Extended Family & Week Update

Hello all!

 

The MV Explorer left the Amazon at about 5PM tonight. We are now crossing the Atlantic! It was really neat to watch the water as we entered the Atlantic. It went from a milk chocolate coffee color and then you could see some tints of blue....pretty soon it was mostly blue and we could still see land in the distance. Now we're in the ocean with no land in sight!

 

We are 2 hours ahead of Eastern time so its 8:45 now which means its only 6:45 in Ohio!

 

Today is the second of eight days of classes. I am getting into the groove of things with projects, papers, journals and reading. I am so excited to get to Ghana and travel around Africa!!!!! My friends and I were all sitting in "The Garden Lounge" (The small dining hall) this afternoon talking and attempting to do homework. Next to us, all the life long learners were sitting playing cards, yahtzee, and dominos. We were discussing how awesome it would be to be a life long learner....all they do is sit around and chat and play cards and suntan and plan their trips and sit in on the occasional class. What a vacation!!! (I heard prices now are two for one...someone needs to take advantage of this!) There is the most adorable couple here. The husband is in his 90s and his wife in her mid 80's. They are quite the travelers! The waiters always ask them what they would like to drink. Speaking of waiters....I havent really talked about everything we DONT have to do on this ship. So I wake up in the morning....I don't make my bed and my clothes tend to be scattered...sometimes laying on the floor or on my bed. I go to breakfast (I actually wake up for breakfast!!!) where the table is already set with table cloth, water in a pitcher, silverware and napkins. I eat my breakfast and get up from the table to go to class leaving my empty cereal bowl on the table. I don't clear my plate- that's what the waiters do. As I go to class I see the crew vacumming, polishing the brass handrails, dusting, and organizing the chairs. When I get out of class, I go to my room to drop off my books. My bed is neatly made, my clothes are folded on my bed, the bathroom is cleaned daily, and there are fresh towels every four days, fresh sheets every week. Our steward keeps our room tidy- every single day!....I think I forgot how to make a bed...sorry Mom!

 

The other night, my roommate Yohanna and I did the honors and took our picture off the wall. It is tradition that past SAS students write words of wisdom on the back of the pictures. It was amazing to read all the great advice left for us! Some examples were:

 

Don't live your voyage through your camera

Don't make SAS the last time you travel abroad

Stock up on peanut butter becuase they run out by the end of the voyage

It may feel like we have a long journey ahead of us but it will be over in a flash so live wach day as if it were your last

Our phone number is 3171 (even though our room is 3161) because we are in the little room off of the main room.

*So if you want to call me, tell the receptionist 3171 !

 

There were sooo many more so I took a picture of it right before we hung it back on the wall. It was very fun!

 

Tonight was the first night of the Extended Family program. Over 400 students signed up to be in families! We were given a number and at 5:30 I had to go eat dinner with my mystery family. I sat down with another girl at our table and we patiently waited for our "parents" to arrive as well as the other family members. I am SO SO SO excited because Dr. Bill (The doctor for the health clinic) and his wife, are my "parents"! He is the funniest guy ever and his wife is so nice. We had great conversations about who we are, where we are studying, about our family, etc. We talked about summer camps since a boy in our family has been a counselor for 5 years. It was a great conversation and so much fun to have such random conversations with older adults. We talked about how you can really make your life what you want it to be- how you have a vision of what you want your life to be like and you make the choices you need to in order to get there. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to meet with my "family" again!

 

We also had our group meetings tonight where we reflected on our experiences in Dominica and Manaus. One of the main discussions was "Do you feel bad for being an American in these countries?" For the most part, the general consensus was yes. It's a weird feeling to be in a foreign country and not being able to communicate with them. You get frustrated that they don't understand you, yet then you realize that you are the foreigner and have no right to be frustrated. The locals are the only ones that should be frustrated at us! I think for me, I felt ignorant thinking I could show up in Brazil and tour around their country without any knowledge of their language. I feel like I should have learned more Portugese and it taught me to be more prepared the next time I go into a country where they speak a foreign language. America has this negative meaning to some people and sometimes when I said I was from America, I felt uncomfortable like they were judging me! This is something we will experience in every country but it was an interesting topic to reflect on.

