Mauritius & Sea Olympics

Oh my god, Mauritius.This place was paradise. The water was the bluest water I have ever seen and so warm. We got off the boat around 9am for the Isle Des Deux Coco SAS trip. There were about 150 tickets for this trip and it was a fight to death. I won't tell you hot I got my ticket, but I did. No, just kidding, I was lucky enough to get it first try by signing up for it with the field office.

Port Louis, where the MV Exploror docked, was on the northwest side of the island so we had to drive all the way to the other side on the southeast, it took 45 minutes. We pull down this road that says "private"and immediately we all start getting excited. Any college kid loves the V.I.P. feeling so everyone was yelling "BALLLLIN!"

We got off the bus and little taxi boats were waiting for us. The boats were glass bottomed so we could see all the coral and sea life as we rode out to our private island, no big deal. The island was really tine and all ours. Lounge chairs, BBQ, a bar, snorkel gear and sun. I get credit for this. The local rum was apple flavored and it didn't taste that bad if you held your noise, drank it fast and covered the taste up with a handful of peanuts. We swam and lounged around for hours until lunch was ready.

Lunch. WOAH. Best meal I have had in a very long time, besides Aunt Susan's Thanksgiving fest. They had endless shrimp skewers and lobster. Pastas, salad, beans, rice, vegetables and fruit galore. At one point I sat down and said to my table, "true or false: this is my 4th plate."True.

After lunch we all swam again. I never wanted to leave the water, it was THE nicest beach I have ever been to, hands down. Sorry Robert Moses, no jellyfish here. At around 4pm it was time to head back…We were all slightly inebriated and hungry! We stopped at the town right by port before getting on the ship. My table ordered every fried food that was listed and kept the drinking trend going.

On ship time was 8pm. We got back around 730 and the line was RIDICULOUS. Even if you are standing on the line to get on, if 8pm hits and you did not physically step foot on the ship and swipe your card, dock time. You have never seen someone finagle a line like I did. Every man for himself, I went from the very end to the front in less than 5 minutes. People thought I really wanted to have small talk with them, false, I am using you solely for your position in line, sorry. You get 2 hours dock time for being 15 minutes late! We keep a tight ship around here. I got on the ship before 8 and it was time to get ready for the SEA OLYMPICS!!

SEA OLYMPICS

This is serious stuff. Rumor has it the winner gets to get off the ship first in Ft. Lauderdale.

So all the students on the boat are divided into "seas."I am in the Yellow Sea and our chant is "YELLOOOO!"How original ha! There are a bunch of competitions such as limbo, mash potato sculpting, hula hoop, tug of war, synchronized swimming, Pictionary, sudoku, Texas hold 'em, flip cup, spelling bee, dodge ball, volley ball, relay races and a few more. After Mauritius we all gathered in the student union in team colors, chanting and displaying our mascots.

The Yellow Sea decided to have "Yellow Fever"as our mascot. You're probably wondering how you make that a mascot, well, we used all the symptoms…We were in a team meeting and someone googled the effects of Yellow Fever. As they were reading them off we just got more and more excited…it went something like this.

Nausea...
Yessss
Nose bleeds…
Ya!
Black vomit…
Woo!
And ultimately death…
YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Sold. Next we had to get a chant to rally everyone together, we came up with "No hope! No cure!"We seriously are very sick people. Some others and myself were nominated to make the flag. Why would anyone ever let me do anything remotely artistic? The flag had a brown coffin on it, black text and some yellow tassels. I thought she was beautiful, it looked like toilet water.

The opening ceremonies began with a drum performance; I think it might have outdone the one from Beijing followed the announcement of all the seas. I think everyone basically did the same thing during the day, drink, so we were a ROWDY bunch. It was mass chaos and so fun. Every sea had to get up on the stage and sing their song; yes we had a song also. I didn't know any of the words so just made strange noises in time to the beat, it sufficed. After the ceremonies were over the dean announced they were playing "Slumdog Millionaire"on the T.V. You would have thought we had all won the lottery. The yells of joy that broke out were crazy, such a boat of nerds we are. I got back to my room and passed out within the first 5 minutes.

The day of the games was today, Saturday. I had my first event, the orange pass, at 10am. I was dressed to impress. To do the orange pass you have to hold it between your chin and chest and pass it to the next person without hands. We were terrible and lost.

