Hello Again!

I doubt anybody's really paying attention to this blog anymore since it's been over a month since my voyage around the world ended, but I felt it was necessary to add another, conclusive post before I stop updating this blog for good.

For starters, remember that strange robot movie I saw in India? To give you an idea of its insanity, here's the dance number and song from it that's in the Andes highlands:



I like how it's called Kilimanjaro (a mountain in Tanzania, for those who are unaware), but they're in Peru.

Oh, and here's a (VERY) incomplete list of the birds I saw! Remember, I did all of this bird-watching without a bird book, and many times without binoculars. So I could be completely off on some of these. I seem to have misplaced my thumb drive, which had the birds I saw in China and Ghana on it, but I should be able to figure out some of what I saw in those countries if I ask my friend Luke (the friend I was with in China). But for now, these are the birds I saw in South Africa and Hawaii:

haurtlaub's gull
speckled pigeon
orange-breasted sunbird
red-eyed dove?
hadada ibis
African sacred ibis
Egyptian goose
cape gull
grey or black-headed heron
black-winged stilt
black-bellied plover
African pied wagtail
African pied starling
weaver species
yellow canary
cape sparrow
red-ringed starling
jackass penguin
brown booby
booby species
red crested cardinal
java sparrow
zebra dove
pacific golden plover
tropicbird species

Some other fun things I saw were sea turtles (Hawaii), mud skippers (Southeast Asia), and a monitor lizard (Singapore). I also saw some sort of strange, large rodent-thing in a tree in South Africa, but i didn't get a good look at it, so I have no idea what it was. I also saw wild monkeys in Cambodia and wild baboons in South Africa, in addition to many feral animals during my mini-safari in South Africa.

What else...well, obviously, I'm back at my home university in one piece, although I did lose my passport 5 seconds after I got off the ship. Good job, me! On the plus side, I got it back, and I didn't lose it until after I had gone through customs.

I adjusted to normal life and normal school life depressingly quickly, but it's made this quarter easier than I think it has been for some of my fellow shipmates. I do miss my classes at Semester at Sea, though. I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I truly had excellent classes and professors on my voyage.

I still haven't uploaded all of my photos (I sort of forgot about it...), so I'll edit this post with a link (or maybe add a new entry) as soon as I get around to that. I actually didn't take that many, so they should be fairly easy to peruse.

A lot of people ask me "So, how was it?" It's been a difficult question to answer, so I mostly just tell people "It was great...it's really hard to talk about, though, because I just can't really explain it." Really, what else can I say? There's no way to explain everything in one go. I don't even know where to start! There are some questions that I can answer, though:

Q. What was your favorite port?
A. As I stated before, Japan. I saw everything I wanted to see and got to do everything I wanted to do and had a blast. And it was so beautiful with the autumn colors, too!

Q. What was your best experience?
A. If I have to choose one, I'd choose walking along the canopy of the Ghanaian rain forest. It was so beautiful and just so cool. I also really, really enjoyed the adventure in Pulau Ubin.

Q. What was the funniest thing that happened to you?
A. It wasn't so funny at the time, but telling people about how I got hit by a motorcycle in Vietnam, could have gotten lost in rural China, and could have drowned in Hawaii are all stories that I think are pretty funny now.

Q. Which countries would you visit again?
A. Japan, Vietnam, and China, for sure. I would also go back to Mauritius if I could find a cost-effective way to get there. Originally I said I would like to go back to India, but I'm not entirely sure if I still would...I guess if I was with someone who spoke Hindi, I would want to see the northern part, since I was in the south when I went. Going on a real safari in South Africa would also be great.

Any other questions? If so, please leave a comment! I actually have Internet now (weird, I know), so I can actually respond to them!

Hawaii

Well, I’m sort of sick of studying for my two finals tomorrow at the moment, so I figure now is as good a time as ever to make an entry for Hawaii .

In Hawaii , we docked in two ports again. And no, I have no idea why these multi-port countries are all at the end of the voyage. Anyway, our first port was Honolulu . The first day I went to the USS Arizona Memorial, and it made me think of my Grandpa and how he was stationed in Hawaii during WWII. If the pictures of the harbor of the day the Arizona was sunk are any indication of what the harbor looked like during WWII (and I have no idea why they wouldn’t be), then it’s changed a lot since my grandpa was there.

The rest of that day I basically spent making phone calls and texting. My original plan was to call my parents and to keep contact with everyone else for after SAS (excluding email, of course), but since my friends were either being boring (i.e. sleeping) or doing things I didn’t really want to do (i.e. shopping), I decided using the phone now that I could do so without being charged absurd amounts of money for it. It was nice to hear some of your voices again, and over break/when I get back to school, it’ll be great to talk to all of you I didn’t get a chance to call in Hawaii .

The second day in Hawaii, I went shopping with Michaella and some other girls for awhile, but I decided that what I really wanted to do was snorkel even though nobody else wanted to pay $8 to go to the best snorkel spot on the island. So I went by myself, and I’m glad I decided to go. I saw plenty of humuhumunukunukuapua’a, an eel (which terrified me and made me make the closest approximate to a scream one can make through a snorkel), several different parrotfish and butterfly fish, and other things I can’t remember. It was pretty neat. The bus ride back took longer than expected, however, and I made it on the ship 6 minutes before we had to be on board. That was the closest I’ve ever come to having dock time.

And now I guess I owe an explanation for dock time. OK. So for every port, we had to be on the ship 2 hours before it departed, and for every 15 minutes we were late, we got 3 hours of dock time, which basically means at some point during the next port, those with dock time had a 3-hour period (or more) period during which they couldn’t get off the ship. Since there is no port after Hawaii besides San Diego , if I had gotten dock time, I probably would have missed out on the Ambassador’s Ball or something.

