing- lots of reading for classes. Sunday was day a classes, I had my directing class again, and that was pretty interesting, I did my self-portrait for the class and that went pretty well. I split my items into three piles- personality, fetishes and activities. So I had my stage manager kit, history book, my favorite book and my girl scout water bottle J and then I had chocolate, i-pod, Kleenex/germ X and gloves (because I like to come prepared) and then I brought my glasses, sunglasses (because I like to look at the world in different lenses) and then a camera (because I like to observe) I located my project back stage of the union because I don’t like to be in the limelight but I don’t like to just be an audience member which is why back stage interests me. Oh and my back pack was next to my display which had a mess of stuff in it because all though I look extremely organized, my head is a mess and I try to conceal that. Either way I got an A for effort J. The Global Studies which made me sea-sick. So after that I went to my room and passed out trying to read several times. I got myself out of bed for Critical Issues and then passed out again. After dinner we had our sea meetings (instead of halls, we have seas! We are the Mediterranean Sea) which was followed by the Sea Feud (like Family Feud, only Semester At Sea style!) Both were quite exciting. We will be randomly chosen for cabin searches and drug testing…. Good thing I left all my paraphernalia at home huh? Just kidding! And the Sea Feud was cute. I took my laptop with me and quickly copied all my emails on to my hard drive so if you were paying attention, I went on that day but didn’t post- Sorry! Monday was our 2^nd day B and that was alright. We lost an hour and ended up being 10 min late for Global Studies because we forgot about the time change. We didn’t miss anything though because they give us 15 min to settle down and to allow for technical difficulties in the satellite rooms (the union only fits a couple hundred, the rest have to sit in the adjacent classrooms and watch on the tv screens. Your lucky if you get a seat though –many sit on the floor. I spent most of the day outside on the pool deck which turned out to be MUCH nicer then in my cabin so that will probably be a ritual for the rest of the trip. When I’m in my cabin I feel every move whereas on the deck- you don’t really feel anything. In Energy, Technology and Society we played a game in Pursers Square with everyone watching.. that was interesting. I will admit though it was fun. Spent the rest of the evening on the deck and then went to bed massively early- 10pm. Today was alright, again A day, directing first thing, watched 3 other self-portraits, only 7 more to go. Then Global Studies, which wasn’t too bad. My Energy Professor was one of the guest speakers today and he did magic tricks with it. We are currently discussing how important the environment is and how the Amazon is slowly getting killed and what this means for us. Very exciting. We have also talked about how dangerous Brazil is. So If you hear from me at the end of next week, at least you will know that I’m safe. Brazil is pretty sketchy and I’ve been told a million times- no purses, no jewelry, no watches, no anything. Bring as little as possible because they will snatch it from you (this includes earrings) and will probably leave you hurt and very shocked. So needless to say, here comes 6 days with nothing at all. After Global Studies I hung out in my room for a little bit and then went to the deck because I couldn’t handle the waves anymore. Lunch and dinner were okay meals, it was a little surprising. The majority of the meals I have are not usually that good. Critical Issues was really boring, I almost fell asleep. Oh well, I guess even in the middle of an ocean classes don’t change that much. And this afternoon I did my first installment of laundry. I hope it was good enough cuz otherwise I won’t have the option of doing it through the school for awhile. I just now have to wait for it to dry. I’m pretty sure it is going to take awhile. Oh well.

Lol I don’t know what else you guys want to know about, so at this point I’m pretty much rambling. Let me know if you have any questions that I haven’t answered yet. I’ve written so many journals and emails that I can’t remember what I’ve included or not included!

