The Last Port

Just spent five days in Africa...no big deal. :)

 

We ported in Casablanca, Morocco. (I have actually been to Morocco befor, but not the same part. We went to Tangier befor.) The port was very strange because it was more of a commercial port than a cruise ship port. AKA lots of huge containers everywhere and cranes and we had to take a shuttle bus to get out of the port.

 

And let me just say that Morocco has some pretty serious visa requirements. My friend Andy - who is pretty much the cutest littlest 5 foot tall Ecuadorian I know was not allowed off the boat because of all of this weird stuff involving visa and international policy and consulates (that i do not quite understand). It was only funny because if you could just see this girl, you would just know that she did not pose any sort of national threat to Morocco. But hey, we live in a crazy world I guess!

 

DAY 1: We went to the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. This is the thrid biggest mosque in the Islamic world with the biggest minaret (call to prayer tower) overall. It was HUGE. and so beautiful. It was built right over the waves and has so many layers to it. It even has a retractable roof for when they have alot of worshippers and it gets really hot. Then we went to a souk in Casablanca which is really just the Moroccan word for a bazaar or market. Pretty cool stuff including these magic boxes that have all of these hidden keys and sliding wooden panels among many other typical Moroccan souvenirs. That night, we all stayed on the boat and had a game night because we knew the next few nights, we wouldn't be able to get back to the boat! Monopoly got real serious real fast. Haley and me lost (we had to play teams because there were approx. 10 of us playing) but at least we had Marvin Gardens for a while!

 

DAY 2: We were hoping that Andy was gonna be able to get off the boat so we hung around for a while and played more games. (I can't even look at Apples to Apples anymore). But by dinnertime, it was pretty clear that she was gonna have to hang out on the boat. :( ....so we went on to the Casablanca train station to catch a train to Marrakesh! By the time we got to Marrakesh it was about 10 at night. We had arranged in advance for a driver from the riad we were staying at to pick us up from the train station so within half an hour a Moroccan man approached with a sign that said "Tah Tah Haley" LOLOL. (The name of our riad was Dar Tah Tah and one of the girls in our group's name is Haley). So then we got to the riad which was an adventure just finding it. It was essentially the most dangerous maze i've ever been through. I was almost run over by 50 different mopeds. but the riad.. IT WAS SO NICE. Three floors, slept technically 12 people but if all of the couches were beds, you could easily sleep 20 in there. I'll have to show you pictures but even that wont do it justice. There were 8 of us in the riad the first night then 9 the second and then 10 the third and we each had our own bed and bathroom. This is all especially impressive when you consider the fact that total, for all 3 nights (with breakfast included!) I only paid 88 US dollars. INSANE. The other riad we could have gotten for the same price (but another SASer had already booked it) had free wifi and a pool. (We ended up going over there to snag some wifi).So basically that night we just ran around like crazy people exploring and then went to bed.

 

DAY 3: We arranged for a tour guide through the riad to go on a Berber village hike. The Berber villages alot more rural than Marrakesh. We went to a small village almost 3 hours away and got a little tour of their homes and all of their common stuff. EX: they all share one big oven. Also all of their stuff is water powered! Then we walked across this bridge that was essentially 2 pieces of cable with sticks layed across it. Then we went to another village with a waterfall. One of the most perilous hikes of all time. At one point we had to climb up a random dripping wet ladder casually resting against a slippery waterfall rock. We had to climb all the way til our feet were on the top rung and then a Berber man sticks out his hand for you to grab and he forces you to not die and be able to scratch/crawl the rest of the way. the whole 1.5-2 hr hike was pretty much like that and it also rained!! Which was so nice because I've only seeen rain 2 times this summer. Anyways, as deadly as the hike was - it was definitly worth it! After that we got lunch couscous and vegetables (all cooked) at a restaurant that the guide took us to. Remember this meal, it was my demise.

 

Then that night, we got internet at the neighboring riad. I use the term "neighboring" very loosely. For anyone that knows how bad at directions I am, this was quite a struggle but I didn't get lost once! (And sometimes I was even leading the group!) From the internet we were able to set up a meeting time to go get the girls that were on the 3 or 4 days camel trek through SAS. Then we found them with no problems!! The rest of the night we just hung out and played games. Marrakesh is not the city to go crazy. Especially during Ramadan (which for anyone that doesn't know is the Islamic fast that takes place for 30 days. They can only eat when the sun is down or something along that general time frame.)

 

DAY 4: Shopping! This day we went to a fixed priced market. Ah so many things and at such good prices and no one to harass you!! This was wonderful and I got all of my souvenir/gift shopping done (except for one thing which I got outside of the market because I knew I could find a better price!) Then we went to a grocery store to stock up on food and water since its sorta hard to come by in an Islamic country during Ramadan... and then we hit up the train station to get tickets for going home. This turned out to be tricky because everyone wanted first class because its the only way you're guarunteed a seat and we all had lots of bags. (On the way there our first class compartment was 4 of us girls in a 6 person thing that literally looked like we were going ot Hogwarts.) Anyways they ran out of first class but said they would be adding another train the next morning so we just had to get there early to get tickets. (A few of us ended up being very antsy about the situation once we got back to the riad so 4 of us decided we would just get to the station realllly early and get on the earlier train so that we didnt even have to worry about not making it back.)

 

That night we had a really nice dinner prepared by the Moroccan family that owns the riad (at a little extra charge). Dinner was sooo good. And then the fun started. So we were all having a good ol' time and then I didn't really feel so good. I thought I was just really full. Next thing I know BAM food poisoning all over the place. Couldn't keep water down for 36 hours. In that time, I spent the night in the riad and traveled all the way back to the boat. All the way through a 3.5 hour train ride and 2 taxis. it was awful. Haley got sick right befor we left the riad and then Abby got sick once we got back on the boat. SO BAD. I'm not 100% positive what it was, but the only thing that makes sense (based on who ate it and who got sick) is the couscous and vegetable dish from day 3. So yeah, never again.

 

Day 5 was essentially just traveling.

 

 

Other than the food poisoning, I had a wonderful time in Morocco and if anyone wants the contact for a cheap riad, I'll try and hook you up!

 

Now were back on the boat for about 6 more days (already been on for 2) and then on the 20th I'll be in Boston! Today I turned in my last graded assignments minus 2 finals. Yay!

 

 

Cya soon America!

The Best Day Ever

Today is the best day ever for a couple of reasons.

 

(1) I did really well on the test I thought I bombed. (probs curved but I'm not complaining!) (2) Couscous (so good they named it twice) and cheesecake for dinner! (3) All but one of my roommates got approved to live off campus with me!!!! Yay! and then (4) tonight is the talent show. Also (5) We get an extra hour of sleep tonight.

 

Now I'm gonna go work on a research paper (which is hilarious because the book selection is limited and we cant really go on the internet...)

 

Bye!

 

The Vegetarian Who Loved Turkey

Ok so continuing on from my last post:

Then that day we went to the Bulgarian mall which we tried to walk to but it was actually about four miles away (lol) so we had to get a cab. I got to buy a long dress so that I’m not offensive in Morocco (and also it was cheap and I’ll wear it at home) and a thing of earrings because I lost the one for my cartilage. That night we went to the beach to hang out again but another one of my friends, Amanda, started to feel sick. She also got food poisoning. L

Fourth day in Bulgaria: We went bungee jumping!...hahah just kidding. I went to watch my friends jump but I personally didn’t want to pay 50 leva to publically cry and pee my pants. Everyone survived but they had to push Andy off the bridge to make her do it…which is DEF INITLY not legal to do in America.  Then we got to access the internet and then got a sushi platter to make up for our sushi night from H.E. double hockey sticks.  I accidentally ate a piece of a fried chicken roll. Ok. I’m not gonna lie it was good and I did not get sick. BUT.  Who in their right mind puts fried chicken in sushi..?!

