PURA VIDA COSTA RICA!!

            After finishing finals, every student on the ship was ready to get to Costa Rica. It was a long stretch between Hawaii and Costa Rica, and a somewhat stressful one at that. Finals were fine- I didn’t have the pressure of getting A’s on everything since I was doing well in my classes, so it wasn’t a huge deal. I wound up doing well on them all, and getting credit for all of my classes on Semester at Sea! A lot of people bitch and complain about finals, but it’s part of school, so we just went along with it. Plus, a few nights before finals began, my group of friends signed up for Fine Dining, which is a fancy dinner that you can sign up for on the ship. It is $25 and a 4 course meal, which was delicious. It was definitely a nice break from dining hall food, and it was fun to get dressed up.

            The night before getting to Costa Rica they showed Elf in the Union on the big screen, which got us all really in the mood for Christmas. After that we stayed up for about 3 hours singing Christmas carols…it was lovely. How weird that the next morning we would be in sunny, 80 degree weather where it would feel so far from Christmas..

Anyway, we anchored around 8am and the tendering process began around 9. During tendering, there is no dock that is big enough for our ship to port, so we have to take the 100 passenger tender boats to shore. It is a hassle, but it sent rather smoothly this time, and I was on the 4^th tender. We were scheduled to meet the rafting company at the pier and there were 29 of us. Once we were all together, we piled into two different vans with our guides Kristen, Matt & Scott. They were all from the States…Kristen and Matt had lived down there for 3 years and Scott had just moved down there three weeks ago! We had about an hour ride to the place where we went zip lining! We did a total of 10 lines I think, and they were all tons of fun. I had been zip lining in France several years ago, but these were higher and longer lines so it was fun. Each time it felt like I was going to smack into the platform on the landing, but the guides stopped us every time! It was really fun and took probably about an hour and a half to get through the first section. Then we all climbed up a tower to do the Superman line, which was by far the coolest one. We had to wear full body harnesses, and we were attached to the zip line while laying on our stomachs. Difficult to explain, but just think of it as us being in the superman position. The line was probably a minute long and we reached speeds up to 70 mph!! At the end of the line we had to put our arms out beside us to build up some resistance to slow us down, but I came BOOKING in and was really nervous, but they stopped me! All it all it was a great afternoon. We had lunch there – chicken and rice and fried plantanes…delicious.

We got back in the buses for another three hours before reaching our hotel. Basically we drove from the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica all the way to the Caribbean Coast. We weren’t exactly on the coast, but we went pretty far. The countryside was BEAUTIFUL and the ride was so pretty. We got to the hotel for a fabulous meal of Garlic Bread, rice, chicken, potatoes – it was really delicious. The owners of the bar were from the States and they were a blast. We all hung out for awhile that night- there was a pool and a sauna – it was a good, relaxing time. Cindy, the owner, had all of these silly games planned that reminded me of the Feredjian’s Halloween parties (shout out to Honeysuckle). The next morning we woke up and had yet another delicious Costa Rican meal of eggs and rice and some other stuff…then loaded up the vans to head to the river!
            We broke down into our raft groups…6 people plus one guide. My raft was Steph, Lacey, Daneka, Brittany, Paul and myself. Our guides name was Danny and right from the beginning we knew he would give us a good time. The last time I went white water rafting was back in 7^th grade when I used to go to camp in Oregon and we would spend a day going down Hood River. I loved it back then, so I was really excited to be doing this again! The water was pleasantly refreshing – not too cold and the weather was beautiful. We saw lots of different wildlife – mostly birds as we made our way down the river. I think the biggest rapids were Class 3 or 4…they were fun. No one ever unintentionally fell out of our raft, but we would jump out every so often and ride the rapid down. For one of them we intentionally flipped the raft which was quite the adrenaline rush with everyone out of the raft and having to flip it over – that was probably my favorite part! There was one section where we pulled the rafts on to the shore and climbed up a little ways and were able to jump in and ride the “human rapids” down. I think we were out on the river for about 3 or 4 hours so it was a solid day. At one point Danny asked us what we were doing with the rest of our time in Costa Rica and we said we were headed to the city of Jaco that night. He gave us a look, and we asked him what Jaco was like. He said three words: Drugs, prostitutes and theft. We knew we’d be in for a treat later on…

After we got out of the river and got changed into dry clothes we loaded back on the buses for a little while and stopped at a really good restaurant for lunch. We sat out on the porch and the view overlooking the river was beautiful. And surprise, surprise…the food was delicious.

We had about a 3 or 4 hour ride to Jaco from there…some of us slept, I played travel battleship for a lot of the time, and I got to know Scott, one of the guides pretty well. He had quite the story of traveling around from place to place – usually on a whim. He had never been to Costa Rica before, but knew about the rivers and the guide industry. So he looked around online for a little while, shot an email to Matt & Kristen at Pacuare River Tours and they said come on down. So he did, and he sublets a room from them and so far he loves it down there.

Half of our group actually went back to Puntarenas while the rest of us headed to Jaco. We got there around 8pm or so, and had plans of meeting up with our friends at Hotel Tangerie at 930pm. Scott decided to stay and hang out with us for the night since he didn’t want to ride the bus all the way back to San Jose and figured he would just take one the next day. So a group of about 8 of us went to grab a quick bite at Subway before meeting Sam, Stacey, Peter & Erica at the hotel. We had a villa reserved there, and we actually wound up getting another one since there were 12 of us total.

The night was eventful – we ran into all three of the incidents that Danny said we would…numerous times. It was an interesting city and was much more unsafe than we had anticipated. Throughout the night there were several incidents involving SAS students…I had money stolen. Scott had his money, watch & camera stolen. One of my friends got mugged and literally dragged to the ground. Almost everyone got offered drugs at one point or another…it was quite eventful. But despite all of that we had a really good time and it was our last night in port together. Dani (roommate) and I ran into each other, which was fun because that never happens, so we got to hang out for awhile. The night ended late…or early….however you want to look at it, with watching the sunrise over the beach. No one wanted to go to sleep since it was our last night out together. We slept for about 2 or 3 hours before waking up to go grab a delicious breakfast right down the street at Coffee Zone. We were going to catch the bus back to Puntarenas at 130pm so for that morning/afternoon we just laid out by the pool…the boys went surfing in the ocean..or at least attempted to. It was really relaxing and a beautiful day that we didn’t want to end because we didn’t want to get back on the ship. Scott caught an early afternoon bus back to San Jose and thanked us for a good couple of days. We thanked him also and we all wished each other the best of luck. It is strange to look back on all of the people like Scott that we had met during the way. All of our tour guides and homestay hosts…people who we only spent a day or two with but had such a blast and such a big impact on our adventures. We’ve made a lot of friends outside SAS on this journey and I am forever thankful for that because they have enriched my experiences so much. Well back in Puntarenas we grabbed a quick lunch (I had a delicious salad) before doing some souvenir shopping and boarding the ship around 4pm. I showered and unpacked and Lacey and I watched a few episodes of Grey’s…right after the 8pm presentation about the Panama Canal, I had to call it a night. I was exhausted. I slept right through until breakfast the next morning…went up to the deck to lay out right after breakfast and fell asleep out there until noon. I clearly had some catching up to do.

The Ambassador’s Bal was that evening, which is more or less like a prom. I was sitting at a table of 4 with Ben, Mitch and Lacey and the rest of the crew was right next to us at a table of 6. The dining room was decorated beautifully and transformed in a way that made it look nothing like our dining hall. The meal was awesome…I actually had filet mingon- what is the world coming to? Haha. There was a good soup and tasty spring roll appetizer. Of course all of the boys complained that it wasn’t enough food, but it was delicious. They had a dance afterwards and a slide show that was playing in the Piano Bar…it was a really nice night. I wore the dress that I had tailored in Vietnam and although it was a little big and I had to safety pin it in order to keep it on, I got lots of compliments and was happy with it. I’ll take it to the tailor to get altered when I get home- but it’s a keeper! Everyone looked good because a lot of girls got dresses in Vietnam, and a lot of guys had suits made so everyone was decked out. It was lovely! Some boys had ridiculous suits on…like leopard print or bright orange….it was fun!

Time is coming to an end…only a few more days left aboard the MV Explorer…how weird!

Thanksgiving in Hawaii!