 

Tonight made me really think about who I am and why I am on this voyage and what I want to get out of it. I think I've already learned a lot in such a short amount of time and I can't wait for the next adventure.

 

Next stop, Ghana!

 

 

 

Goodbye Brazil! Hello Amazon and 9 days of Atlantic Ocean

As I write this, we are traveling back up the Amazon river where we will eventually hit the Atlantic and travel across to Ghana. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not that bummed about leaving Manaus, Brazil. The filth and smell of the city and the Rio Negro was kind of getting to me. If you want to make a difference in the world.....go start a sanitation project in Manaus. Putting some trash cans and dumpsters on the streets could make a huge difference.

 

The past few days have been amazing. For the most part we walked around the city a lot exploring and seeing what Manaus had to offer. One day we tried to walkto an artisian marketplace which looked pretty close on the map. Turns out the map had absolutely no scale. After walking for about 2 hours into the city of Manaus we ran across some police officers who laughed and smiled when we showed them where we were going. All they said was "Taxi." So we waved down a taxi who took us to the mall instead of the marketplace. He made us get out. We walked around the mall for a while which was pretty much the same as any American mall. We then got a taxi to take us from there to the marketplace. By the time we got there, it was siesta time and about 10 of the 15 shops were closed. It wasn't what we expected for the amount of time we devoted to getting there. We were exhausted and getting back to the ship that night felt incredible. The days adventures made us super hungry so we had dinner on the ship at 5:30 and then at 8 we went to a brazilian steakhouse where we had our second dinner.

 

Getting there, we were all mad because the tour guide told us we should take a cab to the restaurant because it isnt in a good part of town although it is close. So we did that but then the guy totally ripped us off because we were American and had no idea what he was saying. But we got there and it was so yummy. I really enjoy ordering beers at dinner without having my age questioned....America should be more like that. I had "beef" I dont know what it was...and corn and garlic bread that was grilled, and mashed potatoes and french fries and rice and some kind of fried thing, again...no idea what it was. And chocolate mousse!!!!!!!!!! YUM. Now that I think about it, it sounds very American but it was sooooo good. The taxi driver on the way back tried to rip us off again. But then we bargained and he got mad at us and I guess we won the battle which was fun!

 

Oh so funny story....there is this really ignorant and obnoxious taxi driver that stands around the port area. He thinks he's big stuff becuase he can speak English and help us negotiate with taxi drivers. Well we were sitting at dinner which was kind of an upscale kind of place for brazilian standards anyways. In walks this same obnoxious taxi driver yelling. Behind him, Captain Jeremy and the guy second in command trail behind. So this ignorant taxi driver is yelling in the middle of the restaurant about boats and captains and pointing at Captain Jeremy all excited like he just met the president or something. We just look at the captain and smile and say hi and he returns all proper like with his English accent, "hello" and he's kinda mad. It was so random and really funny and made me really hate this obnoxious taxi guy even more!

 

Last night was so awesome....First we went to Samba which was pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever seen. These two women, dressed to the stars and looking like Miss America, were standing in front. Behind them were probably about 100 people with all sorts of musical instruments. There was a huge drum section, there were dancers, and all sorts of random locals dancing on the sides. When the music began the two women danced like I have never seen people dance before....it was so fast but they were so into it and smiling all the time. It was so so so so cool. And the music was so loud....it was in a warehouse looking building and so the sound was really loud. While we were there we ran into this group of 6 brazilians looking to practice English so we talked to them for a long time. They were telling us about how we shouldnt go to local bars since it was kind of shady but no one had any money to go to the bar they wanted to go to so we ended up parting ways. We gave them our emails so we could keep in touch.

