Dinner in a Palace!

1st day in Morocco....so far pretty amazing.

Went to the capital Rabat and was led around by a professor from UVA who is from Rabat. We saw a bunch of touristy sites and took pictures as usual. We went to this place that has a cool view of the ocean (women aren't allowed to go to the beach during Ramadan, so we could only look at it) then she took us to a rug factory. The ladies in there were so nice they stopped their very speedy production to show us how and just smiled and one even made a little yarn bracelet for me. I got some cool videos out of it, so I'll post some later.

It's Ramadan right now, which is the time that Muslims fast in order to experience true hunger and true thirst as a way of inspiring charity (at least that is what I was told during dinner by one of the professor's friends). The cool thing about it is that we were able to take part in an iftar (hopefully I spell that right) which is when they break from fasting. The COOLEST THING about it is that this professor's family apparently used to be a pretty prominent family in Morocco..because her "family home" is basically a palace...


yes that's right, I ATE DINNER IN A PALACE tonight.


It's closed to the public and their family has a rule of no parties outside of the people who own it. It's a kind of joint ownership so no one really lives there, it's just common property. I sat at the dinner in awe of everything. it was equally as beautiful and more well preserved than Topkapi Palace in Istanbul (obviously not as crazy, but seriously I still can't believe it).

Not to mention the dinner conversation was fascinating. We talked about religion and racism and language. I'm still trying to comprehend it all. Hopefully I have more thoughtful things to say about it in the morning...because it is about 2am right now.

We didn't get back until 1am because we left late then our bus got into an accident. not really sure how it happened because everyone was asleep..the story we've come up with is that something fell off the truck in front of us that was carrying a bunch of metal rods and cracked our window. It was complicated because a group of guys were running around on the back of the truck, but I'm thinking that was just unrelated nonsense.

Going to Marrakech tomorrow and staying in a Riad!! a really nice one too :)


did I mention that I ate dinner in a palace tonight? ..okay just checking

nighty night ya'll

Gypsies

Found this old post that never got sent…..so it was supposed to be dated July 28


So it's day 3 in Bulgaria and guess where I've been all day.....in bed! I was tired last night, so I stayed in. Good thing too because around 1am I started throwing up. Food Poisoning for the win.  I'm pretty sure it's all the food that they made us in the Roma community. It was all pretty good, but I guess my stomach just can't handle gypsy food. Luckily my friend Laura had some tums and that at least made my stomach stop hurting.

Anyways...besides the vomit, my visit to the Roma community was amazing. We went to 2 different villages. One was the lower class of gypsies whose houses are all run down. They were all so happy to see us that it really masked the intense poverty that they face everyday.  It was inspiring to see people with so little be so happy.  The kids were definitely the best part. They were loving our cameras and kept yelling "photo photo" I think they've never really seen pictures of themselves before so it was crazy. I felt kind of like an alien from another planet. Most of all, it was enlightening to see how the Roma really live and how nice they are especially since this entire trip gypsies just keep getting a bad reputation. Everyone always says watch out for gypsies, especially the kids, but after meeting them in their own communities it's obvious that they are all just trying to survive any way they can. There was a single mother with 5 kids and her house was so clean for what she had to work with. A father in the village also had 5 kids and he was talking about how they have no healthcare whatsoever and he goes into town everyday to try to do odd jobs just to feed his family. It was so hard to leave the first village because we could tell that the kids were having so much fun. It's an amazing feeling to go somewhere and just have your presence make someone's day like that.
Then we went to the second village which by comparison to the first was much more well off. They had homes with real doors and a working bathroom. They were a lot closer to middle class than the 1st. We sat in their living room for a pretty long time and got to ask questions about the Roma and it got really interesting. I never knew that there was so much division amongst the gypsies or that they had their own class system within their community. Whenever the elections come up their community gets a lot of money and support, but once elections are over they get forgotten again.  They were talking about how politicians will "buy" votes from the Roma and how they have to vote that way because the voting system isn't as anonymous as it seems.
After our talk we went to what was basically their community center. It was the biggest building in the village, but it was about the size of a my living room and kitchen. We had to wait outside because they were prepping something. And it was their custom to feed their visitors bread with honey as they walk in the door. It tasted like sweetbread and when we went in there was a bunch of teenagers in there dancing and a full table of food!
They made us a feast (possibly what made me sick, but now I’m thinking it was stomach flu) most of it was pretty good. I really liked the bread and the soup. Sausage was a little strange and I couldn’t eat it, but afterwards I had some rice pudding ☺ yummm. After we ate we danced and the girls let us wear their belly dancing belts and attempted to teach us to belly dance…it was a little strange. The boys were pretty eager to dance with us and take pictures so it got a little weird after a while because we didn’t want to offend anyone..It was one of the most fun times on this trip and it was pretty sad to leave.