Aloha! Thanksgiving in Hawaii was one that I will never forget because it barely felt like Thanksgiving at all! A group of ten of us attempted to sleep out on the deck the night before pulling into Honolulu so we would wake up to the sunrise…but it wasn’t quite that successful. I think we tried going to bed around midnight, and it was WINDY. I could not fall asleep for the life of me…and I was awake as I slowly but surely watched the flies drop. First Chad, then Steph…awhile passed before Greg, then Peter…a little while longer and Mitch and Shannon went in. Around 330am I called it quits. I still wasn’t really tired, but I wanted to sleep, and it wasn’t going to happen out there. So I went down to my cabin and got my find and started walking around the ship seeing if we could pick up land signals yet. No dice. But I was extremely surprised at the number of people who were up and about at 4am. The computer lab was almost full…and people were in the dining halls hanging out, playing games. I was shocked. Well I crawled into bed a little after 4am and woke up at 620 to see the sunrise over Honolulu. Turned out that Ben, Erica and Lacey lasted sleeping out. Ben and Erica had sleeping bags so they weren’t cold…and Lacey had a fleece blanket that she just buried herself under. We all watched the sunrise together and it was beautiful. We grabbed a quick breakfast before all showering and running down to start making phone calls!! For those of you who know me…you could only imagine how exciting this was for me. I sat up on deck 7 with just about everyone else on the ship with my phone glued to my ear until the ship was cleared, which in total gave me about 2 hours. IT WAS AWESOME to talk to my family and a couple of my friends before I even got off of the ship. I knew that this would result in my phone being dead probably by the end of the morning, haha.   

I had signed up for the Salvation Army Thanksgiving Dinner through SAS, and that was from 10-2 so I would have a solid break (probably while most people at home were eating dinner since I was still 5 hours behind) so that worked out well. We got on a bus and our driver, James, gave us a little city tour of Honolulu. It did not feel like Thanksgiving at all. The weather was sunny and in the high 80s and everyone was wearing bathing suits. The dinner (or lunch in my mind) was being held at an arena in Waikiki, and we got there around 1030am. There were only 20 of us from SAS, and we were designated as Beverage Servers. I would say that there were probably around 500 people who came to get meals that day, and we were in charge of a specific section of the arena. I have no idea how many volunteers there were, but everyone was in such a great mood and the volunteers and the people eating- everyone was so nice. They had some fun Hawaiian entertainment going on up on the stage- some dancing, singing, etc. that was fun to watch. I more or less walked around with pots of coffee for two hours just chatting with people and making sure they had all the hot coffee they wanted! Almost everyone was finished eating by about 130pm, it was a quick process with so many volunteers helping. After cleaning up, we were offered our very own Thanksgiving meal to eat! This we were not expecting, so we were extremely happy that we would get to eat some turkey on Thanksgiving! The food was really good (much better than the Thanksgiving meal that the shipped served to us a few days later) and it definitely made my day! I’m really glad I did the service project- it made the day actually feel like Thanksgiving and I knew I would still have time to go to the beach. It was a rewarding experience to help give a Thanksgiving meal to those that didn’t have somewhere to go on Thanksgiving.

            From there James brought us to a Safeway because he heard us all talk about how excited we were to buy American snacks to bring back on the ship for the rest of the trip. Since we were in Waikiki and that’s where most of our friends were (I was with Lacey) we told our trip coordinator that we were just going to find where they were and not head back to the ship with them. Steph said that they were at the beach by the Hilton so I asked a man if he was familiar with the area and could point us in the direction of the hotel. He said that in about 3 minutes him and his wife would be driving right by the Hilton and they would be happy to give us a ride. They were a nice older couple from San Jose on vacation for Thanksgiving and it was very nice of them to give us a ride to somewhere that was about ten minutes away, so it saved us a cab ride! We just keep running into these nice people everywhere we go who are willing to help us out- it makes me think that there is some hope in this world…

Well we called Steph and she said that they were actually at the Hyatt…which was quite a ways down the beach. We weren’t in any rush so we both just pulled our phones out and walked along the water and made some phone calls. We finally found them and immediately we dropped our stuff and ran into the ocean. (SO unlike me..I never go in the ocean) but it was SO calm and not that warm, but warm enough. It was really nice and relaxing and felt so good to be swimming in the ocean in Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day! After a little while they all decided to leave and go to dinner somewhere and go to Wal-Mart to get groceries, but Lacey and I just stayed at the beach and enjoyed the day. She bought her first legal drink in the US, since she turned 21 while we were in Brazil, which was pretty exciting and we hung out with other SASers on the beach and watched the sunset…it was beautiful. Obviously, my phone battery died- what a surprise. But I got to talk to a lot of people and told others I would call them later once I was able to get on the ship to charge my phone. We just hung out for awhile..on ship time as 9pm, but they were as always, encouraging us to get on early…to the point that they were giving out free internet minutes if you boarded before a certain time. We figured that would get a lot of people back early so the line wouldn’t be too long by the time we got there. We caught a cab around 730 and were easily on the ship by 745pm no problem. I plugged my phone in and jumped in the shower while it charged- then made my way up to the 7^th deck to once again talk until it died. However, by the end it was almost 2am at home…but my friends (and brother) were so wonderful that most of them answered anyway. It was a nice, short visit and nice to get off of the ship…

Well, now that I am posting this mid-December…and ready to get off the ship the timing isn’t quite accurate, but that was my Thanksgiving in Hawaii!!!

Japan PART 2!!!

For the next three days in Japan, we moved fast. There was a lot that we wanted to do and see in a very short period of time. So the second night in Japan when Ben, Lacey and I were all back at the terminal after our home stays, Ben’s host family was SO helpful with helping us buy tickets and find the bus that would take us to Hiroshima. We were going to take the train, but the bus was half the price and we would still get in before midnight, so we opted for that. They spent probably an hour total helping us find the ticket counter, and helping us find an ATM machine that worked with our cards, which was quite the challenge. Then they showed us to a grocery store so we could get some food for the bus ride. They were SO helpful and honestly I don’t think we would have successfully gotten on that bus. Once we got on they told us that there was a lady on the bus who spoke English who would help us find a hostel in Hiroshima. We had no plan set up for that, we were just going to find one using the guide book once we got to Hiroshima. But about half way through the ride the girl came to the back of the bus and said she had called a youth hostel for us and they had vacancy in a dorm room for I think $20 a person. So we thanked her endlessly and she called the hostel back and made the reservation for us since the front desk closes at 10pm and we would be getting there closer to midnight. She wrote the name of the hostel down in Japanese characters and once we got off the bus we were able to catch a cab and find it relatively easily. We were so thankful to get help from these wonderfully generous people…we almost couldn’t believe how much they went out of their ways to help us, it was really awesome.

            We had a good nights sleep at K’s Hostel which is run by young Japanese girls and we had two roommates from England who seemed very nice. We called it a night once we settled down there for a little while and go up rather early to set out for the day. We walked to the train station to go buy bullet train tickets for that evening to go up to Tokyo. The bullet train is the quickest means of transportation in Japan and is extremely efficient and rather reasonable. From the station we took a street tram over to Peace Memorial Park. There we saw all that there is to see. First the A-bomb dome which is a building that is still standing in Hiroshima as a reminder of the power that nuclear weapons have. The structure has been maintained to look as it did after the bombing and is now a World Heritage Site. We walked around the Peace Memorial Park and saw the Peace Clock Tower, the Children’s Peace Monument, the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, the Peace Bell, the Monument Dedicated to Korean Victims and Survivors, the Peace Fountain, the Friendship Monument, the Flame of Peace, Memorial Hall for the A-Bomb Victims and lastly the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was a beautiful autumn day and the park itself was gorgeous with the changing leaves and monuments everywhere. It was emotional and trying seeing all of the monuments and memorials. To read about the horrible reality and aftermath of the A-bomb was difficult and brought me back to 8^th grade when I read the book, Hiroshima. All of the accounts told by the author came rushing back to my memory, and I could not believe that I was standing in the very place that the first nuclear weapon in world history was dropped over 50 years ago.

