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.

Singapore

A few days after India , we arrived in Singapore , which I enjoyed quite a lot. Singapore was a nice change from India in terms of cleanliness, because the entire city was really tidy and didn't smell bad. No big surprise there, since you get fined/jailed/killed for just about anything in Singapore . I spent the first day at the National Museum of Singapore for a class project, and that was pretty boring, but at least I got a lot of good information for the project (which I should be working on right now, actually). After that Ben and I (a friend) went and explored a 6-storey high electronics and computer parts mall. My mom would have loved it. That night, I went with a different group of friends to Palau (it might be Pulau, but I can't remember) Ubin, a small island off the coast of the main island where it’s a lot less crowded and there’s good birdwatching. We had heard that ferries ran 24 hours from Singapore to the island, so we assumed that stuff would be open pretty late. We got there at 9 p.m. and NOTHING was open. There were no lights anywhere, but we were pointed to the direction of the police station, where we asked to borrow their phone. We hadn’t booked a hotel room (we figured there'd be space), so we wanted to make sure they still had rooms. They did, but it was going to be difficult to get there in the dark, so the cops offered to give us a lift in their car. They also thought we were crazy for coming entirely unprepared. And that, my friends, is the story of how I rode in a cop car in Singapore .

Anyway, after we got to the hotel, we went to get something to drink at the restaurant, and we found some of the staff sitting around a table. We ended up joining them, and it turned out that one of them was having a birthday party, and we got invited to hang out with them and eat cake. It was pretty awesome, but we went to bed really late, which made getting up the next morning to go birdwatching pretty difficult.

Although we got up much later than we originally intended (8 instead of 5:30...I knew there was a reason I don't bird too much anymore) the next morning, we rented bicycles and a few of us went birdwatching. I don’t remember exactly what we saw, but I know there was a species of rail, an Oriental Pied Hornbill, and a kind of kite, among other things. We also saw a snake swimming in the water, a monitor lizard, and mud skippers, which are those weird fish that can also come onto the land. It was really awesome. After that, we returned to the cruise ship terminal, ate, and got back on the ship. And that was Singapore . Considering I was only there 2 days, I think I managed to do a lot of really neat things.

India

Our ship was docked in Chennai (aka Madras ), the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai was definitely not my favorite port, but I still did some pretty cool stuff there, such as eating a lot of really good (and cheap) Indian food. I also did a lot of souvenir shopping and rode in a lot of auto-rickshaws, which are basically a hybrid of a motorcycle and a carriage. We crammed 5 people into one multiple times, and they’re made for 3 people. It was pretty terrifying/awesome. Traffic there was really scary, by the way. Tons of people ride mopeds or motorbikes, but none of them wear helmets and they do insanely dangerous passes between buses and other equally crazy things. Plus, moms will hold their babies and sit sidesaddle while the dad drives. I don’t know HOW any of them are still alive. Driving is also REALLY loud because Indians let each other know when they’re passing each other or about to get hit by constantly blaring their horns. So getting from one place to another was an adventure in itself, as was bartering for cab fare, which I am very tired of doing, by the way.

Other than that, I went to Mamallapuram twice to see cool temples and monuments built over 1000 years ago, and I saw similar things in Kancheepuram. I made sure to take lots of pictures. They were really neat and interesting, but between those temples and the one in Cambodia , I think I’m very ancient templed-out at the moment. I'm still looking forward to seeing the shrines in Japan, though.

The other fun thing I did was see 3 Indian movies with no subtitles. One of them was hilarious/stupid, 1 of them I understood maybe 15% of but had good dance scenes, and the other I only saw part of, but it seemed funny. Anyway, to give you an idea of the insanity of the hilarious and stupid one we saw, I will detail the key plot points and some of the best scenes in it.