Then we had one day back on the boat. They called it Turkey Day because it was a day where we just had global studies for almost three hours and learned about Turkey. Everyone that thought they were funny called it Thanksgiving.  But get this: they didn’t even serve turkey at any of the meal times! (not that I care but a girl can dream for some cranberry sauce J )

After Turkey Day it was time to actually experience Turkey! 

Almost the whole time in Turkey we had our own personal local tour guides because my friends who go to Trinity in Texas go to school with three people that live in Istanbul.

First day in Turkey: 

Went to the Grand Bazaar. So overwhelming. I could barely even buy anything because there was just so much going on. It’s basically this indoor maze with a different shop every ten feet. They sell everything from spices to ceramics to lamps to shirts to key chains to diamond rings. INSANE. Thank goodness our Turkish friends were with us or else we would’ve gotten lost in there or ripped off! The shop owners immediately cut their price down as soon as they realized we were with Turks. A few people actually asked me if I was Turkish. HAHA so I just nodded. So I bought some gifts and then we left to get lunch. I got a zucchini stuffed with cheese. 

Next, we headed to the Hagia Sofia – a HUGE church turned into a mosque, but no longer a practicing mosque. The church is so big you could fit an 18 story building inside of it! It’s one of the buildings you can pick out from the Istanbul skyline. Then we headed over to the Blue Mosque – another huge mosque. This one is still practicing so we had wear shawls and long skirts (keep in mind I was already conservatively dressed). I personally liked the Hagia Sofia better but it was cool to see a practicing mosque too! Then we ended the day at the spice bazaars. I didn’t even know there were that many spices in the world!

Then that night, our Turkish friends showed us Taksim – the district of Istanbul with all of the shops, restaurants, bars and clubs. It was really cool going with Turkish people because we got to go to a lot of private places that only locals know about. We ended our night in a private club-ish thing that was on the top floor and roof of an apartment building. It was absolutely beautiful, overlooked the whole city! Then I paid 30 lera for a taxi ride because I’m an idiot and I thought that was an appropriate price. Last time I ever let a cab driver take my friends and I home without turning on the meter. (See this is what I was talking about when I said we would get ripped off if we didn’t have our Turkish friends)

Second Day in Turkey:

We went to Topkapi Palace. (Pronounced “Tope Cop Ah”). It was SO BIG and had really beautiful courtyards. Some of the exhibits were closed but we still found stuff to see there for a few hours! Then. We had a weak day. A few of us decided we NEEDED Pizza Hut. (Typical Americans) So we walked a mile or so basically straight uphill to reach Pizza Hut and then just threw pizza down the back our throats until we realized we had been full for about twenty minutes.  Such a poor decision but what’s done is done. Hahah.

That night, we went back to Taksim, met more Turks and basically did the exact same thing we did the night before!

Third Day in Turkey:

The third day we went to the harbor where you can take boat tours of the Bosporus (the strait that Istanbul straddles between Europe and Asia). One of the Turkish guys we were with helped us get a private two hour tour with a stop in Asia!!! This was one of the coolest things I’ve done this entire voyage. We had our own boat to about ten of us! When we got to Asia we got off and got a snack. They have these things that are similar to baked potatoes but they’re a lot creamier inside and you put so many topping on them. I got olive paste, crushed red pepper stuff and tzatziki. Nom nom nom.

When we got back to the boat, we all grabbed our laptops and tried to get on the internet at a local internet café. My internet wouldn’t connect (typical my computer). I may or may not have had a meltdown.

That night we went to a really nice restaurant by the bridge for dinner and then to a hookah bar to hang out after. Hookah bars are actually very typical Turkish hangouts. And no hookah is not a mind-altering drug, its flavored tobacco (still yuck). It was a pretty cool atmosphere but that being said, I don’t smoke.

Fourth Day in Turkey:

We went back to the Grand Bazaar with more confidence. Ahh the funniest line from a shop keeper (keep in mind this was the first day of Ramadan) he says “Come in, I don’t bite – I’m fasting!” HAHAHAHA So then I bought a few more gifts. Then we took a shared taxi to Asia and got a Turkish Bath! I wish I lived in Turkey so I could get a Turkish bath every day! Basically you get to play around in a pool, go into a sauna and steamer and then these old ladies scrub layer upon layers of skin off of your body. I lost probably about half my tan. But it was so worth and so relaxing and more importantly – so Turkish! The Turkish girl we went with told us that most Turks go 1 to a few times a year.

Then we got to see more of the Asian side including the main shopping street, one of the guy’s Turkish house, (A real live Turkish person’s house!) and the port on the Asian side. We took the ferry back to the European side and then went back to the boat.

That night we went to a really nice night club near the bridge for free! It was really nice, multi levels and a deck all over-looking the Bosporous. Since it was the first night of Ramadan, it was pretty much just Semester at Sea people but still really fun!

Fifth Day in Turkey:

We tried to go to a traditional Turkish breakfast but there were some serious miscommunications so it didn’t work out. So we found internet near the port – we went to a different café so my computer worked! And it was a nice relaxing day. We also spent our last lera on souvenirs and this food that was basically like cheese baklava, but its intended to be a meal, not a dessert!

The thing I was most surprised about in Turkey was how expensive everything was! We were told it would be “dirt cheap” compared to other countries, but quite frankly that was false. I mean, some stuff was cheap but it’s the kind of stuff that’s cheap everywhere. Also, the Asian side was a lot cheaper (hence why we went there for the bath).

Regardless of the fact that Turkey ate my bank account, Istanbul may have been my favorite port so far!

Now were on the boat for a few days of classes, tests, papers and recovering! Morocco is our last country, we’ll be there for 5 days and then were back on the boat to Boston. I’ll be arriving in Boston on August 20. Which is so soon and insane - I can’t believe I’ve been gone that long!

See you in 16 days!

 

 

I promise I'm still alive!

Haven't updated my blog since Greece whoops! Everything's been so busy so I haven't had time! I only have about 15 minutes right now, but I'll try to explain Bulgaria (where I was about a week ago)

 

First day - wandered around and saw some monuments and the cathedral. After eating a pita with cheese for lunch, we made our way down to the SeaPark which is basically just a park near the ocean and we went to the aquarium inside the park. We had alot of aquarium enthusiasts in our group so the aquarium was a bit of a let down - it was remarkably similar to the fish section in Walmart, not many fish and some descriptions were either a really bad attempt at sarcasm or just horribly inaccurate. That night we hung out on the beach and the surrounding nightlife with other SASers.

 

Second day - went to an orphanage and a school for children with physical disabilities, mental disabilities and behavioral disorders. It was really touchign an intersting. We got to learn about the different laws that have come into place regarding children's safety, the attitudes towards children with disorders and disabilities and then ways the two different organizatiosn worked. We also got to play with the children at the orphanage - SO CUTE. And we got to explore a random bunker from the soviet war that just happened to be in the backyard of the school. hahah. Then, we tried to get sushi. This restraunt experience rivals the one with TGIFridays with my family a few years ago. The sushi didnt come til 2 and a half hours after we ordered it and only half of it came...It tasted excellent tho! That night we did the same thing as last night, just hung out around the beach area.

 

Third day - so really really really early in the morning I got a phone call from one of my friends asking me to come help because she kept throwing up. Ended up having to take her to the health clinic. It was so bad she was just convulsing adn shaking uncontrollably and couldnt even keep down water. They had to give her a shot for food poisoning...(potentially that cursed sushi place!!) Anywho she's better now, but since than about 1/2 the boat got food poisoning from Bulgaria. Either that or its the noravirus (which if it is, I pray to God i'm immune)

 

Welp! Gotta go out for a traditional dinner in Istanbul - I'll write more later!