Anyway, the next port was Hilo , Hawai’i (as in The Big Island). The first day started off uneventful, but eventually Nick, Jacob, and I went snorkeling. We saw a lot of the same fish I’d seen in Hanauma the day before, but it was of course still cool to see them again. I also had an exciting encounter with a rip tide when I went too far out in my quest to see more fish, and a life guard had to help me out of it since I was basically swimming in place for a few minutes. I’d like to think I would have made it back eventually, but that is probably wishful thinking, and it was nice not to have to fight Mother Nature, so I am very grateful to that lifeguard.

Another cool thing about that beach is that it had sea turtles! The poor things (3 of them) were stuck in a small pool, probably because they’d gotten stuck there during high tide. I hope they made it out eventually, but I’m glad I got the chance to see them, because they were really cute.

The next day I went with SAS to Volcanoes National Park . I’m bummed I didn’t get to see any live lava flows (those are happening outside of the park grounds at present), but I did see a lot of other cool stuff. For example, we saw sulphur vents and sulphur crystals, steam vents, walked through part of an extinct lava tube, and saw a lot of VOG (volcanic smog). The trip also included a hike down to, across, and out of a small crater. Of course, this crater was only small in relation to other craters, because it looked pretty enormous to me. Anyway, I was dreading the hike because our tour guides said it would be “moderately difficult,” and after trying Table Mountain I knew I couldn’t handle much, but I should have guessed that SAS’s idea of “moderate” is easier than what my parents try to force me to do in California . You know it’s easy when I am more or less leading the group. Anyway, it was a really nice hike (4 miles, most of it either flat or downhill), and it was good to get some exercise, plus part of it was through a rainforest and the other part was across the crater floor. So yeah, that was pretty neat.

And that was more or less Hawaii . I should have eaten more pineapple, but I did make an effort to drink pineapple juice and eat pineapple anywhere I saw it on a menu. But seriously I should have just eaten pineapple the whole time because food is expensive in Hawaii .

So now that we’re done stopping in ports, now it’s finals time (joy!). I had one today, which wasn’t too bad…well, actually, it was terrible if you account how much time I put into studying for it. Our professor gave us the questions ahead of time and said we could bring whatever we could fit on one side of a sheet of printer paper to the exam, so I typed up very extensive notes, made them 4-point of some random tiny font, and was ready to go. But seriously, I spent a long time working on those notes. Anyway, tomorrow I have 2 exams, but they shouldn’t be too terrible…I hope. I’ve spent a long time studying for them already, and I plan to go over my notes again for both classes and add more stuff to the study guide I’ve been filling out for one of the classes. I realize my studying strategies really aren’t the most thrilling topic in the world, so I think that’s all for now.

Japan

Well, I should be doing something productive, but as usual I have decided to procrastinate instead. So here’s an entry on Japan .

Like in China , we docked in 2 ports in Japan – Kobe and Yokohama . First up was Kobe, which is only about an hour and a half away from Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan and the place where much of the Tale of Genji (which I had to read for class) takes place. I’ve wanted to go to Kyoto for years now, so the second day in port I, Howard, Megan, Ben, and Tesia went there. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, so I’ll come back to that.

The first day in Kobe it took FOREVER to get off the ship because Japanese customs and immigration procedures are really long, annoying, and strict. They also had to take everyone’s temperature to make sure we weren’t brining any weird diseases into the country, so that only made the process longer. Anyway, Howard, Megan, Michaella and I finally got off the ship and made it our first priority to get some grub, since at that point we were quite hungry. We ended up finding a little hole-in-the-wall noodle joint which thankfully had pictures on the menu, and I ended up getting noodles with pork and some pot stickers. After that we decided to go to Mt. Rokko to get a nice view of the Bay of Osaka , so after taking the train and the bus which we were only mostly sure would get us where we wanted, we got to the tram that would take us to the top of Mt. Rokko . We bought the round-trip ticket but didn’t pay the extra 3 dollars for the combination bus pass because we wanted to save money. So after we got to the top of the mountain and looked at the map, we realized that all of the interesting stuff to do was on the other side of the mountain top. But we decided it would be way more awesome to walk to the other side than to take the bus, and we ended up heading to The Sheep (aka the Mt. Rokko Pastures) and the Cheese Palace because we easily found the road that would take us there to those places. Plus, the road sign said the Pastures were only 4 km away, which didn't sound very far. It turns out 4 km on a hill IS kind of far, but I thought it was really fun. Anyway, by the time we got to the small town on the mountain top, we discovered that everything closed at 3, and it was around 4 or so by this point. We did find a hotel with those funky toilets with heated seats and fun buttons to press and a post office where I use Japanglish and lots of pointing to order stamps (I ended up being the designated speaker most of the time in Japan, even though most of the time I didn’t know any better than anyone else how to say anything). Anyway, we passed the town and continued in the direction of the Pastures and Cheese Palace to see if it was actually made of cheese (I didn’t think it would be, for the record), but by that time the sun was setting, and when we got to the Mt. Rokko Pastures, it was starting to get dark out. We didn’t want to shell out the dough to actually go inside the farm (it was closing around then anyway), so we just admired the sheep and Kobe beef in-the-making we had come so far to see from afar.

But even though we didn't see the animals up close, we did pay a visit to the gift shop, where I ordered what I thought was milk-flavored ice cream (which exists and tastes really good), but I ended up with a cup of actual milk instead. (Well, at least it was fresh, and it was the closest I came to having Kobe beef.) After my flawed attempt at getting ice cream, we all successfully got what I am now convinced was cheese-flavored frozen yogurt made from sheep’s milk. I say this because when the women was describing it, I heard her say “sofuto” (soft-serve) and “cheezu” (cheese) and there was a picture of a sheep next to a cut-out of a cone with soft-serve inside, and I thought it tasted more like yogurt than ice cream. Anyway, it tasted kind of like sweet cream cheese, and I enjoyed it immensely.