 

After that we caught a cab (which happened to be the SAME taxi driver that screwed us over the night before) and he screwed us over again this time.  So then we went to this brazilian club Crocodilo Disco and it was AMAZING. One of the crew members told us about it a few nights ago and then we heard that everyone was there so we decided to check it out. We made sure Mark Anthony (the nicest and funniest gay guy I have ever met...) came with us because we were walking there and it was kinnnda shady! It was pretty much awesome. Most of the music was american but there were some random portugese songs mixed in. When we left, it was 2AM and there were all these people playing cards on broken down lawn furniture in the streets. There were cockroaches everywhere which was so disgusting.

 

This morning I had a trip which started at noon. I didnt want to go but it ended up being probably the most amazing cultural experience I have ever been a part of. We took a boat down the river to this dock where these men who looked like Indians were waiting for us. They had headdresses on and lots of beads and tattoos all over their bodies. They wore undies but had some leaves stuck in them too. When we got off the boat, there were more people on the beach and we shook all their hands. There were men, women, and little kids. The women dont wear shirts which was interesting...

We followed a path up a hill to this large hut. We took a seat inside and began to watch the ritual. They did all sorts of dances which looked very similar to the ones that we saw at council fire this summer. They used all sorts of instruments and the women and kids all danced too. Then they went around to each person and put war paint on our faces in all sorts of symbols. Then the last dance consisted of all of us dancing. The men would grab the women, and the women would grab the men to come dance. The little kids were all a part of this too. So the people started dancing and grabbing the SAS people to come join them. A little kid came up to me to dance. He was probably about 5 years old. And guess what?!?!?!?! He had a pet MONKEY on his arm. It was just chillin on his arm while he did this whole ritual and danced around with me. It was absolutely crazy!!! Then a thunderstorm came while we were dancing around in this hut. It was unbelievable. Afterwards we were all taking pictures and everyone wanted to hold the monkey and take pictures of the kid. He was just looking at us like "Guys its just a monkey....chill out!" but it was crazy awesome. I didnt get a pic with him because he was getting mad that everyone wanted his picture. But there was a guy doing a video for SAS so maybe it will be in that!

 

After that we went to this rubber museum where they were talking about how slaves would be taken there thinking they would have a good life but they were forced to cut open rubber trees and make rubber. The sap from the tree basically turns into rubber if you rub it in your hand. There were all these roosters and hens running around too which was funny. They made us leave after 15 minutes because the weather was bad. It would have been neat to see more. We finally got back on the ship at 4.

 

During dinner, the ship passed through the Meeting of the Waters where the Amazon and Negro Rivers come together. It looks like milk chocolate and dark chocolate meeting together. The cool thing about it though, is that the rivers have different densities or something and so they run side by side without mixing for a good long time. It was really cool! I really wanted to see it and was going to take a tour to see it when we were in Manaus but never got to it. Im glad I didnt though since we were able to see it for free tonight!

 

Tomorrow begins our first of nine days of classes. It is going to be a very long stretch but I am looking forward to being in Ghana....mostly because they speak English there. I am probably going to get lots of backlash for this but I now understand why Mexicans speak Spanish in America even if we dont want them too. It is very, very hard to communicate with people for extended periods of time in a language you are not familiar with. It becomes very nerve wracking and annoying! For example....yesterday my friends and I were trying to find the post office. We had the address, a map, and knew where the street was. So we went to the street but of course it wasnt there. So then we asked a man who gave us directions...in portugese which was worthless. We wandered around some more and came to a hotel. The receptionist spoke broken English and we told him we were looking for the post office. Apparently he was thinking we said port. So he gave us directions to the ship. After much clarification we finally got a map with directions to the post office. That didnt help. After two hours of searching we were standing on a street corner looking like huge tourists. I finally said I give up. We began forming new plans. As I looked across the street....there was the post office. UNBELIEVABLE! So then we went in and I must say that was the most stressful post office visit ever. People were taking numbers and there was some sort of system which we most definitely didnt follow. When we got to the person behind the desk we had to get across that we wanted stamps to America which took another 30 minutes. Sooo our post office trip took a total of 3 hours. Exhausting. Boy do I love living in America.

