muster muster muster

Thursday, September 29, 2011 (5:28pm) - Cape of Good Hope

 "that was the general emergency signal. not the signal to abandon ship." thank youuu captain jeremy! muster drill #2 just ended. such a blast. if we have to do this every month, i'm going to be very upset. and i'm fairly certain we do, so wah.

day off school means lot of sleep! slept about 12 hours last night, pure bliss. woke up to "the voice" making announcements over the intercom. had our global studies/africa reflection talk at 11. it was kind of nice because the professor that runs my discussion is from south africa (he is actually the director of the cape town theatre!). so he had a lot to say. some crazy stories came out... i guess a semester at sea student got kidnapped... craziness.

i'm still trying to comprehend my experiences in africa. from my blogs, you can tell how completely different each country was from the other. morocco felt like it was left behind socially, ghana was the definition of a developing country, and south africa could have been america. this might sounds stupid, but this is the first time i was truly aware of being a white woman. i said this before, but being a woman in morocco was frightening. i said the country was left behind socially, and the reason why i said that is how women are treated and how they view women in society. which is basically as a non-entity. and it's pretty weird being pegged as an american the second i get off the ship. this isn't just me feeling it. especially in america where we claim any and all heritage other than american. pretty sure american isn't even an option when you're answering the race/ethnicity question on college applications, at the dmv, or on standardized tests. yet, we couldn't even pretend to be anything other than american if we wanted. not even the cliche "american?? no no, we're canadian." and so far, i haven't felt threatened for being american. but some people kind of look at us differently... i got the feeling in morocco that people thought we were dumb or something.

it's also kind of hard to "emerge yourself in the culture" and be a "global citizen" when locals are taking pictures of/in front of our ship because it is SO gigantic and pretentious. in cape town, we were by far the biggest ship... and everyone kept taking pictures in front of it. i felt kind of awkward about it. especially when we could see it all the way from the top of table mountain. and when people ask us where we're from and then immediately say "oh, you're from the ship." kind of strange. it's hard to be humble when we are coming off such a massive, luxurious ship.

all in all, africa was an amazing experience. i've wanted to come here for a long time. i had such diverse experiences in each of the countries, which shows the diversity of africa as a continent (no, africa is not a country!). and plus i think mauritius is a part of africa too... so one more stop!

michael, maddy, and i are about to meet some friends for dinner in a few minutes. then i need to do a lot of homework and go to work. love and miss you all. hope san diego is treating you all well! don't forget to keep emailing me! i love hearing from any and all people from home! xoxo.

hakuna matata

September 23-28, 2011 - Cape Town, South Africa

okay, sorry this is a day late. but the first night back on the ship i always feel like i'm gonna blow chunks, so i just got my laundry together and went to bed last night. plus, going around the cape is supposed to be some of the roughest seas we face. not great.

anyways, we arrived in cape town what seems like years ago. all you sas alumni told me to wake up early and watch the sunrise as we sailed into cape town, so that's exactly what we did. maddy, will, nick, and i woke up at 5:30 friday morning and went up to deck 7 forward. one problem, we weren't allowed to go outside because it was too windy. so we sat in the glazier lounge until the sun started to peak over the mountain tops, then we disregarded the signs and all ran outside. it was GORGEOUS. the first sight of table mountain was breath taking. the captain promised we'd see dolphins and whales, but there was none of that. we ended up getting there a little later than planned, which was fine. we had to go up to the glazier lounge to get our passports stamped face-to-face with south african customs to make sure we weren't lying about who we were. then we took a little nap and maddy, michael, and i left the ship. we docked at the v&a waterfront, which was gorgeous! it wasn't like the last two ports which were industrial/cargo ports. this was a passenger port, which meant malls, restaurants, and shops were 10 feet off the ship. so once we got off the ship, we went to mitchell's for lunch. mitchell's is a bar that all sas kids go to every year. we saw the american flag that past voyagers have signed and it was fun trying to find all our friends' names and leaving our own names too. i got cape malay curry for lunch, which was spicy and delicious, and we got a few drinks. we might have had a few too many drinks for "lunch," but we're in SOUTH AFRICA!!!!! after lunch we ran over to buy tickets to robben island, then headed back to the ship for an FDP that the three of us all had to go to. a man from the truth and reconciliation commission came and spoke to a group of us. it was really interesting, but nothing really that i didn't already know. after the lecture, brew & i were pretty tired since we woke up so early, so we took a nap. then we woke up and her & i met some friends at a restaurant across the waterfront for some fish and chips. then we walked around the mall for a little bit, grabbed a cup of REAL coffee, and then went back to the ship and went to bed.

the second day, we woke up around 8 to have some breakfast. then we got ready and met in tymitz square. maddy, jake, linda, will, julieta, johnny, and i all jumped in a taxi and went to table mountain! it was on my sas voyage bucket list to hike table mountain, so i forced everyone else to do it with me! table mountain is 3,558 feet to the top. i was expecting a path that criss-crosses back and forth to the top. yeahhh, no. it was basically a climb literally straight up stairs to the top. it took us about 3 hours, and i died a little. but when we got to the top, it made it all worth it! i think i could see the entire world from up there. brew and i forgot to do it, but we wanted to reenact the "simba, one day all of this will be yours" scene from lion king. breathtaking views of all of cape town and we could even see our ship from there! after a billion pictures and a much deserved coke, we took the cable car down, which was awesome in itself. the floor of the cable car rotated 360 degrees so we could see everything. it was awesome. once at the bottom, we all took a cab back to the waterfront and will, maddy, & i went back to the ship and grabbed some food on deck 7. then we all took a well deserved shower and nap. we meant to wake up to grab dinner on the ship, but they changed the hours when we're in port and we forgot so we missed dinner. so we went back up to deck 7, then all headed to mitchell's. i think all of sas was there, which was really fun. we spent a few hours there, made friends with locals and got free drinks (safely, don't worry family) and then maddy, brooke, nick, will, & i jumped in a cab and went to a club called voom voom. we ended up VIP for no reason, again... got more free drinks and danced all night. we got back to the ship around 3:30 and i went straight to bed.

the third day i woke up at 5:30 (so two hours after i got back to the ship) to catch the bus out to aquila game reserve for a day safari. it was about an hour outside of cape town, and when we got there we got free champagne (but i said "thanks, but no thanksss" haha too much drinking the night before). but we got the BEST breakfast there, and i'm pretty sure i ate ostrich. it was really good, but very different. after breakfast, we split into two groups and got into these huge, open safari jeeps. i sat with jake and linda. we went on a two hour game drive, with one more champagne break. we saw elephants, hippos, rhinos, zebras, lion, springbok, and a few more animals. after the game drive, we went to their recovery area where they had worthogs, alligators, more lions, cheetahs, and leopards. pretty bummed they didn't have giraffes because they're my favorite animals, but heyyy can't win 'em all. then we headed back to the main area where we had another delicious meal. going into the reserve i was expecting it to be like planet earth with animals EVERYWHERE. but aquila is only 11 years old and so they don't have huge animal populations. so there we only 2 elephants, 5 rhinos, etc. but the facilities were amazing, and aquila is even a resort. so in time, it is going to be amazing. after lunch, we got back on the buses and came back to the ship. maddy had gone on a wine tasting tour that day, so we took a nap when i came back. then maddy, kelsey, matt, will, elaina, michael, and i went to a really nice dinner. i had seafood pasta and shared an avocado salad with maddy because a country FINALLY has avocado! it was delicious. after dinner, we all went to mitchell's. i had a drink, then came back to the ship around 12:30 because i was exhausted.

the fourth day we woke up and had breakfast but went back to sleep for a little bit. we got up, got ready, and maddy, michael, and i left the ship around 11. we took a cab to long street which reminded me a lot of the gaslamp... lots of cool bars and cute boutiques. i'm bummed we didn't go there one night, but we didn't really have time. so we walked around for a little bit then went to lunch at nando's. it's kind of like their fast food, but it was delicious. south africa is known for their peri-peri sauce, which is basically their version of hot sauce. so i had spicy rice with chicken and "hot" perri-peri. i almost went extra-hot, but thank goodness i didn't. my mouth was on FIRE and i loved every second of it haha. after lunch we walked to the african women's market. it was awesome, they had so much cool stuff and it was really cheap. so we did a little shopping, then walked around for a little bit more, sat in a coffee shop and had a nice cup of coffee. then we took a cab back cus i had to pack and get ready for my township homestay. if you don't know what a township is, google it.

