Salina, Kansas, USA

I was going to write a blog post at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, but I had a lot of other things on my mind and forgot.

Soo… I was on the plane from Atlanta to Wichita, and I decided to write out what I was thinking – reflecting if you will…This is what I wrote:

I am so lucky. I am lucky to have friends from all over. I got to go around the world on a frickin' ship. How did I end up being lucky enough to be born in the United States – to be in the body that I'm in? Why do there have to be so many unlucky people in the world? The better question might be – are they really unlucky in the first place? There are many different views of luck. Many people we might think of as unlucky don't actually think of themselves that way at all; they are perfectly happy with their friends and families. Where do you draw the line between lucky and unlucky?

Catherine, Amber, Max – I love you so much! I don't know what I would have done without you. I can't imagine the voyage without you, and quite frankly, I don't want to. Should I feel bad that the thing I got out of this the most was the shipboard community? Well, I don't. I don't feel bad at all. Call me a traveler, an adventurer, a scholar, a tourist – whatever, I don't care. It was you who made the trip for me – not the people in other countries, not the souvenirs and T-shirts or the markets. It didn't matter where I was or what I was doing; it was you that would make me want to do it all again. They told us to reflect and think about how the voyage affected us and what it means to us. I don't need to change the world – I just want to be there for you – I want to be the best friend that I can be. I want to be significant enough to have changed your world because you have changed mine. I am so lucky.

HOLY SHIT, I JUST WENT AROUND THE F*CKING WORLD!

I don't remember the last time I felt this close to people. This whole going home thing is bittersweet.

I love friends! I will miss every single one of the friends I made on the voyage. I love you all – you know who you are!

-KW-

Salvador, Brazil

Sorry about the delay in the blog posts by the way! I’ve been busy studying for finals and everything. I’ve also been procrastinating because I don’t want to think about the fact that I only have one country left to write about.

My first day in Brazil was spent in Salvador (once again walking around). We started off with a large group of people and ended up with just Catherine and I. About an hour passed with hardly any excitement, but then it started pouring. The rain came out of nowhere, but it was marvelous. It stopped raining after a few minutes, and then we saw a cat and a tiny kitten on the sidewalk and (yes I know we probably shouldn’t have, but just go with it…) stopped to pet them. They immediately ran and sat between our feet, and shortly after they did this it started to rain again. Catherine and I stayed for quite a while just standing in the rain, soaking wet, and protecting kitties. Another one came up to us and jumped onto Catherine’s bag. All of the people around were looking at us like we were crazy; I guess I don’t blame them. That night, a few of us went to a restaurant where they served meat on a stick! I don’t remember what it’s called, but it was AMAZING!!

In Brazil, I went on my one and only overnight trip. I find it kind of funny that the only nights I slept off of the ship were spent on a riverboat… The Rio de Negro was a lot of fun, but I woke up sick on the second day and didn’t get to go on the secondary jungle walk. I did go to the community visit, but halfway through I started to feel sick again. I told one of the trip leaders that I was feeling ill, and an older woman from the community let me lie on a rug in her house and put two fans on me. She was SO sweet! She didn’t speak any English, but the tour guide translated for us. She actually said that if I wanted to, I could leave America and come live with her and learn Portuguese, but I told her I would miss my mom too much. I felt better on the last day and got to go on the primary jungle walk. I can now say that I have walked through part of the Amazon Rainforest! We went to the airport around 11 pm that night, but our flight didn’t leave until 2 am, and we didn’t get back to the ship until 2 pm. I was extremely embarrassed to be associated with some of the people on my trip. Granted it was the last night in port for the entire voyage, but they were unbelievable. I understand that some people feel the need to get drunk to have fun, and people enjoy drinking with their friends, but I can’t believe how irresponsible and stupid they are sometimes. Getting drunk and sitting in an airport for several hours with other people around and being loud and obnoxious to the extent that they were is simple frustrating beyond belief.

Well, as you know I am on my way home now. There are only 3 or 4 days left until we get to Florida depending on how you look at it. I am having the worst case of mixed emotions that I have ever had. I don’t want to get off the ship and leave all of my new friends. I definitely miss some of the people at home, and I can’t wait to see a couple people, but I could definitely use another week or two…or three. On the bright side, the Alumni (or Ambassador or Adventurer, or whatever the hell they are calling it now) Ball is tomorrow and we get a fancy pants dinner and prom-like dance thing. Not to mention, I am now completely done with finals and projects. It is safe to say that I have finished my sophomore year of college.