After that, we decided the Cheese Palace (it might have been the Cheese Castle…but I digress) was too far away and it was too dangerous to continue along the blind corners of the mountain road in the dark anyway, so we decided to go back to the tram, but we didn’t want to walk there. So we waited at the bus stop for a very long time for a bus we were only 80% sure was coming. We never did find out if the Cheese Palace was made of cheese, or what the heck it was, for that matter. But we did eventually get on the bus, and we safely got back to the tram, rode it down, and then we headed back to downtown  Kobe . At that point Michealla split with us, but Megan, Howard, and I got some…okonamiyaki, I think it was, which was like a pancake with stuff in it. Mine had pork in it and it was gooood. With our hunger somewhat satiated (the pancake things weren't very big), we went back to the ship to meet up with Ben and then went to karaoke, which was amazingly expensive but a lot of fun. It took us awhile to find the English song selection, but we did eventually, and then proceeded to give several beautiful renditions of such songs as Tic Toc, Livin’ on a Prayer (which was the best, and Howard has it on video), Dancing Queen, Poker Face, and others. After that I don’t remember what happened, but I think we went back to the ship.

The next day Howard, Megan, Ben, Tesia and I went to Kyoto by the train. Luckily we got the Express Train both ways, so that significantly sped up the process. After we got there, I used my awesome Japanese skills to get us a map, and we ended up at a shrine in the geisha district, Gion (we didn’t see any geishas, though). The shrine was pretty cool, and we took lots of pictures. There were also several adorable little kids dressed up in kimonos, so we took stalker photos of them that we probably shouldn’t have. We had done the same thing the day before at the Ikuta Shrine in Kobe , which I forgot to mention earlier. Actually, Michaella and I managed to get a photo with a weird person in a bunny suit there, too.

But anywho, after the shrine we continue on to the Gion-in Temple , where there were monks chanting inside, which we all found very cool. There was also a giant bell there, and I’m sure Wikipedia explains what it’s for, but I don’t remember. Anyway, after that we went to the Heian Jingu Shrine, and on the way we ran into some of our SAS friends who were there with some students from Osaka University . We asked the university students if they knew a place with kuru-kuru sushi (the sushi that goes around on a conveyer belt), but they weren’t from around the area, so they didn’t know one.

After that, we looked for (and found!) a tourist info center to ask about getting into the Kyoto Imperial Palace , where we were told we wouldn’t be able to get into the Palace. But we decided to go to the park where the castle was anyway to see if we could see it over the walls that surround it. Well, it turns out the tourist info person had been misinformed, because that day was one of the once a year or something occasions where people get into the palace for free. We were in kind of a hurry because we had to get back on the ship before 8 p.m., so we didn’t get to sit around and admire it for very long, but it was still pretty cool to see, and the garden was especially nice. Actually, everywhere in Kyoto was beautiful that time of year because it was fall and the leaves were changing colors everywhere. Seeing the Palace was also cool because the SAS trip didn't get to go there/my history professor was super jealous of Tesia and I (we're both in her class) because we got to go.

Anyway, at the exit of the Imperial Palace there were a bunch of vendors handing out samples of Japanese treats and stuff, so of course we had a ball trying those out. I even ended up buying some delicious mochi, which will hopefully still be good by the time we get to San Diego. We then rushed to the train station and went back to Kobe, but we still had plenty of time before we had to get back on the ship, so we decided to get something to eat before heading back to the port.  We split at that point because we wanted to eat different things for dinner, and Tesia and I ended up getting delicious dumplings and pot stickers before we went back.

The next day was spent in transit between Kobe and Yokohama, and I don’t think I did anything interesting, so let’s skip ahead to Yokohama . The first day there Nick, Jacob, and I went to Tokyo . We first stopped at Shibuya to witness the busiest crosswalk in the world (I think it is, anyway) that seems to be in every movie with Tokyo in it ever made. Next, we went to the Pokemon Center , which was severely underwhelming. It only had one floor, it was pretty small, and everything in there was terribly overpriced. There was one thing I kind of wanted, which was a set of Pikachu cards from around the world, but I didn’t feel like waiting in the very long line to purchase it. The best part about the store was the demographics – besides us and like 2 other white tourists, the store was jam-packed with 10-year-old Japanese kids and their parents.

After that, we went to Akihabara, which is basically the electronics district, but it is also pretty much the manga and anime (Japanese comic books and cartoons, respectively) capital of the world. Nick and Jacob, not being fans of either, didn’t stay long, but I spent a long time there just looking in the stores, thinking about buying things, and then deciding not to. I did buy a few souvenirs at the duty-free stores, but that’s different. And I may have bought some really cute socks and these weird super long socks that Japanese girls like to wear all baggy-like around their ankles. Anyway, I eventually remembered that I had to check my email to see if my host parents had emailed me (more on this later), so I went to the nearest Internet café I could find, which of course in such an anime-centric place ended up being a manga café where you can read manga as you browse the ‘net. However, for whatever reason this café was on the fourth floor of a building that had an anime store on the bottom floor and two floors of adult goods right below the café. So that was interesting. Anyway, I didn’t realize it at the time, but apparently I had to be a member to use the café and I think I accidentally purchased said membership, because they gave me a card that they didn’t take back when I left that they made me write my name on. At least it wasn’t too expensive, and hey, maybe I'll get a discount if I ever go back!

After using the café, I hit up a few more shops and then decided it was time to go to Shibuya for a bit to look around, since that’s where all the expensive shopping and stuff is. But on the way out of Akihabara, some news reporter from who-knows-what English-speaking country asked me what I thought of the district, to which I gave a very stupid-sounding reply about being surprised about all the “adult stuff” there or something (besides anime and electronics, there was a lot of anime porn and porn stuff in general for sale, in case you were wondering). So apparently a Californian in Tokyo was on the news somewhere else in the world that day.

When I was done in Akihabara I went to Shibuya, where I window-shopped and admired all of the adorable Japanese clothes for a while (I like Japanese fashion MUCH better than American fashion, by the way), and then walked the streets for a bit because I didn’t want to go back to the ship quite yet. In the process I ended up finding and eating at a sushi-go-round place (with the very original name of Sushi-Go-Round), which I was glad to have finally found. I was still a bit full from the late lunch I’d had, so I was able to leave having spent only around $10. I bet Magali couldn’t do that.