at 4pm i had to meet in classroom 3 to meet for the township homestay. there were 13 of us, i believe, and we all walked to the bus together. the township was about 45 minutes outside of the city and is called guguletu. when we got there, they paired us off but i was in the group of 3. they gave us our "mama's" and then we were sent on our way. ashley, amanda, and i were set up with mama noks who ran the whole homestay stuff. we spent a lot of time playing with the children. this one little girl latched onto my hand and wouldn't let go the entire time, but she didn't speak the whole time so i don't know her name. i spent a lot of time playing jump rope with a group of kids... which was really a couple of cords tied together. it was a lot of fun. i also spun a bunch of the kids in a circle, which made me sore the next day. then all of a sudden the parents called the kids home and they immediately dispersed. so the three of us went back inside and talked to mama noks about her life. she is a single mother of 2, and was absolutely amazing. she made us these fried dough balls that were kind of like donuts. delicious. then i watched some tv with her son and the little boy she was babysitting. then it was time for dinner, which was a chicken leg, some potato pieces, a scoop of sauteed spinach and onion, and some homemade bread. it was delicious! and it was kind of strange cus as soon as it was time for dinner, there were a lot more people in the house than there were before. i don't really know who those people were, but one old lady started cleaning up after so i think it was kind of like her maid? after dinner, we had rooibous (spelling?) tea, which is another staple of south africa. i don't usually like tea, but i drank it all up because it was delicious. after tea i played cards with mama noks's son for a little then played hotwheels with the little boy she was babysitting. then after watching a little soccer, we all went to bed around 9:45. amanda and i shared a bed, and ashley slept on a little mattress pad on the ground.

mama noks woke us up at 8:30 on the fifth day. we got up and got ready, then she made us porridge. it was actually pretty good, especially cus we got more tea! then i bought a bracelet from her because she makes jewelry as her business too. then once everyone else met us back there, we got on the bus and came back to the ship. we were supposed to be back at 10, but we got back a little late so i didn't have time to get back on the ship and throw my stuff down. instead i had to run to the other side of the waterfront to meet michael and catch the ferry to robben island. robben island is where nelson mandela was kept while he was in prison. it reminded me a lot of alcatraz in san francisco, but the prisoners in alcatraz were hardened criminals. the prisoners at robben island were political prisoners who did nothing wrong other than fighting for their freedom. it was very powerful, and i'm so glad i had to opportunity to go. on the ferry back, the seas were kind of rocky and EVERYONE was puking everywhere. it was kind of funny though cus there was like a dozen SAS kids and we were just laughing at everyone else cus we were fine. once back on the main land, michael and i grabbed some lunch at fisherman's choice. it was right by the ship and reminded me of point loma seafood. i had hake and calamari, which was so so so good and fresh. then we walked around the mall for a little looking for south african rugby jerseys, but i couldn't find one that i liked. so we went back to the ship and found maddy napping so we decided it was naptime. when we got up, michael came over and the three of us went to another nice dinner. we went to karibu and i had the best piece of fish i've ever had in my life. i had the "catch of the day" which was cape salmon. but cape salmon is a white fish and it was SO good. i had mashed potatoes with it, which were awesome too. then michael and i split the "death by chocolate" because i needed chocolate. we sat and digested for a little, had another drink, then went to mitchell's for the last time. we stayed until last call, then came back to the ship, showered, and went to bed.

i woke up at 7 on the sixth day, got breakfast, and walked to the bus to go to mfuleni, a different township, to build a house with habitat for humanity. we were the third group to work on the house, so a lot of the house was done. we helped build the interior walls of the house, the door frames, and 2 porches. we mostly helped move concrete bricks, the roof shingles, and help mix the concrete using only shovels. it was hard work, and i'm pretty sore right now. but we got to meet the future homeowner and it made it all worth it. she is a single mother of 4 who just took in her sister's 3 children because her sister had just passed away. i couldn't believe 8 people were going to live in this house. the house was maybe half the size of the house i lived in last year at school, and maybe a little bigger than the kitchen at my parents' house. but i was so glad i could give a little back to the community. we got to play with kids a little more while we were there, but not too much because we weren't allowed to play with them in the construction site and we couldn't play in the street because raw sewage was flowing down the street. it was really gross, but also really sad. guguletu, the first township i was in, was one of the "nicer" townships (if you can even say that) because there were no shacks. but mfuleni was primarily shacks, and the built houses were definitely the exception. so it was heartbreaking to be there, but so glad we could make a difference. then we headed back to the ship around 4, showered, and ran up to the union to get a seat because archbishop desmond tutu came aboard to speak. if you don't know who he is, google it then slap yourself for not knowing. he spoke for a little less than an hour and was absolutely incredible. after he spoke, we ran to get dinner, then came down to our room and went to bed.

we're off classes today for our "african reflection." so i'll probably post again later today when i'm at work. but south africa was absolutely amazing. i know i said i want to go back to ghana, but the reality of that is questionable. south africa is not an option. i HAVE to come back! it was a real thought in my head to "accidentally" miss the ship and call the voyage quits there, it was that awesome. i know i did a lot and had some of the best times, but i also didn't get to do a lot too. there is just too much to do in south africa for 6 days. it was so fun, especially being there during the rugby world cup (which i'm guessing you probably didn't even realize was happening... don't worry the US is out of it). i can't wait to go back. i need to go to kruger, stellenbosch, kirstenbosch, cape point, district 6, go shark cage diving, and go back to everywhere that i went. and i NEED to see a giraffe (yes, i know they're at the SD zoo... not the same!). i miss it already!

that'll do donkey, that'll do

Thursday, September 22, 2011 (9:39pm) - Atlantic Ocean

one day out from cape town. maybe. rumors are going around that we're behind schedule because of these big gnarly waves, so we might not make it on time. i heard last years voyage landed an entire day late. hopefully that's not the case for us because i have SO much to do in cape town! so so so excited. brew, will, and i are going to wake up at 5:40 tomorrow morning just in case we actually get there on time to see the sunrise as we sail in cus we heard it's amazing. woo!

nothing much new here today. got the score of my global studies test back... 27/30. winner. after global studies maddy and i went back to bed for a little. the nap kind of kicked my ass, but i had to get up and eat something before going to work. after work i had my last class for like 10 days. kind of weird how this all works. but we talked about cuba for about 20 minutes then my teacher was like "eh, i got nothing, you guys can go." such a win of a class.

will, brew, and i are watching invictus right now instead of watching the preport meeting. we feel like we're seasoned professionals now that we've got 2 ports under our belts. the accuracy of that statement is definitely questionable, but it's whatever. this is going to be the first port where the people drive on the wrong side of the road. question: if i'm driving a stick shift, is the clutch on the other side also? been trying to figure it out all day. nobody knows. they just told us that the leading cus of death among foreigners younger than 55 is car accident... sooo that's cool.

and i know i'm beginning to sound like an ungrateful brat. but let's all discuss how many times i've seen shrek the last few weeks. pretty sure i will only be quoting shrek from now on. i think i could literally perform the entire movie for you at this point. haha thank goodness will has all the episodes of archer on his computer!

