Indulging in a Dream

We all re-lived April 12th yesterday due to the weird time zone changes (well, I think that’s why - I’m not really sure). So, technically, April 12th was the longest day of my life, lasting a whole 48 hours. Pretty cool! Classes are officially over, but now final exams begin in a few days. Thankfully, since I’VE ALREADY GRADUATED (funny how I’ve forgotten that while I’ve been on this trip), I’m not bothering to study or to even take my exams! Instead, I have been spending my days outside as much as possible since this weather is absolutely gorgeous. In the mornings I hit the gym, then I lay out and work on my tan for a bit, eat lunch, shower, then spend the afternoon reading/hanging out by the pool. I’ve got to say, I’m LOVING this! I really don’t want this trip to end, but at the same time I can’t wait to get home and see my family and friends, cook my own food, go back to my church, etc.

Ni hao! I can’t believe my trip around the world is already coming to an end. Where has the time gone?! I’m glad that I have been documenting my travels, both with these e-mails and photos, because at this point I can hardly remember my adventures in Dominica and the Amazon. So much has happened in such a short amount of time! Right now our ship is making its way to Hilo, Hawaii and we should arrive on Sunday. As for my last two international ports… China was a whirlwind of activities. Though we docked in Hong Kong, I went on a Semester at Sea trip that had me fly to Xi’an (pronounced “She-an”) immediately. So… while some of my friends went bungee jumping (which I so desperately wanted to do, but I know my mom is thankful I missed), I was making my way up to one of the most ancient cities of the world. “Xi’an enjoys equal fame with Athens, Cairo, and Rome as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals,” according to my travel guide… who knew? In Xi’an I got to see the infamous Terracotta Warriors, visit an orphanage, learn the art of calligraphy, watch a Tang Dynasty dinner show (which had great music and dancers), and even squeezed in a bit of shopping before flying to Beijing. In Beijing I went to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, ate lunch at a local family’s house, toured the Olympic Village and the Birds Nest, helped the Chinese economy with some more shopping, visited a Kung Fu school and got to watch them perform (which was phenomenal), hiked a mile along the Great Wall and then rode a toboggan down, and saw an awesome acrobatics show. In Shanghai I had only one day to explore at my leisure with some girlfriends. I have to say that Shanghai was probably my least favorite of the three Chinese cities I visited because it was merely a big city - there wasn’t much to see/do. My guides on this trip were extremely informative, and most of the things they told us were really interesting, so I was a total geek and took notes. Here’s some of what they told me: - Xi’an means “Western Peace”; Beijing means “Northern Capital” - Mei guo is Mandarin for “America” and it means “beautiful country”; Zhong guo is Mandarin for “China” and it means “middle/center country” - Shanghai is recognized for businessmen, Beijing as the government center, and Xi’an is known for a casual, slower-paced lifestyle - Xi’an is where Chinese paper was invented - To remember three of the Chinese dynasties (Qin - which “China” is derived from, Han, and Tang), our guide told us to think of the human chin, hand, and tongue - Dumplings, which are one of the main foods of Northern China, represent good luck/fortune because they are shaped the same as ancient Chinese money - In the city you can only “own” your house for 70 years, since the government owns all the land; however, farmers get to keep their homes forever - Apartments are generally bought before the building is finished being constructed. 600 square-meters is the size of a standard 2-bedroom apartment and costs approximately $100,000 in Xi’an - Tourists are nicknamed “Big Noses,” which I believe is something like “da bizi” in Mandarin (but we had to weasel this out of our guide - she was very embarrassed to tell us) - The new child policy in China, to aid in the age gap/aging population, is as follows: if both husband and wife are from a one-child family, then they can have two children - On the topic of marriage and weddings: o BMWs are a popular car because the Chinese men say the acronym stands for “Be My Wife” o Our guide joked that Chinese men have to provide 3 ‘rings’ for their brides: an engagement ring, a wedding ring, and suffering o On the wedding day, the bride’s shoe is hidden, generally by a bridesmaid, and the groom must find it, otherwise they cannot get married. Our tour guide, for instance, once hid the shoe in a tissue box and covered it with the tissues. She boasted that it was difficult for the groom to find, so she got lots of money for giving him hints - Sometimes, in the mornings, people will “walk” their pet birds by riding them around on their bikes - Before 1992 people only had 1-day weekends - To reduce traffic, the government restricts you from driving on one day each week (the day that you cannot drive corresponds to the last number in your license plate - ex: if your plate ID ends in a 1 or 6 then you cannot drive on Tuesdays) I had a ton of fun in China - the only real downfall being the food. The Chinese food we have in the states is not real Chinese food, but I much prefer it. Most of us resorted to eating plain rice (after giving the local food a fair try of course), but there were a select few who genuinely enjoyed it all.

