Post-Voyage Thoughts

So I admit, this wasn't the most successful blog in the world. It got really busy traveling through so many countries and keeping up with the academic side of SAS.

Looking back, there really isn't a way I could easily put into words what I learned through SAS. The history of different countries that I wouldn't have know otherwise, the culture and customs of these countries, etc.

Two weeks after the voyage has ended, I am still reflecting and trying to piece everything together. There's a lot going on at home so I do it every so often. But I know that this voyage changed me in a way that I am a more globally aware person of the world.

I would recommend SAS to anyone. In my opinion, the academic portion of it was an absolute joke. It was unnecessarily stressful. But that's just me.

As I prepare my Malaysian white coffee and all the other stuff I brought from my trip, I know that I wouldn't have visited many of these countries if it wasn't for SAS.

There's still stuff all over my room, I need to do laundry, and figure out what I'm going to do with all those random pamphlets and little mementos I brought from the different countries. Throw them out? They're literally just sitting in my suitcase. I know I should scrapbook or something and then throw out what I don't use, but who knows when I'll ever get to that.

I miss the ship and my SAS friends.

I'm enjoying being home for the holidays and spending time with Danny and my friends but I'm about ready to go back to Cal and my life there. My last semester as a Cal student!! Bittersweet.

Unless I get more thoughts that I wish to post on the internet, this is possibly my last post. Thanks for reading friends :)

Living a day twice & Japan Part II

So we have crossed the International Date Line and have lost close to 24 hours so we had the great benefit of gaining an extra day! Since we’re sailing East, we lost 19 hours (from Pacific Time Zone), so to adjust to the time in our next port, Hawaii, we repeated Saturday, November 22nd. We had class the first day and a free day the next.

There was a charity auction and raffle on our free day today and I won 100 Internet minutes—yay! Those are actually a treasure on the ship seeing how 2 hours of Internet are $50. Ouch on the pocket. There was a silent auction and a live auction but I just didn’t have that kind of money to bid on some of the items. I bought 10 raffle tickets and distributed them among some items up for grabs. I think I put 2 in the Internet minute raffle. For that item alone, there were 600 tickets! Yes—SIX HUNDRED tickets. I was one of the lucky 4. The live auction was fun to watch—some items went for like 400 dollars! I think a 3 night at a bed and breakfast in Malibu went for 400 dollars. A map signed by the captain went for like $300, etc, etc. Some of these items are donated by ballin (that’s slang for “rich” for my mom who is probably confused right now) faculty who own houses around the world—Nova Scotia, Finland, Norway, Israel. Many of them donated a stay for a weekend in their homes/condos, without transportation. Anyway that was that.

Most students (including myself) have been overwhelmed by a plethora of FDP papers. FDP= field directed practica. Basically day trips that we have to go on for class. And then we have to write about our experience all while trying to tie it to our class material. Fun. Here I am on fifth deck with a number of other students writing papers and stuff (stuff meaning procrastinating).

We’ll be in Hawaii for Thanksgiving—whooooo! Can’t wait to use my cell phone to call and text away.

Japan Part II in a nutshell: DisneySea in Tokyo was fun minus I didn’t understand what was going on because it was in Japanese. But any Disney park is always fun and stimulates happy feelings. I spent the second day in Yokohama—which was absolutely beautiful. The people were so friendly and it was just a nice little city with trees with leaves that change colors.

Good night from the Explorer!

Japan Part 1!

I had an Osaka University Student Exchange and Homestay in Japan—what a great experience! The students and my host family were so genuinely kind.

Osaka University students met us at the port of Kobe and took us to lunch and then Osaka castle. They were so much fun to hang out with and were really interested in us. Then we went to Osaka University to have our welcome reception—where we had dinner, tried on kimonos, and met our host family! It was so much fun and we all took tons of pictures. Japanese food at lunch and dinner was very delicious and I think I have perfected my chopstick skills—woo! For dinner, we had sushi and all these other finger foods. I also tried this green tea that these Japanese were making from some sort of powder. And I had to drink it in a particular way—I had to bow to say thanks, then turn it around 2 ½ times and then drink it in 3 sips and then spin it around again. Very peculiar. Some of the Japanese ladies also made this delicious kind of cheesecake—it was different than cheesecake from the US, very good.

Then, I met my host mom, Mrs. Ito, who was so cute. She drove Karen (another SASer) and I to her home where we met her husband. She said her house was small but was a traditional Japanese home. We were met by her husband at the door who gave us some slippers after we removed our shoes. They showed us our room, which was also supposedly a traditional Japanese room. It was covered by bamboo mats or something like that and then she put some futon-style mattresses and some blankets for us to sleep.