SO excited for cape town! i'll be gone from september 23-28. and i hear there's a bunch of people reading this that i didn't know about so HI EVERYONE! email meee!

love love love. last stop in africa tomorrow! wahhh.

rogue wave

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 (8:57pm) - Atlantic Ocean

holy high seas, we are in some crazy weather! actually, i don't think you can technically call this weather. this is just where the atlantic ocean currents are meeting up with the indian ocean currents... which means 15-20 foot waves. that's fun if you're a surfer or something... not great when you're on a ship trying to go to class. brew & i live on deck 3... which isn't supposed to be a problem when it comes to waves/seas. our window is soaking wet cus we keep getting hit by waves. it sounds like we are getting hit by a train every two seconds. plus, brew & i are in the front of the ship where the rocking is the worst. not great. though i haven't thrown up yet, this is the worst i've felt. but i'm too prideful to take seasickness medications. and kind of an issue that this is how the seas are going to be until we get to mauritius.

so, yesterday we had the day off school to take our first global studies test. the test was a joke. what a waste of time. but i wasn't feeling great so i spent most of the day sleeping. i meant to get a lot of homework done, but i just needed a day to sleep and watch shrek five million times. (you people with cable, don't take it for granted!). but after dinner, will forced brew & i to watch archer since we'd never seen it before. now we're both obsessed. greatness.

two days until cape town. we're watching our preport meeting on the tv from bed. divasss. but they just got done going over food and i'm crying. seriously SO sick of the food on the ship. i just discovered tobasco sauce. i'm not a huge fan of it at home, but now i put it on ANYTHING that i'm eating so maybe it'll taste like something. brew & i spent the entire dinner today crying about all the food we would die for. here's a list: any burrito from anywhere, pesto pizza (slp), slp cookies, breakfast sandwich from brunch, cappuccino muffin from aromas, bacon turkey bravo from paloma, socal sandwich from urbane, rose's donuts... just basically any and all american food! sooo excited to eat something normal in cape town! who needs souvenirs when you can EAT!?!

now we're off to watch the movie nobelity up in the union and i need to finish a paper about ghana for one of my classes. we move the clocks ahead another hour tonight... so that makes it 9 hours ahead of SD. this whole long distance thing is not very fun. at all. i'm awake all day waiting for all you people to wake up and email me haha. life's rough, i know.

from, a hungry, mildly-seasick voyager

downward dog

Monday, September 19, 2011 (9:50pm) - Atlantic Ocean

so i don't really have anything new or insightful to say. today before dinner i went to yoga for the first time on the ship. yoga can be difficult on land... try doing it when the ship is rocking. not great. i'm gonna be sore tomorrow from trying not to fall every two seconds. but it was really fun. nice and relaxing... when i wasn't about to fall and die. the ship is really rocking right now. and i'm SO sick of the food. tonight i had the rice & vegetable soup with about a bottle & a half of tabasco sauce so it would taste like something. delicious. i don't think i could possibly eat another salad or tomato. wah.

we're in the southern & eastern hemisphere right now. so on neptune day i was in two places at once. even though that's already been crossed off our bucket list, i get to say the same thing. but i didn't realize how immediate the change in weather would be when we crossed the equator. i knew the southern hemisphere is in winter when we're in summer... but i didn't realize how cold it would be as soon as we crossed. the seas are really rough and it's really windy outside. so much for tanning.

last night i had family dinner. it was really fun catching up with everyone after ghana and hearing their stories about their adventures. consensus was that everyone loved ghana. and it was courtney's 21st birthday so i got to steal some ice cream cake!

tomorrow is our first global studies test. everyone has the test at 9:20am and then we have the day off of classes. it's going to be really nice, even though we just had a day off of school for neptune day. kind of a bummer we won't be able to lay out. but as of today we are a third of the way done with classes. how am i getting credit for this? i don't know. but i won't complain.

anyways, i should probably go study. which really means go to bed. we set our clocks forward another hour tonight. that makes it 8 hours ahead of SD!

goodnight

happy neptune day!!!!

Saturday, September 17, 2011 (10:00pm) - Atlantic Ocean

happy neptune day!!! for those of you non-seafaring folk, neptune day is celebrated the day you cross the equator and go from a "pollywog" to a "shellback." the day began around 7:30am when some of the crew ran up and down the halls banging on pans and blowing whistles waking everyone up. not sure why it was necessary to wake us up that early, but since i was up i ran up and got breakfast then came down to change. at 9am an announcement came over the intercom for everyone to get up to the 7th deck pool deck. so brew & i scrambled up there. the entire shipboard community was up there and there was a procession with some of the staff dressed in white robes as the "court" and the captain of the ship was painted green head to toe as "king neptune" with one of the deans dressed as the queen. she was also painted green. we had to repeat an oath basically saying we were ready to become shellbacks, then the fun began. will, michael, and i went through together. first you had to stand in one of the side pools, get "fish guts" poured on your head (really just green water), then jump in the pool. once you climbed out of the pool, you had to kiss a fish then kiss "king neptune's" ring. then they like knighted us shellbacks! officially a shellback now! brew was a big puss and didn't do any of it. lameee.

thennn people started shaving their heads. it's a traditional part of neptune day. but as you can tell by my previous posts, there was not a shot in hell i was shaving my head. so obvs most of the guys did it because why not? their hair will grow back by the time we dock in florida. but wait. a TON of girls shaved their heads too. and not just girls that already had short, crew cuts. like girls with hair as long as mine are currently bald. NOT okay. at all. there are other ways of getting attention. take your top off. dress like a skank. get blacked out. DON'T SHAVE YOUR HEAD. i understand that this is a once in a lifetime thing or that they got caught up in the moment. but in five years when they still don't have hair, jokes on them. don't get me wrong, some girls can pull it off and look kinda like demi moore in g.i. jane. but some girl, not great. the best was when girls were crying as soon as they sat in the chair and the razor turned on. they're going to be hating life in like a week. when they don't have hair. and when they look back at all their pictures in 20 years and they're bald. have fun explaining that to your kids, girls. not great.

after the neptune day festivities were over, we all had like a dance party. it was a really really fun day. especially because this was our first "study day" which means we don't have class today. awesome! spent half the day laying out and the other half sleeping. duh. it's about to get freezing in some of these ports, so i gotta get my tan on. brew got fried though. SO red. sucks. then michael woke us up from our glorious 3 hour nap around 5:30. we went up to dinner around 6 and had BIRTHDAY CAKE for michael. even though his birthday was the day before we left from montreal. his parents dropped the ball a little on that, but the birthday cake was delicious! i'm so sick of the ship food, so it was a nice change of pace.

then i had work. who works on days off!? study days are like our own shipboard national holiday. so lame. but nobody was there. i had planned on doing my homework then but ashley and i just spent most of the time trying to figure out our question of the day for this week. NOT in the job description that we have to do that. so now i'm going to write a paper and go to bed.

love, a shellback

three miles from the end of the earth

September 13-16, 2011  (Ghana)

TAKE ME BACK!!!! we haven't even left, and i already want to come back. good thing my visa is good for five years. ghana is full of the nicest people you will EVER  meet in your life. some of the best 4 days of my life.

so last week i signed up for an independent trip that was supposed to be two days, one night. BUT, as we learned in morocco... nothing goes according to plan. so the agenda for the two days was to go to the slave dungeons and canopy walk the first day, sleep overnight in a hostel, then go to a water village the next day and be back to the ship by 6pm the second day. here's what really happened:

so when we land in port, it takes a few hours for the ship to be cleared. the local government has to get on the ship to stamp passports and do other things that i have no knowledge of. so brew and i wake up on tuesday morning around 7 because there are drummers on the dock outside our window welcoming us to ghana. it was really cool... but pretty early for that kind of volume. so we get ready and run up to breakfast and there are ghanaian army people all over the place. kind of sketchy. we decided to eat breakfast outside on the deck and the ship next to us was like literally 5 feet away. pretty sure they could have just thrown a ladder and climbed aboard. real great. so we finally get cleared, go up to the glazier lounge to pick up our passports. we crammed all 35 of us into a shuttle bus to the exit of the port to meet our bus. our bus took like an hour to get there which was a blast. we seriously got swarmed by ghanaian men trying to sell us bracelets and paintings. it sounds scary, but these people were SO nice to us. i got 2 free bracelets from this guy named elvis and got like 3 marriage proposals in half an hour. don't hate me cus i'm beautiful. so the bus FINALLY gets there to pick us up. thank goodness because i don't think i could have lasted very much longer in that heat. so we're like 5 hours behind schedule at this point. i've learned that there is no sense of time in africa. way different from america!