Before I forget, My Mohegan Suners! First, Thank you Nicole and Ken for your comments. I had a big smile when I realized the sun wasn’t getting left out J I think I said this before, but in case I didn’t- I talk about the sun and the good times we have all the time over here. Of course most people just want to know about the shows. I hope the shows are going well. I hope Dancing with the Stars went well. Let Josh Groban know I said hi ;) Enjoy your V-day with each other (last thing I knew you would be working….) I miss you all. Tell the “A” Team I said hi!! And naturally pass these blogs on to them please! I can’t remember any of the other shows or I would put some more personal antidote in relation to whose is coming! “A” Team- The Ashley story was for you. I hope you enjoyed it. Not a whole lot of other stories for you- Though I’ve got a lot of really good rumor stories for you J Don’t worry I’ll be writing those down and saving them for when I come back- I can’t tell you everything otherwise you won’t need me when I come back J Also, alas I have yet to find anyone who is apt at ringtoss, though honestly I’m not really looking all that hard. Well hope that was good for a laugh. Enjoy your time at the Sun, I miss you all!! Nicole- I’d also like to apologize because I can’t make your life seem better than mine, sitting by the pool and watching the cuties (without shirts of course!) flirt with other girls, it just isn’t all that bad.

I was just like to reiterate how much I love my roommate, we are frequently with each other at night and for meals, though usually we have opposite class times. Its nice to know that I’ll always have someone to hang out with. We have a few trips that are the same, but there are a lot that I won’t know anyone.

Well, I’m watching Office Space and I should go, Hope everyone’s V-day was amazing and I’ll write next week after BRAZIL! Have a great week

~Jennifer

Feb 9th- Day 3 of Puerto Rico

2007-02-09T09:07:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I know a miracle, two days in a row! But its my last day of Starbucks free wireless internet access, so since my trip for the day (kayaking.. i know what a rough life!) isn't until 1 and its about 10:15, i thought I would take advantage of it. My friend Ashley and I are going to Walgreens to pick up snack food because we only have meals 7-9am, 11:30-1:30, 5:30-7:30pm, but let me tell you I may be on a cruise ship but it is definitely not gourmet good. Our breakfast is almost the same everyday- wet scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit salad, juice, a choice of 3 cereals and then either pancakes, french toast or toast. And lunch and dinner are ALWAYS one potato, a pasta, salad, a meat and rolls. I'm going to be sick of all of those foods by the end of this- so make sure there is lots of french fries and pizza around for me!! So anyways, because all of our food is the same and the food is basically watered down so instead of having a really strong flavor its more of a hint of taste of what its supposed to be. For example the juice looks like juice, dark red cranberry juice and then when you go to drink it, it barely tastes like cranberry juice. So i don't know that would be why we are getting snacks, so if the food is really terrible one day I can always rely on my snacks in my room!

Anyways, after walgreens, i think we might stop at a linen store so Ashley can get some cloth for a quilt and we might look to see if I can find my st. teresa but we think Brazil might be even more religious and try there if I don't succeed here! At 1pm we go Kayaking and get back around 7pm and then our shipboard time is 9pm so we are just going to go onto the deck and chill after kayaking because at 11pm we depart from San Juan and will then journey to Brazil!! Very exciting!

Oh and I don't know if I mentioned it before but the possible shaving will be Feb 24th, so keep posted the week after, I'll try to get one last shot of my full head of hair and then take during and after shots, I'll try to post on ship but its kind of slow during the day!

FYI- the pictures above. so instead of having chess tables like they do in New York and all that they have Dominos tables. Isn't that AWESOME. There are dominos everywhere!

Well I have some emails I want to send out to some people that i'm not sure if they are keeping up with this, so I guess you will have to wait for another day to hear from me. I hope this was enough!

Love and Miss you All like crazy!

~Jennifer

Feb 8th, Gabriella's Birthday!

2007-02-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

My room that would be a porthole in the back!

Me and the Waterfall at El Yonque Rain Forest

Saint Teresa, Patron Saint of the Soldiers in honor of Ryan!
El Morro while our ship passes it at 6:30 am
Me and my roommate on the ship as we leave the Bahamas!
My Turtle tattoo (don't worry its fake!)

February 8^th

Well I’m just about the luckiest girl ever! I realized that Starbucks has their free wireless internet café and managed to get my butt to one of the 4 that we passed on our route around Old San Juan. So here I am, blogging on Gabriella’s Birthday! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gabriella!!! Something tells me though, my day was a little bit more exciting then yours!