We then went into their living room where we started talking about ourselves and I told Mrs. Ito that I was born in Mexico and I showed her some photos of my family. She was very excited when I told her I was born in Zacatecas because she had been there before! We talked and talked and she gave us some Japanese goodies, like sweet red beans with mochi and some tea. Then, her husband took our his calligraphy materials and wrote our names in Japanese! Apparently, my name does not translate well into Japanese so it took a little while to figure out. I told them my name meant dew and it was so cute because Mrs. Ito had this little translator device where she would look stuff up she didn’t know and she looked up my name and was amazed. She told me what dew was in Japanese and I wanted to write it down but I didn’t so I forgot what it was. Then, Mr. Ito asked us for our favorite word and I said happiness. I wrote down happiness in Japanese characters and Mr. Ito was surprised—he was like, “How did you know?!” haha actually, the students at Osaka had taught me how to write it at the reception. Karen made it a little complicated by saying soliloquy and they were perplexed by the word, but they somehow made it work.

Then, they let us use the calligraphy pen and they just laughed at us because we weren’t as good as them. But it was fun. Then, the topic of names came up somehow and I wrote down my grandma’s name and Mrs. Ito just looked at me surprised at how long it was. The whole scenario was just very fun and interactive.

Mr. Ito woke us up at 7:45am the next morning and we got ready and had a Japanese breakfast. We had miso soup (yum!) and rice balls and rice wrapped in sea weed and pickled plum and this cabbage style vegetable that was interesting oh and these little egg omelet rolls that Mr. Ito made. And they also had “Western” breakfast foods like toast and fruit and a hard boiled egg.

At breakfast, Mr. Ito gave us a copy of a photo we had taken the night before—how sweet! They dropped us off at Osaka University where we met up with the rest of the students and families. Everyone had a great time with their host families!

For the rest of the day, we went with the university students to Kyoto to a golden temple and out to lunch in Kyoto. We spent some time shopping and then we had to get back to the ship. Overall, it was a really fun experience!! The students were so nice to take time out of their schedules to show us around and they were fun to be around. I even learned how to count in Japanese, which makes much more sense than English counting. I wish I had more time with my host family because they were so nice and welcoming and I felt I was learning a lot about Japanese culture by being with them. I have already sent them a thank-you email and Mrs. Ito replied with such a sweet email.

I can’t wait for Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan!

Hong Kong!

Just got back from China! I had such a great time and got to see A LOT of sites. Hong Kong was absolutely beautiful—it had a great skyline and some spectacular views. The ship got cleared relatively late, so we searched for somewhere to have lunch and then took a tour of the city. We had lunch at Pizza Hut, which is not like your ordinary Pizza Hut in the States. We later found out that people in China LOVE pizza. So his Pizza Hut had full on table service and it was a really fancy place. It was a very formal setting for pizza.

After lunch, we took a ferry boat tour of the harbor in Hong Kong, where we got to see all the awesome buildings around the harbor and a really cool bridge that had looked similar to the Golden Gate, but was yellowish and had a train run on it. After the tour, in the evening, we took one of those double decker buses to The Peak, where we walked around to see aerial views of the skyline. We snapped some photos and had dinner at Bubba Gumps—second Western meal of the day, but oh well. We did some souvenir shopping and then took a ferry back to the ship. I really liked Hong Kong because it had a big city feeling with a spectacular skyline. When we got off the ship, we walked into this fancy shopping mall with a Starbucks and expensive shops that I didn’t shop in. The mall had wireless so after we got back, my friend Violetta and I went inside the mall to use their Wi-Fi, which was nice. Then, I went back to the ship and packed for Beijing!

Traveling through Asia

I haven't updated my blog for a while. I've been pretty busy traveling through Asia. Traveling has gotten pretty exhausting by this point since we only have 2 or 3 days between ports. I'm looking forward to the end of the stretch (after Japan) so that we can have some relaxation time on the ship. Maybe I'll have some time to update my blog then. They covered the election on the ship today--how exciting! Obama '08!

 

We get to Hong Kong tomorrow morning. I leave to Beijing in two days where I'll get to visit the Great Wall! Then I come back and join the ship in Shanghai. Hopefully my energy levels go up so that I can enjoy the trip more. I hope all is well with family and friends back home :)

South Africa, continued.

I never finished writing about my time in South Africa. I’ll make a long story short so that I can move on to India. I went on a three day safari to Kruger National Park with some other SASers. It was 13 of us total--so it was a nice small group. It was a lot of travel time to and from the safari sites. We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg, which didn’t take very long but the drive to Kruger took a really long time. Our tour company never specified how long the drive from Johannesburg on our itinerary so when we got in the van we asked our driver. He says 5 hours. Some of us thought he didn’t hear us correctly, and we were like, “No, not how long our safari is. How long to our lodge?”And he repeated 5 hours. Hahaha it was really funny—we laughed and made ourselves comfortable. The drive was a little closer to 7 hours because of all the stops for lunch and gas and such. So we finally arrived to Tresimana Lodge, where we departed for our sunset safari. It was so cool! We saw giraffes and a rhino from a few feet away! We were in an Indiana Jones-like vehicle. Very cool. Then, we drove a few minutes away to our Treehouse Lodge. It was actually a really, really awesome outdoor lodge. We had drove into the lodge and there was water buffalo and impala just hanging out by the gate!