After a bit more wandering and getting slightly lost, I eventually got back on the train and returned to the Yokohama port, where I took a shower and got ready for bed only to have Michaella, fresh back from Disney Sea (a theme park next to Tokyo Disneyland) tell me that she, Nick, and Jacob were about to go walk around Yokohama. So of course I decided to get changed and come along. There was pretty much nothing open, but we did walk in the park a bit and see the stadium where Yokohama ’s baseball team plays, although we only admired it from the outside. We also spent some time by the restroom in the park to shield us from the weather because it was raining pretty hard at the time.

Anyway, we eventually got back to the ship and went to sleep. The next day the four of us went to a mall close to the ship to look around and to get lunch/breakfast. I only stayed for a little bit, though, because I had arranged to meet my host family in the afternoon. I had stayed with them when I had been in Yokohama 6 years ago, so I was really excited to be able to see them again. I was only able to get a hold of them 5 days before we met, and my host mom says she rarely checks her email, so I’m really, really lucky I was able to see them. All went as planned, though, and we were able to talk and hang out for a few hours. Turns out the timing was perfect, because the parents and kids were free that day because it was Japanese Labor Day. The fact that day was Labor Day was not as convenient for some other friends of mine, though. They stayed up all night to see the famous tuna market at 5 in the morning in Tokyo only to find it closed when they arrived. But I digress.

Even though I didn’t have long with them, it was great to see my host family again. Akiko, the oldest, is now 16, has an awesome sense of fashion, and is gorgeous. Ryuuta, who was 5 when I visited before, is now 10, and Hanako is now the age I was when I visited before (14). My host parents, however, looked exactly the same. We had a bit of difficulty communicating because what little Japanese I used to know I’ve more or less forgotten and they do not know very much English, but we made it work and were able to have a decent conversation.

As for what we actually did? Well, first I showed them the MV Explorer, since the port in Yokohama has a part where you can walk along the top of it and look down at the ships that are docked there. After that, Hana, Ryuuta and I went on the Ferris wheel on the waterfront, which was really funny because they were terrified the entire time but afterwards said it was really fun (although they did admit it was also scary). We also went to Starbucks (I got a green tea frappucino thing, upon the recommendation of Hana) and then my host parents said they wanted to get me a present, so they got me a really cute outfit at one of the malls that I am almost afraid to wear because knowing me I’ll just get it dirty and ruin it. It was also the first and only item of clothing I tried on, which shows that Japan is the place for people my size (aka short people) to shop – nothing EVER fits me in the U.S., much less the first thing I try on.

Anyway, it was getting close to time for me to get back on the ship, so we walked back in a hurry, took a few pictures, and I gave them some presents I had picked up on my travels with the promise of sending a link to my colorguard videos once I got back to the States, since I had told them that I was in the marching band at school. They also invited me to come visit and stay at their house the next time I come to Japan , an offer I plan to take up in the future. All in all, it was a fantastic experience.

It may seem stupid to say this since I’ve been to Japan before, but I think I had the best time in Japan out of all the countries I went to on SAS. Part of the reason, I think, is that I knew exactly what I wanted to do in Japan beforehand and was able to do everything I had planned, including seeing my host family, and I didn't feel pressed to do or see everything because I'd already been there. The only thing I was not able to do was get in contact with or see my other host family, who live in Izumo. But since I plan to come back, I figure I can pay them a visit then. Anyway, I had an absolutely fantastic time in Japan , and all that’s left now is Hawaii , which I haven’t been to in years.

Well, I’m not sure when I’ll have time to make my next journal entry, but I’ll try to do one for Hawaii before we dock in San Diego, and over break I’ll write some sort of conclusive entry for the trip. We’re really nearing the end here!

China

I should be working on a paper, but the seas have been rough all day and I finished a paper earlier today, so I’m sort of not in the mood to do anything productive for the time being. In fact, all I've been in the mood for all day is sleeping. Anyway, I was able to edit this blog entry between the sleeping, so here you go.

We docked in two ports in China – Hong Kong and Shanghai . Except Hong Kong, I soon learned, isn’t even really China . It’s basically its own country with its own currency and set of rules and you need to go through separate immigration procedures to go into Hong Kong and China, which was a major source of frustration for me in Shanghai, but I’ll get to that later. Anyway, I didn’t spend nearly as much time as I would’ve liked in Hong Kong and I didn’t get to see all the cool markets and things there, but I did go on the City Orientation on the first day. Apparently I did not read the description very carefully, because the orientation followed the description pretty well, but I hated it. We spent like 20 minutes admiring the Feng Shui of a bank, looked at some old houses that weren’t even that old, and took a boat ride of the old part of Hong Kong from which it gets its name. The boat ride was kind of cool, and on the plus side we did get to ride the tram to the top of the mountain behind Hong Kong , where we got a great view of the city. We also visited the temple with the incense coils hanging from the ceiling and a small street market, and I enjoyed them, too. Probably the main reason I disliked it so much was that there were hardly any students on the trip, and the Life-Long Learners that were there were incredibly annoying. There was one I sat next to and talked with a bit, and she was really nice, and there was one of the professor’s kids that I got to know during the trip, but otherwise I was not very fond of the group at all. While some of the LLL’s are really cool and nice, some of them are also incredibly culturally insensitive. I guess it’s the same way with the students, but I sort of expected better from the older people. I also didn’t like our tour guide very much, which didn’t contribute to the enjoyment factor.