My next event was the limbo. I was nominated for this strictly on my credentials. Spring Break 2007 limbo champion. When the event time came it was about 20 of us and I was 2 feet above everyone. The other seas put in their smallest girls, its not the height its what they have on the inside.

I am proud to say I am the SEMESTER AT SEA SPRING 2009 LIMBO CHAMPION! Took home the gold for the Yellow Sea. I was an animal out there. I got my head in the game and never took my eyes off the prize. The Yellow Sea was doing terrible overall, so I single handedly got 1 out of the 3 gold medals we won. I know my parents are proud.

The last event was synchronized swimming. This was an excuse for every guy to dress up in girl's bikinis and dance to boy bands. It was quite a sight to see. The best part is the pool is only about 5 feet deep…Essentially, it's synchronized standing and arm flailing. There were a lot of back flips off the side and booty shaking, class acts overall.

At the end of the day the Yellow Sea took home third place.

P.s. We took off class today because it was imperative that we did this. Haha Love life.

India in 4!

Jac

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Cape Town, South Africa

South Africa –I am coming back.

SO excited for Cape Town. Before we got off the ship we had a woman who was born in S.A. give us a lecture on the history. Apartheid was a crazy point in history. Although it is “over”I have never seen so much out in the open racism in my life. But first, before we got off the ship she was telling us about how there was (and is) a hierarchy of races. Whites (which she is,) Indian/Muslim, Black, than Colored, each with more rights than the other. As she is telling us all about the past present and future she kept saying “and the coloreds,”I kept cringing and thinking…She CAN’T be using that word right now and think she is politically correct. At the end someone asked her why she used it and she said something that made me go DUH! Although that word is not accepted in the U.S., it is in S.A. There are no African Americans, just Africans. Since even the whites are African, they are “colored.”I get it. Africa was divided up by European nations and exploited since the beginning of time. When the Dutch came to settle in S.A., they weren’t looking to create peace, they were looking for conquest. “Divide and conquer,”expose the privileges or lack thereof of each race, and they will soon turn against. The same thing happened in the ghettos of the Holocaust. If you have a select amount of Jewish, or “coloreds,”in positions of power and give them certain little treats of life then jealousy spreads within their own people. Its only human nature to want the best for you and your loved ones so when the government ups only certain people to power it creates inner turmoil, they knew what they were doing. Gangs inside each race formed and not even the colored liked the colored. I asked my cab driver the difference between a “colored”and a “black”and my head almost exploded, I really could hardly take it seriously, but I knew that this was what divided this nation for years until Nelson Mandela was elected President. Something cool to think about, the world is the reason that Apartheid ended. It started in a tiny shop and spread like wild fire, the boycotting of South African imports and exports until drastic changes were made. South Africa felt so much pressure that they abolished all discriminatory laws and equality among all was granted.

Something I also learned in S.A., ships are the most unreliable form of transportation ever. We were supposed to be ready to get off the ship by 8am. I woke up at 6am because I heard the view as you pull into Cape Town is unreal. I go upstairs and can’t even see the railing outside. The fog is so thick and we weren’t even moving. We had to wait outside the harbor because the inlet was too small to maneuver in such dense fog. I ate my breakfast and went back to sleep. Caitlin and I got off the boat at around 10:30am, this was after whoever is handling the MV Explorer decided to go fast towards the harbor, stop to turn the ship around while stationary to squeeze through, and essentially put us through our own wake. This was all during breakfast time and people were getting tossed from their seats, glasses and plates smashed, good morning!