7 more days at sea until we arrive in Hilo! I tried to lay out today to work on a tan, but it’s so windy that I was freezing!!! Classes are wrapping up - only 3 more sessions - which means papers and finals are due. Since my classes don’t actually go towards any degree, I’m debating blowing off my exams and assignments completely… Why study when I can enjoy my last few days at sea?

I left Vietnam only yesterday and I’m ALREADY planning my return trip! Vietnam solidified my love for Southeast Asia (having already visited Thailand and Cambodia). The area is just so beautiful and there is so much to see and do! While I was in India, the local people told me one week in India was not enough - I needed a month. But I felt I had seen India. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. I figured that if I return, well, so be it, but there’s so much of the world to explore that I’m not going to go out of my way to return. But Vietnam… oh Vietnam… I could spend weeks and weeks there! I only scratched the surface of exploring this country, and I’m eager to discover the rest! However, my bank account is pleased that I had to leave; otherwise, I could have done some serious damage in Saigon. Here’s a recap of everything I did: Day 1: shopping at a huge market in Ho Chi Minh City with friends (I bought two handbags, two wallets, sunglasses, and souvenirs), dinner at a Chinese restaurant (we were pressed to find somewhere clean and get us out of the rain!), one-hour massage, and finally a much needed manicure/pedicure Day 2: early morning flight to Hanoi, meet our travel guide Kim (who had the most bizarre accent - it was a mix of British and Australian coming out of this little Vietnamese man!), visit the Ho Chi Minh memorial, lunch in Hanoi city center (I ate vegetable pho - pronounced “fuh” - and tried Vietnamese coffee, but it’s so thick that I had to water it down significantly!), 4-hour drive to Mai Chau village (which is near the Laos border; I slept for the whole drive), meet our host family and drink green tea while the mother tells us about beetlenut, walk around the village (I broke off to play a game of soccer with two little kids), and finally the day ended with shots of rice wine with a home-cooked dinner and cultural singing and dancing Day 3: bike/walk around the village (the bikes were really old and falling apart, but the weather was gorgeous - sunny and not too hot - and the rice fields/mountain scenery was beautiful!), a home-cooked lunch… and of course more rice wine, 4-hour drive back to Hanoi, shower off at our hotel, dinner followed by a water puppet show (*yawn*), and then explore the Hanoi nightlife (which wasn’t much, and apparently everything closes by midnight) Day 4: ride around town on a motorbike for an hour (I woke up early to get a massage, but the spa wasn’t open - I was so sad!), army museum and temple of literature (*yawn*), lunch in the city center (where I ate some great spring rolls and tofu), flight back to Saigon, visit to the tailor (I went to pick up the button-down shirts and dress I ordered, but they didn’t come out quite how I wanted so I didn’t buy them and was just out the $10 deposit I put down), and a late-night massage (which I thought was more important than eating dinner) Day 5: Cu Chi tunnel tour (pronounced “coo chi”; I got to shoot an AK47 and briefly walked through the tunnels, but got out quickly since I tend to get claustrophobic!), visit to a Cao Dai temple (I still don’t understand this religion… I’ll have to do some research when I get the time!), lunch, 3-hour drive back to the harbor (during which I slept most of the way and it began to rain), DVD shopping to spend my remaining dong (I bought 16 DVDs for $8!; $1 USD = 20,100 dong), meet my roommate’s mom back on the ship, then an early night to bed Other Fun Information I Learned/Observed: - Saigon (also called Ho Chi Minh City) is very modern and has lots of shopping! - There are many French and Australian tourists. - Chewing beetlenut was thought to be fashionable for women in older generations; however, recent generations have thankfully moved away from this awful, addicting habit. Our host-mother’s teeth were BLACK, and the color had spread to her lips. She told us that beetlenut was her second lover and without it, it is all she can think about. - Only 9 people were on my trip to Hanoi and Mai Chau Village, and I loved the intimate travel setting. - Rice wine is like moonshine - very potent! It’s a clear liquid, but ours had little flecks in it which looked sketchy, but we found out it was only honey. - The massages I got incorporated everything: foot massage, pressure points, hot stones, head massage, mini facial, and back massage… all for $10/hour! It’s been a while since I’ve had a Thai massage, but I still think they are my favorite. - It was very safe walking around at any time of day, but I did hear quite a few stories of girls getting their purses robbed while on motorbikes. - There were lots of puppies in Mai Chau village (NO they were not intended for a snack). Bob Barker needs to make an appearance and tell them all to spay/neuter their pets! - Working in the rice fields isn’t just planting and harvesting the rice. Every day they go out there to clean out the algae and snails (which eat the plant and are bad for crops). - Women hold the purse strings in Vietnam; otherwise the men will spend all the money on booze and prostitutes! - Local women who smoke and/or drink in public are immediately assumed to be prostitutes (however, that assumption isn’t made of Westerners). - People actually wear helmets on motorbikes! And if you take a motorbike taxi, they give you a helmet. As sad as I was to leave Vietnam, I’m excited that I will be in China in less than 12 hours! The seas have become fairly rough since leaving Vietnam - the whole ship will occasionally rumble violently, sounding like a really loud clap of thunder - and I’m not sure if this is typical for the area or if we are just traveling through a storm. In China I will be taking a 6-day, 5-night Semester At Sea trip to Xi’an (to see the Terracotta Warriors) and Beijing, and then I will spend my last day in Shanghai… Goodness, this is all moving so fast! I barely have time to process everything I’ve done before moving on to my next exciting adventure. Well, I hope everything is going well at home and that you still enjoy reading about my travels! I miss you all, Emily