 

In response to Aunt Debbie's question about braces from the previous post: I meant braces as in dental braces....I believe it has become somewhat of a fashion statement in Brazil!

30 Brazilian Observations

1. None of the maps are very specific

2. There are lots of pregnant women

3. Lots of fabric stores

4. Many stores write down every transaction in a notebook

5. Tons of police officers everywhere

6. There aren't many nice restaurants to eat in

7. For the most part, people are nice and try to help you

8. Men stare at you and some try to stroke your arms and make kissing sounds (It happened to a friend...)

9. Coke comes standard in a glass bottle

10. The Amazon river is like their freeway system

11. They have weird cars and cell phones

12. They sell underwear, bras, thongs, and bathing suits on the streets like hotdog vendors sell lunch in New York

13. Everyone has braces

14. There are no professional office buildings. I've seen 5 people in the past 5 days who have had on professional suits. It seems like no one has normal jobs here.

15. Sprite doesn't taste like Sprite

16. Prostitutes on the corners near the brothels

17. The pace of life is sooooooo slow

18. People walk around lazily and without a purpose

19. Child labor is prevalent on the streets....they're shining shoes and cleaning tables

20. Alcohol is for sale right alongside the Coke

21. Junk food is very expensive

22. Even the locals drink only bottled water

23. They dont speak English, yet listen to American rap songs

24. The taxis are really nice....one of ours had a flat screen TV inside

25. There is a reason why America has regulations for tinted windows....you can never tell if there are people in the cars which makes crossing streets dangerous

26. Cars stop for brazilians....not for americans

27. If the stoplight is red....apparently you really dont have to stop

28. It is the dirtiest city I have ever seen. There are no trash cans and trashbags are piled into the streets

29. Parts of the city smell like feces and urine

30. It's really really really really really really hot

Mosquitos and fishies and alligators...oh my! (And today's adventures)

The trip that I did last night was called something like jungle adventure and alligator spotting. It started at 8PM when we got into this boat which kind of looked like one of those river tour boats if you know what those look like (Pictures of them will be posted....eventually!)...and we traveled back out of the Negro River and back into the Amazon river where we got to this floating restaurant/tour place/alligator catching side job place....and we got into these really tiny motorized canoes. You sit two to a seat and there were 10 people to a boat. The boat was so tiny that the seats we were sitting on were probably about water level. About 30 seconds after we got into the boat a fish jumped out of the water and smacked a girl in the face and it landed in the bottom of the boat. We all freaked out and the boat was tipping and we thought it was a pirana so we were super scared!!! Then we went into these little side places off the river in the marsh and heard all these scary mosquito'y sounds....I called it The Sound of Malaria! The tour guide shined a flashlight over the marsh to look for gators. When he saw a baby one he scooped it out of the water. We got to hold it and touch it....I personally didnt hold it because I'm a weenie but it felt super scaly and hard and it was really cool!!! We didn't see any big alligators....which was probably a good thing since we were sitting so close to the water! The motor got caught in some weeds as we were backing out of the marsh and it sounded pretty bad. It was sputtering quite a bit. We finally made it out and went back to the floating restaurant and then took the big river boat back to the port. It was pretty awesome! There were lots of skeeters but it was quite a jungle adventure and neat to see that part of the Amazon that was less inhabited.