we spend the entire day driving. we're too late for both the slave dungeons and the canopy walk, so we just head straight to the hostel. it's dark when we get there and we're literally starving at this point. brooke, alyssa, and i share a room together, so we throw our stuff in our room then we all go to the restaurant for some traditional food. i got chicken kabobs and joloff rice. FINALLY SOME SPICY FOOD! oh my goodness, i could've cried i was so happy. i'm getting to be like my father... if it's not spicy, i can't taste it. so after dinner, we went to a local bar. that was RIGHT on the beach. after a few hours there of drinking, dancing, and getting ghanaian men's numbers (real life), we headed back to our hostel. it's pretty funny when we go to these bars and they're playing american music because it's all SO old. like nelly, chingy... so random. but it was really fun. back at the hostel we all decided to jump in the pool. basically doing EVERYTHING the shipboard doctor told us not to do. at the logistical preport before we got here, the dr gave an entire powerpoint presentation about how we shouldn't go swimming or go barefoot for fear of contracting parasites and worms. yummy. but, so far so good. so we finally go to bed around 3 in the morning.

next day we wake up at 5:30. what!? not okay. also not okay that this if the first time we see our hostel. between the buildings there is a legit pond. with alligators. yes, i said ALLIGATORS! not normal, at all. so we get ready really quickly, then go down to the restaurant again to eat bread and coffee before getting on the bus. since we weren't able to do any of the tours the first day, we all voted to cram all 3 on the second day. so we started at kakum park where we did a canopy walk. as in, we walked on rope bridges at the tops of trees in a rainforest 120 feet in the air. in ghana. but don't worry, it was built by canadians... safety first! after 7 or 8 bridges and a hike through the rainforest, we got back on the bus and drove 3 hours to the slave dungeons. the slave dungeons in elimina on cape coast were out of control. there are no words to describe how crazy they were. it was hard to even fathom the atrocities that went on there, but i'm so glad i went and got to see it with my own eyes.

after the slave dungeons, we drove another 4 hours to catch our canoes to go to the water village. there were 4 people to a canoe and an hour canoe ride to the water village. stephanie, ashley, allison, and i were all in a canoe together, along with evans, our guide. ashley, stephanie, and i were convinced we were going to tip the boat over the entire time... which wouldn't have been great cus i had like my passport and camera with me. and the fact that my job in the canoe was to scoop out the water that we kept taking on didn't help ease our mindset at all. but we finally got to the water village and it was AMAZING. the people who live there are originally from mali and built the village 600 years ago. the only way to get there is by canoe. while their living is pretty primitive, i was awed at how resourceful they were. and the children were so awesome! we were told beforehand not to take any pictures of the locals, but as soon as the kids saw us they kept saying "photo, photo!" and would scream in delight when we showed them the pictures we took of them. i wish we had more time there, but we had to leave to canoe back before it got dark.

so, i told you guys we were supposed to be back at 6pm on that day. when we finally get back to the bus, it's 8pm and we are still 9 hours away. like i said, no sense of time in africa. but we need to eat. so we stop to get dinner. i had chicken stew and joloff rice. then we looked at the clock and realized if we didn't leave right away, we wouldn't be back in time for people to meet their FDPs (class trips) in the morning. so we all scrambled up to the bus, and that's when shit hit the fan. stephanie and ashley were the first people to get on the bus, and they found the bus driver passed out in their seat. we figured that was alright because he needed to sleep in order to drive us home during the night. oh wait. they couldn't wake him up. when they finally do, they realize he is BLACKED out. too drunk to function. so we were like "we're not getting on the bus with a drunk driver for a nine hour drive at night. sorry." then he heard us accuse him of being drunk and he lost his shit. started yelling and screaming at us. our tour guide was a woman so she couldn't really protect us. we didn't know what to do, but thank goodness the people from the restaurant we had just eaten at came running up to protect us. then all of a sudden a brawl breaks out. the bus driver is fighting anyone near him, someone tackles him... out of control. our tour guide hurries us back into the bar so he can't get us. for the most part, people are pretty calm. but now we're stranded without a bus driver... nine hours away from the ship. we can't call taxis because they are sketchy at night and we don't have money for that. but we just so happened to have stopped at a beach resort for dinner. the hotel manager so kindly put us up for the night. alyssa and i shared a honeymoon suite. so romantic. especially the mosquito net. because they have MALARIA here. what!? bug spray was KEY the entire trip. i have bug bites for days. but, when in ghana.... (and ps, the bus driver is currently sitting in ghanaian jail. winner).

anyways, we were literally on the beach so we got drinks and chilled in the sand until like 2 in the morning. our tour guide finally got a hold of the tour owner and he managed to get us a new bus for the morning. the bus was supposed to be there at 6am, but we woke up at 7 and the bus finally got there around 8:30. at that point, everyone was ready to just get back to the ship. a ton of people ended up missing their trips for class which was a bummer. me and nine other people decided to get off at accra instead of going all the way back to tema to the ship. we got off with nataama, our tour guide, and she took us to the markets. it was wayyy less stressful than morocco. the people were so nice and i'm getting the hang of bargaining. so i bought some cool stuff. while we were there, nataama got a call from the tour owner who invited us over to his mom's house for dinner. is this real? YES. so we headed over there. ate some homemade red red (beans with fried plaintains). i don't usually like plaintains, but it was delicious. we spent time with his family and they taught us songs. it was an amazing time. it was pretty funny though because when we walked into the house, there was a ghana policeman there. but no worries, it was just fred's brother. then his other brother walked in who is a priest and he said a prayer for us. after a few hours at their house, they took us back to the ship. we got back around 11:30. 

now, keep in mind i don't have a cell phone. or any means of communication for that matter. so this all went down and i had no way of contacting brewer letting her know that i was still breathing. so when i came home last night, she literally almost tackled me she was so excited i was still alive. she said she was about to call my mom telling her i died in ghana. haha so funny.

so today was our last day in ghana. i had an FDP (faculty directed practica) for global music. we got on a bus (story of my lifeeeee) and drove a little over an hour to torgorme village. we saw baboons crossing the street and a herd of cattle. so random. when we got there, literally 500 little kids starting sprinting after the bus. can you say "heaven?!" so we get off the bus and the kids lead us to meet the chiefs and elders of the village. then they put on a show for us. traditional drumming and dancing, which was SO amazing to see it in real life. then they starting the naming ceremony. in ghana, they name the children 8 days after they are born and you are named based on what day of the week you are born. while i don't remember the name off the top of my head for a female born on a sunday, i was given that name (google it) plus a given name. my given name is dzidzonu which means "happy things." SO awesome! they gave us each a small handmade pot with our name painted on it and a bead bracelet. i'll have those things FOREVER (assuming i don't break the pot in the next 3 months). after the ceremony was over and everyone got their name, we walked around the village for like half an hour. the best part was the little kids. they don't see white people very often (i never saw a white person that wasn't with SAS), so some of them just wanted to touch us. but for me, there were kids literally hitting each other in the face fighting over who was going to hold my hand. i had a kid on every finger. you all know how obsessed i am with kids. it took every ounce of my strength not to steal one, or twenty, of those kids. i'm in love. and now that i have a name there, i am always welcome to that village and can even be buried there when i die. so have fun visiting my grave in torgorme, ghana. not sorry.

now i'm back on the ship. sorry for my word vomit, but these were some of the best times of my life. though it may sound scary on paper, i was never fearful for my safety at all. seriously the world's nicest people are in ghana. everyone was inviting us over to their houses. but not in the "hey little girl, i have some candy... follow me" creepy way. they just don't see white people very often so they want to show us how they live and everything. when we were walking through the market, people just wanted to touch us. and it was nice because even though they obviously wanted to sell us stuff, they were more concerned about meeting us and learning about where we are from. everyone was calling me "sister" or saying "you are my friend, now." it's so different from america, where everyone is doing their own thing all the time and don't want to be bothered ever. one of the most memorable parts of my trip was in the market yesterday. there was a man named akumba who taught me how to play his instrument. i don't know what it's called, but they are two small gords about the size of golf balls tied to a 4 inch string. they are like rattles and you shake them and swing them. he taught me how to play them for like 20 minutes and ended up giving me a pair for free. it was so awesome and i will never forget it. it was pretty funny because everyone that we met would always ask "facebook?" so i'm probably going to come home to like 500 friend requests from all my new ghanaian friends. i also learned a new handshake where you shake hands and then slide them and snap with each others fingers. i don't know how to explain it, but i'll show you when i get home.