-KW-

 

Accra, Ghana

What did I do on the first day of Ghana? To be honest, everything was starting to blur together at this point. Now it’s nearly all melded together. On the first two days in Ghana, I walked around Accra (after taking a 45 minute bus to get there) with people. The first day was a Sunday (I think), so a lot of things were closed. We found a side street where there were some people playing soccer and dancing, so we joined them. Well, my friends joined them; I guarded backpacks and took pictures. Afterwards we found a restaurant and spent over three hours there – no joke; that was actually how long it took from the time we were seated to the time we paid and got change. The conversation kept us all entertained, so it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. After lunch, we went to a “free concert,” which turned out to be a giant church thing. It was still pretty cool though because how often do you get to see a pastor sing and moonwalk across the stage? I went to another part of town with Catherine on the second day . We met an older man named Nette who offered to walk us around and take us to a post office; he was an interesting character to say the least.

While in Ghana, I also went on a forest walk and planted trees. I had the pleasure of eating lunch at an ambassador’s house while watching a drumming/dance performance. On the last day, I went on an SAS trip to the Torgorme Village. They welcomed us and gave us all African names; mine is Abla, meaning Tuesday-born. We also watched a few performances by some of the village children, and I tell you, it seemed like everyone wanted our phone numbers and email addresses.

On the last night in port, I went out in Tema with a couple friends. All I have to say about it is this: I HAD A BLAST!  

-KW-

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa

I just wanted to give a shout out to my little brother....HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!!

 

I LOVE YOUR FACE!!!

 

-KW-

Cape Town, South Africa

Good afternoon friends! (or good morning for you…) I would probably have to say that South Africa has been my favorite port thus far. On day one I found someone to go to Spier Wine Estate with me. The funny thing about the day is this – I was in the “wine country,” and I didn’t go wine tasting or drink a drop of the stuff. I went to the wine country to see cheetahs! Spier runs a cheetah outreach program as well as an eagle outreach. We got to pet 10 month old cheetahs (which were already quite big and sleeping), and we got to hold an eagle. It was pretty sweet. At night I went with another group of people to a Jazz bar called the Green Dolphin after eating at a kick ass restaurant while watching the sunset. I went on an SAS trip to the Amy Biehl Foundation and a township on day two. We learned about the foundation and what they are doing to help the children living in townships, and we also went to one of the many townships to play soccer and other games with the children who participate in the program. It was quite an experience for me – not going to lie, I was out of my comfort zone the whole time, but I suppose that it was good for me.  On the third day in Cape Town, Amber and I walked around the waterfront for a while, a while meaning pretty much all day. We did a bit of shopping and exploring and ate lunch at a restaurant (Spur) where a guy Amber met the previous night worked. That night we went to a bar called Ivy League…it was basically an SAS party for those of us who didn’t go on Safaris. Don’t get me wrong; we mingled with locals as well. It was a good time. On the fourth day, I walked around other parts of Cape Town with Catherine and Crystal, and we saw a guy walking his dogs; he let us pet them. THEY WERE SO CUTE! One was a baby puppy!! Man did that make me miss my babies! Catherine wanted to find a Harley Davidson store, and on the way we apparently ran into the rainbow district. Some of them went back later that night, but I went back to Ivy League with Amber and various other individuals. The second night there was infinitely more interesting than the first…There was a bachelor party going on, so I got pictures of a guy in a wig and Daisy Duke outfit dancing on a pole…yup…

On the last day in Cape Town, I was supposed to go on a Shark Observation cruise for an FDP, but it got cancelled due to weather…I was very upset because I was looking forward to seeing some Great Whites. On the bright side, we all got a refund, and I got to go back to sleep (the trip was supposed to leave at 5:30 AM and I was up late the night before…) Since I had nothing else on my agenda for the day, I followed Andrew around on a hunt to find Wi-Fi and checked out Facebook for the first time since Hong Kong after eating lunch. The Facebook thing may not have been the smartest idea because it made me want to get on it more.

Sooooo yeah, that was Cape Town in a nutshell…definitely going to have to come back…just saying.