I LOVE Vietnam! I just spent my first day here shopping and at the spa… I couldn’t be any happier right now! :D

First, my friends and I went to a tailor and I got 3 button-down shirts and a dress made for work. Then we went to a HUGE market and I bought an Hermes bag and wallet, a Louis Vuitton wallet, a navy blue Longchamps bag, Gucci sunglasses, and some small souvenirs (ornaments, postcard, etc). After dinner (we ate at a Chinese place because it was close and we wanted to get out of the rain) we found a spa that gave us an hour-long massage for $10 USD. So amazing! I wanted to do the 90-min massage for only $13 USD, but the other girls had enough after an hour. Then, I ended my day with a MUCH needed manicure and pedicure.

Could life get any better?

(Fun side note: we all become instant millionaires when we withdraw from the ATMs over here because $100 USD = 2,800,000 Vietnamese dong)

Update: Given the situation in Japan, our ship is being re-routed to Taiwan and we no longer get to visit Kobe or Yokohama :( But, on the plus side, only 15 hours until Vietnam!!!

I just uploaded photos from Nassau, Dominica, Manaus, Sea Olympics, Cape Town, and Mauritius to Facebook — check them out!

(I accidentally forgot my photos from Ghana, so I will have to post those later!)

We were only in Mauritius for one short day because the local government no longer allows Semester At Sea to stay overnight. Mauritius is deemed a “party island,” and on past SAS voyages kids went a little crazy… which still happened regardless of our lack of time in port. In fact, I think things may have been worse since kids knew that they only had 8 hours or so to drink and wanted to consume as much alcohol as they could in that time. Before I get carried away, let me tell you what I did in Mauritius…

I went to an Adventure Park in the morning and Flic en Flac beach in the afternoon - and it was an amazing day! We arrived in port on a Hindu festival day, and my tour bus passed a few people carrying colorful floats dedicated to the god Shiva (I believe), the god of destruction. The Adventure Park consisted of a series of ropes courses, the first being the easy course (various wood-plank-bridges - some of which provided nothing to hold on to, some of which you had to jump from plank to plank) and the second being the more difficult course. The difficult course, which was also suspended in the air (we were secured with harnesses and a safety cable), had seven different obstacles:

1) a low rope-bridge that you had to walk across with nothing to hold on to

2) a wooden-plank-bridge (that was less wooden planks and more open space) that you had to JUMP from plank to plank, but could use a small rope to hold for balance

3) a rope-tunnel (imagine the shape of a tent) that you had to scale with arms and legs spread, clinging to both sides of the tunnel

4) a series of swinging logs, which formed a “bridge” across the course, suspended in the air by ropes

5) a vertical rope-wall

6) a zip line

7) four ropes - the middle two were tight and you were meant to walk along them, the outer two were loose and intended to hold for balance

Needless to say, we all had a blast and worked up quite an appetite, but more importantly, we were happy to get out of the mosquito-infested forest! I am not kidding when I say that kids who didn’t spray themselves with DEET (and those who didn’t cover themselves sufficiently) left the adventure park with a minimum of 50 mosquito bites. There were SWARMS of them everywhere, but I am happy to say that I remained bite-free!