F. Harry Stowe to Mom and Dad!

After my last blog post, we went out in the hopes of getting a good beer and some baklava. I guess that the concept of going out for dessert is more of an American thing though because we ended up just getting wine, cherries and bread hahaha. And then, they brought out ANOTHER liter of wine and more cherries! So we asked for the check because we were all like "oh crap they're gonna charge us for this and we didn't even order the extras." Well, turns out all of that - our 2 liters of wine, bread and cherries - was all on the house. Awwww! Must've been those British accents again! We felt bad so we left them  20 euro anyways and then they came running down the street at us trying to make us take the money back! We didn't of course.

 

Then I called my parents and watched Mamma Mia!

 

(side note - someone is whistling Katy Perry's "Firework" right behing me in the computer lab...)

 

The next day, we slept in, got brunch on the boat, and then went to the museum district of Athens and saw the Benaki museum. Basically, a museum of all things Greek from all different time periods. We also got baklava (yay!) and nachos (rando) that were made with actual Nacho Cheese Doritos. I highly recomend both!

 

Then it was time to get back on the boat.

 

Today was a class day which has been very productive! Class in the morning, got back my paper. Class in the afternoon got back a test. A's all around which is nice cause papers are always a toss up! In between class I went to the gym, laid out, ate lunch and went to yoga. So relaxed right now!

 

After dinner I went to a "Big Explorer Seminar" on Bulgaria. Basically learned about communism and such but what stuck out what that Varna is a prominent organized crime / drug trafficking area. Wonderful!

 

Now we're passing right through Istanbul. Its incredible! Everything is lit up and we're probably only 100 yards from the land (not sure how thats possible, but we are!)

 

Tomorrow is another class day which will probably look very similar to today.

 

The title of my blog blog post is a shoutout to my parents. F Harry Stowe is the way you say "Thank you" in Greek! Its not spelled like that but if you say it really fast thats what it sounds like! So FHarryStowe mom and dad for giving me the world! I'm a little over half-way through the trip and I've already learned and experience so much. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything!

 

 

 

Toodles Noodles  :)

Ompa! Continued

So after we got back from Aegina on Tuesday we went out to dinner at this really pretty outdoor candlelite restraunt over-looking the harbor. Ordered a greek salad and fried shrimp. Recieved 4 large fried animals and a tomato-cucumber-onion salad with a block of feta the size of 2 decks of cards. Hahaha I was dying trying to eat this fried shrimp. I was totally mislead by my premonitions of American food. The shrimp were about the size of my hand and still had heads, eyes, "things" inside, etc. It was horrifying but I didn't want to waste their lives so I fought through it.

 

Wednesday (yesterday) was the day we were going to try to go to Olympia on our own.

 

Ok.

 

So alot of Greeks don't like Americans very much. Everyone we asked for directions acted like they had never heard of Olympia befor in their lives. Others just pawned us off to "an information desk just 200 meters down the street". Others said that they had no more bus tickets to sell even though it was 9 o'clock in the morning. So Kaleigh, Abby and I started just talking to everyone in British accents. BOY did things change! Someone followed us on their motorcylce to get us to the right station, people all of a sudden had tickest to sell, we got things for free, people let us use their bathroom and wrote down names of exact places we had to go to get to Olympia.

 

Still didn't make it there because in part of the taxi strike (we had to take a bus), our bus driver (who was not wearing a uniform and I'm pretty sure was a hooker), and the fact that by the time we figure out the British accent trick, we wouldn't have made it there in time. (Olympia is about 4 hours away and Abby and I were so paranoid that we'd have another Rome experience and get stranded overnight)

 

But we had an amazing day anyways. Basically we just explored Athens as British / Canadians and everyone loved us. Its incredible what an accent can do for you! We looked the exact same and had the same attitude, just  people thinking we weren't American changed everything. We almost got ourselves into a pickle though when we found out our waiter was from Canada...just like us! ;)

 

We also got to know a group of the taxi drivers on strike, very friendly people and we all talked about how much we hated Americans and why.

 

Really interesting day!

 

That night we just hung out in the port terminal where there is free internet. Not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but my computer is working for the time being! The IT people worked a small miracle and I got to get all of my files off my computer. They said it was definitly crash again and next time, they won't really be able to do anything but as long as I save everything to my flashdrive, I should be good! The free internet was wonderful - I got to skype Chris for an HOUR! Yay!

 

Today was another long, good day! I went to Delphi  - the oracle up in the mountains 2.5 hours away that used to give advice  to leaders and such. It was also thought to be the center of the world and is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

 

ALSO AH - I know what Bisio means in greek! It was part of the story of Apollo and the founding of Delphi. Bisio was the name of a certain month around February / March back in ancient Greece. And we also learned where the term "lesbian" came from.

 

Then we toured the museum and then got lunch! Lunch was amazing but so much food! I definitly had "the itis" at the next place we visited - a monestary. We didn't get much time at the monestary but it was really neat and had mumified remains in it.. hahah

 

We got back to the ship just in time for dinner, took a nap and now were about to head out to the harbor to get some baklava!!

 

Bye!

Ompa!

Greetings from Greece!

 

Today is our thrid day in Greece. My friends and I are going to try out  our independent travel skills and hopefully get to Olympia for the day.

 

The first day in Greece, we went into Athens by a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus which is basically a double decker bus where you can plug in these earphones they give you and it tells you about all of the places you pass in Athens. It cost 20 euro but we get to use it for 2 days and seeing as we are 10 km (6 miles) from Athens AND there are transportation strikes out the wazoo, its a pretty good option.

 

About the transportation strikes - taxis and the metro are not working. AND on top of that, the taxis and some of teh buses even parked their cars int he middl eof the road so not only are they not moving people, but other form of transportation can't get through. This is one of those times where it'd be nice to have a motorbike haha. But anyways its a very effective strike! There is also a protest in the main square of Athens because of their financial situation.

 

Basically, if Greece doesn't reach an agreement with the EU (aka privatizing things like their port by selling it to China / making really extreme budgets cuts that will effect their pensions and welfare and stuff / use all of that money to strat paying back loans) they are going to have to default on their loans and be kicked out of the Eurozone. So its tricky because no matter what the Greek government and the EU decide on, someone will probably be displeased. They are suppose to reach the decision really soon - by the end of this week or the next is what we were told - but hopefully we will be out of Greece befor that happens!

 

Speaking of politics, Hillary Clinton is in Greece and made a speech at the New Acropolis Museum about two hours after we went to it. But we saw her whole entourage driving through the streets!

 

Anyways - the frist day we made it up to the "high city" aka the Acropolis and saw everything. Every temple, every monument. It was really hot. But the view is amazing and just the fact that somethign that old is still standing is pretty incredible. The New Acropolis Museum was really neat too! Half of it has glass flooring and you look down on the ruins from above.

 

We got lunch in the city too! I got a Spinach Pie which is the filo dough we use for baklava + spinach + feta. Yummm. Then the restraunt kept trying to get us to stay but offeringus free stuff. We got free dessert but had to refuse the free coffee. No clue what the dessert was called but it looked / tasted like a fruity couscous poundcake... in a good way! We think maybe they kept trying to get us to stay so that they looked busier and got more business?

 

That night we saw Harry Potter! Kaleigh and I did some low risk planking in the theater too (hahahahha) Harry Potter was so good tho!  A real nail biter!

 

The next day, I bought a ticket to go on the Saronic Island trip. It was so cool! We were basically on a one-day cruise ship and we went to three islands - Hydra, Porrous (sp?) and Aegina. We also got lunch on the sip and there was lots of Greek entertainment.

 

Befor we even got to the island, I got locked in a bathroom in the basement of the boat. SO BAD. It wasn't a stall, it was a room and there was no way otu and it was so hot and the lock was jammed so I started banging on the door and a professor from SAS heard me and at first tried to just bust the door open with force. In the end, we had to get someone that worked on the boat to bring down tools and get me out.... typical me!

 

Hydra was my favorite. The islands has no cars on it so its really clean and Kaleigh, Abby and I rode donkeys! Mine pooped all over the road and then the guy had to like clean it up and then he died the bag of doodoo to my saddle....niceeee!