Wedding Crashers

Crashed a Turkish Wedding last night...nuff said

So it's been awhile...

since I blogged. I think the last thing I wrote was about Italy, but it could have even been earlier. I don't have too much time to write right now, but here's a little recap:

Croatia was amazing. Such a beautiful place, but I get the feeling I was stuck in a touristy part of town the whole time. Like going to Hawai'i and only seeing Waikiki. We stumbled upon a not so touristy "beach" (there was no sand) and there were a lot of families and no one really spoke English there which was a good sign. Cliff Jumping was really fun. Never had to climb that hard to jump into water and the climb was definitely the scariest part of the whole thing. They even have cliff bars that serve drinks and snacks on the cliff so after you jump you can have a beer haha. On the last day people woke up really late so I ventured out on my own and saw some of the churches. As much as I'm loving my friends I definitely needed that. I would have left Croatia completely disappointed but that morning I walked around the old city and found the Church of St. Ignatius. Even after the Vatican and all these famous churches, going into that empty church and seeing the beautiful artwork and having time to actually read what it was all about was really what I needed at that point in the trip. I was getting pretty homesick and starting to wonder if I was actually getting anything out of Semester at Sea that was worth it. I even found this really cute market and bought some sage honey with almonds (ate some yesterday in my peanut butter sandwich and it was AWESOME).

Greece was pretty crazy. 1st day in Piraeus I had Greek yogurt and honey for breakfast then went to Athens and saw the Acropolis. It was cool, but after all the hype it's not really worth the heat stroke. It was pretty much like walking through the desert. If you're ever in Greece, go to the Acropolis in the wintertime...you're body will thank you. Afterwards Lisa and I went to Placa and shopped around a little bit. Got some really good food. Had a Greek salad and Lisa got Kebabs. The cook sent us over some free french fries too. Bought some Greek sandals and a few other gifts. After we got back to the ship we watched the Women's World Cup Finals at where else but TGI Fridays...yea I'm being serious...it was such a good game and we had a great time, but the US totally could have won it. My friend Paige's friend was actually in it and scored the first goal which was pretty cool. 2nd day we had no plans and there was a taxi strike so getting into Athens was going to be impossible. We walked around Piraeus for 2 hours trying to find a movie theater to watch Harry Potter. Finally got someone to tell us how to get there, but the bus took 1 and a half HOURS to show up because of the taxi strike. Got to the mall and Harry Potter was so worth it. I definitely can't believe it's over feels like my childhood has officially ended. Going to watch it again when I get back to the states because it really was the best movie.

I'm running out of time, so I'll just give the bare minimums. Next day went to Mykonos - fun but way too many tourists. Then went to Paros - totally UNDERRATED. my favorite part of Greece by far and wish we could have just went straight there. We're on the ship now and on the way to Bulgaria =) sad to be half way through the trip but excited for the next few countries. We're going through the straits of Turkey right now and it's pretty cool. I just looked out my window and saw the Turkey War Memorial..kind of awesome.


ps someone email me if I never wrote anything about Italy and I'll fill ya'll in.

Adios Barcelona :(

On the ship for 1 day on the way to Italy.  Sad to leave Barcelona but so excited for the adventure we’re about to have in Italy.

Spain was definitely a party port…looking at my pictures I felt guilty that I didn’t bring my camera out as much when we went sightseeing. Here’s the recap of the last couple days…you might want to split up the reading for this because it’s going to be a ridiculously long post.

Woke up late on Day 2 because we had to refuel on sleep. Met with people for lunch on the ship (which wasn’t very good especially compared to the tapas we had the day before) I had to go shopping to get some shoes since the heels didn’t work out too well and I have the bruises to prove it :P Went to the same mall that we went to when I came here in high school. Forgot how awesome that mall was…took a lot of willpower not to buy a bunch of clothes.  We had a pretty cruise day. After shopping we went to get tapas. Found a deal of 5 euro for 3 tapas and a glass of sangria…really loving that sangria. We were in this really cute restaurant we found a block away from La Ramblas. (We figured eating ON La Ramblas would be expensive and not as good) We just kind of hung out there for an hour or two ran into some other people from America and Canada who had just gotten to Barcelona after being in Greece. They gave us some tips for Greece which will hopefully come in handy later. Went back to the ship for SIESTA (my new favorite time of day) when I went back to my room Rebecca (my roommate) was getting ready to go to Flamenco. She invited me and as much as I love my siesta, Flamenco sounded like fun so I changed and went with her. Flamenco was just as fun as I’d remembered, but I wish I would have just taken a nap and gone out with Laura and Danielle because Rebecca’s friends aren’t really my type of people. They’re all really girly and pretty insecure. They insisted on eating on La Ramblas I didn’t eat because what I had tasted of the tapas wasn’t good in comparison to what I had eaten earlier.  They said we were going to go straight out after Flamenco but instead we spent a good hour looking for a place to eat then settled on this place that wasn’t very good. One girl just started crying in the middle of the street because she hadn’t talked to her mom since she got on the ship.  I need to mention that these are all 20 year old people and there was ZERO alcohol in anyone’s system…trust me I’m as confused about it as you are.  I was literally praying that Danielle and Laura would pass so that I could ditch this group and go with them….which unfortunately never happened.