So this movie was called Enthiran the robot, and it’s about a guy who, surprise of surprises, makes a humanoid robot. The scientist guy happens to have a fiancée who is 40 years younger than him and also has an evil rival who is also trying to make a robot. Anyway, the evil rival man convinces the scientific community that the robot (Chiti) is just a machine and there isn’t anything special about him, so then the main character scientist guy decides to give Chiti feelings. That’s when all hell breaks loose, because Chiti then falls in love with Sana (the scientist guy’s fiancée) and does something to make the main scientist guy (I’ll just call him MSG from here on out) livid, so then MSG breaks Chiti and throws him away. The evil scientist man (from now on, ESM) finds Chiti in the garbage and downloads the programs in him to use on his own robots and gives Chiti some “evil” hardware that makes him turn crazy and destructive. Chiti then kills ESM and creates a robot army, crashes MSG and Sana ’s wedding, takes Sana hostage, and generally wreaks havoc. MSG then disguises himself as a robot, infiltrates Chiti’s evil robot base, and defeats Chiti by injecting (yes, injecting – don’t ask me) him with a virus. MSG then goes on trial because people assume he programmed Chiti to do all those terrible things, but Chiti saves him by playing data on his system that shows ESM implanting the evil hardware. MSG goes off scotch free, but the court decrees that Chiti has to dismantle himself. A few years later, however, Chiti is still functioning as an exhibit in a robotics museum. Roll credits.

From that description, one would assume the movie was fairly normal. Extremely cliché, but normal. But it wasn’t. First off, there were the dance numbers. Now, Indian movies usually have awesome dance numbers with really catchy music, but it was painfully obvious that none of the leads could actually dance, so the dancing left much to be desired. The dance numbers were just plain RANDOM, too. One of them was in the Andean highlands with Macchu Picchu in the background and with occasional appearances of llamas thrown in. There were also scenes where the robots danced, and that was just hilarious. My favorite number has Sana , Chiti, and a bunch of robots dancing to this random song that has a lot of English rapping in it. Speaking of English, a good portion of the movie was in English. I assume this is because the Indians who go to the movies are more affluent, and I assume more affluent people are expected to be more educated and speak English, but I’m not sure. Anyway, my favorite line was near the very beginning, when one of MSG’s stupid helpers (he has two) says this to Sana : “Hello Sana. Long see no time!”

Another highlight is when Chiti talks to a (poorly animated) mosquito. Right after Chiti falls in love with Sana , he detects a mosquito in her room and tries to catch it, but it gets away. Chiti talks Sana into agreeing to kiss him if he gets the mosquito to apologize, so he goes and finds it and talks to it amidst this SWARM of mosquitoes. That scene was gross just because there were so amny mosquitoes that you could almost feel them on you. Anyway, he convinces it to apologize, so it does and he gets a kiss. Makes a lot of sense, right?

Then there’s the fight scenes. At the end, the giant robot army uses magnetism to connect to each other to form a giant cobra that’s terrorizing the city. Later on they turn into a giant transformer-esque humanoid thing. There were also lots of cars that exploded and/or were tossed miles into the air. There was also a scene straight out of Terminator where Chiti is fixing his eye, which I found amusing only because of the blatant copyright infringement. There’s also a scene where Chiti is riding on a hoverboard swinging a Lightsaber that he pulls out of nowhere. For some reason this movie was very popular with an 8-year-old my friend Megan met during her Rotarian homestay, and I can’t imagine why.

All in all, Enthiran was very entertaining. Plus, it was filmed in Tamil Nadu (which has its own film industry separate from Bollywood), so it was cool to see buildings I’d seen in Chennai in the movie. I have a feeling it is not a good representation of the Indian film industry, but I still found it to be highly amusing, and I bought the soundtrack to commemorate the experience.

And that’s all for India . I doubt you were all expecting an informal film write-up, but considering I spent most of my time in Chennai shopping and watching movies, that's what you get.

Mauritius

Hello Again!

This time, I’m going to talk about Mauritius (L’Ile Maurice). Mauritius was like Hawaii, but with a lot of people who speak French, Creole, and some Indian languages and with a lot more poverty. I’d love to go again, but I’m not sure if it would be worth the plane ticket cost.