i think you can tell how much i loved ghana with how long this post is. i'm sorry it's so much, but i had the time of my life. i'm bringing all of you here. don't get me wrong, ghana is very poor and is considered a developing nation. but there is so much potential here. for the most part everyone speaks english because they only got their independence from britain in 1956. and their number 1 export is cocoa. the chocolate here is AMAZING. i meant to buy some for all of you, but i ran out of time. sorryyyyy. you'll just have to come back with me and try it for yourself. though i'm sure i'm going to say this after every port, ghana was the best.

missing ghana already. wah. love love love.

diva this, diva that

Monday, September 12, 2011 (11:47am) - Atlantic Ocean

let me preface this by stating that i realize there are bigger things to worry about in the world, but right now, i can't help it. so, most of you know how obsessed i am with my hair. it is like a security blanket to me, and while i do plan on donating it, a small part of me will die on that day. but, few of you realize just how obsessed i am with my eyebrows. i love my eyebrows more than i love my hair. until i have a child, my eyebrows will remain my pride and joy. when i have freshly waxed eyebrows, you will be hard-pressed to find a happier girl in the world than me. SO when i decided i really wanted to go abroad, my one GIANT thing on the "con" side of my "pro-con" list was leaving my eyebrow lady. let me rephrase that... my ONLY con was leaving my eyebrow lady. so today i finally had to cave and go up to the 7th deck wellness center to get my eyebrows done. it's currently taking every ounce of my strength not to burst into tears and/or book the first flight home from ghana. (okay, not really... but kind of). i look like a chola. razor thin line of "eyebrows." not great. and yes, i realize how ridiculous this is. but i can't help it. make fun of me all you want, but i love my eyebrows. at this point, i might as well just shave my head on neptune day. (um. yeah. never actually going to happen).

tomorrow... GHANA!!!! last night as we were blogging and falling asleep, brew & i watched hotel rwanda on tv. i don't recommend watching a movie about genocide before entering an african country. we'll call it character building, for now.

OH and of course i have to fill you all in on our dinner date last night. their names are sam & ricky... who are both originally from mexico and now they both live in san antonio, texas. though we won't be marrying either of them, it was pretty funny to finally meet them. and now we both have that story to tell of our blind dinner date on the mv explorer. romance at it's finest.

last thing before i go. every morning the entire shipboard community is emailed the "dean's memo" which tells us what's going on that day, what movies are on, where we are, laundry schedule, quote and question of the day... just everything we need to know about that day. a few days ago they started including the "rumor ranger. " there's been a ton of rumors going around the ship, and here's a couple of funny ones. one of them was about the camel trek that i was on. people apparently were saying we were on the libya border. turns out, morocco does not border libya... but that hasn't stopped us from telling everyone we found gadaffi. and no, we will not be followed by a us naval destroyer from mauritius to india to protect us from pirates. yes, we are still schedule to go to japan. and no, they have not kicked off anyone. yet. 2 people have left voluntarily though. strange.

enough of me being a diva. love you all.

and HAPPY 24th ANNIVERSARY TO THE BEST PARENTS IN THE WORLD!!!!! if any of you see or talk to them today, give them love from me. xoxo.

never forget

Sunday, September 11, 2011 (1:13pm) - Atlantic Ocean

first off, i can't believe it's been 10 years since 9/11. i am so humbled and grateful to be on this trip around the world right now, and cannot be more proud to be an american. we had a ship-wide moment of silence about a half hour ago and down in tymitz square there is a wall of remembrance where you can write your memories or thoughts about today. 10 years ago today, i was in mr. keeley's 5th grade class at st. james... and now i'm aboard the mv explorer sailing around the world. crazy.

in lighter news, we are getting ever closer to the equator. we've been in the tropics for about 2 days now which means it is HOT outside. so yesterday after global studies, i went to the pool deck and laid out. so nice! only downer was having to cut it short cus i had to go to work. some things never change.

yesterday was also the first time we met our extended families. extended families consist of "parents" which are staff or professors on the ship, and "siblings" which are other voyagers. some families also get lifelong learners as "grandparents." it's supposed to act as a shipboard family, and just a different group of people that you know and get together with every so often. all the sas alumni told me to sign up, so brewer and i did. so we were scheduled to meet our families for dinner last night at 6:15 in the main dining room. i was really eager to meet my families... then i discovered my parents were my boss and his wife. haha don't get me wrong, the guy is awesome... but as if i don't see this guy enough. at least he's cool and i like him. and i have 7 other siblings in my family. so it's going to be really fun getting to know them. we're planning on having dinner together again when we get back from ghana. when we were at dinner the entire dining room got distracted by a HUGE school of dolphins putting on a show outside the window. there were dozens of them and they were all jumping like 8 feet out of the water. it was really neat. there's a rumor going around that a hammerhead shark was swimming next to the ship yesterday, but i didn't see it.

they're starting to play some good movies on the tvs. yesterday, harry potter 7 part 1 was on loop so we watched parts of that... and we laid in bed last night and watched eat pray love before bed. today, up is back on... which could be one of the greatest children's movies made lately. but, i could kill for cable. or at least the opening charger's game. GO BOLTS!

tonight is our cultural preport meeting for ghana. we'll see what they have to say about that. but before that, brew and i have a hot date. but actually. i'm pretty sure i've told you guys about how we were playing hangman on our whiteboard outside our room to figure out who these guys were... well we figured it out and tonight we're meeting for dinner at 7 to finally meet them. again, best "how we met" story EVER. so stay tuned for that story.

anyways, it's been raining a lot today. we saw a lot of other ships yesterday, but not so much today. i have 2 more classes today and work. need to catch up on some homework today too. can't wait to get to ghana. even though my father oh so kindly emailed me today that he's friend at the gym who is from a neighboring country hires armed body guards whenever he has to go to ghana. as if i wasn't scared enough in morocco... now i need armed body guards? stressful, to say the least.

love and miss you all.

MARCUSSSSS!!!!!!

Friday, September 9, 2011 (11:09pm) - Atlantic Ocean

SO i can't believe i forgot to write about this yesterday... but lunch yesterday was... wait for it... TACOS!!!! wait. beef tacos. this is such a buzz kill. so i got to eat beans and rice. which isn't bad.... when you're eating beans and rice in san diego. but hey, i won't complain too much. anything other than a salad is fine by me. fake guacamole has never tasted so good!

last night, brewer and i spent like an hour in the computer lab. no, not being studious... filling out immigration/customs paperwork for all these crazy countries. who knew we had to do that? so official and stressful since there aren't any extras so you can't mess up. there was a whole powerpoint they sent out giving step-by-step directions. too much work if you ask me.

anyways, not much new going on today. woke up with a million emails about the power outage most of you guys had the pleasure of experiencing. free day off school is always a blast. tonight our "sea" had an ice cream social. i don't know if i've said it before, but brewer and i are in the "yellow sea." it's pretty much just what hall we're on, so like RHA but on a ship. we have an RA (called a Living Learning Coordinator - LLC). i'm pretty sure ice cream has never tasted so good! but we didn't stay for the annoying ice breaker activity... instead we joined chris, james, molly, heidi, and joel for a game of apples to apples. LOVE that game. so that was really fun. now i'm in bed watching food inc. on loop on our tv. oh how i wish i had cable right now! BUT fun fact.... some of you guys were concerned with the fact that i won't know any of the popular music when i get back. but don't you fret, we have a fake vh1 channel. anyone who's lived with me (which narrows it down to melissa & my fam) know that i watch/listen to vh1 in the morning when i'm getting ready. though i have to go without the actual music videos, they play music on the map channel on our tv which shows us where we are in the world at any given point. kind of like in fancy airplanes that have the map showing your progress. but my fake vh1 plays such random music. i think this morning the playlist went maneater by nelly furtado, we are the world, some gospel song, paramore, then michelle branch. so yeah, i won't know any popular music. but at least i  have something!

other random things about life on the ship... i got an alarm clock on the ship. because turns out, living without a cell phone is way more inconvenient than i thought. anyways, back to the alarm clock. every single day, this clock moves 5 minutes fast. so i change it back to the right time every night. and the next night i'll come back to my cabin and sure enough, 5 minutes fast again. now. who remembers marcus?! brewer and i found him. MARCUSSSSS!!!!!!! he followed us around the world. so, now we've figured out who our "ghost" is. so glad he's a familiar old friend.