So first yesterday, my goodness! I did a walking tour of Old San Juan. We were dropped off at San Cristobal Fort/Castle on one side of Old San Juan and then toured that and then toured El Morro Fort on the other side of Old San Juan. Both were really really neat, and provided that my internet here is somewhat good I will have pictures of everything for you! So first off, woke up at 6am to post to the internet and to take pictures of us going into San Juan. So one of the pictures from above is El Morro as we passed in the dawn light! After that I went to breakfast and went to the Student Union for our sort of Diplomatic Meeting. I say sort of because it implies that we need a diplomat and since Puerto Rico is USA territory, it wasn’t actually a diplomat. The governor himself came on and gave us a lengthy speech about how proud he is to be a part of the United States but about how it was difficult because we wanted them to assimilate and they basically said “no way!” and that would be why their culture is so incredibly important to them! So anyways, after meeting him (my pictures weren’t as good so I didn’t post them!), the first 3 trips were allowed off (including my own!) So we left got on a bus and went to San Cristobal Fort. We passed by the Capital building and the National Guard Building which I REALLY want to take a picture of but I can’t find it again L it has like a castle tower-ish thing on the corner. Oh, I just thought that would be perfect for Dad! Anyways, walked around San Cristobal, took a picture of a lizard. Paid respects to Saint Barbara the patron saint of the artillery. Left there and walked to El Morro (about a mile walk) where I got to see a picture of Saint Teresa, the patron saint of soldiers. So I have that picture posted up there for Ryan in hopes that will bring him some luck. I’m also on a hunt for a Saint Teresa medallion so that I can send that to ryan, hopefully get a chain for it so he can either wear it or at the minimum keep it on him. I want my baby bro to be safe! So after visiting El Morro we went to this other building that in 1868 in the Spanish-American War a corner of it was blown up. It turns out that this building is also famous for holding Marc Anthony’s first wedding reception to Miss Universe (also from Puerto Rico) awhile back (obviously before he got involved with J.Lo!) And after that we visited this 500 year monument. Every hundred years since Christopher Columbus found Puerto Rico they have added another layer. Its basically just a platform with two metal poles that stick up to show the 2 stars that he followed to get there. Then 10 steps and the 2^nd platform, another 2 layers of that and then as a 500 year commemorative, they put a big pole with objects that they found in the fort when digging. That signified the end of the tour and most of us broke off to shop and eat in Old San Juan. (Our alternative would have been to go on the tour bus back to the ship…. Boring!) So we ate at La Fonda El Jibarito and I spent LOTS of money but managed to get all of my needed souvenirs expect postcards for the rainforest and ryan’s pendent. I’ve decided that I’m going to make a quilt from fabric from each country, a doll from each country, a postcard for the scrapbook and then I’ll eventually inherit my Christmas ornaments back! After shopping we walked back to the ship (about 3 miles), at which point I was exhausted (and sun burnt L I applied sunscreen ALL day, my friends couldn’t believe it because we constantly had to stop for me!). And I basically put my things in order and went to bed.

This morning I woke up at 6:30am, got ready and went to breakfast. I met up with the Rain Forest tour at 8am. The rainforest was BEAUTIFUL! I have tons of pictures. There was one cool waterfall. It wasn’t as extravagant as I would have thought that it would be, but it was still pretty! So that would be me above at the waterfall! One cool thing I learned was there is a specific tree (and of course it’s in Spanish and couldn’t remember its name) that has male and female leaves. The male is identified by its gold backing and the female by its silver, so I have a picture of that, I don’t know how good it is, but I thought it was pretty cool. We got to wade in the waterfall area, and then the tour guide drew the turtle on my stomach. She used rocks found in the water to do it. I thought it was really neat and at least worth putting in here! After the rainforest went back to the ship to see if I had gotten mail and how that works and I don’t think they really understood me and so the answer was no- no mail L. Then Christina (my roommate) and Ashley (a girl we met on the Old San Juan tour) walked back over to here so they could do some more shopping. So now here I sit in Starbucks updating for Ms. Gabriella who I hope is having a WONDERFUL day, at least as good as mine is!