            The Memorial Museum was quite the experience. I think it took us a little over two hours to complete the whole thing. There was just SO much information and so much to see and read about. It took us from the leading events to the dreadful day of August 6, 1945 to all the way through to the effects that residents of Hiroshima still live with today. I learned about the A-bomb from the Japanese point of view and saw material evidence that I never could have imagined. Everything from the morphing of cement form buildings to recovered articles of clothing that school children wore on that day. I saw video clips and photographs of the devastated city of Hiroshima and I can’t believe that it now looks like what it does compared to what it did in the late 1940s. I could have spent more time going through the exhibits and rooms, but my brain was fried from all that I had seen and taken in throughout the day. Even if it was only for a short visit, I am SO glad that I made it down to Hiroshima because it was definitely a place that I wanted to see for myself, and to appreciate. The city may take the cake for the friendliest and welcoming city that I have traveled to during this entire journey. The amount of peace and happiness flowing through the streets and everywhere I went was overwhelming and almost unbelievable after they suffered such a tragic and devastating day in history decades ago. There are shirts sold everywhere saying slogans such as “Nuke Free Hiroshima” or “Peace, Love, Hiroshima”. There were people standing on the bridge over the river with Free Hugs signs and giving everyone who wanted one a Free Hug. I just found the city to be extremely welcoming and gracious towards each other and towards Americans in particular. I was predicting hostility and resentment, but received the exact opposite- it was quite refreshing. We took our time enjoying the rest of the afternoon, then went to the bus station and got a quick dinner before getting on our train to head to Tokyo. It was a four hour train ride and we slept for a little while, but enjoyed most of the ride just talking and playing some games. We finally got to the Tokyo Station around 11pm and were planning on meeting three other friends at the New City Hotel which was apparently rather close by. We followed a map, and walked through a park and magically stumbled upon it! They said they would get there around 1130pm, but that was three days ago, so who knew if they were really going to be there…

            We did run into some other SAS friends that we didn’t know where staying there, and eventually Antoinette, Matt & Chris showed up! The rooms were only “for two people” so Ben and Chris checked in and the rest of us staggered up throughout the next ten minutes. We all showered and got ready to go out in Tokyo – starting at 1230am about, haha. We took a cab to an area that we were planning to meet up with more friends in and wound up going to Freshness Burger, a “fast food” place to get some food since we hadn’t eaten since lunch and we just walked around and went to a few bars in the area, and wound up coming home around 3am I think. We pushed the two beds together so four people were able to sleep on the beds, and two of us slept on the floor. We would only be sleeping for a few hours so we knew it was no big deal. Matt, Antoinette and Chris had slept in a bar the night before….aka they didn’t sleep, so when Lacey, Ben and I woke up around 6am to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market, they decided to sleep in. We caught the train and made it to the market a little late, the prime time is between 5-6am and we got there a little after 7am. But it was pretty neat to see all of the fresh catches of the morning. It is basically where all sushi restaurants come to buy the fresh fish for the day. We got to try some pretty interesting food, half of which I had no idea what it was, and I ate some REALLY good raw fish. What could be better at 730am?? That was fun to walk around for about an hour or so seeing all of the interesting food they had out. We stopped at a little store to get some snacks for the day, because the night before we had decided that we were going to go to Tokyo Disney!! First we stopped at the Imperial Palace, Gokokuji Temple and the Tokyo Castle. The Temple was neat, we walked around it for awhile. The Palace and Castle we couldn’t get really close or go into, but they were neat to see. There was some sort of horse brigade coming through that no one would explain to us, but it was cool to see. Then we hopped back on the train (subway and train are the same thing in Tokyo…and we had gotten frighteningly good at figuring out all of the lines). Originally we had no intention of going to Tokyo Disney, but after seeing all of the advertisements, and that the park was revamped into CHRISTMAS, I was sold. When we were looking at a map in the station to figure out the best line to get on, we met a Japanese student who spoke very good English and helped us find lockers to drop our packs at for the day so we didn’t have to carry them around Disney for a few hours. He was extremely helpful and was getting on the same line that we were so we had the chance to talk with him for a few minutes. He recommended that we go to DisneySEA instead of DisneyLAND. We had no idea what the difference was so we took his word for it! As soon as we saw the Christmas trees and lights and heard the music, we knew it would be a good afternoon in Disney. We walked around, shopped, people watched and went on a couple of rides. We all developed this love for children while we were traveling through Asia because they are so absolutely adorable. There were a few weird things about Disney Tokyo…like the lack of Mickey, and the overwhelming presence of Duffy, a character that I have never seen or heard of before. We went to “Western Land” instead of “Frontier Land”, which was funny. It was a good afternoon and once the sun set and the park was lit up with Christmas lights it was magnificent. It probably was not as elaborate as Disney in the States, but it still put us in quite the Christmas spirit. We couldn’t stay for the light show unfortunately because we had to get to Yokohama by 9pm to go to the Ramen Noodles Museum because Lacey had to visit there as a class assignment. We caught a crowded train to Yokohama which took only about 45 minutes and after some confusion, final made it to the Ramen Museum. It was the weirdest place I have visited on this trip. First of all, not a single person there spoke English. Lacey’s assignment was to try all of the different Ramen noodles they had, but each one cost about $5 and was a huge bowl! It was this poorly lit building that was supposed to look like a city inside? And there were all these different little “stores” that had the different noodle dishes. It was very bizarre, I still don’t really understand it. But there were some other SASers there since the ship had just gotten to Yokohama that day and a number of students stayed on the ship between Kobe & Yokohama.

            We finally made it to the port around 11pm after making friends with this very interesting man on the train. He spoke very little English, but explained that he was also a backpacker and insisted on helping us find our way to the ship (since we didn’t exactly know where the port was). He also wanted to take us out to drinks and back to his house for dinner (which we obviously declined) but he did catch us a cab and took us to the port which was very nice. We probably could have walked, but when we told him that he basically started to tear up, so we let him catch us a cab. I know as soon as my head hit the pillow in my cabin I was out.

            The next morning we debated taking the train to Mt Fuji, which wasn’t very far away, but at this point we were running low on money and just wanted to stick around Yokohama. So we walked around the pier, where many other ships and cruises were parked and enjoyed the beautiful weather just walking along the water. We did a little shopping at a nearby mall and then found a Round Sushi restaurant which was exactly what we wanted! We call them Conveyer Sushi in the States…where you sit at a big counter and the sushi chefs make two pieces of sushi and put them on color coded dishes that cycle around the conveyor belt and you just grab what you want! The plates have different price values, and then you pay at the end depending on how many plates you have…I had been to one in London before, but not in the States. The sushi here is really different than at home, and not exactly what I expected. They don’t really make rolls unless you request it, and they use a lot of mayo which is interesting. The best one that I had was avocado & tuna with mayo. They also have crab, tuna and shrimp salad pieces which were interesting. Overall, fantastic lunch and just what we wanted as our last meal before getting back on the ship for the long haul to Hawaii. After lunch we walked around the park for awhile – climbed trees, watched families fish from a river and then we went on the World’s Biggest Ferris Wheel! It gave us a beautiful view of the city, and apparently on a clear day you can see Mt Fuji, but it was definitely not that clear that day. It took about 20 minutes to go all the way around and was pretty fun. We bought some groceries after that (half of which I had no idea what it was…) and then we went back to the ship to get on a little early. We were pretty exhausted and my feet were actually in pain from all of the walking that I did the past two days through Hiroshima and Tokyo.

            Throughout most of Japan there was Christmas music and Christmas decorations and it was fall weather, so it actually got me in the mindset for the holiday season. Japan was one of my favorite countries of the journey, and once again a lot of it had to do with the home stay that I did while in Kobe. I found the Japanese to be extremely kind and helpful and although I did hear other students talk a lot about racism throughout the country, I never once encountered it. Lots of people were rejected from bars or clubs for being American and received dirty looks from the locals. Although it wasn’t the cheapest place we had visited, I enjoyed my stay there and was very glad that I did not get back on the ship between Kobe & Yokohama. As the last major part of the journey, I was glad I traveled with Ben & Lacey – it really put a nice end to the travel through Asia. Although it was stressful at times trying to read train maps and figure out the schedules, overall it was a pretty stress-free port and we met some really friendly people who helped us along the way. Japan is definitely a country that I would like to visit again one day (It seems like this is a trend after most of the countries that I have visited….)

 

 

JAPAN PART 1- HOME STAY!