 

Porrous was also really pretty. We saw a clocktower up in the distance and just kept going uphill until we found it. It was a really pretty island.

 

Aegina is the bigger more commercialized one, but still really nice. We walked to the Monestary and to the ruins but the ruins were closed because it was a Monday.

 

Whoops! Gotta go meet people at the gangway to try to get to Olympia!

 

 

 

Croatia Wins

Croatia. Is. Hands. Down. The. Most. Beautiful. Place. I've. EVER. Been.

 

But seriously, if you have some spare change laying around and need a place to go  to relax, go on a honeymoon, go on a second honey moon...this part of the world is where its at. Just picture the cute light stone houses with red rooves among so many trees in between the stony mountains and the perfectly blue water. Its really incredible.

 

We ported in Dubrovnik 3 (or maybe 4?) days ago. The port is either a 20 min walk or a 1 hour walk away from the old city depending on who you ask. I personally walked for 35min and was no where near the city walls. Whether that is a sign of how bad I am with directions or how much I exaggerate is a good question hehee.

 

Regardless, the first day I didn't have a field excursion until 1 pm (or 1300 shipboard time!!) so my crew and I attempted to make it into the city. That did not work but we did stumble upon a grocery store called Konzum which is remarkably similar to grocery stores in America - a refreshing change from the past two ports which have had real weird grocery stores the size of gas stations. I suppose the size of the grocery stores in America probably directly correlates with our circumferences.

 

Anywho so we stumble into Konzum just trying to get a nice cold something to drink and what do we find? Apple juice in these weird carton things except they call it apple nectar. I was a little skeptical but it was only 4.99 Kuna - AKA 1 US dollar so I got it. IT WAS THE BEST JUICE I'VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. it was literally a liquid green apple. fabulous. (this will come into play later in this port too I promise!)

 

The we go a pastry for very cheap and go back on the boat so that I made my field excursion bus.

 

My trip was to the old city which is basically a fortress so it has these really thick walls / watch towers / etc. surround all of the red-roof houses. (literally every roof is red. I think its probs a building regulation kind of thing) So we climb up these walls and walk all around it. I have no idea how long it was because they told us in kilometers and I can't quite grasp that...hahah

 

So then after becoming a sweaty mess, I came back to the ship to meet up with my friends and make our way back to the old city. Lucky for us / the rest of the cruise community, there is a bus that runs from the port to the city that comes about every 10 minutes and takes less than that to get there. Its a major time save and only 10 Kuna!

 

That night we got dinner right in front of the clock tower. Best quesadilla I've ever had in my life. It tasted sweet? but it worked. Then a few of us went to a piano jazz bar. Really cool atmosphere and its right outside in the middle of one of the main squares. Funny story - we tried to order a glass of wine each and dessert to split. Something got lost in translation so we ended up getting a glass of wine each and a dessert wine to split... oh Croatia!

 

Next morning I had a trip to Montenegro which is actually a different county than Croatia. They both used to be part of Yugoslavia. This turned into a mini nightmare. I set my alarm for 6:35 becuase my trip left at 8 and I wanted to meet Amanda for breakfast. (Fun fact: Amanda is from Hawaii!)

 

Well turns out I set my alarm for 6:35 PM...!! So I woke up at 7:57 by the shear grace of God and my roommate's watch alarm that we can't figure out how to turn off. I am immediatly stressed out. This is so bad. I haven't showered since the previous morning and I was suppose to meet for the trip at 7:45. I honestly almost started crying. But then I pulled it together and threw on a dress that was still wet because I washed it the night before. On my way to the bus I bobby pinned my hair up (thank goodness for the "poof") and threw the rest in a bun. I got to my bus out of breath at exactly 8:01. Pretty impressive actually.

 

I'm sitting on the bus for about 7 minutes when I realize I DONT HAVE MY PASSPORT. So I get off the bus which thankfully hadn't left yet and ran up to my room in record time, got my passport and got back on the bus. SO BAD.

 

Then follows an hour or so of super high winding roads and extreme nausea from not eating anything and not having my trusty little earth water bottle. But its ok because it was EVEN MORE beautiful than Croatia and definitly worth it. Words and pictures wont even do this place justice. Plus the bandwith limits wont allow me to upload pictures. But look it up online. We drove through / around all of these inner bays that were so remote that that they looked like lakes. Turns out, this aread used to be a valley until the Adriactic Sea (I think) flooded it.

 

We stopped at Kotor which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is another fortress type city with the walls, the saints, the cathedrals, the works! Really pretty and we got a guided tour and we got to tour the catherdral and the museum upstairs. Then it was off to the next place - a small village / cheese farm out in the stoney hilly countryside of Montenegro only accessible through roads with "hairpin turns" (according to our tour guide)

 

While we're all freaking out winding through these super crazy roads, our tour guide then told us a joke: "A priest and a bus driver died driving on this road. When they got to heaven, God said he will only let one of them in. God chose the bus driver. Outraged, the priest asked 'Why?!' God replied 'When you were doing your job, everyone was sleeping. When he was doing his, everyone was praying.' " bhahaha

 

The cheese village was very quaint. Basically just alot of farms and then a big house / restraunt where you can buy their home-smoke ham and home-made cheese sandwiches on their home-made bread. I didn't realize that Montenegro only takes Euro...so I did not buy one.

 

Next stop - lunch time! We went to yet another area, this time - a city (sorry I have no specific names for these places!). Got lunch and then had half hour of free time so I walked around the harbor and the old city / fortress there. Then back on the bus and time to go home and SHOWER.

 

That night we went out to the old city again! Pretty much every night we made our way there. Last night we went for dinner again. I had the best salad of my life with super fresh feta cheese! One thing I love about these old cities like Dubrovnik and Rome, there are huge fountains with safe drinking water all over the city, so you can refill your water whenevery you want and don't have to pay for it!

 

After getting dinner we walked around for a little "exploring" aka wandering aimlessly thoughout the city. We stumbled upon a dock and hung out there for a while. Then we went to meet our friends at a club. It was 11 and I was so tired. We got to the club and they told us that it doesn't really open for another hour or so. Since I felt that I would probably fall asleep in an hour no matter where I was, a few girls and I left to go back to the boat. I couldn't hang - I'm gettin to old for this! ;) But we didnt leave befor gettin nutella and banana crepes!

 

This morning we were extra productive. Woke up at 7, breakfast at 8, off the boat by 8:30. We went to the old city (of course) to hit up the beach and go kayaking. For only 60 kuna (12 bucks) we got to rent kayaks for an hour. So we kayaked around the city walls and one of the harbors and then Kaleigh and I kayaked out to one of the islands. Ah it was so cools. You could HEAR the island there were so many birds / bug / wildlife on it! Plus it was super far away so I was pretty freaking pleased with myself that we got there and back in an hour. We also got to spend alot of time swimming and stuff. The water there is amazing and clear. Also it was a nice not crowded familyish beach.

 

Then we went to lunch where we all got pizza (typical Americans) and I got fresh lemonade. And let me tell you - they weren't kidding! I basically was drinking lemon juice hahah but it was really good!

 

After lunch we found the war museum. Really neat place. Basically its just all of these pictures with stories under them about the people. For anyone who doesn't know, there was a civil war / genocide in Yugoslavia in the 90s with concentration camps, rape camps, the whole nine yards. Thats basically what the museum was about. It was really modern but mostly just really sad. Glad I went tho - I learned alot.

 

Then we came back to the boat. But not befor stopping back at Konzum to get more of that apple nectar. We were all so excited to spend out last 10 - 12 Kuna buying juice to bring back onto the boat. Usually youre not allowed to bring twist caps on board because you could have "contaminated it" (put alcohol / drugs in it) But they let Vanessa bring on these juice box things with caps two days ago so we bought HUGE things of it.