-KW-

Port Louis, Mauritius

Mauritius. Is. Amazing. I had a blast. On the first day, Alex, Catherine, and I took a buses to Curepipe and Henrietta to go hiking in Tamarin Falls (I doubt I spelled that right, sorry). We found a guide when we got there, and this was NOT an easy little walk through the woods. It was partly raining, the ground was mudding, and the trail was steep. We climbed over rocks, Catherine slipped and would have fallen a ways if Alex had not been behind her, and I would have too if the guide (Kevin) hadn’t been right in front of me to help. I kept finding it hard to believe that I was actually there, AND I jumped off a waterfall. Yes, it was into water – I find it surprising how many people ask if I jumped into water. The spot Alex and I jumped from was about 6 m high, and the water was supposedly 20 m deep. IT WAS EXHILERATING! I almost pussed out, but I’m extremely happy that I didn’t. The day was definitely up there among the top days of my life. In the evening, we walked to the Waterfront area. We met three Mauritian women and a little girl who had rode an hour in a taxi to Port Louis to watch the ships come in and out! They said they had wanted to see the ships up close, but security won’t let you get close without a ship ID, so we showed them some of our pictures. One of them asked for our names and email addresses so she could find us on Facebook. Catherine and I spent a good hour or hour and a half talking to them about the United States and life on the ship before we all went home.

On the second day, Catherine, Alex, Stephanie, Andrew, and found a cab driver to take us to Grand Bay, and he actually took us a few kilometers past it to a small beach where there were less people and a swimming area. After a while, Catherine, Andrew, and I asked the driver to take us on a hunt for goggles, which we found at a superstore that was vaguely similar to a Wal-Mart. We swam for a while and sat in the sand; there were no SASers at this beach (at least we didn’t see any, and I’m pretty sure we would have seen them if they were there because it was a pretty small beach). It was fairly awesome. After a few hours, we left to get lunch and to find a place to exchange money, buy stamps, and buy souvenirs/postcards.

I must say, the two days in Mauritius were quite wonderful, and I wish we had gotten more time. Unfortunately, voyagers before us found it their responsibility to trash the place and treated it with no respect, so Semester at Sea doesn’t have a very good reputation on the island. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the reason we were only there for one night.

-KW-

Somewhere in the Indian Ocean...

Neptune day!

Neptune day is the day you cross the equator, but we actually celebrated it the day after we crossed. It is also the day people shave their heads – tradition rules! You may be glad to hear that I did NOT have my head shaved, but I did get it cut. The faculty/staff and some dependents dressed up as part of King Neptune’s court, and the rest of us had “fish guts” (which weren’t actually fish guts at all, but rather a slimy, smelly concoction of some sort) poured on us, walked through the pool, and kissed a fish to make the transformation from “pollywog” to “seaback.” You would not believe how many people shaved their heads…it was insane! And yes, there were girls who did it too. One of my friends, Alex, had really long hair, and he did NOT want to cut it off or shave it, but he eventually gave in. Since he had already missed the huge gathering of people to shave their heads, Catherine chopped it off and shaved it for him. It was hilarious.

-KW-

Sea Olympics

I am about to write about something out of order here. Sea Olympics happened before we got to India, but I forgot to write about it. Sea Olympics day was a fun, class free day on board the MV Explorer. Can you imagine floating around in the middle of the ocean, on a ship, and watching people play games of crab soccer, dodge ball , and tug of war as well as doing a lip syncing contest, synchronized swimming, and a trivia bowl? The students on the ship are divided up into "seas" based on where our rooms are; the seas were the Adriatic Sea, Red Sea, Baltic Sea, Yellow Sea, Aegean Sea, Arabian Sea, Caribbean Sea, and Mediterranean Sea (sorry if I forgot any). The life long learners, staff, and dependents had their own team called the Salty Sea Monkeys. Every sea made their own flags and everything - fun stuff! My sea, the Caribbean (we called ourselves the pirates!), was near the bottom of the standings, but it was still fun. I’m not sure what else to say about it, but I figured I should at least mention it!

-KW-

Chennai/Cochin, India

The first experience I had in Chennai included watching auto rickshaw drivers play tug-a-war over the one guy that was in our group…enlightening first day if you ask me. After fighting our war through the horde of drivers, we attempted to go to a market in one, but the driver took us to a completely different place and tried to tell us that the market was closed until a certain time – LIES! Other SASers went to the same place we were trying to go before that time; consider it a lesson learned quickly. We also went to a temple, which was cool until we were cursed at by a beggar because we didn’t give her money. It is extremely difficult to walk by all these people and not give them something, but at the same time, it’s impossible to give to every person you see, and if you give to one, the rest will cause a scene. We also saw a lot of cows along the roads in certain areas of Chennai. Great thing about autos – they are made for 2-3 people. We consistently fit five: three sitting on the seat, one on top of those, and one on the driver’s seat. It was pretty intense. I went to a Welcome Reception on the first night in port; I got a Henna tattoo, watched a dance performance, and ate some interesting food. I am also just now realizing how much I use the word interesting, but there just really aren’t any other good ways to describe the experiences I have had in one word.