This is way overdue, but I think I’ll be able to back up a few weeks and relive Japan through writing this. We ported in Kobe, Japan on November 13^th, and this was by far the most difficult immigration process yet. They did face to face passport inspection with everyone on the ship, which takes a considerable amount of time. I was signed up to do a one night home stay in Kobe, which started at 11am. We were the first group of students allowed off of the ship, and all of our host families were in the ship terminal eager to meet us. There were 60 students, and each student stayed with one family, which was different from India where we were either paired or tripled up for each family. So that meant 60 people holding up signs with all of our names, and we had to find our name among the whole crowd! After a few minutes I saw Arianne Templeton from across the room. I met my house mother, Haoko and she spoke good basic English. She had a picture of her family – her, her husband Hukoyoshi, and her son Shuishu. We talked for a few minutes about the trip so far and where I had been traveling, and she shared with a little about her family and about the Hippo organization, which is what the home stay what set up through. It is an international language association based in 8 different countries, and the main thing that they do is arrange home stays so people can go abroad and have places to stay all over the world. Once everyone was paired with their families, the head of the organization welcomed us and we were taught a welcome song in Japanese and also played some ice breaker games including a variation of Japanese rock, paper, scissor. We were all told to enjoy our time with our families and to meet back at the terminal at 5pm the next day! Hao said we would be carpooling with her friend, so then I met her friend, Rata, and the student the was hosting, Karina. We had about a 30 minute drive to their neighborhood, so Karina and I got to know each other and just chatted and enjoyed the scenery of Kobe, which was beautiful! It was autumn there, so the leaves were pretty colors and the temperature was just perfect. I thought I was going to miss fall completely this year, but luckily I got a little taste of it in Japan!! Rata dropped Hao and I off at her apartment complex, which looked really nice. Her apartment was on the third level, and had a beautiful view over a park and tennis courts. Their apartment was cute, and it was interesting when I realized there was hardly any furniture! They did have a kitchen table that they ate at, but the TV sat on the ground, and they just sat on a carpet in front of the TV to watch. There were no beds, just mats that they lay down for sleeping, and no dressers, just closets. Quickly I just placed my pack down because Hao had English class for an hour and a half that afternoon, and we were going to go have lunch at her friends house, where I would stay while she went to class. Hao’s family doesn’t have a car- they all ride bikes everywhere. So she got her bike and she walked it (since I was with her) to her friend’s apartment. Her friend Mum, also had her daughter, granddaughter, and another friend there for lunch. She had made vegetable soup, small snack sandwiches (tomato & cheese and also egg salad) and french fries! Basically an American lunch, which was funny because I wanted to eat Japanese food! But it was really good and they had some good pastries for dessert, so I couldn’t complain! The other woman that came over spoke really good English and had been to the states several times, and traveled rather extensively through Europe. She had photo albums with her when she was younger and stayed in California for 2 months, so she was fun to talk to. Mum was working on her English, and I think we made progress throughout the afternoon. Mum’s daughter also only spoke basic English, but she was really nice and sweet, and her daughter, Aio, was the cutest baby. It was her first birthday, so we had a little birthday cake and they taught me how to sing Happy Birthday in Japanese- it was fun. So I got to play with Aio for a little while, and around 330pm Hao came back from class. Mum let me borrow an extra bike that she had for the rest of the day, which was really nice of her. So we rode back home, which was beautiful. I hadn’t been on a bicycle since this past summer and riding through the park with the changing leaves was just beautiful- I couldn’t get the smile off of my face! Back at the apartment, Hao showed me some books that she had about Japanese culture and food. They were interesting to read through and as she prepared dinner I read the books and asked her some questions, it was very interesting. I read a lot about mannerisms and etiquette- things are done much differently in Japan than they are in the United States, especially with things like bathing. I read about how to properly take a Japanese bath, and I was almost hoping I wouldn’t have to because it seemed so confusing! I’ll explain more about that later…Oh and the toilet that they have in their home has a heated seat and all of these different functions and settings, it was pretty bizarre. I was also given a pair of slippers to wear through the house for the next two days. Wearing shoes in the house is considered very rude and never done. Even in some restaurants and public buildings, slippers are worn and not shoes. A little while later her son, Shui, came home from school and I got to meet him! He speaks a little bit of English, and he showed me a book that he has that talks about his family, what classes he takes in school, what his hobbies are and what other things he enjoys, and where he has traveled. He did a home stay in Australia last year and had lots of pictures from that trip that he enjoyed showing me. By using the pictures we were able to communicate OK for the most part and he taught me some Japanese words while I taught him some English words! He was 12 years old and plays basketball and piano. His favorite class in school is English and he wants to go to America on his next home stay. He was so cute and really fun to hang out with. The three of us sat down for dinner, which was absolutely delicious. It was a form of sushi, but not the type of sushi that we are used to in the States. It was basically all of the same ingredients, but not presented how I was expecting. It was a huge bowl of rice, seaweed, fish, eggs, and wasabi. So everything was just mixed together and it was so tasty! They were impressed with my chopstick skills, which led to me talking about my favorite sushi restaurant at home, Mr. Sushi. They got a kick out of it when I told them what was served and how it was served and all of the details. It was interesting to talk about what I thought I knew about Japan and what was true and what was just Americanized. After dinner Shui left for night school which is strictly English classes for 3 hours, that he attends every night. Keep in mind this was Friday night, and he was going to school, and he was excited about it—not something you would exactly find in the States.

            Hao said we were going to go to a Hippo Family meeting, which is what she does every Friday night. We cleaned up the dishes after dinner and we started talking about piano. She said she has been taking lessons for a few years now and it was her favorite thing to do. I told her that I used to play for several years until I quit midway through high school. She encouraged me to play something, and I was really nervous since I haven’t even sat down at a piano since I quit almost 5 years ago. I pulled one of the books out and dug wayyyy back into my memory about how to play. After a few minutes it more or less came back to me (I was only playing one handed…I couldn’t exactly jump back into it that quickly) and she came over and sat on the bench and started playing the left hand bass clef. It was really, really neat and one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. It was really special to share those few minutes with her playing- something that completely breaks the language barrier and eventually we had to get up because we were going to be late for the meeting. It made me want to start playing again once I get home, so Mom & Dad- there might be some hope!

            We rode our bikes about 10 minutes to the meeting, which was held in a nursery school. There were probably 20 people total, including children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens. We sang some songs first- in several languages- English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. Then played some games, again in all of those languages. There were two other SAS girls there with their host families- Karina who I had met earlier, and Jackie, who I had never met before. Everyone sat in a circle and they had a microphone that would get passed around. In whichever language they preferred, everyone went around and introduced themselves and talked about their families, their hobbies, where they have traveled, etc. It is interesting because every Japanese person has a long name that they would say, and then would have nicknames that they preferred to go by or basically their “American names”. Once that was finished they actually broke us up in groups and each of us girls sat with 3 or 4 of the Hippo Family members and talked about where we had been so far on our journeys and they asked us questions about all kinds of things. The purpose of the meetings are really to improve their English and learn from each other. There was no leader at all, they would all just take turns talking and sharing stories and information. At the end they all talked about new phrases or words that they had learned from us- a lot of it being slang that they thought was funny. We taught them phrases like See ya later Alligator, Hit the Road, Just Google It, etc. It was funny to watch them understand it and then say it to each other. Overall it was probably an hour and a half long and it was really fun and the time flew by and all of the children there were so cute and fun to hang out and play with. Hao, Mum and I hopped on our bikes and road back home, which was again, really fun. I had my video camera out and was trying to film while riding which was fun. A lot of people ride bicycles in their area so I had a few close calls with people and railings, it was really fun. I dropped the bike back off at Mum’s and we said our goodbyes since we wouldn’t be seeing each other the next day. Walking back to Hao’s was a little chilly as the temperature had dropped, but it was not far away and we just enjoyed the walk. Back at home, her husband, Hukoyoshi, had come home from work so I had the pleasure of meeting him. While he ate dinner, Hao and I had some dessert. She had some different cake breads, some sweet rice crackers and some fruit, which was delicious. Huko didn’t speak much English at all, but he is a big tennis player, so we talked about tennis for a little while and then we were talking about what else I would be doing in Japan. I explained that the next evening we were going to go to Hiroshima for the day, then up to Tokyo for two days then down to Yokohomo, where we would be leaving from on the 18^th. They couldn’t believe how much I was traveling and how short I was staying in each city. I explained that we only have limited time in each country, so we try to see and do as much as we can in the short time that we are able to. He was very helpful in printing out maps for me and explaining how to get to the train station for the ship terminal and where to get tickets. When Shui came back from night school, he was very excited to do a magic show for me. It was so cute and he kept going behind his bedroom door and preparing the tricks before coming out and performing them. It lasted for about an hour- some tricks were better than others but it was very entertaining and we all laughed a lot. After that they asked me to teach them some American card games. It took me a minute to decide which game would be easy enough to teach quickly and I decided on spoons, since it is easy and really fun. (Many of you may not know how to play, I learned it at camp..). It is a fast paced game and they picked up on it quickly and we played a few rounds which was really fun, they enjoyed that. Then they taught me a Japanese card game which was also simple and fun and I wound up losing- oh well! Beginners luck wasn’t on my side. By this time it was about midnight and we decided time to go to bed. (I forgot to mention that Hao had bought a box of clementines (or the equivalent of) during the day and Shui kept sneaking them and handing me pieces, all very secretively. It was hysterical, and you could tell he enjoyed having another “kid” around).  So I laid out my sleeping mat, Hao gave me some sheets and blankets and I wrote in my journal for a few minutes before falling into a deep sleep and not waking up once!