The next day we woke up early for our full-day safari at Kruger National Park. I’m really glad I came to this park because we saw a lot of really cool animals. We only saw four of the Big Five. The Big Five are the elephant, the water buffalo, the leopard, the lion, and the rhino. They’re called the Big Five because they are the hardest to hunt, or something like that. We almost saw the leopard. Our guide saw it but it was hard to see so couldn’t make it out. It was crazy because our guides could spot these animals from really far away. We saw elephants, zebras, more giraffes, cool birds, etc. The lions were the most stunning to see.

The next day some of us got up for a bush walk in the lodge. We walked around and the guide explained some of the plant uses and told us about the animal droppings and all of that. We had breakfast and departed for the airport. We stopped for lunch at the same place (really good food) and stopped at a canyon place for some sightseeing and to buy some souvenirs. We finally made it back to the airport and back to Cape Town.

The next and final day I went on an SAS trip called Operation Hunger. We went to a daycare in a poorer area of Cape Town and tested the kids for malnutrition. We weighed them, took their height, and their arm circumference. Luckily, most of the kids did not meet the criteria for malnutrition, very few were at risk, and about two met the criteria for malnutrition. Then, we visited a feeding center in a township. Here, there were low-income families and homes that were shacks made out aluminum. It was really eye opening to see the other side of Cape Town and I’m glad I got the opportunity to go on this trip. We arrived close to the time we were supposed to be on the ship so I quickly ran to get some postcards and stamps and made it back on time. I went out on deck to watch the ship depart—it was so sad! Cape Town—definitely my FAVORITE stop so far!

Benignant

Benignant. That's the word I missed on the Spelling Bee. So sad. Well, at least I got past the first round by successfully spelling "patriot." Haha. Oh well. It wasn't as bad as the girl next to me who had to spell "cnemial" (the "c" is silent) and also missed. Ok the judges didn't know half the words they had in front of them and could barely pronounce benignant. They had ridiculous words from the 2003 Spelling something something. Um I thought this was supposed to be a fun event. They should have made us spell words related to Semester at Sea. Like: "nautical" or "Aegean" or "Swakopmund", things like that. And the judges took a good 5 minutes to select a word from a random list of words. Out of 10, only 4 people made it past the 2nd round. We're mid-way through the Olympic Games and I think our sea has won 1 event. Haha but it's all fun. I have Jeopardy in an hour. I hope that goes a little better.

Sea Olympics

We don’t have classes tomorrow due to Sea Olympics-this big competition between “Seas” on the ship. Each floor is divided in two section-and each has a Sea name. I’m on the Aegean Sea. Each Sea also has their own color and ours is pink. There’s events like Tug-o-War, Pictionary, Relays, Hula Hoop, Hot Dog Eating contest, Twister, Jeopardy, Sudoku, Spelling Bee, Flip Cup, Limbo, Human Knot, etc, etc. I signed up for Jeopardy and Spelling Bee. Everyone says that they’re the intellectual ones. I didn’t want to do the physical ones because my back and my neck are still hurting a little bit. I’ve never been in a Spelling Bee so I thought it would be fun.  Yay go Aegean Sea!

South Africa Day 3: Cape Town Winelands

The day before I booked a wine tour at the clock tower in the Waterfront. One of the nurses on the ship put a small group together and I decided to join in (yes, Semester at Sea is one of the few places you will probably drink with your professors and staff). So the wine tour would go through a total of six wineries in the Cape Winelands. We went to some of the best ones: Constantia & some in Stellenbosch.

Sunday was probably the best day to go wine tasting out of the whole week because the weather forecast was the best of the week. Our tour guide picked us up outside of the ship and we went to go pick up some non-SAS people who were coming along. In addition to four people from the ship, we had two old men who were really nice and this group of three young Australians (they were quite the entertainment the whole trip).

Our first stop was at Groot Constantia. We had a cellar tour and a tasting there. It was so much fun to see how they process the wine. And out of all the tasting, I think Constantia was the fanciest. Wine tasting in general just feels classy and fancy. So we had the cellar tour and the tasting, where one the ladies who worked there explained the order of drinking the wine, etc, etc. I had a little background on this because of my trip earlier this year to Napa Valley with TRENZA. But I enjoyed the refresher.

We had another tasting at Blaauwklippen Winelands which was outdoors so that was nice. Then, we went to Vrede en Lust, where we had a lunch and a tasting. The food there was absolutely delicious! I enjoyed the change from the food on the ship. Their winelands were also really, really nice-they had horse statues and fountains and a gorgeous landscape. Loved it.

Then, we went to our 4th stop, KWV. We arrived later than we were scheduled because the lunch took a while so it felt a little rushed. The wines here were my least favorite from the whole trip. I think I only drank 3 of the 6.  On to our last stop (I forgot the name of it)! I was happy to see other Semester at Sea students who also booked wine tours independently. So we had our last tasting, we mingled, snapped some pics and went back to the ship. After five tasting, the car ride back was quite amusing to say the least.

South Africa Day 2 - Table Mountain

I grabbed some breakfast and decided to do some solo shopping in the morning. They always tell us not to go anywhere alone but the mall was right by the ship and I didn’t want to feel rushed with someone behind me. I walked around the mall to see if I could find some deals and I was unsuccessful-everything was so expensive! I only bought a Cape Town tote bag because I desperately needed a one. I left the mall and walked around little souvenir shops around the Waterfront and bought a few little things like postcards and some jewelry.