 

Today's goal was to sleep in a little so that we would be well rested for the day. This equatorial heat wipes you out fast! Our next goal was to find internet and a good restaurant. Both of those kind of failed. We ended up going to the same pizza place that we were at yesterday mostly because we trusted the restaurant and they were really nice there. It was really interesting trying to decide on pizza for four people plus the menu being in portugese and the added challenge of dealing with a girl that is vegetarian...we ended up getting the house pizza which I think was pepperoni, onion, green pepper, and possibly ham? Not really sure if it was ham or not but it was delicious! A coke (in a bottle!!!!!) hit the spot too. After that it was time to try and find internet. There was a cyber cafe across the street. So we walked inside and it was very dismal and yucky. We thought we would be able to use our own computers but they didnt have wifi so you had to use theirs. And then they wouldn't take my 50 Real bill. When I tried to give it to him the guy just laughed and shook his head and said no. Wouldnt you think they would take any money that you gave them??? I was confused...so my friend Hannah spotted me and I got a whole 15 minutes of internet time (I wanted 30 minutes but the guy behind the counter didnt get that message....) The whole computer was in portugese and the keyboard typed funky letters so that took another five minutes to figure out how to navigate to facebook. There was no where to put an SD card in the computer so there are STILL no pictures posted anywhere! I didnt really realize this would be quite so challenging!

 

As some of you know, I'm trying to find a flag in each country. I found one for Brazil today so now I dont have to search everywhere for one!

 

One random observation I have about Brazil is that the little stands I was talking about in my previous post....about 40% of them sell bras and underwear. I personally wouldnt buy bras and underwear from a street vendor but I guess that's the thing to do here in Manaus....

 

We're meeting up again at 5:30 to decide what's in store for tonight. It's really nice to come back to the ship for a little while. It feels like a safe haven where you dont have to constantly be aware of who is around you and if they're going to steal your stuff!

 

Only two and a half more days in Brazil and then our adventure across the Atlantic begins! (I'm really not looking forward to nine days of classes....)

 

 

Manaus, Brazil!

We arrived on Sunday morning in Manaus, Brazil! As I looked out the window I saw that we were docked to a floating dock along with about 20 river boats on the other side of the dock. It was quite a site. There was so much hustle and bustle in the city. I joined my friends Carrie, Hannah, Brittany, Stephanie, and Amber for breakfast and we decided that we would spend the day wandering around the city. We wanted to definitely find the Opera House which was our major goal.

 

Once we set off into the city, it was so much different than the past places we've been. There were no taxi drivers trying to shove us into their taxis. Everyone seemed to be pretty chill and mellow. Perhaps this was because it was a Sunday and everyone was in church....which the churches by the way are beautiful! So we make it through the port area and into the city. There is a really crowded marketplace ahead of us selling everything from fruits to churros to cell phones in little tiny stands that are all crammed together. We walked through the marketplace for a long time just soaking up everything around us and probably looking like the biggest tourists ever with our maps and cameras out. We walked by one of the Cathedrals where Mass was occuring. The doors were slightly opened and the sound of people singing drifted out into the street. We decided to venture further into the city where we came upon another marketplace that was huge! There were so many tents where people were selling lots of junk! Lots of little kids were buying so many random things. As a kid I would have thought of it as a goldmine too!! There were street performers everywhere.

 

As we made our way through the market and past the other side we kept on walking and found the Opera House. It is beautiful! The dome on top of the building looks like the brazilian flag. We went inside and all the decorations from the floor to the ceiling were so ornate. We ended up sitting down (The a/c felt wonderful!!!) and we ended up watching the orchestra perform for about an hour and a half. It was an amazing experience. Then we left the opera house and met up with some other SAS kids who were walking around.

 

As we walked I noticed that all the buildings are painted bright colors....the sidewalks too! We made our way back to the ship for lunch which was the most delicious lunch ever.....we had FRENCH FRIES!!! I was absolutely stuffed after that. But we headed back into the city. We were going to walk to this artisian marketplace....as you cant ell there are a billion marketplaces in Manaus...but everything was closed around 3. So we didnt make it that far and ended up finding a pizza place where some SAS kids were hanging out. We had a beer with them and just chilled out for a while. Finally it was time to head back to the ship to prepare for my night time gator adventure....more to come on that later!!!