            I woke up at about 9am to a delicious smell coming from the kitchen. Hao offered me to take a bath, and I accepted because I read that it is rude to decline. I was nervous because I had no idea how this was going to go. Well I ventured into the bathing room which is a tub that is filled with scorching hot water, a tile floor with no drain and a bath mat, a showerhead above the tile floor, and several pales and buckets- some filled with water and others that were empty. Basically I had read that you soak in the bath, but you don’t bathe in the bath, which made no sense to me. So I kind of cleaned myself, trying not to get soap in the tub, but also trying not to get the floor of the room soaked. It was an adventure, and I wound up feeling somewhat clean so that was all that mattered. After dressing for the day I sat down for a delicious breakfast of rice, eggs, cabbage (I think) and fruit. For the first time I had persimmon (no idea how to spell it). I later found out that it is a native fruit of Japan which is imported to the west coast…something I had never had. It was really, really good. Hao said that we were going to go to a park with Karina and her host famiy, and they were going to pick us up in about 30 minutes. I assumed that Shui was going to come but he said he couldn’t because he had a test in 26 days- 26 DAYS! I couldn’t believe that is why he was going to stay home on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Apparently he needed to pass a particular test to go to the high school that he wanted to go to and it was very competitive. He is so devoted to school it was so neat to see. I don’t think I have ever seen that in the States…

 Huko had already left for work, he has off on Sundays and Tuesdays, so it would just be Hao and I joining Rata’s family, which would be nice. We all piled into their car and drove about 20 minutes through the outskirts of Kobe, which was just beautiful. The trees were all different colors and the sun was out…I was SO glad I was experiencing a little taste of autumn weather!

            We got to the park and walked around for probably about an hour total. Rata’s six year old daughter, Keke, was adorable and she collects leaves so she was running in every which way and climbing trees to get particular leaves, it was precious. She didn’t speak any English, but Rata’s husband, Kamine, spoke pretty good English and was a funny guy so he was fun to talk to. They had a traditional tea ceremony in the garden which was quite the adventure. The women serving the tea were dressed in traditional kimonos and had their faces painted white. At first we had a small ball which was some sort of sweet. I did not like it at all, but ate it anyway (something I have gotten very accustomed to on this trip) and then they passed out small bowls of powdered green tea which was extremely bitter and also difficult to finish, but I did it all with a smile on my face! A woman was making the tea outside so we could which was very interesting. They said that this type of tea ceremony is very popular and very traditional in Japanese culture. After walking around a little more, on our way out there was a cart that was selling a particular type of sweet nut that you crack open and eat. Hao said it was her very favorite food, so she bought some and I tried it and it was delicious. I have no idea what exactly it was, but it was very good and unlike anything I have ever tried before. We piled back into the car and Kamine said we would go to lunch before going fishing! So we went to a nice Japanese restaurant where I told them to order what they wanted for me. So they ordered us udon noodles and also a soup. Both were extremely delicious. The soup had fried tofu in it which was delicious and some sort of fish, and the noodles had almost a sweet and sour sauce- it was a really good meal. Perhaps my favorite one in Japan. They taught us how to respectfully eat noodles, which is “with noise”. In other words, it is polite to slurp your noodles as you eat because it is a sign of approval, that you are enjoying the meal. Karina and I were trying our hardest to slurp while we ate which was very entertaining for everyone and quite the experience. After eating, there was a “hot spot” outside of the restaurant where you take your shoes and socks off and soak your feet in a bath of scorching hot water. It felt so nice and we stayed there for a few minutes just relaxing and digesting our wonderful meal.

            We hopped back into the car and drove about 15 minutes to a Rainbow Trout fishing pond. In the first pond there were coi fish that we bought little pellets to feed them. Kamine said it was one of Keke’s favorite things to do and since it was such a nice day he decided it would be a good activity for us. After feeding them for a little while, we got 2 bamboo and string fishing poles and some bait and began fishing. Karina and Kamine started, and Kamine caught one right off of the bat. Almost immediately after dropping the bait into the water, the fish swarm around and within seconds you either catch a fish or lose the bait. It was fun to watch and we had a bucket that we would put the fish into when we caught them. I think we caught 6 total and I caught 3 of them! I never knew I was such a skilled fisherman, haha.

            Well, Karina and I were both in for a surprise when we thought we would just put the fish back in the pond, but no- not at all. They carried the bucket of fish over to a register and paid per fish. Then they took the fish and Hao explained that they would fry them so we could eat them. Karina and I were shocked- we had no idea that we were going to be eating the fish that we had just caught! Literally 3 minutes later we had a plate of fried fish on our table that looked exactly like they did in the water, just dead. Head, tail, everything. Kamine explained that you eat the entire thing, just not the tail. I think Karina and I both threw up a little bit in our mouths when Kamine put the entire fish in his mouth except for the tail. Well, when else was I going to have the chance to do this? So I picked one up with my chopstick and bit the head off. I tried not to think about what I was eating, which was very difficult, but I got through it. Karina couldn’t do it, she had to politely decline. They didn’t understand why she wouldn’t try it and we explained to them that we had never seen anything like this. It is funny to look back on and laugh about but it was actually pretty disgusting to think about..

            All in all it was a beautiful afternoon and the weather was absolutely perfect. We walked around the pond for a little while after eating our delicious meal, then we got back into the car to drive to the terminal. We got there around 4pm and showed them the ship and all took our time saying goodbye and giving them gifts thanking them for hosting us for two days. It was actually pretty emotional and we all exchanged emails and took photos together, promising to keep in touch. I wish I had more time to spend with Hao and her family, but not in this visit. They were so hospitable and welcoming and I really enjoyed spending time with them. I am glad that I decided to do another home stay in Japan. Similar to India, it is difficult to actually experience the culture any other way than spending time in a home, doing exactly what they would do for two days. I hope that I get to see them again at some point in my life- either in Japan or the United States, but I will never forgot their graciousness and hospitality during my short stay in Kobe. Now all I had to do was wait for Ben & Lacey to come back to the terminal so we could make our way down to Hiroshima for the night!

PART 2 COMING SOON!

November 22nd!!

So tonight the ship is crossing the International Date Line! As we have been traveling east around the globe, we have been losing hours many, many nights during our time at sea. So as we cross the line, we will live our second November 22nd tomorrow. It is going to be bizarre because right now we are 16 hours ahead of East Coast Time, and as of tomorrow morning we will be 8 hours behind East Coast Time. Our bodies are already so confused by this point that I don't think it will phase us at all - nothing seems to these days! So in celebration of November 22nd x 2 we don't have classes tomorrow!! Everyone is very busy with school work though since we have barely done any over the last 5 weeks. Finals are coming up the first week in December, and most assignments are due before we get to Hawaii on Thanksgiving Day, so we are keeping ourselves busy. We are also ready for it to be hot and nice out again so we can start to get tan before coming back home to winter weather! I know I still owe a journal of Japan, which is in the works, it is just taking me awhile. In short, it was amazing and a great way to finish the journey through Asia. I had an awesome time traveling from city to city everyday, and Japan officially depleted just about everyone's bank accounts. It was quite expensive compared to the other countries that we have been spending time in.

Other than all of this- life on the ship is good. Everyone seems to be in pleasantly good moods which is nice. I am getting back into a schedule which is nice and catching up with friends who I didn't necessarily see much between ports. I am also fully recovered finally, but unfortunately Dani has been really sick for the past couple of days. The food on the ship is getting worse and worse, good thing we all bought snack food in Japan to keep us going until we get to Hawaii. Along with getting my work done, I am also working on a DVD of all of the pictures and videos I have taken along the way, which consumes a lot of my time, but I know the final product will be completely worth it. Grey's Anatomy has also been keeping me quite occupied at night once my brain no longer feels like working. We plan on having a marathon tomorrow once our brains are fried after getting all of our assignments finished! Feel free to email me for the rest of the time before I get home (Dec 14th) since I will be able to respond since I am on the ship for all but 4 days from here on out! This trip has been amazing, and I am going to miss living on a ship, in the middle of the ocean and doing my homework out on the deck overlooking the ocean with no land in sight, but I am very excited to get home- to see my friends and family and be home for Christmas (Christmas music is already constantly played in my room) and for winter!! I'll post the Japan update in the next couple of days!!