Well I guess I should go, the day is young and we have lots to do! I love and miss you all. And Gabriella when (and hopefully if this gets added in time) I hope you are having a wonderful 18, 21^st, whatever birthday it may be! You are truly blessed! And I hope you make the most of every opportunity that comes by you because if there is one thing I have learned in this amazing trip, You have to do everything you can to continue to expand your boundaries, even if it means doing things you may be scared to do- like leaving everyone and everything you love behind!

Love Always

Jennifer

2007-02-07T06:18:00.000-05:00

February 6^th, 2007

Hi Everyone,

It’s my first day of classes here on the MV Explorer. Things are going quite well on the ship though I miss everyone at home terribly! I’ve met some pretty cool people here; I’ve met others that are pretty dumb. But I guess that’s all a part of being here on this trip and really anywhere in the world. Hopefully I’ll be posting this tonight once my computer is configured to the network, but who knows.

Oh and while I can think of it: Coreen, I’m going to try in EVERY way possible to post on the 8^th, but I’m going to be in Puerto Rico and I am going to the El Yonque Rainforest that morning until 2ish. Provided that I can manage to find an internet café at an alright price, I’ll be online so I can upload a picture and a blog to go along with it! If not then my deepest apologizes!!!

Okay so anyways, the ship: The ship is gorgeous! Very small though in comparison to the real deal. I can definitely feel the waves and it is understandable why many of my peers are currently found seasick and in the bathroom. I took the seasickness pill on Sunday before I boarded and then late last night and so far I’ve been okay except for when I’m hungry, which surprisingly has been quite often! I really don’t understand it because most of the time I can get away with prolonging a meal or whatever, but because of the motion its like my stomach is ultra sensitive. So while in Puerto Rico I will be stopping at the Wal-mart to purchase lots of snacks and more sunscreen because I’m pretty sure I didn’t bring enough. Most of the ladies spend their time on the deck sun-bathing, I’ve sat on the deck a few times, always in the shade though. I do not want leathery skin when I come back. A nice tan would be nice, rough skin would not! So lots of sunscreen, water and shade for me thanks!

Also before I forget a bit of a breakdown of our ships demographics. There are 702 college age students, 17 lifelong learners, 138 faculty and staff and 108 crew members. Of the 702 students most come from Colorado (70 of who come from Boulder Colorado) and the top majors are Business, Psychology, Unknown and Political Science. We have 15 International Students, most of who were already in the United States for College Educations, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, and Panama. They included some other statistics that I can’t quite remember, so unfortunately that will have to do. The faculty and staff have brought family and children so we have ages 7 months old to 91 years old on the ship and it was explained to us that we are now a new “village”. Oh and I guess I should explain what Life-long learners are, they are senior adults who have decided they don’t ever want to stop learning so they board with us and sail around the world. Many don’t actually leave the ship but others are mobile enough to do so. One of the most interesting rumors which I think I even remember hearing before hand was there was one couple who continually did it year after year. In their fifth year, which would have been Spring 2004, the husband passed away. At that point in time it was discovered that in fact there is a morgue on the ship and they had a sea burial for him. The wife continued on the trip the rest of the time, after all she doesn’t have anyone to go home to! So in case any of you were wondering yes we have a morgue and yes they could conceivably throw my body overboard as part of a burial if you didn’t feel like shipping me back home ;)

On a brighter and much lighter note, I’ve made friends! Yea!!! There is a group of us, I think it usually is about 5 but at some points we have about 10 people! We meet for meals and the occasional activity outside of class. At the moment I’m alone in my room, but as I will write below, at 5:30 I’m meeting for most of them for dinner! We are quite the group, I don’t think I would have pictured any of us getting along nearly as well as we all do. We will have to see if this group sticks together by the end of the trip! I certainly hope so, I hate making new friends in the middle of a semester!