I feel like every night starts out in such a bad place and then comes around…I knew there was no way I would want to meet locals with these girls because they are embarrassing and really judgmental. They didn’t want to leave La Ramblas..but all the bars on La Ramblas are so American, and if I wanted to drink in America I would have just stayed in Pensacola or San Francisco.  There are a bunch of bar crawl promoters on La Ramblas and we kept turning them down, but one of them was very good at his job and offered us extras. We thought about it and decided to do it SAVED MY NIGHT…kind of. The girls were still lame, but I made really good friends with the promoter. His name was Chris and he was from England. We bonded and he talked about his girlfriend who took his baby to America and I talked a little about Kainoa. He watched out for us and upgraded our drinks to cocktails which was nice. I even made him some extra money by recruiting a good group of people to do the bar crawl.  First mistake was babying the girls I was with.  They already were looking down on me just for talking to people and making friends with the promoter...then they refused to drink their drinks and didn’t pay Chris’s commission. He brought the 15 euro cover down to 13 and forfeit his commission for us…I paid it anyway because he deserved it, but some of the girls didn’t want to which I thought was really rude and ungrateful.  ANYWAYS. Chris hooked it up and got us into the club earlier than the rest of the people in the pub crawl. We went into the VIP section and got champagne service. Coolest part was that when they brought out the champagne there were sparklers on them…yea we were in a VIP club with fireworks and champagne… FOR FREE. After our last drink the girls didn’t even want to dance and we left 5 minutes later. So lame. But it was a great night yet again.  Made friends with another “local” He’d lived in Spain for 2 years and basically told me his whole life story. He took his job very seriously and even dressed in a dress shirt and tie. Most promoters on La Ramblas were total douches but Chris saved my night from a group of really lame girls who complain way too much and cry about nothing.  I know it sounds like I had a bad night, but I had such a great time and considering the circumstances, that’s a good night to me =)

Day 3 was officially the best. Technically it was 3 and 4 because we just stayed up the whole night since it was the last day. Woke up very late and went shopping again. Laura and I bought hammocks which is going to be soooo awesome in Italy! (to be continued on that one…) Went back and took a quick nap and got ready to go see Kaskade. Pretty much everyone on the ship was going to this Kaskade concert. We went to Port Olympic first (where we were the first night) with Laura, Danielle, Paige, Lisa, and Jake. Hung out around there until 1am (when Club Opium opened) I didn’t drink very much just because of how much I’d had the night before and since we were dancing and there was a good chance of getting separated, I wanted to be on alert.  The music was awesome we danced ALL NIGHT until the club closed at 5:30am. Found a bunch of people from the ship and having Jake with us was awesome. His strategy for getting creepers away was by far my favorite I’ve ever seen. We give “the signal” and he comes over and grinds up on the guy until he gets weirded out and leaves…definitely one of the more entertaining parts of the night.  Paige and Lisa were really tired so they went back when the club closed, but we planned on staying up all night, so we went to the beach and watched the sunrise. Barcelona at sunrise was fun.  We put our feet in the water and just feeling the sand between my toes was exactly what I needed.  There were a bunch of other people sitting in groups and talking about their night. There was a guy doing fire poi balls on the beach which was AWESOME to watch.  We sat there for a good couple hours and talked and then a guy walked up and we just talked story with him for a while. His name was Tarantino (like Quentin Tarantino) and he was from Brussels. We went over to his group and met Fredriko from Argentina, another guy from Belgium whose sister went to UH last year and a girl from Italy whose name was way too hard to remember.  We talked to them until around 9am and then we left together to get food. Went on the subway to Alphons X which was the neighborhood they lived in. They went up to their apartment while we got pastries and brought us jackets (we were still in our club clothes and it was pretty cold).  Tarantino loved to talk about politics and the Belgium guy really liked hip-hop and would randomly just start beatboxing. Laura was IN LOVE with Tarantino haha. She and Danielle were like 10 year old girls with a crush it was HILARIOUS to watch.  After getting the jackets we went to this park and just talked and got to know each other. It was so interesting talking to so many people from such different places. Hard to explain everything and why it was so amazing, but we really just had great conversation for hours and I feel like I learned so much about the culture. It got to be about 11am and they were obviously tired, so they went to sleep and we went to get some café con leche (delicious). Made our way back on the subway to the ship changed our clothes and left for Parc Guell.  First we went to get some food. Jake and I shared a huge thing of Paella and we had some Tapas and more water. We got lucky and the metro station was right next to the restaurant we were at and started our last (and best) adventure in Barcelona.  Getting on the subway we were definitely so sleep-deprived it turned loopy haha. A man with an accordion and his partner with a drum started walking through the subway car and it was so funny and awesome. We started dancing and pretending we were a carousel. So much fun. Gave them a few euro coins before they left the car.  Made it to the stop for Parc Guell and walked out….in case you didn’t know, Parc Guell is at the top of a HUGE hill. Reminded me of the time we walked to Coit Tower in San Francisco but was so much more tiring because we climbed this hill sleep deprived, dehydrated, and in the sun.  It was so worth it though. Even though I’d been to Parc Guell before,  I had forgotten more of the detail of it and the other people I was with really would have missed out if they didn’t go. Parc Guell is this park that Gaudi designed with all these really unique and crazy buildings and landscape.  Not to mention it give you an unforgettable view of the city.  We went the long way around apparently and made it up to the highest point with the cross.  There was a man with a guitar and crazy glasses gettin down on his guitar. It was a fun time dancing up there with the great breeze.  We made it over to the center where the Hansel & Gretel house is and took some pictures (will share when I have good internet and can upload pictures) We had to leave in kind of a hurry because Laura had an FDP at 4pm and on-ship time was at 6, so we caught a cab. All of us passed out on the cab and we got totally ripped off. I am 99% positive that when we fell asleep she drove in circles. It was like a 5 euro nap, but split between 4 people it wasn’t too bad. At one point she GOT OUT OF THE CAB at the stop sign…I was just so confused and I wasn’t sure if it was actually happening or if I was dreaming it and it wasn’t until we got to port that we got out and said “were we driving in circles?” and we all agreed we were. We laughed all the way to the ship… then passed out.