Day 1

We get off the boat in full hiking gear and make our way to Table Mountain. Table Mountain is flat topped and overlooks all of Cape Town and the harbor. They say it is about a 2.5-hour hike, we were ready for the job…so we thought. We get a cab to the bottom and began. IT WAS INTENSE. I imagined dirt trails, fluffy animals and maybe a rainbow or two. This was 45 minutes straight of high knee lifting steps upward. We stopped a couple times to catch our breath and dry heave until we got to a fork in the road. The sign said, “Gorge”to the left and “Cable Car”to the right. In my noggin I’m thinking a gorge is a hollowed out area, like a bowl. Well I am looking for the top, so we go right. It was probably just my brain subconsciously tricking me into not completing this gladiator like task, but we continued on. The trails flattened out and it really was a beautiful hike. The fog didn’t lift all the way up the mountain yet, so we were in a cloud, it was really cool! There were some homeless people sleeping on the trails, which was kind of “dodgy”as they say in Cape Town. Thirty minutes later we were back at the bottom staring at the cable car up. Whoops? We basically made a horseshoe, up over and down. We bought our cable car tickets (student discount YA!) and got on. Apparently it was Asian persuasion day at Table Mountain. We were crammed into the tiny cable car with 34,545 Asians, each ready for the ride up with 12 digital cameras in one hand and 3 camcorders in the other. Didn’t want to miss a moment.

We get to the top and I found out I have a slight phobia of cable cars. I mean, is that twisted wire really trustworthy? Either way, the top was amazing. We had lunch at the restaurant and ate overlooking an amazing view. I was told I just HAD to break my vegetarian habit for a day and try the sausage/hot dog native to S.A., so I did. You ever eat something off of a BBQ and feel like you are literally eating the charcoal? I coughed up charcoal and smoke for hours after. Totally worth it, thanks. We Asian persuasianed back down and then caught a cab back to the ship. The area right by port has the most amazing mall ever. We did some shopping and then headed home for dinner. I tried to save money by not buying every meal and utilizing the ship buffet…I saved no money.

Back on the MV I got my package from Alberto, weee! Caitlin and I got ready for the night and headed to a place called “Karma.”It was one of our friends birthdays so their parents had bought them VIP and bottle service, ballin! When we were at Karma I was tearing up the dance floor and this guy came up to me, this is good. He said, “I’m from the big ship in the harbor. I’m studying abroad around the world and I just have to tell you that no girls can move like you in the U.S.”HAHAHA. My response, “I’m from the ship too…”GOOD ONE. Just imagine how many girls were fed that corny line, fail.

Day 2

We had become best friends with our cab driver from the day before, Ziyad. He was Muslim and really excited that Obama was too. I have never seen so much Obama, I saw a lot of “Bush’s Last Day”t-shirts too. GO OBAMA! Ziyad picked some friends and I up for a 1.5-hour ride to Cape Point, this is the southern most tip of the African continent, cool! We drove through a lot of adorable seashore towns and got to the point. It literally is a point. It’s also where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean merge together. We took a little trolley car called a “funicular,”I got many laughs out of that, to the top of the rock cliff. I honestly just stood there for five minutes in awe. The water was like Listerine and there was nothing in front of me but Antarctica miles and miles away. There was a pole on the top of the rock with signs pointing in all different directions. One said “New York –12,541 KM,”I had a moment. We stayed for a bit at the point then headed back to go see some penguins! On our drive back we had to stop, there were wild baboons all over the road! They were SO cute. One climbed on our car and just sat there and stared at us. They were straight chilling in the middle of the road. The warm pavement probably felt good, and they were doing that monkey thing where you eat the lice out of your friend’s hair, Caitlin and I do it all the time. I couldn’t stop looking at their hands, they looked so humanlike it was nuts. One of the bigger monkeys rolled over and scratched his butt; he really looked like a fat hairy old man. After the baboons we stopped off to see the penguins, which were also adorable and then head home.

For dinner a group of us went to “Gold.”It’s a really upscale restaurant with traditional African cuisine. The wait staff wears authentic clothing and sing and dance. It was a 5-course dinner and they paint your face. I am such a child, I was so excited for face painting but I am totally that kid who forgets it’s there and smudges it all over. You’re a zebra? A ghost? Did you smear your toothpaste? Thankfully they only did little flowers here and there and it was fool proof, it dried and didn’t smudge. Face painting for idiots, I like it.


Day 3

Beach day! Ziyad drove a couple of us to Clifton Beach, apparently it’s ranked as one of the best in the world. We laid out for a bit and then grabbed lunch at an outdoor place called Tuscany Café. I got a delicious Mai Tai and something that I had been craving, SUSHI! I told the waiter to order me whatever he thinks is the best, I know I know, how sushi savvy am I? Everything was delicious and my tummy was smiling. We went back to the beach for a bit longer then called it a day. On the way back I saw the FIFA World Cup 2010 stadium. They’re still building and it’s massive.