But enough ranting about the LLL’s. The second day my friend and I spent a significant amount of time figuring out where we were going to spend the rest of our time in China, since we had previously decided that we were not getting back on the ship as it went from Hong Kong to Shanghai. We knew we wanted to birdwatch, and my friend had heard that Poyang Ho in the center of communist China was a great spot for endangered cranes and things. I honestly would have preferred to stay in Hong Kong a few more days and then go straight to Shanghai, since Hong Kong had good birdwatching as well and I hadn’t gotten a chance to really explore it yet, but in the long run I’m glad we went to Poyang Ho, because I can guarantee you that no other SAS kids were there, which was kind of nice, and it was quite an adventure.

Getting there was more or less easy – we took a train to Guangzhou and then took an overnight train to Nanchang . We did have a bit of trouble finding the train we needed in Guangzhou, since it was in a different part of the station from where we got off the train from Hong Kong, and I thought we had missed our train because we boarded it long after everyone else had because our order of dumplings was taking a long time to finish (at least they were fresh), but it worked out OK. On the overnight train we ended up sharing a compartment with a really nice couple who spoke no English, and they were very impressed with my friend’s chopsticks skills. I think they found mine depressing because I kept dropping the dumplings I was trying to eat.

Once we were in Nanchang , we decided to purchase our tickets to Shanghai . Unfortunately nothing was written in English anymore, but luckily my friend’s Lonely Planet guide had Shanghai written in Chinese script in it, so we were able to get our tickets after a short detour to a nearby hotel to ask them to write down the words “tomorrow” and “morning” for us. We had been looking for a phone to call a tour agency, but that didn’t work out. Anyway, after we got our tickets, I used a very nasty toilet I had to pay 1 yuan for where there were spiders crawling across the ceiling and then through the help of a very nice Chinese girl who spoke some English we hired a cab to Yongxiu, which was closer to Poyang Ho. We ended up getting a nice and cheap hotel there, and we were really lucky to run into one of the few adults who spoke English in the town who helped us arrange for a cab for the day to take us to the lake. We didn’t see anything super rare, but we did get some nice ducks, geese (there were THOUSANDS of Greater White-Fronted Geese), swans, and some common cranes.

Later that night, we were looking for an ATM that would accept my friend’s card (we didn’t find one) and ended up running into a nice youth whose name I can’t remember for the life of me who helped us search for an ATM and then brought us to what we believe was his family’s restaurant when we asked for a place to get noodles and dumplings. What was really nice and awesome is that when we were leaving and asked how much it was, he said it was fine and that we didn’t have to pay. We really felt like we completely didn’t deserve it since we had only talked to him a little and hadn’t interacted with his family at all, and I still feel like we should have given something in return, but besides money we really didn’t have anything to offer. Anyway, I still can’t believe how helpful and hospitable that kid was, or how good that food was.

The next day we had arranged (with the help of our English-speaking friend at the hotel and our Lonely Planet guide, which had a few useful phrases written in Chinese script in it) to meet with the cab driver again early in the morning, and we returned to Poyang Ho. We had hoped to see the cranes coming in as the sun rose, but they decided not to appear, so we went to a different part of the lake with some trees and cotton fields, where we got some new species. Oh, I should probably mention here that my friend had brought a spotting scope along (it’s like a really good monocular thing that looks like a telescope, sort of…anyway, you use it for birdwatching), which made us immensely popular with people driving along the road. Well, actually, the elder people tended to give us weird looks, but I’d say my parents’ generation and younger would often wave to us and sometimes even come and excitedly ask to take a peek in the scope. This got us into trouble later, when some of the rangers or something that patrolled the area told us to stop sharing our scope and to stop birdwatching. Well, actually, we had no idea what was going on at the time and we were sure we were getting arrested for something, but luckily some Nanchang university students came along around that time and explained to us that we were supposed to have a pass to birdwatch there…whoops. Anyway, we chatted with the students a bit, but by that time it was nearly time for our cab driver to pick us up, so after taking some pictures with the students we headed back to our hotel and then to Nanchang to catch our train. I think China is a place I’d like to just wander around some day in the future when I have enough time and money to just go and completely wing it somewhere for a month or two. If I’d had the time, I totally would have gone and visited the university students at their school. But I’m still young, so hopefully one day I’ll have the chance to do something like spend a month in China hitchhiking everywhere.

Anyway, we arrived in Shanghai that night, and luckily the first hostel we picked out of the Lonely Planet guide had a room available. Unfortunately, food was not as easy to find, and the only place we could find was a place where the rice had been sitting out who knows how long and I had what I think was tripe in the spiciest soup I’ve ever had in my life. The restaurant also had Mao propaganda all over the place, which was sort of funny because Nanchang and Yongxiu are themselves in the heart of where Mao came from and where the Cultural Revolution began. Without meaning to, two Americans had had a very communist-centric stay in China . Good thing my friend and I, as well as our hosts, were open-minded people, right?

The next morning, we rushed to the ship so I could be there in time for the Shanghai City Orientation. However, thanks to fun immigration policies, they wouldn’t let me on the bus until I had the stamp from the ship even though I’d already gone through immigration at the train station. So along with 2 other girls who hadn’t traveled on the MV Explorer between Hong Kong and Shanghai , I missed the first two hours of the orientation while we waited for our passports to be stamped. I was furious, to say the least, and on the verge of tears because no one had bothered telling us that it would be impossible to make any SAS trips unless we’d sailed between the two ports. The Purser said it wasn’t the ship’s fault because they hadn’t known about the strict policies until they docked, but really, how hard can it be to call ahead of time and get these things sorted out? I’m still mad at SAS about it, even though it probably wasn’t really their fault and whatnot. Anyway, after we had been waiting about an hour or so, SAS’s main informant for Shanghai , who was working at the Field Desk for the day, finally decided that we should pick our passports out from the pile so they could be stamped for us more quickly. Why they couldn’t have just done that to begin with is beyond me. Anyway, we FINALLY get our passports back and with the informant guy, get a cab to the restaurant where the orientation group was having lunch. It ended up being a really good orientation, so I’m glad I went on it, but honestly I was so fed up and stuff that if I had been able to get my money back for the trip, I would have just given it up altogether.