On the second day in Chennai, we found Spencer’s Market – the place we wanted to go the day before. We were there for a good few hours and got to talk to a few people our age. After that, we walked on a beach a ways and saw a statue of Gandhi. There were so many stray dogs in India that were just laying on sidewalks or on the beach; there were some cases in which I couldn’t even tell if they were alive or dead.

In Cochin, I went on a river tour of the Alleppey Backwaters, and there were a ton of house boats. At night, some friends and I took a ferry to New Cochin and saw a movie called My Name is Khan – ah. maze. ing. We couldn’t understand what they were saying of course, but we understood the plot well enough. When this movie is on DVD, I am going to buy it so that I can watch it with subtitles. The second day in Cochin was spent finding post cards, a post office, Indian clothing, and other souvenirs. I bought postcards from a woman outside of the port, and she was asking for pencils for her children, so when we were out shopping, I bought a lot of pencils and pencil sharpeners to give to her and the other women.

On a side note – Traffic in India is even more intense than in Viet Nam.

So yea, that was India for me.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Viet Nam

First thing I want to share with you about Viet Nam: In Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) there are motorbikes EVERYWHERE, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Traffic is insane, and I wish I had a t-shirt that says “I crossed the street in Viet Nam.” The people from Viet Nam that spoke with us before arriving told us that the traffic was a little intimidating and that there were no crosswalks; you just have to cross when you feel ready. This was more or less true. I think “intimidating” may have been an understatement – at least it was at first. After you get used to walking into a street crowded with motorbikes and cars, it’s not too bad... You just have to suck it up and walk slowly and confidently, and the motorbike riders will plan a path around you; however, the same is not, of course, true of cars. I felt like the grandma from the movie Mulan when she took the “lucky cricket” and closed her eyes and walked across a busy street.

 

This was the first port that I spent more than 2 or 3 days in; I did a wide variety of activities while in Viet Nam. One of the first things I did was get a business suit and a Vietnamese dress made.  The process was more difficult that you would expect because there are so many tailors to choose from, and they are all super nice. I had heard that Viet Nam was the place to buy a lot of clothes, so my friends and I went to the market a few times. Every time I went, I went with the assumption that I was going to come back laden with a ton of goods, but no such thing happened until the last day in port. At first, I just didn’t ever see anything that struck me as something I had to have, but then I realized that if I didn’t buy anything in Viet Nam, I would regret not having anything later. Sure enough, I am now extremely happy with everything I ended up getting, and I would have been disappointed if I hadn’t gotten anything. The experiences I had in the markets in all of the countries I’ve been to were completely different than any shopping experience I’ve had in my entire life. There are a lot of little “shops” that all have pretty much the same items in a row, and a few rows over there will be shops with something different. There were different areas for shops selling clothes, food items, shoes, souvenirs, and toys. Something I found out about myself while in the market – I am HORRIBLE at bargaining, and I smile and laugh A LOT when I’m nervous or uncomfortable.

 

One day I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels on an SAS trip; it was a pretty cool experience.  We learned about the Viet Nam war from a new perspective, and we got to crawl around in one of the tunnels that were used in the war. Well, we got to crawl around in a tunnel that had been enlarged for tourists anyways. Near the end of the tour, a few people paid money to shoot an AK-47, and I was not one of them! I’m not sure what else to say about the Cu Chi Tunnels – it seems fairly self-explanatory to me…

Another place on the list of things to do/see in Viet Nam is the Mekong Delta. I ended up going independently with three other people. We found a cab driver and guide that would take us and went on our way. It wasn’t quite what I had expected, but it was still fun. We went in several boats to different areas of the Mekong Delta, we sampled freshly made coconut candy and crispy rice paper, and three of us tried Snake’s Blood Wine. I don’t know if you know that is, but you should Google it or something; it was …interesting. Hmm, what else did we do in Mekong…we rode through a village-like area in horse-drawn carts. We also listened to some women sing Vietnamese music and enjoyed some amazing tea and fruit, and our guide told us about the Coconut Monk. All-in-all, it was a pretty good time, until we got back to the city that is. Right, so we get back to the city, and the guy who had showed us around tried to get us to pay more than what we had agreed on – what a rip off! We ended up telling him that we only had the amount he had told us to pay in the beginning, gave him the money, and walked away; it seemed to work well enough. Once back in Saigon, one member of our party went back to the ship while the other three of us found a place to eat called Blue Café which was fairly nifty. Later on, the other girl and I went to get pedicures and massages. I have to say, the massage felt damn good, and it was the first time someone actually walked on my back.