Viva Barcelona!!

Danced hard. Feet hurt. Dirty. Bruised. and Smiling.

Stumbled in at 7am this morning. I LOVE BARCELONA! Everything they do here makes so much sense. They take it easy but party hard. Loving the naps in the middle of the day and partying till the sun comes up.


Drinks last night:
Sangria (daytime)
Sex on the Beach
Mojito (my first)
A taste of Rum and Lemon (surprisingly good)
Rum and Coke (served seperately. a tall glass of rum and a bottle of coke YES!)


After the girls came back Laura, Lisa, Danielle, and I went out to La Ramblas and walked around. Stopped and got some tapas & sangria (delicious!) and just talked story for a couple of hours.  Last night was one of the most fun and crazy night I've gone out. Started out rough (way too many people with us and too many disagreements and not enough alcohol) but once we split up and had less people the night got crazy fun. I had to wear heels because the only other shoes I had were Jesus slippers, so we're going out shopping today to get me some decent shoes. I woke up with so many bruises from falling over. Now I know what Caroline felt like :P We met a group of Spanish people who spoke AMAZING English and they showed us around. That was a life saver because if we didn't find them it probably would have been a horrible night of wandering and looking for clubs. The clubs here are very American. We asked if these were just touristy bars, but they said all clubs play American music which was kind of a bummer. Lost a friend who made the stupid mistake of going to the beach with a guy (which we were told specifically not to do) We held his ID to make sure he'd bring her back in one piece, but he convinced her that she left her bag with us....which she did not do. Luckily there wasn't much in there and she came back right around the time the bars were closing.  He disappeared right after he got his ID back. Danielle ended up finding someone who spoke French and they had a lovely conversation. One of the Spanish guys who was showing us around ended up getting into this intense political debate with the guy who spoke French. It wasn't malicious or anything, but it was so interesting to hear. They were talking about the independence of Catalonia. SO AWESOME. The French guy was translating to Danielle and another Spanish guy was translating to English for me. Caught a glimpse of the sun as we rode a cab back to the ship. Such an awesome experience. Can't wait for round 2 tonight.

Monks and Mountains

Guess what.....I'M IN BARCELONA!!!

Haven't gotten to wander the city much. Had a field trip first thing in the morning and we went up to Montserrat where the Monastery is. The mountain was unreal. It was like a cobblestone mountain. Rocky but the rocks were smooth.  The line was wayy too long to see the Black Madonna so I'm a little bummed about that, but places like this just make me feel so small and insignificant.  One of the monks came out and led a song and Paige stumbled into a confessional at the end of someone's time and ended up sharing a laugh with the monk when he came out. 

So it's official, I don't like structured tours or tourbusses...yea you get there faster, but I really wanted to go on the train and I didn't like that we only had 2 hours to wander around.  It made sense to skip the Black Madonna, but I would have stood in the long line if I could have left whenever I felt like it...for an hour drive there and back, I want to be able to stay as long as I feel like. I feel like complaining because we were told we were staying 2 hours later, and we didn't really get what we paid for....next time I'm just going on my own.

We got back like 2 hours early, so we're waiting for the other girls to get back and then go get Tapas :) Mucho Excited!

Gibraltar!

I wrote that with a British accent, so if you didn't already, please reread the title a la 'arry Potter =)

We are docked at Gibraltar "bunkering" more fuel. On the way into the Mediterranean you could see both Africa from one side of the ship and Europe from the other side. It was so foggy and far away that it just looked like two land masses, but it's a weird thing to be between two continents. We're in this peninsula of Spain so both sides have land and a fuel boat is attached to ours to get more fuel. It's pretty exciting! The fuel carrier is right outside my window. I noticed that I started taking pictures out of my window, so when I am able to post pictures I think I'll have a "view from my window" thing. It's strange to think seeing land is cool..but everyone on the ship is outside checking it out and it really is an amazing thing to see. I'm really excited to get out.

Barcelona in TWO DAYS!! I can't wait to get off this ship. It's still so unreal that in two days I'll actually be in another country instead of in classes. I think I did alright on both my tests. I think I did well on Global Studies, but there's really no way to know until I get the grade. My history class is a total joke. I really don't like the professor, it's obvious that he's not here to really teach us anything and he just wanted a free ride to the Mediterranean. He came to class late, talked about nothing then put quiz questions on the board and just left the room. Not to mention he called out all of the people with learning disabilities in front of the entire class. It's kind of bullshit, but the class is easy so I don't really care.