alright well that's all i got today. keep on keepin' on.

the great white mother

Thursday, September 8, 2011 (11:02pm) - Atlantic Ocean

the great white mother is another name for the mv explorer. how did it get that name, you ask? these eyes have never seen a more beautiful sight than this ship a couple days ago when we got back to the dock after morocco. sorry unborn children, but it's gonna be hard to top that sight. okay, maybe i'm exaggerating a little... but you get the point. we're all trying to get readjusted to shipboard life. i had to get my sea legs again. which is inconvenient because i had just begun to acquire my land legs in morocco. and let me warn you, land sickness is REAL. i felt myself moving most of the time i was on land. and i nearly blew massive amounts of chunks when we were at the mosque. not great.

having to go back to class after being in port is a cruel joke. i don't understand how they expect me to be doing my homework when i'm fending for my life in port. "library sunday's" do not exist in morocco. so i've basically been doing nothing other than homework and sleeping. and let me tell you, after sleeping for maybe 6 hours while in port... brew and i took a 14 hour nap/sleep the other night. pure bliss is what that's called. but it kind of sucks because we're getting used to the rocking of the ship, so it's not lulling us to sleep like it used to. which might be a good thing, cus maybe i'll actually stay awake during class.

so this morning, brewer and i wake up for breakfast before global studies. oh wait, we're stopped. did we crash? are we sinking? are we abandoning ship? WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?! oh, don't worry... just a casual stop in the canary islands. BUT (and this is a big 'but') we can't get off the ship. this is what the UN would refer to as torture. not waterboarding... harboring off the canary islands and not being able to get off the ship. we stopped to refuel, because it's not like we were just docked in morocco for four days or anything. but we set sail again around 1:30 and are off towards ghana once again, don't you worry.

in other shipboard news, it doesn't look like we're going to have to set our clocks forward on this part of the journey. thank goodness. my body can actually get used to a time zone for a second. but it's SO annoying being 7 hours ahead. if we don't wake up with emails, we have to wait until late evening to even consider checking our emails for responses. to put this in perspective, when it's noon my time, it's 5 in the morning your time. only my dad is up at that time. still trying to figure out what the point of a computer is without facebook or real internet... especially when nobody will email me back til dinner time.

this is a random blogpost. mostly everything that i've been meaning to write about for the past few days but kept forgetting. i have this giant map of the world hanging on my wall and everyday i mark our location on the map to keep track of our voyage. let me preface this by stating that "no, she's not retarded." brewer, love her to death, but last night she was like "wait... we have to go up and over russia?" no brew, the world is round. she thought that when we got to japan, we were going to have to go up and over russia to get to hawaii. if you're having trouble visualizing this, look at a map of the world. i have such a winner of a roommate.

most of you know that i'm working in the library onboard. one of the duties is to come up with the "question of the day" that is sent out in the dean's memo every morning. it was my turn to come up with the question the other day. and i stumped the entire shipboard community! yay! my question was "how long can a valid us passport holder enter and stay in morocco without a visa? and name the five other passport holders this applies to." now. i know you're all just gonna jump on google to figure it out. but, keep in mind... we don't have google. "google it" has become "wikipedia it" because wikipedia is one of our free websites. so i apologize in advance for when i come back and the verb 'google' has been replaced by 'wikipedia'. what a weirdo, i know. SO, instead of googling the answer... people have to look it up in BOOKS. what a novel concept. i haven't opened an encyclopedia since like 2nd grade. it feels archaic. (sidenote: there were SO many bookstores in morocco. which is kind of ironic because i heard illiteracy rates are like 70+%)

well i'm off to bed. have some homework to do and i might wake up for breakfast tomorrow which i don't normally do on this day. i'm hardcore. but guess what tomorrow is!? give up?? LAUNDRY DAY! best day ever. the little things.

signing off.

if you don't wake up in shackles... game on!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 (11:13pm) - Atlantic Ocean

okay, now that i've had a day to sit and think about my life for a second, here's my reflection on morocco. since entering college, i've spent a lot of time studying the muslim world in many of my classes, for whatever reason. being there... whole different story. we were told as women to not go anywhere without a man, but this was to the point that i had to wear a ring on my wedding finger so that i wouldn't get harassed AS MUCH. still got harassed the whole time, especially in the market places. the men would cat-call at us and had no shame in basically groping us as we walked by. not okay. it was really weird because for the most part, we only saw men during the day. like the cafes were ONLY men, which was really strange. morocco is supposedly becoming this more progressive, modern country... but it was hard to tell at times. coming from America (the land of Title IX), being so inferior and having to literally rely on merely a guy's presence for my safety was out of control. as such, one of the more interesting things we saw were the women walking around. girls my age  who were like besties would walk around and one would be in the full-on muslim garb and the other would be in like spaghetti straps and heels. so that was pretty interesting. and like, on the train from marrakesh back to casablanca, the family sitting next to us had a mom that was all dressed up and the daughter was wearing a paris hilton t-shirt. okayyyy, like what? so i think the next generation of moroccans is going to be WAY different from the current one.

one of the things i noticed right away was how dirty the city was... there was trash everywhere and a lot of buildings were pretty run down. and by trash i mean plastic bags... EVERYWHERE. everyone go buy those reusable bags at the grocery store, because i think i found where all the plastic ones end up. a lot of morocco reminded me of tijuana, but when we were driving through the atlas mountains... the level of poverty was on a whole different level. the villages the berber people lived in were mud buildings on the side of the mountain. the ironic part was that the shops and restaurants in some of the "nicer" villages would have coca-cola signs or some american/modern link to the world.

another interesting part of morocco was the traffic laws. or lack thereof. i now understand why semester at sea doesn't allow students to rent cars/motorcycles/etc... the "traffic laws" were merely a suggestion. stoplights, who needs em? driving lanes... what's the point? like, when we were in the taxis we were holding on for dear life. we would make a right hand turn from 5 lanes over through all the other cars. not great. and crossing the street was a lot like that video game 'frogger.' in the USofA, pedestrians have the right away. even if you're jaywalking, the cars are going to stop so that don't hit and kill you and go to jail for vehicular manslaughter. other way around in morocco. you better RUN across that street before you get taken down. i think moroccans have a secret game they're playing called "who can hit the most american tourists?" gladly, i was not a part of that game... but crossing the street was a struggle.

i don't think i ever really felt safe while i was in morocco. after surviving our algerian sex slave/camel trek debacle, our motto of morocco was "if you don't wake up in shackles... game on!" and i think that was kind of how i felt the whole time. "i'm still not dead, so let's go do the next thing." i was talking to a lifetime learner named rosalyn today about how even if i'm in a big city in america, i still have a semblance of safety... but while i was in morocco, i was convinced i was going to get mugged every second. she told me that it's because in america i have a game-plan and know what i need to do if something happens. i think she's right. i had no idea what to expect going into morocco, but now that i survived that i kind of have an idea of what i need to do when i get to other ports. so hopefully ghana is going to be a different experience.

oh and by the way, that whole camel trek thing was a big scam. they weren't even real camels. camels have two humps. these things had one. so i risked my life to ride a fake camel. and in case you were wondering, i have legit battle wounds on my butt from that frickin' ride. too much information? i don't care. now, imagine battle wound ass on a 9 hour bus ride to marrakesh and a 4 hour train ride to casablanca. beginning to catch my drift here? and that whole gazillion hour bus ride was equivalent to driving from san diego to the middle of oregon... spending the night... then driving back. for the win.

but, "if you don't wake up in shackles... game on."

just call me lawrence of arabia

September 3-6, 2011 (Morocco)

so clearly since you're reading this, we can establish the fact that i'm alive and breathing, though to be quite honest that was a little touch and go there for a while. morocco has to be the scariest place i have ever been in my life. since i've never actually been out of the country, i've never been to a muslim country. WTF. i know i'm supposed to be tolerant and understanding of different cultures, but i was in no way, shape, or form ready for what morocco threw in my face. i'll tell you more about my feelings and assessment of morocco tomorrow, but it definitely wasn't anything like it was on real housewives of new jersey.