 

The last thing about my time in Viet Nam that I wish to share with you all is this: Phό is amazing. I ate it three times. It is probably my new favorite food. Rice noodles and soup…really freaking good. Seriously, if you ever go to a country where they have Phό, get it. The place we got it at was called Phό 24, and these places were all over the place. It’s like McDonalds in the US when it comes to the fact that there are so many of them.

 Check back in a day or so to read about India! (I don’t feel like writing anymore at the moment because this one took me forever!)

 

-KW-

Hong Kong

Ok, so “later today” meant more like two weeks from now…oops! I am really bad at this blog keeping thing. I should be writing in a personal journal so I can remember everything between blogs. I guess I’ve just been preoccupied with other things, and I keep forgetting to blog. I tell myself I’ll do it later…I’ll do it later…I’ll do it tomorrow…I’ll do it while in transit in India…yea no…Right then, writing about Hong Kong now, but I’m in India…yup.

The port – was – a – MALL! No joke; it was literally a mall. A HUGE mall. The best thing about the mall: FREE WI-FI!!! Needless to say I took advantage of that on day one. I also walked around Harbor City (that’s what the mall/surrounding area was called) with a friend for a while, and then we found a park and walked around there. Basically, we just explored the city all day. To be honest, the days I spent in Hong Kong are all blurred together. We went to a few markets (lady’s market, fish market, bird market, flower market, night market, etc.), walked around (a lot), checked out Hong Kong Island (which was more of a business area), and ate some pretty good food (not going to lie – I am guilty of eating McDonalds in a foreign country – I was curious to see if it was the same at the United States, and it was not!). On the last day in port, we went to a restaurant called The Modern Toilet on Hong Kong Island. All of the seats are toilet bowls, and they serve your food in dishes that look like toilets, urinals, sinks, etc.; it was quite funny. While there, we heard a little Chinese girl singing the ABC’s (yes, in English) – so cute! We also saw the seemingly never-ending series of escalators, and we rode them all the way to the top! (so it wasn’t really never-ending, but it sure as hell felt like it was going to be) On the night before that, I went to SoHo with a few people. We found an ice bar; it was cold (obviously). It was an interesting experience I guess. There were Semester at Sea students EVERYWHERE – well, what do you expect? It was pretty much just a block of bars crowded with a bunch of college kids…need I say more? Oh, and just so you all know – NO, I did NOT get “wasted” with my peers in SoHo. Something else that was interesting about Hong Kong Island was that there were not many sidewalks (at least in some areas there weren’t any). You have to walk on a system of skywalk things above the streets – it was pretty cool.

That is about it for Hong Kong – like I said, the biggest portion of my time there was spent simply walking around the city with friends and taking it all in.

-KW-

Shanghai, China

First, I need to apologize for procrastinating on the blog posts! This should have been written about a week ago; the result is that I am writing three different posts today (for Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon)

There was a delay upon arrival in Shanghai that consumed a few hours; we were supposed to go through the customs process early, but we didn’t start until several hours after the original time. My FDP to the Shanghai Bund was supposed to leave at 10:30 am; we didn’t leave until almost noon. Actually, my “sea” was one of the last to be called to go through customs, so my trip nearly left without me and a couple other people. The bund was pretty cool to look at, and I took some pictures. Then we went to “old town.” I have never seen that many people in one little area in my life. We were in China during the spring festival (Chinese New Year Celebrations), and the place we went was PACKED! I took pictures, but pictures don’t do the scene justice. Once we got back to the bund area, another girl and I signed out of the trip and walked around on our own. We went to Nanjing Road and checked out all the shopping opportunities – not that I actually bought anything. The people in this area were very pushy and busy, and every few feet there were people selling fake brand name sunglasses, watches, purses, and shoes. After a while, my companion and I decided to head back to the ship; we got lost. We found the cruise terminal, but the guard told us we had to go farther down the street to get to where the ship was, so of course we start walking in the direction he points out. We walk for quite some ways and realize that there is nothing in this direction, and we go back to where the guard was. Again, he points in the same direction and says we have to go that way. Once more, we start walking; we walked and walked and found nothing…again. This time, when we got back to where the guard was, we saw another “SASer,” and he told us that the ship was in the opposite direction to which the guard had been pointing, so at this point we are tired and cold and slightly frustrated. After being on the ship for a while, we met up with some other people, went back to Nanjing Road, and found a place to eat. Three of us got some really spicy rice noodle and chicken soup. It set my mouth on fire! After eating, we went to the ship once more to find a couple other people and then set off to find a place to hang out. (A club in other words…) First we went to a little bar and had a drink. The waitress that served us was from France! We sat and talked for a while, and then we left and walked to a place called Club 70 – it was pretty sweet if I do say so myself. The people I was hanging out with left early, but a couple other SAS people were there, so I stayed with them.