But like I said, it ended up being a good orientation. After lunch, we walked around the waterfront, had a very brief visit to one of the museums, visited the Jade Buddha Temple and tried different kinds of healing teas, had dinner, and saw an acrobat performance. Dinner was also a bit of a fiasco, because the restaurant we were supposed to go to ended up having its power shut off due to the big Shanghai fire that was in all the newspapers recently. After much deliberation, we ended up at a different restaurant, but it seriously goes to show you just how much can go wrong when you travel, even in an organized group. It’s somewhat ironic, I think, that completely winging it in Nanchang & Yongxiu went more smoothly than the City Orientation. But that’s life for you, I guess. Anyway, the acrobat performance was pretty cool, so it was a good end to the day.

The next day I had an FDP that I still have to write a paper for called Tasting the Daily Life of a Shanghai Citizen, which included a visit to a community center, local market, hospital, and a family for an amazingly delicious meal. I got to help fold the wantons, but as I am sure you all know I am not artistically inclined, so mine were the ugliest. I also picked up the most amazing thing ever in the market, which my lucky younger sister is going to get as her souvenir. Anyway, the meal was also interesting because the tour guide was in my group (there were 3), and so was my professor, so we learned some interesting stuff about Chinese life. Apparently there’s a park somewhere in Shanghai where all the parents with single adult children go to try to find a spouse for their children. They basically advertise their kids to people, displaying how much their kid makes, what they like, what they look like, and stuff like that. Our tour guide also had a single kid, but he said his son was too young (in his 20’s, I believe) to start worrying about him yet. Much joking ensued about the single female students at the table as eligible bachelorettes.

After we got back from the FDP, a few friends and I went to Old Town Shanghai to look at the stuff for sale. I didn’t buy anything, but my friend almost bought a knock-off North Face jacket (everyone on SAS, it seems, got one in Vietnam or China ) from this super shady place. I think a lot of the locals buy a bunch of the jackets or steal them from the factory or something and then hide them in these little rooms a bit off the main street of Old Town, and they must all share in the profits or something because a bunch of people brought us to this same place and we saw other people bringing tourists in as well. My guess is that because Old Town is a fairly obvious tourist attraction, the police cracks down on people selling these knock-offs in the open, so people resort to selling them in shady rooms in alleys. Anyway, after that we spent a few minutes in the Yu Yuan Bazaar, a giant indoor market. I really wish I’d had more time and money to spend there, because there were some really nice wigs I could’ve gotten for a good price there, among other things. Anyway, after that we went back to the ship. And that was China . I really do hope I have the chance to go back someday!

Crossing the Pacific

I know you all are probably looking for a more substantial entry on my adventures in China and Japan , but I felt I should write this one first because it is not nearly as exciting. My logic is that if I post my more exciting entries later, they’ll remain at the top of the blog longer, so those who don’t check this blog very often will see them right away instead of this much less interesting entry. That, and writing about my experiences in China and Japan are going to require a lot more energy and attention than I can currently muster. They were awesome, though. Especially Japan. But I'll get to that at a later time.

Anyway, some may consider it a bit premature to write an entry about crossing the Pacific Ocean , since we still have several days left of this stretch of the voyage. However, my inclination is that until we reach Hawaii , at least, my days are going to follow a very similar pattern, so I don’t feel I’ll be leaving out much if I write an entry about it now. Since we left Japan 3 or 4 days ago, I have been doing a lot of reading and a lot more sleeping. Slumber is the best way to deal with the unpleasantly large waves, I tell you. The ship isn’t rocking as much today as it was the past few days, though, so hopefully this trend will last for the next few days so I can get my last few papers finished up.

Today was the silent auction and the live auction to raise funds for SAS scholarships and stuff. I didn’t go to the live auction, but at the silent auction they were selling things people had donated, including dinners at people’s houses in the U.S., a bubble bath for 1 in Dean David’s Office (which makes me wonder why he has a bath in his office), dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and some crew members at the Alumni Ball, and the right to raise the U.S. flag when we reach Hawaii (I heard it went for over $100). There were also a variety of bags, clothes, pictures, and other trinkets that people had acquired throughout the journey that they presumably had decided they didn’t need. There was also a jar of Nutella, peanut butter, and some candy that went for $15 or something. People here really like Nutella and peanut butter, by the way.

Two days ago we had Thanksgiving. It was very disappointing. A few of my friends and I without Extended Families (something like surrogate families made of people on the ship) had an Orphan Dinner where we got dressed up all fancy and sat together in the Garden Lounge. There was turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and stuffing, but it was not much better than usual dining hall food (which I am completely tired of, by the way). On the plus side, I think I will enjoy Christmas Dinner much more because Thanksgiving was so underwhelming.

Oh, we’re also crossing the International Date Line today. I don’t know if we’re actually crossing its physical position on the globe, but at midnight we are not changing our calendars to the 28^th – we’ll be living November 27^th again. Time paradox!

As I’m sure you can tell, nothing interesting is really going on here. It’s basically the equivalent of 10^th Week at UCLA, except it’s a very long 10^th week. After today, there are 6 days of class left until Hawaii . After Hawaii we have a reading/catch-up day, finals for 3 days, Ambassador’s Ball (or is it the Alumni Ball? I forget what it’s called), and then we pretty much pack up and disembark. So besides Oahu and The Big Island, there isn’t too much to look forward to, especially because the Pacific Ocean is not made of smooth waters. The Ambassador’s Ball might be kind of fun, at least, because we get formal dining (which I hope is better than Thanksgiving) and we get to dress up all fancy-like.

And that is all for the Pacific Ocean . After I get my entries on China and Japan posted, I probably won’t have anything else until after finals or after I’m off the ship, unless something super exciting happens or I’m struck by inspiration. We’re really getting to the end, but since there’s not much left to really look forward to, I don’t mind as much that it’s almost over. I’m kind of ready for a break from traveling, and I’m definitely ready to be off the ship. But I really do only want it to be a break from travel, so I guess I’m going to have to get my SAS loans paid quickly so I can apply for JET as soon as possible!