Writing my 3rd poem and I love the assignment but it's making me homesick. The assignment was to go through old pictures and write about one we haven't seen in a while. Of course I went to the Europe pics of me and Kainoa..then on to the really old pictures of Keilana. I watched some of the videos she and I made together and they are so funny. It's really crazy to see how little she was and it's even weirder how big she is now. Most of the videos she's only talking a little baby talk and mostly using sounds...now I don't think that girl is ever quiet haha. I forgot all about when me and her would sing Disney songs and run around in the rain. Feeling very nostalgic so far. I'm hoping I get a little adventure in me soon!!

Who wants a postcard?

Studying 101

Sooooo update: I have forgotten how to study

2 tests today (wish me luck!) and I've seriously been attempting to study, and I can't believe how impossible it is. I get distracted with every noise outside and the rocking makes me so sleepy. If I leave the room there's just wayyyy too much stuff going on (people walking around, music, club meetings) It is cruel and unusual to have tests in this type of environment after only 7 days of class. I'm a little concerned about my tests, but one is multiple choice and shouldn't be that hard. History is a whole nother story because I really just can't find some of the study terms (not even on wikipedia!) We'll see how this goes...

Cabin Fever

I just realized I haven’t posted since the first day of classes…right now we’re on day 5 but it feels like I’ve been here for weeks. I definitely have a love/hate relationship to my poetry class. First assignment was awesome, second assignment was nerve racking. He wanted us to get all deeply emotional and that’s definitely the opposite of what I’ve been trying to do since I left Kainoa so it’s a nice little battle between me and poetics.

I’m in history class now…so that’s pretty telling of how I feel about it. The teacher bounces all over the place. Doesn’t even know when the time changes (we lose an hour almost every night) and we’re his 4th class of a really long day.
Global Studies is somewhere in between. I find the information interesting and the professor is really dynamic, but it’s in the worst classroom and I fall asleep everytime. Today I had to skip it so that I could finish my poem =/
The first video is up on the SAS youtube page (I’ll post the link when I get it). I didn’t help too much with it, I did some of the B-Roll and I little interview in it at the end because our girl intervewees never showed up. My supervisor, Mike basically did everything though.

I’m starting to really like life on the ship, but at the same time it’s getting kind of crazy. Cabin fever is setting in. I have become pretty good friends with one of my roommates (Rebecca). I still get along with the other one (Sylvia) pretty well but we don’t hang out as often.  I eat dinner with Jenny and Danielle (2 girls from the Bahamas Villa) pretty much everyday and then we sometimes play games later at night with a group of other girls.

The ship was pretty rocky for a couple days. I started to get a little seasick, but I’m all good now. This morning we passed an island. Not sure what island it was, but it was weird seeing an island in the middle of the Atlantic. After we passed the island the water looked so surreal. I can’t even explain how silky the ocean looked. I took a picture and a video (a la Double Rainbow guy) because just the smoothness of it was tripping me out.

I’m excited to get to Spain! I cancelled my Ibiza trip because I haven’t talked to the girls and it was going to be a huge waste of money (I found out the cover for most clubs is about $50) Me and my group of friends bought tickets to see Kaskade in Barcelona which will be just enough partying for me instead of 3 straight days of it.  I’m excited to get to Barcelona again and explore it without all the touring and the structure.  Hopefully someone I know speaks Spanish =/

As I mentioned earlier, we lose an hour of sleep almost everyday, so we’re functioning on 23 hour days. Of course I’m still a night owl and sometimes don’t get to sleep until 1 or 2 in the morning just because we’re eating cookies or playing board games. Last night it was taboo! The piano bar has this really awesome Japanses root beer…it is heaven (especially after the cookies!)

First day of classes

We started classes yesterday and I’m already thinking I’m crazy for doing this. We have 3 classes a day, EVERYDAY. I’m happy I brought my glasses because the amount of reading we do per night is insane.  I was completely overwhelmed yesterday after the introductions.  I’m taking Poetics of Travel, Italy and the Mediterranean in the Age of Renaissance, and the required Global Studies course.  I’m on my lunch break right now and this will probably be the only free time I get.

Yesterday my poetry class had me very scared for the upcoming week, but after the second class I think I am going to really like this class.  The professor is cool (you know those pensive poetic types) and the reading wasn’t so bad.  The writing assignments are going to be challenging, but in the good way.  I think this class is going to stretch my brain and force me to think about the places I’m travelling to in ways I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m thankful for the crazy part of me who thought an everyday poetry class would be fun. 
So far Global Studies is extremely boring. I’m not used to lecture style classes because we don’t have those at USF. We literally sit in a room with about 300 other people and he just talks. Yesterday he talked about logistics of the ship. It was literally all numbers like how many people live here, what happens to our water, how much fuel we use, how fast we go. Which is interesting, but definitely not what I want to be sitting through right after lunch in the room that is known for rocking you to sleep. The professor for that class seems energetic, so I’m hoping day 2 is a little more interesting.