Then, I came back to the ship to leave for Table Mountain. We took a charter bus there and then took the cable car up the mountain. Many people hike it but 1) I still had back pain from my injury, 2) it was a pretty steep hike, 3) it was kind of cold, and 4) the cable car was supposed to be pretty cool-it was a rotating cable car! So we got up to the top and then our guide told us some facts and then told us to take one of the 2 routes to walk around the top of the mountain. There was an easy, shorter route and then a longer one. I took the longer one with some friends. It had a beautiful view of Cape Town and there were lots of photo opportunities. We were the tour guide so he knew all the good angles. And, yes I was extra careful walking around! So after about an hour and a half, we finished the scenic walk and took the cable car back down.

We got back to the ship and it was dinner time and I went out to dinner with my floor-mates. We went to a restaurant right across from the ship called Quay Four. I had a rib burger which was decent. After dinner, a bunch of people went out to Long Street. I decided to stay in and went back to Quay Four that had free Wi-Fi to check some stuff online. It was another wonderful day in Cape Town!

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Studying for midterms has been taking up most of my time lately. I had a midterm for one of my psychology classes today and I think it went well. I have a few more exams and papers due these next few days. Yesterday I had a 50 minute massage at the spa and that was very relaxing! Professors are doing all the exams right now because after India, we only have about 2-3 days between ports so it’s hard to schedule assignments then. So most of us are jammed with homework and studying! But one more week till India!

South Africa Day 1 - The Waterfront & the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa three days after leaving Namibia. We arrived in the early morning so like in previous ports, I get up for breakfast and get ready for the Diplomatic Briefing. The officials didn’t end up showing up for the Diplomatic Briefing so that was cancelled. Getting through customs was not an issue because they didn’t even end up stamping our passport (tear). So the ship was cleared really early (around 9:30am) and we were free to disembark.

I had a trip with Semester at Sea to the Botanical Gardens at 1pm so I had some time to go explore before leaving. Our ship was docked at the beautiful Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. I went with some friends to walk around the dock area and immediately, you could tell it was a major tourist destination. It had a bunch of little shops with postcard stands outside of them. There was also a craft market, an aquarium, and some statues of major activists like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The dock area reminded me a little bit of San Francisco because a ferry-ride away, it had an island that also used to be a prison, which Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in. This reminded me of Alcatraz. However, when the ship arrived, we were lured by Table Mountain in the landscape. Table Mountain is visible from almost everywhere in Cape Town and it’s this beautiful mountain that has a flat area (hence, Table Mountain). This mountain (among other things, of course) is what set it apart from SF.

We then went to the Waterfront Mall. In the pre-ports, they told us that it was a really nice mall and that we would be able to shop till we dropped. Well, yes, this was true. But only if you had quite a bit of money to spend. They had designer stores like Gucci and LV among other independent designer stores. We window shopped and then stopped at the food court for lunch. By now, everyone is sick and tired of the ship food and most of us like to eat out when possible. I had some fast food Thai food and I was quite disappointed. I was really craving Thai food and we saw a fancy Thai restaurant but it was closed so I had to settle for the food court. But I ate it and then we went back to the ship.

I ran to my cabin to grab my video camera for the Botanical Gardens. We took a motor coach to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. We stopped at the Compton Herbarium to look at some dry plants, then we went inside the actual Gardens. These Botanical Gardens are one of the most beautiful and abundant in the world, and it was clear why. It had a beautiful landscape and Table Mountain in the background added to its picturesque scenery. We were accompanied by a tour guide and he explained the plants and flora. There was medicinal plants, scented plants, and lots of other pretty things! We ended our tour and I stopped by the gift shop to get a few little things.

That evening, we had dinner at the City Grill (also in the Waterfront) and I had a very interesting dish! I had a skewer which had impala, kudu, ostrich and warthog!! A lot of the students have had zebra, springbuck, and alligator and I had yet to try these new foods. They were interesting. I ate all of them except for the impala which I didn’t like too much. Other than that, it was a nice dinner!

Day 1 in South Africa was only the beginning of an incredible visit.

Namibia

Namibia definitely had its ups and downs. It’s a beautiful country and the people were really nice and welcoming. The first day I spent in Walvis Bay, the port city we arrived in. We all immediately felt the difference between Salvador and this port city. We had lunch at a nice place called Bonaroma and it was really good and the Namibian dollar went a long way. The second day I went to Swakopmund, a Germany town outside of Walvis Bay. It was a cute little town that reminded me of Solvang in Santa Barbara. We walked around and went into some little shops

The third day I went on a Seal & Dolphin Encounter with Semester at Sea and that was nice except it was FREEZING cold on the little boat we went on. We didn’t see any dolphins but we did get to see a seal very up close. It actually came on our boat! We had oysters, finger foods, and white wine on the boat so that was fancy. I tried an oyster but I tried chewing it and then spit out overboard. The fourth day I went on a hot air balloon ride! It was really nice and a cool experience to have.