Peace and Love

 

It's a little Chilly in China

We arrived in Hong Kong the morning of November 6^th with absolutely no game plan. All I knew was that I only got half of my laundry back – shorts and t-shirts, not the half that I needed! So that got me a little flustered to start…

Stacey, one of my good friends on the ship, lived in Hong Kong for 3 months this summer and said just to wander around the city, and the only thing she truly recommended was going to Victoria’s Peak to see the view of the city. Our boat was ported at Kowloon Island, so we took a short ferry ride over to Hong Kong Island and basically wandered around for a few hours with some friends. We found a few markets, some good food, and my personal highlight: Seeing a Christmas tree being decorated in the center of a plaza!! There were actually a lot of Christmas decorations and holiday spirit throughout Hong Kong which got us all pretty excited! Around 4pm we took the tram up to the top of the peak to catch the sunset over the city. It was absolutely gorgeous and we just hung out up there for awhile taking photos and having some snacks…it was pretty relaxing. So then we headed back to the ship to see the Light Symposium that goes on every night at 8pm. It was a little corny, but pretty cool- it was definitely the nicest skyline we had seen yet and there was music and lots of lights – it lasted for about a half hour, and it was a beautiful night so it was definitely worth seeing. Most of us wound up staying in that night- some of the boys went to see the new James Bond movie, but Lacey and I stayed in and watched Grey’s Anatomy. We were able to make a few phone calls, and I called my friend T who goes to Ithaca and is studying in Beijing this semester. We had been in touch via email, but I gave him a call to confirm my flight itinerary and my plans once landing. He agreed to meet us at the airport and help us get to our hostel! So I headed to bed rather early that night…I had been feeling pretty crappy all day so I wanted to get rested before heading to Beijing.

530am approached quickly and our 19 person group traveling independently to Beijing was headed down the Gangway at 615am. It was a complicated process getting from our ship to the airport…including a ferry, a train and a shuttle, but eventually we made it, with not much time to spare. We all successfully boarded the plane (except one who had to take an earlier flight and planned on meeting us at the Beijing Airport). We landed, found Hillary, and T found us!! It was great to see a familiar face and also to be with someone who spoke Mandarin- so helpful! He showed us where to exchange money and gave us a few pointers. Group decision was to go to Tiananmen Square and see the Forbidden City before it closed because this would be our only opportunity to do so. We all split up into 4 different taxis, T and I made plans to get together later, and we were off! Once our taxi pulled up, we realized that meeting in Tiananmen Square wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to do…but we figured since the plan was to do the Forbidden City, we should stand at the entrance and hope everyone would find their way there. All but one taxi did. We waited for 45 minutes, hoping they would show up, but they never did. And it was COLD. Much colder than the weather we have been used to for the past few months. I quickly changed from flip flops to sneakers and busted my new North Face jacket out while we waited…They never showed, so we went in thinking they must have gone in before we even got there.

Well the actual gates to the Forbidden City, which were further down than we knew, closed at 330pm, we thought they closed at 430pm. So we were able to walk around, but not go into the city which was pretty disappointing. We did see Mao’s Mausoleum from the outside but again, the inside was closed. There was a student art exhibit that we were encouraged to go see, which was really neat. Several of us bought artwork. Ben had said that his sister bought a series of four paintings- the same picture of the Great Wall, but in all the four seasons. They only had one of those, and I wasn’t in love with it, so I didn’t get it. But I didn’t see another grouping like that again…oh well. All of the boys that we were with bough big bomber hats that had the communism star on the front. So as they walked down the street in a group of 8 you could imagine the laughs that they got, and the number of Chinese who wanted to take pictures of them, with them- you would have thought they were celebrities, it was quite comical. Well as we ventured to find our hostel, now that the sun was set, Andy came running out of a restaurant because he saw us walking by. The 4 of them said they walked around the city for 3 hours looking for us- they went to the hostel, called the dean on the ship to get our numbers (but none of us had international phones) and just walked. We asked if they went to the Forbidden City, they said no. So how did the other 3 taxis miraculously make it there…? Haha oh well at least we all found each other. So we dropped our stuff at the hostel, which was called the Far East Youth Hostel. Very friendly staff, pretty clean, the beds were hard (too bad)..all in all decent place. I called T, agreed to meet him at his campus at 8pm, and 5 of us headed down the street to a small place for dinner, which I think may have been the best meal I had in China. One of my friends, Ricki, is part Korean and part Japanese. So she speaks both of those languages, and a lot of the characters are the same, so she is great to have around. She also knows a lot about the culture, so it was great having her advice on what to order, how to use our chopsticks, proper etiquette, etc. We had the best sweet and sour pork I will probably ever have. After that fabulous meal, Lacey and I caught a cab and had the driver take us to T’s campus. He met us at the entrance and it was really neat to see a Chinese campus. I forget the exact name of his school, but I think it is the International Studies University of Beijing. About half of the students there are Chinese and the other half are international. I met one of his friends who was from Texas, and another girl who was from Singapore. They were all pretty intrigued by our travels, but all we wanted to talk about was China!! All in all we had a great night- they showed us where all of the Westerners go, and then where all of the locals go – HUGE price differences. We didn’t stay out too late because Lacey and I had to be up at 8am the next day, so T and Cody brought us back to the hostel and then caught a cab back to their campus. We had decided that if we could get our outgoing flight changed to the following day then it was scheduled for, then we would stay with them another night in Beijing. That didn’t wind up happening, unfortunately, but it was still a great night and fun to see someone else from Ithaca on the other side of the world…who ever would have guessed??

So 8am rolls around, we all get up and dressed and ready in the lobby by 830am for the tour guide to pick us up. As already recounted in the story below about how we found out about Kurt, there was quite a delay and we wound up getting picked up around 930am I think. There was a little shop a few minutes down the street that sold these bread/vegetable sandwiches that were only 1 Yuan each which is about 30 cents and they were such a delicious breakfast. We kept them in business that morning because we all kept going back to get more!!

Our tour guide was Serena and she was a 24 year old girl from northern China who has a degree in international tourism. She was super nice and sweet and had good English, so she seemed like she would be a lot of fun!

Well that morning, filled with the confusion about what happened with Kurt, we rode on the bus for a little while before heading to a pathway where the 12 Sacred Animals were. It was absolutely beautiful because their autumn was just coming to an end, but it was the first glimpse of autumn we had seen yet!!  From there we headed to the Emperor’s Palace and spent a good hour or so there seeing the Ming Tombs and palace itself.  

We had lunch after that at a little restaurant that was pretty good. Peking duck was fabulous!!!! Maybe my favorite food item of the whole trip?? The tea warmed us up and they ordered all of the food for us which was wonderful because we didn’t have to choose anything!!