Mauritius’s past is interesting in that there was no indigenous population that the Europeans wiped out and/or enslaved. The only thing they wiped out was the Dodo bird, which the Mauritians are apparently really proud of (it’s even on their seal).  They did still manage to make a lot of people miserable , though. They brought slaves and then indentured Indian servants once slavery was outlawed to do the work on their sugar plantations, which means that most of the population is Creole or Indian. Even though the last foreign power to control the country was Britain, there’s still a strong French influence because the English just let the French do whatever they wanted after control passed from the French to the British. Apparently Mauritius is also the only (or at least one of the few) places where the France actually won a battle in the Napoleanic Wars. Or at least, I think they (my Global Studies Professor and the U.S,. Diplomat in Mauritius – talk about a nice post!) said it was the Napoleanic Wars.

While in Mauritius, most of my friends went off to the beach, but I went with my Aging & Culture class to an ashram and vocational school. This was not my first choice, since we were only in Mauritius for 2 days, but I needed an FDP for that class to write a paper on, and my professor was in charge of the FDP and had strongly encouraged the class to go. Only 6 of the 20 people who signed up showed up, which I actually liked because it meant we really got to interact with the people and could easily hear the tour guide. I ended up being really glad I did the FDP, because I got to interact with some adorable Mauritian girls in my terrible French (I think we only half-understood each other) and then dance the Sega, which I guess is the national dance of (or at least widely practiced in) Mauritius. That was all at the vocational school. We also stopped at the ashram, which from what I could gather is a sort of shelter for old or battered women.

That night I had meant to meet up with my friend Jacob because it was his birthday, but that ended up not really working, so instead a few friends and I went to Grand Baie (a place with good beaches) and got dinner and then put our feet in the nice water. I actually went all the way in, and I really wish I’d been there during the day, because the water felt OK at night, but I’m sure it would have been awesome during the day time.

The next day I wandered around with my friend Nimish around Port Louis, which is not a very picturesque place, and it is certainly not what is on the postcards. All the postcards show the places to go hiking, the beaches, or Dodo birds in these places. Anyway, we wandered around a long time and got some awesome cut pineapple off of a street vendor (probably not the best idea, but it tasted great), bought some stuff at the market, and bought stamps/sent postcards.

And that was Mauritius! I’m a bit sad I never got to the beach during the daytime, but my FDP was really, really awesome, so it’s OK. I have plenty of time for the beach in Hawaii.

As for life in general, as I said, I just finished the bulk of my midterms last week, between South Africa and India (with Mauritius in the middle). Today is the Sea Olympics, and we’ll see how that goes. Our Sea (the Mediterranean) still doesn’t have a chant ready and I’m probably going to lose my events (the Orange Pass and Hula Hula Hoops) and let everyone down, which I normally would not care about, but everyone seems really cutthroat so I don’t even know if it will be fun. The winning sea is the first to get off the ship in San Diego, so the incentive is there, but I don’t know. Hopefully I’ll have more fun than I’m anticipating I will.

Oh! And I forgot something about South Africa, way back when I posted that entry: the first day, I actually climbed Table Mountain. Well, I didn’t – I chickened out ¼ the way up and took the cable car because I kept making my friends wait for me and I was completely out of shape – but my friends did.  Anyway, the views at the top are great. Well, they are until the fog comes in. Then it’s freezing and all you see is fog. But we got to see the views before the fog came in, so all was good.

That’s all for now.

Ghana

Sorry for the very long gaps between entries. I do have the excuse of midterms and papers being due, but mostly it’s been a combination of laziness and just not “feeling the muse,” as my fazere would say. I’m actually posting two entries today, since I think people would rather read two smaller entries than one large entry.

Ghana was pretty cool. I realize I use this word a lot, but it really does describe most of the things I’ve seen. Everyone carries stuff on their heads there, which is a talent I do not have. There was even a vendor with a giant sunglasses display on his head. It was impressive.

One of the first things I did in Ghana was visit some queen mothers, which are not actually the mothers of chiefs, but rule in tandem with him and are always a close female relative of the chief. I think ,based on some readings I did for a  class, the title comes more from the idea that they are the mother figure of the “traditional areas” over which they rule, and therefore a mother figure to the chief as well. I just wrote a 9-page paper on my visit with the queen mothers, so I’m not really feeling up to talking too much about the experience, but I will say that it was very interesting and the mothers were very informative (we basically got to ask them whatever questions we wanted, although most of the questions focused on how they ruled and their lifestyle and things), and they were all educated and spoke English. They were also very much into promoting the women and women’s vocational education in the area, so power to them.