so on the first day, we woke up pretty early because we had to be up at the glazier lounge by 8 to meet for our tour. it was so crazy to look out the window and see LAND. and by land, i mean the port which basically just looked like long beach with all the cargo ships everywhere. brewer and i both did the casablanca city orientation which took us all over the place. i was surprised to see that casablanca was a pretty big, modern-ish city. the first place we went was the central market which was mostly vegetables and meat. there were kittens EVERYWHERE! everyone was obsessed with them... until we saw kittens hanging in the meat racks skinned and ready to purchase for dinner. that was lovely. the next stop was hassan II mosque. stop reading this right now and google the mosque. it was seriously the most beautiful building i've ever seen in my life. it's the 3rd biggest mosque in the world, and cost a measly $8 billion dollars to build. it was kind of ridiculous though because within eyesight of the mosque is some of the poorest areas of casablanca. other sights we got to see included one of the king's palaces and the only catholic church that is still in use. and SURPRISE... another french city. why didn't someone tell me to study french at some point in my life!? i could definitely see the french influence in all the architecture of the buildings in casablanca, left over from when morocco was a french protectorate. eventually we got back to the ship around 1:30 after we did a little shopping. after regrouping for a little, maddy and i met up with michael and cassie and we went to habus for a little. habus is a section of casablanca where the palace is and there are a bunch of cute markets. we shopped around for a little bit, and sat to have some mint tea. though i'm not a huge tea person, mint tea is what morocco is famous for and it was actually pretty good. we had to go to an atm and ended up getting followed by a man for a while, but we just went back to the markets and lost him. then we headed back to the ship and all walked to rick's cafe (from the movie casablanca). we sat at the bar and had some drinks before dinner. i ordered a martini cus i figured i had to get gin because it's a gin joint... but it was disgusting haha. we ended up having dinner there, along with what seemed like everyone else from sas. it was really fun, and i even got to hear the pianist play "as time goes by." we called it quits around 11 and walked back to the ship with a group of people.

the next morning, we woke up at 4:45 because we had to meet at the entrance to the port at 5:30. mind you, the entrance to the port is a 30 minute walk. and thus begins the bus ride/trip from hell. the goal of this trip was a camel trek in the sahara desert. about 100 sas kids signed up for the trip, and miraculously everyone was on time to the buses for us to head out. we left casablanca around 6ish and 3 hours later, we arrived in marrakesh for a bathroom break and to get some breakfast. then another 3 hours in the bus through the atlas mountains until we arrive at a berber village. the drive kind of reminded me of driving to palm springs down the side of the mountain... but this time i was on a bus with 50 college students, going down a sketchy road at like 80 miles an hour. nice and safe. the berber people are like the indigenous people of morocco, who mixed with the people that took over in the past, like the french, spanish, and portugese. the berbers mostly live in the atlas mountains now, and we passed probably 100 villages. it was INSANE seeing how these people live. their houses were no more than mud huts, but no matter what there was a mosque that was infinitely nicer that all the other buildings in every village. i was really impressed by how the people managed to survive in that climate. we saw a lot of people herding huge groups of sheep on the sides of the mountains and there was a lot of agriculture going on which i was impressed with. anyways, we got to one of the little villages and went to a restaurant to have lunch. i had chicken tajine which is a traditional moroccan meal consisting of chicken, vegetables, olives, and couscous. it was delicious, though a little overpriced. it was 80 dirham for the food and a coke... which works out to only be $10 USD, but still. after some people shopped for a little bit, we got back on the bus for... wait... ANOTHER three hours to ouarzazetes for ANOTHER bathroom break. we seriously stopped five thousand times for no reason. when we got on the bus this time, we were like "okay, this has to be our last stretch." boy were we wrong. another three hours later and we stop at this random buildling in the middle of nowhere. "yayyy, we're finally here." jokes. not even close. another bathroom break. at this point, people are starting to be like "WTF!?!" we were 4 hours behind our itinerary and the sun is beginning to set. we were supposed to be doing a sunset camel trek... but the sun is gone like 15 minutes after we get back on the bus again for our next leg of the trip. this is when shit starts to hit the fan. after our 12th hour on the bus, one of the girls we were sitting next to goes up and asks the driver how much longer... "oh 10 minutes, the camels are right around the corner." jokes again, another hour goes by. people start to lose it at this point. some girl gets on the phone with semester at sea asking them what we should do. based on our location, the sas people told us to "turn around immediately." we were 50 km from the algerian border... so naturally the next thought was "shit, we're all going to be sold to the algerian sex traders." but hey, we're a bunch of american college kids and nothing can phase us, right? so did we turn around? NO WAY! another like half hour goes by and we pull off the road cus people are seriously about to mutiny and turn the bus around. we were minutes away from calling the us consolate to report us being kidnapped. mind you, this is like a 15+ hour journey we're all on together. then we look out the window.... CAMELS!!!!!!! so we all get off the bus for the last time (thank you Jesus). a bunch of the girls wanted to just turn around, but we agree to wait for the other bus to catch up with us to make a final decision. but before the bus even made it there, half of the people were already on camels ready to trek into the night. final consensus is we all paid to ride camels and we were finally there... so we all got on our camels and off we road into the sahara desert, led by guys who didn't speak any english at all. keep in mind, it is like 10:30 at night at this point and everyone is convinced we're going to become algerian sex slaves. but once we were on our camels it was AWESOME. it was a half moon and it was SO bright so we could see fairly well. maddy, duggan, brian, and myself got on a caravan and rode into the night. though it was supposed to be a sunset ride, the moonlit camel ride was breathtaking. about 45 minutes later we arrived at our camp... in the middle of the desert. and lets be real here... riding a camel is torture. all those history books with pictures of egyptians on camels looking all majestic are dirty lies. there is no graceful way to ride a camel. i currently have bruises where no one should ever have bruises. our camp was really cool though. there were about 20 tent-cabin things in a square shape with a fire pit in the middle and a dining tent at each end. everyone claimed their cabins and we finally got dinner, which consisted of bread, bean & rice soup, chicken tajine again, and yellow melon. the dinner was REALLY good... though maybe because we all had just survived a billion hour journey together. then they lit the fire pit and the drums came out. other sas kids were playing drums and stuff until some of the berber people grabbed them and gave us a concert for a while which was amazing. even though we couldn't understand anything that they were saying, listening/watching traditional moroccan music fireside in the middle of the sahara was crazy cool. and let's take a minute to discuss the stars. if you know me, you should know just how obsessed i am with the moon, the stars, and really just the sky in general. the sky that night was out of control. the milky way was completely visible, as were a couple planets, and we saw like a million shooting stars. this guy overheard brewer and i talking about it, and it turns out he's a physics major who has spent a lot of time doing astronomical research. helloooo new best friend. but actually, i think he is our new best friend. his name is will and we all drug our mattresses out of our tents and the three of us slept under the stars. and by "slept" i mean we stayed up talking until 4 in the morning and took a little nap until the sun rose at 5:45 and we all had to get up. everyone then hiked up the sand dunes surrounding our camp and took some awesome pictures of the sunrise. the sahara desert at night was seriously amazing... in the day time, no words can describe it. we all had breakfast, got our stuff together, and set off once again on our camels. this time brewer and i had our own private caravan of camels because we're divas like that. we reached the buses and started our trek back. this time the bus ride only took like 9 hours, but thanks to will and his melatonin, brewer and i literally slept the entire bus ride. all of a sudden we wake up and we're in marrakesh, the final destination of this crazy journey. so our guide walks us to our hostel. oh wait, down one sketchy alley to an even sketchier alley to an even sketchier alley, down the sketchiest alley and there's our hostel! greatttttt. but the hostel ended up being really nice, and since cassie set up the whole trip, her room was comped and brew & i got to stay with her.