 

They wouldnt let us on. This was not funny at the time. I luckily only bought a liter of it. Vanessa bought 3.5 liters. HAHAHAH. So we had to sit outside and drink it or throw it away. I drank probably 3/4 of it until it was no longer good or worth it. Too much sugar!

 

The next two days are class days in which I have a huge midterm paper due and a test. Then we'll be in Greece!!

 

 

 

Dovidenja (Goodbye in Croatian!)

My Ancestor's Stomping Ground

Hello world!

 

The past two days have been pretty relaxing since we've been on a regular class schedule in between Italy and Croatia. Theres been alot of essay writing and alot of class time and alot of laying out on the deck doing homework.

 

Two big things happened though! :

 

1) In Global Studies yesterday one of the other faculty acted as a guest speaker and talked about the Grand Tour of Europe that rich guys right out of school used to do. Now alot of people doing it as backpackers. IT LOOKS AMAZING. And it got me really excited about doing it after I save up enough money - so probably not until I've been in the real world for a few years hahah

 

2) Same lady also offered a seminar that night on a non profit womens organization she started in Guatemala so I went to listen cuase it sounded alot like El Salvador. I got so excited that I talked to her at the end and we're gonna meet up for lunch or something and shes gonna give me some advice on our El Salvador project for SIFE. weeeeee!!

 

So I don't know if I was just really easily excitable yesterday (Kara - if you're reading this: we would have been dangerous together yesterday lol) or what but I got so pumped up.

 

Then I discovered all of these modern witty travel guides on the shared files and found some neat places to go in the upcoming countires. My friends and I also planned out some  things we want to do in Greece - mostly because I have NO field excursions so I have 5 free days. We're gonna go see alot of the stuff like museums and such in Athens the first day and then we're gonna try to make it out to an island (probs Aegina) for a night or two and see some stuff there!

 

Croatia I'm basically booked - I have an field excursion everyday but the last! But they'll be awesome and I get back between 3 and 6 everyday, so I'll still have lots of time during the late afternoon/night.

 

Tomorrow I have a tour of the city walls of Croatia  - aka my ancestors stomping ground :)

 

 

 

Missing everyone!! <3

 

No Room at the Inn

I don't even know how to possible explain what my life has been the past 12 hours. But I'll try.

 

First. We wait until our friends get back from their trip to head into Rome. They are too tired to join us. Vanessa, Abby and I continue on because we are suppose to be meeting SAS people for a "Pub Crawl" between 9 and 10 on the Spanish Steps. We don't have anywhere to stay in Rome, but at this point in time, thats ok because we'll be with lots of people and the crawl goes until about 4am at which time the train station opens again.

 

We get on the train and know we'll be cutting it close. We get to Rome at about 9:46. So we have 14 minutes to get to the Spainish Steps. Which is totally doable because the metro is basically in the train station and its super fast.

 

As it turns out, Line A is under maintenance. So now we have to find a bus. The bus is late. We get to the Spanish Step  at 10:11....aka we miss the pub crawl and all of our friends.

 

So we hang out on the Spanish Steps for about 10 minutes until we realize we all need a bathroom. Find a McDs. (On the way I found a cheap souvenir shot glass for my collection yay!) We are hungry / need comfort food so we get fries and burgers excepts I dont get a burger, duh.

 

Then we make the executive decision to go back to the train station and back to the boat since we are no longer with a big group, have no where to go and nothing to do.

 

The bus is late again. We get to the train station 5 minutes after the last train back to Civitaveccia. Crap.

 

Then I find a nice english-speaking guy and ask him what our options are. He is also the owner of some taxi service. He siad that the cheapest taxi we'll be able to find is going to be about 150 euro. It is clear that even if we get mugged, we will not lose 150 euro mostly becuase we don't even HAVE that much on us, so we dont take the cab.  

 

The next train back is not until 6:39.

 

Then we find out that the train station closes in about half hour and McDonalds is the public place that stays open the latest and its only open until 2 am. The train station doesn't open again until 4am. The train station is also in a really bad area.

 

That cab ride starts to sound like a really good option...

 

But then - !!! A group of 5 British (I think) girl college students overhear me trying to speak to an Italiam McDonalds worker. Turns out they are in the same predicament and didn't even realize it! They thought the McD's and station were both open all night. So we all make mugging jokes for a little while. After about 4 minutes of that, it gets old and 2 of the British girls, Vanessa, Abby and I go out to see if we can find any rooms open. The plan is all 8 of us will just split the price and sleep on the floor or whatever because thats gonna be alot safer than the streets of Rome!

 

After about an hour of being told theres "no room at the inn" we stumble upon a 1 star hotel in the Roman hood. The owner feels really bad for us. In Europe you usually have to pay per person but we explained the situation and he agrees that as long as we're out by 4, we can just pay 125 euro total for all 8 and there will be 5 beds - 2 in one room, 3 in another. So the group of 5 gets the 3 bed and we get the 2. Everyone ends up paying about 15 euro - not a bad price for my life! Vanessa, Abby and I push the little beds together in our room that looks a little bit like Aladin's Palace and has a huge window without screens. It actually wasn't too shabby, there was a TV, our own bathroom and shower, but there was a really sketchy pair of tennis shoes in the closet... hahahah I know WHAT!?

 

But other than that, it was fine. After thoroughly examing the room and hysterically laughing because we were so happy we weren't going to get kidnapped, we got to sleep for about 3.5 hours off and on. Then we woke up at 6, walked to the train station and got on our train. Got to Civitaveccia, walked back to the boat - just in time for breakfast!

 

It was an insane  day / night to say the least. The kind of situation that is only funny because nothing bad happened! And we learned our lesson - plan ahead, leave early and always check train times!

 

As for an update on my computer - still broke as a joke. Which will ironically be something my computer and I have in common after I pay for a new laptop. But I have many wonderful friends onboard who have all offered me their computer / iphones to use whenever I need them! Plus we have a computer lab onboard.

 

The next 2 days are class days as we sail to Croatia!

 

 

I hope everyone's night was less eventful than mine! Miss you all <3

Curse You Dell

So in my last post, when I said "watch" in reference to my jeans, I meant "wash." Hehe oops! Good thing this blog isn't graded.

 

Yesterday I went to Rome and saw the Pyramid (random, I know), the Forum, the Colleseum, the Vatican/Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, etc. All met my expectations! I'm still confused about the pyramid though - its like Ancient Rome KNEW that Semester at Sea was going to cancel the part of our trip to Egypt. Another thing that suprised me was how crowded all of those things are! Our tourguide even said that it was more crowded that ususal because of all of the huge cruise ships that docked in Civitaveccia the same day. (But also, I think she was just trying to make excuses for why she lost like 1/2 the group!!)

 

After all of that, I went to the Pantheon.... BY MYSELF.... WITH ONLY A MAP. to meet up with Vanessa and Abby. The master plan was to find a hostel and stay overnight in Rome. But it ended up being really confusing and a few of the people we were gonna meet up with decided to go tonight instead AND our friends that were on a trip all week  are able to go with us now that we watied until tonight so we decided to just explore a little and then catch a train back to the boat. We wandered around for a little and then took a metro to the train station. (As it turns out, there are a few hostels near the train station but they're sorta in a sketchy area and more expensive than we thought, especially considering the boat is "free")

 

Today we went back into Civitaveccia for a little to do our last minute souvenir shopping and find an internet cafe.

 

THAT is when things turned sour. So we go to the internet cafe and you have to order something to get the password. So I order the cheapest drink on the menu and its 5.50 euro. Wah. Then I turn on my computer. Literally just press the power button. And then up pops a message that includes the phrases "hard drive" "crash" and "imminent failure".....ok. So I try everything. It wont let me do a system restore or anything and we try taking out the battery and starting it up again and nothing happens other than a blank black screen pops up within 2 minutes everytime. So I'm sitting in Italy, crying in an internet cafe with a worthless internet card and a dumb 5.50 euro strawberry daquiri.  Please believe me when I say this is the cheapest drink.