But the fifth day is what ruined everything. I wasn’t going to go quad biking because I had already spent a lot of money on the hot air balloon ride but everyone I talked to told me that they did it and how much fun it was so I really wanted to try it. I met a group of people who was going to go this last day so we all went to this company on the way to Swakopmund. We went on the bikes and they quickly told us how to use them. They stupidly didn’t make us put on helmets and I don’t remember them even offering them. Anyway so about an hour into the biking, I hit a dip and flipped over and the bike fell on top of me. I quickly got up and seemed to be okay, just some chest pain and a headache from the impact. We ended our tour soon afterwards and they took me back to the ship in their company car. I felt okay and good enough to go back out into town to pick up a few things I needed. I got back to the ship and had bad neck pains. I visited the doctor and he said everything seemed to be okay and that the pain would be worse tomorrow. It’s now tomorrow, and yes, it is worse. But it seems to be more soreness than pain so I hope it goes away soon. I look back and know that I’m lucky to be alive. I learned my lesson to be extra careful and not to try to do everything.

Amazon in a Nutshell

So that I can move onto Namibia, I will quickly summarize the rest of my time in Brazil. I spent three amazing days at the Amazon River in Manaus. The only downside of the trip was the travel time-we met at 4:50 am on Monday, September 8th and arrived in Manaus around 1pm [8 hours]. Of course that includes getting everyone together, bus to the airport, flight (we transferred in Brasilia), and another bus to the riverboats. It was a similar situation the way back. When we got off the bus to get on the riverboat, there were 3 right next to each other and one had a banner that said “Welcome Semester at Sea.” It was really cute-there were these 2 dancers who greeted us by giving us a necklace and a hat. I’ve really gotten used to being greeted each time I go on a trip with Semester at Sea!

Anyway so we got on the riverboats and chose our hammocks where we were going to sleep on for 2 nights. They were surprisingly comfortable! Then our guides briefed on our activities for the 3 days and introduced the crew of the boat. There were like 2 or 3 captains (I think 2 of those people just hung out most of the time), the kitchen crew, and our guides. Then we had a snack that included fried plantains, fruit, little empanadas, and fruit juices.

So Day 1: After the mini-orientation, we arrived at the Meeting of the Waters, where the black waters of the Rio Negro meet the brown waters of the Solimoes to form the Amazon River proper. From here, you could see the division of the waters. Our guides explained why this happens and the different composition of the 2 types of waters. Umm I can’t exactly remember but I think I got it on video. Then we went to the Lake January region, where we saw giant Victoria Regia water lilies. They were so big and pretty. Then, we went with our guides by canoe to catch alligators with their bare hands! Okay imagine reading this in your itinerary. You picture like these two men going into the water, catching this huge alligator, getting on top of the alligator and fighting with it to keep it’s jaw shut! That’s what I thought at least. Well, not quite. It was really dark by this time and they told us that only one of the two canoes was going to be getting an alligator. So the other canoe had caught one and we are going up to it and we’re like, where is it? We get closer and it’s like this tiny little cayman (reptile similar to the alligator, a baby). It was a little bigger than a lizard. So that was a little disappointing but I did get to hold it and take a picture with it. Then we had dinner as we went up the Jacareubal region for our overnight location.

Day 2: We got up early for breakfast. The hammock was really comfortable this night, I think because everyone was really tired. The hammocks were on the second level of the riverboat and there was only a small tarp covering us so I awoke to the bright sunlight. We went on a jungle trek and it was SUPER HOT. I was sweating the whole time, like soaked. It was humid which added to it. Our guides showed us some of the cool things in the Amazon like a water cane that people used to drink water from. It was pretty cool-they chopped off this thick branch and water came out of it. There were other plants also used for medicinal purposes. They also showed us “survival techniques.” One of them included what to do in case you are in a plane crash in the Amazon. Apparently, there was one of those some years ago and people died of the cold. So they showed us how to make a fire using: batteries (common item on a plane?), steel wool (from the kitchen?), and a piece of paper. So you’re supposed to put the batteries together from end to end and then rub the steel wool at the ends to create a spark. Then when you have a spark, you throw in the piece of paper to make the bigger fire. Well, we stood there for a good half an hour while our guides, Ronaldo and Mathias, tried to create the fire. The batteries were too weak and it didn’t work. It was so funny because they would argue in Portuguese and I could pick some of it up. Then, at the end of the trek, we stopped at a small waterfall where we got in the water so that was refreshing. We returned to the riverboats.

After lunch, we visited a village called the Terra Preta (the Black Land). We walked around and observed their lifestyle. It was really amazing to see this community with the bare minimum and they looked happy and content. In their view, they had everything they needed. We interacted with the children and they were so intrigued with us. One of my friends, Jasmine, bought stickers and they wouldn’t stop following her! They were really cute-they played with our cameras and we took some pictures with them.