 

Class

This week is one of those few times where we actually have class for four days in a row. I just got done with B day classes and am now sitting by the pool in my swimsuit soaking up the sun. It would be the perfect time to jump in the pool....except there's no water in it due to heavy wind and rough seas the past two nights. Leaving Dominica we jutted out into the Atlantic for a bit and it was really rough. Hopefully when we cross the Atlantic it will have calmed down by then...lets hope.

We are entering the Amazon tonight at 10 and we will have to go slow because its not as deep and well...its going to be awesome. I went to a seminar last night on Manaus, Brazil and it looks awesome. Now if there were only a Wal-mart there....we'd be set. I get SO hungry in the afternoons between lunch and dinner. I have a feeling I'm not eating enough. We've had some variation of pasta, potatoes, and chicken every single day for lunch and dinner for the past week. I hear there is a taco night at some point. I really hope it's soon. Laundry day was today and my bag was busting out of the seams....I had clothes in there from Nassau. I'm so excited to get laundry back.

It's very hard to get into a routine with classes here. Its pretty funny to see all the kids around the pool reading their textbooks instead of mind numbing magazines or trashy beach reads.

Yesterday I had my second class of International Marketing and we already had a pop quiz. I couldnt believe it. I really dont think I did so hot but luckily later last night I got three extra credit points for watching a movie...YES.

Today I had global popular culture where we mostly talked about advertising in Dominica the entire time along with textual analysis of photos. It was pretty fun. Then came global studies where we listened to a speaker talk about the sex trade of young 12 ear old girls in Nepal and how his non profit organization is helping them stay in school and go to "university." Lastly I had Ethnography where we mostly went over the basics of Anthropology and ethics surrounding that. Classes were interesting and now I guess I should be doing homework but I'm always wanting to check my email now....especially without facebook. I didnt really realize how addicted I was to facebook. Yikes...

 

That's it for now. Hopefully when I get to Brazil I'll be able to find some free wi-fi and I can upload some photos either here or on facebook. Thanks to everyone that reads my blog. I appreciate all the comments, keep 'em coming!

Dominica - "This is school!!!"

So lets see....we docked in Dominica on Sunday morning around 7:30am. We have to swipe our ID cards when we get on and off the ship. The gangway was on the fifth deck during this port and so we had to walk down this super long metal staircase and down a pier. Dominica is kind of like Nassau, but even poorer and the Taxi drivers do everything to try and get you into their taxis....minus actually throwing you in their taxis. So this really legit, and sincere looking Taxi driver came up to our group which ended up joining with two more girls that had split from another group (total of 7 of us). He offered us a ride for $20/person and he would take us to all of the sites, waterfalls, and beach. We bargained it down to $15/person and hopped into his van. Our tour guide's name was Shwaly. He ended up being SO COOL! He took us on these windy roads (outside Roseau there are no speed limits=scaryness!) towards our first stop which was these two waterfalls....which of course I can't re
 member the name of....but they're on a postcard I'm sending....but probably in Brazil since I didnt fill them out! haha Anyways...back to my story. So Shwaly stopped along the way to the waterfall to show us a cinnamon tree, cocoa bean tree, avocado tree, bananas, and lemon grass. He told us about how cinnamon was made and how the lemon grass makes you feel better. Apparently most people use herbs as medicine and dont go to the doctor. So we finally made it to the waterfall which was a 15 minute hike. But then of course we wanted to SWIM in the waterfall....hello we dont want to just LOOK at it!! So then we started climbing on these ginormous rocks that were all slippery and hard to grip. And Shwaly helped us all the way....he was climbing around like a monkey on the rocks. We kept on saying how if our mothers heard about this they would kill us. So we got to the top and got to swim under the waterfall which is SO refreshing! And then we clambered back down and climbed to the other waterfall which is warm water. There were natural hot springs that we sat in which were so refreshing and according to local stories the springs make you feel 10 years younger...which seemed pretty accurate! After that we went to the van and he took us through these villages that were so run down and there were lots of buildings made from shipping containers. It made you really appreciate America. We passed this guy who found this boa constrictor and he charges a buck to have your picture with him. I did not get anywhere close to that thing but a bunch of the girls did. So after that we went up this mountain where we stopped and we looked down on Roseau and could see the ship, and the national futbol stadium. We also saw a mini boiling lake....theres a bigger one in the middle of Dominica. It smelled like sulphur...yucky. Lastly we went snorkeling in Champagne Reef. It's named that because it's supposed to look like your swimming through a glass of champagne. (Thats kind of an overstatement) Lets just say....I suck at snorkeling. I can't get the whole breathing through my mouth thing down...so of course I swallowed all sorts of ocean water. Yummm. It was SO cool though. The ocean is so crazy....you dont realize how deep it is until your looking at it. We saw lots of Finding Nemo fishies....eels, pufferfish, and of course bubbles! Then we had some Rum Punch which was unbelievably strong and I honestly couldnt drink it...yuck! We ended the tour in town which is really kind of sad. It was a sunday first of all so there was NOTHING open and they opened a bar just for SAS. There are lots of homeless people walking around. We talked to a kid on a bike for a while who was 14 years old. He was telling us about his ex girlfriend that was mean to him and how he loves to walk to school. They have computers at the schools but not all kids use them. I snagged some internet time at a cafe and got on facebook for a few minutes to say hi. At night I went
 to the bar that opened for us, but only for about 15 minutes. It was a super small bar and PACKED. So then I came back to the ship and ran into my roommate and a few of her friends. We played cards out by the pool for a while and a ton of kids were just hanging out there.