 

So now, not only do I have to worry about having enough money AFTER this trip to pay my sorority dues, the SIFE trip to El Salvador, for a mattress, for paint for my room, and for other rando expenses that will surely come up...now I have to buy a new computer. :( Which is definitly going to be a Mac. I know, I know...they're expensive right? But so is a Dell when you've had it for 2 freakin years, you've put in more than $700 to it, and still the hard drive crashes.

 

So then we go out in search for either shot glasses/mugs/cups anything of the sort that says Italy on it to add to my collection. Apparently people in Civitaveccia are all dehydrated because there were none to be found.

 

And then Vanessa randomly got tested for narcotics when we got back on the boat. HAHAH which was more funny than bad. And the one captain stared at my phone for 3 minutes like it was dangerous while searching through my bag.

 

I'm trying my best to stay positive that my last night in Rome will be filled with a cheap souvenir and a wonderful time on the Spanish Steps with all of my friends that I haven't seen all week.

 

Wish me luck!!!

When in Rome..

Hello! We arrived in the port of Civitavecchia today which is about an hour from Rome. Yesterday in Napless, I went to the archealogical museum which is suppose to have all of the dead bodies from Pompeii along with alot of other cool artifacts and statues from around Italy. Unfortunatly there was a minor strike yesterday so THAT part of the museum was closed. :( But it was still really neat! Then we wandered around the city a little more until it was time for the 4th of July BBQ on the boat. Celebrating your country's independence in another country is very strange. hahah but the BBQ was great. Then there was a sleepout on the boat but there were real extreme forecasts of rain and all I could think about was running down the ridge at kirkwood when a storm would catch us in the middle of the night. hahaha. So that didnt happend. But at some point - yes.

 

Today we got to our next por tand I said goodbye temporarily to my roommate while she meet sup with her mom for the rest of Italy. My friends and I explored the city today, meeting really nice locals, eating good food and getting in some shopping! Turning in early tonight because tomorrow I go to Rome with a Semester at Sea trip to see the Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, etc! Then I'll be signing off the trip to stay in Rome and meet Abby and Vanessa. From there we'll find a hostel - AHHH I'm so excited. And then I'll return to the trip the following day.

 

Wish me luck - I've never staying in a hostel before!

 

Also, I heard about the Casey Anthony trial via Breeanneallen on twitter (SHOUTOUT to my psisssy!) . Ok what the heck. Someone please email me how she got off and explain it to me because I'm considering not coming back to America. I wish Dexter was real right now.

 

But to end on a positive note - I cannot WAIT to see the vatican tomorrow!! And I'm finally gonna wear my jeans that I've been saving to wear so I didnt have to watch them. hAHAh

 

<3

First Italy Post

We made it to Italy (specifically Naples) yesterday!!

 

The first day I went to Pompeii and Herculaneum. CRAZY. THey are both cities that were buried under the wrath of the Mt. Vesuvius (sp?) eruption. They are preserved so well from all of the ash and its so interesting how advanced their plumbing and other technology was. I personally enjoyed Herculaneum more. Less people, smaller/more managable city, more impressive preservation. Ex: there were some rooms where the original wood was still preserved! Holy cow. Then we were so tired that we just ate dinner on the boat, worked on homework (yes, I have to do homework) and got a good night's sleep.

 

Today I went to the island of Capri. First we visited the harbor and took a boat tour around the island. The caves are so neat and the water is beautiful. Then we went up to capri , had some free time to shop (not like I can afford anything there its all prada and d&g, etc. because Capri is a "rich people" vacation spot. Bill Gates goes there every summer according to our tour guide!) and had a really nice lunch. Then we made our way up to Anacapri. Abosolutely breathtaking. We toured a villa with a view of the whole bay  - it was insane and the water was SO BLUE. Its so high up that to get there theres only one bus company that runs up there and you pass over a road called "Mamma  Mia Road" meaning "Oh My God Road" hahahah. Then we got to try lemon chocolate, lemon candies and lemonchello - a lemon vodka made in Italy. All were wonderful.

 

I got back around dinner time so me and my friends went out in search of original-italian-wooden-stove-baked-margarita pizza. We ended up eating at the restaurant that made the first pizza in Naples! It was awesome and there were very talented and adorable old guys playing the guitar and mandolin (!!) and singing. Then we got gelato (italian ice cream) and the guy who served us was hilarious. He would put our ice cream on a cone and then somehow attached 5 other cones to it. HaHa we all looked like fools walking around trying to eat it!! But overall a good night. Naples night life isn't as simple or safe or cost-savvy as Barcelona, so were laying low for the second night in a row. But thats fine by me because I'm already spending more money than I thought I would've and I'm super tired and there are upper respiratory infections going around the ship. :/ ahhhh

 

Tomorrow is out last day in Naples. We are going to the archealogical museum, the cathedral and to look at the shops. Then were gonna plan out our time in Rome (which may include a HOSTEL AH) and celebrate the 4th of July with an on-boat BBQ and sleepout (where we sleep out on the boat!). Yay!!

 

Until Rome,

<3

 

 

Whoops!

Please ignore all of my gramatical errors and typos in my last post. I will fix them when I am not charged for the internet per minute!

Also, the sea olympics was fun - didn't really participate lol but I actively watched!! Part of it was a synchronized swimming contest. We should DEFINITLY do this for Greek week next year.

FYI: We have traveled 4,180 nautical miles total on this trip. The daily water consumption is 149 total liters per person. There have been 507 lbs of food scrapings total wasted on the ship throughout the whole voyage.

 

Tomorrow I go to Italy - specifically Pompeii & Herculaneum! AHH

So I'll leave you with this quote that was in the dean's memo today:

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard

Viva Espana

Long live Spain!!

 

Sorry for the long pause in blog updates. Turns out theres alot more to do when you have a whole country to explore and only 3 days to do it! Everynight it was the choice between updating my blog/ checking my email or getting an extra 20 minutes of sleep. (Which when you're getting about 3 hours OR LESS a day, every minute counts!!)

 

Monday - Day 1 in Barcelona: Our boat docked at about 9:30 / 10 but I didn't get off right away because I had a field excursion (they're called FDPs here) at 11. I went to Montserrat - a monastery up on a BEAUTIFUL mountain that is also a shrine. The view was unbelievable and the moutain looks like a bunch of fingers. It also kinda looked like the "drippy" sand castles you make at the beach! The monastery was really impressive but there was so many people waiting in line to see the black virgin statue that was discovered there that we didnt get to see it. :( It was a really neat place tho and lots of people still go there on religious pilgimages! I got home around 4. We were suppose to go see a boys choir but that part of the trip got cancelled cause the boys werent coming til a few days later... Hahaha poor planning I guess!! And then me and my friends laid out and read (PS shoutout to Becca cause I'm reading the Hunger Games and shoutout to Catherine for the Kate Voegele cd - some of the songs are appropriately  nautical too! haha) until Amanda got back form her FDP. Then we got dinner on the boat to save money and then went out on the town to see what Barcelona night life was all about! My friend Melpat has been studying in Barcelona for a month, so she took us out to the spots where all the locals go. We went to a pub called the Black Sheep where you can get towers of Sangria and Beer for about 20euro. We don't have anything like it (that I've ever heard at least) in America, but they're very similar to El Salvadorian "torres." Ok, befor I continue there is something you should all know about Spain. They are about 4 hours later than us on everything. You dont eat lunch until 2 or 3. You don't eat dinner until 11. You don't go out to bars until 12. And the clubs dont even open until 1:30 or 2. So after The Black Sheep, we went to a club on Las Ramblas (the main street of Barcelona). It was so fun! When we got home, the sun was coming up. This is partially because it probably took us an hour to walk home! Our ship is about a 25 minute brisk walk to the Christopher Columbus statue which is at the foot of Las Ramblas and then the club is further up on the street and we had some straglers in heels. But the walk was very safe - really well lit and we were in a 7 person group too.