Took a catnap and then got ready for the night. We went to a local pub called Mitchell’s for a couple brewskies then head out to Tiger-Tiger Club. The place was pretty cool inside and it was basically all SASers (Semester At Sea-ers.) We have a tendency to take over whatever place we go to because there are so many of us, 700 to be exact. Good times at Tiger-Tiger, goodnight.

Day 4

I was told that when I am in S.A. I need to do a winery tour, so I did. I signed up for a half-day vineyard tour and left around 1pm. I headed out to Stellenbosch with a couple girls for wine and cheese tasting. On the way out we passed a couple townships. These are MASSIVE slums that go on for days. The “houses”are made out of any scrap that can be found and there are millions of people within each of them. The townships are where the colored live. It may be “illegal”to discriminate now that apartheid is over, but there are no major changes happening. I saw no end to the shacks and could only imagine what life is like inside. While we were on the ride I was telling a story about how the girls I was with the night before were rude to a cab driver because they thought he was taking them the wrong way, when really they’re just dumb and didn’t know where they were going. My cab driver turned around and said, “He was probably black right?”This driver was Muslim; it’s 2009 can we move on?

We got to the first vineyard and it was beautiful with the mountains in the background and the acres of grape vines. We went inside and tried 3 kinds of white and red wine. We swirled, wafted and counted legs (the lines that form on the sides of the glass that the wine leaves after being swirled.) A lot of legs means a heavy wine, or something ridiculous like that. I was honestly just excited for the cheese platter, when that puppy came out I could of sworn time stopped. Brie, pepper jack, cheddar, swiss cheese and many more. I love cheese and didn’t breathe through the whole thing. We finished our tasting and took a tour of the cellar…thrilling.

We arrived at the next vineyard and this is where I decided that wine tasting is a completely absurd sport. We were trying this white wine and as the lady is reading the description I started laughing. “A light sultry wine that pleases the palette with asparagus and fills the nostrils with watermelon.”WHAT? Someone please tell me what a watermelon smells like, really. I asked the lady, she joined in on the laughter and admitted that anyone could smell a watermelon after a couple glasses of wine. Whoever the person is that makes those descriptions up, don’t quit your day job. I took it upon myself to start making my own, I was really glad the lady found it funny also. Mine was something like “A deep red wine that tastes of cucumbers after the morning dew has dried.”I could do this. Honestly, you either like it or not, lets cut the cheese.

After that winery we drove to a cheetah reserve. I pet a cheetah. We walked into the caged area he lived in and kneeled down for a 5-minute pet session. The cat was huge, and so pretty. A couple pictures and $9 later, I would say it was worth it. Cheetahs are the fastest cat, 0-80 mph in 3 seconds, that might be an exaggeration but it was something like that. They are endangered though so the money went to help raise awareness and keep the kitties alive.

Last night in Cape Town, we have to do it big! I convinced a bunch of SASers to go to this place called Hemisphere. It’s the 31st floor of a skyscraper (think The Palms) and it overlooks all of Cape Town. The view was crazy! You walk into the lobby and take an elevator up, it was home to the class of S.A., why was I there? It was a good time and a great way to end an amazing week.

Day 5

Caitlin and I got up to do some last minute mandatory things AKA Melissa’s Café Nutella hot chocolate, yes. They line the coffee mug with Nutella and then pour in hot chocolate. Oh my, it was heaven in a cup. The only other time I have had Nutella was in Paris on a Banana Nutella crepe. I think I will name my child Nutella, if they turn out anything like me it will be fitting.

We were supposed to leave Cape Town at 8pm but we didn’t leave until 12 hours later, thus confirming my notion that ship schedules are always up in the air. The winds were too high to get out of the harbor. When I woke up for my 8am class, the 8th day of it (Sorry Towson-ites,) I got to see us leave. It was really cool to watch, there was a tugboat assisting us and then off we went.

Last night I had a 24-hour stomach bug and essentially died for 8 hours. Caitlin fed me ginger ale and saltines. To my surprise, I made it through the night. I got to wake up for a 9am Global Studies 100 question exam. I took it in 25 minutes then returned to my bed for a 7-hour nap. I woke up to eat dinner; it had been 27 hours since my last meal. No worries everyone, I am alive.