After that we all loaded on to the bus for about a 3 hour ride outside of Beijing to the part of the Great Wall that is unrestored and where we would be camping. When we first got there we had to walk very quickly up so that we could see the sunset. We caught the tail end of it, and I think we were all overwhelmed that we were actually at the Great Wall (at least I definitely was). The view was unlike any view I ever knew existed. It seemed like the Wall never ended, it just went on for miles and miles- we couldn’t see any end. And boy was I glad I bought a hat and gloves earlier in the day because it was getting quite cold. We only spent probably 30 minutes up there before it started to get pretty dark, so we walked back down and got some dinner (even though it felt like we had just eaten lunch). We psyched ourselves up for getting ready to sleep out on the wall and started to bundle up. I put on leggings, shorts and sweatpants…a long sleeve t, sweatshirt, fleece and jacket- along with gloves and a hat, and two pairs of socks and my sneakers. At the bus we each got two sleeping bags and a sleeping mat, and there were enough tents for about half of the people. I opted to sleep out under the stars because I didn’t think the tent would really make that much of a difference. So we set up all of the tents that needed to be pitched on a flat clearing right next to the watch tower. Then we just kind of walked around and went exploring. Mitch and Ricki have really nice cameras so they were experimenting with different night settings on their cameras and got some really amazing pictures. There were a few other SAS groups who were using the same tour agency, but had different guides, and they were all more or less in the same area as us, but we didn’t see them much. I think it was around 1030pm or so that we turned in to our sleeping bags because a) we were freezing and b) we were waking up at 630am for sunrise!! It was Ben, Mitch, Frank, Greg, Lacey and I who slept together a little away from the group and sadly I kept a few of them awake for awhile because I was coughing my life away. I did eventually fall asleep for a few hours before awaking again having to go to the bathroom- the most dreadful feeling ever. But by this time the moon was gone and the sky was absolutely magnificent. It reminded me of the starry sky I saw one of the nights in the Amazon – it was so gorgeous, it just looked like the entire sky was glittered. I debated whether or not it was worth it to get up to go to the bathroom, and eventually I decided to, which led to not being able to warm myself up again once I crawled back into my sleeping bags. But oh well- gotta do what ya gotta do. Well we woke up about 20 minutes before the sun actually rose over the mountains. It gave us a little time to begin wrapping up our sleeping bags before climbing to the top of the watchtower and seeing it come over the ridge, which was beautiful- and finally we began to warm up a little bit!! We took lots of pictures, and explored a little bit just enjoying the sunshine on the Great Wall of China!!! We packed all of our things up and headed down to the bus to put our gear away and grab some breakfast before embarking on our 10K hike that would take a few hours. At breakfast about half of our group had convinced themselves that they didn’t want to do the full hike and would stay on the bus and meet us at the other end of the hike. A few of us spoke up and said how absolutely ridiculous that was – they were at the Great Wall and they were going to sit in a bus instead of hiking for a few hours!? I couldn’t even believe the thought crossed their minds, but I was sure a few of them were going to stay behind. I’m not sure what hit them, but when the time came to get ready to hike, everyone decided to come. Serena had warned us to take off layers- that we were going to be hot, so I took off my fleece, but couldn’t bring myself to shed more layers than that. Well 45 minutes later, I realized I should’ve listened to her. I started off by just taking my sweatshirt off and tying that around my waist…after that came the sweatpants…and then the jacket. So I was literally carrying more layers than I was wearing! I also looked like a mess because I had been too cold to put my contacts in so I just had my glasses on, had been wearing a hat the whole day before….but we were all in the same boat so it was all good! I’m just glad that I had my good sneakers and not my casual ones because it was quite the hike. The part of the wall that we were on was more than 500 years old. There has been no reconstruction or renovation of any sort, and some parts were definitely quite treacherous. For the first hour or so, there were all of these people who kind of latched on to you and wanted you to buy their souvenirs. They also tried to tell us some history about the wall and explained to us that we were actually in Mongolia for a little while, which we didn’t even know!! But eventually they left us and we were free to hike on our own! It was quite tiring, especially with the lack of exercise that we get while we are on the ship! It total it was about a 3 ½ hour hike, up and down stairs the entire time! I fell once, just wasn’t paying attention to my footing, but no injuries- not to worry! I knew my knee would we incredibly sore the next day, but that’s not what was I concerned about at the moment! We had the perfect weather for the hike- it was sunny out but not too warm. It was chilly, but not too cold. We just happened to have too many layers with us when we started. It was probably one of my favorite days of this entire journey. It was so refreshing to be out in the open, on the Great Wall of China!! After I had seen Kate’s photos (friend from home who was studying in Xi’an last semester) of the Great Wall, I knew it was somewhere that I knew I had to visit. Never would I have imagined it to be only a few months later. It was just a great day, and I hiked with different people over a few hours which was nice because a few girls on the trip I didn’t know that well, so we really had a great time chatting and telling stories. It was just a really special day that I will never, ever forget. At the end of the hike, there were two guys from the States who were just walking and when they heard us speaking English they asked where we were from and we started explaining Semester at Sea and everything and we were with them for probably the last 30 minutes or so – a decent amount of time to touch on where we had been and what we had done. It was amazing to try and recap everything into a short conversation, and actually impossible. The highlights, sure that’s possible, but to explain everything is overwhelming. That’s when I realized I am so glad that I wrote my journals because there is so much that I would forget, even that I have forgotten from only two months ago.

Once we made it to the end, over a cable bridge, there was the option to take a zip line down, but Erica and I took our sweet time buying t-shirts and missed the opportunity by the time we got down there- oh well! So we hiked down with the other half of the group and let’s just say when we had the chance to sit down for lunch, we all just wanted to crash. Everyone was glad they did it though and as tired as we were, I think we were all on a high from the hike. It was a quick lunch, I think we were still in shock that not only did we hike for 6 miles…but that it was up and down stairs…and that it was in China on the GREAT WALL!! Let’s just say that as soon as we loaded the bus, we all passed out for a few hours. By chance, I woke up for the sunset, which was beautiful, then went right back to sleep. We were running a little late due to some traffic, so our stop at the Bird’s Nest and Swimming Cube were short and sweet, but at least we got to see them. It was crazy seeing that all in person, what I watched on TV every night this past summer during the Olympics, and we pulled up just as the buildings were lighting up, so that was really neat to see.

As we pulled into the airport, Lacey and I decided against changing our flight and staying for another night. By this time I was pretty sick – I could not control my cough and all I wanted to do was get some medicine and crawl into bed for a day or two to get better. I’m not even sure how it happened, but we were able to find a hostel for all 19 of us (we were almost positive we would have to split up). They had two available rooms with 10 beds in each. Perfect- a boys room and a girls room, we couldn’t have asked for better. I literally laid down as soon as we walked into the room and fell asleep immediately. Everyone else went down to the restaurant/bar that was on the first floor in the hostel, but I had absolutely zero desire. We woke up for breakfast in the morning (banana and pears in this milky oat mixture…very tasty) and we were planning to head to the ship which was supposed to get into port at 8am meaning it would probably get cleared by immigration by 930 or 10am. Well just before we were getting ready to head out, our friends Chad, Peter, Michele and Meg (who we had seen the day before on the Wall) walked into the lobby with a girl from China who was trying to help them find a place to put their packs for the day. We started talking with them, and earlier we had tossed around the idea of a Chinese Acrobat show, a highly recommended sight in any of the large cities. The girl who was with them, Lisa, said she could help us get the tickets and would call her friend if we wanted more details. We said sure, so she was able to tell us that for 12 of us the tickets would be about $32USD each. We thought it would be worth it and she offered to buy the tickets for us and then meet up with us later in the afternoon so we pick them up. We thought that it would be strange for someone young to put up that much money and just trust that we would show up later to pay and pick up the tickets. But we talked with her for awhile and she seemed genuine and has traveled extensively herself and realizes how helpful it is when people offer to do such things to make it easier. So we decided to meet her back at the hostel at 4pm to pick up the tickets! Now we just had 5 hours to spend in Shanghai. The group split…naturally into boys and girls. The boys wanted to go on a river cruise and the girls wanted to go shopping. I was in no mood to do either since I was feeling awful, so Britni, Lacey and I just decided to walk toward the port (it was far…from where we were either a cab or subway ride away) since we just wanted to kind of take it easy. So we walked and walked and walked, with our packs, until we thought we were somewhat in the right area. We took a seat around noon to get some lunch, which was an adventure in itself. Basically we just pointed to pictures in the menu without knowing what we were ordering, but it was OK. The fried rice was really good, and if the sweet and sour pork didn’t have bones it would have been REALLY good, but it did the trick. We were really looking for some American food, since we had eaten Chinese food every meal for the last 3 days…but were unsuccessful. So we made our way to the ship around 130 because we knew the line would start to get long with everyone coming back from Beijing. We sat there for awhile before Frank and Jared (my neighbors who were also on the trip with us) came up and then we played Asian hacky sack for about 30 minutes (it is very different from the US- weird I know..) and finally the ship was cleared around 315pm. All we wanted to do was shower (it had been a few days) but we had to go meet Lisa at the hostel. So Ben, Lacey and I sucked it up and collected everyone’s money and went to go meet her. Low and behold she was there, with all of the tickets. Through all of our heads we were of course wondering whether or not they were actually legitimate tickets, but we were pretty confident in the exchange. She was just so nice and seemed so happy that she could help us out, and really, she was a huge help. We would have had no idea where to go or how to go about it without having internet resources or anything. She was a real sweetheart and we were very grateful for her helpfulness and kindness. So we got back to the ship and had to wait in a massively long line, some of the group went to eat since they had the time to shower and such, but we all just showered and caught a quick bite to eat on the ship then headed to the show. Our tickets were legit and we were about 7^th or 8^th row which was fantastic. The show was AWESOME! There were 12 different acts, everything from balancing acts to bicycle tricks to hula hooping and juggling. Then the final act was the ball of death, where ultimately 5 motorcycling were looping around in this huge metal cage- it was really nerve wracking to watch, and really awesome! We were so glad that we went, the show was about an hour and a half long and totally worth the 30 bucks! We had heard that there was a Coldstone Creamery in Shanghai, but we didn’t have the energy to try and find where it was (hardly anyone spoke English) so we settled for McDonald’s. I got a McFlurry (second one of the trip) and fries and was completely satisfied. It is funny how many times I have been to McDonald’s once I broke the ice and went one time, I just keep going back because it is so convenient and easy and cheap! Some people went out to a sports bar to watch some football, but most of us just went back to the ship to catch up on sleep.

