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!