after a much deserved and needed shower, we all got ready and decided to venture out into the market. seriously the scariest place of my life. there were thousands of people there, all grabbing and touching you trying to get you to stop at their given stand. we settled at one place where we all ate dinner. i had the potato cakes. while we were eating dinner, we heard/saw a full on muslim woman bitch fight. so scary, so after dinner we collectively decided to go back to the hostel to regroup a little bit. nobody was expecting how intense the market was so we decided to go find a bar instead. oh wait, our hostel and the market were right across the street from a giant mosque. which means there wasn't alcohol anywhere near us. we eventually found this really cool bar like 2 miles away from our hostel called "gossip" where the sangria, sex on the beach, and wine was flowing. it was the first time in a few days that everyone could take a deep breath and relax for a second which was really nice. we were there for like 3 hours until closing, and so at about 2 in the morning we decided to head back to our hostel since we'd had such a long few days. oh wait. all of a sudden we think we're walking home and we end up VIP at this nightclub called "silver." one second we're walking to bed, the next we walk past the line to get in, get whisked up the vip lounge, and have free bottle service all night. for the win. at this point, we're all pretty drunk and we left the club like an hour later. cassie, james, maddy, and i were all ready to kill anybody in sight in order for a sarah's burrito at that point. moroccan lamb brain is NOT the same drunk food as a nice greasy burrito. so we got back to the hostel and slept for about 3 hours. when we woke up, some of the girls wanted to go to the market but it turned out it didn't open until 2pm. so we all rallied together and took taxis to the train station. we got on the 9am train back to casablanca, which was supposed to only take 2.5 hours... yeah we didn't get there until 1pm. we all decided to get 2nd class tickets to save some money which was an experience all to itself. there was a group of about 10 of us, then it was just a bunch of everyday moroccan citizens. though nobody spoke english, it was really cool seeing everyone living their normal lives. when we finally got to casablanca, james, maddy, cassie, and i walked to habus to do a little shopping. i ended up getting postcards and a pair of Jesus sandals which i'm currently wearing and will probably be wearing for the rest of my life. the walk was a little miserable because it was so hot, but the market was really nice. after that, maddy, james, & i got a taxi to the post office so we could buy stamps for our postcards. turns out, no one spoke english there, but we were saved by the wife of one of the sas professors who is a native moroccan. then we roamed back to the ship so we didn't get any dock time.

currently back on the ship and the captain just announced that we're getting ready to leave morocco and begin our journey to our next port, ghana. hopefully ghana isn't as scary as morocco was, but i think now that we have our first port under our belt we'll all be better prepared for what's to come. our trek is already getting known on the ship as the trek who got lost. we're famous! at least there were 100 of us... if there were any less, it would have been SUPER scary. the tour company is called "trek morocco" and that is exactly what we did. though it was a little touch and go there for a while, and we were all borderline convinced we were going to become algerian sex slaves, the moonlit camel ride and the night beneath the stars in the middle of the sahara was something i will never forget. and now all of us will have this story to tell for the rest of our lives. "hey, remember that one time we almost got sold as algerian sex slaves??" "why yes, yes i do!"

here's looking at you kid

Friday, September 2, 2011 (10:35pm) - MV Explorer

landdddd hooooo! okay, not really cus it's pitch black outside right now. and i don't really know how far we actually are from casablanca. slash, how far away is the horizon? don't be a smart ass, i realize it moves as i move towards it. i mean, if i stand here... how far can i see? someone figure that out and report back asap. but according to the map on one of the tv channels, i feel like we should at least be able to see portugal, if not morocco. even though i've felt that all day though we definitely cannot see portugal at all. we did see another ship though! so reassuring that human life exists outside of this ship. it's finally starting to hit us that in less than 12 hours, we will be in casablanca. so naturally, maddy, michael, and i are sitting in our cabin watching casablaca before we get there and i'm painting my nails. priorities. humphrey bogart, let's be friends. i'm so anxious to just get there already. we just voyaged across the entire atlantic ocean and it was absolutely amazing, but i'm ready to get there. i thought i would be hating life right now and be ready to kill everyone in sight, just to get on land... but i'm more just super excited since all anybody's been talking about is casablanca. so stoked. it was really exciting to land in montreal, which was my first time out of the country... but montreal was still north america. but as of 0800 tomorrow (yayyy for military/maritime time!) i will be in AFRICA!!! is this real life? i'm gonna go with NO. final answer.

tonight we had our logistical preport meeting. nothing really too crazy. but at dinner, the lady who is in charge of taking care of the dependent children (fancy work for saying the staff/professor's kids) sat with us and told us that blonde women are at high risk for kidnapping. byeee brewer! just kidding. but most of the stuff they said was common sense. "never go anywhere alone and don't blackout too hard." and there was a pretty lengthy discussion about traveler's diarrhea which was just lovely.

other little things before i get to our first port... today was pretty rough for me. i thought i was tired yesterday. yeah, not even close to today. our alarm went off this morning for us to get up and go to breakfast. brew & i looked at each other and were like "not a chance" so we just reset our alarms, rolled over, and went back to sleep. poor michael came knocking on our door to get us for breakfast, but he just went back to sleep too. then we had global studies, and i went straight back to sleep after class. you know that awkward period in your nap when you're half asleep and can't figure out where you are? that happened to me and i could not figure out where i was and was so confused as to why i wasn't waking up in my jamaica ct. house in mission beach. that hasn't happened since i moved out of that house in may. just shows how much i'm missing all you usd people! but what is nice about living like 2 decks below the classrooms is that i can lay in bed until literally 1044 for a 1045 class and still be on time... maybe even early. so great! another good thing is that i can roll out of bed and go to work. nike shorts and rainbows to work... right up my alley.

alright, casablanca tomorrow. i'll be in morocco from september 3-6. i can't believe this is my life.

"louie, i think is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

can i have some water?

Friday, September 2, 2011 (12:27am) - MV Explorer

so tonight marks 2 days out from our first port. that means we had a cultural preport meeting in the union. tonight wasn't mandatory, but since it is our first port, pretty much everyone on the ship was there. the point of the cultural preport is to kind of give you a sense of the customs and what to do and not to do in each country. tomorrow night, the meeting will be mandatory and that is the logistical preport which is just what it sounds like. some interesting customs and things to keep in mind while in morocco. for example, water is a community resource. i thought "okay... community pools? the beach??" yeah, not so much. they're talking drinking water. like, they see you have a bottle of water, they'll ask you for a drink. and it's borderline rude to say "no dude, this is mine." most everyone of you reading this knows that you wouldn't catch me dead without my water bottle. and now you're trying to tell me i have to share it with some random dude in morocco?! i might sound like some arrogant, spoiled american brat, but we have these things called germs in america. i don't want my mom drinking out of my water bottle, let alone this. yikes. and it didn't help that the articles i had to read for global studies tomorrow oh so kindly reminded me of the terrorist bombings in casablanca in 2003. so that's cool. went hand-in-hand with the dean reminding us at orientation that a ship full of american college students is a prime target for terrorists. haha you're welcome family for that reassuring advice.

in lighter news, we learned some pretty important things like how we can't eat with our left hands cus that's your "toilet" hand. good thing i'm not left handed, but still. what am i supposed to do about a knife? considering just sitting on my left hand for every meal. we also learned some moroccan... which is really just arabic. like how "shukran" means 'thank you' and "labas" means 'how are you.' i think it'll be cool to actually be able to say a few things when we're roaming around morocco.

we also just received a warning email from the dean telling us that the waters coming into morocco are going to get really rough and they already are starting too. the dean told us to secure anything that could move... including desks and drawers. um, how am i supposed to secure a desk? i don't really have like bungie cords or anything. and naturally i decided this would be the best time to shave my legs, when the seas are actually starting to get rough. who doesn't like a challenge, right? yeah, atlantic ocean - 1, my legs - 0. it looks like i've never shaved my legs before... cut myself all over the place. not great.

anyways, brew and i have a little whiteboard outside our room for people to write messages if they can't find us or something (no txting is out of control, how did people survive without cell phones!?). two days ago a message appeared: "i love you." so i wrote back "i love you more... who are you?" currently playing hangman on the whiteboard to figure out who this kid is. potential best "how we met story" EVER, i think.

okay, time for bed. i know i'm forgetting stuff, but today is the first time that i really felt the loss of time catching up. we set the clocks forward again tonight. these 23-hour days are really killing me. that makes it 7 hours ahead of home. out of control.

love you all. stay tuned for morocco adventures coming soon. and "assalam o alaykum." i'm not really sure what that means, but i think it's like a greeting. you look it up, i don't have internet access. wah. goodnight!