The history class is the boogie man of the group.  I am scared sh*tless of that class.  There will be so much reading and memorization required for that I really don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for this.  Overall I’m supposed to be reading about 100 pages per night, which is literally impossible to do while still getting a decent amount of sleep and finishing work for my other classes.  I hope he covers enough in the lectures so that I don’t have to read EVERYTHING or else that class will be a nightmare.

I’m happy that we’ve started classes. I feel like I’m going to learn a lot about myself and the places we’re going. It’s definitely overwhelming to have class everyday and the days seem to go on forever. I feel like I’ve been on the ship for weeks, but it’s only been 3 or 4 days. (HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD!!) I started to get a little homesick, but it’s mostly better now.  I wish I had come on the ship knowing just one person because right now it feels like I’m in a completely different universe. It would have been nice to have just 1 familiar person with me.

I don’t know if I already posted this, but please send me emails. They are really fun for me to read before I go to bed and makes me feel like I’m still on planet Earth :P my email is smjohnston@semesteratsea.net I may not be able to reply right away, but I will eventually.

Smooth Sailing

This is going to be a long one, so you might want to save this post for when you have some time...
I moved onto the ship 2 days ago (June 16th) and have been pleasantly surprised ever since I left the villa.  My cab driver was the best from all of the Bahamas. That cab ride was the perfect end to the Bahamas because my driver was down-to-earth and actually had a conversation with me. We compared Hawaii to the Bahamas and he talked about the new building that was going on.  I really wish I could have talked to him longer because the entire time in the Bahamas I was curious about how the local people felt about the extreme amount of tourism there.

Since I got this sweet work-study position, I got to move on the ship a day earlier than everyone else. I literally just walked right onto the ship. No lines or waiting at all. I didn't realize how much of a blessing that was until the next day when I was filming the line all day. People waited for HOURS in the heat and I got to bypass all that, unpack, and pick my bed before anyone else.  I'm in a triple, and being economy, I was expecting a closet. I lucked out AGAIN. I got put onto deck 4 so we have one of the bigger cabins with a WINDOW. Some people paid about $2000 more than we did and didn't even get that! My roommates are Rebecca and Sylvia. They are both really nice. Luckily none of us brought a lot of stuff, so we all fit pretty well. Our cabin is actually pretty spacious for sharing with two other people.

I'm a little nervous about my job because so far it's been pretty demanding. The first day I had to work from 7am to a little after noon in the sun with very few breaks.  Since I'm the Videographer's Assistant, I kind of have to be there whenever something needs to be filmed. By the end of it, I was exhausted. I think I either have allergies or I'm sick, which is really unfortunate.  Yesterday, everyone else came onto the ship and it got a lot more crowded. It was nice to get to hang out with the other work-study people the day before because I am actually familiar with a good amount of people.  I have 3 other people that sort of work with me. We are the Communications Department, and there's 1 Photographer's Assistant and 2 Communications Assistants. We all work in the same room and somewhat work together. I actually have my poetry class with one of them, Jeremy, so that should be pretty cool.

We haven't started any classes yet. Instead we've been in meetings ALL DAY LONG. These are the most brutal. Sitting in what they call "the Union" for hours and listening to people talk about Honor Codes and Safety and Plagiarism is even more difficult when the boat is rocking back and forth. I've been so sleepy. My roommates and I have been taking naps almost every break that we get. I've never slept this well.  It's a little bad that I'm not out being social, but my body needs the rest and I've been meeting people at other times. 

More GREAT news. When I was going from station to station making sure I had all my forms filled out I was given a piece of paper that was kind of like a checklist. First I went to the accounts table because I was curious about when I had to pay the rest of my tuition. On the paper it had the amount still due (after my scholarship and work-study grant) it said "Amount due: $5995" which I was expecting.. What I wasn't expecting was that right below that it said "Aid pending: $5995" I had to read it about three times, I couldn't believe the bottom of the page that said "Balance : $0" I was completely speechless. My eyes got really big and I guess my face was weird because my supervisor looked at me and asked if I was okay. I said "I'm better than okay! I just found out I'm doing this voyage for FREE!" I'm not sure how much of it is grants and how much is loans, but I'm so blessed in so many ways to be able to actually have money to spend while I'm in the ports now. 

Pictures!!

added in pictures to some of the older blogs. Not sure if I'll be able to upload any while on the ship. If not, you'll just have to take a looksy after I get back :)

Sunshine and Frogs

Yesterday was my last FULL day in the Bahamas. I'm getting on the ship around 1pm today!!

In the daytime we went to the beach at the Sheraton which is a short bus ride away. I was smart this time and loaded up on sunscreen before we left. It was only 3 of us because some of the girls went on a stingray adventure, and another just wanted to stay home.  At first we all just laid out in the sun and went swimming. The water here is so shallow and goes on forever, so it was more like sitting in the water than swimming.

Probably shouldn't have laid out for so long because we all ended up running out of water.  It was funny because after overhearing other people's conversations we were surrounded by other SASers  and ended up staying out in the sun ALOT longer than we thought.  Me and Danielle got thirsty and the cheapest thing close by were coconut drinks. What's funny is that even though I'm from Hawai'i, I've never had a coconut drink...until yesterday =)

It got to the point where we were so burned we HAD TO go back to the villa and escape the sun. I was so red, but luckily this morning most of the redness has again faded to tan. I'm a little worried about my shoulders and parts of my arms because I scratched and now it's really itchy =/ But I'm hoping a few days with less sun will heal it all right up. Definitely should have packed that aloe vera. 