I woke up on Monday morning to the captain telling the crew to go to their muster stations for a "crew only" emergency practice....not a fun wake up call. I headed out by myself after that....hoping to find a travel buddy. As soon as I was on the pier a girl asked me if I was alone and we ended up walking around town together. We went to breakfast at Cartwheel Cafe where tons of other SAS kids ate too. It was yummy! Then we went around finding postcards and I found a Dominican flag....which is kind of a lot different than the one I got in the bahamas but still cool! So then it was time for lunch and we went back to the ship where I ended up eating with two other girls that were going river tubing which was an SAS trip. We got into vans and the company that took us tubing was called Wacky Rollers. First we went to Emerald Pool which is a waterfall that has a natural pool at the bottom to sleep in and the water looks like a deep emerald color because of the reflection of all the greenery around us. It
  was really cold but so fun! And then we walked back to the vans which took us to the riverside where we got into tubes....literally like a tube that you would go tubing with. We got helmets, a paddle, and lifejacket and went for two miles down Dominica's longest river. (Dominica has 365 rivers) It was beautiful and there were some rapids which was fun. At the end we had fresh fruits including pineapple, grapefruit, oranges, and coconut. I HATE coconut but fresh coconut is absolutely DELICIOUS! By that time it was time to head to the ship and get onboard. I quickly got to the room and showered before my roommates got there.....SO NICE to have some peace in our rooms! Dinner...which consisted of chicken stirfry and mexican linguini...which was actually delicious...was on the deck looking at the rainbow. Someone brought their Bose and we were listening to awesome music too. And the juice for dinner tonight was some pineapple concoction which was outstanding and a nice change from water every night.

And now I'm here....looking back on my awesome time in Dominica. I'm sure getting to ports will become more routine but its really exciting. Im wondering where homework fits into this whole thing? So hopefully I'll get some done tonight and tomorrow!

Thanks for all the comments on my blog....keep them coming! They're awesome to read!!! Unfortunately I can't reply back to comments but I'll try and remember to answer questions in blog posts!

Classes

I had my first class today, International Marketing. It sounds AWESOME. The best part about taking classes on a ship is that all the classrooms are made out of random partitions spread throughout the ship. Some of them are in dining halls, others in the hallways, and some are more normal classrooms. It's pretty funny. And there are about 30 chairs jammed into the spaces so you get to know people pretty quickly.