After lunch we went to Flic en Flac beach for two hours. I wandered around town with my friend Diana - picking up my traditional souvenir (I bought a small plush dodo bird as my Christmas ornament) and a postcard from one of the only shops open on Sunday. I’ve heard great things about the beaches of Mauritius and the beautiful scuba/snorkeling, but sadly, I didn’t have enough time to confirm. (A friend who went scuba diving said it was good, but didn’t come close to the expectations he had.) There were also waterfalls that I wish I could have had time to visit… a few hours in port simply isn’t enough time to see a country! My general impression of Mauritius was that it’s nothing special, but I don’t think my few hours there can provide a fair assessment. Maybe I can swing by again on a future trip to Madagascar…

Most other kids from Semester At Sea went on catamaran booze cruises and came back to the ship heavily intoxicated. It was a little ridiculous. As punishment, any student who returns to the ship (in any port at any time of day) drunk is given “dock-time” in the following port, which is essentially “time out” on the ship while everyone else gets to go into port (regardless of whether you have a pre-paid trip planned). One guy from my Adventure Park trip (after exhausting himself on the ropes courses and being severely dehydrated) met up with some of his SAS friends at Flic en Flac and got so intoxicated that he had to be sent to the hospital and was left behind in Mauritius! (The academic dean is now consulting with his professors to see whether or not he should be allowed back on the ship.) Apparently India is the “turning-point” for most SAS kids, and they’ll realize what their priorities SHOULD be on this voyage around the world… We will see.

Aside from my time in Mauritius, not much else has happened on the ship. We DID have to make an emergency stop at the island of Diego Garcia to let three people off the ship for medical issues that couldn’t be treated onboard (one crew member had a detached retina, one student (who was a burn victim) got a skin infection, and another student had a low white-blood-cell count). All three were flown to Singapore for treatment, so maybe they will meet up with us there for the rest of the voyage…

Tomorrow I get to see Nick in India, and I couldn’t be more excited!!! I feel like I am a bit more prepared than others for what we are about to experience, having already seen extreme poverty in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Then again, I don’t know that the impact of seeing such devastation can fade or that any previous experience can compare to INDIA. More to come soon!

Tonight the captain shut off some of the lights on the ship so we could all stargaze. It was absolutely beautiful! Most of us had no idea what we were looking at (I could make out Orion’s Belt, the Big Dipper, and the Southern Cross), but some guy had his iPad out with an app that, if you hold the iPad up to the sky, shows you exactly which constellation you are looking at. SO COOL! Side note: tonight we advance our clocks 30 minutes… how strange is that? Only 48 more hours until I’m in Chennai, India and get to see NICK!!! I’m so excited! Everyone I tell on the ship is so jealous that my brother is coming to see me :D

I am going to share the Travel Writing piece I submitted for today’s class with you so you can get a sense of the people on this voyage… You may not find it as funny as my SAS friends have since you aren’t living it, but know that everyone who has read this paper has said I am dead on and my professor loved it. Enjoy!

After nearly two months of traveling on this ship, it has happened. I used to eat every meal with a new group of kids in the hopes of getting to know as many people as possible, but my social attempts have been thwarted. Cliques have formed, as is only natural, and I have been restricted to somewhat of a routine. The cliques cover a wide social spectrum, and though there is some overlapping of groups, most cliques are easily identifiable.