P.S. – I don’t think anyone cares about my classes for next quarter, since no one ever takes the same classes as me, but here’s what I’ve got:

Class: ANTHRO 149SL (Language & Gender – Communities) 

Time: 9:30A-10:45  Tuesday & Thursday + Discussion 10-10:50 on Friday

Professor: OCHS, E.       

-I’m not a huge fan of the linguistics side of anthropology, but Ochs is supposed to be a huge name in the field, so it should be OK. Maybe.

Class: ANTHRO 175S (Japan!)  

Time: 9:30A-10:45A Monday & Wednesday  

Professor TAMANOI, M. 

-I was told they wouldn’t offer this class this year, so I’m super excited they decided to!

  
Class: FRENCH 14W   (French Culture & Civ + Writing)   

Time: 11:00A-12:15P Tuesday & Thursday + 11-11:50 discussion on Friday     

Professor: MELZER, S.E.   

-I’m only wait-listed, so if I don’t get in I might try to get into a different Writing II or that Egyptian class with you, Brian.
        

Class: GLOBAL STUDIES 100A   

Time: 2:30P-3:50P Monday & Wednesday + Discussion 4-4:50 on Monday

Professor: BURGOS, R.A., RIGBY, D.L., THOMAS, D.R.       
-Yep, I took up my Global Studies minor again. Hopefully it doesn’t prove to be a mistake. And hey, even if I hate it (this is somewhat likely), I only have a few more classes to take to complete it! Plus, I had Burgos for Global Studies 1, and I sort of liked him, so maybe I’ll like his portion of the class.

Yep, not the best schedule, but at least I’ll be too busy to be whining about how much I miss SAS and stuff. On the plus side, there are no 8 a.m. classes, on Mondays and Wednesdays I have time to go back to my apartment for lunch between classes, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I'm done on or around noon. My main goal, though, is not convenience so much as I’m trying to get all of the classes I have to take out of the way as soon as possible so I can take as many fun classes as I can with my remaining quarters of college, of which I am beginning to realize there are not many!

AND THANK YOU SARINA FOR SIGNING UP FOR ME! You are a fantabulous roommate =)

P.P.S. – I think I am going to go crazy with boredom in the next few days (or maybe just end up sleeping too much), so please send me emails to help relieve the ennui!  

Interlude

Hello everyone! Greetings from THE FUTURE! I've actually been a day ahead for over a week now, but it's still sort of cool, even if it's not as exciting as actual time-travel. Anyway, I'm not quite ready to type up a blog on China (though I'll probably get around to it later today), but something happened in my Aging and Culture class that I wanted to share with you all: Class was interrupted by a smoking volcano. Nowk, I don't mean the ash from an explosion threw the ship into chaos or anything, I just mean that there was an announcement on the intercom that there was a smoking volcano outside, so everyone rushed to the window to get a look. Yet another one for the "only on SAS" book, if one existed.

 

Anyway, today is the day before we dock in Kobe, Japan. My plans are more or less finalized at this point: I'm going to Kyoto either the first or second day and exploring Kobe the day I don't go to Kyoto. After that I'm getting back on the ship for a day and then getting off the day after that in Yokohama. Right after that I'm heading to Tokyo, where I'm going to Akihabara for nerdy things, the Pokemon Center to get stupid souvenirs, and Shibuya/Harajuku to go shopping (probably more like browsing...don't think I want to actually pay the prices) for normal things. The final day I'll probably just hang out in Yokohama. I'm pretty bummed that I was never able to get in touch with my host families to meet up with them (especially considering one of them lives, or at least lived, in Yokohama), but I'm also pretty sure I'll make my way back to the country again, so I can try again next time. After all,  I'm certain I want to do the JET program after I graduate and pay off my loans.

 

You know, SAS has really made me remember how much I like to travel and how  I used to want to do international business, so I'm thinking of once again pursuing an international affairs career at some point. The diplomats that debrief us at each port have really made their career look attractive. I'm not sure if being a diplomat is something I necessarily something I want to do, but just the idea of constantly being paid to travel (and making a lot of money in the process) sure sounds like a good deal to me. SAS even made me decide to pick up my Global Studies minor again, but that's also partially because I think a Global Studies minor looks slightly more legitimate than a Geography minor to an employer. It helps that I already have some of the classes out of the way for Global Studes, too. Still, I haven't entirely given up on voice acting, and I've resolved to really try to get into theater classes and workshops when I get home. I'm going to try to take up a theater minor again (I actually came in to UCLA as a theater minor...I just never took any classes for it) to get into otherwise restricted classes, and I'm going to try to find a soundproof room on the campus for my voice acting hobby. They're things I've always thought about doing, but never got around to, but I think it's time I start getting serious about things. We'll see how long my resolve lasts, but I feel like if I don't start taking action, I'm never going to be able to do what I really want to do, and I'm also realizing that I really don't have that much time left to be wishy-washy about everything.

 

SAS has also made me realize that UCLA was probably not the best college choice for me, which is somewhat depressing. I've still had a good time at UCLA, but I sure like how much easier it is to talk with professors and staff here in this small setting. I probably would have liked a small, liberal arts college setting a lot more than the large, public school setting I have at my home campus. But on the plus side, it's made me really appreciate the class setting here on SAS. Furthermore, thanks to this experience I also have some good references for letters of recommendations. I haven't asked for any yet, but I'm sure some of my professors here would gladly write one for me if I ever needed one.

 

Anyway, it's pretty depressing to think that SAS is almost over. I've really enjoyed the experience. Sure, there's still Japan and Hawaii, but I know that Japan is going to go by in a flash and then I have to concentrate on classes until Hawaii. I probably won't even be able to relax in Hawaii, because the day after, we start exams. I think they'll all be pretty easy, but I'm still going to need to put a decent amount of time into preparing for them. After that we have the Ambassador's Ball and maybe a few other events, but then after that we dock in San Diego. I can tell you, going back to normal school sounds REALLY unattractive at this point. The only thing I'm really looking forward to is getting involved with TBS again (my marching band sorority) and seeing friends I haven't seen in about 3 to 7 months.