Today was our first day of classes. I woke up at 7am (which was tough- we lost an hour last night so we our officially one hour ahead of your time!) and had breakfast with Leona and then went to Elements of Directing. At one point she mentioned how she needs a stage manager to help her collect her thoughts- I nearly died. After she went through introducing herself and a lot of the course, we had to talk about why we chose the class and what we hoped to get out of it. 3 of them were business/communications people who need theatre credits, a one was interested in film, one was interested in script writing and then a few did theatre when they were in high school and thought what the heck. In the middle of that it was my turn and I started with “Well, I have a feeling I’m going to regret saying this by the end of the semester but I was active in my college back home.” Judy (the professor) interrupts me and is like “you’re a stage manager!”, I started to laugh and nodded and said I’ve done 8 shows and gave a little back up story about it. For the rest of class she was like I’m going to have my stage manager remind me what time it is (and of course I had left my watch in my room!) and at the end of class I had to make a list for her of the order of our presentations for next class. (I have to do a “self-portrait” with objects and put them in a way that reminds me of myself. Her example was dragging the plant over to her to represent her need for nature, overturning a chair because she like to examine things on all sides, a neat pile of books for her directing organization and a scattered group of papers on the floor. Oh and a bag her daughter had bought for her to represent her family) So now I have to sit and ponder this while I’m in Puerto Rico! At the end of class, I was the last to leave and she winked and me and said “we are going to get along GREAT!” and I laughed and she started talking about stage managing for a living and I told her no, that I probably wouldn’t and she looked at me with these stern eyes and asked Why not? Have you even thought about it? And I let her know that I really want a job that will give me a stable income, and I don’t want to live in the lowest of places and she (exasperated at this point) says, Stage managers have the highest paid job in the Theatre realm. You would be a safe bet for making money there, plus they are in major need at this point, they need some good stage managers! We are going to have to do some research this semester and we will find out everything for you! So I guess, here it is day one of class and I’m already persuaded to change my major, which I don’t mind, but it’s so… out of the ordinary! I don’t know, I guess I will be learning a lot about everything this semester, including job opportunities. So then after that was Global Studies in the Student Union. Today we discussed Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. It was alright. I have to start studying though- we need to learn the majority of countries in the world (continent by continent) by the end of the term! I guess my fear of it not being “geography” was way underestimated! Then I read more of my David Eddings book on the deck by the pool, in the shade though. At 12 I met with my group for lunch and then continued reading on the deck until my 2:15pm class which was Critical Issues of the 20^th century. Its not going to be as interesting as I thought it would be. More lecture then discussion and a BUTT ton of writing. I have a book to read a week basically! And then I took a look at the “campus store” there are a lot of cool things, nothing that really struck me as something I definitely want, except maybe a pink semester at sea t-shirt/sweatshirt. But I think I will wait till after Puerto Rico to spend that money. Tonight’s plan is 5:30pm meet for dinner, 6pm is computer help to get onto the ship’s database and then pre-port meeting at 8pm to discuss Puerto Rico! Hopefully either late tonight or early tomorrow morning when the internet is much faster I’ll hop online and post this for all of you!

Puerto Rico will be quite exciting: Weds is a trip to Old San Juan, Thursday is the Rain Forest as I said and Friday will be the Kayaking trip that I’m incredibly excited about!

Well I think this is long enough for now, and I really want to relax a bit on the deck before dinner (its 5pm) so I should get going.

Oh and one last fact: Last night we lost an hour so we are officially one hour ahead of all of you!

Love you all! Hope everything is great in the states!

~Jennifer

p.s. Sorry no pictures yet, I didn't download onto my computer yet!

Bahamas

2007-02-03T10:34:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!

The bahamas is BEAUTIFUL! I'm very Excited to be here. I wish I could stay here for longer, but you know, a vacation only lasts so long. Tomorrow I will be boarding my ship which I'm very eager to do. I got a glimsp of it when we were taking the taxis to Paradise Island. But then on our Ferry over to the Straw Market in downtown Nassau, all we saw were Carnival and Disney cruise ships so I was a little dissappointed, I need to find out where I'm supposed to be going! Eeeee! Alright so a short breakdown of what I have been doing.