We left and then we had a cookout at a white-sand beach. The riverboat arrived at the beach and then the kitchen crew got off to prepare. We went with our guides to wander around in a canoe for more than an hour. After about an hour, people were getting antsy and hungry and started rushing Ronaldo. I was having a good time getting to know the people around me and I felt bad that other people were giving him a hard time about getting us back. Again, here I noticed the time situation and how we were all rushing. So finally, our guide gave in and took us back to the beach. When we arrived, they gave HIM a hard time because things weren’t ready yet. I noticed that they weren’t done setting up because they had some fireworks that they probably wanted to set off when we were arriving at the shore but they set them off until after we had already gotten off the canoe. When we got back, it was really, really nice. They had the fireworks, the chairs set up in a circle with a string of lights all around them, and music. They had the food set up on some long table with a delicious chocolate cake and flan at the dessert section. Everything looked SO good. We waited for the other boats and then formed a line for the food. It was pretty late by now and everyone was understandably hungry. The food was indeed delicious-especially some breaded catfish and the chocolate cake! Then, the guides started some games for everyone. We played musical chairs, tug of war, and this one game that I had never played but was really fun. There were two people who spun their head around a stick for a while and then raced to get a water bottle to take it to the opposite side. Sounds simple but it was hilarious because after people spun in circles, they usually fell or ran the wrong way. My friend Estefania and I tried it and indeed, we both fell down. After all this fun and games, we returned to the boat and called it a night.

Day 3: I’ll try to make this one short because this is already two pages long. We went piranha fishing! I caught one! Just kidding. But someone in our canoe did catch one and I took a picture with it as if I caught it. Then we visited another village that wasn’t as exciting as the one the day before but it was still nice to observe their lifestyle. This one was a little more developed. Then we went swimming in the Amazon!! It was really cool and the water was really, really warm. After dinner, ,we went to a lodge where we met up with all the other Amazon groups from SAS and we had a big celebration to end our time at the Amazon. It was so amazing. We watched performances by a group who did dances based on the “Legends and Rituals of the Amazon.” They had really detailed costumes and it was really nice. After they performed, they honored the guides, and then the students danced along with the performers. After the celebration was over, around midnight, we went back to the riverboat to pack up and go to the airport and arrived to Salvador the next day around 1pm.

Overall, the Amazon was a really incredible experience! Oh we didn’t get to shower this entire time, I forgot to mention that. But, we had rainfall on one of the days so some us took advantage of this and took a shower in the rain. As a side note, we also learned about the limited educational and medical resources the Amazon has. It is unfortunate that many of the children that live there don’t have the opportunities for higher education. Also, some of the people further in are far away from the city and in case of emergency, it takes a while to get there by boat.  However, the Amazon is really one of the natural wonders of the world and I’m glad I had this opportunity to visit.

I don’t know how close this was to being in a nutshell...

First Stop: Salvador, Brazil!

Our long awaited first stop on Semester at Sea was Salvador, Brazil. We arrived on Sunday, September 7th, were at the dock at 5:30am and anchored by 7am. It felt so weird to wake up that morning to a still ship! I looked out my window and saw industrial-like buildings. They were going to start calling students at 7:15am to get cleared by customs. They wanted to do face-to-face passport checks so we weren’t expected to be cleared for another 2-3 hours. In the end, it turned out that Brazil customs wasn’t going to do that after all, so we proceeded to pick up our passports at the faculty and staff lounge and were ready to disembark-Yay!

We disembarked the ship and were greeted by a traditional Bahian woman giving us these ribbons for our wrists. We got tons more of these while we walked around Salvador. We went through the Port of Salvador building that had an area that seemed to be designed just for Semester at Sea students. It had postcards, stamps, computers for internet use, telephones, and little souvenir and convenience stands. We were too anxious to stop and figured it was probably overpriced so we proceeded to the city.

Salvador is interesting because it has an upper and lower city. The ship’s dock and more industrial areas seemed to be in the lower city. They advised us to take the Lacerda Elevator to the upper city where most of the tourist sites were. We took a right exiting the port building and walked down this street that had a very strong smell of urine. My friends and I quickly crossed to the other side of the street to avoid the smell. We walked through some blocks where there were always taxi drivers asking us if we wanted a taxi. One taxi driver advised us to avoid where we were because there were “bandits”. They kind of scared us at the pre-port meetings telling us that Salvador is a very big city and to be careful not to look like tourist targets.

Well, we finally found the elevator to get to the upper city and found some nice architectural sites and other places. Throughout this whole time, street vendors approached us and little kids asked us for money. The vendors would put the necklaces around our necks and wouldn’t let us give it back because they really wanted us to buy the item. We quickly learned to avoid them so that this wouldn’t happen. But sometimes it was really unavoidable. The sequence of events was something I wasn’t used to. Bahian women dressed in traditional costumes would come over to pose for a photo and ask for money AFTERWARDS. Capoeira performers would also do a small performance for us pretending like it’s free and then they would ask us for money, explaining that this is what they do for a living and need the money. I felt bad walking away and ignoring them but one of my friends made the point that this is going to be happening in many of the countries we’re visiting and we can’t get haggled in each one. Also, at the Diplomatic Briefing, they told us not to give money to the children on the streets and that if we were so inclined to give money, to find an organization to donate to.