 

This blog isn't particularly exciting, but I promise the next one will be about my exciting adventures in China and/or China and Japan. Until next time, then!

Cambodia/Vietnam

Why am I discussing Vietnam and Cambodia at the same time, you ask? Well, SAS has a rule that forbids its students from going to countries that the <i>MV Explorer </i> does not dock in unless there is an SAS trip that goes to a different country. This is what happened in Vietnam, and so it was through an SAS trip that I went to Siem Reap in Cambodia and toured the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples there, including the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat. I’d been looking forward to the trip since the beginning of the voyage, and it was definitely an awesome trip. Angkor Wat wasn’t even my favorite temple – Ta Prohm was. Part of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed there, and it definitely had the feel of some temple in the middle of the jungle that a character in an action movie would stumble across. There were literally trees growing on top of the temple walls and parrots flying and squawking overhead. All of the temples were neat in that we were able to walk through them. There were certain areas that were fenced off, but for the most part we were free to explore (although we had to stay with the tour guide so we wouldn’t get separated). A lot of them were HUGE and had intricate carvings all over them. Among other things, the walls depicted scenes from Hindu myths and sagas, Apsara dancers, buddhas, demons, and snakes. It seemed like every wall had some sort of decoration on it. Oh, and some of the temples had giant Buddha heads everywhere. You could say that the whole experience was pretty sweet.

Another exciting experience in Cambodia I had involved getting a “Dr. Foot Massage.” Along the streets of Siem Reap (the nearest city to Angkor Wat and many other temples) there were several shops that had a pool of fish outside. If you paid from $1 to $4, you could put your feet in this lovely tank and have the fish inside eat the dead skin off your feet. It was a disgusting, hilarious, and strange experience. There were dead fish floating in the water, and the water itself was definitely not very clean, but the sensation of having little fish nibble on your feet (and the idea that this is therapeutic) was so bizarre and hilarious that I’m really glad I did it. The place I went to even threw in a coke or beer with the deal. The signs were also hilarious - one of them listed "tick lishness" and "differentiate experience" as reasons to get a Dr. Foot Massage.

The other highlight of the Cambodia trip was a visit to a water village by boat. This water village was a lot cooler than the one in Ghana, namely because the people lived in floating houses in the middle of the river instead of houses on stilts, we weren’t standing on top of their doorsteps, and they didn’t seem to hate us. Not to mention there are what I like to refer to as pirate-vendors that stalk tourist boats that cruise along the river. Basically what they do is that they drive next to the larger, slower tourist boats in their tiny speedboats and have someone (usually an adorable little kid – Cambodians have definitely figured out how to manipulate the cuteness factor to their advantage) jump onto the tourist boat with something to sell (usually cold sodas). After the vendor has tried to get everyone on the boat to buy something, he or she jumps back on the speedboat (which has been following the tourist boat the whole while) and continues on his or her way.

Oh, there was also one night where we went to a buffet where there was traditional Cambodian dancing and music playing. It was definitely a huge tourist trap, but the food was good and it was cool to see the dancing, so I'm glad we went.

Another interesting thing about Cambodia is that none of the ATMs will give you riel, the national currency. Instead, they give you U.S. dollars, and they’ll accept U.S. dollars for everything in Siem Reap. I assume in the areas without any tourism this isn’t the case, but it still says something about their economy.

I also liked Ho Chi Minh (our port in Vietnam) a lot. Granted, I only really went to the huge indoor market  and to a tailor to get some dresses made with some fabric I’d gotten in India, but I still enjoyed it.  The market was REALLY cool – you could buy cheap knock-offs of just about anything there, get fresh food, buy awesome trinkets, or buy nice clothes for good prices. I don’t even like shopping, but I really liked the market. Just like in Cambodia, the locals gladly accepted (and seemed to prefer) U.S. dollars, but here at least the ATMs would give you dong (the national currency - many a joke were told relating to this word). Interesting fact: One U.S. dollar is equal to 20,000 dong or 4,000 riel. Definitely not my favorite conversions – too many zeroes.

The other thing of note that I did in Vietnam was visit the Mekong River Delta. I was pretty excited for this SAS trip, because I was forced to read a terrible book called L’Amant in French class freshman year about a girl in French Indochina, and she had talked about sailing on the Mekong Rover in it, so I was excited to see something I'd read about in person. The river itself was really dirty, but we took a boat to Unicorn Island where we rode in canoes and heard some Vietnamese music. I enjoyed this a lot, because my freshman year I took a class on the music of Asia and I was really excited to see the things I’d learned about in person. After that we had a DELICIOUS lunch that was probably one of my favorite meals I’ve had so far. First, a giant cooked fish (still completely whole and caught in the river, which makes me wonder about how safe it was to eat, but oh well) was set in front of us, along with some rice paper, water, noodles, and fresh greens. We made spring rolls out of these by dipping the rice paper in the water and then rolling the other aforementioned ingredients inside. There was also fried rice, pho (a kind of noodle soup), bread, chicken, pineapple, and probably some other things that I’m forgetting. It was amazing.

Oh, I almost forgot to add that I was hit by a motorcycle in Ho Chi Minh. It wasn't serious at all - the motorcycle wasn't going very fast - but it still makes for a good story. Or a terrifying one for my parents. Anyway, crossing the street is sort of terrifying. You have to go across really slowly and the traffic will find a path that goes around you. I, however, decided to dash across part of the road, which is what resulted in the collision.

And I guess that more or less sums up my experiences in these two Southeast Asian countries. As usual, you can email me if you have any questions or comments or if you want to get in touch with me at n d mylastname @semesteratsea.net. Just be sure to remove the spaces and use my actual last name.