Weds, Mel and I got our flavored Rum and an array of juices. The boys down here don't know what "not interested means" though. Everywhere we go there is a chorus of whistlers and TERRIBLE pick-up lines. After taking a nap, we walked around the resort and then had dinner at Jonny Rockets! (it was the cheapiest place open at 8pm. pathetic I know). Thursday was our pedicure/manicures, paddleboating (both pictures above), lazy river and of course a day of the spa! I met a bunch of people on Semester At Sea so I am really excited, though i'm definitely going to be "the poor kid" though they all seemed really nice! We will have to see. I'm just grateful to be going on the trip, I don't need to waste my time with the snobby kids! Yesterday we were conned into going to this "free breakfast" that wasn't really free. Though it wasn't nearly as expensive as it would have been if we had gone on the resort. After getting our deposit for some city tour back because we were disgusted with this guys tactics, we got on the Ferry and went to the straw market. Bought lots of goodies- myself some jewlery and photo album, and some bracelets for the nieces. Then went back to the market on Paradise Island and bought my two ornaments, a cute purse and a wrap skirt. Very exciting. Then we slept for the rest of the day! Today we woke up at 8am (like every other day!) and packed our bags except for what we will need in the next 24 hours and then mel took a shower while I downloaded and backed-up all my pictures on my flash drive. The plan for the rest of the day: lots of pictures of the resort, lots of water time and last but certainly not least our most expensive meal of the trip to celebrate this wonderful excursion!

Tomorrow's plan: 8am (though probably closer to 9am) check-out of resort, take taxis to harborside to board cruise ship! At some point mel will join me on the ship hopefully to checkout my new establishment and then unfortuntely departing!

Well I should go take my shower to start on my own adventure for the day!

Love and Miss you all!

~Jennifer

One Day Left

2007-01-30T17:02:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

At the bitter request of my sister I'm updating my blog one last time before leaving for the Bahamas. But I can't really update because I need to hurry and finish up everything and say goodbye. So here is my hi! I'm really busy! But I'm thinking about all of you... Stay Tuned for the adventure of a lifetime!

One Week Left

2007-01-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

Well.. here I sit. One week left before leaving to go to the Bahamas! I'm almost all packed. A few.. parcels, left to finish before giving out and the worst thing of all- one paper, leftover from last semester that needs to be quickly finished before handing over to the professor. I have high hopes of this trip, but I'm afraid to say I'm about to enter the worst week of my life. Saying goodbye to everyone who knows me, and rushing to make sure I have EVERYTHING I could possibly want for the next 3 and 1/2 months. Triple checking my baggage to make sure its not overweight and making sure I'm not forgetting to say goodbye to anyone, or anything. Meanwhile continueing to work, which I'm also beginning to think was a very bad idea. I just feel like there is so much I have to do and yet so very little time because I have a personal agenda of visiting friends and parties before I go.

Well I just thought I would pop in and see if anyone was reading this yet... I should get back to that long list I mentioned up there ;)

By the way... The picture = me in seven days :) But with Melanie instead of Aimee....

Brief Overview

2007-01-02T12:13:00.000-05:00

Alright, I'm pretty new at this, so here is my first attempt at adding a picture in to this thing.

So I sit here, with 29 more days before I am on a sweet plane to the bahamas where I will embark on a life changing experience. I don't think I could stress how extremely excited I am about the upcoming semester. Naturally there are a lot of people back home who I am going to sorely miss and I have no doubts that I will end up with a major case of homesickness. But the idea of not being home and being indpendent is quite nice. I eagerly look forward to sharing all of my experiences with you via this website. My only hope is that in some way this will keep me connected back home.

For the remainder of my time here in the good ole USA will be spent working my behind off earning the precious money that will fund all of my expenses while overseas. I just have to wait patiently for my visas and passport to come back. I'm about to order my books online to be delievered to my cabin on the ship as well as set up a few other minor details needed for my endeaveors.

For those of you that don't know me that well or recieved this web address from a friend or through searching. I'm about to embark on a 100 day long cruise going completely around the world visiting the poorest of nations. Although this isn't doesn't sound exciting to most people, I'm looking forward to getting out of New England and this country and really seeing the world. The countries included in this amazing itenirary include Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malyasia, Singapore, Vietname, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Hawaii and landing in California. So sit back and enjoy the ride ;)

Start Up

2007-01-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone, Just trying to test this out, want to make sure this is going to work well for me while I'm overseas :)