The Jocks / Bros can be found in the gym, as they like to get “swoll” (translation: lift weights) twice a day. They like to flaunt the physique they have worked so hard to build, so they wear cut-off-tees with their athletic shorts and schedule their workouts to correspond to a large crowd of sunbathers. Aside from the Neanderthal grunting as they bench-press 180 pounds, the Jocks / Bros say little to one another, a secret Bromance communication developed through hours of “bird-watching,” gay jokes, and douchebaggery. You can catch them slipping sideways glances to make sure the cute girl (or “finch”) by the pool (or “birdbath”) noticed those last ten pull-ups - and it’s likely that she did. As a word to the wise, be sure to get in the food line before a Jock / Bro because they will consume between two and three plates of food, leaving mere scraps behind. One plate is designated for salad, one for pasta, and one for the meat of the day, which is usually chicken or beef, and a small sliver of dessert if daily calories will allow. When they aren’t getting swoll on the pool deck, this clique is often clad in a uniform of Ralph Lauren or Lacoste, shading their eyes like a rock star in Oakleys or Ray Bans.

The female counterpart to the Jock / Bro is the clique of Sorority Sunbathers. To these girls, their identity is their sorority. If not wearing a string bikini by the pool, they will either wear black nylon leggings and a sorority tee emblazoned with their Greek letters in a casual setting or jeans and an attention-grabbing blouse to class. Clothing for this clique is a means of attracting attention, which is generally warranted given the girls’ good looks and thin bodies. On the pool deck you can overhear the Sorority Sunbather recalling countless stories of Greek life, spanning from Rush to fraternity parties, but definitely not discussing philanthropic activities. These girls also tend to speak freely of their “hook ups” with both boys on the ship and locals in port. At the gym, the Sorority Sunbather would never dare to exercise without makeup as she casually cycles on the elliptical without breaking a sweat. If you catch her eating the freshly baked cookies on the pool deck, she will complain between each bite, “I can’t believe I’m eating this. I’m going to get so fat!”

On the complete opposite side of the social spectrum are the Life Long Learners (LLLs), or Sea Salts. Sea Salts range anywhere from twenty-five years old to eighty-five years old, and while some are on the voyage because they have a passion for learning, others are traveling on a lengthy family reunion or sampling an experience sacrificed years ago. The passionate learners voluntarily sit in on academic classes and participate in Semester At Sea sponsored trips, taking rigorous notes for an exam they do not have to take and incessantly asking questions that no student would ever think to ask of any tour guide. “Is it true that 46% of the population here butters their bread?” Some Sea Salts have fully embraced the “Extended Family” program on the ship, in which a Sea Salt couple can “adopt” students to create a homey feel on the ship. From the jovial extended-extended family dinners of the infamous Bonnie and Hans (generally consisting of an assortment of flatbread pizza or cheeseburgers) at the Pool Bar to intense bridge games in the Garden Lounge, Sea Salts are an MV Explorer favorite.

The Goody-Goody-Girls clique can vary in terms of motive, but the same general theme exists: no boys. Some Goody-Goody-Girl cliques form because boyfriends were left back in the U.S. whereas other Goody-Goody-Girl cliques form out of shyness around the opposite sex. This clique sends countless e-mails home daily and purchases numerous phone cards to say “I love you” across the Atlantic - directed either to a boyfriend or parent. Drama and gossip are typically the topics of discussion in this clique, and they look upon the shipboard “hook ups” with jealousy and disdain. Stereotypically the Goody-Goody-Girl clique drinks less alcohol than other cliques, and they dress conservatively (no plunging necklines or tight clothes) so as to not call attention to their bodies.

The Artistics like to hang out in the Piano Lounge, possibly practicing their next Open Mic Night act, and are easily identifiable by their eclectic dress. This clique focuses their “style” on unique accessories such as cultural bracelets and necklaces purchased in port (preferably hemp), body piercings, hair styles (like dreadlocks or mohawks), and philanthropic t-shirts. The Artistics are open-minded and not concerned with the opinions of others. Though they don’t want to “conform” (Jocks / Bros or Sorority Sunbathers is implied here), they unknowingly conform to each other.

Pub Night Drunks exist within each of the previously identified student cliques, and so, one can be both a Sorority Sunbather and a Pub Night Drunk. This clique of students can be found discreetly pouring their allotted two glasses of five-buck-Chuck under the dinner table and in their coffee mugs, hoarding it for a “big night.” You can hear them complaining - at any time of day - about the restriction of alcohol placed upon the students while on the ship and how they plan to compensate their losses in port. “I don’t understand why they don’t just treat us like adults,” they whine. And when it is a Pub Night, which takes place any day the ship is at sea, you can find them at the Pool Bar dressed like they’re going to a legitimate bar back home. The girls don skirts or dresses with heels and the boys wear button-down shirts and take the time to style their hair. Usually it is the Pub Night Drunks who turn into SASholes: an ingenious nickname given to the obnoxious students on this trip.