The second day in Shanghai was no more eventful than the first. I walked around (Nanjing road again) with someone until others were done with their trips. We did some shopping and bargaining (which I am very bad at). I should have written this blog post earlier than today because now I can’t remember anything that I did that sticks out a lot. I went back to Club 70 (with different people this time) and there were a LOT more semester at sea people there – I kind of told everyone I saw that day to go there at night…word spreads…

On the final day in Shanghai I went to the zoo with a friend…it was fairly depressing. I experienced my first major culture shock here – which is weird because you would think that the place and people would be what set me off, but no, it was the animals. We saw all the animals you see at a zoo in the US and then some, but the cages pretty much all looked the same. They weren’t specialized to fit the need of the animals. There were signs saying not to feed the animals, but people were still throwing orange peels and chips and paper in the cages to get reactions out of the animals. I think the part that hit it home for me was the “pet world.” Before going to this area of the zoo, I was thinking it would be just like a petting zoo or something. Nope. There were domestic cats and dogs in cages that were very similar to a pound. People were doing the same things they did at the wild animal “habitats.” In the US, we think of these dogs and cats as beloved pets – as part of the family. There were Saint Bernards, Great Danes, Dalmatians, golden retrievers, and German Shepherds – just to name a few. I think that if I had seen an English Mastiff, I would have cried.

Well, that is just about it for Shanghai. I need to write a paper for one of my classes now, so I will write about Hong Kong later today.

-KW-

Yokohama/Kobe, Japan

The ship departed Japan the day before yesterday (February 13^th for me), and we will be in China in a few hours! However, that’s not what I am blogging about at the moment. I believe you all want to read about my adventures in Japan so here goes…

On the first day in Yokohama, I went on an SAS day trip to tour Tokyo. This may sound weird, but I actually kept forgetting that I was in Japan. While we were on the bus, it just felt like another big city to me. It wasn’t until we got off the bus and were surrounded by Japanese signs and people that I remembered I was on the other side of the world. Unfortunately, I was miserable the whole time because I had a major headache and my stomach was hurting. While in Tokyo, I tried hot Milk Tea from a vending machine (which was a huge surprise to me that it came out of the vending machine hot..not just warm, but actually hot!), I saw a Toyota showcase where there was a new Lexus on display which had recliner seats in the back (insane!), and I went to Tokyo Tower at night – you are supposed to be able to see Mt Fuji from there during the day.

The second day in Yokohama, I went on an FDP for one of my classes. We met with Virginia Anami after finding our way to a suburb of Tokyo by way of subways and JR trains. She took us to her house, and we ate rice balls and other amazing Japanese foods. The house was beautiful and very open. The next day I was on the ship in transit to Kobe; some of us that stayed watched movies all day in the Piano Lounge, which was awesome! That night we had a “sit-down dinner,” which means they served us a five course mean like on regular cruises because there were only 200 (out of almost 600) of us that were actually on the ship from Yokohama to Kobe.

In Kobe, I went on an SAS trip to Nara; we saw Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. At one of our stops there was a group of kids on a field trip that took pictures with us...so cute! At another stop, I saw some kids trying to find someone to take their picture, and although I couldn’t remember how to say “take a photo” in Japanese, I kind of motioned to the camera and to myself and to them. They were very enthusiastic and excited when they realized I was offering to help them! When I got back to the ship, I met up with some friends and we went to walk around Kobe to find a place to eat. Three of us got Shabu-Shabu, which was fun and delicious. Basically, they give you a bunch of raw meat and a pot of boiling water and oil, and you cook the meat and vegetables yourself. After dinner, we were walking around again and stumbled upon an underground Jazz bar. When we walked in, the bartender made space for us at the bar – by the way he didn’t speak any English, but he was a very nice older man. Come to find out, we ended up sitting by his daughter who tells us that her aunt is the owner. We also found out that the young woman lives in Ohio and was in China visiting her family! It was fun.

On the second day in Kobe, Scott (my fellow Drake person) and I took a train (well several trains with all the transfers) to Osaka to go to the aquarium…once again – Amazing! They had two whale sharks and a TIGER SHARK!! The aquarium was just plain awesome, and that’s just about all I can say about it! However, there is more to be said about the journey there. There were two times when I was on a train or subway and an elderly woman walked on. Every seat was full, so I did the polite thing and gave up my seat. Man, were they shocked! Both times, the women thanked me over and over again…it made me feel great!