After a few of these episodes, we got hungry and asked a taxi driver where we could find a Churrasceria, a traditional Brazilian BBQ. He said there wasn’t one in the near vicinity but that he knew of a place where it was about 35 Reals for all you can eat. This is equivalent to about $20 so we thought it was worth it and hopped in. We get to the restaurant and it is this really fancy place called Boi Preto Grill where we feel very underdressed. And it was not 35 Reals but 65 Reals (about $40). But it was a really nice place where they come around and slice fresh meat and they did have a nice buffet. But as soon as I walked in I noticed a stark difference than where I had just been. Where were all the Afro-Brazilians that roamed the streets of Centro Historico and by the elevator? The servers were all dressed nicely and the people who were eating were better dressed. I wanted a more authentic dining experience but of course, the food here was delicious as well.

We finished eating and took a taxi back to the port. On the way, we saw a shopping mall called Salvador Shopping and I wanted to get a few things so we told the taxi driver to drop us off there. So he drops us off and we go inside and notice that all the shops are closed. We actually knew that it was Brazil’s Independence Day but saw that there were so many cars, we figured it was open. It is a really nice mall actually but the only things open were the movie theater and the restaurants. We browsed around the mall and then left to Centro Historico. I found this to be an interesting observation-there were so many people at this mall just walking around and relaxing even though it was closed. The aspect of time was quite different in Brazil. I’m used to being on “Go” mode all the time and Brazil was not like this at all. Everyone was just relaxing, sitting around. I observed this when I was at the Amazon as well. I’ll get to that.

We visited the town of Pelourinho that had lots of colorful establishments and souvenir stops. We noticed there was many SAS students and saw that we were close to where we started. I visited the Igreja de Sao Francisco, a church that I had seen on a postcard that had a really nice interior. We paid 3 Reals to get in and it actually had much to see. It was museum-like with a lot of rooms with many artifacts. The interior didn’t look as spectacular as the postcard but it was quite intricate and beautiful.

There were other little events but this is getting really long. We finally came back to the ship because I had a Welcome Reception with Brazilian students to attend. I saw Estefania, another girl I knew was going and asked her what she was going to wear. She was with some friends and they said they were wearing dresses so I guess this was going to be a little more formal. I rushed through dinner and got ready for the Reception. The reception was really fun!!! They had a capoeira show, an act with girls that do tricks on ribbons (like at the circus), and dancing. There was hardly any Brazilian students but Estefania, Ale, and I had a great time together! Again, there was also Bahian women dressed in the traditional dresses. They had Brazilian finger foods like grilled cheese on a stick, little shrimp things made with palm oil, and unlimited beer. So it was well worth the $60 we paid to attend.

I’m going to try to use my Internet minutes and upload some pictures so I hope it works! This is super long and that was just my first day in Brazil!

Neptune Day Festivities Part II

Neptune Day. It started with people in these funny-looking costumes coming around the cabins banging on drums and on our doors at 7:30 IN THE MORNING. My alarm was set for 9:30am even though I knew the festivities for Neptune Day were from 9-12pm. Of course, I quickly grabbed my camcorder and took some video. Then I tried going back to bed but they made another round and I finally threw some clothes on and went to breakfast. I came back to my cabin to get ready and at 8:45 there was yet another announcement that we should make our way to the 7th deck for Neptune Day festivities. That one woke my roommate up and we both got ready. I had read that we should wear stuff we don't mind getting wet/dirty so I put on my bathing suit and some shorts.

According to what I heard around the ship and Wikipedia, someone's first crossing of the equator, is a sort of initiation rite. Those who haven't crossed are called Pollywogs. So the Pollywogs made their way up to the deck and they announced the king and queen and some other "officials". The initiation began with one of the assistant captains being splashed with "fish guts" (some colored juice that tasted really bad) and jumping into the pool. So people formed a line and had fish guts poured on them and jumped into the pool. Then we proceeded to kiss a (real) fish, kiss the queen's ring, and then we were proclaimed by the King to be Shellbacks. I was hesitant at first but figured this only happens once so my neighbors and I did it! By the time it was our turn, the pool tasted really salty and not so great so I quickly got out, kissed the fish, the queen's ring, and was proclaimed a Shellback. YAY!!! Sounds kinda crazy, I know.

The festivities continued by people shaving their heads. Girls could donate 6 inches or more to Locks of Love. I saw some people get their heads shaved and then it got really crowded so I left to take a shower. But it was exciting and I guess worth waking up at 7:30am.

So then I tried to go read with my friend Ricki in the Piano Bar (a lounge with a piano and a snack bar) but it was not working so we both went down to take a nap. I slept for a good two hours and then we went to dinner. At 8pm we had our cultural pre-port for Brazil where they told us about Bahian culture, music, food, beaches, and other sites. OH! and they even taught us some Portuguese! Um I know how to say, do you speak English?-- Voce fala ingles? It's very similar to Spanish so I'm sure I will get along fine. We have interport students that are from the countries we are visiting so the student from Brazil told us what to eat, where to go, and what to avoid. All of our classes tailor their curriculum to the countries we are visiting so having that background plus this cultural pre-port is VERY helpful.