Later that night we decided to go out to Senor Frogs, but drinks at the bar are wayyyy to expensive, so we went to the duty free liquor store and got a bottle for $10 and mixed it with some McDonalds soda (Being the classy ladies we are) unfortunately I'm not in the picture, because I was taking it :P

As we were drinking we got minorly scammed by some boys giving us puka shells (we already knew what was happening, but didn't really mind) I told him all I had was change and he said okay...dumped my coin purse in his hand and he came back and complained that there were pennies in there. Part of the Bahamas experience I guess.. Definitely don't need more puka shells, but no big deal.

We just walked right in to Senor Frogs and they didn't charge us cover because they thought we were already inside (awesome way to save $10) walk in and their doing the shot line. Which is when they stand on chairs and pour shots in your mouth as people walk through in a conga line. Very fun, but that was my last drink of the night since we're in a foreign country and all. We danced for a while but then the music got lame. They played "We Will Rock You" at least 4 times and it was obvious that some girls don't know how to handle their alcohol because I'm calling the last half of the night the "night of the sloppy bitches" One girl took her top off in a booty shaking competition. At the end of the night, one got carried out with no shoes or panties on...another got lost and I later saw her get into a local guys car....Kind of scary that some girls are so unsafe when they drink especially when they are in an unfamiliar place.  Definitely happy that I went, because it reinforced that I can't get too drunk and I can't depend on another girl to take care of me because one girl in our group was trying to get us to leave another one just because "it's not her fault she's drunk." Maybe that's a cultural difference. She wasn't sloppy..just slow to leave, and it made me really uncomfortable to have to argue with someone just to wait for our other housemate.

Overall, I met a lot of SASers today at the beach and at Senor Frogs and learned three very important lessons

1. always wear sunscreen

2. always be sober enough to take care of yourself

3. don't trust other people to look after you or your things

things I already knew, but doesn't hurt to remember before going on a trip like this.

Burn Baby Burn

So I may possibly be sunburned but luckily every morning it fades from red to tan :) hoping to keep that pattern alive for the rest of the summer. The sun here is ridiculously strong. I'm wearing sunscreen and still gettin a pretty red. I'm mostly back to my normal shade of brown/yellow. I practically forgot what it was like to have tan lines!

The driver on the bus goes..

Had the most interesting bus ride yesterday (which is saying something because I live in San Francisco where MUNI always an experience).  We were waiting across the street from our condo for the other half of our group. The bus NEVER stops at that stop, but for some reason one of the buses passed us. Seeing that we were all dressed up to go to dinner he stopped the bus and asked us if we wanted a ride not like a bus driver would, but how a guy wanting to pick-up a bunch of hitchhiking girls. We tried to explain that we were waiting for our friends but then he pulls the bus on the side of the road and says "go get um" the three of us are kind of just stunned and we just stand there looking at each other. I realize that he really isn't going to move that bus without us on it so I cross the street to go get them. Luckily they were at the end of the street so I yelled "Hurry up the bus is here!" and they start running (HILARIOUS) so we get on the bus and wait for them.

that's not all folks. We round the corner and he starts bumping the radio (American radio by the way) and honking at girls on the street. Every time he stops or slows down he break checks to kind of make the bus do hydrolics (and in time with the music too!) He starts doing it again with no real reason to stop or slow down, and then fully stops the bus next to 2 Bahamian girls walking in workout clothes with earphones in and honks at them. he says "Hey beautifuls" and the girls laugh and then the rest of what they said I couldn't hear. I couldn't believe he literally stopped the bus to, as an old roommate would say "holler at bitches" I suppose they ended their conversation because she put her earphone back in and we continued our bus ride.  Later on he was talking out the side of his window with the car next to him, and when I say talking I mean like PODAGEE talking with the hands and everything all out the window. I also didn't know that the "bus"here is more like a big van and the funny thing is that when this BIG guy came on the bus and there were no more seats and he just came next to me and pulled on my arm rest. Little did I know that that turned into a chair and blocked the rest of the aisle. Someone in the back seat needed to get off at the next stop and everyone in the aisle seats had to get up to let her out. Twas a very interesting experience and probably the most uniquely Bahamian experience I've had here (because beaches, touristy restaurants, and $500/night hotel lobbies aren't really my thang)


So even outside of San Fran, the most unique and interesting experiences are to be found on the bus :)   I honestly wish I could have taken a picture with the bus driver, but we got off at the last stop and in the interest of safety I didn't want him to think of it as an open invitation (Are you listening Dad?)

Bahama Mama

The Bahamas is like a less American version of home. It's Hawaii but without the Walmart and it's wayy easier to tell who is local and who is a tourist because all the locals are very black. I don't know if I really like it because just from knowing about the exploitation of Hawai'i it's kind of upsetting that I'm contributing to that here.