            The next morning after breakfast Lacey, Erica, Steph and I decided just to walk around a little bit. All we really wanted to get accomplished was some shopping at a market (we wanted to get Beijing 08 apparel since we didn’t have the chance to in Beijing) and to get Pizza Hut- we all had a craving. Well about 10 minutes into our walk, a group of friends asked if we could take a picture of them in front of a monument. Then they asked us to get in the picture with them. There were four of them and four of us, and they were all extremely excited to talk to us. So we kind of paired off and were talking for awhile, probably about 20 minutes. They all had surprisingly good English and said that they were students and were traveling in Shanghai for holiday. Most Chinese people have their Chinese names, then a western “nickname” that they introduce themselves as. So our friends were named Sherri, Alfred, Jasmine and Corinna. I talked to Alfred about everything from Obama and where I had been traveling to table tennis and what kind of computer I used. They were really friendly and talkative; it seemed as if they wanted to practice their English with us. Eventually they invited us to a tea ceremony that they were going to a few blocks away. They had never been before, and it is a very traditional ceremony in China. So we decided to go and it was lovely. We chose four different teas and each got to have a small cup of each one. There was one made of ginseng, one of jasmine, one called 8 medicines and another that I cannot recall. I personally liked the medicinal one the best, perhaps because I was feeling under the weather. But it was very interesting and we were taught how to properly hold the cup and a lot of the history behind Chinese tea. It lasted a little over an hour long and was a really cool thing to get to do that, we would have never found on our own. They were interested in talking about cultural differences between Americans and Chinese- from marriages to clothing to music and so forth. It was neat to get their perspectives on a lot of issues and topics that we had been wondering about ourselves. After the ceremony we walked with them a few blocks to People’s Square and saw a Pizza Hut, so we had to decide to split from them. I feel like they were offended that we wanted to eat Pizza Hut instead of Chinese food, but we tried to explain to them that we had been eating only Chinese food for the past 4 days and just had a little craving that we had to satisfy. So we said our goodbyes, exchanged email addresses, and made it to Pizza Hut, where to say it nicely we vegged out. We were pretty hungry and didn’t hold back at all- it was delicious. From there we stopped at a department store called Metersbonwe that they had suggested to us as a cheap, local store. It was huge and we each bought a few things- and I found my token Asian sweatshirt that I had been thinking about since the beginning of the voyage. By this time it was already time to get back to the ship! All around People’s Square there are these guys who have little pamphlets of knockoff shoes, purses, wallets, you name it and they try to get you to come to “their store”. Erica and Steph did it the day before and basically they take you to a store that is tiny and remote and through an apartment building and up a tiny, narrow set of stairs. We had no desire. We didn’t make it to the market, but I think the tea ceremony wins any day over that anyway since we have been to more than our fair share of markets and discount shopping. For the next two days on the ship I literally slept the entire time. I NEEDED to get better before traveling through Japan and I knew sleep would be the most effective remedy. Luckily it worked out because upon arrival in Kobe I felt a whole lot better and ready to take on a full travel schedule for 5 days. It is so bizarre having only 2 or 3 days between each country because as soon as we get on the ship we barely have time to unpack and repack and get all of our plans together. I’m finishing this now as we are about to leave Japan, but I can say that as the leader of our group, I was a little nervous when the night before our arrival in Kobe we had no place to stay and no idea about the train schedules or anything. But we did know that Japan is a very safe country and rather easy to navigate, so I wasn’t too worried. And I can happily say that it all worked out and we had an AWESOME time. But as a wrap up for China- I LOVED IT. My only regret is not going to the Silk Market in Beijing, but oh well, we can’t do it all. The food was great (nothing like American Chinese food) and the Great Wall was a sight like none that I have ever seen before. It was a lot of traveling through China, but it was totally worth staying off of the ship between the two ports and traveling independently.

REST IN PEACE KURT LESWING

It is with tears that I write this email. A fellow classmate was killed in a car accident while we were in Hong Kong. This is how I received the news:

It was about 9am on November 8th, and a group of 19 of us were sitting in the lobby of the Far East Youth Hostel in Beijing where we had stayed the night before. We were waiting for our tour guide to pick us up to take us to the Great Wall. Our guide called us at 830 saying they were running a little late and would be there within the half hour. Then we received another phone call from the tour agency saying that someone named Shalina Akins had called them trying to get a hold of a student named Vince, who they thought was in our group. Ben was on the phone with them, and all of the information he was told was Call Shalina at this number she wants to talk to you because one of the people on your ship died. That was the only thing we had. Immediately the two people who did have cell phones who we were traveling with tried contacting the ship. It is difficult because we only have contact information for when the ship is in port, and by this point it had already left Hong Kong and was en route to Shanghai. I bought a calling card and Ben and I tried about 5 phones, 5 different hotel lines, none of which were going through. We were able to get a hold of the tour guide and have him call the number, but that wasn't working either. Basically, we tried for about an hour, until the guide finally arrived , and were unsuccessful. Once on the bus that they picked us up in, all Serena (our guide) could tell us was that one of her friends who is a guide for the same agency called and told her that there were girls on her trip crying because of someone who died on our ship. She said she thought it was a girl, but didn't have any information. We finally found out around 1pm from a text message that Lauren, a girl in our group, got from her mom telling her that his name was Kurt Leswing and he was hit by a drunk driver the night our ship was in Hong Kong. At this point, I still could not put a face with a name. While we were in Beijing we ran into a few other SAS groups- either independent or sponsored trips, and all of the information was vague, rather unknown. We later ran into Kurt's roommate, Vince, who I know from the Sea Olympics committee. We saw them drinking and knew immediately that it would be a rough night for them. I'll write later about my China trip, which was nothing short of amazing despite this awful cold and cough that I am fighting. But to get to the details, everyone got back to the ship today, and at 8pm tonight they had an informal gathering to formally address the entire shipboard community of the happenings. The information is still vague...still eerily unknown. This is what they do know:

He was out with friends and was last seen at 1230am at a bar called the Happy Valley Sports Bar, which was about 6K from the ship. From then, his whereabouts are unknown. He apparently got in some sort of altercation with a taxi cab driver and a cop around 2am. It was nothing big, sounds as if they were just arguing over the cab fare, and a cop just walked over to make sure everything was OK. It was around 3am that the accident was reported. Kurt was hailing a cab and was in the street. A cab driver had swerved to avoid hitting Kurt, but the car following the cab did not see him and struck him. He was unconscious when someone approached him only seconds later and never regained consciousness. The driver was found to be intoxicated and the investigation is still underway with the Hong Kong police. The accident happened 3K from the ship. So seemingly he had been alone for about 2 and a half hours that night, and the only form of ID that was found on him was a credit card. It was not until later that morning around 530am when immigration officials were aboard our ship processing passports that our administration was told the news. As soon as Kurt's passport surfaced, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. The official recognized the name and requested that our Dean of Students and our Head of Security go to the mortuary to identify the body. It was a few hours later when the ship began contacting those traveling throughout China as well as those that were aboard the ship, and news travels pretty fast, even through a huge country.

It was all so surreal, and it was the moment I stepped on the ship yesterday afternoon around 3pm that it really hit me. His picture was posted in Tymitz Square (where we board the ship) along with the letter that was sent to his parents and a biography of Kurt. I was finally able to connect the name and the face. Someone who I had never spoken to, yet knew exactly who he was. Every face is now a familiar face on this ship, it is only so big - there are only 700 of us who live, eat, sleep, study, travel all in a very small area. We are now a family, and this is a tragedy for all of us. I cannot imagine what his family is going through- his family in Milwaukee and his twin brother who was studying in New Zealand this semester. But our thoughts are with them, and we have the chance to send pictures, cards, thoughts, anything to his family from the ship. A commemorative service will also be held after we depart Yokohama, Japan in about a week to remember Kurt. It is hard to stomach, this whole situation, and I feel so much for his close friends on the ship. It is almost unbelievable the connections that we have made with people on this voyage so far. We have only been on here for 2 and a half months, and I feel like I have known some of my friends that I met in early September for so much longer than that. This tragedy will only bring us closer and hopefully open our eyes even more to the realities of life.

Apparently Kurt had been moved by Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu while he was aboard the ship for a short visit while we were in Capetown, South Africa, and he used this quote quite frequently, "Take the anger from your hearts. Wipe the tears from God's eyes. And live a life of love." Rest In Peace Kurt Leswing November 7, 2008.