Anyway, this got a little long and I have class tomorrow. Good night!

Neptune Day!

Greetings from the Southern Hemisphere! We crossed the Equator tonight at approximately 8:30pm and I found out that it's a pretty big deal at sea. So much of a big deal that we have the day off tomorrow. It's called Neptune Day. They didn't give us too many details but one of the big activities includes people shaving their head. I'm sure it'll be quite interesting. I was done pretty early today but still managed to not get too much done. This ship is not ver conducive to studying. So I managed to keep myself busy by hanging out with my neighbors, grabbing dinner, going out on deck when we crossed the Equator, playing card games, AND going to the gym (which consists of 2 treadmills, 4 ellipticals, 2 stairmasters, 2 bikes, and some machines and weights for the guys)! Running on a treadmill on a rocking boat is a little scary but I got used to it. Oh, and of course the 10 o'clock snack-- some people's favorite time of the day. That's when they have food like sandwiches, PB & J, and a plethora of desserts like cheesecake, brownies, banana cake, and pie. I stuck with a sandwich since I had just gotten out of the gym. That's it for now, I'll keep you posted on Neptune Day!

5th Day at Sea - some updates

So today was my fifth day at sea. The ship is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean headed toward Salvador, Brazil. I think all of us are pretty ready to get off the ship and have other adventures on land.

I wasn't able to transfer the Science Education credits to Cal so I'm stuck taking the Mental Illness class. I missed one class already because I thought it was going to be okay. oops.

Everyone on the ship is starting to look familiar, people are remembering each others names. I have given up on introducing myself as Rocio because no one can ever pronounce it. I've gotten Lucille, Rosario, the usual Rock-io when they're taking roll, etc. Lol I'm used to it but I'm sticking to Rosie.

My birthday was nice -- we had a chocolate ice cream cake and a bunch of my cabin neighbors came to celebrate with me. It was pretty cool to spend a birthday on a ship in the middle of the ocean!

I signed up for the Vicarious Voyage with SAS where a group of us is going to be keeping in touch with a classroom in the States. Two Santa Clara students and I got a 6th grade class in Acampo in Northern California. We will send them "cultural packets" that include newspapers, pictures, etc, from each port we visit and the teachers incorporate it in their curriculum. The kids also write to us so that should be fun!

Puerto Rico Stop + Happy Birthday to Me :)

Yesterday we stopped in Puerto Rico for fuel. We were there from around 9am to 6pm and I was so happy because since it was US Territory, I was able to use my cell phone to call home and a few other people. The students were kinda bummed that we couldn't get off the ship but it's a long process so I guess it's understandable. But it was nice to look around the port at the nice hotels and other cruise ships.

Today is my 22nd birthday-- yay! We ordered a birthday cake and some friends and I will have it after dinner tonight. It's Monday and we have six days until we get to Salvador, Brazil!

First Day at Sea

Today was my first full day at sea. We departed from Nassau yesterday at 5pm sharp. Or should I say 1700. We are on maritime and I'm still getting used to that system. My boarding time yesterday was at 8:20am. I was in my hotel lobby at 7:15 because I wanted to get breakfast and go online before I left. There was another girl from SAS there and I asked her taxi driver how much it was to get to port. He just said "Come on." So I hopped into the taxi and then I found out that this girl (I have now forgotten her name-- I've met too many people in the last 2 days) had a voucher of some sort so the taxi driver just charged me $5 for me to join. The drive was like 5 minutes and we arrived at around 7:30am. There was only like 4 people in line because boarding actually started at 8am. But the line got HUGE in literally 10-15 minutes so I was happy I was one of the first people in line.

Anyway this is getting lengthy -- to make a long story short, I made it through security and finally boarded the ship. The check-in process went pretty swiftly and I came to my cabin on the second deck. I was VERY, VERY surprised to find out that I have a WINDOW!! Yay-- it really does make a difference. My roommate had not arrived so I just unpacked some and took pictures of the cabin. I wish I could post them but uploading pictures online is way too much for the ship's internet to handle.

Today we had a FULL day of orientation-- from 9AM to 10PM. I came to my cabin after dinner and accidentally slept through some of it. I'm still getting adjusted to the time change since we've lost 3 hours. I'm still getting used to the ship-- but I'm getting there.

This morning we found out that we had to go off course 75 miles due to a storm. I read a little bit about it online and read that it's a pretty big deal. But when they announced it when orientation started they just casually slipped it in and then started talking about something else. So the ship has picked up speed to make up for the deviation. As long as we're okay! Tomorrow we stop in Puerto Rico for a fuel stop but we won't be getting off the ship.

Tomorrow is our first day of classes. It's so weird going to class on a Sunday! But there are no such things as weekends and holidays on Semester at Sea.

That's it for now! Miss you all!

Semester at Sea

This is the ship I will be boarding tomorrow (well, today) morning! I am currently in Nassau, Bahamas. Boarding starts at 8am and it's like 1:15am right now so I'm going to bed very soon. I'm new at this whole blog thing and it's kinda weird having this up for everyone to see but it'll help keep people updated. Enjoy!