Mauritius on Friday! Amanda thought I was making up a country but it is a tiny island off the east coast of Madagascar. It’s supposed to be the most beautiful place in the world. We are only there for one day to fuel up before our long haul to India.

Longest blog post ever.

Peace in the Middle East,
Jaclyn

Etosha, Namibia - Wild Dog Safari

Africa is BEAUTIFUL. Namibia is a relatively new country. I think it was in 1990 when they finally had independence completely from European nations. There is a lot of German influence left in the country and some primitive tribes wear traditional Victorian German dress, that was really interesting to see. Namibia is the size of Texas but only has around 25,000 people. One in four has AIDS and being a 21 year old I am one of the oldest in the population. Namibia is home to Dune 7, the tallest dune in the world. They have deserts that disappear into the horizon and savannahs that leave you with the belief they could hold every animal on the planet. It is a very popular vacation spot for Europeans and I think an undiscovered treasure. There are many mansions still owned by westerners on the water and slums that make New Orleans look flashy. The gap between middle class and upper is astounding, but everyone is smiling. This is where you start to think that measuring happiness with money is shameful. Townships in Namibia live on a dollar a day, yet they spend every one of them with their entire family and participate in community events on the regular. When I asked my tour guide where he learned to cook so well, he said his grandmother. How cool is that? I can't even make lasagna because I didn't know you had to boil the noodles before you bake them. "Baked Lasagna," I felt like I needed a map for that one. Putting things in perspective can really get your brain going. We got into the port of Walvis Bay around 8am. I had breakfast out on the deck and watched the seals playing in the water. Immediately after I got my backpack and headed down the gangway to meet our tour guides for the Namibian Safari!! At the bottom of the steps was an all girls choir; they were adorable and singing traditional African songs and dancing for all the students. After watching for a while a friend and I decided to go to the bus. He convinced me knew where he was going so we started a, what I didn't know then was, a cross-country adventure. In the sweltering African mid-day sun heat we walked about two miles before I asked, "Are you sure?" His reply: "No." Awesome. We turned around and I made him carry my bag as punishment for having me complete one of the five Islamic pillars and hajj-ing, without signing up for it. We got back to the ship and there were nine safari cars waiting for us. They were so close to the ship I could have stood between the two and touched both. Really though, I totally wanted to drop 10% of my body weight in water before cramming onto a bus with 15 other people. I was wearing a white t-shirt and single handedly made my own wet t-shirt contest with sweat. I know what you're thinking, and yes it is an acquired talent and should not be tried at home. The bus looked like something out of Jurassic Park and we had an eight-hour car ride north to the remote location of the last living Tyrannosaurus Rex. No, just kidding, eight hours north to Etosha! I had my sleeping mask compliments of my Aunt Susan (Thanks!) and slept for a bit in the beginning. Then, the safari bus turned into the party bus. We stopped at a gas station and all picked up some wine and played music over the loud speaker. By the end of the trip we were slightly inebriated and all really close with each other. Bus #1 was the best bus, I already had made so many new friends and we didn't even get to our destination yet. A bus we kept passing along the way and stopping with was bus #2. They were trying to compete with our partying level but I think it's safe to say we won. I created the nicknames bus #fun and bus #poo, for one and two respectively. It stuck. We got to the camp around 9pm and it immediately started pouring rain. Our guide, Big E, told us to unload our stuff and get ready to pitch the tents….WHAT!? I really need to start reading the fine print before signing on the dotted line. I went to the bathroom first to brush my teeth, for a very long time, and by the time I was positive I had a thorough clean the tents were up. I was really