I also explored the market in Takoradi (where we were docked), but that was definitely not my favorite experience. People stared at us like we didn’t belong (which is true, we didn’t, and we were not planning to buy anything) and there was a creepy guy who kept following us. There was this really nice lady who spoke English and helped us get back on the main road once we wandered down some side streets and got lost, so that was really nice of her. We also got some cooked plantains with some spicy sauce that were pretty good, but other than that, I could have done without the market.

The best day I had in Ghana was the day me, Michaella, and our friend Howard took a cab with a really nice cab driver (I talked to him pretty much the entire 4-hour round trip) to Kakum National Park, which is a rainforest with a set of extension bridges set up over part of the canopy that you can walk along. It doesn’t sound all that cool, but it was one of the best experiences I’ve had on the entire trip. Some people (we got there at the same time as an SAS trip) were whining about the rain, since it was pouring on us, but I think they were crazy because a) it’s supposed to rain in a rain forest and b) the rqain made the experience even better.

After the rain forest, the three of us stopped at this restaurant over a crocodile (er, it might have been alligators, but I don’t really know) pond. We also arrived here at the same time as an SAS group and so it took us forever to get our food. Well, mostly, it took them forever to cook Michaella’s food, which was funny because all it was was two small shish-kabobs. Anyway, that place was really cool because I ran into two people from SAS who had hired a local bird guide for the day, and they let me join them for about half an hour around the premises of the crocodile place. It was awesome. One of these days I’ll post a bird list for those of you who care (which is probably just Uncle Dave and maybe my mom), since I’ve seen a lot of cool birds on this trip.

The other big thing I did in Ghana was go to Nzulezo (I hope I’m getting the spelling right), which is a village on stilts. We were fortunate enough to get free tickets to the SAS trip going there (there’s a ticket donation box I tend to check very frequently), and it was sort of neat. I say “sort of” because the canoe ride to the village was really really cool, but the village itself was much too small for the 80 of us and it felt like we were invading the villagers’ privacy. They also looked very unhappy that we were there. We didn’t actually spend that much time there – we pretty much heard the chief give a speech about the legend of the foundation of the place (the people were escaping wars and followed their god, who had the form of a snail, there), were pressured into donating, and then left. I wouldn’t have minded donating – I probably would have given them some cedi anyway (Ghanaian currency) – but they basically stood in front of you with a bowl, so you felt completely awkward and compelled to donate. I didn’t like it. It also makes you wonder what they do with the money, since  those in charge said they use it to pay for a school teacher for the children, but the place is so obviously in poverty and they get TONS of tourists (mostly local), so you’d think you’d think they would have enough money to pay for a teacher and toimprove the villagers’ lives. Basically, I’d sum up the experience as uncomfortable.

After we rode the canoes back, we had lunch. That put some things into perspective. The food was really good, but there were tons of little kids around who begged us to give them our leftovers. We didn’t understand what they were asking for at first, but once we did, of course we obliged. It was just strange, uncomfortable, and sad to see little kids begging for scraps like that.

There were some other uncomfortable instances, too. For example, every time you went through the port gate, people would descend on you and try to force you (usually successfully) to buy a bracelet they would make on the spot with your name on it. When we were paying our taxi driver after getting back from Kakum, my friend paying took FOREVER to pay the guy, so we had like 10 guys surrounding us and forcing us to buy bracelets. I ended up with an ugly pink one with “Ghana” threaded into it, but at least I only paid 1 cedi (I don’t remember how much that is in U.S., but it isn’t much) for it.

Other than those things, I also did some shopping right next to our ship, where a bunch of people from Accra had set up some stalls and were selling their crafts. I’m a little sad now that I didn’t get a painting, but oh well.

I have the feeling that this entry may come off as incredibly negative, which isn’t really what I want. I did have a really good time in Ghana, and I think it’s important to see how other people live, especially those less fortunate than you. I’m not saying it’s OK to gawk at people’s misfortune or anything, but when in a developing country, I do think it’s important to see what’s around you. And I did have a good time. Like I said, it was uncomfortable, but Ghana was still really interesting and cool.