A few other things I noticed while in Japan...

1.       There were no trashcans; there are recycling bins next to most of the vending machines, but that’s about it.

2.       There were no postcards; I spent a while trying to find some and gave up. I finally found some in the port terminal right before On-Ship time. I guess that even though I was warned that I wouldn’t be able to find a lot of things as easily as I find them in the States, I just didn’t think about postcards as being one of those things.

3.       Everyone dresses very fashionably…though I already expected this.

4.       The streets were very clean, as were the subways.

5.       There were a lot of arcades and porn shops…

6.       Lots of other things that I just can’t think of at the moment.

 

Well, that’s about it for Japan. If I think of anything else, I will write about it. As for now, I’m going to bed so that I can wake up refreshed for China!

-KW-

The Other Side of the International Dateline, Pacific Ocean, Eastern Hemisphere

 

This should have been posted a few days ago, but I keep getting an "undeliverable message" notification everytime I try to send this...apparently everyone has been having email issues...sooo here goes...

Greetings from the future Kansans (and Iowans and whoever else is keeping up with my blog)! I have some trippy stuff to say! We recently crossed the International Dateline, officially putting me in the Eastern Hemisphere for the first time in my life!! BUT - the really weird part...are you ready?...is that today is Wednesday, February 3rd for you, but it's Thursday, February 4th for me... SO, instead of being 6 hours behind you all, I'm now 18 hours ahead. It's really not that big of a deal until I think about this - None of the adventurers aboard the MV Explorer will ever have a February 3, 2010...yes, I know - hello captain obvious, but it's still weird to think about. I don't know if it's cool or crappy for the people who had birthdays on February 3rd, which doesn't exist for us anymore... I guess it would be cool if you had a birthday on Feb 4th or later, because that's just one less day to wait for it...unless it's considerably farther away, because then you have to keep

  pushing it back hour by hour every time we cross into a new time zone... I am realizing how many ...'s I'm putting in this post. This is definitely the least organized post I've done so far...maybe it's because my though process has been all over the place lately...hmmmm

Anyways, nothing else really exciting has happened since Hawaii. I will probably post again when I get closer to Japan, or perhaps after Japan...or maybe between Yokohama and Kobe...who knows...

-KW



ÿ

Hilo/Honolulu, Hawaii

Well, we departed Honolulu the night before yesterday. Sorry it took me so long to post, but I couldn't connect to the network last night. Hmm, what to say about Hawaii... The weather was very nice (even a little hot for my taste, but I'm sure it was better than whatever it is you all have been experiencing!)

 

On the first day in Hilo, I went on a bus tour of the city, which was more or less cool. It definitely wasn't the highlight of my time there. After we got back to the ship, I realized that I had absolutely nothing to do and no one to hang out with because everyone was out exploring or on other trips, so I was feeling a little lonely. Lucky for me, there were three people who hadn't left yet and they invited me to walk around town with them, which was a lot of fun, then we went to eat dinner at a place called Ken's and went out with some people for a girl's 21st birthday (the place was for people 18 and over). The next day I went on a whale watching trip - A-MAZE-ING. We went out about four miles and found ourselve in the middle of a circle of multiple groups of whales. Females with calves and escorts, and even a couple random males that were showing off (breaching and slapping the water and what not). I didn't get any pictures of them breaching because it happened so fast, but I got some of the females comming up for air (unfortunately I can't post them because pictures are over the attachment limit we are given). After that I came back to the ship and hung out with some new friends and played card games and whatnot.

 