Being at the beach is awesome. It's beautiful and warm.  I love being in the sun and it kind of reminds me of home...problem with that is that it's making me extremely homesick :(

eh the first week is usually the hardest. I'll get over it soon enough

My first day we went to Paradise Island (Atlantis beach)

7 girls, 1 house

So living with 7 girls from other parts of America is probably more of a culture shock than the rest of the ship will be. 

Other people's cultural norms are very very different than mine or what I've seen from other people.  It's kind of surprising, and some things are disappointing. I expected for a majority of the girls on this trip to be White girls, but just kinda shocking how true some of the stereotypes are..

it's mostly unnoticeable and most of the girls are really nice. I'm having a good time for the most part, but it's kinda like I'm hanging out with a bunch of tourists back home. One girl in particular is pretty racist against Asians...not like she hates Asians but just she sees them as inferior "Asian men are ugly" "I didn't want to say this in front of you two (the other Asian girl), but my school is full of Asians and we like to joke about hitting them"

idk it's kind of weird because anytime I say something about my life they act like I'm REALLY weird (which I knew already, but it's less of an interesting weird and more of a freaky weird). One girl said that Kamehamea Schools sounded like a cult..

The worst part is I don't really know how to respond to any of it. Like my instinct was to get correct them and tell them that it's not okay to say stuff like that, but I have to live with these girls until Thursday and its kind of 6 against 1 right now. I feel like the black sheep...and I'm extra shocked that people like this are going on the SAS since it's such a cultural mixture..but then again it is Europe not Asia or Africa.


Not complaining too much, just one girl in particular who I try to stay away from in fear of screaming at her. The rest are really nice.

Talk Story

So I'm out of San Francisco after a full day of chemical cleaning and packing up my clown car haha. I am so happy that I decided to go up and visit my grandpa instead of staying in the city and partying it up.

I will look back on visiting Grandpa before I left for the summer as one of the best decisions I ever made.  I had such an amazing time, I don't think I've ever bonded with my Grandpa this much in my entire life.  We talked story for hours and I learned so much about my Grandpa's life and his relationship with his family in Kahakuloa, my Grandma, my mom and my aunties and uncles.  I was surprised by how enlightening his stories were to the times he lived in and the struggles he and my Grandma faced raising 7 kids and being separated for a majority of their marriage with very little money.  Everyone already knows my Grandpa was kinda a bad ass...but now it's official, my Grandma is a SUPER WOMAN! I'll look back on my visit with Grandpa as a great beginning and a major highlight of an eventful summer.  I'm blessed to have such an awesome family, I'm lucky to be a part of it.

My grandpa drove me 2 hours back down to San Francisco for my flight...and when I got there I found out my flight was canceled 2 days ago! Needless to say I was pissed when they ended up shuttling my down to San Jose (because I could have saved Grandpa the drive and flown out of Sacramento). Lucky for Kainoa, I only got to Pensacola an hour and half late. When I got there Kainoa called me and surprised me at the airport.

I've spent a majority of today watching a Law & Order SVU Marathon and researching stuff for Semester at Sea. Hopefully this blog will post automatically to facebook since I spent a good deal of time figuring that out today...Maybe next weekend I'll get to see the beach here to compare to back home =)

Grandpa time :)

Movin' on Out

Sooo moving out of my apartment has turned into one of the most stressful experiences of this year.

Buuuut there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and good news....the light is shining on some really awesome stuff :) After we do the walk through with the landlord I get to go see my Grandpa!! (can you say full stomach?) Then he's going to keep my car and drive me back on Friday for my flight to Pensacola! I spend about 2 weeks there, so I'll still have my phone and normal internet access until I go to the Bahamas on June 12. Me and a group of girls rented out a condo on HomeAway and I'm pretty sure that there's internet there too, but no phone.  I get on the ship a day early (June 16) because I got this really sweet work study position as a "Videographer's Assistant" and hopefully the work is as fun as it sounds. 

If anyone wants postcards let me know, I'm writing down the addresses and I'm going to send them all at once at each port.  I'll post my email when I get it, but in the meantime here is the link to the addresses in case you want to send me something. Make sure you put a return address on it (in case it gets there late)

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/summer-2011/summer-2011-staying-in-touch.php


and just for kicks here's the rest of the voyage info

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/upcoming-voyages/summer-2011.php

Once upon a time...

...there was a college student named Stacey. She got this really great opportunity to study on Semester at Sea for Summer 2011.  Though it is extremely expensive, she decided that this life-changing experience was worth the debt (and the extra work trying to fundraise) in order to go to:

Barcelona, Spain

Naples/Civitavecchia, Italy

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

Varna, Bulgaria

Istanbul, Turkey

Casablanca, Morocco

If you want to help me out, then donate using paypal to http://staceyatsea.chipin.com/semester-at-sea buy a lei (flower, money, or candy), reserve a ride to the airport, or offer up any other weird ideas you have to make money.

As of right now, I'm leaving SF on May 27 to visit Kainoa in Florida, then off to the Bahamas on June 12 before getting on the ship on the 17th.  I'm starting to make plans for while we are in port, so let me know if you have any must-see sites or must-eat cuisines :)

I'll be posting on this blog throughout my trip so.... "to be continued..."