 

Tuesday - Day 2 in Barcelona: We slept in til about 10, got lunch on the boat to save money and then explored the city / took a bus

to the beach! (which by the by people here are very open and there were lots of exposed private parts - including a naked man which was the scariest thing I saw in Barcelona) We met Melpat there and we went to a place for Tapas (which are basically appetizers) I got these potato things with sauce on them (I cant remember the exact name). And they were good! Then we went back to the boat to hydrate with water (water in expensive in the city and we all ran out of the water we brought). We got ready early and went out to dinner to a really nice restaraunt. This euro exchange rate is killing me. We got a nice dinner - Vegetable Paella, and Cava  - basically Spanish champagne for 25 euro..which is almost 40 dollars! Ah.Then we walked around the marina until we got to the beach club area. A club promoter on the beach got us on VIP for a few of the clubs so we went to them because we A) didnt have to pay B) alot of other S.A.S.ers were going. Had another amazing time. Spaniards know how to dance and enjoy themselves (responsibly!) This time we got a taxi home because we were probably 4 or 5 miles from the boat.

 

Wednesday - Day 3 in Barcelona: After getting 1.5 hours of sleep.... me and Amanda got up and went to our Medieval Templar and Castle FDP. Ok. I'm unsure if this trip was worth whatever amount of money we paid. We drove 2.5 hours (ended up being 3 cause the bus driver got lost...nice) to a castle that our guide that we weren't even allowed into. Later on we went in anyway. It was really confusing and I feel like he just told us alot of random stuff and didnt seem to know much about the castle or its significance. That being said it was really secluded and the courtyard was really pretty. Then we drove another 1/2 hour and went to a castle that had brand new wooden floors so I'm almost positive it was not historically significant and also it was bascially just one big brick rectangle. From there they made us put on costumes and participate in a medieval roleplay. This consisted of everyone helping this kid put on a Knight's outfit and taking pictures of him. My "outfit" was a money pouch...But then we had a really nice 3 course meal for lunch so THAT was nice! I think that the trip was really strange because they changed the itinerary 3 times since I got on the MV Explorer. I understand that conflicts arrive and they do the best they can but everything I went to was not even close to what the original description was! This was the trip that was suppose to have castles involving the Da Vinci code. Wah. And then we got back from our trip about 1.5 hours late. So I tried to nap until it was Spanish time for dinner. We got dinner on the move  - a baqette cheese sandwich, I promise it was worth 3 euro. Then we met up with Melpat again and headed back over the beach club area that we were at the night before. We went to a concert of DJ Kaskade at a venue called Opium. I was very tired so after about 3 hours of dancing, I was ready to relax. A few of the girls and I hung out on the beach (which is sorta still part of the club, its hard to explain)  until everyone was ready to go. We all bought these bright flashing rings and set up a meeting place and time so that we found each other when the concert ended. It worked really well - best euro I've ever spent! Again, took a cab home.

 

Thursday - Day 4 in Barcelona: Woke up at 10 and went to the Boqueria (a huge market - even better than York's central market!) and got fruit for breakfast. SO GOOD - no wonder people in Spain are so healthy! (also because I'm pretty sure everyone walks 50 miles a day in Barcelona haha) Then we figured out the metro and took it to Sagrada Familia - the church that is still being built b/c the famous architect Gaudi was hit by a bus when it started construction. The church was incredible from the outside but in the interest of saving money and what little time we had left, we did not go in. We explored that area of Barcelona for a little - they have the most incredible buildings there! Then we met our friend at McDonalds - not to eat but because theres pretty much only 1 on Las Ramblas. I felt like such an American asking "Donde esta McDonalds?" hahaha. From there, we went to get in all of our last minute shopping. We also got churros con chocolate at a Tapas bar. Yummm. Then after one last falafel from "Pita Hut" we made our way back to the ship. After we got on, I took a nap until dinner and then met my extended family for dinner again as a reall ynice way to end the time in Spain.

 

Spain set the bar pretty high! We completed 15/26 things on our bucketlist and started making one from Italy (where we'll be in TWO DAYS). I didn't get pickpocketed - Yay! But its still definitly a dangerous place. I heard one of the prof's little boys talking to another little boy about how they got robbed so theres no more ipod, iphone, etc. And one of my friends got mugged last night after she took a wrong turn home from the concert. She's ok tho and not too much was stolen. So thats good but definitly lesson learned - never go anywhere alone or take a cab.

 

Tomorrow we only have our 2 hour global studies class about Italy and then the "Sea Olympics"

 

 

Cya Spain!  

Cabin Fever

All is well on the MV Explorer but I'm ready for land!

Last night we met our "Extended Families." Its a really neat program you can sign up for that connects you with a couple other students and either a life long learner, staff or faculty and you sorta make your own family group out of it! It was really nice and I'm meeting with them again for dinner befor we get off the boat in Barcelona.

The boat however was not so nice yesterday. After dinner I had to take a bonine (motion sickness tablet) and I wore those pressure point bracelets. I ended up passing out about half hour after taking them at 7:30. Hahaha good thing there were no madatory meetings last night!! I slept for 9 and 1/2 hours last night. Totally didn't even study for my midterm which I had this morning because I just fell asleep. OoOopsiesS! But no worries Mome and Dad the test wasn't bad at all and allegedly there's a curve. Yay

But then after my test, I slept for another 1 and 1/2 hours, went to lunch and then slept for 3 more hours!! So I've got about 14 hours under my belt right now, though most of them were probably to make up for lost time and also because of the bonine.

Supposedly the boat has been extra dicey because we were so close to the opening of the Mediterranean. All of the water bottlenecks in the strait of Gibralter and gushes out, creating fast choppy waves.

Speaking of the strait of Gibralter - we are there now! Refueling for about 4 more hours right under the rock. Pretty exciting to not be moving right now. And even more exciting SPAIN IS IN 2 DAYS!

I'm a little nervous for Spain tho because they have the worst pick pockets in the world - even worse than Naples (they're 2nd worst...so happy to be going to the 2 top pick pocketing cities on earth). According to my one Professor, last year when SAS made this trip, 10% of the students were pickpocketed THE FIRST DAY. Whatttttt. And he said he personally saw a girl get thrown onto the street when a thief on a motorcoach grabbed her purse (that was around her shoulder) and yanked it off her - taking her face first into the pavement... Ummmmmm. So basically I'm just gonna cry and put everything in my underwear or the bottom of my shoe or that super akward money belt I bought.

As for an update on the rash - it has spread to my stomach, but is less severe overall. So yay!

Wish me luck & I hope all is well in the US - specifically BelleVernon, York and of course Lansdale.

 

Not Enough Hours in a Day

But really, there aren't! Since we've been losing an hour almost EVERY NIGHT, SAS students are basically living in terms of 23 hour days.Tonight we lose another hour. We lost an hour last night and the night before that and the night two nights befor that.  Right now it is 3:10 pm. So by signing up for an 8am, I sorta signed up for a 4am that will eventually turn into a 2am or 1am. !!

 

All is well at see. We passed the Azores (sp?) and tho I was in class and didnt get to see them, it is comforting to know that we are only about a day away from land now.

 

Something funny for my York friends: you know that Redmans Lake water thing in York on the way to the MD border? Well there was randomly a picture of it in my water treatment book. No description. No explanation. Just a picture of York. So strange!

 

I just got in from laying out - its getting colder outside! Our global studies teacher actually told us he saw it snowing yesterday so I didn't lay out but as it turns out, he just saw the foam from an upper deck that the crew were cleaning....

 

Last night I participated in the ship's Amazing Race. It was basically an 8 person really really hard scavenger hunt. And more than half the boat played so things got real intense real quick. My team's name was Team Team. HAHAhAh we thought we were so funny.