In Honolulu, I went to Chinatown on a Faculty Directed Practica for one of my classes, and it was...well...chinatown... Quite a few of us signed out early so that we could go exploring. I went with three other people to find the shopping center and a beach. I will definitely be in shape when I come home, simply from all the walking that we do here! When the sun was going down, we found a random guy to take a picture of us spelling out L O V E with our arms; it was so cool! He even took a picture with his own camera because he wanted to send it in to the local news channel!! We got back to the ship a little after 1900...(that would be 11:00 pm for all of you), ate dinner, and then made an attempt to go out. That one didn't work so well because we left before we got into the place - one of the girls had forgotten her ID, so we left with her, which was FINE BY ME because I had to get up at 5:00 am to go on an FDP to the United Agency Fish Auction. The cool thing, though, was that while we were waiting in front of the pier, a huge bus pulled up to drop off a bunch of students, and someone convinced him to take us to the club (once again 18 and older - just so you know - and there were only like 8-12 of us or so, and it was freaking awesome to show up in a bus...we felt pretty cool) The fish auction was definitely an interesting experience. We saw shark carcasses of animals who had gotten caught on the long lines while trying to steal the fish, a swordfish carcass, and a TON of huge-ass tuna (along with moonfish, mahi-mahi, and lots of other good stuff). I think the biggest tuna I saw was a 206 lb yellow fin tuna - and these things go for anywhere from $2/lb to $8/lb depending on quality. Most of the fish had huge cookie-cutter shark bites in their sides - I was awed by how big and deep the bites were - I wouldn't want to be caught in the water with one of those suckers! After the fish auction, a friend and I took the free shuttle to Walmart and walked to the shopping center to find two other girls, who found clothes for me to try on so that I would actually have something cute to wear in the hypothetical event that we go out in other countries. After that we returned to the ship for the rest of the day; I made a couple calls, and the ship departed around 2000 hours and said goodbye to land for the next week and a half.

 

Random other things - For anyone who is wondering about the class aspect of my journey, let me just say that I have to do A TON of reading! I don't think I've ever had this much reading to do in all of my academic experiences. Other than that, my classes are pretty interesting, even if some of them are a little dull at times. Career wise, I had a phone interview with someone from Zurich the morning we arrived in Hilo, and I think it went pretty well. Also, as of last night, I am now 5 hours behind Central time, and soon we will cross the international date line and be ahead of you by a day! The day we skip is either the 2nd or the 3rd of February. Fortunately, that is the only time we move ahead, so the rest of the time I will be moving my clock back every so often until I am back on track with Central time. I am so glad I am on the Spring Voyage and wasn't on the Fall Voyage. Imagine having to go the opposite way around the world and having to wake up earlier and earlier all the time...that would suck!

 

All-in-all, I had quite the experience in Hawaii - and that was just Hawaii. I mean, we were still in the United States (techincally speaking); I can't imagine what the other countries are going to be like!

Still somewhere between Ensenada and Hawaii

Ummm ok, this is really starting to get old. Whoever is controlling the waves/swells...it was fun for about a day, now it's just plain annoying, so if you could...ya know...stop now, it would be greatly appreciated...thanks....

 

For those of you who don't follow weather on the West Coast, there has apparently been a pretty big storm going on for a while. Needless to say, this ship has been rolling the ENTIRE time that we've been on it, and it just keeps getting worse. I've never been so happy about the fact that I don't get sea-sick...*knock on wood*...Fortunately, we aren't actually IN the storm - the captain is taking us around it - and the weather has actually been really nice (70s and sunny), even if it is a bit on the windy side. But hey...what's a little wind? What good is living in Kansas and Iowa if I don't get used to that, eh?

 

Sorry that I haven't been posting photos, but I probably won't be posting any at all because I don't have the ability to send quality pictures while I'm at sea.

 

Also, I do not know if/what people are posting comments on my posts because I can't get onto blogger, so if you write one and I don't respond, that would be why. If you wish to contact me, the best way is to email me at kcward@semesteratsea.net. Well, goodnight everyone...it is almost 11:30 pm here - about 2:30 am for you (if you are in Kansas or Iowa or another state in the central time zone area).

 

Until next time - KW

Somewhere between California and Hawaii

Good evening to all you blog readers.  As you may or may not know, the MV Explorer disembarked yesterday evening!  We were slightly delayed and didn't leave Ensenada until well after the scheduled 5:00 pm (Pacific Time...or rather 7:00 pm Central Time).  Today has been full of safety talks and orientation, and I feel like I'm a freshman again!  We have about a week until the first port (Hilo, Hawaii).  After that we will be stopping in Honolulu, and then on to Japan! (which is nearly two weeks away from Hawaii)  You can look forward to another post from yours truly in about a week or so, after our stay in Hawaii.  However, if something really exciting happens, or if I get really bored, I might post something sooner than that.  All in all, today wasn't all that thrilling, so there isn't a whole lot to blog about, so I think I will go to bed soon.

 

Until next time - KW

Salina, Kansas, USA

Well, this is my last night (or morning I guess) at home for the next three and a half months. I will be flying to San Diego at 11:00 am. You could say that I'm fairly excited, but also nervous at the same time, and I'm not quite sure what else to write. Just keep watching for posts! Thank you to all of my friends and family for the good wishes (from my birthday as well as for my trip).

-KW-