disappointed no one waited for me to help……… Big E got a fire started and we all sat around and waiting for dinner to be ready. We had pasta, bread and a traditional Namibian sauce. It was delicious! I ate so much I slipped into a food coma and was ready for bed. The tents were not happening. It was wet outside, they were drenched and I don't know if you know this, but there are bugs in the reserve. I slept in the bus laid out on the big back seat. It was the Ritz Carlton of Etosha Wildlife Reserve. In the morning everyone saw I was in there and they were pretty jealous to say the least. All the sleeping bags were sopping wet and it looked like they had a rough one, I looked good. ;) The wake up call was at 6am. Big E got breakfast started and we all got ready for our full day Safari. I had yogurt and the BEST granola I have ever had for breakfast. We all loaded in the car and got on the way. Within 5 minutes of the drive we saw wild zebra! I honestly though I was in Animal Kingdom and was waiting for Mickey Mouse to pop our from behind the tree of life, it never happened. We drove for about 3 hours and along the way we saw tons of giraffe, warthogs, impala, muskrats, wildebeests, zebra and hyena. No lions! We stopped for lunch and took a look at the local artistry. They are very good at woodwork and I bought something nice to bring to Canada. We did about 4 more hours back to camp and sang Lion King songs the whole way; it was only appropriate. I was really looking forward to the elephant graveyard, but that never happened. On the way back we finally saw the king of the jungle, a lion! He was so cool. Just hanging out by a tree in the shade staring at all the little creatures that probably looked like T-bone steaks. No rush, he'll have them all. He had a mane and everything; we were all REALLY excited. When we got back to the camp we were all starving! Big E made us a traditional Namibian meal over the fire. I had the special vegetarian meal, because I am "that" girl, of a mouth-watering fish with coconut. He made sausages, garlic bread, grits and salad with fresh cheese. It was one of the best meals of this entire trip so far. After dinner people started to drink again but I was not in the mood; a couple of the girls and I sat with the guides and asked questions about Namibia. We asked about health care and politics and many other hot topics, they were really open with us. I am going to use the information to write a paper in my Biomedical Ethics class. It is so interesting to see how other countries policies differ from my own and I need to constantly remind myself that our way is not the only way. When I was abroad in Costa Rica this summer I remember in a reflection session we were asked something we have been thinking about. I said that before going there I had all these preemptive stereotypes and when I got there I realized that they may do things different, but they have it all figured out. I am trying to rid myself of these thoughts before every country and go in with no expectations and planned notions. I slept in the bus again that night because I am a priss from Long Island. This time, there were about four others joining me, I still got the long back seat while the others had to sit straight up…finder's keepers. The next morning we packed up camp, ate delicious granola and hit the road. The people in Namibia are so friendly, whenever we drove through towns we got waves from everyone. My guide was amazing and gave us so much information. I really loved Namibia and wish I could have had a bit more time there. Cape Town, South Africa tomorrow! -Jac P.s. Something interesting I learned in class. Zimbabwe around 1980 had currency that was on a 1:1 with the U.S. dollar. The President, who's house puts the White House to shame, became corrupt and sold all the farm land to his cronies and inflation started to occur. Around 1992 one US$ was equal to a million Zimbabwe dollar (Z$.) As the 90's continued so did the inflation. At present day one US$ is equal to one billion Z$. There are poor children who cannot buy a loaf of bread yet they are walking around with "billions of dollars." Everyone in Zimbabwe is a millionaire yet they cannot buy a thing. The inflation got so bad that people stopped counting, the last estimate was at 8.79 sextillion percent. That's 21 zeros. The president lost the last election but refuses to step down. Crazy.