The Pseudo-Couples on the ship are students who either came on the voyage already dating or students who have met and since began “dating” (though you can’t truly date someone on a ship traveling the world). In the early days of the voyage, most students were looking for casual hook ups or sex. “Do you want to have a Movie Night?” became ship code for “I want to try to get lucky” if said by a guy and “I want to snuggle” for girls. Now, however, as the novelty of meeting attractive people has worn off slightly, boys and girls are settling down into Pseudo-Couples. For a romantic “date night” couples may grab an ice cream at the Pool Bar or splurge on Specialty Dining where, for thirty-five dollars a plate, you can have a five-course meal. Though some short, yet still embarrassing, morning-after “walks of shame” can still be observed, Pseudo-Couples are seen holding hands in the halls, are (more often than not) attached at the hip, or getting married in Ghana.

Another clique, the Bookworms, never seem to escape their school work. Generally, this group dresses extremely conservative, as would someone who is twice their age. They are strongly driven to succeed in school and any grade below an A is deemed offensive and clearly inaccurate. The Bookworms continuously discuss class assignments, read textbooks during meals, and plan out milestone completion tasks to perform periodically. The Bookworms feel a heavy pressure to finish their work, often focusing more on schoolwork than enjoying their experiences in each port. They can often be found congregating in churches, museums, and points of historical interest along with the tour-obsessed Sea Salts.

Ethnic cliques also exist on the ship, and, as one would assume, are grouped by cultural background. Two major ethnic cliques are the Chinese and the Latinos. Little China is a very close-knit group and they are rarely seen independently or with non-Chinese students. They stick to speaking in their native tongue of fast-paced, sharp-single-syllable utterances punctuated by high-pitched giggling. Everything about this ethnic clique is miniscule - from the small bites they take of food to their Hello Kitty parasols to protect their skin. The Latino students are a loud, self-assured group that can often be found causing some type of Hispanic-panic and sporting the classic athletic brands like Nike. They speak in a rapid Spanish slang, indiscernible even to the varying Hispanic cultures within the clique. Latino girls on the ship are seen wearing gold-hoop earrings three inches in diameter with quick-release clasps to be quickly removed in fights and fashionable shoes that require over-confidence to pull off.

Finally, the toughest clique to classify is a group I call the Normals. The Normals have no defining characteristics, and, if personable enough, could befriend anyone on the ship. They are just your average guys and girls, friends with both genders in all different types of cliques. Normals like to drink for social purposes. They fly under the social radar, not causing a scandal yet still recognizable to other students on the ship.

But where do I fit in? And who am I to eat meals with now?

Cape Town, South Africa was absolutely beautiful! I had a great five days in port, and I am sad to say goodbye to this city… We were supposed to arrive in port on Thursday, but the winds were too strong so our ship had to wait idly at sea for an entire day and a half! (You can imagine how upset we all were - especially the kids who had scheduled expensive safaris)

On Friday we were allowed to dock in the early afternoon, which meant that my Apartheid/Robben Island day trip was cut in half. But I wasn’t complaining - I was happy to finally be off the ship! What I found really interesting about Robben Island was that my tour guide had once been a prisoner there - for seven years! He said giving tours was therapeutic for him, but I can’t imagine working at a place that once held me captive… Aside from Nelson Mandela’s prison cell, I saw picturesque views of Table Mountain and even penguins on the island! That evening a friend and I went out to dinner at the waterfront and then stocked up on snacks for the ship at a grocery store. (We’re getting so tired of the food; it’s the same thing every day!)

Saturday I went cycling in the wine lands of Franschhoek, and I was captivated by the natural beauty of South Africa. Everywhere I looked was picture-worthy. We cycled a total of 11 miles and were welcomed at the winery with a picnic basket lunch. Instead of returning to the ship, a handful of us on the wine tour convinced our guide to drive us to Table Mountain so we could watch the sunset. Sadly, the winds were too strong yet again so we couldn’t take the cable car up; however, we did get a nice little driving tour around the beach. That night we ate dinner on the beach and I went out to a bar called Zula with some friends. We completely lucked out with Zula - there was a local band playing and the music and energy was intense! I danced/jumped like a maniac for at least two hours straight!