 

I have not been sea sick since that one time when I was just really hungry lol but I do have a rando rash on my back! Which appeared the one day i WASNT in the sun. And its getting itchier and covering 40% of my back. So I'm just not gonna let it see the sun for a few days and I'm gonna wash all my clothes and hopefully it goes away! My guess is maybe the detergent they use on our sheets? Because I got it the day after they changed them...typical me!

 

We have out midterms in either 2 or 3 days and then we pass through the Strait of Gebralter and see the rock with all of the apes on it and THEN! We finally! port! in! Barcelona!

 

Well that is all for now.

 

<3 Vicki

 

 

Rock the Boat, Rock the Boat Baby

So, "Brush Up on Spanish" ended up being more like "You better be fluent in Spanish cause you're not allowed to speak english and on the first day you have to talk to a partner in the preterit tense".... so I dropped it! Best decision of my trip so far considering I wasn't going to transfer it anyways!

 

All of my other classes are fascinating so far. For my water class, we have to pick 1 aspect of water and compare it in 2-3 of the different countries we are porting in using field experience. And for my Green Urbanism class I'm almost done the next week's worth of reading becuase the book is SO GOOD.

 

Today I didn't do too many exciting things other than what my normal schedule is everyday but tonight at 2000 (aka 8 pm - ah I know the ship is on military time) I went to a program on dining out in Spain! And shoutout to my Dad - the guy talked ALOT about Tapas bars. :)

 

Also shoutout to my Dad for it being fathers day in the recent past. And speaking of the recent past Happy Birthday to my big sissy Alyssa for turning 23!

 

Short post today but I have lots to do homework wise! And also we lose another hour of sleep tonight

 

Love you all <3 Vicki

 

 

PS two good jokes I just learned from my dear friend Kaleigh.

 

 

1. Q. What did the hotdog say when he croseed the finish line first?

 

A. I'm the weiner!!

 

 

2. Knock knock.

 

Who's theres?

 

Freep.

 

Freep who?

 

No thanks.

 

 

  

 

 

First Day of School

And it's not over yet!

 

So far I had my first 1/2hr of feeling sea sick this morning, but no worries - I held myself together and felt much better after breakfast. (So then I was thinking maybe I was just really hungry..lol)

 

Started the morning off bright and early at approx. 6:45 (but we lost an hour of sleep so it was more like 5:45 body time). Got breakfast with my roomie at 7:30 and then went to my first class at 8:00.

 

My 8am is Green Urbanism which is pretty freaking cool cause its all about the sustainable (and non sustainable) aspects of cities; and how the structures and layouts of citiies affect behaviors and lives.

 

Then I went right into my Global Studies class that everyone has to take. The main point of the course is to learn about all of the different countries befor we visit them so that we have a better understanding of their culture/ history but today we learned all about the ship we're on - the MV Explorer. That was actually really interesting becuase they talked about all of the different regulations, why we're registered as a Bahaman ship, how they treat the waste, how much fuel we use, etc.

 

And thennn I went to the gym. And my gym I mean the closet with no air ventilation and so many sweaty people. You have to sign up for 1/2 hr slots because of it's size. It was so hot though!! I'm about to buy a fan in Barcelona and put it in there just so that no one dies!

 

Then I got lunch. I had cream of vegetable soup, a salad and egg & olive salad on rye bread. Yumm

 

After that I layed out and read my 100+ pages of reading that I had already been assigned..

 

The reading for my Green Urbanism was on waste pollution and water pollution. It basically talked about how cities can't handle their own waste so they usually try to export it to other poorer places (whether that be in the US or in developing countires) . It also talked about different waste and water treatment option, and their pros and cons. Plus the book which is called Sustainable Urban Development (by Wheeler) is nice because it's a collection of different articles by different authors and theyre all written so that they're really easy for non-technical people like myself to understand.

 

I read some of my Global Studies but it was a struggle.

 

Then I went inside and didn't recognize my self becuase I look like a Mexican!

Heeheh a slight exaggeration.

 

Thennnnn I had my Water Sanitation and Supply class.

Ok so the teacher that was originally suppose to teach it had a family emergency last week so he bailed. But the substitute prof seems awesome. He was teaching on the May-mester and they just asked him to stick around for the next 2 months and he agreed. I can't wait til I'm retired and can pull that off!

 

But thats gonna be a crazy class, very informal (in a good way), very malleable, and very independent.

 

I just had dinner and in 10 minutes I start my Brush up on Spanish class and then head to the activities fair!

 

Peace love and miss you all,

Vicki

I'm On a Boat

Yep! I made it on the boat!! (Except technically its a ship with boats on it..)

 

I've officially been onboard for 33 hours.

 

The Bahamas was great until the lock on our door didn't work so we had to change rooms. And then my dad and I went to the casino for a while because we got a promotion card for 5 FREE dollars to play with. But it was very confusing and also unsucessful!

 

I got on the boat yesterday around 8:30 with no problems! Then I met my roommate (who is from California, but was born in Poland and is fluent - I know, right?) and lots of others, ate lunch with everyone (which was really good and very vegetarian / pescatarian friendly), unpacked, participated in the lifeboat drill, got my email and internet set up, layed out for a lil bit and went to a few general meetings.

 

Also, to anyone that was involved in taking the "passport style picture" of me or taking me to walmart to print it - HAHAHAH they blew up the picture and used it as my photo id. I would post a picture but it would use all of my internet bandwith. Wah.

 

To the best of my knowledge we've exited of the Bermuda triangle, but I'm unsure.

 

We have been in safety/community/informational/boring/long/dark meetings all day. Don't get me wrong, it needs to be done, but I definitly have a sorry case of "fanny fatigue."

 

Something to think about - since we are going east, we lose an hour of sleep every other night basically due to time zone changes!

 

Tonight is one of those nights we lose an hour and tomorrow is the first day of classes! I have a Green Urbanism class at 8am tomorrow, Global Studies at 9:20, a Water Supply and Sanitation class at 4:15 and then a 1credit Brush Up on Spanish class at night. VERY excited.

 

Dinner is in 1/2 hour. Yay I'm hungry. :)

 

Best,

Vicki

 

 

PS Email me at vlbisio@semesteratsea.net. Email to that account is FREE for me to access. I also get FREE incoming texts, so you can text me after you email me so I know its worth checking.

 

Bon Voyage

I'm leaving America in approx. 10 hours. Is this real life?

So after a long day of last minute errands, a good home cooked vegetarian dinner of my favorite meal - eggplant parmesan & a good goodbye bonfire....I'm really leaving.

Also, I packed. Okay it took SO LONG. I HATE PACKING.

But, I am in shock and aw of "Space Bags."


Example: This is the amount of clothes I deemed necessary to my trip.  (hehe oops!)

Okay so then I took about 1/3 (probably more like 2/5 actually, but hey who's counting?!) of the clothes and shoved them into this "large" space bag.

 I sucked all of the air out with a vacum.... and wah-lah!!

Hahahah I know this last picture seems like it isn't completely necessary but I wanted you to understand that all of the stuff you saw on the dresser  (and MORE!) fit into 3 of these bags and then shrunk to this size. I know, right! Space bags are the greatest invention since sliced bread.

*Side note - my fingers look mad weird.


Anyways at this point I am "apprehensive" as Catherine would put it.
I'm a little nervous, a little excited, a little hey-lets-just-get-this-whole-thing-over-with, a little wow-68-days-is-a-long-time and a little good-riddance-america.

I will miss my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my guitar, my house, my room and some foods (typical). But I know that what I will gain from this is honestly invaluable and I should really get all that I can out of it.

Wait, I feel really rude because I definitely just forgot I have a fish. I'll miss her too.. hahah

I'll update more in the next couple of days...if I make it through the Bermuda Triangle....!!

But until then - here's the link to a virtual tour you can take of the MV Explorer. If you have nothing to  do, check it out.

Bon Voyage,
Vicki