Camel!

Camels in Marrakech
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Get Me To Namibia

So life is great on the ship now that its 80 degrees outside :) I could lay on a lounge chair until eternity...

I have two tests tomorrow and although we don't have a lot of class, the work load is still pretty large and they expect you to know an amount of information equal to that of having class everyday for a month. At 8am I have BioMedical Ethics... Should be a breeze :) and then at 430pm DUN DUN DUNN I have my Physics 2 test. I HATE Physics. It gave me abnormal heart rhythms and aged me 13 years last semester in Physics 1. Let me put this in perspective. In every class on the ship I have 25-30 students with me. In Physics I have 4. Why did we do this to ourselves? When I hear peoples schedules I die a little inside because they're really nervous about keeping up with their journal entries while I'm drawing and measuring magnitudes of force fields. Whenever I don't know something on a test I just write down anything that could possible get me a point and that means a smile face. There will be many faces tomorrow.

Yesterday Caitlin got called to the main lobby over the loud speaker. The first time it was "Caitlin Whale cabin 3045 to Tymitz Square" then when the repeat came they got it right "Caitlin Neill cabin 3045 to Tymitz Square." How does one confused Whale with Neill? Any who, I thought for sure she was going to have to walk the plank! Turns out she was in the first bunch for random drug testing. Get this, you get randomly drug tested, which is fine, but they make you pay for it! "Here is my pee and $20 for you to take it off my hands, its just been a real nuisance!" She passed. But some girl didn't! What an idiot.

Thank you to Pattycakes aka Mommy for allowing me to call the spa and book a pedicure tomorrow to scrub, clip and paint my troubles away.

Toodles!
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Beautiful Day

Me on the MV Explorer crossing the equator :)
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Neptune Day

We crossed the equator today!

There is a ritual from the 16th century (or at least this is the shlep the fed us) that whenever sailors cross the equator they must partake in Neptune Day!!

This is a day where we go from pollywogs to shell backs.

We started out at the crack of dawn with people dressed in white robes and tridents blowing whistles and knocking on all the doors at 730am! Caitlin and I woke up right away to claim a lounge chair, these are a dime a dozen. We got such a good spot we were thinking of selling them as prime real estate.

We grabbed some breakfast. Caitlin an I are officially a married couple, we eat what we want then pick at eachothers plates. 8am.. We set up shop.

King Neptune and his royal queen, aka a man and woman covered in green paint adorned with wigs makeup and jewelry, marched into the pool area to that boxing song. Dun na naaaaaa dun na naaaaa.

Our assistant executive dean was dressed as a peasant and he read us the sacred oath which we had to chant back and the festivites began!

Caitlin and I went together. These are the steps to become a shellback:
1. Get a mysterious blew liquid poured all over you (rumor has it, blue pancake batter)
2. You must kiss the dead fish (it had teeth)
3. Kiss King Neptunes ring
4. Jump in the pool

I am officially aloud to cross the equator.

After that myself and 300 students laid out on the deck. I got sun from 8am-3pm :) It was a beautiful day. They played music and cancelled classes, good thing because it would have been our 6th day and I was getting a bit stressed!

They're having a barbeque for us tonight, I'm hoping for veggie burger because they are sooo good on the ship.

For now I'm just relaxing in my room.

4 days until Namibia, I cannot believe its already been 3 weeks!

Jaclyn

P.s. My friends and I entered the volleyball league, our team is the Orville Readyblockers (a thank you.) We had our first game the other night and I showed up looking like an olympian! Baseball hat, braid, socks... The whole deal. I was miserable. I looked good, that's about it! Haha I was too focused and ADD'ing on the fact that we were playing volleyball on a ship cruising along the African coast through the Canary Islands, and I just sucked. Ah well, I think I might have gotten the boot. But I made the team name so my legacy will never die :)

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Morocco - Marrakech

Two down ten to go

I love Morocco.

I would like to begin this blog post with this simple statement. Americans are idiots.

I will forever mock the pre-departure briefing we were given about women in Morocco. None of what was told of us was true. I could wear whatever I wanted and do whatever I please. Everyone was so nice and Marrakech was a beautiful city. We had a traditional lunch of couscous and green tea and then headed out to Palm Groves. The Moroccans took the scarf I was wearing and made it into a turban. BYOT Bring Your Own Turban. Before we got on the camels we went to a local house and had tea and crepes. Jadore crepes. It was great talking to the local people because I can speak French, They said its very rare for Americans who come to speak French and every time I would bust it out I felt uber cool

I felt bad for Caitlin because was not feeling well the whole day. She vommed before we left and then at the pit stop she said she was going to again so I went to the front of the bathroom line to say "can my friend cut she's about to hurl?" But...it was too late haha. Then after lunch she sat down next to me and I said "Caitlin.. Your blue! Haha!" She definitely wanted to punch me, she said she had just fainted. Whoops! Where was I for that? Sorry Caitlin!

The camels were SO funny. I got on the lead camel (obviously) and the way they stand up after you have gotten on made me laugh so hard. They straighten their back legs first, and then the front. I was getting tossed! They smelt so bad, but were really cute. We took the camels through the local area and then headed to the hotel. The hotel was beautiful. They love tile work in Morocco and so everything is in such detail.

That night we went out to a local bar we saw on the way in. The Yellow Sub.It was an upscale bar that you could have found in NYC. It was Beatles themed so they had Beatles movies playing, music blasting and drinks flowing. It was such a great atmosphere and through the night we met three Moroccan women, instant BFFs. It was festival of crepes that day so we were served crepes for good luck and had great conversations.