 

Before class I went to lunch and two guys sat down at the table with me. One from Columbus who knew a lot about Miami but goes to Pepperdine in LA and the other from Massachusetts and he goes to Nichols College. Two more girls joined us, one from Berkley and the other from Providence College in Rhode Island. We had an awesome conversation talking about our schools, Miami's reputation with our Sororities who get kicked off campus and our mutual love of Chipotle....and how much we sadly already are craving it....can someone overnight me a bowl and some chips and guac to Dominica? I'd really appreciate it....

 

We're stopping somewhere tonight for fuel....I can't imagine why we're already stopping for fuel but hey....seeing land should be fun!

 

Thats about it for now, everyone headed straight to the pool after classes and the deck is SUPER crowded. The pool is about the size of two medium sized kitchen tables and probably 5 feet deep. I think I'm going to head outside and start homework....at least I get to look at the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

Bon Voyage

The past 24 hours pretty much the only thing I've been thinking is....what did I sign up for? And what is everyone at home doing right now while I'm in the middle of the ocean looking at nothing but ocean for as far as I can see. I'm excited for classes to start so that I can get into a routine.

 

I boarded the MV Explorer at 11AM on Saturday and waited in a huge long line outside the docks. It was great that Chris was able to stay with me in line for so long. It was hard to say goodbye as expected but I can’t wait to meet him in San Diego on the other end of the voyage. After going through security they took our bags and passports. Our bags were delivered to our rooms.

 

After boarding the ship we went to lunch. The food is good but certainly doesn’t live up to Miami’s standards. I ate lunch with some girls from Hawaii and Texas. Then we walked around the ship to look at all the amazing facilities. After that I went to my room. Of course my ID card used to unlock my room didn’t work, so Crispen (He’s Chinese), our cabin steward, unlocked it for me. The door opened into a room that looked like a double. It has a big window. But then I realized both double beds were taken. Crispen opened another door which opened into a room that has two more beds. I took the one that is up against the wall so I can lean against it. You can hear the engine so much but I think I’ll get used to it…..it’s almost like a really loud fan noise. I unpacked everything and had room to spare. I also put up my pictures on the wall and of course Lady BG and Bongo are chillen on my bed.

 

After that we had our lifeboat drill which took forever! But it was nice to hear they have food and water and all sorts of goodies in the lifeboats if ever they were needed. (Let’s hope not)

After that it was almost time for dinner. I sat with two really nice girls…one goes to University of Miami which is kinda funny. They were really interested in seeing my quad room so I showed them that. The one girl Holly, from U of Miami has a single….which looks kinda nice haha.

 

My roommates seem somewhat quiet and reserved. One goes to UVA and is Chinese….another is American and goes to Penn State. The girl that lives in my little area with me is like Ethiopian and goes to Minnesota. I probably shouldn’t say this on a study abroad trip like this but….why do I always get put with like non-Americans?... Oh well.

 

Finally it was time for the ship to depart around 8:30 PM. By that time it was dark but everyone gathered on the deck to wave goodbye to Nassau…it was really cool. We then had an orientation meeting where we met all the special people on the ship like the administrators and deans and the captain. The Captain, Captain Jeremy, is British and it’s pretty awesome to hear him speak. He’s been a captain of SAS for about six years but has all sorts of awesome credentials that make us feel like we’re in REALLY good hands.

 

Lots of people are feeling sea sick but I took one Dramamine yesterday (Jan 12^th) and felt fine. I didn’t take anything this morning and feel fine (knock on wood!) We had another 3 hour orientation session today followed by lunch, a break, and more meetings this afternoon. We already lost an hour with the time zone changes, plus the rocking ship, and so much activity is making everyone super tired.

 

I’m sure there will be more to come in the next few days but for now I’m just trying to learn everything and try to meet new people. It’s like freshman year all over again.

 

Miss and love you all….

 

Packing Commences

I started packing....annnnnd it's taking a while. And my room looks like a bomb went through it. I really wish I could learn how to pack light for once....