Stephan, a friend from middle school in Georgia who now lives in Cape Town, picked me up from the harbor on Sunday and he drove me to all the non-touristy destinations. Visiting a city with a local is the best way to go! Then on Monday I hiked up Table Mountain. I wore my heart rate monitor on my hike, so now I can report that it took 2 hours and 1350 calories to get from the base of the mountain to the top. The hike was not an easy hike, mostly because our path wasn’t smooth and dirt-paved - it was like climbing stairs made of large boulders. You had to step from rock to rock, which meant you were always looking at your footing, not the beautiful scenery. But we did stop occasionally for a few seconds to catch our breaths and take in the moment. Boy did I feel a sense of accomplishment when I got to the top! That evening I went to a local theatre performance depicting life in Cape Town which was more like a high school play than the off-Broadway show I envisioned.

Yesterday, my last day in South Africa, I volunteered with an organization called Operation Hunger. I drove to a township (their ghettos) and began the day by weighing all the local children. Being an analytically minded person, I found this process fascinating because I then compared their body weights to a table of weights according to their particular ages. Out of 13 children, only 2 boys (no girls) were considered average. The majority of the kids fell 3 standard deviations below the mean, indicating they were severely malnourished and needed to visit the local clinic (which was free and only a 15 minute walk from their homes). One woman arrived drunk (at 11 am) with her 2 year old daughter who weighed only 8 kilograms!

I had a few Rand ($1 = 7.39 Rand) left over from my initial ATM withdrawal - nothing substantial, just pocket change, really - and I thought that it would be nice to give to the man running the soup kitchen. (All operational costs come directly from his pocket or donations) But $35 Rand seemed more like an insult than a donation, so I asked the other students if they had any spare change to contribute (and made the logical argument that we’d immediately have to get back on the ship when we returned and couldn’t spend the money anyway). In total I collected 510 Rand, which is approximately $70 USD. Granted, this seems like nothing to us - it was our left over change! - but to this soup kitchen it meant a lot.

The locals would arrive with their own tupperware and children were served first. While I helped distribute the food, another volunteer recorded a tally of first-servings (70) and second-servings (112). This meal may possibly have been the only food these people would eat that day, and they were eating the stew from their bowls with their bare hands. Before presenting our donation, I asked the man running the soup kitchen how much it costs to operate the kitchen for a single day. He told me that the largest cost was the gas used to cook the food and that everything would total to roughly 500 Rand. How perfect! It was awesome to know that our donation would feed the entire township for a whole day!

(I am sorry for not posting my complete Amazon and Ghana updates until now! They’re lengthy, so click to keep reading…)

I am happy to report that Takoradi fully met my expectations of Africa (unlike Manaus in the Amazon). There were dirt roads, mud and stick houses, polluted streets, women walking with HUGE, heavy baskets on their heads - all the while balancing a child strapped to their backs, etc. However, there were also some parts that I did not expect - such as the beautiful rainforests and beaches.

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(I am sorry for not posting my complete Amazon and Ghana updates until now! They’re lengthy, so click to keep reading…)

I survived sleeping in the Amazon!!! I’m so glad I signed up for a trip into the Amazon instead of staying in Manaus or flying to Rio like other kids did. I figure I can always re-visit Brazil for a trip specifically to Rio, and Manaus was a bit of a disappointment. Granted I only spent Sunday in port, but it was nothing close to what I would expect a city 1,000 miles inland on the Amazon River to be.

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This morning I spent 2 hours (and burned 1350 calories) hiking Table Mountain in Cape Town. What a grueling hike (it was like climbing stairs made of large, rock boulders the WHOLE time), but gorgeous views of the city and such a sense of accomplishment! Tomorrow is my last day in this beautiful city, and I am spending it volunteering with an organization called Operation Hunger :)

The wind is really bad today, so our ship can’t dock in Cape Town. We were supposed to arrive at 8 am this morning; it is now 6:30 pm and we are still waiting out at sea. NOT FUN. I’ve missed my sunset/picnic hike up Lion’s Head that I had scheduled for today… Now let’s just pray that we can dock tonight and I don’t miss my trip to Robben Island tomorrow! On a fun note, when we were pulling up to port this morning, I saw a school/flock/herd? of seals swimming outside my cabin window! I waited for a great white to jump up and eat one, but no luck…