The next morning we did the standard touristy things, which I dont really like doing. We went to the bazaar and looked at the millions of shops that had everything you will never need. This is where the women are harassedthing comes into the play. Nice eyes, how much?haha uhhhhh, not for sale. It was an experience to say the least. They had snake charmers and monkeys; little kids doing acrobatics and any kind of sportthat could possible get you some durham. Later in the day I got henna done and the lady wrote my name in it on my hand. Now, instead of Nice eyes, how much?it was Jacleeen Jacleeen I love you baby.Great. I got some nonsense souvenirs and we left to grab dinner the hotel. It was a stressful and overwhelming day, but it was something that had to be done.

The second night we met up with Anita (Moroccan BFF) at a local bar called Keshmarra (Marrakeshtook me hours to figure that out). They had a live band playing and they were AWESOME. They sang a lot of American songs and it was funny seeing everyone pretending they knew the words or what it meant. After that we went to a big club called Theatre. I requested Britney Spears but it never happened, ah well. We danced there for a bit and then headed out for 4th meal aka late night binge eating, a favorite past time of mine. :P We tasted some things that would not have been served to us at our tourist mealswhich seem almost staged. This is what Moroccans eat<insert overly large cheesy smile>

I went in knowing nothing about Morocco and left thinking that this was a place I definitely want to see again. There IS a Club Med Marrakesh for those who were wondering; you might see me there in a few years. What I keep coming to realize is that my little American brain cannot even fathom how alike we all really are. I am going to use a buzz word here and say that globalization keeps making this world smaller and smaller.

Side note: When I was sleeping in the hostel in Spain, one day I woke up with scarves and clothes all over me and I didnt know why. I come to find out I was snoring up a storm and everyone was throwing things at me to get me stop. Haha My bad!

Seven days to Namibia!!

Jac

P.s. Miss you !

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Morocco Pre-Departure

Hello!

 

Small update

 

We were supposed to be all over Morocco already (Tuesday, February 3rd) but we had to postpone it a day. After we left Cadiz, Spain we headed into the Meditteranean to fuel up by the Rock of Gibraltar. A fuel ship tied up to the MV Explorer but it was too rough to get the fuel line across. So, we sat in the Meditteranean for a full 24 hours. UGH! It was pretty neat because within 10 miles north and south you could see Europe and Africa.

 

We fueled up and left by 10am today. We got to Casablanca, Morocco by around 9pm. I was a little upset because today I was supposed to volunterr at the "SOS Childrens Village," a home for handicapped, sick and hungry orphans. SAS bought my ticket back for it and I will try to do it with the second group on the last day.

 

When we were docking the captain came over the loudspeaker and said "You have 5 minutes to secure your belongings and yourself, we are turning off the stabilizers to get into port." We didn't think much of it, but HOLY S%#$. I have never liked something more than I like ship stabilizers. We were near capsizing for sure. It went on for about 15 minutes. I got my video camera and walked up to the top floor to film it. I went into the dining hall just as a HUGE tilt happened. People fell out of their chairs, all of the plates smashed to the ground and everyone was screaming. The video is basically me laughing hysterically holding onto the wall and getting extreme pleasure from seeing others eat it. Tina would have really enjoyed it.

 

Tomorrow I have a 4 hour train to Merrakech, a city that is in the middle of Morocco as opposed to the shore. We are staying in a nice hotel and riding camels into the Sahara. COOL! We are also meeting up with the usual friends and trying our hand at meddling with the shop owners of the bazaars. I am invisioning Canal Street but instead of asian it's middle eastern and instead of sketchy trap doors to hidden rooms of Louis Vuitton, it will be 3 more steps towards the goat's head special. I think I got this.

 

Women get harassed in Morocco so I am wearing bigger shirts, a head scarf and the baggiest jeans I own... do I own those? Rumor has it that last semester a guy with a group of girls from SAS got offered camels for a few lovely ladies. I think it's a pretty even trade. No?

 

Well, time for bed... See you all on Saturday.

 

P.S. They speak french in Morocco, c'est bon!

 

Au Revoir,

Jac